Guido Maestri, Finalist for the Wynne Prize 2023

28 Apr 2023

Congratulations to Guido Maestri on being a finalist for the prestigious Wynne Prize 2023! The Wynne Prize is awarded annually for ‘the best landscape painting of Australian scenery in oils or watercolours or for the best example of figure sculpture by Australian artists’.

Maestri’s work, Wombarra, is inspired by miniature dioramas he shares with his son August and based on an area of coastal rainforest north of Wollongong, on Dharawal Country. “The building of a landscape fascinates me. You are the creator or gardener. It’s not fixed – you can manipulate the ‘stage’ before you start or as you go. The painting becomes an idea or a memory, twice removed. And after a while, you disregard the reference, and the painting develops its own life and place,” says Maestri, a nine-time Wynne finalist and winner of the Archibald Prize in 2009.

The winners will be announced on 5 May 2023, and the exhibition will be held from 6 May – 3 September 2023.

Image: Wombarra, 2023, oil on linen, 230.5 x 200 cm