2025 Finalists Announced | Girra: Fraser Coast National Art Prize
12/06/25
Returning after its debut in 2023, the biennial Girra: Fraser Coast National Art Prize continues to grow as a platform for ambitious and thoughtful contemporary art, attracting over 250 entries from across Australia.
Hervey Bay Regional Gallery is excited to announce the 2025 prize finalists: Lino Ah-Honi (QLD), Ariella Anderson (QLD), Amanda Bennetts (QLD), Jacqueline Bradley (ACT), Johnathon World Peace Bush (NT), Shoufay Derz (NSW), Christophe Domergue (NSW), Claire Ellis (VIC), Baylee Griffin (QLD), Georgia Hayward (QLD), Joseph Williams Jungararyi (NT), Ingvar Kenne (NSW), Anna May Kirk (NSW), Aaron Perkins (VIC), Brian Robinson (QLD) and Paul Snell (TAS).
These 16 finalists represent a strong national cohort, with artists from both metropolitan and regional areas, including several with deep connections to Queensland. Their selected works encompass a wide range of media including painting, sculpture, video, installation, photography, printmaking, ceramics and more—demonstrating the vitality and scope of Australian contemporary art today.
This year’s theme once again centres on the intersection of people, place and the environment—a timely and ever-evolving concern for many artists. The internal selection panel were inspired by the calibre of submissions and the innovative ways artists are engaging with ecological concerns, cultural narratives, connections between identity and place, and our shifting relationship to the natural and built world.
The 2025 Girra: Fraser Coast National Art Prize exhibition will be held at Hervey Bay Regional Gallery from 23 August to 12 November 2025. Visitors can expect an exhibition that sensitively explores our connection to landscape and the environment through a fascinating array of materials and techniques.
The major acquisitive prize of $25,000 will be awarded by judges Michelle Newton (Artspace, Sydney), esteemed artist Judy Watson and HBRG Director Sarah Thomson. The major prize will be announced at opening celebrations Friday 22 August 2025 and the $2,000 Hervey Bay Boat Club People’s Choice Award will be awarded at the conclusion of the exhibition.
Hervey Bay Regional Gallery congratulates the 2025 finalists, and we look forward to bringing their work together to be exhibited within the ecologically significant context of the Fraser Coast.
