Gene A’Hern has won the Sir John Sulman Prize 2025 and $40,000 for his work Sky painting, a bold, vibrant and gestural work that draws on his relationship to the Blue Mountains where he lives and works. This is A’Hern’s first time as a finalist in the Sulman Prize, with his winning work selected from among 30 finalists.
Speaking of his win, A’Hern said: ‘The Art Gallery of New South Wales has played such a big role in the birth of my practice, as I have regularly spent time there. From a young age, I have held deep respect for the previous winners of the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes. To be awarded the Sulman Prize is a great honour and I feel very humbled to stand alongside such talented Australian artists.
‘Painted with expansive movements to capture a sense of scale and colour, this painting unfolded as I immersed myself in skywatching, while reflecting on the ceremonial choreography of the surrounding environment. It conveys a sensation of nature’s gestures, composed to resonate from within, translating an omnipresence that comes from dust and returns to dust.
The work draws on charged memories – birds singing in harmony, branches sighing in the wind, the closing curtain of the setting sun, all forming a living landscape that I breathe with and through. For me, the sky and the Blue Mountains intertwine and reveal themselves as a place of origin, deep memory and belonging.’
The Sir John Sulman Prize is awarded to the best subject painting, genre painting or mural project by an Australian artist and is judged by a guest artist each year. This year’s Sulman Prize judge was Sydney artist Elizabeth Pulie, who selected A’Hern’s winning work from a record 732 entries for the Sulman in 2025.
‘Gene A’Hern’s work is an unselfconscious dedication to line and colour – its almost excessive celebration of the materiality of paint manifesting a certain energy that repeatedly attracted my attention throughout the judging process,’ said Pulie.
All finalists in Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes 2025 will be exhibited at the Art Gallery from Saturday 10 May to Sunday 17 August 2025.
Following the exhibition at the Art Gallery, Archibald Prize 2025 finalist works will tour to six venues across New South Wales and Victoria, offering audiences outside Sydney the opportunity to see the finalist portraits up close and personal.
Wynne Prize 2025 finalist works will tour to four venues in regional New South Wales. The Wynne Prize regional tour is proudly supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW’s Blockbusters Funding initiative.
For tickets and more information, please visit the Art Gallery website.
