The Percivals 2026

Jo Lankester: Portraiture has remained a really important platform for artists to be able to tell unique stories about significant people in their lives.

Serena Bentley: A really powerful portrait is one that encourages us to consider the interrelationships between us as humans.

Elena Churilova: Welcome to The Percivals 2026.

Sasha Grishin: It's wonderful for Townsville to have something like The Percivals because it brings together, if you like, the attention of the whole nation.

Cr Ann-Maree Greaney: It gives local artists a voice to exhibit their works, and it really, really contributes to the cultural tapestry of Townsville.

Sasha Grishin: What do I look for when I'm looking at portraits for judging? Essentially, I'm trying to understand what goal does the artist set themself in the work? How successful is it being resolved? And was it worth setting?

The smartphone has really revolutionised the way we look at the external world. It's a painting by the artist Elena Churilova, she also asked this rather subtle question. Is the smartphone also starting to erode our personality? Is it eroding our identity? Are we no longer who we are?

Elena Churilova: You see a lot of people around using their phones. Smartphone becomes a gateway to the bigger world, and at the same time, it's like a portal into your inner world. We all live in our thinking bubbles, separated from each other.

Serena Bentley: When I'm judging a portrait at this level, there are a number of things that I think about. I'm considering or looking for the imagination of the artist.

I'm looking for a work that transcends pure likeness, that moves beyond that immediate moment between artist and sitter, and conveys messages
outside the work itself.

This, for the artist, is a portrait also about infertility, and it's about dealing
with the expectations around the conventions of being female,
about our expectations of motherhood.

Cassandra McMahon: You get asked up to a certain point when you're going to have children, and then you sort of reach your 40s and reach your 50s and people stop asking. So I just wanted to sort of subvert that language, bringing women back into the fore that it's not just about one purpose. It's not just about biological destiny. It's like, it's more than that.

Ron McBurnie: For the pet portraits, I wanted to see something special about the pet, something about the personality of the pet. This work here by Catherine Stewart. Nero is very a bossy dog and rules the house.

Catherine Stewart: I'm actually hoping they get a reaction. Someone will come along and say, ‘Oh how cute, you know, a little yellow raincoat’. And yet you’ll get someone else who will come along and say, ‘Gosh, that’s ridiculous, you know, a dog in a raincoat’.

Jo Lankester: The Percivals is an important platform for both emerging and established artists to be able to be shown side by side.

Cr Ann-Maree Greaney: There is always something different in this exhibition.

Cassandra McMahon: There is so much incredible work here.

Sasha Grishin: If I had to sum up in one sentence The Percival for 2026, I would probably reduce it to a single word, ‘Wow’.

Elena Churilova: This watercolour we outlive me, the creator. Actually, it feels almost surreal.