Artist WH Chong has won the People's Choice prize in the 2024 Rick Amor Drawing Award

Melbourne-based artist WH Chong has won the People's Choice prize in the 2024 Rick Amor Drawing Award at McClelland.

Chong's drawing, Two Painters 2023, pastel and pencil on paper, 38 x 57cm, was voted the most popular work by the over 5,000 visitors to the exhibition. All works In the Rick Amor Drawing Award are on display at McClelland until 21 July.

McClelland Artistic and Executive Director, Lisa Byrne, says the $1,000 People’s Choice prize enables McClelland to understand what audiences are responding to and what is attracting their attention.

“The People’s Choice winning work, Two Painters 2023, is an intense expression of human observation, melded with the artist’s response to Jungian analysis. The superimposition of two figures in different orientations is captivating and the script running through the image provides an interesting, collaged effect.

“The Rick Amor Drawing Award demonstrate the vibrancy of drawing practice as an exciting medium in its own right, full of invention and experimentation. It helps us see important aspects of contemporary art practice in a new light,” said Ms Byrne

This is the second iteration of this prestigious biennial and acquisitive Rick Amor Drawing Award exhibition which was established by artist Rick Amor to promote the practice of drawing in contemporary Australian art.

Rick Amor noted that “the Awards give people further encouragement to keep drawing on paper… the most direct and intimate expression of an artist’s sensibility.”

Rick Amor was born in Frankston and has drawn and painted the area many times over the course of his artistic career.

In April 2024, Ian Hay won the Rick Amor Drawing Award for his work, 'and somewhere else tomorrow’ which is now part of the McClelland Collection and for which the artist received a $20,000 prize.

The Rick Amor Drawing Award 2024 exhibition features works by the following artists: Kylie Blackley, Moira Burke, Carmel Byrne, Philip Cooper, Matthew Clarke, Yvonne East, Linda Fardoe, Vivien Gaston, Harry Hay, Ian Hay, Barbie Kjar, James Money, Susan Morse, Adam Nudelman, Catherine O’Donnell, Massimo Palombo, Ignacio Rojas, Claire Sheperd, Mary Tonkin, Caroline Walls, Michelle Zuccolo.

Background on the Rick Amor Drawing Award:

The Rick Amor Drawing Award was held at McClelland for the first time in 2021. McClelland is delighted to be showcasing the medium of drawing with this acquisitive award, thanks to the generous support of Rick Amor. The Award was established by artist Rick Amor to promote the practice of drawing in contemporary Australian art, noting that “this prize gives people one more reason to keep drawing on paper… the most direct and intimate expression of an artist’s sensibility.”

Rick Amor was born in Frankston and has drawn and painted the area many times over the course of his artistic career. In 2021 this acquisitive award will be granted to an outstanding original drawing, which will become part of the McClelland collection.

The selection panel for the Rick Amor Drawing Award is: Rick Amor, Paul Boston, Lisa Byrne and the judge is John Wolseley.

WH Chong Biography:

W. H. Chong is a well-known Australian book designer, and an artist whose preferred media are drawing and painting. He is also a published poet and writer on art. His Instagram is an ongoing project of depicting the people he encounters. In 2013 Chong was inducted into the Australian Book Designers Hall of Fame.