The 69th Blake Prize
The Blake Prize is a biennial exhibition that highlights local and international contemporary artists who explore ideas of spirituality and religion through contemporary artworks. The 69th Blake Prize will be exhibited at Liverpool Powerhouse from Saturday 2 May - Sunday 14 June 2026.
The Blake Art Prize has been challenging artists to explore spirituality and religion through their art since 1951, and Liverpool Powerhouse (formerly Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre) has been home to the prize since 2016. Liverpool Powerhouse is ideally positioned in Liverpool, a community of people from over 150 different birthplaces, speaking over 140 languages with an equally diverse range of faith backgrounds.
From 2017 Liverpool Powerhouse in partnership with WestWords has delivered The Blake Poetry Prize as a biennial event. It continues to engage contemporary poets, both national and international, in conversations concerning faith, spirituality, religion and/or belief. It runs alongside the Blake Art Prize and the major prize is $5000.
The 69th Blake Art Prize finalists have been selected by a panel of judges renowned for their contribution to the discourse of contemporary art and spirituality in Australia.
Winners 69th Blake Prize 2026
Winner of the 69th Blake Art Prize: Tarik Ahlip
Winner of the Blake Acquisitive Art Prize: Jennifer Kemarre Martiniello OAM
Winner of the Blake Next Gen Art Scholarship: Sary Zananiri
Winner Blake Poetry Prize 2026: Chen Wang
The 69th Blake Art Prize Finalists
The finalists for the 69th Blake Art Prize are as follows:
- Akil Ahamat (Bondi Junction, NSW 2022)
- Tarik Ahlip (Brunswick East, VIC 3057)
- Giles Alexander (Earlwood, NSW 2206)
- Jiva Parthipan and Zanny Begg (Bullie, NSW 2516)
- Dagmar Cyrulla (Ascot Vale, VIC 3032)
- Christine Dean (Hazelbrook, NSW 2779)
- Tamara Dean (Cambewarra, NSW 2540)
- Paula do Prado (Kensington, NSW 2033)
- Emma Fielden (Umina Beach, NSW 2257)
- Todd Fuller (Arncliffe, NSW 2205)
- Phillip George (Bondi, NSW 2026)
- Croydon Wharéc (Woy Woy, NSW 2256)
- Morgan Hogg (Ashfield, NSW 2131)
- Drew Connor Holland (Surry Hills, NSW 2010)
- Emily Hunt (Maloneys Beach, NSW 2536)
- Delia Juburri (Winnellie, NT 0822)
- Cameron Kawurlkku (Winnellie, NT 0822)
- Pā'utu-'O-Vava'u-Lahi, Adriana Māhanga Lear (Richlands, QLD 4077)
- Dr Kirsten Garner Lyttle (Northcote, VIC 3070)
- Enoch Mailangi (Roselands, NSW 2196)
- Jennifer Kemarre Martiniello OAM (Rivett, ACT 2611)
- Vedika Rampal (Hornsby, NSW 2077)
- Caroline Rothwell (Rockdale, NSW 2216)
- Lauri Smith (Stanmore, NSW 2048)
- Nicola Smith (Elizabeth Bay, NSW 2011)
- EJ Son (Summer Hill, NSW 2130)
- Ali Tahayori (Forest Lodge, NSW 2037)
- Tony Tran (Chester Hill, NSW 2162)
- Murat Urlali (Woolloomooloo, NSW 2011)
- Bugai Whyoulter (Newman, WA 6753)
- Prita Tina Yeganeh (Highgate Hill, QLD 4101)
- Sary Zananiri (Collingwood, VIC 3066)
- Gaius Wapi, Pius Wasi, Joachim Mamambi, and David Bridie, with video artist K. Deverell and the many cultural artists from Changriman Village, Chambri Lakes. (Apollo Bay, VIC 3233)
Judges Statement:
This year’s shortlist for the Blake Prize reflects an exceptional breadth of practice, bringing together a rich and genuine mix of media, of artistic forms, genres, generations, and levels of artistic experience.
The judges were repeatedly struck by the seriousness with which artists engaged questions of spirituality, understood broadly and inclusively - not as a single tradition or belief system, but as a field encompassing diverse practices, orientations, inheritances, doubts, and relations to religion and culture more broadly.
Across very different approaches, the shortlisted works demonstrate that spirituality, belief, and religion remain vital and generative concerns within contemporary artistic practice and culture more generally.
The judges were also pleased by the geographical range of the shortlisted artists, which offers a strong representation of practices from across the country. Taken together, the shortlist reflects both the vitality of the field and the capacity of contemporary art to approach spiritual questions with rigour, openness, and imaginative force.
