Perry Prize 2026 Exhibition Catalogue

ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING 2026

Presbyterian Ladies’ College, Sydney is proud to present the Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing 2026, generously supported by the Parents and Friends’ Association.

The practice of drawing continues to occupy a vital place within contemporary art, offering artists a direct and intimate means of thinking through ideas. More than a technical discipline, drawing functions as a language through which memory, observation, and imagination are translated into visual form. In 2026, the Adelaide Perry Gallery is pleased to present a carefully selected exhibition of 41 works that reflect the breadth of drawing practice in Australia today. Chosen by this year’s judge, Scott Elliot, the finalists reveal the many ways artists engage with line, surface, and material to articulate personal and collective narratives.

The exhibition demonstrates how drawing remains a dynamic and responsive medium, capable of adapting to new technologies and conceptual concerns while retaining its essential immediacy. The works on display move fluidly between meticulous realism, gestural abstraction, and experimental processes, highlighting the ongoing dialogue between tradition and innovation. Together, they offer audiences an opportunity to consider how drawing continues to shape contemporary visual culture and to witness the diversity of voices working within the field.

We extend our sincere thanks to Scott Elliot for his considered and generous approach to the selection. His expertise and sensitivity to material and concept have shaped an exhibition that celebrates both emerging and established artists. The resulting collection reflects a rich spectrum of practices, each contributing to a broader conversation about what drawing can be and how it might speak to the present moment.

The Adelaide Perry Gallery’s enduring partnership with PLC Sydney remains fundamental to the exhibition’s success. The $25,000 acquisitive prize continues to recognise excellence and ambition in Australian drawing, as well as the meaningful connections between students, artists, and critical dialogue. These initiatives reinforce the Gallery’s

commitment to supporting artists and to nurturing an engaged and informed audience.

We are grateful to the finalists, patrons, and wider art community whose enthusiasm and support sustain this important platform. This year’s exhibition affirms the ongoing relevance of drawing as a site of experimentation and reflection, and we look forward to sharing these remarkable works with our visitors.

Adelaide Elizabeth Perry (1891-1973) was a Visual Arts teacher at PLC Sydney between 1930 -1962. Her artistic career began in 1914 at the National Gallery School where she studied under Bernard Hall and Frederick McCubbin.

After exhibiting with the Victorian Artists Society, she was awarded the National Gallery of Victoria Travelling Scholarship in 1918 where she subsequently travelled to Paris, exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Francais and studied at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. After resettling in Sydney, she became a founding member of the Contemporary Group and established her own Chelsea Art School, which continued for twenty years.

Along with her contemporaries Margaret Preston and Thea Proctor, Adelaide Perry was an advocate of the linocut technique. She was admired by many, including lifelong friends John Passmore and Lloyd Rees, for her distinctive style and technical skill as a draughtswoman. Her works displayed sensitivity to modernist ideals such as with simplified line, colour and form. She practised the en plein air technique and promoted the importance of drawing from life. Adelaide Perry was an influential art educator of her time having taught drawing, printmaking and painting including at Sydney Art School 1930-35 with Julian Ashton and Thea Proctor. Vera Blackburn, Eric Thake and Paul Haefliger were among some of her successful students. Her association with PLC began in 1930 when she started teaching art part-time on the recommendation of Roy de Maistre. She continued to do so for over 30 years until her retirement as Art Mistress in 1962.

Despite being overlooked by public galleries for most of her career, today, her works are held in most state collections, notably the Art Gallery of New South Wales, National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, National Library, Canberra and the Queensland Art Gallery.

The Adelaide Perry Gallery was opened in her honour in June, 2001, and through the annual

exhibition calendar, PLC Sydney continues to provide a rich and relevant Visual Arts and Design teaching and learning resource for its students and broader community to enjoy.

Miss Jen Gair Curator, Adelaide Perry Gallery

ANN ARORA

Superfresh oil on paper

150 cm x 85 cm

$5,000.00

This work on paper uses drawing as a way of thinking through everyday encounters and ways of seeing. Made from quick plein-air notes and photographs of my local Sydney fresh food market. I work with gestural, responsive mark-making to hold movement, colour, and passing attention. Marks are left open and in-flux, reflecting the experience of my urban environment as both participant and observer.

