Australian artist Jane Allan has been accused of imitating works by American Neo-Expressionist artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and Australian painter Nicholas Harding in two of her award-winning paintings. 

The matter arose after Brisbane art dealer Philip Bacon, who is associated with Harding’s estate, called out Allan for producing what he described as a “blatant copy” of Harding’s Two Estuary Figures (2011), albeit rendered at a significantly larger scale.

“She has obviously just expanded it out, but the placement of the figures, the treatment of the canvas, the placement of the rocks and the sea, everything looks like the little original,” said Bacon.

Seaside Explorers (2025), the work by Allan at the center of the allegations, had won the 2025 Doyles Art Award’s landscape prize in the city of Gold Coast, earning her AUD 20,000 (USD 13,800). The Doyles committee issued an official statement on June 19 confirming it was treating the matter seriously and would work through its processes correspondingly.

In a report by Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Jennefer Doyle, co-founder of the award, expressed her disappointment, calling the situation “a disgrace.” According to city councilor and award sponsor Glenn Tozer, the committee has been discussing the retrieval of the cash prize with Allan and lawyers.

The controversy widened when the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra announced that a separate painting by Allan bore clear similiarities—in both content and composition—to Basquiat’s Untitled (Two Heads on Gold) (1982). 

The work in question, Weight of the Mind’s Periapt (2021), was selected as a finalist in the Darling Portrait Prize in 2022 and took home its AUD 2,000 (USD 1,380) Art Handlers’ Award.

In her submitted artist statement, Allan had described the painting as a tribute to her primary carer, who had supported her following a road accident that left her with a spinal cord injury.

A gallery spokesperson noted that the institution has always required entrants to declare their submissions as original works, and acknowledged that the Basquiat influence had been apparent to gallery staff when the work was submitted.

To date, neither Allan nor the Basquiat estate has issued any public comment.

Kalani Ko is an editorial intern at ArtAsiaPacific.