Caroline Rothwell, Vault, 2020, acrylic on linen, 163 x 183cm; courtesy the artist and Yavuz Gallery, Singapore and Sydney

Described by judges as ‘a poignant, beautiful and major work’, a painting that examines the historical idea of a wunderkammer (or cabinet of curiosities) for contemporary eyes has won the 2021 Ravenswood School for Girls Australian Women’s Art Prize, the country’s highest value art prize for female artists. Vault (2020) by Sydney-based Caroline Rothwell (Yavuz Gallery), which was also a finalist in last year’s Sir John Sulman Prize, looks at what the artist has called ‘a Western disconnect from nature’ at a time that ‘a battle rages to recognise the value of traditional knowledge and the natural world’.

The emerging artist prize was won by Symone Male from Brisbane for Contagious, a timely and joyful painting depicting a woman in the act of ‘performative cleaning’ during the pandemic. Notably, Bulgul artist Imelda Wood Melamurrk from the Northern Territory won the Indigenous Emerging Artist Prize for her painting My Sister’s Birth on a Full Moon. The works of the 102 finalists are on display in Sydney, until 30 May.

For more information, click here or, to watch the announcement of winners for 2021, click here.