The Percivals
The Percivals 2024
Having begun in 2007, The Percivals is an open competition for artists. While showcasing the outstanding and innovative work currently being produced by Australian artists, the competitions have also allowed many emerging artists to engage with portraiture and share their expressions of themselves and those close to them.
The Percival Portrait Painting Prize, Percival Photographic Portrait Prize, and the Percival Animal Portrait Prize will be exhibited at Perc Tucker Regional Gallery from 22 June until 1 September 2024.
Hear from the judges and the winners in this insightful video about The Percivals 2024.
What's On
The Percivals 2024 will feature a wide range of public programs, including workshops, tours, talks and Percy’s Activity Space!
To find out more about what’s happening, download the 2024 Programs Guide.
Percy’s Activity Space
Join in the fun in Percy’s Activity Space.
Head to Percy’s Activity Space on the first floor of Perc Tucker Regional Gallery and take part in the fun activities on offer!
Add an artwork to ‘The Percy’s’ exhibition with a colouring-in activity, become part of the art with our Exquisite Portraits interactives, or have a go at changing the scenes in our magnetic frames!
This activity space is free and open during Gallery open hours.
Photography: Andrew Rankin
Exquisite Portraits
Exquisite Portraits have been part of The Percivals since the 2020 Exhibition. We have combined the previous Exquisite Portraits with this year's so now you have nine different images to choose from for each block! Select the right and left arrows on the page to swap the head, torso, and legs, creating your own exquisite portrait!
Resources
Free Activity Books and Interactive Guides have been designed in response to The Percivals 2024.
These resources are available for all ages, including children, students, teachers and members of the public.
Select the images below to download a copy to print at home:
Key Dates
Applications are now closed and artists have been advised of selection.
Upcoming key dates are:
Delivery of artworks | Wednesday 12 and Thursday 13 June 2024 |
Winners announcement and official opening | Saturday 22 June 2024 |
Exhibition dates | 22 June to 1 September 2024 |
Collection of artworks | Friday 6 September 2024 |
Award Categories
Percival Portrait Painting Prize:
- Major Acquisitive Prize: $40,000
- People's Choice Award: $1,000
Percival Photographic Portrait Prize:
- Major Acquisitive Prize: $10,000
- People's Choice Award: $1,000
Percival Animal Portrait Prize:
- Non-acquisitive Prize: $1,000
Percival People's Choice Award
Have your say! Make sure to vote for your favourite Photographic and Painting artworks in the Percivals People’s Choice Award.
The prize for each winning artist is $1,000 in the People’s Choice Awards.
Voting closes at 11:59pm on Sunday 25 August 2024.
The Percivals Publication
The Percivals 2024 Winners
Percival Portrait Painting Prize - Acquisitive Prize, $40,000
About the artwork
Over two decades ago, Karlee Rawkins and I embarked on our undergraduate journey together. While life led us down different roads, fate has brought us back to the same community once more. In creating this portrait, I sought to capture the essence of Karlee’s world – a world illuminated by the winter light streaming through the windows of her home. This play of light and nature serves as a symbolic representation of her work, which delves into the profound connections between wildlife, nature, and the human psyche. Amid the chaos of family life, she radiates a meditative serenity, an unwavering devotion to her craft always at the forefront of her mind. Her life and art are inseparable, a testament to her enduring commitment. In the distant doorway, you’ll find her son’s silhouette, a powerful symbol of her transformation from a solitary studio artist to a loving mother, disability-rights advocate and artist.
About the artist
Seabastion Toast lives and works on the mid-North Coast of NSW. Among her achievements, she recently won the $10,000 Darcy Doyle Landscape Award for the second time. In 2023, she won the People’s Choice Award at both the Portia Geach and the Sunshine Coast Art Prizes. She was recently in the top eight finalists in the Evelyn Chapman Award, won two awards at the 2019 Glover Prize, and is regularly a finalist in many prominent art prizes nationwide, including the National Still Life Award, Doug Moran and Mosman Awards. Seabastion holds a Bachelor of Fine Art from Southern Cross University, which included a very influential exchange to the Pratt Institute in New York. She is represented by Anthea Polson Art Gallery on the Gold Coast. Other than painting, she also loves running up mountains, surfing, her husband, and dog Audrey.
Percival Portrait Painting Prize - Highly Commended
About the artwork
This work was made in the studio while looking in the mirror. My painting, whether landscape or portraiture, is grounded in observation. I paint with directness and immediacy. I seek to express a sense of myself in interaction with the subject: the work is as much about the experience of seeing as it is of what is seen. A sense of the experiential and the lived moment features in all of my work.
