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Melbourne artist Jenny Rodgerson won the 2025 Richard Lester Prize for Portraiture for Self Portrait, taking the $50,000 main award. The opening night brought artists and art lovers together at WA Museum Boola Bardip to celebrate the finalists and their work.
Opening night: artists, guests and portraits
The Lester Prize opening night photos capture a gathering around portraiture: artists and art lovers marking the opening of the 2025 exhibition at WA Museum Boola Bardip. The West Australian’s photo captions identify the pictured attendees; those identifications are kept to the people named in the captions.
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The 2025 finalists were chosen from 1,024 submissions, a record number and the highest since the prize began, according to The West Australian. The exhibition ran through 16 November 2025.
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Who won the 2025 Lester Prize?
Richard Lester Prize for Portraiture
Jenny Rodgerson received the 2025 Richard Lester Prize for Portraiture, worth $50,000, for her oil painting Self Portrait. Judge Christopher Allen praised the painting’s vulnerability, courage and directness. He described it as “a strong, honest and courageous self-portrait” in which Rodgerson faces her image in a mirror “without posing or flattering herself in any way.” Allen added that its truthfulness and vulnerability came through in the artist’s direct work from life and self-examination. His full comments appear in The West Australian’s report.
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Other 2025 award recipients
- Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize: Sue Eva, Sue’s Space
- Minderoo Foundation Spirit Prize: Sylvia Wilson, My Daughter (Great Grandmother)
- Barton Family Foundation Installer’s Prize: Gene Hart-Smith, Family on Dangar Island
- Tony Fini Foundation Artist Prize: Ignacio Rojas, Son of the storm
- Eyewall Foundation Highly Commended Prize: Sophie Hann, Tsering
The West Australian described the 2025 awards as totaling more than $130,000. The Lester Prize’s official website gives a different figure and scope for 2026: an annual $140,000 prize pool across two exhibitions and ten categories. These are year-specific descriptions, not directly interchangeable totals; see The Lester Prize website.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Where and when to see the exhibition
The 2025 main exhibition at WA Museum Boola Bardip ended on 16 November 2025. The museum’s next listed main exhibition, The Lester Prize for Portraiture, runs from 10 October to 29 November 2026. Entry is included in general admission. The museum lists 40 finalists selected from more than 1,000 entries for the 2026 exhibition; this is separate from the 2025 opening-night event. Details are on the Western Australian Museum exhibition page.
Rank #2
The 2025 Lester Prize Youth Awards were also separate: a free exhibition at the same museum from 2 May to 20 July 2025, rather than part of the main-awards opening-night exhibition. The museum’s Youth Awards page lists that exhibition.
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