by Western Sydney artist Marikit Santiago has won the $80,000 La Prairie art prize, which will see two of her works join the Art Gallery of NSW (AGNSW) collection and send the artist to Europe in June for a residency that will include time at the prestigious Swiss Art. Basel international art fair.
A three-time Archibald Prize winner, Santiago’s work is inspired by her Filipino heritage, and her paintings often focus on family life. For the acquisitions prize, established in 2022 to celebrate Australian female artists, the AGNSW selected A Seat at the Table (Magulang) and A Seat at the Table (Kapatid) to join its collection. They represent two generations of the Santiago family; her parents and sister.
The works also bear marks made by Santiago’s three young children, who are credited as artistic collaborators in much of her work.
“The works are a personal invitation to my family’s dinner table,” said the 38-year-old artist. “We gather at the dining table every Sunday night – we call it FDN, family dinner night.”
Santiago’s lush and detailed paintings, created with oil paint and gold leaf as well as everyday materials such as cardboard and felt tip markers, blend scenes of domestic life with mythic, religious and cultural symbolism. AGNSW senior curator of contemporary Australian art, Beatrice Gralton, described the paintings as “a love letter to her family, her culture and Australia”.
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Santiago said the works celebrate the migrant experience and her parents, paying tribute to the sacrifices they made when they left the Philippines for Australia. “When I was a child I resented being Filipino because I stood out from my peers. It was only in adulthood that I learned to accept and understand my ethnic identity,” said Santiago.
“I worked with Philippine beauty queens and celebrities and political figures when I first started painting, but it wasn’t really working,” she said. “I found that my strengths are in autobiography. I can make a really powerful image when I know the subject very well – and that’s my family.”
She described her work as “defaming preconceived notions about the women from Western Sydney, or what Filipinas as migrants should do. If I’m going to meet the expectations I need to represent myself and my family.”
Santiago is a rising star in the art world. After studying at the College of Fine Arts (Cofa, now known as UNSW Art and Design), she won the 2020 Sulman prize for her children’s painting, and in 2022 held her first institutional solo exhibition, For Us Sinners, at Ionat 4A for Contemporary Asian Art in Sydney. Her solo exhibition Marikit Santiago: the Kingdom, the Power closed at the Bendigo art gallery recently.
Regarding his residency in Europe, Santiago said, “I want to go to the Uffizi in Florence, to see in person the virtual paintings from the Renaissance that inspire me, the Botticelli. Not just the technique but the way women are portrayed throughout history; they always have fair skin and for the male gaze. Those are the things I want to challenge.
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“I also want to travel to Madrid to see the churches. Spain colonized the Philippines and I am interested in architecture.”
Before pursuing a career in art, Santiago completed a Bachelor of Medical Science at the University of New South Wales.
“It was a childhood dream to become a paediatrician, but I knew early in the first year that I would not go on to medicine. My parents encouraged me to complete my degree and then do whatever I wanted,” she said.
“I didn’t really go to Cofa just to see if I was good enough. I think I have a talent that God gave me – I was just born with this talent – but I didn’t know if it was good enough, and I didn’t want it to go to waste. Art school showed me that art can be a viable and important career; [it showed me that] art has started many important social movements, and I’m pretty good at it.”
Santiago said she could not have a full-time art practice and raise three children without the support of her husband. “Sometimes people recognize me and my family from the pictures and congratulate my husband, thinking he is the artist. I find this very funny. I am the artist. But I couldn’t do any of this without [him].
“It bothers me that he has to be the one with a stable career for me to be an artist. I feel guilty that he carries that burden. But he never gave up on me and so I share this award with him.”
Santiago is the third recipient of the annual award, which went to Sydney-based artist Thea Anamara Perkins in 2023, and Melbourne-based artist Atong Atem in 2022.
