CELEBRATING OUR 2026 ARTISTS
We have been truly encouraged by the calibre of works in this years exhibition. The diversity of practice, standard of work and points of distinction are visually engaging and intellectually resonant to the theme and each of our artists are to be congratulated on their conceptual creativity.
2026 AWARD WINNERS
1. BEST EXHIBIT - Veiled Crown - Rositsa Hurring
Artist Biography - Rositsa Hurring studied Fine Arts in Bulgaria from 1985 to 1990, where she developed a strong foundation in composition, material exploration, and artistic discipline. She later spent 26 years working as a designer of clothing, shoes, and accessories, an experience that shaped her understanding of structure, fabric, construction, and the relationship between the body and form. Jewellery has been central to her practice for the past 16 years, during which she has transformed leather, sterling silver, copper, brass, and vintage silver-plated cutlery into one-of-a-kind wearable art using techniques such as cutting, forming, patinating, and carving. Since moving to Australia in 2020, her practice has expanded into three-dimensional textile paintings, where she works with upcycled textiles.
Artist Statement - Veiled Crown is a textile sculpture made from reclaimed denim, soft chunky wool yarn, and metallic gold thread. Using hand techniques such as sewing, embroidery, knitting, macramé, appliqué, and drawing on fabric, discarded materials are carefully transformed into a thoughtful and symbolic artwork. The crown represents what material possessions promise us, usefulness, pleasure, identity, comfort, and status. It reflects how both individuals and industries benefit from constantly producing and consuming goods, and how ownership can shape our desires and sense of self. Decorative and elevated, the crown captures the attraction and rewards of consumption. The veil represents a turning point, when purpose and profit begin to lead toward risk. It suggests how systems of production and accumulation can create a false sense of awareness and control. Over time, excess can cloud judgment. Profit can narrow perspective, and comfort can reduce responsibility, blinding us to the consequences of our choices.
2. JUDGES COMMENDATION - Prisoner of Past Loves - Kelly Sullivan
Artist Biography - Kelly Sullivan is a multidisciplinary artist celebrated for vibrant and thought-provoking works that merge mixed media, vintage imagery, and explorations of women's and societal issues. Working primarily with analogue techniques, she creates intricate compositions that explore memory and personal narratives while drawing inspiration from contemporary culture. Her practice challenges societal norms and amplifies women's voices, celebrating the imperfections and intimacy of the handmade and referencing craft traditions historically associated with women. Through bold use of colour, texture, and layered materials, Sullivan produces visually striking works that invite reflection on identity, empowerment, and resilience. With a career spanning more than a decade, she has exhibited nationally and internationally, and her work is held in private collections across Australia and abroad.
Artist Statement - Prisoner of Past Loves draws upon remnants collected from deceased estates, inviting contemplation of our connection to material possessions. Each piece highlights the purpose behind what we hold on to and the stories that linger within these objects. The use of recycled materials reflects the emotional weight and history of accumulation. Images of Art Nouveau women, skulls, roses and cacti motifs intertwine, evoking cycles of beauty, decay and resilience of women. In this work, the cow skulls symbolise the decline and consequence of our consumer-driven culture, raising questions about the nonchalance of global materialism, whilst being confronted by the delicate balance between memory of past lives and clutter. My work challenges viewers to consider when our belongings become a burden. Through artistic transformation, we can honour the legacies of the departed while addressing the broader themes of sustainability, emotional attachment, and the impact of our consumption on the planet.
3. JUDGES ENCOURAGEMENT AWARD - Blood Sweat and Tears - Alex Hughes
Artist Biography - Alex Hughes is a self-taught textile artist who initially trained in photography. She was drawn to hand embroidery during the pandemic as a practice that could be done in lockdown and as a mindful counterbalance to the emotional burnout of working as an emergency nurse. Her work explores the adaptability of thread through hand stitching, thread drawing, and free-motion machine embroidery. By layering and manipulating fabrics at varying speeds under the needle, Alex investigates the tension between thread’s fragility and resilience. Her work is deeply informed by the emotions, experiences, and vicarious trauma encountered as a frontline worker. Over time, her practice has expanded from cross-stitch and small sampler formats to larger-scale works incorporating sculptural thread forms, free-motion embroidery, and natural dyes.