MAREE AZZOPARDI

Hakanai

hand crushed scavenged bushfire charcoal/sumi ink, thread on mulberry paper

100 cm x 150 cm

$9,000.00

Hakanai (儚い) is a Japanese word that speaks of impermanence — to things that are fleeting, fragile, and transient. It describes moments of beauty that exist briefly: an awareness that what is temporary can still hold great depth and meaning. The nuances of hakanai sit somewhere between the poetic and the emotional. It speaks of what fades quickly, of beauty destined to disappear, of faint hopes and delicate dreams. It reminds us that impermanence is not empty, but quietly profound. As a multidisciplinary artist, this work becomes a way for me to reflect on the current state of our country — and the world more broadly. It responds to a sense of uncertainty, erosion, and fragility that feels both personal and collective. Through mark-making and layering, I am exploring what it means to exist within a time that feels increasingly unstable, yet still capable of holding moments of grace, resilience, and fleeting beauty.

50.8 cm x 40.6 cm

$820.00

My work has been concerned with reflecting our current cultural moment through a satirical lens, which requires the selection of images based on their ability to communicate specific meanings: the ‘directed image’. Through my efforts and research, I have increasingly accepted the fact that everyone brings their own worldview to an image and will interpret my work beyond my control, and I find this an exciting starting point for a new direction: An open image that can still carry the world in it.

JOHN BOKOR

The Seasoned Traveller

charcoal, wash and collage on paper

80 cm x 100 cm

$6,200.00

I like to draw with charcoal and a wet brush, making marks and creating shadows. I collage pieces of paper over areas I want to rework. This often fractures the space in a way that I enjoy; things move backwards and forwards on the picture plane, creating their own rhythm. I often leave drawings taped to boards around the studio for up to a year so I can rework them. In this respect, I have been able to treat drawings more like the way I make paintings.

M BOZZEC

Emotional Baggage

coloured pencil on paper

30 cm x 42 cm

NFS

Emotional Baggage is a second-hand hellscape, the overspill of a former antiques warehouse in Leura. The vast hoard of detritus was exposed during a moving sale, and left me pondering the darker side of collecting, as well as mortality. What happens to all the things we carry around with us, both material and psychological? The objects move on to either new owners or landfill. The memories, hopes, and despair, all lost to the slow creep of time. The image has a sense of a disaster’s aftermath and deserved commemoration. Yet there is a grim humour afoot too, an absurdist delight in this morbid afterlife of stuff. As a collector of words and images, as well as objects, how could I resist? Through drawing, my thoughts on the matter are made visible.

MATT BROMHEAD

Chambers and Mirage pencil, pastel and watercolour on paper 41 cm x 51 cm

$3,900.00

Chambers and Mirage is a kind of fever picture; I saw it somewhere, distant and indistinct, and then when I set about realising it, it kept moving further and further away. It is really about trying to grasp something that you can’t hold, of aspiring to something tangible in a fluid world.

JACK BUCKLEY

Blue-faced Honeyeaters, Silvertop Ash, Percival Lane hand-embroidery, pen illustration and linen on archival paper 105 cm x 105 cm

$8,200.00

Considering the nature of suburban sprawl and its impact on local environments, Blue-faced Honeyeaters, Silvertop Ash, Percival Lane explores the diverse array of species disappearing from the Sydney region – a phenomenon found worldwide. As the city struggles with its own housing crisis, an increasing amount of flora and fauna are becoming rarities in areas they once flourished. Making use of the innate nature of drawing as a method of record and preservation, this work echoes classical scientific illustration, cartography and historic textile motifs. Repetitive mark-making techniques used in drawing are applied to the stitchwork, an unstructured and natural style that breaks from the formulaic nature of traditional embroidery. Combining these practices, the piece presents a heavily detailed and tangled map; architectural, zoological and botanical forms capturing an urban ecosystem at a time of drastic change. Powerlines and worn facades intermingle with iconic banksias and waratahs, signs and pipes with the smallest of orchids and vines. Through drawing in ink and thread, Blue-faced Honeyeaters, Silvertop Ash, Percival Lane contemplates the interconnected environment inhabited by these species; in an uncertain ecological future, how will their memory be preserved?

PETER BURKE

Free Everything ink, graphite and acrylic on paper 25 cm x 32.5 cm

$550.00

I found this note on a pile of hard rubbish in my local neighbourhood. Normally I would have walked past it without a second thought, but this time I stopped. The message shifted for me. It wasn’t only about objects being free to take. It felt like a small act of letting go. Of release. I turned the note into a drawing. It now sits within a larger collection of drawings of notes I have found in public places. I am drawn to their speculative nature — the way they offer fragments rather than full stories. The handwriting, the marks, and the tears in the paper invite closer attention. By drawing these notes, I am able to spend time with them, letting their ordinary, quiet meanings loosen and speak.

TOM CARMENT

Bike in the Hall

reed pen and ink on paper

48 cm x 32 cm

$1,200.00

My bike in the hall, ready to go out into the sunny afternoon. This was drawn with ink and water, using a pen I made from some dry reeds I cut at Mannum Falls, SA. I cut the reed at 45 degrees with a sharp knife and split it.

MARWA CHARMAND

Grief to Oblivion ink on paper

105 cm x 108 cm

NFS

Grief to Oblivion marks a significant shift in Marwa’s practice. The twelve-piece series was developed after the sudden death of a neighbour who had been a constant presence throughout her childhood — a close friend of her father and part of her family’s daily life. The loss surfaced years of unresolved grief, anger and hurt. Unable to sleep, she found herself at midnight, in her pyjamas, brush in hand and a jar of the blackest ink beside her. The series begins with a portrait — a form she has often returned to — yet she deliberately turns away from likeness, allowing the brush, ink, gesture and repetition to carry her emotions. The marks grow darker and more expressive until it vanishes entirely into nothingness. After completing the drawings, Marwa was left standing, wondering whether grief could be drawn away — to oblivion.

LOUISA CHIRCOP

Dreaming Streams

watercolour, gouache, watercolour markers and photomontage on watercolour paper

71 cm x 91 cm

$5,750.00

When art engages the shadow self, drawing becomes charged with multiple meanings — a metaphorical act, like drawing water from a well, an encounter with what lies beneath the surface. My practice inhabits an ambiguous terrain where drawing and painting coexist, resist, and slide against one another. I work with watercolour, photomontage, and mixed media, allowing materials to coalesce into fragile yet dense composite images. Fragments embody transformation and fantasy, forming landscapes and visions of uncertainty and quiet introspection. In Dreaming Streams, currents of the unconscious guide a horse toward a grotto. The work was developed in dialogue with Sidney Nolan’s Carcass: Horse Pony (1953), painted following his visit to Pompeii for his Great Australian Drought series. The horse becomes a vessel for memory, endurance, and inherited trauma. I lead my horse to water, uncertain whether it will drink, questioning if the past can be absorbed and transformed. Cultural heritage, art history, and psychological states converge as the grotto emerges as both refuge and reckoning. Exhibited alongside Nolan’s Carcass, this work formed part of a poetic installation that inspired my poem The Horse and the Grotto.

SALLY CLARKE

Entropy: Lessons from the Sea video

$2,500.00

For me, drawing is an effective medium of communication because it is accessible, immediate and malleable. It can form the incubation of an idea through notations and sketches; it has the capacity to communicate both simple and complex ideas that can be resolved into completed artworks. What makes drawing such a fascinating process and discourse is its scope: while marks and lines can form the illusion of shallow, deep or infinite space on a planar surface, the language of drawing can extend into actual and digital space, manifesting as both tangible and intangible expression. Drawing can cross boundaries, extend into social space and function as political intervention. Its fluidity transgresses any preconceived ideas of its very nature. A line of wire, adhesive tape, food, sound or light; the movement of the body through space; a conversation, a destination, something as elusive as a thought, all open possibilities of how drawing can respond to and interpret the worlds around us. Drawing is a commentary, a metaphor and a measure of our times, and with this in mind, I employ it to track my own experience.

EDWARD ESSING

Ryan

charcoal and chalk on paper

60 cm x 45cm

NFS

This portrait depicts one of my art students, Ryan. From the moment we met, I knew he would make a strong subject. Drawn from life in a single three-hour session, this was Ryan’s first time sitting for a portrait, and I think he did an excellent job.

WINNER

SHANNON FIELD

Unnatural History (Bat Blue)

charcoal and oil paint stick on paper

57 cm x 77 cm

$1,500.00

The title Unnatural History (Bat Blue) is a play on words, referring both to the 19th-century Natural History Museum with its notions of colonialism, control, and display, as well as the sense in which the present moment we’re living in is witnessing a level of animal destruction that is completely unnatural. As a person who grew up with a stutter, stuttered representation has become central to my practice. In Unnatural History, this stuttered, fragmented quality is evoked through the juxtaposition between the body and the head of the bat. The discordant interplay between the two, like the act of stuttering itself, disrupts the dominant, smoothed-out expression of representation through its disjointed and garbled reassembling of visual language. The simplified form of the bat conveys a flat, graphic quality; its blue head sitting askew its charcoal body. Like a type of ragpicking, this stitching together of different types of marks in Unnatural History alludes to the unstable and precarious state of our wildlife today and the Australian environment as a whole.

TODD FULLER

Camp with me

digital video, live media, chalk, charcoal and animation on paper, archival soundtrack

$1,650.00 edition 1/4

Todd Fuller’s practice is a play on storytelling, duration, history, and memory through hand-drawn animation. This time-based activity transforms the intimacy of drawing into a moving image. His hand-drawn animations are composed from hundreds, sometimes thousands, of drawings, each one created, erased, and redrawn on the same sheet of paper. This process leaves traces of past gestures visible beneath new ones, allowing the residue of time, labour, and revision to accumulate within the image. By animating drawings, Fuller is interested in extending the traditional boundaries of the medium. The still image becomes performative; it is no longer static, and it becomes blurry and uncertain through this transformation. His looping animations echo the way memory and history are reconstructed, often playing with historical stories and characters. The erasure of his lines speaks to drawing’s inherent vulnerability - a theme echoed in the human stories he tells...

KENDAL HEYES

Running Dream pyrography and mixed media on Saunders watercolour paper

76.2 cm x 76.2 cm

$6,800.00

The starting point for this work is the running dreams I used to have, with spindly figures like those in cave paintings running together, running fast, slowing down, speeding up again. This work brings together a series of narrative fragments of different ideas about running: running to and from, running after, running away… This diverse set of images is unified by the medium they’ve all been taken through: each image is burned into watercolour paper using a laser cutter, then subtly modified using pigment pens, ink and watercolour. Running Dream is part of an ongoing exploration of the possibilities of pyrography, making images by burning into a surface. Pyrography has a long history as a craft technique, and I like the idea of bringing it into contemporary art while at the same time taking account of the technological, political and media context I am working in.

MELINDA HUNT

Maybe there in-between my pancreas and large intestine is the piddly brook of my soul carbon, charcoal, metallic silver pigment on Stonehenge paper

76 cm x 56 cm

$1,800.00

The title of this drawing is a line from a poem by Renee Nicole Good, the woman shot in Minneapolis recently. The poem, On Learning to Dissect Fetal Pigs, expresses Good’s predicament as she studied for a degree, torn between faith and the reality of the world of science. I want to honour Good’s life by drawing attention to her poem. I made this work after walking at night through crowded city streets, part of a flowing stream of humanity swept along the footpath, together but apart. My drawing imagines that a soul within us all is visible. While darker forces work to divide us, we need to work harder to cling to our shared humanity.