Mostly, my portraiture is of myself – as I am available. I also paint my wife with our cat.
About the artist
Mark Dober is an established artist, who holds a PhD in Painting from Monash University. The focus of his art practice lies in making paintings and drawings on site in the landscape, both locally (central Victoria) and at residencies. He regularly holds solo exhibitions of landscape painting at regional galleries: in recent years, these have been at Geelong, Mildura, Wagga Wagga, Windsor (Sydney), Castlemaine, Warwick, Bathurst, Swan Hill, Tuggeranong, Wodonga and Benalla. Mark’s portrait painting is made directly from the subject. The work is made to be shown in contemporary art prizes (most recently in the Salon des Refusés in Sydney and the Rick Amor Self Portrait Prize in Melbourne).
Percival Photographic Portrait Prize - Acquisitive Prize, $10,000
About the artwork
This work captures a moment of intuitive inspiration, extending an ongoing series of photographs of the artist’s partner and muse. It furtively examines concepts of otherness, co-habitation and the body in relation to liminal space. The shirtless subject waits patiently, and perhaps ominously, amidst tropical vegetation at the back entrance to a suburban home. Will he be allowed inside before the afternoon light fades?
About the artist
Danish Quapoor is a multidisciplinary artist and curator based in Gurambilbarra/Townsville, Queensland. His practice typically centres on ceramics, illustrative painting and textiles; however, photography is also of recurring interest. The artist favours sparse compositions and subdued colour palettes, which unify his ostensibly diverse oeuvre. Danish has led significant art projects in Queensland and Victoria, including solo, group and collaborative exhibitions, commissions, studio residencies, workshops and murals. His most significant solo exhibition to date, good grief, was held at Pinnacles Gallery, Townsville City Galleries in 2024. Danish holds a Master of Arts and Cultural Management (University of Melbourne), along with a Bachelor of Visual Arts and a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Creative Arts), Honours (University of Southern Queensland, [UniSQ]). Danish was also the inaugural 2023 UniSQ School of Creative Arts Alumni Fellow. He has works held in the Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery, Toowoomba City Collection, and private collections internationally.
Percival Photographic Portrait Prize - Highly Commended
About the artwork
At the Townsville Mortuary, Forensic Pathologist Dr Rebecca Williams and assistant Hayley Moore go about their daily ritual with mortality. Each tool they hold, wielded with clinical precision, offers a glimpse into the intricate process of unravelling the mysteries surrounding a person’s final moments. In this visual narrative, the synergy of intellect and fortitude unfolds as they navigate the delicate realm of post-mortem examinations in North Queensland.
These women, possessing minds as resilient as their craft demands, play pivotal roles in the intersection of grief-stricken families and the justice system. Beyond being a scientific pursuit, their labour becomes a profound service, offering solace to family and contributing to the pursuit of truth in the face of loss. In this exploration, I aim to illuminate not just the tools of their trade but the interplay of intellect, empathy, and resilience that defines their indispensable roles in the storytelling of the departed.
About the artist
Cassandra McMahon is an early career artist based in Gurambilbarra/Townsville. Through photography, Cassandra seeks to create compelling visual narratives that celebrate the intersection of femininity, intellect, and cultural diversity. Cassandra’s work is informed by her own experience of growing up in Northern Queensland and she brings to her art a unique insight into the lives of the people she documents.