Arriving at the shortlist was a difficult and, at times, heartbreaking process, given the consistently high standard of work submitted. The judges would like to thank all of the artists who entered for sharing their artworks with us.
The Blake Prize has a long history in this country, and if this year’s shortlist is anything to go by, it has a very long future ahead of it.
69th Blake Prize Judges:
Tess Allas, Chris Fleming and Claudia Nicholson
Blake Poetry Prize 2026:
Information about The Blake Poetry Prize 2026, organised by Westwords, can be found here: The 69th Blake Poetry Prize - Westwords
The 69th Blake Prize Catalogue:
Download your free copy of the 69th Blake Prize Catalogue: 69th Blake Prize Catalogue
The 69th Blake Art Prize Judging Panel
Claudia Nicholson, Visual Artist
Over the past decade, Nicholson’s practice has examined her relationship to Colombia and, more broadly, the Latin American region, in an ongoing negotiation of geographic, cultural, and temporal distance. These interests constitute a material exploration of kinship, memory and the struggle against forgetting – in both conscious and unconscious terms. In 2023-2024, Nicholson was the artist in residence at the University of Technology, Sydney and undertook a research and development program culminating in a solo exhibition, ‘If The Mountain Is Burning, Let It Burn’ (2024). In 2022, she was commissioned by the Sydney Opera House to develop a new video work, 'The Deep Rivers Say It Slowly' for Shortwave Festival which was screened at AGNSW as part of Projections #16: Blood, fire, feathers: The films of Ana Mendieta, 2024. In 2020, she was commissioned by the NGA to develop Art Trail, an art interpretation resource for children. In 2019, she was commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art to light up the facade of the MCA for Vivid Sydney. Nicholson is a recipient of the NSW Emerging Visual Arts Fellowship (2017).
Recent exhibitions and commissions include: New to the Collection, Campbelltown Arts Centre (2025), Same Same But Different; Bankstown Biennale, Bankstown Arts Centre (2024), Spot The Difference, Penrith Regional Gallery, Future in Focus: Contemporary Alumnae Artists, UNSW (2024), Braving Time: Contemporary Art in Queer Australia, National Art School (2023); Belonging, Art Gallery of New South Wales (2019). In 2024, her exhibition ‘If the Mountain Is Burning, Let It Burn’; UTS Gallery received significant press coverage, including reviews by Memo Review and Art Monthly Australasia, a profile in Art Collector Magazine and a radio interview with Daniel Browning for The Art Show ABC. Claudia is currently an Artist in Residence at Parramatta Artist Studios and lectures at UNSWAD.
Chris Fleming, Associate Professor in Humanities at Western Sydney University
Chris Fleming is an award-winning Australian writer, translator, and academic. He is the author or editor of ten books, including René Girard: Violence and Mimesis, Modern Conspiracy: The Importance of Being Paranoid, and the acclaimed memoir On Drugs (Giramondo). His essays, fiction, graphic work, and translations have appeared in publications such as HEAT, The Guardian, Overland, Artlink, Island, and The Los Angeles Review of Books. He is Associate Professor in Humanities and a member of the Writing and Society Research Centre at Western Sydney University.
Tess Allas, Independent Curator
Tess Allas is a visual arts curator, researcher, writer and artist specialising in contemporary Indigenous art. She has been engaged as a curator for the AGNSW, Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Cooperative, the Kluge Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection (USA), the Art Gallery of South Australia, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Wollongong Art Gallery, Murray Art Museum Albury, Carriageworks, the Museum of Sydney and currently at the Australian Museum. Her independently curated exhibitions as well as her own works as an artist have been shown in the Australia, Finland, France, Canada and the United States. Her visual art practice has included printmaking, ceramics and film.
Prize Information
- The Blake Art Prize | $35,000 | Non-Acquisitive: Established in 1951, The Blake Art Prize is an open art prize that challenges artists to engage in conversations relating to religion and spirituality. It is open to all faiths, artistic styles, and media. Non-acquisitive means that the artwork does NOT enter the Liverpool City Council Art Collection.
- The Blake Acquisitive Art Prize | $10,000 | Acquisitive: The Blake Acquisitive Art Prize is an acquisitive art prize of $10,000 with the winning artist’s entry becoming part of the Liverpool City Council Art Collection. This prize is an open prize which is open to all entrants of the Blake Prize. Acquisitive means that the artwork automatically enters into the Liverpool City Council Art Collection.
