THE BLAKE ART PRIZE

The 68th Blake Art Prize

Since 1951, The Blake Prize has engaged artists, nationally and internationally, with ideas of spirituality and religion. The prize takes its name from William Blake, the world-famous 18th Century artist, and poet who threaded the religious and artistic throughout his practice. Building on this history, The 68th Blake Prize continues to encourage contemporary artists of varied styles and religious and spiritual allegiances to create significant works of art, which engage in conversations and negotiations concerning spirituality, religion and/or belief.

Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre has proudly presented The Blake Prize as a biennial event since 2016, ensuring the future of this landmark prize. Casula Powerhouse is ideally positioned in Liverpool, a community of people from over 150 different birthplaces, speaking over 140 languages with an equally diverse range of faith backgrounds. We are committed to supporting emerging and established artists to create work that reflect Australian communities.

CPAC will maintain the guiding principles of The Blake Prize, continuing to engage contemporary artists, both nationally and internationally, in conversations concerning faith, spirituality, religion, hope, humanity, social justice, belief and non – belief. The Blake Prize presents an aesthetic means of exploring the wider experience of spirituality and all this may entail through the visionary imagining of contemporary artists.

The judges choose the best contemporary artworks that address ideas related to religion, spirituality and/or belief. There are three prizes to be won!

1. The Blake Prize is a non-acquisitive prize of $35,000 
2. The Blake Emerging Artist Prize is an acquisitive prize of $6,000 
3. The Blake Established Artist Residency - consisting of a residency and solo exhibition hosted by CPAC.

All prizes are strictly non-sectarian. Entries are not restricted to any specific faith or artistic style.

If you are looking for The Blake Poetry Prize details click here

KEY DATES
    • Entry Form opens: 1 August 2023
    • Entry form closes: 9am on Monday 18 December 2023
    • Exhibition launch: Saturday 18 May 2024
    • Exhibition dates: 11 May – 7 July 2024

Blake Prize

PAST BLAKE PRIZES

The 67th Blake Prize (2022)

Winner – S.J Norman, Cicatrix (All that was taken, all that remains), 2021. Giclee prints, performance documentation.

Winner – Leyla Stevens, Kidung/Lament, 2019, video.

Winner – Tina Havelock Stevens, Giant Rock, 2017, video

Winner – Yardena Kurulkar,  Kenosis, 2015, photo print

HOW TO ENTER THE 68TH BLAKE PRIZE

There are 2 steps to enter the 68th Blake Prize:

Step 1: Pay the entry fee(s).

Once you have finished paying you will be sent a payment confirmation email. The email will have a link to the online entry form in it. It will also have a tax invoice that lists your booking number (located at the top right of your tax invoice). This booking number is essential to successfully complete and submit your entry form.

Step 2: Complete the online entry form.

Once you have finished paying and received your payment confirmation email, click the link in the email to open the online entry form. The entry form includes all the information you need to enter, including the terms and conditions. You will be asked to enter your booking number in the required field, along with everything else we will need from you to enter the Prize. Once you have completed the entry form and hit submit you will receive a confirmation email thanking you for entering the 68th Blake Prize.

The Blake Prize is open for entries!

Click here to enter the 68th Blake Prize

Still need help?

Please note that artwork requirements (size, materials, etc.) can be found in the Terms and Conditions document.

If you still need help after you have carefully read the above, feel free to call our friendly staff on the following number: +61 02 8711 7123

Entries for the 68th Blake Prize close on 18 December (9AM AEDT). No extensions will be provided.

The 68th Blake Prize – Judges Line-Up

The 68th Blake Prize – Judges Line-Up

Dean Cross

Dean Cross

Dean Cross is an artist primarily working across installation, sculpture and painting.

Interested in the collisions of materials, ideas and histories, Cross is motivated by an understanding that his practice sits within a continuum of the oldest living culture on Earth – and enacts First Nations sovereignty through expanded contemporary art methodologies.

His cross-disciplinary practice often confronts the legacies of modernism, rebalancing dominant cultural and social histories.

Jose Da Silva

José Da Silva

José Da Silva is a curator and writer and is currently the Director of UNSW Galleries, where he has developed a dynamic program of contemporary Australian art and design since 2018.

He is also the curator of the 2024 Adelaide Biennial of Contemporary Art. Between 2006 and 2018, he contributed to an ambitious program of exhibitions, commissions, acquisitions and projects at the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, including a role in the curatoriums for five editions of the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art.

Selected curatorial projects include Gordon Hookey: A MURRIALITY (2022-24, with Liz Nowell and touring nationally); Jacobus Capone: Orisons (2022); Sam Smith: Capture (2021); The Colour Line: W. E. B Du Bois and Archie Moore (2021); Friendship as a Way of Life (2020, with Kelly Doley); Wansolwara: One Salt Water (2020, with Mikala Tai), and Gemma Smith: Rhythm Sequence (2019).

Jay Johnston

Professor Jay Johnston  FAHA

Jay Johnston FAHA is Professor in Religion within the School of Humanities at the University of Sydney.

She is a cross-disciplinary specialist who also works in the fields of Heritage, Art History and Practice, Conservation and Environment, and Nordic Studies.

Jay is a leader in conceptual and methodological innovation who has been influential in developing new subfields such as aesthetics of religion and subtle body studies.

Her research examines visual and material culture with a particular focus on the interrelationship between ethics and aesthetics, concepts of materiality, embodiment and epistemology.

ABOUT THE BLAKE ART PRIZE

Since 1951, The Blake Prize has engaged artists, nationally and internationally, with ideas of spirituality and religion. The prize takes its name from William Blake, the world-famous 18th Century artist, and poet who threaded the religious and artistic throughout his practice. Building on this history, The 87th Blake Prize continues to encourage contemporary artists of varied styles and religious and spiritual allegiances to create significant works of art, which engage in conversations and negotiations concerning spirituality, religion and/or belief.

Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre has proudly presented The Blake Prize as a biennial event since 2016, ensuring the future of this landmark prize. Casula Powerhouse is ideally positioned in Liverpool, a community of people from over 150 different birthplaces, speaking over 140 languages with an equally diverse range of faith backgrounds. We are committed to supporting emerging and established artists to create work that reflect Australian communities.

CPAC will maintain the guiding principles of The Blake Prize, continuing to engage contemporary artists, both nationally and internationally, in conversations concerning faith, spirituality, religion, hope, humanity, social justice, belief and non – belief. The Blake Prize presents an aesthetic means of exploring the wider experience of spirituality and all this may entail through the visionary imagining of contemporary artists.

SEE WORKS BY PREVIOUS FINALISTS

Image credits: S.J. Norman, Cicatrix (All that was taken, all that remains), 2019, giclee prints, performance documentation | Sakinah Alatas, "Qadarullah" (Divine decree), 2021, mix yarn with hand manual tufting | Sergio Plata, ‘First Communion – Altar’, 2021. Wax, pigment, woods, beads | Timothy Cook, Kulama, 2021, locally sourced earth pigments | Khashayar Salmanzadeh, ‘No Place to Settle But the Placeless’, 2021, Acrylic on canvas | Katy B Plummer, ‘WE ARE ALL ASTONISHINGLY WISE’, 2021, interactive AV installation | Marian Abboud, ‘Sister ++++++ Familial Formations’, 2021, photographic print | Monica Rani Rudhar, ‘…And Since Then I Didn’t Grow Anything There’, 2021, video installation.

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