ART REVIEW. By Belinda Hungerford, Curator & Exhibition Coordinator, Orange Regional Gallery.

The Wynne Prize 2025 recently opened at Orange Regional Gallery. The Wynne Prize is Australia’s oldest art prize and is awarded to the best landscape painting of Australian scenery or figurative sculpture. It was established following a bequest by Richard Wynne and was first awarded in 1897 to mark the official opening of the Art Gallery of New South Wales at its present site.

Judged annually by the Art Gallery of New South Wales trustees, this year 52 finalists were selected from 758 entries and 49 of these finalists are now on show in Orange. This is just the second year the exhibition has toured, and Orange Regional Gallery is one of only four venues to host this prestigious prize.

The paintings on display are incredibly diverse, from large-scale stories of Country by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists to a tiny depiction of a fountain in a garden pond measuring just 8 x 6cm. The range of sculpture in the exhibition is also incredibly diverse with the imaginative use of varied materials such as clay, concrete, wood, and textiles to create figures.

Wynne Prize 2025 is an Art Gallery of New South Wales touring exhibition, proudly supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW’s Blockbuster Funding initiative. The exhibition is on at Orange Regional Gallery daily until 16 November, and entry is FREE.