EAMONN JACKSON

Memory graphite on paper

46 cm x 91 cm

$25,000.00

With an art practice that encapsulates various processes such as photography, composition, and drawing, patience is an overarching principle in my pursuit of expressing our environments with precision and care. Inspired by the beauty of Yuin country, I have developed a method of acute observation and constant evaluation, often assessing my drawings from close and distant lenses. Over the years, an obsession with excessive detail has taken hold, and thus has formed the basis of my practice - meticulously rendering works with intricacies that serve to satisfy my desire to tame nature’s infinite variations. Thousands of hours after my pencil first marks the paper, a piece of deliberation takes form; it is through the challenge of capturing the particulars of the world that, time and time again, I discover the inherently unique artistry of each leaf, log, and tree. My practice revolves around enticing the viewer into the spiritual significance of the land, and it’s inextricably tied to one question: how can I convey the hidden emotion that is innate to every landscape?

JENNIFER LITTLE

A Hover of Heads graphite on cotton rag paper

96 cm x 152 cm

$4,000.00

I was deeply moved by a sculpture of Mercury by Baccio Bandinelli, which stands alone in an alcove by a staircase in the Louvre Museum. As it hovers in the shadows, the form gently emerges through subtle overhead illumination, revealing a figure suspended between movement and stillness, melancholy and struggle. This diptych is a homage to that sculpture, a contemplative figure suspended in reflection.

Sanctum ink on cotton paper

56 cm x 76 cm

$3,800.00

My art explores women just being - not posing, not performing, not responding to, or affected by, the male gaze. I feel that most visual representations of women are them being seen in relation to men, we are the sidekicks, the sexual object, the plot filler, the character builder - we are the virgin and the whore. Though these are not new themes to my work, they are themes that, as I draw and grow, take on different and deeper meanings. In terms of drawing the human figure, there is always something new to learn and explore.

KERRY MCINNIS

A Drawing of Savanhdary Vongpoothorn Conté, charcoal, synthetic polymer paint on sanded paper

73 cm x 60 cm

$5,000.00

I had the great pleasure of painting Savanhdary for last year’s Archibald Portrait Prize. This drawing is referenced from the same studio photographs and preparatory sketches as used in my successful Finalist portrait for the Archibald. The media used in this drawing, mainly conte crayon, has resulted in a more detailed portrait than what I achieved in the painted portrait. The marks made by Conté pencil points are smaller and more numerous than what resulted from the brush sizes I used in the painting, leading to a finer texture and a more traditional finish to the drawing. It was an enlightening project to paint and draw such a considered abstract painter, and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to paint Savahndary.

Gently Shake ink on paper

38.5 cm x 51.5 cm

$4,000.00

Gently Shake is a drawing about my first grandchild, Molly. The image of the baby is from a photograph I took of Molly. The teapot refers to Molly’s Mum, who loves drinking tea. The dog lives in Molly’s house; he’s a fox terrier called Billy.

Rest

Pigma Micron pen and black Indian ink on Arches watercolour paper

76 cm x 56 cm

$2,200.00

The act of making is integral to my practice. Each work is carefully shaped by material experimentation and guided by process-based methodologies, expressed through repetitive, accumulative gestures that mark the passage of time. Rest forms part of an ongoing series of works titled Protective Structures. Drawing inspiration from protective forms observed in the natural world, the series explores themes of privacy, protection, and boundaries. Set against a ground of roughly stippled black Indian ink, overlaid with a finely drawn net-like structure, Rest centres on two tapered forms converging toward a central point. Each form is built from tightly layered, parallel hatch markings, varying in density to create a striped contrast and rich visual texture.

Mother

charcoal and graphite on plywood

110 cm x 83 cm

$6,200.00

Mother is a drawing of a jumper my mother knitted me. I never learnt to knit,and resisted her teaching me when I was young. I was too pretentious to realise the beauty in traditional forms of craftwork. Now I am older, and my mother’s sight is failing her, I value the act of knitting much more. I see it as being about gifting the maker’s time to the wearer. To make the drawing, I spent many hours looking at and trying to figure out this particular jumper. She, and it, are both beautiful and infuriatingly complicated. This is a drawing about me trying to understand her.

JACQUELINE ROSE

Ink Play ink on paper

52 cm x 64 cm

NFS

Ink Play hovers between writing and drawing/text and textile. Always in motion and with a spirit of improvisation!

