About
The Poimena Prize for Abstraction is a new national art prize dedicated exclusively to abstract practice. Established to recognise the significance and ongoing evolution of abstraction within contemporary art, the prize provides a platform for both emerging and established artists.
While abstraction has been central to modern and contemporary art for over a century, there is currently no major prize in Australia devoted solely to this field. The Poimena Prize addresses this gap, creating a focused national forum for abstract art.
Presented at Poimena Gallery, the prize invites artists from across Australia to submit two-dimensional works that engage with abstraction in its many forms; spanning painting, photography, printmaking, and expanded media. The finished work must not exceed 155 cm in either length or width, inclusive of frame. Low-relief artworks, in which materials protrude from a flat background to a depth of no more than 15 cm, are also eligible.
Each edition of the prize is guided by a single thematic prompt word. For the inaugural prize, the word is SHIFT - an open conceptual point of departure encouraging artists to explore convergence, integration, and transformation through material, process, and spatial relationships. Rather than prescribing interpretation, the prompt is intended to generate diverse responses and stimulate dialogue around the possibilities of abstraction.
The Poimena Prize is a non-acquisitive award, with $15,000 awarded to the winning artist. The recipient will be selected by a panel of respected artists, curators, and arts professionals.
Through this initiative, the Poimena Prize for Abstraction aims to foster critical discussion around abstract art and its continued relevance in contemporary culture. By bringing together a diverse range of practices, the prize highlights the enduring capacity of abstraction to engage with the visual, the material, and the experiential dimensions of art.