We are delighted to announce that the winner of the 2020 King’s School Art Prize is Sabbia Gallery artist Pepai Jangala Carroll. This is an annual $20,000 Acquisitive Award presented to an Australian contemporary artist, this year judged by Maud Page, Deputy Director and Director of Collections at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
The King’s School Art Prize is in its 26th year and over that time has been awarded to some of Australia’s leading artists, including Aida Tomescu, John Olsen, Jason Benjamin, Joanna Logue, Ben Qulity, Gloria Petyarre, Euan Macleod and Jun Chen.
Pepai’s beautiful acrylic on canvas titled Walungurru (as above) pays homage to his father’s homeland, a sand-dune country near Kintore in the Northern Territory. This work is a response to a return to this country, which is called Walungurru, a few years ago.
The Wanampi or Rainbow Serpent is looking for that man. He did the wrong thing and he is running into sand hill country. The Wanampi made that road and he brought the water with him. There was no water here before, but it is still here now.
Pepai Jangala Carroll, 2020
Pepai, a senior artist from Ernabella Arts in the APY Lands, was in very good company with fellow finalists Alan Jones, Andrew McIlroy, Belynda Henry, George Tjungurrayi, Guy Gilmour, Holly Greenwood, Ian Grant, Karen Black, Laith McGregor, Melanie Waugh, Mitch Cairns, Neil Taylor, Paul Ryan, Samuel Leach, Tania Mason, Thornton Walker, Tom Carment, Tony Slater, Tuppy Ngintja Goodwin, Zoe Young, Dane Lovett, and fellow Sabbia Artists Lisa Cahill and Kirstie Rea.
Sabbia holds a number of beautiful ceramic artworks by Pepai. Please contact the gallery for further details.