Congratulations to Louise Zhang,
who has been announced as a finalist in the 2022 Sulman Prize!

Established within the terms of Sir John Sulman’s bequest, the prize was first awarded in 1936. Each year the trustees
of the Art Gallery of NSW invite a guest artist to judge this open competition. This year’s guest judge was Joan Ross.

The Sulman Prize is given to the best subject painting, genre painting or mural project in oil, acrylic, watercolour or mixed media.

About the work, Zhang writes:

Based on a childhood memory of visiting my grandfather in Qidu, China, this work seeks to capture the moment I first witnessed the glow of a red sun outside the car window – a red orb at once beautiful and apocalyptic.

I imagine speaking to Grandpa through a personal lexicon of symbols that have both cultural meaning and significance (persimmons to represent happiness and resilience; clouds to represent the celestial realms) and private significance (the loving hand of my grandpa to symbolise our relationship; the skull to represent my fear of his declining health). This work is a plea to the almond-shaped island of Qidu, our home, for protection.

The winners of the Archibald, Wynne
and Sulman will be announced on Friday, May 13th.

Louise Zhang
‘The eye of Qidu, seeing over me and Grandpa’
2022
acrylic on canvas
122.2 x 153 cm