A long view of a human subject in a field has won the $75,000 biennial Darling Portrait Prize for Sydney artist Noel McKenna, while SA artist Amos Gebhardt’s diptych of novelist and nonfiction writer, Alexis Wright, has won the 17th National Photographic Portrait Prize, the National Portrait Gallery has announced.

McKenna’s winning painting, William Nuttall with horses in field, 2023, is a portrait of his long-time agent, William “Bill” Nuttall.

Judges Bree Pickering, Tara Heffernan and Erin Vink said: “This is an energetic and unexpected portrait. The subject shares the work with animals and the landscape. It is joyous in its execution and demonstrates the skill of an established Australian artist whose practice is assured in every way.”

The artist, who won the Sulman Prize in 1994, is known for his paintings of everyday scenarios often depicting the relationship between humans and animals. Several of his paintings from The Popular Pet Show featured at the National Portrait Gallery in 2016.

Gebhardt’s winning photographic portrait, Alexis with Moon, 2024, captures the prize-winning First Nations author Alexis Wright lit by moonlight, peering towards the night sky.

“Reflected in Alex’s eyes are tracings of the moon itself created through subtle movement of the human body in dialogue with the Earth’s rotation,” the SA artist and filmmaker, said.

The judges, Isobel Parker Philip, José da Silva and Pippa Milne, were taken by the sparse, yet powerful relationship created between the moon, the subject and the camera.

Gebhardt takes home a cash prize of $30,000 from the NPG and photographic equipment valued at $20,000 courtesy of Canon Australia.

As previously reported, the 2024 Art Handlers’ Awards went to Nena Salobir’s Self portrait on washcloth 2024 and Shelley Xue’s photographic portrait, 阿谊 (ah Yi) 2023.

This year the National Portrait Gallery removed financial barriers to entry, giving all finalists an artist’s fee of $1200, a copyright and licensing fee of $1000, as well as freight costs and travel allowances to visit the gallery in Canberra.

Twenty-four finalists were selected for the Darling Portrait Prize from almost 1000 entries, while 34 finalists were selected from almost 2000 entrants for the National Photographic Portrait Prize.

The National Photographic Portrait Prize and the Darling Portrait Prize exhibitions are open to the public until October 13.