Brisbane Portrait Prize 2023
This homegrown exhibition heroes famous faces, celebrated locals and everyday Brisbanites — and it's back for its fifth year.
Overview
From the city's big stars to its everyday faces, everyone earns at place at the Brisbane Portrait Prize. The initiative kicked off in 2019, showcasing the folks that make this town of ours great — plus the talented Brisbane artists who've committed their likenesses to canvas.
Indeed, subject-wise, these pieces always read like a who's who of Brissie each year. And if you're keen to see 2023's crop, select works are on display at Brisbane Powerhouse from Thursday, September 28–Sunday, October 29.
Free to attend — and on display from 10.30am–4.30pm daily, as well as till 7pm on Fridays and Saturdays while the venue's night food market Night Feast returns for spring from Wednesday, October 4 — 2023's Brisbane Portrait Prize exhibition spans 70 finalist works, as well as 14 in the event's Next Gen strand.
Impressive renditions of an array of faces await, but keep an eye out for this year's winners, of course. Yuwi, Torres Strait and South Sea Islander man Dylan Mooney took out the $50,000 Lord Mayor's Prize with Still Thriving — which features Mooney with his friend Sam in a statement on Country and connection.
Among the other recipients, Irish-born artist Robert Mercer won the $10,000 Digital Award with a self-portrait, and interdisciplinary artist Zoe Porter's watercolour portrait of CIRCA member Billie Wilson-Coffey earned the $7,500 Performing Arts and Music Award. Also, Fiona Lowry immortalised her son Vincent Orellana on canvas to score the $5,000 Sylvia Jones Award for Women Artists Award.
