Despard Gallery is very proud to announce that early career Tasmanian artist Zoe Grey has been 
announced as the winner of the Hadley’s Prize for 2024!
The Hadley’s Art Prize Hobart is one of the richest landscape art prizes in Australia, with an acquisitive prize of $100,000. The annual prize is awarded to a contemporary artist for the best interpretation of the Australian landscape. The prize is sponsored by the owner of Hadley’s Orient Hotel, Don Neil who dreamt up the idea of the prize on the 90th anniversary of the first art exhibition held at Hadley’s Orient Hotel, with the aim of exposing artists to new audiences, as well as presenting emerging artists alongside established artists.
Grey’s entry titled Shape Of Rock [oil on board, 122 x 153 cm] captures her unique intuitive approach to painting, using a combination of bold gestures, blocks of colour and considered mark-making, push the conventions of landscape painting. At the heart of Grey’s practice is using paint to better understand personal bonds to place and how it can play a key role in defining identity, visually describing how these felt relationships peak and fade. This includes Grey’s life-long connection held with the rugged rocks, fierce winds and booming swell of Marrawah, a remote coastal community on the northwest edge of Tasmania, where she grew up.
Zoe Grey