IRIS AWARD

Image © Madeline Bishop, 'Neil and Vasantha', 30.7x30.7cm and 42x42cm, Ed.1/10, 2021 IRIS Award Winner)

The IRIS Award is an internationally open, biennial art prize acknowledging outstanding contemporary portraiture. It encourages artists to challenge the boundaries of portrait photography. The work of selected finalists is exhibited in a professional group exhibition at the Perth Centre for Photography. IRIS Awards has been running for 18 years, with the inaugural exhibition held back in 2003 as a Western Australian prize for contemporary portraiture.

The IRIS Award celebrates excellence in portraiture photography, revealing portraits that are unique, original and conceptually stimulating. Artists are encouraged to stretch the definition of photography by incorporating new practices such as video art, photo sculptures and multimedia. In doing so, the award challenges artists to bring to light non-traditional ideas or take an experimental approach with traditional techniques.

View the full IRIS Award 2021 gallery online.

Opening Night

Friday, 24th September 2021
Time: 6 pm – 8:30 pm
Free Admission. RSVP here.
Refreshments and credit card facilities available.

Exhibition dates: 25th September – 29th October 2021

Congratulations to this year’s IRIS Award Finalists

Aaron Claringbold. Abigail Chua. Alec Thomas. Alex Verhagen. Anais Bellini. Angus Scott. Annie Harvey. Ashlyn. Brian Cassey. Chris Round. Christopher Allery. Claudia Caporn. Daniel Bushaway. Daniel Campbell. Daniel Gevaux. Ellen Marie Saethre-McGuirk. Emmaline Zanelli. Erin Ginty. Garrie Maguire. Hannah Davies. Harriet Tarbuck. Jake Nemirovsky. Jeremy Drape. Julie Sundberg. Karl Halliday. Kate Atkinson. Kate Golding (and child). Kate Hulett. Kristina Kraskov. Leith Alexander. Lilli Waters. Liz Looker. macobjoore. Madeline Bishop. Miela Malyon. Millie Murfit. Olivia Day. peterdhayes. Phoebe Kelly. Phoebe Wynne. Robin Bottrell. Robyn MACRAE. Sarah Malone. Scotty So. Simon Bernhardt. Starry Kong. Steve Wise. Su Cassiano. Tristan Still. Yosando Faizal.

IRIS Award 2021 Judges

PCP is pleased to welcome, Elias Redstone, Artistic Director of PHOTO 2022 International Festival of Photography as the guest preselection Judge of IRIS Award 2021.

Elias Redstone is a curator and arts leader with a track record of initiating and delivering innovative cultural programs. He is the founder of Photo Australia (photo.org.au) and Artistic Director of PHOTO 2021 International Festival of Photography, a new biennial in Melbourne which featured over 160 artists including outdoor commissions by Zanele Muholi, Hoda Afshar, Sam Contis, Brook Andrew, Kenta Cobayashi and Daniel Shea, amongst others. Exhibitions as an independent curator include Constructing Worlds: Photography and Architecture in the Modern Age (2014) and Archizines (2011–2015), which toured to 34 cities around the world. He was Curator of the Polish Pavilion at the 2010 Venice Biennale and Senior Curator at the Architecture Foundation, London. He is Wallpaper’s Australia Editor and has acted as a contributing editor for Arena Homme Plus and GQ Style. His book Shooting Space: Architecture in Contemporary Photography is published by Phaidon and he has edited publications for Prestel, Sternberg Press, and Bedford Press.

Elias is currently Artistic Director of PHOTO 2022 International Festival of Photography, which takes place 29 April – 22 May 2022.

Rebecca Dagnall graduated from Curtin University, in 2003 with Honours, and held her first solo exhibition in 2009 at Turner Galleries in Perth Western Australia. She has since been invited to show around Australia and internationally. Highlights from the many group exhibitions are Imagining the Everyday an exhibition of Australian photographers’ work curated by Alasdair Foster in 2010 in China and the touring exhibition Testing Ground, curated by Julie Gough in 2013. Her work has been exhibited at Australia’s most prestigious public photography galleries including major solo exhibitions from 2010-2013 at the Australian Centre for Photography, the Monash Gallery of Art, Queensland Centre for Photography and in 2018 at the Perth Centre for Photography. In recent years Rebecca’s work has been included in photography festivals such as Foto Freo, the Lodz Fotofestiwal in Poland and the Pingyao Photographic Festival in China. In 2018 Rebecca completed a PhD at RMIT University.

Rebecca’s work is represented in several collections, including the Art Gallery of Western Australia, the Cities of; Victoria Park, Stirling, Joondalup the Royal Perth Hospital and the Town of East Fremantle collections.

Rachel Cieśla is the Lead Creative for the Simon Lee Foundation, Art Gallery of Western Australia and publisher/co-editor of Heart of Hearts Press. Her recent curatorial and publishing projects include ‘Stanislava Pinchuk: Archaeology of Loss’ (Fremantle Arts Centre, 2021) and ‘Leyla Stevens: Dua Dunia’ (PS Art Space/Perth Festival, 2021). She has previously worked in programming roles at PHOTO International Festival of Photography, Naarm; Anna Schwartz Gallery, Naarm; and was integral in the re-establishment of the Melbourne Art Fair in 2018. Rachel holds an MA in Art Curatorship from the University of Melbourne.

Carla Adams was born in Perth and graduated with first-class honours from Curtin University. Her work incorporates sculpture, textiles, craft practices, painting, drawing, research and book-making to navigate the complexities of relationships from an embodied, female perspective. Adams’ work has been exhibited at the Art Gallery of WA, Turner Galleries, Bus Projects (Melbourne), FELTSpace (Adelaide), ARTBAR at The Museum of Contemporary Art (Sydney), Verge Gallery (Sydney) and Blindside (Melbourne). Adams’ work was selected for the 2013 Hatched National Graduate Exhibition at PICA; she was a finalist in the 2017 and 2020 Joondalup Invitation Art Awards.