Darebin Art Prize

The Darebin Art Prize is a national multi-medium acquisitive art prize awarding excellence in contemporary visual art.

The exhibition brings Australia artists together to compete for the $10,000 Acquisitive prize and the $1,000 People’s Choice Award.

This leading exhibition brings contemporary artwork together across all media, from painting, drawing, photography, sculpture and craft, through to video art. 

The Darebin Art Prize 2024 will be exhibited at Bundoora Homestead Art Centre 10 January to 23 March 2024. Come along, bring a friend and vote in the People’s Choice Award.

2024 Judges:

• Dr Shelley McSpedden | Senior Curator at Australian Centre for Contemporary Art.

Shelley McSpedden is Senior Curator at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), Melbourne. Prior to joining ACCA, she was Senior Curator and Acting Artistic Director at Shepparton Art Museum (SAM), where she oversaw the development of the inaugural exhibition program and major commissions for the launch of the new landmark museum in 2021. Shelley has also held curatorial roles at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA) and National Exhibitions Touring Support (NETS), as well as academic appointments at Monash University and RMIT. She has written extensively on contemporary art and edited several art publications. Shelley holds a PhD from the Art History and Theory program at Monash University. 

• Moorina Bonini | Artist, PhD candidate with Wominjeka Djeembana Research Lab at Monash University.

Moorina Bonini is a proud descendant of the Yorta Yorta Dhulunyagen family clan of Ulupna  and the Yorta Yorta, Wurundjeri and Wiradjuri Briggs/McCrae family. Moorina is an artist whose works are informed by her experiences as an Aboriginal and Italian woman. Her practice attempts to disrupt and critique the eurocentric foundations that centralise Indigenous categorisation within western institutions. By unsettling the narrative placed upon Aboriginal people as a result of colonisation of Aboriginal Australia, Bonini’s practice is based within Indigenous Knowledge systems and brings this to the fore. Her work has been exhibited in various shows across Australia and also internationally. Galleries and Institutions include ACMI, The Shed (NY), Sydney Festival, Blak Dot Gallery, Centre for Contemporary Photography and the Koorie Heritage Trust. Moorina has produced and co-curated art and cultural programs across RMIT University, the University of Melbourne and Shepparton Art Museum. Moorina is currently a studio artist and member of Victorian-based Indigenous emerging artist collective thismob.

• Sarah Werkmeister | Curator at Bundoora Homestead Art Centre. 

Sarah is a curator, writer, editor and researcher based between Melbourne and Brisbane. She has written extensively and worked with Next Wave, QUT Art Museum, Shepparton Art Museum, YIRRAMBOI Festival, Public Art Melbourne and more. She has edited publications around the environment (Ecologising Museums, 2016) and feminism (Feminisms, 2018) with L’Internationale Online, and co-edited a chapter on the 13th Istanbul Biennial in I Can't Work Like This (2017). Her research interests encompass conceptions of public space, representations of nationhood in public art collections, and the climate. She holds a Masters of Art Curatorship from the University of Melbourne.

Successful 2024 Finalists Announced: Thurs 12 October 2023. 

2021 Finalists:

Cyrus Tang, Britt Salt, Vanessa Howells, Yvette Coppersmith, Claire Mooney, Todd Johnson, Mia Boe, Siying Zhou, Henry von Doussa, Katy B Plummer, Andy Butler, Benjamin Woods, Shivanjani Lal, Aaron Christopher Rees, Phuong Ngo, Bettina Willner-Browne, Sarah Ujmaia, Jacqueline Stojanović, Tai Snaith, Anna Kiparis, Henry Wolff, Nicholas Burridge, Tori Ferguson, Scotty So, Joseph Griffiths, Ray Thomas, Sandra Teece, wani toaishara, Travis Macdonald, Ilona Herreiner, Natalie Ryan.

