Minnawarra Art Awards 2024 Winners

The City of Armadale is delighted to announce the winners of the 2024 Minnawarra Art Awards for 2024. This is the 27th year of the Minnawarra Art Awards. The exhibition and awards ceremony took place on Friday 3 May 2024.

The Minnawarra Art Awards showcase some of the best Western Australian artists and features a curated exhibition as the centrepiece of the Armadale Arts Festival that runs between 4 -19 May 2024. The curated exhibit was displayed in the Kim Fletcher Gallery at the Armadale District Hall, where invited guests and artists were able to view the artworks before the official awards were announced. There were 67 artists exhibited on the evening, of which 27% were local.

Mayor Ruth Butterfield said: “The Minnawarra Art Awards are a highlight of the thriving arts scene that we have here in the City. For 27 years we have hosted these awards, and the works submitted showcase a wide range of contemporary talent from across WA. Thank you to all those who submitted entries and congratulations to our 2024 winners.”

The winners for 2024 are:

City of Armadale Art Award

$12,000 acquisition award

Artist: Brad Rimmer

Artwork title: Sometimes I Wish #13

Judge’s comment: Brad Rimmer’s Sometimes I Wish #13 is both calm and compelling, inviting viewers to slow down and consider how they move beneath the vast Western Australian sky. Bringing about thoughts of warm evening light and how we occupy and impact the landscape, the work has the romantic feel of classical painting.

Gerry Gauntlett Award

$5,000 non-acquisition award

Artist: Miik Green

Artwork title: endless nameless0224

Judge’s comment: The gently shimmering surface and looping form of Miik Green’s endless nameless0224 has no beginning or end. Drawing viewers into the shadows at its centre, the work shapes a three-dimensional musical path.

Aboriginal Artist Award

$3,000 acquisition award

Artist: Renee Rose

Artwork title: Sunrise

Judge’s comment: The judges were compelled by Renee Rose’s intricately painted work that encourages close and slow viewing to offer a shifting feel of the landscape.

Local Artist Award

$3,000 acquisition award

Artist: Lesley Murray

Artwork title: Light over the water – on Country

Judge’s comment: Lesley Murray’s Light over the water – on Country is an intimate landscape that reveals the artists interest in local and global art history and the processes of landscape painting as a means of recalling connections with place.

Highly Commended

$2,000 non-acquisition award

Artist: Naomie Hatherley

Artwork title: The code

Judge’s comment: The judges enjoyed Naomie Hatherley’s clever and playful references to codes and signals. The physicality of community football is evident in the materials used as well as the composition of the figures.