JACQUELINE SEARSON

Still Life Studio ink on paper

65 cm x 50 cm

$850.00

My practice centres on observational drawing as a method of documenting my immediate surroundings. Working from direct observation, I explore line, form, and composition to capture everyday scenes and moments. I sketch every day, using drawing as a consistent and disciplined way of noticing the world around me. I primarily work with pen or pencil on paper, drawn to the simplicity and accessibility of these materials. Their immediacy allows me to draw at any time and in any place, making it possible to respond quickly and record places and events as they occur. Nothing is too ordinary to be considered worth drawing, and sometimes the most unremarkable moments prove the most interesting. Through this ongoing practice, drawing has become both a record and a reflection - an accumulation of moments, places, and experiences observed over time.

Wisdom Teeth

watercolour on cotton paper

56 cm x 76 cm

NFS

I lie within a constellation of small, palm-sized, personal objects that operate as mnemonic devices; tangible traces that trigger memory, reflection, and the stories we tell ourselves, through which selfnarrative is both constructed and obscured. The work explores the archetype of innocence as both origin and return, a site of safety, gestation, and a source of quiet, grounding wisdom that we can tap into at any point. The blanket becomes both a womb and a threshold, a liminal space that honours the child within, giving in to affective impulses and inhabiting tenderness and vulnerability rather than resisting them.

PETER SHARP

Swallows Nest FG charcoal, coffee and spray paint on 12 papers

150 cm x 150 cm

$3,000.00

The work I make may appear abstract, but it all starts with drawings made in the landscape and then the forms are filtered through various media to disrupt and force a visual transformation and this in turn creates questions about how we see ourselves in nature. These particular drawings were made under the verandah of a house at Fowlers Gap Research Station in Western NSW, looking at a variety of swallow nests.

NERIDAH STOCKLEY

REFLECTION, ROADS AND HILLS Series acyrlic on paper

76 cm x 112 cm

$3,600.00

Collage is always a refreshing way to work, a way to interrogate ideas, materials and subject matter. This series of drawings is landscape-based, depictions of place almost operating like mind maps. I live on the north east coast of Tasmania, surrounded by hills, wetlands and the ocean, in the elements.

CATHERINE TAIT

Lord the guard dog

charcoal, gesso and grease proof pencil on paper

47 cm x 72cm

$980.00

My work is a quiet tribute to the unguarded moments that reveal the deepest truths in both animals and people. Whether capturing a resting dog or a child’s steady gaze, I am drawn to the delicate balance between tenderness and intensity, those fleeting pauses where presence, trust, and inner strength come forward. Charcoal forms the foundation of these art pieces, anchoring each figure with grounding shadows that give weight and stillness. Over these darker layers, I use gesso to pull light back into the surface, allowing soft highlights to emerge like a slow breath or a shifted expression. Wax pencil becomes my tool of intimacy. Its crisp, deliberate lines mark the details I return to when observing a subject closely, the curve of an ear, the lift of a brow, the subtle gesture of a hand or paw. I keep the surrounding space loose and atmospheric, so the viewer’s focus remains on the quiet emotional centre of the work. I am interested in what can remain unsaid: the dissolving edges, the open shadows, the moments suspended between softness and strength. Through this layered approach, I aim to create not just a likeness but a contemplative encounter.

JAYANTO TAN

Brokeback Mountain Souvenir

pandan ink on white shirt, red thread and bamboo stick

80 cm x 145 cm

$2,500.00

The tantalising flavour of pandan fruit is evoked by its green ink in repetitions of the Chinese double happiness symbol on a white dress shirt. Overlaying this emblematic white ‘man shirt’ with the symbol familiar to the artist from his Chinese heritage opens questions of the limitations of family background while striving for an authentic self. The markings borrow from the techniques of ‘hot batik tulis canting’, a textile art of the artist’s Peranakan heritage. The double happiness twin shape of mantra twisting knots and shared lines evokes kinship and prayer and echoes the harmony and balance in the aesthetics of queer love.

