DARWIN-BASED artist Alana Hunt has been announced as the winner of the STILL: National Still Life Award 2023.

Announced at the exhibition’s opening event on Saturday 7 October at Coffs’ Yarrila Arts and Museum (YAM), Alana Hunt’s winning work ‘… and fled swiftly (i and ii) 2022’ is a photographic digital print awarded the prize of $30,000.

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Unable to attend the opening night, Alana said, “It’s wonderful to be in a cohort of so many other artists sharing our work in a regional place.”

She said that winning the award means “one more year of the economic puzzle of how to be an artist is solved”.

“It will allow me to keep working.

“To keep thinking.

“And to keep making.

“And for that my sincere gratitude,” she said.

“I look forward to seeing the other works in the show very, very soon.”

STILL 2023 guest judge Max Delany, the CEO and Artistic Director of Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, said the winning artwork, a photographic print “is at once banal in its everyday-ness, and remarkable, and slowly arresting, in its attention to detail”.

“The analogue 35mm film and black and white treatment speaks to the historical record, whilst its lo-fi, informal production values and informal framing speaks to the casual, cavalier nature of the mining camp and its culture of extraction, detritus and abandonment,” he said.

“It was a rewarding albeit challenging process to determine the award recipients in what was a great field, and I would like to acknowledge and congratulate all of the artists, and all of the team at YAM for the outstanding achievement of this latest edition of STILL which is a fitting exhibition for the inauguration of the splendid new museum and gallery building.”

Mr Delany awarded Grace Dlabik’s ‘Hasu 2023’ and Miranda Hine’s ‘Crime scene still life (Midsomer Murders s14e5)’ the $1000 Highly Commended Awards.

STILL 2023 attracted 1143 entries from across Australia, the largest field in the award’s history.

“The judge has said that the calibre of entries was extraordinary, exploring and pushing the boundaries of the still life genre,” said Ian Fitzgibbon, the City’s acting Director of City Planning and Communities.

“And it was great to see five of the finalists came from our local region, that’s a great indication of the depth of talent within our own communities.”

Visitors to the exhibition can vote for their favourite work as part of the $3000 People’s Choice award which will be announced on 28 November.

The exhibition will run until 3 December.

By Andrea FERRARI