La Prairie art award: photographer Atong Atem wins inaugural $80,000 prize

Melbourne-based South Sudanese artist upturns the dehumanising lens of Eurocentric art history with her joyous and vivid work

A new $80,000 art prize for Australian women has been awarded to a former refugee whose work - exploding in colour - is a response to colonial oppression.

Atong Atem's vivid photographic portraits have earned her the inaugural La Prairie art award, which will see the Art Gallery of New South Wales spend $50,000 acquiring the artist's work and fund a $30,000 international residency in Zurich in June, for Atem to attend the Art Basel international art fair.