Nick Stathopoulos has won the 2017 Black Swan “People’s Choice Prize” worth $5,000 for his portrait of Sudanese refugee and lawyer, Deng Thiak Adut titled “Deng 2.”
The Black Swan Prize is a set of three cash awards for portrait art associated with the City of Perth’s showcase at the Art Gallery of Western Australia. The People’s Choice Prize is determined by popular vote.
Stathopoulos is a long-time fan, 10-time winner of the Australian NatCon’s Ditmar Award, and a past Hugo and Chesley Award nominee.
His previous portrait of Deng Adut was a runner-up for the 2016 Archibald Prize.
Sudanese refugee and lawyer Deng Adut came to the attention of Nick Stathopoulos through an advertisement for Western Sydney University, where Adut was a graduate. It movingly documented how he came to Australia following life as a child soldier in Sudan and how he put himself through law school, becoming a formidable refugee advocate and community leader.
See other Black Swan prize-winning art at the link.
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Stathopoulos is a long-time fan, 10-time winner of the Australian NatCon’s Ditmar Award, and a past Hugo and Chesley Award nominee.
… and designer of the 2010 Hugo Award base for Aussiecon 4.
I also have this vague recollection that he was once a costumer, showing up at Aussiecon 2 (where I worked the masquerade) in a 3-layer job based on The Book of the New Sun — but I’m not sure he’s old enough. (Web searches are inconclusive.)