SYDNEY.- The 26th annual Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship, a prestigious painting award for artists aged between 20 and 30 years, was awarded to six artists at a special ceremony at the Art Gallery of New South Wales yesterday. Sydney artist Adele Warner will receive a three-month residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, as well as $50,000 in funding to further her art education while in Europe.

Five additional artists were also awarded $10,000 and a two-week residency at Shark Island Kangaroo Valley, NSW. This year, the five recipients of Shark Island residencies are Tommy Carman (NSW), Solomon Karmel-Shann (ACT), Scout Milsome (VIC), Lorna Quinn (VIC) and Elle Wickens (NSW).

Guest judge Jelena Telecki selected 10 finalists and six scholarship recipients from 178 entries. Telecki said it was a great honour to judge the 2024 Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship.

‘The most exciting part of the judging process was discovering and becoming more familiar with the work of close to 200 artists. This year’s entries were highly diverse and showed a wide breadth of approaches to painting and how painting can be understood,’ said Telecki.

Adele Warner’s practice reflects the zeitgeist of the digital age, patchworking ideas and images from her life and memory with those found on Reddit, Wikimedia Commons and Instagram. Telecki said she chose Warner’s work because of her highly developed painting skills and her sophisticated approach to integrating imagery.

‘Warner’s paintings are serious, melancholic even, yet humorous, with imagery that could be drawn from personal or shared experience of living. Her paintings are highly attractive to me, as she recognises the potential of the mundane to communicate so much more than is visible at first sight,’ Telecki said.

24-year-old Warner will undertake the Cité residency in Paris from July to September 2025. The five Shark Island recipients will attend the Kangaroo Valley residency in November 2024, participating in a curriculum of events and programs produced by the Brett Whiteley Studio to support the artists in developing new work.

Art Gallery of New South Wales director Michael Brand said the scholarship is a pillar of the Art Gallery’s commitment to supporting emerging artistic talent.

‘The Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship is an annual highlight for the Art Gallery, as we are reminded of the exceptional talent among the next generation of painters in this country,’ said Brand.

‘Thanks to our ongoing partnerships with Cité Internationale des Arts and the Shark Island Institute, we can offer young artists essential resources and formative experiences. I extend my heartfelt congratulations to all this year’s finalists and scholarship recipients. I am confident that they will find their residencies to be extremely fulfilling.’

The late Beryl Whiteley established the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship in 1999 to commemorate the profound effect international travel and study had on her son, artist Brett Whiteley, who won the Italian Government Travelling Art Scholarship at the age of 20. The scholarship is administered by the Brett Whiteley Studio and the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

The Art Gallery first introduced the Shark Island residency in 2020, in response to Covid-19-related international travel restrictions. The scholarship now continues to offer both domestic and international travel opportunities to enable the support of a greater number of emerging artists.

An additional four finalists were selected in 2024, Rhys Cousins (VIC), Brodie Cullen (NSW), Mungo Howard (NSW) and Erin Murphy (NSW). All finalist and scholarship recipient’s artworks are on display in a free exhibition in Naala Nura, the Art Gallery’s south building, until Sunday 24 November while building upgrades continue at the Brett Whiteley Studio in Surry Hills ahead of its 30th anniversary in 2025.