Winner of the 2016 Geelong contemporary art prize with Jason Smith

A narrative-rich, skilfully executed painting by Melbourne artist Kate Beynon is the winner of the 2016 Geelong contemporary art prize, Geelong Gallery’s acquisitive award for contemporary painting.

Kate Beynon’s Graveyard scene/the beauty and sadness of bones 2014–15 is based on a scene from An-Li: a Chinese ghost tale, the artist’s re-telling of a supernatural story of two young spirits who traverse opposing worlds: one aquatic, the other earthly. The painting reveals an interest in connections between mother and child, ancestral spirits, and the cycle of life and death. This prize-winning work—the first by Beynon to be acquired by Geelong Gallery—is highly representative of the artist’s practice in which she merges diverse pictorial traditions with personal histories to address issues of hybridity, cultural identity and feminism.

The 2016 Geelong contemporary art prize is supported by Dimmick Charitable Trust.