Art Prize

Following the close of entries, the independent Selection Panel met to select finalists from the submitted artworks.

The Selection Panel for 2026 were:

David Attwood is an artist based in Boorloo Perth. He exhibits his work widely throughout Australia and internationally. Attwood was a finalist in the prestigious 2025 Ramsay Art Prize, Art Gallery of South Australia, and winner of the 2025 Roger Pailhas Prize, Art-o-rama Art Fair, Marseille, France. Attwood holds a PhD from Curtin University, and completed the SOMA Summer arts program, SOMA, Mexico City in 2019. His work is held in Australian public and private collections, including the Art Gallery of Western Australia and Artbank. Reviews and profiles of Attwood’s work have featured in Australian publications including Art Collector, Art Monthly, Artlink, Un Magazine, MeMo Review, and Dispatch Review.

Barbara Bolt is a Professorial Fellow at, and former Director of, The Victorian College of the Arts at The University of Melbourne. She is a Perth based artist and art theorist and holds a PhD from Murdoch University. Her research addresses the dialogue between theory and practice and between digital and analogue painting. Her publications include the monographs Art Beyond Representation and Heidegger Reframed. Bolt has been a finalist in the Doug Moran Portrait Prize, the Portia Geach Memorial Award, The Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing and the Swan Hill Print and Drawing Prize. Her works are held in collections including Artbank, the University of Western Australia and Curtin University.

Noelene Regan is a Noongar artist and arts worker based in Boorloo, descended from the Wardandi, Bibbulmun and Whadjuk peoples. Her practice is grounded in cultural storytelling, community connection and truth-telling. Alongside her creative work, Regan is an experienced arts administrator and currently works as an Arts and Culture Development Coordinator. Her recent projects include coordination of Place Names Melville, and she now serves as the Creative Learning Producer for Museums and Local History at Yagan Mia, Wireless Hill. Regan holds a Diploma of Visual Arts and a Graduate Certificate in Management, and continues to support community artists through facilitation, cultural engagement and creative leadership.

The independent judges selected the winning artworks for each prize category. 

Ian Daniell is a Perth-based artist from Britain with experience across studio practice, exhibition production and arts industry collaboration. With a BA (Hons) from University of the Arts London, Daniell spent over a decade in London’s contemporary art sector. He held solo exhibitions, featured at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, and worked with artists and organisations including Sir Anish Kapoor. Renowned for his practice of Life-Size Ocean Art, he has presented five solo exhibitions in Australia and established a studio and gallery in Margaret River before relocating to Perth in 2025. Daniell’s work is in the collection of the WA Museum Boola Bardip and he is Chair of the Deadspace Arts Collective.

Carly Lane is the Curator of Indigenous Art | Head of Indigenous Programs at the Art Gallery of Western Australia. She is a Murri woman from Queensland who has worked as a curator for over 25 years, including at the National Gallery of Australia and the Berndt Museum of Anthropology, The University of Western Australia. Lane uses her role as a curator to care for culture, to ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices are part of the national conversation, and to enable self-determination, equality, and social change. Her recent curated exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Western Australia include Desert River Sea: Portraits of the Kimberley (2019), and Everyone has a history: Plain Speak (2017).

Mark Parfitt is an artist, academic, and visual arts advocate in Western Australia. He leads the Bachelor of Creative Arts Fine Art major at Curtin University, focusing on teaching and curriculum innovation. With over two decades of experience, Parfitt has exhibited in numerous group and solo exhibitions, and received funding from numerous grants, residencies and prizes. Active in the arts community, he is the Chair of Sculpture West and advises on visual arts curricula for the Government of Western Australia. His work features in institutional and private collections and he holds a BA (SocSc), BA (Art) (Hons), MA (Visual Art) from Curtin University and has recently completed his PhD at RMIT Melbourne.