© National Portrait Gallery 2025
King Edward Terrace, Parkes
Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia
Phone +61 2 6102 7000
ABN: 54 74 277 1196
The Gallery will be open until 9pm this Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Darling Portrait Prize 2024 Finalist
Richard Butler Bowdon
born South Africa 1957, Australia from 1964
Nyadol Nyuon OAM 2023
oil on canvas
‘This portrait depicts Nyadol Nyuon, a community advocate for social justice, legal reform, multiculturalism and human rights. The portrait is the result of life sketches and photographs taken during a sitting at the Sir Zelman Cowen Centre in Melbourne where she is Director. I first heard about Nyadol while working as an English teacher delivering programs to assist South Sudanese refugees settle in Australia. She herself comes from a refugee background. It is my hope that this work distils and articulates Nyadol’s quiet strength, drive, professional acumen and considerable tenacity in the face of adversity.’
South-African born Richard Butler Bowdon
is a Naarm/Melbourne-based artist, who has worked
across painting, collage and installation.
He describes his practice as the outcome of an ‘open and
non-hierarchical curiosity in humanity’.
© The artist
The Darling Portrait Prize is a biennial national prize for Australian portrait painting honouring the legacy of Mr L Gordon Darling AC CMG.
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