- The Blake Next Generation Scholarship | $5,000 | Non-Acquisitive: The Blake Next Generation Scholarship is awarded to an artist in the early stages of their professional practice who has not yet had a solo exhibition in an institutional setting. This prize supports the development of an artist’s practice and the presentation of a debut solo exhibition during the December 2027 – March 2028 exhibition block. Artists who have experienced career breaks are eligible to apply, provided they have not yet had an institutional solo exhibition.
- The Blake People's Choice Art Prize | $2,000 | Non-Acquisitive: The Blake People's Choice Art Prize will be the artwork with the highest votes by visitors to the exhibition. The winning artist will receive $2000. The winning voter will receive a voucher for Bellbird Restaurant at Liverpool Powerhouse. Non-acquisitive means that the artwork does NOT enter the Liverpool City Council Art Collection.
Key Dates
- Entry form opens: Monday 15 September 2025, 9am
- Entry form closes: Monday 17 November 2025, 12pm
- Liverpool Powerhouse Summer Closure: 22 December 2025 - 9 January 2026 (Please note: You will not be able to contact LP or any staff during this time due to summer closure period).
- Finalist announcement: Thursday 19 February 2026
- Finalist artwork delivery: Monday 16 March - Friday 20 March 2025 (UPDATED)
- Exhibition dates: Saturday 2 May - Sunday 14 June 2026
- Exhibition launch: Friday 1 May 2026
- Collection of artworks: Monday 22 June - Friday 26 June 2026
Entries now closed for the Blake Art Prize. Please see above for finalist announcement.
Past Blake Art Prize Winners
The 69th Blake Prize (2024) | The 67th Blake Prize (2022) | The 66th Blake Prize (2019) | The 65th Blake Prize (2018) | The 64th Blake Prize (2016) |
Winner – Shireen Taweel, Shoe Bathers, 2022, Installation, engraved & pierced copper, olive oil soap, timber, and sound. | Winner – S.J. Norman, Cicatrix (All that was taken, all that remains), 2021. Giclee prints, performance documentation. | Winner – Leyla Stevens, Kidung/Lament, 2019, video. | Winner – Tina Havelock Stevens, Giant Rock, 2017, video | Winner – Yardena Kurulkar, Kenosis, 2015, photo print |
About the Blake Art Prize
Since 1951, The Blake Prize has engaged artists, nationally and internationally, with ideas of spirituality and religion. The prize takes its name from William Blake, the world-famous 18th Century artist, and poet who threaded the religious and artistic throughout his practice. Building on this history, The 69th Blake Prize continues to encourage contemporary artists of varied styles and religious and spiritual allegiances to create significant works of art, which engage in conversations and negotiations concerning spirituality, religion and/or belief.
Liverpool Powerhouse (formerly Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre) has proudly presented The Blake Prize as a biennial event since 2016, ensuring the future of this landmark prize. Liverpool Powerhouse is ideally positioned in Liverpool, a community of people from over 150 different birthplaces, speaking over 140 languages with an equally diverse range of faith backgrounds. We are committed to supporting emerging and established artists to create work that reflect Australian communities.
Liverpool Powerhouse will maintain the guiding principles of The Blake Prize, continuing to engage contemporary artists, both nationally and internationally, in conversations concerning faith, spirituality, religion, hope, humanity, social justice, belief and non – belief. The Blake Prize presents an aesthetic means of exploring the wider experience of spirituality and all this may entail through the visionary imagining of contemporary artists.
About the Blake Poetry Prize
The Blake Poetry Prize challenges Australian poets to explore the spiritual and religious in a new work of 100 lines or less.
From 2017 Liverpool Powerhouse (formerly Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre) in partnership with WestWords has delivered The Blake Poetry Prize as a biennial event. It continues to engage contemporary poets, both national and international, in conversations concerning faith, spirituality, religion and/or belief. It runs alongside the Blake Art Prize and the major prize is $5000.
The Blake Poetry Prize is an aesthetic means of exploring the wider experience of spirituality with the visionary imagining of contemporary poets. The Blake Prize takes its name from William Blake, a poet and artist of undoubted genius, who integrated religious and artistic content in his work. The Blake Poetry Prize challenges contemporary poets of disparate styles to explore the spiritual and religious in a new work of 100 lines or less.
The Blake Poetry Prize is strictly non-sectarian. The entries are not restricted to works related to any faith or any artistic style, but all poems entered must have a recognisable religious or spiritual integrity and demonstrate high degrees of artistic and conceptual proficiency.
The Blake Poetry Prize is an open poetry prize that challenges artists to engage in conversations relating to religion and spirituality. It is open to all faiths and artistic styles.
