Eckersley's Art & Craft Prize 2025

Natalie O’Connor is an artist, researcher and educator whose work explores the fragility and materiality of colour, drawing on her background in the international colour manufacturing industry.

Holding a PhD from UNSW, her practice-based research focuses on red pigments and their connection to place. Her long-term project, The Gol Gol Layer Colour Observations, investigates the oldest red layer at Mungo in remote Australia, with installations exhibited in galleries across Australia and the UK, including Hazelhurst Arts Centre and Griffin Gallery, London.

natalieoconnorartist.com/
@oconnornatalie

Alan Daniel Jones is a contemporary artist exploring themes of identity, human connection and personal roots through a diverse range of mediums. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the National Art School.

A recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship, his work has been showcased in over thirty solo exhibitions and is held in major collections such as the National Portrait Gallery and the Art Gallery of South Australia. Jones has been a finalist in several major Australian art prizes.

alandanieljones.com.au
@alandanieljones

Carla Hananiah is a painter known for her vivid depictions of New Zealand and Australian landscapes, often capturing dramatic light at dawn or dusk. Blending field notes with studio practice, her work explores the tension between nature and artifice through bold colour and iridescent paint.

With a Master of Fine Arts by Research and multiple awards to her name — including the Mosman Art Prize Viewers' Choice Award and the John Coburn Emerging Artist Award — Carla’s art reflects a deep, romantic connection to the sublime in nature.

carlahananiah.com
@carlahananiah