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Artist Danie Mellor is the winner of the $15,000 John Tallis Acquisitive Award in the 2008 National Works on Paper (NWOP). Chosen following a nation-wide hunt and shortlist of 46 artists, Mellor’s savvy work An unsettled vision (the predicament) was considered a brave and challenging choice.

Judge Jason Smith, Director of Heide Museum of Modern Art, commented, ‘Danie Mellor's work combines a wry wit with an incisive and poignant view of vulnerability and reslience in the face of change. There is a deliberate play on kitsch in this literally glittering picture and its framing, and it demonstrates that art has the capacity to simultaneously amuse, delight and provoke reflection on unsettling aspects of contemporary life.'

Susan McCulloch said of the work, it is 'cheeky, irreverent and deliberately kitsch, yet with an underlying commentary about a sense of displacement and the often inglorious base of cross cultural fusion, Danie Mellor's work is utterly original. To me this award, which has its base in works on paper awards my father, inaugural MRPG gallery director Alan McCulloch initiated in the 1970s, has always been about works which offer something new in both celebrating the qualities of and pushing the boundaries of the medium of works on paper. That Mellor is the first indigenous artist to win this award with a work entirely contemporary in its nature and treatment, is, I believe, highly appropriate.'

Artist Lisa Roet said 'I think with an art prize, the winning work should stand out amongst the crowd. This work is a strong example of Danie Mellor's practice and shows wit and humor with such an obviously Australian flavour.'

Ranking as one of the richest and most prestigious prize exhibitions of its type in Australia, National Works on Paper (NWOP) brings together some of the finest works on paper in the country.  With a prize pool of $45,000, the biennial NWOP prize and exhibition presents forty-six works selected by a panel of judges including Susan McCulloch, art critic and publisher of The New McCulloch’s Encyclopedia of Australian Art;  Lisa Roet, artist and winner of 2003 National Works on Paper; and Jason Smith, Director, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne. 

The prize has three components: The John Tallis Acquisitive Award $15,000; Mornington Peninsula Regional Shire Acquisition Fund of up to $20,000; and Friends of the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery Acquisition Fund of up to $10,000. Also acquired for the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery’s collection were works by G.W. Bot, Tony Coleing, Rose Farrell & George Parkin, Ray Ken, Billy Missi, Arlene TextaQueen, Mick Wikilyiri, Carole Wilson and Gosia Wlodarczak.

The primary aim of the NWOP is to present and promote contemporary works on, or with paper by emerging, mid-career and established Australian artists.  The exhibition includes works using traditional approaches and media through to innovative new works in which paper acts as the main two or three-dimensional support for the work. It includes drawings, prints, collage, computer generated imagery and sculptural works.

The NWOP was established in 1998 and incorporated the former Spring Festival of Drawing and the Prints Acquisitive which began in 1971.  Through initiatives such as the annual National Works on Paper (NWOP) exhibition, the MPRG actively collects contemporary works on paper and continues to make an important contribution to the development of this medium.  Today the MPRG has one of the foremost collections of works on paper in Australia.