WENDY TEAKEL

Fencelines

soot, charcoal, pastel, acrylic, pokerwork on Hahnemühle paper mounted on birch panel

76 cm x 56 cm

$2,200.00

As I wandered the paddocks of Bibbaringa farm, I was struck by the quiet resilience that infuses the landscape. The soil yielded gently beneath my feet, alive with a subtle hum of thriving, unseen life below. Here, the microbiome works tirelessly, transforming and renewing, weaving vitality throughout every root and stem. Above ground, the farm reveals itself as a breathing tapestry, gradually woven into place by farmer Gill’s regenerative philosophies. It is a place where infrastructure, thoughtful management and the intricacies of natural systems are intrinsically intertwined. In my studio practice, I seek to capture these interconnected systems, both human and ecological. My work, “Fencelines”, investigates the interplay between micro and macro elements that define Bibbaringa. Using a 350 gsm Hahnemühle-mounted panel, I employ pokerwork, collage, charcoal and pastel as I scorch, wash and scour the surface. These methods and materials are as earthy and tactile as the land itself. The shapes of paddocks, the undulating tree lines, the shimmer of grasses and the tiny microbes become interwoven compositional threads, reflecting the gentle reciprocity between land and hand, and embodying the ongoing rhythm of creation and renewal in art and farming.

CLAIRE TOZER

Network

sepia ink Pitt artist pen on paper

78 cm x 112 cm

$5,500.00

This work is based on grasses that had been cut and left on the edge of a coastal walk near Kiama. As I progressed with the drawing, the network of lines started to reflect my thoughts and imaginings of Space and Matter. In all the disorder, there is order.

DATSUN TRAN

A prayer for the wild joss sticks on mulberry paper

55 cm x 98 cm

$3,500.00

Since European colonisation, Australia has lost nearly 50% of its native forests and woodlands. The habitat loss, in addition to the introduction of invasive species and human expansion, has caused Australia to have the worst mammal extinction rate in the world. Chinese incense, also known as Joss sticks, is usually burnt in ceremonial rituals, where the smoke acts as a bridge from the physical to the spiritual world: the rising smoke carries our hopes and prayers to our ancestors and deities. The mark-making in this work was made by using burning Joss sticks to draw into the mulberry paper. An act of inscribing a prayer for the future of the wild lands and species that remain here.

MURAT URLALI

Thread, Myth, and Indigo Night oil paint, enamel, gold piping paste, 24K gold leaf, 22K shell gold, rhinestones on cardboard

99.5 cm x 40.5 cm

$8,500.00

In this work, I explore the intersection of mythic folklore and the decorative traditions of Ottoman textiles. Drawing upon Rumi and Hatai motifs alongside the precision of Persianate miniature painting, I reimagine the celestial garden as a space where the boundaries between the human, the animal, and the ethereal blur. I have placed myself at the centre as a traveller and observer, garbed in a heavily ornamented robe that acts as a bridge between worlds. This garment, rendered with meticulous line work, serves as a topographical map of cultural memory. I am surrounded by a cacophony of winged entities led by my animal-headed, messianic guardian. Together, they inhabit a dark, void-like space that suggests a nocturnal or internal odyssey. Above us, climbing figures echo classical depictions of the human struggle for transcendence, yet they are set against the distinctly Australian silhouettes of native ghost gums. By utilising a monochromatic gold-and-white palette against a deep indigo ground, I aim to elevate the act of mark-making to a form of ritual. My work seeks to question how traditional patterns can be deconstructed to house contemporary narratives of hybrid identity, spirituality, and the persistent presence of the”other” in our collective imagination.

CLAUDIO VALENTI

The two of You

charcoal and pastel on archival paper

76 cm x 57 cm

$2,200.00

The two of You is a visual meditation on the dualities that reside within the self. The visible and the hidden, the past and the becoming. The work invites the viewer into an introspective space where identity splits, converses and reconciles. This reflection does not seek resolution, but instead honours the tension and tenderness between inner opposites. It is an offering to the idea that we are never just one; we are always in dialogue with another version of ourselves.

