Gosford Art Prize 2026

A record 1,518 entries were received for this year's Gosford Art Prize, with every state and territory in Australia represented. The quantity and quality of entries blew us away, and narrowing the field down to the 147 finalist pieces was a challenge. 

Here are the winners, with brief excerpts from the remarks of judges Dean Cross and Sally Dan-Cuthbert:

$25,000 Acquisitive Major Prize: Alacoque Dash

The Long Goodbye II, 2025

"It is small, sophisticated and deeply personal: a delicate retelling of a personal story of loss through a beautiful and alluring work. What moved us most is how deliberate every part of the making process is, each element drawn from her journey with her mother since childhood."

$10,000 Moving Image Art Award: Esther Carlin

The Ghost of Mr Bawky, 2025

"... it takes an issue art too often leaves unspoken and gives it a face, a home, a family. The filmmaker is three generations into an experience of profound grief, and two generations into the work of trying to understand it."

$10,000 First Nations Artist Prize: Damien Shen

My Cuzzy Nate and the 654 Club, 2025

"... the sheer pleasure of watching art succeed on its own terms.  Shen adapts the narrative card trick devised and popularised in 1930s America, performing the routine before an audience of his own family. The result is unrehearsed, warm and genuinely funny. "

$10,000 Gosford Ceramic Prize: Belinda Piggott

Tides of Renewal, 2019 - 2026  

"Placed into the water after the kiln, tube worms and bryozoans continue the making, forming a natural surface in place of glaze. The sea becomes collaborator. Materiality, process and environment are folded together into one object. "

$1,000 Highly Commended: Harley Gleeson

Still Here, 2026

"... 65,000 years of unbroken connection to Country, one of the longest continuing cultures in the world. That continuity is the work's real subject; the restraint, the discipline, and the sustained looking it demands all follow as consequence."

$1,000 Highly Commended: Tara McIntosh

Someday (we will), 2025

"... its quiet softness asks for more time than a glance affords, and that is its strength... Solitude is embodied in the work rather than explained by it. Material and meaning become the same thing, held in a single suspended surface that appears both protected and exposed."

We invite you to visit the Gallery to vote for your favourite work in the $500 Viewers' Choice Award.The exhibition runs from 26 September to 22 November 2026. 

TO SEE THE FULL LIST OF 2026 FINALISTS CLICK HERE >>>   Finalists Gosford Art Prize 2026

The Gosford Art Prize is an annual award that attracts entries from across Australia. The finalist exhibition and opening night is the biggest event held at the gallery each year.  The Prize is open to all Australian artists working in any medium and attracts submissions that show a breadth of artistic excellence and display a diverse array of contemporary techniques and conceptual concerns.

The Prize has been a feature of Gosford Regional Gallery’s exhibition program since the Gallery opened in 2000 and is a cultural highlight of the region. In 2025, its scope expanded to include a Moving Image Art Award, and the value of each prize category was increased. 

Opening and Awards Presentation: Friday 25 September 2026 at 6pm. RSVP at www.trybooking.com/DHYZJ 

Image: Gosford Art Prize 2025, WolfeWise Creative