First-Time Finalist Claims $30,000 Calleen Art Award 2025

Byron Bay-based artist Konstantina (Kate Constantine) has claimed the prestigious $30,000 Calleen Art Award 2025 with her painting Nangamay Ngura, making her debut as both finalist and winner in the competition’s 48-year history.

The announcement was made at Cowra Regional Art Gallery on Saturday 30 August during the opening of the finalists’ exhibition, with award judge Kent Buchanan, Curator at Western Plains Cultural Centre, praising the winning work’s technical precision and cultural depth.

“This work vibrates with colour, technical precision, and deep cultural knowledge,” Buchanan said. “The painting gives and gives with every viewing, and I encourage all to see it in the flesh. A beautiful and worthy winner.”

Konstantina’s winning acrylic on linen work (120 x 90 cm) draws from her personal journey of understanding Country, both as concept and lived experience. In her artist statement, she explains: “Growing up in the city, I struggled to grasp this deep knowledge, but life in regional Australia has allowed me to lean into it.”

The painting forms part of a series inspired by the songline connecting Gadigal Country to Kati Thanda (Lake Eyre) and the Garanga (Pelican) that journeys between them. “Nangamay means to fly like a bird or a spear through the sky into dreaming,” the artist notes, describing the work as “a meditation on water, spirit, and Country—seen from above, like a bird in flight, dreaming our vast, arid lands into being.”

Winner Calleen Art Award 2025 acquisitive prize for painting, Konstantina, Nangamay Ngura 2024 acrylic on linen 120 x 90 cm image courtesy© the artist, Art Leven and Cowra Regional Art Gallery

This year’s Calleen Art Award drew 397 entries, with 53 paintings selected as finalists by a distinguished panel comprising Natalie Wilson (Curator, Art Gallery of New South Wales), Jane Watters (Director, S.H. Irvin Gallery), and Kent Buchanan.

Three artists received Highly Commended recognition: Graham Lupp (NSW), whose work judge Buchanan described as one “I would gladly be entangled in every day”; Joel Tonks (NSW) for his “crisp and glorious painting” of Wambuul/Macquarie River in Bathurst; and Luke Wagner (Tasmania) for an “exquisite and beguiling work” capturing the Tasmanian landscape with “photographic attention to detail.”

Konstantina’s winning work will become the 50th piece in the Calleen Collection housed at Cowra Regional Art Gallery. The award, founded in 1977 by Cowra art patron Mrs Patricia Fagan OAM and supported by the Calleen Trust, continues to champion originality, creativity and excellence in contemporary Australian painting.

The competition has become a signature art event in the Central West region of New South Wales, with the 2025 exhibition featuring a diverse range of compelling works from established and emerging artists across Australia.

The Calleen Art Award 2025 finalists’ exhibition runs until 5 October 2025 at Cowra Regional Art Gallery, with visitors able to vote for the People’s Choice Award. The gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday 10am-4pm and Sunday 10am-2pm, with free admission.