Daydreaming 1

coloured pencil on paper

56 cm x 38 cm

$2,750.00

Working across painting, drawing and installation, I consider labour, control and time through visual abstraction. When making, I design complex sets of rules and systems. Heavily focused on materiality, this disciplined creative process is repetitious and slow-moving. While structured and preplanned, equally important to me is leaving space for agency, intuition and chance. I see my practice as an ebb and flow of controlling and letting go, while wanting to create artworks that elicit soft sensations of light, space, time and memory. My coloured pencil drawings focus on using the chance-based points I scatter to form a base structure. This is then segmented in different ways and filled in with thousands of fine, straight, ruled lines. The repetitious nature of the linear markmaking in these drawings is intended to become an abstract visual record of time and labour. Because of the time I invest in making them, which is usually very introspective, these drawings feel deeply personal.

mixed media on paper

140 cm x 107 cm

$11,500.00

These drawings are inspired by nature and other forms from my surrounds, the action paintings of Abstract Expressionism and post-Abstract Expressionism. They explore ideas of the alchemy of the subconscious and the metaphysical aspects of material itself; the idea of chance imagery and the interaction of the viewer’s own interpretation of the visual world. They offer a keyhole into a world that cannot be premeditated, where the elements have a voice of their own, where the material is not merely a tool of exploration but becomes the driving force for something new.

pencil

paper in custom silver leafed frame

100 cm x 136.5 cm

$9,850.00

I am intrigued by obsolescence, the passing of time and notions of transformation associated with it. I am interested in how memory, place and time shape us and in examining particular yet often random moments from my personal history and movements to map out a navigation and exploration of the world. Working from photographs I have captured, these images represent fleeting moments, but become thoroughly investigated through my process of working with pencil on paper. This is not only an attempt to gather every degree of information from the image or moment, but also a way of slowing down the world through the process of creation.

ALIKI YIORKAS

Ava’s Wonderland watercolour monoprint and lithograph crayon monoprint on paper

41 cm x 59 cm

$550.00

Aliki Yiorkas is a Sydney-based artist who completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Printmaking) at the National Art School, Sydney, 2018-2020. Aliki’s works are primarily figurative, and she uses the act of drawing as a way of intimately connecting with the world. Becoming a grandmother has made her reflect on the impulses of looking, and she strives to make visible the connections she has with her grandchild, as well as capturing the psychological tone of the domestic scene. Ava’s Wonderland reflects on how a child navigates the world by acting out through various personas. The medium of monoprint emphasises the fluid nature of Ava’s identity and her transformations into different characters. Ava journeys in her wonderland, highlighting the power of a child’s imagination and capacity for creative thinking, allowing her to explore her own identity and embody distorted versions of reality.

Banksia integrifolia

pen and ink on paper

82 cm x 65 cm

$3,500.00

My pen and ink drawing explores the detailed structure and natural rhythm of the Banksia integrifolia. As the Banksia has such a unique botanical morphology, I took a maximalist approach to emphasise its striking features. Initial observations of the drawing inspire deeper examination, which allows for the discovery of the layers of complexity of the subject matter, Banksia. The delicate rendering invites close inspection, revealing ornate, layered details of the Banksia’s clustered leaves, flowers, and fruit. Mymonochrome drawing showcases the Banksia’s intricate beauty and reflects my connection and engagement with nature.

Acknowledgements

PLC Sydney was built on the lands of the Wangal People of the Eora Nation. As we welcome you to our College today we want to recognise them and to warmly welcome any elders, past and present. Welcome.

PLC Sydney and the Adelaide Perry Gallery would like to express our thanks and appreciation to judge Scott Elliot, curator. We are very grateful for the time and expertise he gave the selection process, and for his participation at the opening of the Finalists’ Exhibition.

Thank you also to all artists who entered the Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing in 2026.

Thank you to our Principal Dr Paul Burgis for his continued enthusiasm and to Mr Simon Meyer, President, PLC Sydney Parents and Friends’ Association for continuing to support the Prize.

Thank you to our Gallery Manager Mr Andrew Paxton, Secretary at The Croydon Mrs Karmen Martin and Art and Design Assistant Mrs Nicole Rader for their administrative and technical assistance. Thank you also to Ms Jo Knight, Head of Visual Arts, PLC Sydney.