Girra: Fraser Coast National Art Prize

Girra: Fraser Coast National Art Prize is a new initiative of Hervey Bay Regional Gallery and Fraser Coast Regional Council.

The biennial art prize invites entries from artists working in any visual art medium from across Australia, offering a $25,000 major acquisitive prize. Entrants are invited to submit works that demonstrate a conceptual engagement with the intersection of people, place and the environment. Entrants are encouraged to consider an expanded approach to this theme—Girra is not another landscape prize.

Girra was borne out of the enduring social and cultural importance of the natural environment in the Fraser Coast region, encompassing land, sea and sky. Home of the Butchulla people, the region’s unique natural features include the world’s largest sand island K’gari and its surrounding waters, recognised as the world’s first Whale Heritage Site.

The Major Prize winner will be awarded a $25,000 acquisitive prize and their work will become a significant early acquisition for the newly focused art collection of the Fraser Coast.

The Girra exhibition, held at Hervey Bay Regional Gallery 23 September to 12 November 2023, will form a compelling story of our nation’s relationship to the environment told through diverse perspectives and aesthetic approaches.

2023 shortlisted artists: Pamela Bristow (QLD), Francis Carmody (VIC), Armando Chant (NSW), Mirjana Dobson (SA), Jessie French (NSW), Joolie Gibbs (QLD), Bridie Gillman (QLD), Claire Grant (QLD), Miriam Innes (QLD), Ryan Andrew Lee (NSW), Jessica DiCosta (NSW), Glen Miller (QLD), Lucy Quinn (QLD), Anna Louise Richardson (WA), Monica Rohan (QLD), Rolf Sieber (QLD), Arryn Snowball (QLD) and Renita Stanley (SA).