Acquisitive Art Prize 2025
One hundred and ten works, ranging from drawing and painting to photography, textiles and sculpture, were on display at the recent 2025 Acquisitive Art Prize Exhibition. Held at the Coates Pavilion at the Glen Waverley Campus in late May, the exhibition featured work from current students in Years 10 to 12, and our 2024 Year 12 cohort.
This year’s guest judge was Esther Schouten, an oil and watercolour painter known for her impressionistic landscapes and experimental abstraction.
The winner of the 2025 Acquisitive Art Prize was Phoebe (Year 12, GW) with her mixed media work, Too Much Woman. The work forms part of her VCE Art Creative Practice folio.
The piece includes plaster casts of a female figure, exploring how the female form is perceived and portrayed. ‘My work explores the diverse facets of womanhood, from blooming resilience and fluid power to the weight of societal expectations and cultural symbolism. It’s a feminist series that celebrates the strength, complexity and reclaiming of the female body.’
Encouragement awards were given to Yolande (Year 11, SKR) for her intaglio etching titled Bears and Lara (Year 12, GW) for her wool weaving Colours of country.
The People’s Choice award was granted to Micah (Year 12, GW) for Fragment Reflection, an oil on canvas painting.
The Packer’s Prize, as voted by the College's Art Technicians who hang the artwork, was awarded to Layla (Year 10, GW) for Still Life, silver gelatin print.
The competition celebrates art in its many forms, and showcased a wide range of creative expression. As Schouten expressed in her opening speech, art has benefits to both the artist and the viewer: the act of creative self-expression has mental health benefits for the artist, and for the viewer, it can evoke feelings of joy, awe and tickle your neural pathways.
Congratulations to the winners and to all who entered. A fantastic showing from Wesley’s Senior School students across so many different mediums and styles.
