Started in 2011 by brothers Edward and George Hartley,[1] Bluethumb now exhibits over 20,000 emerging and established Australian artists’ work,[2] including Archibald Prize finalists Kim Leutwyler, Loribelle Spirovski, Julius Killerby and Mertim Gokalp.
[6] Bluethumb used this investment to build an ethical and transparent gallery platform for Indigenous art centres to sell their artists' work online.
The runner-up was Jimmy Donegan, the 2010 National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award winner, with his painting The Pukara Rock Hole.
It received 2,346 entries, double that of the inaugural year, making it Australia's biggest new art prize.
Melbourne-based artist Kim Hyunji won the Works on Canvas award and the $10,000 overall Bluethumb Art Prize with her oil painting, Painless (Luke).