The Alice Prize: Finalist

Johnathon World Peace Bush

27 Mar - 8 Jun 2026

The Alice Prize is a national, acquisitive contemporary art prize – open to artists from every corner of Australia and across every medium and theme. Our purpose is celebratory and practical: to bring outstanding new work to Central Australia so local audiences – artists, students, families and visitors – can see, think with and debate the ideas shaping Australian culture right now. Each acquisition strengthens our significant regional public collection, ensuring high-calibre works remain accessible in Central Australia.

The Alice Prize and the Alice Springs Art Foundation were set up in 1970 to bring contemporary art from across Australia to Alice Springs for the benefit of its isolated, arts-hungry residents. The first exhibition was held on 3 October 1970.

Johnathon World Peace Bush’s ‘Burke and Wills‘ 2024 has been selected as a finalist.

At first glance, ‘Burke and Wills’ depicts the first explorers, who in 1861 traversed Australia from the south coast to the Gulf of Carpentaria, as whimsical, even humorous caricatures, but on deeper reflection, they appear as ominous portents of what was to come, heavily defined, embedded, even gouged into a serene backdrop. A far more malevolent force is at play as these were the first explorers to open up the land to future graziers, foreshadowing calamity that would change the course of history for the First Nations people who had inhabited the land for over 65,000 years.

Araluen Cultural Precinct
Alice Springs, Northern Territory