2026 Calleen Art Award - Finalist

I’m pleased to announce that my painting The Keystone has been selected as a finalist in the Calleen Art Award 2026 at Cowra Regional Art Gallery.

Established in 1977 by Mrs Patricia Fagan OAM, the Calleen Art Award is an annual national acquisitive painting prize recognising contemporary Australian painting across all styles, subjects and approaches. This year’s major prize is $30,000, with the winning work entering the Calleen Collection at Cowra Regional Art Gallery.

The Keystone takes the Roman aqueduct at Segovia as its starting point, using its architecture to consider the hidden dependencies that allow larger structures and systems to endure.

In an arch, the keystone is the point at which opposing forces are transformed into stability. The same principle appears in nature, where a keystone species can exert an influence on an ecosystem far greater than its size might suggest.

The painting considers these often unnoticed dependencies: the apparently minor elements upon which much larger systems rely, and the vulnerability that becomes apparent when one of them is compromised.

It asks what happens when the thing carrying the greatest burden is also the most fragile.

The Keystone
Oil on Italian linen 130 × 130 cm 2025

The Calleen Art Award 2026 is on at Cowra Regional Art Gallery
77 Darling Street, Cowra NSW 2794
Exhibition dates: 06/09 to 18/10/2026

Perfect Enough selected for the 2026 Fisher’s Ghost Art Award

I’m pleased to announce that my painting Perfect Enough, from the Monumental Nobodies series, has been selected as a finalist in the 64th Fisher’s Ghost Art Award at Campbelltown Arts Centre.

The Fisher’s Ghost Art Award is one of Australia’s long-running art prizes, with more than $60,000 in prize money across its categories. The major Open Award is valued at $50,000 and is acquisitive to the Campbelltown City Council Art Collection. Previous recipients include Elisabeth Cummings, Suzanne Archer, Marion Borgelt, Raquel Ormella, Khaled Sabsabi, Michael Cook and Angela Tiatia.

Perfect Enough takes Emilio Fiaschi’s marble nymph as its starting point, bringing the classical ideal of physical perfection into contact with contemporary ideas of self-image and modification. An embroidered tattoo has been stitched directly over the surface of the oil painting, introducing a deliberately physical intervention into the painted image.

The work considers our compulsion to alter, personalise and improve what is already regarded as beautiful. In an age of filters, cosmetic enhancement and carefully managed identities, the tattoo becomes both decoration and intrusion — a mark of individuality placed where none is required.

It asks a simple question: when perfection is apparently still not enough, what exactly are we trying to improve?

Perfect Enough
Oil and embroidery on canvas  120 × 100 cm 2025
This work was also previously selected as a finalist in The Naked and Nude Art Prize 2025.

The 2026 Fisher’s Ghost Art Award is on at the Campbelltown Arts Centre, 1 Art Gallery Road, 2560
26/09 to 04/12/2026

Finalist in the 2025 Calleen Art Award

I’m delighted to announce that my painting #singlelife has been selected as a finalist in the prestigious 2025 Calleen Art Award at Cowra Regional Art Gallery.

This work is from my highly collected series Five Minutes To Famous, inspired by some of the most banal yet popular social media hashtags. In it, I hold up a mirror to our obsession with curated digital personas by reimagining classical stone figures. Renaissance-inspired realism collides with surrealist twists, as sculptural muses are overlaid with the silliest Instagram and Snapchat filters. These figures parody our relentless drive to capture an idealised life while often missing the essence of carpe diem.

Being selected for this prize again carries special meaning for me. After many years since my last inclusion—and several unsuccessful attempts in between—it is both a relief and a source of pride to be recognised once more.

The Calleen Art Award exhibition runs from 14 September to 3 November 2025 at Cowra Regional Art Gallery. 

The Naked and The Nude Art Prize - Finalist

Thrilled to be named a finalist once again in the Naked & Nude Art Prize — a significant biennial celebration of the human form and artistic expression.

Honoured to be included among such talented artists for the second consecutive time!

Exhibition opens 31 August at the Manning Regional Art Gallery.

The Dean Cogle Art Prize 2025 - Finalist

I'm thrilled to share that my painting #ourlittlemiracle has been selected as a finalist in the 2024 Dean Cogle Art Prize.

This work is part of my ongoing Five Minutes to Famous series, which draws from the most overused and sentimental hashtags on social media—here, unpicking the idea that every child is the world’s most perfect and miraculous being.

By reimagining a classical stone child sculpture with a modern Instagram face filter, #ourlittlemiracle blends Renaissance-inspired realism with absurd digital veneers. It holds a mirror to our obsession with curated digital identities and the often performative nature of how we record our lives online.

Opening Night Details
Date: 12th July - 5th August 2025
Venue: Dust Temple Gallery
Address: 54  Currumbin  Creek  Rd, Currumbin  Waters, QLD  4223