For the first time Australia’s leading award for environmental art, the acquisitive WAMA Art Prize, will be exhibited at WAMA’s newly opened National Centre for Environmental Art in Budja Budja/Halls Gap.

Opening Saturday 6 December 2025 and running until 8 March 2026, the exhibition allows you to explore the 54 finalist works selected from more than 450 entries received from across Australia.

The third WAMA Art Prize, 2025 marks the first time the award has been presented within WAMA's newly opened National Centre for Environmental Art.

This biennial exhibition attracted more than 450 entries from artists across Australia, underscoring the resonance that the theme of art and nature continues to hold within our creative community. The 54 works selected in this exhibition encompass many perspectives: from acknowledging the depth and power of First Nation's Peoples knowledge of Country, to reflecting on the impact of climate change, as well as exploring the beauty and fragility of Australia's flora and fauna.

The richness of the exhibition is reflected in the award-winning works. The major acquisitive prize was awarded to Victorian artist Kate Gorringe-Smith for her linocut White-faced Heron at Twilight, that creates with delicacy the flight of the heron. Three awards of excellence were presented to Deanne Gilson for Earth Shield, for protection, an ochre-on-paper work grounded in her deep cultural connections to Wadawurrung waterways; to Dolores Skowronski - Malloni for Grampians Bitter-pea, an intricate drawing capturing the delicate character of native flora and to Ro Murray for his series Against the Tide I, II, III, which innovatively repurposes pianola rolls to convey the shifting moods of water.

Across the exhibition works depicting flora, fauna, landscapes, waterways and the sky range from large-scale drawings to intimate paper structures that encourage us to reflect on and care for the remarkable environments we are privileged to inhabit.

I extend my gratitude to fellow judges Dr Vicki Couzens, Suzanne Davies and Anne Virgo, and invite you to use the QR codes to cast your vote in the People's Choice Award to be announced in February 2026.

This year marks the launch of Wama's online Salon des Refusés, created to recognise emerging and established artists who are deeply engaged with the natural world.

Dr Jacqueline Healy - Exhibition Curator and WAMA Foundation Board Director

The White-faced Heron is the queen of the Birrarung. To see one fly over, stalk her prey, or stand still as the trees around her, by the waters of the Birrarung is always a magical experience.

Here a linocut of the White-faced Heron in flight is translucent against the eco-printed background. The colours and shapes of the eco-print are created from vegetation collected from the bird’s habitat that are embedded into the image. The riverside has co-created this print. The bird flies through, she does not stand out but is interwoven against her background habitat.
All the elements form the one whole.