Banyule Works on Paper Award 2026 Streeton Camo

I'm honoured to be a finalist in the Banyule Works on Paper Award 2026.

The Banyule Award for Works on Paper is a prestigious national art prize awarded every two years to an outstanding contemporary work on paper. With a prize pool of $12,000, the winning artwork is acquired into the Banyule Art Collection. The 2026 finalists’ exhibition features 27 contemporary artworks displayed in Art Gallery 275 at the Ivanhoe Library and Cultural Hub.

The 2026 Banyule Award for Works on Paper finalists’ opening reception is on Friday 18 September from 6.30-8.30pm. The exhibition runs until 29 November 2026. ILCH, 275 Upper Heidelberg Rd, Ivanhoe. Melbourne.

Artist's Statement

"Heidelberg Camo" responds to Art Gallery 275's Heidelberg School from the National Collection. I closely scrutinised works by Clara Southern, Tom Roberts & Arthur Streeton, drawing and searching for a way to reconcile my conflicted relationship with Melbourne's colonial history.

I was enchanted by the artists' technical skill yet unnerved by their romanticised visions of heroic white settlers, empty landscapes and colonial leisure. Before colonisation, an estimated 60,000 Aboriginal people lived in Victoria. Within fifty years, they are strikingly absent from Heidelberg School paintings. I am drawn to the beauty of these works, while confronted by the history they camouflage, I leave both impressed and devastated.

In "Heidelberg Camo", Arthur Streeton is camouflaged by significant indigenous rocks found at Banyule Flats.

Streeton Camo, 2026

Gouache, ink & acrylic on paper

74cm x 56cm