We’re honoured and delighted to announce the expert judging panel for The Lester Prize 2021.
Bullen has independently curated several shows including Darkness on the Edge of Town in 2016 at Artbank, Sydney, and When the Sky Fell: Legacies of the 1967 Referendum at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art in 2017. Most recently for the MCA, Bullen curated Richard Bell: You Can Go Now and The National: New Australian Art, as well as the award-winning John Mawurndjul: I am the old and the new.
Bullen was one of 5 artist-curator teams selected as finalists to curate the Australian Pavilion for the Venice Biennale in 2018. She was a member of the foundation committee for the Wesfarmers and National Gallery Arts Leadership program in 2009, and was selected for the British Council Accelerate Program for Indigenous Leadership in the Arts in 2014. She has written for multiple publications and catalogues and was the commissioning co-Editor for the June 2018 edition of Artlink magazine.
As a board member of the Art Monthly Australasia Board, Bullen instigated a 2-year program to support Indigenous arts writers in partnership with Sydney University’s Power Institute. She currently serves on several Boards, including the Create NSW Museum and Histories Board, the Fremantle Biennale Board, and was recently elected as the Chairperson of the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA).
Alan Dodge has served in the art museum world for over 45 years. In 1972 Mr Dodge became a lecturer in the Education Department of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. In 1975 he was appointed the first Senior Research Officer of the fledgling Australian National Gallery (now National Gallery of Australia), where he stayed for 21 years. During that time, he held a number of positions, culminating in the role of Senior Advisor, Special Exhibitions and Development. In late 1996 Mr Dodge was appointed Director of the Art Gallery of Western Australia, a position he held for eleven years until the end of 2007, when he retired.
Alan is on the board of the West Australian Ballet. He has served for 15 years on the board of the National Portrait Gallery, has been a member of the Vice-Chancellor’s Strategic Advisory Board at Murdoch University and was Chairman of the Murdoch University Art Collection Board for 10 years and was the Patron of the Murdoch University’s Art Collection’s 50 year campaign in 2024/5. Over the last three decades Alan has served on a number of boards and committees involved in strategies for the cultural future of Perth and WA. He was also on the Opera and Classical Music Panel of the Helpmann Awards for six years.
Alan was made a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, by the French Government in 2004, an Honorary Fellow by Edith Cowan University in 2007, and was recognised with an honour in the Order of Australia (AM) in 2008 for service to the arts. In 2011 he was named Western Australia Citizen of the Year, Culture, Arts and Entertainment, and made an Honorary Doctor of Letters by Murdoch University in 2012 and also an Honorary Doctor of Letters by Curtin University in 2018.
Ian Strange is a New York-based, Western Australian artist who began his career as a graffiti artist before moving to New York and being mentored by legendary street artist Ron English. He is currently Guest Artistic Director at the Art Gallery of Australia.
Ian’s work sits in private and public collections including; the National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of South Australia, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Canterbury Museum, State Library Victoria, State Library of Queensland, NGA Research Library & Archives and the Asia Pacific Design Library.
Ian is best known for his ongoing series of suburban architectural interventions, film and photographic works subverting the archetypal domestic home. The work and exhibitions have been created in the USA (SUBURBAN, 2011-13), post-earthquake Christchurch, New Zealand (FINAL ACT, 2013), Western Australia and Victoria, Australia (SHADOW, 2015) (OPEN HOME, 2017), Katowice, Poland (ZŁOTY, 2016) and throughout Ohio’s rust-belt region, USA (ISLAND 2015-18).
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