Juncture Art Prize 2026

juncture art prize 2026

2026 Winners Announced

Gian Manik
Sarah CrowEST

Exhibition Dates

20 August > 9 November 2026

PAST EXHIBITIONS

+ JUNCTURE 2024

Established in 2023, JUNCTURE is a biennial prize, awarded to two mid-career artists by Linden New Art. It is a national open callout, with the artists selected by a panel of industry professionals. The two artists will each receive a cash prize of $20,000, to support exciting new directions in their practices, culminating in an exhibition at Linden New Art in 2026.

The selection framework for JUNCTURE is defined by a demonstrated history of success, and the potential for substantial future outcomes. It is designed to support radical thinking, conversations, and the development of artistic practice. JUNCTURE is a platform to support those on the precipice of a significant advancement in their practice.

The funds can be used for any purpose in support of the artist’s objectives, such as research, technical experimentation, or working with other creative practitioners to learn, share ideas and develop skills. JUNCTURE aims to relieve the restriction that inhibit artists pursuing their innovative ideas and advancing and pushing their practice. We are looking for artists who are at a juncture in their career, where they are ready to pursue future directions, discovery and risk-taking.

JUNCTURE Art Prize has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.

2026 prize Recipients

GIAN MANIK
Gian Manik is a Naarm-based artist whose dextrous approach to image-making is characterised by an irreverence for genre and driven by a compulsion to paint. Interested in undermining the colonial properties arming the buttresses of historical painting, Manik ambiguates tradition through the representation of multivalent or tangential subjects.

Gian Manik (b. 1985 in Perth/Boorloo) received a BFA (Honours) from Curtin University in 2011. After relocating to Naarm/Melbourne, the artist completed a Master of Fine Art (Honours) at Monash University in 2012. Since then, he has exhibited widely across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand in institutional and commercial contexts. He has received institutional commissions by the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (2022) and the Perth Institute for Contemporary Art (2024). Additionally, his work has been featured in significant exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney; Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth/Boorloo and the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.

Gian Manik’s JUNCTURE project will investigate the ontology of Orientalist collections and their influence on exoticism and cultural reclamation. Drawing on historical works from selected international museums, the project will unfold across three core areas: historical research into space, place, and art production; technical exploration of materials, relief, and labour; and the creation of a new, conceptually rich body of work. Through this process, Manik aims to critically reframe how cultural narratives are preserved and presented.

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SARAH CROWEST
Sarah CrowEST works across discipline boundaries of contemporary art, design and social practice to encompass diagrammatic scores and performance. Sound and typographic forms are recurring backbeats in her output which occupies a conceptual space underpinned by sustainability, feminism and diversity. Recent paintings follow instruction protocols (recipes) expressed through the idiosyncratic use of language and graphic qualities of text.

CrowEST lives and works in Melbourne and has recently undertaken residencies at Fremantle Arts Centre, Perth, Megalo Print Workshop, Canberra and Lottozero Textile Laboratory, Prato, Tuscany. CrowEST’s work was featured in Phaidon’s publication Vitamin T: Threads and Textiles in Contemporary Art.

Recent solo exhibitions: The Little Machine, Adelaide, LON Gallery, Melbourne, Gallery 9, Sydney, Lottozero Kunsthalle, Prato, Italy and RE_UP commission, Melbourne NOW, National Gallery of Victoria. CrowEST is represented by LON Gallery, Melbourne/Naarm.

Sarah CrowEST's JUNCTURE project will examine the materiality and expanded potential of language, occupying the intersection of poetry, signage, lyrics, absurd didacticism, and diagrammatic scores. This ambitious project will experiment with materials such as woollen blankets and felting fibres, and techniques including digital embroidery, graphic transfers, and archival printing. The work will push the boundaries of text-based art, inviting viewers to consider the shifting roles and forms of language in visual culture.

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