$20,000 Halloran Contemporary Art Prize Winners Announced

The Jervis Bay Maritime Museum & Gallery has revealed the winners of the 2025 Halloran Contemporary Art Prize, awarding $20,000 to Chris Leaver for his captivating work Blow the Wind Southerly. 

The prize asks artists to respond to the Halloran Collection, Science & the Sea at the Jervis Bay Maritime Museum, with this year’s theme being ‘Time.’ This year, the Halloran Contemporary Art Prize had 63 entrants from across NSW and ACT, with 37 finalists selected to exhibit their work at the Jervis Bay Maritime Museum. 

Based in Pretty Beach, Leaver has spent over 40 years honing his art practice, which combines his background in CGI and traditional art techniques. His winning multi-disciplinary piece merges sound and form, inviting the audience to engage by listening to and touching a giant shell. The piece reflects on the concept of time’s echoes reverberating across nature and memory, and the judges praised it as “a portal for a complex but entirely lyrical and marine-focused soundscape, an elegantly resolved and captivating tribute to the histories and echoes of time that reverberate from objects in the [Halloran] Collection.”

Leaver expressed his gratitude for the recognition, saying, “I’m still pinching myself. Receiving this art prize is an incredible honour. It’s both humbling and inspiring to have my work appreciated in such a meaningful way, and I’m grateful for the opportunity it provides to grow as an artist and to connect with a wider audience.”

The second prize of $8,000 went to Anna Glynn for her photomontage … Here between the hither and the farther shore…, which thoughtfully addresses themes of nature, climate, and temporal change. Glynn commented, “I am honoured to have my work chosen as a prize winner. The judges’ comments showed their full understanding of my concept and the deep time thinking in the work. For an artist, this is a big win when your creative intent is understood.”

The Halloran Contemporary Art Prize, sponsored by the Halloran Trust, is now open to the public at the Jervis Bay Maritime Museum. Visitors can still cast their vote for the $2,000 People’s Choice award until the exhibition closes on April 27, 2025.

Visit jervisbaymaritimemusuem.asn.au.