She is already a much-awarded and exhibited photographer: in 2023, she won and placed third in categories at the Townsville Show Photography Competition, received a Highly Commended in Travel, Photographer of the Year, and a Highly Commended in Portrait, Australasia’s Top Emerging Photographers. In 2022, she was a finalist in the Percival Photographic Portrait Prize and a finalist at the Hinchinbrook Arts Awards at the TYTO Regional Gallery. In 2021, she won in the category of Animal, Focus Photography Exhibition & Awards at the Mission Beach Gallery
Percival Animal Portrait Prize - $1,000 Prize
Percival Animal Portrait Judge's Award - $400 Prize
Percival Animal Portrait Judge's Award - Highly Commended
The Percivals 2024 Finalists
Percival Portrait Painting Prize
Artist Name | Artwork Title | Year |
---|---|---|
Barbara CHESHIRE | The Man Under the Hat | 2024 |
Christine BAKER | Rise | 2023 |
Christine WREST-SMITH | Self Portrait with Purple Glove | 2023 |
Claire CUSACK | Matthew | 2024 |
Cutler FOOTWAY | My Self at Seventeen, with Lily, Coral, Shells and Heart | 2023 |
Elizabeth BARDEN | All That Glitters | 2022 |
Erin STONESTREET | Hannah Waiting | 2024 |
Geordie WILLIAMSON | A Sticky Situation | 2023 |
Irene RAE | Sandi Hook - Her creative space | 2022 |
Jack RODGERS | Self Portrait | 2023 |
Jamie COLE | Because I'm Me (Does that make me crazy) | 2024 |
Jan HYNES | Vince: North Queensland legend | 2023 |
Julie VERNON | Barb | 2024 |
Karlalise HORSTMANS | In-between Jobs | 2024 |
Kellie LECZINKSA | Cato AM and the Sphinx | 2023 |
Kevin MAYO | Angela in her studio (Telekinesis for beginners) | 2024 |
Laurel FOENANDER | Give Peace a Chance - Wolfie | 2022 |
Lili MONTEFIORE | Cuppa and Catch Up with Arthur | 2024 |
Lisa ASHCROFT | Bereavement (Dad's death mask on his death bed) | 2023 |
Marco PENNACCHIA | Reverie | 2024 |
Maria DE LOS ANGELES PENA | Carmen in Boots | 2024 |
Mark DOBER | Self Portrait | 2024 |
Melanie CAPLE | Cash, Love and Onyx | 2023 |
Naomi MATTHEWS | Fatigued | 2024 |
Nazila JAHANGIR | Immigration- Annunciation | 2023 |
Neil MCIRVINE | Self Portrait | 2024 |
Nick OFFER | Self Portrait (Hawaiian Shirt) | 2024 |
Peter WEGNER | James - Tasmania | 2023 |
Roland NANCARROW | Double Bounce, portrait of Min Xu | 2024 |
Samantha GROENESTYN | Editor (Darby Jones) | 2024 |
Sarah HICKEY | Selves | 2023 |
Seabastion TOAST | How the Light Gets In | 2023 |
Simon BROWN | Jamie | 2022 |
Stephen HAWKINS | The Watercolourist - Mr. Maidens | 2024 |
Sylvia DITCHBURN | Ditchy | 2023 |
Thom CROWHURST | Stand Easy (self portrait) | 2024 |
Percival Photographic Portrait Prize
Artist Name | Main Title | Year |
---|---|---|
Alexandra BAXTER | Harry is a name with the son behind it | 2023 |
Ali CHOUDHRY | Richard - #1 | 2023 |
Amanda NEILSON | Me Time | 2023 |
Andrew ROVENKO | The Party | 2022 |
Brian CASSEY | George at the Bus Stop - George Skeene OAM | 2023 |
Brian CASSEY | 100 Years & 3 Weeks - Alf Neal OAM | 2022 |
Brian CASSEY | Last of the Trochus Divers - Albert 'Boyo' Ware | 2023 |
Cassandra MCMAHON | Tools of the Trade 1 | 2023 |
Catherine BLACK | Holly | 2023 |
Christine HALL | A Portrait Within Art | 2023 |
Christine HALL | In Her Space | 2023 |
Christopher ALLERY | My Mother, Her Middle Name Is ‘Joy' | 2023 |
Dane BEESLEY | Umbrella Man | 2024 |
Daniella CORTIS | Alex | 2023 |
Danish QUAPOOR | screening test | 2024 |
Emily PORTMANN | Self Soother, Action Two | 2023 |
Eva COLLINS | Proxy Tears | 2023 |
Garrie MAGUIRE | 20230514-1709 (from the male//chair project) | 2023 |
Jacinta TOMYN | Particles, Self-Portrait | 2023 |
Katie STEWART | Mum and Dad | 2023 |
Kellie LECZINKSA | The Multifaceted Sue Cato AM(backdrop by Marty Baptist) | 2023 |
Kerrie DI CATALDO | Twin Peaks | 2023 |
Kerry INKSTER | I see and sing my own eyes inspir'd- Limited Edition Print | 2022 |
Mark FORBES | Aimee | 2023 |
Mark MISIC | Banksia_Jeanette Misic | 2024 |
Michael CHRISTOFAS | Portrait of Voula | 2022 |
Minami IVORY | Battlefield | 2023 |
MJ BENTLEY | Portraits of Angus Cameron | 2023 |
Nicholas GIOIA | Egyptian Grammar | 2023 |
Richard NOLAN-NEYLAN | Jody Graham | 2024 |
Robyn MACRAE | Un dia de enero | 2024 |
Rosana KERSH | Tougher Than The Rest | 2023 |
Sam SCOUFOS | Self-Portrait in Water | 2024 |
