We’re honoured and delighted to announce the expert judging panel for The Lester Prize 2022.
We are thrilled to present this year’s Main Awards Judges. These experts will select the winners of The Richard Lester Prize for Portraiture ($50,000), the Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize ($5,000) and a Highly Commended Prize (up to $5,000) which will be exhibited at The Art Gallery of Western Australia from 1 October – 13 November 2022.
Colin Walker has been the Director of The Art Gallery of Western Australia (AGWA) since 2019.
Prior to that, he was the Executive Director of Culture and the Arts at the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries (DLGSC) for four years.
Originally from Liverpool, UK, he was previously the Director of Arts & Business, a consultant to the UK National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) for its Fellowship and Cultural Leadership programs, and an arts sponsorship consultant to a number of international brands and many of the most recognisable arts institutions in the UK.
We are thrilled to present this year’s Pre-selection Panellists. This dynamic group of professionals will select the 40 Finalists for the 2022 Lester Prize to be exhibited at The Art Gallery of Western Australia from 1 October – 13 November 2022.
Dr Clarissa Ball is an art historian with particular interests in late nineteenth and twentieth century art and photography.
Clarissa is currently the Head of Department of Fine Arts and History of Art at the University of Western Australia and is also the Director of the UWA Institute of Advanced Studies.
She previously held the positions of Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Fine Arts at UWA and for many years was the Chief Examiner for TEE Art.
In 2019, Clarissa was appointed to the Board of the Art Gallery of Western Australia.
Amy Barrett-Lennard is an experienced leader of arts organisations across Australia and internationally.
She has been the director of the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts from April 2006 to August 2022. Prior to that, Ms Barrett-Lennard was director of the Linden Centre for Contemporary Art in Melbourne, curator of the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery in Victoria, curator of the Goldfields Arts Centre Gallery in Kalgoorlie-Boulder in Western Australia, and manager of the British Pavilion at the 1995 Venice Biennale.
Ms Barrett-Lennard is a regular contributor to the broader national arts and cultural communities. She has sat on numerous boards and panels including those for the Australia Council for the Arts, Arts Victoria, NETS Victoria, Museums Australia, the Victorian College of the Arts, Art on the Move and the federal government’s Visions of Australia program, Murdoch University Art Collection, Edith Cowan University’s CREATEC (Centre of Research in Entertainment, Arts, Technology, Education and Communications), the Chamber of Arts and Culture WA, and was president of the Contemporary Arts Organisations Australia network.
Ms Barrett-Lennard holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree (Art History Major) from the University of Western Australia and a Graduate Diploma in Post-war and Contemporary Art from Sotheby’s Institute, London.
Linton Partington is a founding director of Linton and Kay Galleries as well as the Managing Director of multidisciplinary arts company Voxlab Pty Ltd.
Prior to establishing Linton and Kay in 1998, Linton worked as a Chartered Accountant and has substantial experience in project and financial management. This has led Linton to the pursuit of and specialization in larger commercial art projects such as The Intercontinental Hotel, Perth and the Ritz Carlton, Elizabeth Quay.
Tyrown Waigana is an artist and designer with Australian indigenous heritage. His background can be traced to Wandandi Noongar people from south-west Western Australia and Ait Koedal people from Saibai Island in the Torres Strait.
His diverse practice includes graphic design, illustration, painting, animation and sculpture.
Waigana embraces a variety of projects from corporate commissions looking for indigenous styled graphics to highly conceptual fine art and public art projects.
Isobel Wise