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Portrait of John Leonard, 2023

Elif Sezen

Darling Portrait Prize 2024 Finalist

synthetic polymer paint on canvas (overall: 122.0cm x 91.2cm depth 3.5cm)
Portrait of John Leonard, 2023

Elif Sezen
born Australia 1981

Portrait of John Leonard 2023
synthetic polymer paint on canvas

‘My painting is a portrait of Dr John Leonard, a well-known blind poetry editor, publisher, anthologist and retired academic. I, as a poet, had firsthand experience of Leonard’s gifts as an advisor when he edited my first book of poems Universal Mother, and my most recent collection A Little Book of Unspoken History. The background-symbology of this work resonates with my project and poem “Flowers, humans and mornings”. I included these primal symbols of existence to add a layer of meaning to the portrait, as they signify mornings – a new beginning, which resonates with fruitful intellectual and existential questionings.’

Elif Sezen is a Naarm/Melbourne-based artist, bilingual writer and poet. In her work, she speculates upon reconceptualising memory traces emerging from familial, personal, collective trauma and loss.


© The artist

People's Choice Award

Darling Portrait Prize 2024

Voting closes Sunday 29 September 2024.

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Darling Portrait Prize 2024
(More information, View all 24 paintings)

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Darling Portrait Prize 2024

Current exhibition

from Saturday 22 June

The Darling Portrait Prize is a biennial national prize for Australian portrait painting honouring the legacy of Mr L Gordon Darling AC CMG.
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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present. We respectfully advise that this site includes works by, images of, names of, voices of and references to deceased people.

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