Sandra MINCHIN | I thought this was going to be my very last breath. | 2022 |
Sofie DIEU | Born In Swamps II | 2024 |
Steve WOMERSLEY | Warwick Capper | 2024 |
Virginia SZARAZ | Valentines | 2023 |
Wren MOORE | The Be-Wild-ered Wayfarer | 2024 |
Percival Animal Portrait Prize
Artist Name | Artwork Title | Year |
---|---|---|
Anna JOGEFALT RACZ | Tony | 2022 |
Annabel ARMSTRONG | Barn Owl | 2023 |
El MACE | Carlos | 2023 |
Elissa SAMPSON | Doug | 2022 |
Geordie WILLIAMSON | Daphne | 2023 |
Ignacia UGARTE | Stay dreaming | 2022 |
Julia MAY | Café Shiba | 2023 |
Pauline DEWAR | Humphrey Sleeping | 2023 |
Raina FALLOON | Atlas | 2023 |
Panel and Judges
Selection Panel Members
Painting Prize Panel
Donna Foley
Dr Donna Foley, an arts educator for more than two decades, studied painting, printmaking and drawing at undergraduate level, and at various times throughout her career has produced portraits in each of those artforms. Two such portraits are in the City of Townsville Art Collection.
Alison Kubler
Alison Kubler has a double major in Art History from the University of Queensland, Australia, and a Master's in Post-War and Contemporary Art History from Manchester University, England. She has over 25 years' experience as a curator in museums and galleries in Australia, and on major public art commissions.
Alison worked as Arts Adviser to the Federal Minister for the Arts and Sport, held full-time curatorial positions at QUT Art Museum and Gold Coast City Art Gallery, and worked as Associate Curator, at the University of Queensland Art Museum. She is a standing member of the Second Chance Programme, a volunteer-run charitable organisation that was founded in 2001 to support homeless and at-risk women and children in crisis care by offering long-term accommodation and domestic violence shelters all over Queensland.
Alison is Editor in Chief of VAULT, a journal of art and culture, and a regular contributor to art magazines and journals. She is a Member of the Council of the National Gallery of Australia (NGA), Chair of the Collections Committee of the NGA, Committee Member of Know My Name, and is a Principal of Renshaw & Kubler Art Consultants. Alison is also co-author of Art and Fashion in the Twentieth Century, published by Thames and Hudson UK (2013), which was subsequently translated into German and Japanese.
Teho Ropeyarn
Teho Ropeyarn is a Cairns-based printmaker, curator and mentor from Injinoo, Cape York Peninsula. Teho graduated from College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales, in 2009, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting and drawing. He previously held the position of gallery curator at UMI Arts and Cairns Art Gallery. Selected exhibitions as curator include North by East West: Re-igniting a Cultural Connection Through Pearl Shell (2018) at Cairns Art Gallery, co-curated with CIAF's Artistic Director Janina Harding; and Goobalathaldin Dick Roughsey: Stories of this Land (2019) at Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), co-curated with QAGOMA Curator of Indigenous Australian Art, Bruce Johnson McLean. Teho' work has appeared in exhibitions across Australia and abroad, such as The National 4: Australian Art Now, Carriageworks, Sydney (2023); rīvus: 23rd Biennale of Sydney (2022); Queen Sonja Print Award, Norway (2022); Nuit Blanche, Toronto (2022); Tarnanthi 2021, Art Gallery of South Australia (2021); GOMA-Q, QAGOMA (2015); Primavera, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (2012); and the 11th Nationwide Academies of Fine Arts Printmaking Biennial, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, China (2012).
Photographic Prize Panel
Glen O'Malley
Glen O'Malley is Queensland's longest exhibiting photographer, with his first exhibition at Ray Hughes Gallery, Brisbane, in 1975. He has had over 40 national and international solo exhibitions, and has shown in over 200 group exhibitions. In 2019/20, Perc Tucker Gallery showed a retrospective exhibition of his career, What Is A Dream? Glen has lived in North Queensland for 35 years, with continuing connections to the area all his life. He was one of nine artists in the 1981 inaugural exhibition at Perc Tucker Gallery. He describes his current work as "surreal documentary".