2021 Winner

wāni toaishara

2021 Judges:

• Hayley Millar Baker | Artist & Darebin Art Prize 2019 Winner.
• Kimberley Moulton | Curator & Writer.
• Jon Butt | Curator, Bundoora Homestead Art Centre.
   

2019 Finalists:

Fiona Abicare, Darcey Bella Arnold, Justin Balmain, Mary Barton, Nicholas Chilvers, Matthew Clarke, Erin Coates, Rebecca Delange, Lauren Dunn, David Egan, Travis Ficarra, Carly Fischer, Julia Gorman, Louise Gresswell, Amala Groom, Sophia Hewson, Deanna Hitti, Kym Maxwell, Aaron Claringbold & Rebecca McCauley, Clare McCracken, Hayley Millar-Baker, Viv Miller, Noriko Nakamura, Liam O’Brien, Michael Prior, Lucreccia Quintanilla, Georgia Robenstone, Mark Rodda, The Ryan Sisters, Britt Salt, Devi Seetharam, Tama Sharman, Jacqui Shelton, Mark Smith, Adriane Strampp, Ebony Truscott, David Wadelton, Yandell Walton, Daisy Watkins-Harvey.

2019 Winner

Hayley Millar-Baker

Highly recommended

Fiona Abicare, Liam O’Brien and Yandell Walton.

2019 Judges

• Kimba Thompson | Director and Curator at Blak Dot Gallery.
• Lisa Radford | Artist and Lecturer at the Victorian College of the Arts.
• Renee Cosgrave | Artist and Acting Curator at Bundoora Homestead Art Centre.

2017 Finalists:

Connie Anthes, Rushdi Anwar, Belle Bassin, Zanny Begg, Jessie Bullivant, Jon Butt, Sheena Colquhoun, Georgina Cue, Jaye Early, Leslie Eastman, Anna Finlayson, Matthew Greaves, Bronwyn Hack, Will Heathcote, PJ Hickman, Timothy Hillier & Danzel Baker, Kez Hughes, Eliza Hutchison, Linda Judge, Ash Keating, Annika Koops, Claire Lambe, Bridie Lunney, Sam Martin, Hayley Millar-Baker, Adelle Mills, Archie Moore, Kent Morris, Sophie Neate, Joshua Petherick, Steven Rendall, Nicholas Selenitsch, Vivian Cooper Smith, Nicholas Smith, The Ryan Sisters, Ebony Truscott, David Wadelton, Kellie Wells, Deborah White, Alice Wormald.

2017 Winner

Claire Lambe

2017 Judges:

• David Cross | Professor of Art and Performance, Deakin University
• Lou Hubbard | Artist
• Claire Watson | Curator, Bundoora Homestead Art Centre

2015 Finalists:

Samara Adamson-Pinczewski, Rushdi Anwar, Justin Balmain, Damiano Bertoli, Kate Beynon, Nicole Breedon, Jon Butt, Nicholas Chilvers and Hanna Chetwin, Nadine Christensen, Zoe Croggon, Julie Davies and Alex Rizkalla, Elyse de Valle, DAMP Ara Dolatian, Leslie Eastman, Phil Edwards, Simon Finn, Carly Fischer, Patrick Francis, Wanda Gillespie, Tim Gresham, Michelle Hamer, Katherine Hattam, Linda Judge, Cathy Laudenbach Jordan Marani, Kent Morris, Noriko Nakamura, Petra Nicel, Simon Pericich, Elvis Richardson with James Hayes, Louise Rippert, Kiron Robinson, Natalie Ryan, Bill Sampson, Rachel Schenberg, Vivian Cooper Smith, Tai Snaith, Dell Stewart, Sophia Szilagyi, Georgia Szmerling, David Wadelton, Daisy Watkins-Harvey, Alice Wormald.

2015 Winner

DAMP

2015 Judges:

• Charlotte Day | Director, Monash University Museum of Art.
• Nick Selenitsch | Artist. 
• Claire Watson | Curator, Bundoora Homestead Art Centre.