“Paul Handley is a multi-disciplinary artist who lives and works in Melbourne. He explores and interrogates ‘big picture’ social issues that cross borders and even continents…”
“A well-known whaler and gunner on The Cheynes III (a whale chaser) lost his leg after it became entangled in a rope attached to a harpoon fired at a whale…”
The tension between traditional portraits and works that sit at the limits of what most people consider a portrait is the friction that fires up the whole engine of the prize.
“This body of work takes as its starting point a small 19th century landscape painting by a little known convict artist, George Peacock, which depicts a view along Sydney Harbour.”