THE Fremantle Print Award has crowned its 2025 winners, with three strikingly different works honoured at the Fremantle Arts Centre.
Iranian artist Prita Tina Yeganeh took out the $20,000 prize for her soil hand print My Soil Farsh (The Sacred Shared Labour).
“I’m so grateful to the Walyalup Fremantle Arts Centre and the judges for this recognition,” Yeganeh said.
“My Soil Farsh sits very close to my heart, reflecting the collaboration, labour, and cultural stories of my community.
“It’s a proud moment for me as a creative, and I share this success with so many in my community back home,” she said.
Judge Trent Walter praised the work as “a work of intricate beauty and ephemerality, that engages printmaking’s relation to the imprint, while also attending to cultural maintenance”.
• Jana Papantoniou’s Two Figures Interwoven
The First Nations Award went to Gooniyandi artist Mervyn Street for his intaglio print Colt Rider, recalling his Louisa Downs Station upbringing and the art of breaking in horses.
Judge Jessyca Hutchens said the piece “marks the height of a longstanding engagement with printmaking to render some of his most resonant scenes and stories.
“The scale, sense of movement, and deft capturing of these two characters – colt and rider – leaping into the air over the soft textured sands, has created an iconic and heroic image,” Dr Hutchens said.
The Emerging Award was claimed by legally blind artist Jana Papantoniou for her nine-panel work Two Figures Interwoven.
“Receiving this prize is fiercely encouraging at this early stage in my career and I am truly grateful to be recognised by such incredible judges, whose work I immensely respect.
“The Fremantle Arts Centre holds a particularly special place in my heart.
“I grew up close to Fremantle and attended art classes at the Arts Centre as a child.
“As I no longer live in Perth, this exhibition also marks the first time that my extended family will view my work in person.“
The judges described Two Figures Interwoven as “highly ambitious and experimental.”