Anouska Phizacklea
Anouska Phizacklea (BA Hons, MA, MCom, CPA, GAICD) is currently Director of the Museum of Australian Photography (MAPh). Anouska has expertise across the visual, decorative, literary and performing arts as well as finance and organisational development. In 2023 she joined the board of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival (Treasurer). She has held senior management positions at leading Victorian public institutions, including Heide Museum of Modern Art and the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), and worked for many years in art research and valuations in galleries and auction houses in Melbourne and London. Since her appointment at MAPh, Anouska has curated group and single artist exhibitions with leading Australian practitioners, such as Tamara Dean's Leave Only Footprints (2022); The Tucker Portraits (2020); Allusion & Illusion: The Fantastical World of Valerie Sparks (2018); and Robyn Stacey: As Still As Life (2018). She has also commissioned exhibitions such as STAGES: Photography through the Pandemic (2021); Portrait of Monash: The Ties That Bind (2020); and the major survey exhibition and publication of Anne Zahalka, ZAHALKAWORLD – An Artist's Archive (2023).
Hamish Sawyer
Hamish Sawyer is a curator, writer and currently the Artistic Director of NorthSite Contemporary Arts in Gimuy/Cairns. His practice is informed by close collaboration with artists. Recent curatorial projects include Compositional Utterances, The Old Court House, Cairns (2024) and Sam Cranstoun: You Are Neither Here Nor There, University of Sunshine Coast (2023). Hamish was previously the interim Director of Outer Space, a not-for-profit contemporary arts organisation based in Meanjin/Brisbane. From 2016 to 2019, Hamish was Curator at the Caloundra Regional Gallery on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, where he organised exhibitions by artists including Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan, Elizabeth Willing, and Laith McGregor. Hamish also worked at the QAGOMA, serving as a co-curator for the 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT8) in 2015.
Percival Prize Judges
Painting Prize Judge
Bradley Vincent
Bradley Vincent is an independent curator and writer based on Queensland's Gold Coast. Most recently he served as the Head of Curatorial and Programs at HOTA Gallery, working on the preparations, opening and initial three years of exhibitions for the new gallery.
His projects at HOTA included the opening exhibition Solid Gold: Artists from paradise and debut international exhibition Pop Masters: Art from the Mugrabi Collection, New York. He commissioned projects with leading local and national artists and oversaw the development and delivery of Education and Public Programming across the gallery.
Prior to this he was co-director at Sydney's influential, independent art space ALASKA Projects.
Photographic Prize Judge
Tony Albert
Tony Albert is one of Australia's foremost contemporary artists with a longstanding interest in the cultural misrepresentation of Aboriginal people. Drawing on both personal and collective histories, his multidisciplinary practice considers the ways in which optimism might be utilised to overcome adversity. His work poses crucial questions such as how do we remember, give justice to, and rewrite complex and traumatic histories?
Tony is acknowledged industry wide as a valued ambassador for Indigenous community and culture. He was recently announced as the inaugural Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain First Nations Curatorial Fellow. He is the first Indigenous Trustee for the Art Gallery of New South Wales, a member of the Art Gallery of New South Wales Indigenous advisory, a board member for the City of Sydney's Public Art Panel and member of the Art & Place Board at the Queensland Children's Hospital and in January 2023 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Griffith University for his significant contribution to the arts.
Animal Prize Judge
Dr Chris Pretorius
Veterinarian at Kings Road Vet Surgery
Dr Chris grew up on a working farm in rural South Africa, he studied Veterinary Science and qualified in 1989 from the University of Pretoria. He worked for the Department of Agriculture for 4 years before opening his own clinic, and later a second clinic, treating all creatures great and small. He moved over to Australia in 2005 with his wife and three children. First living and working in Ballarat, Victoria, before moving to Townsville in 2006. Initially he worked at Kelso Veterinary clinic, then bought a share in another Vet Clinic in Townsville where he was a partner and part owner for 9 years. Then 10 years passed and in February 2016, Chris opened his own clinic Kings Road Vet Surgery. Chris has an interest in all procedures but has a real passion for all orthopaedic surgeries, especially cruciate and hip surgeries. He is a very down-to-earth, practical vet who truly cares about his patients and their family. Chris has 1 dog; Bobbie the Pomeranian and 2 horses; Power and Milo. When Chris isn't at work, he is usually spending his free time camping with his family or riding his horses.
Previous Percivals
To view a history of previous years of The Percivals, visit the page below: