By merging the roles of artist and subject, self portraiture offers the viewer an intimate view of creativity and artistic expression. The National Youth Self Portrait Prize is an annual exhibition that invites Australians aged eighteen to twenty-five to explore the potential of self portraiture.
For young artists the self portrait is experience and experiment, and perhaps a signature – a chance to explore who they are at this time, what their life says about human experience and the place of their generation in contemporary Australia.
Working in a range of media, the artists’ approaches explore the tension between the presentation of a single image to characterise the self and the representation of the multiple identities that are inherent to us all. The National Youth Self Portrait Prize is sponsored by the Tallis Foundation and supported by the Association of Australian Decorative and Fine Arts Societies. A finalist in 2009, the winner of this year’s Prize is Sydney-based artist Bridget Mac.
![Untitled [Portrait of twenty-eight days], 2010](/files/b/a/f/4/i1576-th.jpg "Untitled [Portrait of twenty-eight days], 2010")