Artist Statement - Blood, Sweat, Tears is an exploration of the environmental impact of internet shopping, fast fashion and the proliferation of cheap goods mass produced for impulse buying. Dopamine hits and addiction like feedback loops in our brain chemistry fuel the hunger to buy, consume and own 'stuff' and increase humanity's impulsivity. An increase in factory production uses more fossil fuels, produces more plastic, increasing pollution and contributing to global warming. Plastic pollution is becoming ubiquitous with microplastics found everywhere on earth, destroying our oceans while global warming is melting our icecaps and changing the world as we know it. Freestyle embroidery is utilised for its flexibility and capacity to be both fragile and sculptural.The work embodies our future literally hanging by a thread.
4. TRADITIONAL TEXTILE AND NEEDLEWORK AWARD - The New Empress’s Appurtenances- Ronda Hazell
Artist Biography - Ronda is a textile artist and art quilter living and working in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia. Her work has been exhibited widely across Australia and internationally. She has been a finalist in the AQC Challenge on numerous occasions and received a Judges’ Commendation at the Australian Quilt Show in 2024. In 2025 she was awarded first prize and highly commended at the Victorian Quilters Showcase. Her work has also appeared in exhibitions including One Step Further (2022, 2024), Dare to Differ (2025), AQUIPP (2021, 2023, 2025), Textile Palette (2023, 2024) and the Naarm Textile Biennale (2024). International exhibitions include World Quilt, the Festival of Quilts UK, and the International Festival of Quilts Houston. Before becoming an artist, Ronda taught mathematics and chemistry at Daylesford College.
Artist Statement - The New Empress’s Appurtenances, her possessions or otherwise more commonly referred to as her ‘stuff’. This excess of multiples of goods where clearly only a handful should suffice to fulfil the purpose that these objects serve. The Empress has much pride in the veneer of her appurtenances, projecting to the rest of her society the abundance of her wealth and privilege. However the Empress is actually in a state of mental peril. She is seeking internal happiness and fulfilment from these external objects. She gets only a fleeting and temporary thrill from seeking and securing the latest desirable and seemingly necessary object. This is replaced swiftly by her usual feelings of emptiness and dissatisfaction, so the vicious cycle continues as seeks again. The merchants are the only ones to profit from her continuing purchases. This is the naked truth behind her need for stuff.
5. JUDGES MENTION - I just want to be pink and padded & I want a frill - Karryn Argus
Artist Biography - Karryn is a Melbourne-based visual artist working across textiles, sculpture, and assemblage. Herpractice explores how emotions and lived experience take form through materials, with recurring themes of the body, vulnerability, and loss. More recently, her work has engaged with the politics of sustainability, leading her to work exclusively with second-life clothing and materials in her current quilt-based works. Karryn values collaborative practice and has participated in group exhibitions at Montsalvat, Kings Artist-Run, Sandbox Studios Box Gallery, Assembly Point, and the Australian Catholic University Gallery. She has also presented solo exhibitions in Melbourne and regional New South Wales and has been a finalist in several art prizes across Australia. Karryn holds a Master of Fine Art from RMIT University and a Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours) from Monash University, and maintains a full-time studio practice.
Artist Statement - I Want a Frill, and I Want to be Pink and Padded, are made entirely from second-hand clothing and reused fabric, hand-pieced slowly through a range of stitching methods. The materials carry traces of their previous lives: the shape of a garment, and signs of wear, with these histories shaping the composition. With approximately 6,000 kilos of textiles and clothing discarded into Australian landfill every ten minutes (Monash Sustainable Development Institute), these works are informed by an ethic of care rather than a desire for newness. Using existing clothing, and reused fabric, these works are keeping materials in circulation rather than in landfill. Repair, reuse, and maintenance are treated as meaningful acts, suggesting that care for materials, and for the labour involved in working with them, is an ongoing responsibility rather than a finished task.
People’s Choice Award 6. - To be announced