History
The Basil Sellers Art Prize encouraged a dynamic and critical reflection on all forms of sport and sporting culture in Australia.
Sport has been a recurring theme in Australian art. For contemporary artists today, sport touches upon anything from everyday life through to globalisation, from the concrete experience of a game through to abstract notions like cheating and fair play. Sport is about winners and losers, individuals and teams, rules and penalties, equipment and architecture, fans and souvenirs, triumphs and scandals.
The Basil Sellers Art Prize was supported by Basil Sellers AM and aimed to encourage contemporary artists to develop their practice, to engage with the many themes within sport past and present, and to contribute to critical reflection on all forms of sport and sporting culture in Australia.
From 2008 to 2016, the biennial award and exhibition of finalists ran out of the Ian Potter Museum of Art, presenting sculpture, painting, photography and drawing by contemporary Australian artists offering $100,000 for a single outstanding work of art.
In 2018, two additional prizes, sponsored by Eurobodalla Shire Council, were added to the awards. The Eurobodalla Prize ($5,000) and a people's choice award ($500). [3]
In 2019, a purpose-built exhibition space, The Basil Sellers Exhibition Centre, nicknamed 'The Bas', was built in Moruya, New South Wales and now houses the exhibition works. [3] [4]
As of 2025, there is a prize pool of over A$ 30,000 for winning artists, with an additional A$ 25,000 acquisitive award. [5] The prize no longer requires artists to submit work with a sporting theme.
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