Kelly Wilkinson is the recipient of the Textures of One 2026 Major Prize with her work Present Tense. Piper Fraser is the recipient of the 2026 Textures of One People’s Choice award, receiving over 10% of votes placed during the exhibition, with the work The Tea Set Shops.
The annual exhibition ran at Millthorpe Creative Arts in April and early May. Photos and next year’s theme about Textures of One
Artist statement: ‘Ghost in the Present Tense’ explores the thin, shifting line between presence and absence. This portrait isn’t trying to pin down a fixed identity; instead, it sits with the quiet friction of being a person in a digital, fractured age. The blurred features hint at someone moving through memory or caught in a moment that hasn’t fully formed. With the surroundings stripped away, the eyes become the only anchor, the last place where certainty might live. The work asks whether we can truly be somewhere when our attention is constantly pulled apart. It’s a study of the modern ghost: a body in the room, a mind drifting elsewhere, suspended in the soft nowhere of introspection.
Major Prize Award Judge, Jane Tonks also added: This work jumped out at me from my very first circle around the two rooms of the gallery. It is a potent, hauntingly beautiful artwork, skilfully rendered with expressive paintwork and charcoal. I was drawn to way the Artist has confidently obscured the image with dripping paint and course brushwork to mask the face. The eye penetrates the painting, piecing through, making direct eye contact with my own. The face seems to express sadness and hope in equal measure, wanting the world to stop and notice. It says “Stop, look, listen to me, I have something to say”. In the age of digital technology and communication, the Artist articulates the challenges of living with the addictive pull of digital distractions, scrolling and the world of constant information overload. In the words of the Artist, “It’s a study of the modern ghost: a body in the room, a mind drifting elsewhere, suspended in the soft nowhere of introspection. Congratulations Kelly on an excellent artwork.
Pictured: Present Tense, Kelly Wilkinson