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by bacblogarts

Blacktown City Art PrizeImage: The Great Barrier Reef, 2022 by Lauren Johnson. Photography by silversalt Photography

2024 Blacktown City Art Prize

16 January to 5 April 2024
The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre

The Blacktown City Art Prize exhibition is back for 2024!

For the first time Blacktown City and the wider western Sydney community is embedded from the outset with special consideration given to artworks that celebrated, expressed and reflected upon the diverse history, environment and First Nations stories of the area.

81 finalists have been chosen from western Sydney and across Australia. Winners have been announced for the Blacktown City Art Prize Main Prize, First Nations Artist Prize, Local Artist Prize, Early-Career Artist Prize (new in 2024!), and the People’s Choice Prize.

All artworks in the exhibition will be available for purchase at The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre.

The 2024 Blacktown City Art Prize exhibition is curated by Talia Smith, with associate curator Adele Walsh.

Voting and awards

Make sure to catch the exhibition this summer and vote for your favourite artwork in the People’s Choice Prize. The winner will be announced within the last week of the exhibition.

Please note that voting for the People’s Choice Prize will be available in-person only.

 See the winners and Highly Commended below. 

2024 Blacktown City Art Prize Winners

Blacktown City Art Prize Winners:
Main Prize Winner: Catherine O’DonnellGilded Communities
First Nations Prize Winner: Nathan DawsonLoss of Identity/Culture
Local Artist Prize Winner: Anjali SharmaMomentary Threads of Youth
Early Career Artist Prize Winner: Mina LeeHere Comes Trouble

Blacktown City Art Prize Highly Commended:
Main Prize Highly Commended: Virginia KeftThis colony thrives in a landscape of NO
First Nations Prize Highly Commended: Jacqueline JackyThat Place They Had (Part 1)
Local Artist Prize Highly Commended: Jack and NoelRed Soil of Blacktown
Early Career Artist Prize Highly Commended: Tahlia HendersonSeeking Shelter in a sudden drenching, and Carissa KaramarkoSurprise Birthday Cake

2024 Blacktown City Art Prize finalists

Afrin Ahmed, My home outside of home
Ma Anna Bianca Anievas, Walters Rd 2148 – Where a Thousand Dreams Begin
Luke Atkinson, Offering bowl
Bankstown Koori Elders Bankstown Koori Elders, Big sister
Bankstown Koori Elders Bankstown Koori Elders, Little Sister
Leila Beigli, Offshore
Jame Birch and Damian Dillon Birch Dillon, i heard the Screaming Waters Call
Lilith Bloom, The Fruits of my Labor
Helen Brancatisano, The Way In
Virginia Bucknell, Kwartatuma (Ormiston Gorge) Northern Territory
Chloe Caday, Bayanihan
Willowa Anna Carter, Intergenerational Trauma – Chainstitch 1
Jugni Chaudhry, Alhumdulillah..!! (Praise be God)
Christine Choi, Finding Salt Lakes
Shinhye Choi, Moon Jar
Daniela Cristallo, Floating Moons, Drifting Lake
Nathan Dawson, Loss of Identity/Culture
Emad Dhahir, Dialogue of cultures
Jacqui Driver, Caught in the Story
Chloe Eastwood, Cultural Threads of Blacktown
Dongwang Fan, Jade Dragon & Phoenix
Nix Francia, Passiflora Incarnata
Aidan Gageler, Old Skin
Oscar Garcia, New Horizons
Angie Geng, our bond endures in the language of threads, and the rest is left unsaid
Matthew Gill, Akua
Anna Glynn, The New Model Suburb Near Blacktown 1882
Linda Hariady, Handcrafts Fanciful Sculptures of Enchating Exotic Fruits
Linda Hariady, The Coral sea
Tahlia Henderson, Seeking shelter in a sudden drenching
Sophia Hewson, Untitled
Annarie Hildebrand, Mirrored Vases
Pleasance Ingle, That’s How it Goes, Everybody Knows
Jack & Noel, Red soil of Blacktown
Jacqueline Jacky, That Place They Had (Part 1)
Starphire Jacobs, Circling Connection
Leanne Jones, The Darug story of the 3 sisters song lines
Zeina Kara Ali, Cleaning Day
Carissa Karamarko, Surprise Birthday Cake
Virginia Keft, This colony thrives in a landscape of NO

Haein Kim, The Hand Of Those Who Hurt Us
Michelle Kirk, Angophora
Violetta Kurbanova, The gathering storm
James Lai, Yellow meadow
Jo Langley, Hertz
Jacqueline Larcombe, Olive and kumquat runner
Bella Layone, Body from a memory
Mina Lee, Here comes trouble
Belem Lett, Skull
Nick Longford, The Gentleman
Carmel Mackie, Banksia Spinulosa (Birthday Candles)
Patricia Mado, Eastern Creek Wetland Blacktown
Celeste Magee, Extraterrestrial Rainbows
Jason McDonald, School Bus Run
Lucinda McDonald, SNUG
Amy Meng, Lips, Trembling
Camellia Milner, Huon pink trees
Benedict Mitchell, Legs Eleven
Lee Mitchell, The Revolution Starts Here
Mabel Moont, The vibrancy of Blacktown
Marisa Mu, When You Meet An Icon and They Surpass All Expectations
Nelson Nghe, Hairy
Catherine O’Donnell, Glided communities
Richa Panicker, The girl in red
Emily Portmann, Lantana I
Peter Rush, Free Range in Blacktown
Julie Scifo, Stuffed Crust 1038 Great Western Highway
Zoe Sernack, Creekside
Anjali Sharma, Momentary Threads of Youth
An Sheng, Uncertain Currents
Todd Simpson, Open All Hours
Julianne Smallwood, Ms Twitch
Lauri Smith, Surreal Creature
Sally Stokes, Earth is the mind
Surekha Suri, The Dancer
Ellie Sutton, All that glittersg
Sue Rosalind Vesely Marca, The Shores of Everywhen
Brooke Webb, Some Story – A Self Portrait
Sally West, The Corner
Jade Whelan, I’m listening because I want to
Dominic Willkom, Fruitful Doubt
Hal Witney, internal
Eduardo Wolfe-Alegria, The Thistle at Midnight

Meet the judges

We are thrilled to announce the judges for the 2024 Blacktown City Art Prize

Amani Haydar is an award-winning author, visual artist, and advocate for women’s health and safety based in Western Sydney. Amani’s ground-breaking feminist memoir The Mother Wound (Pan Macmillan) explores the effects of abuse and state violence on women and has received several awards including the 2022 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Non-fiction. In recognition of her advocacy against domestic violence, Amani was also awarded the UTS Faculty of Law Alumni Award in 2021 and Local Woman of the Year for Bankstown in 2020. Amani regularly consults with domestic violence organisations on improving access and outcomes for victim-survivors. As an active visual artist and former Archibald Prize Finalist, Amani also collaborates with organisations like SSI and the Older Women’s Network to facilitate visual arts workshops in Western Sydney, with a focus on self-empowerment through storytelling. Amani’s writing and illustrations have been published in various books and anthologies including Admissions (Upswell), The Very Best Doughnut (Pan Macmillan), and Safar: Muslim Women’s Stories of Travel and Transformation (Hardie Grant).

Luke Létourneau is a curator and arts manager, and is currently employed as Curatorial and Collections Lead at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre. Luke has experience commissioning and developing new works across multiple artforms, programming for Western Sydney audiences, and developing curatorial projects through engagement with creative and cultural groups in south-west Sydney. Recent projects include ‘Adaptation’ (2020), ‘Looking at Gold’ (2022) and ‘Jamming with strangers’ (2022) which was the winner Exhibition Projects [Large Organisations] at the IMAGinE Awards 2022. Luke also regularly contributes writing to national arts publications and artist catalogues.

Venessa Possum is a Dharug Dharawal custodian acknowledging connections to Gungungurra Peoples. She lives at Burraburra in the Blue Mountains and is the CEO at Blue Mountains Culture and Resource Centre. She also leads an active life as an artist, collaborator, producer, educator, archivist and cultural consultant. She holds a 1st class Honours in Fine Art and Contemporary Indigenous Art and is a candidate in a Doctor of Philosophy in Griffith University. Her located research reveals a diverse oeuvre of visual languages – experienced as dynamic, material installations combining language, painting, drawing, collage, rubbings, printing and documentary photography and video. She is deeply engaged in producing an archive of Aboriginal presences coexisting with the colonial trove.

2024 Young Artist Prize

Creating Cooler Cities

Be inspired by ‘cool’ artworks created by Blacktown rising stars at the 2024 Young Artist Prize exhibition!

The 2024 Young Artist Prize invites children and young people to create an artwork that reflects the theme ‘Creating Cooler Cities,’ in response to rising temperatures in our cities.

The exhibition sees 87 finalists from across Blacktown City.

Young Artist Prize Winners:

Best interpretation of ‘cooler’ city: Erin FaraonBlacktown is my cool town – Age 8, Kings Park
Most expressive use of colour: Breonna KonidanaOur Mother Nature – Age 12, Tallawong
Most creative use of sustainable materials: Ved PatelMy Flower Vase – Age 4, Quakers Hill
Best green environment: Cooper ButcherMy Green Blacktown City – Age 9, Quakers Hill
Best expression of Blacktown City: Naduli KuruppuCooler Westpoint – Age 12, Toongabbie 

The Young Artist Prize is proudly sponsored by Blacktown City Council’s Environment Section and Kids Early Learning with support from Blacktown City Libraries.

The Blacktown City Art Prize is proudly sponsored by