Andrew Tomkins wins 2025 Gallipoli Art Prize

Sydney artist Andrew Tomkins has won the 2025 Gallipoli Art Prize with his work, HMAS Karangi – a potent symbol for peace in our present turbulent times.

Launched in 1941 at Cockatoo Island, the HMAS Karangi, a Kangaroo Class boom defence vessel, was decommissioned in 1964, and sold for scrap in 1966.  HMAS Karangi now lies in the waters of Homebush Bay. With passing of the years, it has been “rebirthed” as a haven for endangered mangroves, wetlands and wildlife thriving within and around its sunken hull.

This vessel worked the anti-submarine boom gates to Darwin Harbour during WWII, helping to defend Darwin during the Japanese bombing of 1942 and was awarded battle honours for engaging Japanese aircraft during this period. Post war the ship supported nuclear testing in the Montebello Islands off the West Australian coast.

Tomkins references the image of Banksy tanks firing love hearts or peace signs for inspiration for this work. “In creating this artwork HMAS Karangi is a memorial to the personnel who sailed her. I have utilised her reality to create a graphic picture of a more peaceful world, in the same vein as Banksy’s peace paintings,” said Tomkins.

“With the global turmoil that has been happening, I thought to try and tap into that sentiment and to present a statement that would represent a more peaceful world. For me the prize is about remembrance, it is about remembering the past. Peace can never be achieved without looking back. There is no future without the past”

Tomkins’ unique work is created with a technique he has developed over many years whereby he draws and then paints on to a translucent polyester sheet. He then hand cuts around the shapes with a scalpel and rather than discarding the ‘stencil’ like sheet, this forms a layer of the artwork. His methodology, or visual language, has evolved not only from the European and Chinese socialist woodcuts movement but also modern day street art specifically stencil art.

“The concept of negative space is one of the first things art students learn in class,” said Elizabeth Fortescue, one of the Gallipoli Art Prize judges. “They’re taught what negative space is, and why it matters. To Andrew, negative spaces hold a fascination and even an obsession.”

Tomkins has now won the Gallipoli Art Prize twice, having won initially in 2023 with his artwork Rays Room – a poignant work depicting his uncle’s room in his grandparent’s house. He has been a finalist in the Gallipoli Art Prize now five times, awarded Highly Commended by judges in 2021 for his work, The Guns Fell Silent, recounting the story of his Scottish mother who was based on the anti-aircraft guns overlooking the English Channel on D Day, 6 June 1944.

The 2025 Gallipoli Art Prize judges highly commended Wayne Davis for his vigorous work, Lighthorse Section. The painting shows the energy, trust and interdependence between the horses and riders of the Australian Light Horse Regiment in the Middle East during the First World War.

The Gallipoli Art Prize is a privately funded prize, sponsored by the Gallipoli Memorial Club in Sydney. It invites artists to respond openly to the broad themes of loyalty, respect, love of country, courage, comradeship, community, peace and freedom as expressed in the Gallipoli Memorial Club’s creed: