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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n When Robert Fielding enters the room, he quietly takes in all the different artworks. His own is hung in one corner, but he walks straight up to another nearby \u2013 Minymaku Inma by Betty Campbell \u2013 then sits on the floor beneath it. He then makes his way across to Ngangkari Ngura (Healing Country) by Betty Muffler and does the same. Both artists, like Fielding, work in the APY Lands \u2013 and Campbell, like Fielding, works with Mimili Maku Arts.<\/p>\n Fielding\u2019s work Landscape has been announced as the 2026 winner of the $100,000 Hadley\u2019s Art Prize. He was first told the news over the phone, and now sitting in the gallery, his eyes start to fill with tears as recalls the moment he heard he had won.<\/p>\n \u201cI cried with tears of joy,\u201d he says. \u201cI had no words \u2013 and the two people came into my mind: my mum and my dad. Because when you see my artwork, it\u2019s all about stolen generations.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s been a big year for the artist in an already soaring career. His portrait Tjintir-Tjintir was a finalist in this year\u2019s Archibald, and Heritage impact assessment was a finalist in the Wynne prize.<\/p>\n Landscape is a scene that is mostly rendered in burnt red. Rundown cars are stacked on top of each other, tyres missing, doors open, windows gone. Down one side runs the word \u201cSacred\u201d. Across the top reads \u201cNganampa\u201d \u2013 ours.<\/p>\n For Fielding, whose work also spans printmaking and photography, abandoned cars are a recurring motif, as vessels that house memory.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is telling you a story of land \u2026 I\u2019m very harsh with myself because when I paint, I paint for people,\u201d he says. \u201cI paint for movement. I paint for what was inside those relics. Who owned them? Who did they belong to?\u201d he says. \u201cThey became heritage.\u201d<\/p>\n Run through Hobart\u2019s Hadley\u2019s Orient Hotel, the prize is one of the country\u2019s richest for visual arts. This year, it was judged by Abdul Abdullah, Judith Ryan and Sarah Wallace.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a very traditional mark-making process to tell a very contemporary and forward-looking story,\u201d says Abdullah. \u201cWhat drew me to it, even before we got into the room, was the way he wrote about it and his explanation.\u201d Fielding\u2019s work, Abdullah adds, \u201cwas interrogating landscape in a way that was unique in the prize\u201d.<\/p>\n Wallace says: \u201cIt\u2019s a familiar sight that you see in a lot of places across Australia. But for him, it wasn\u2019t something ugly or a blight on the landscape; it held memory and stories of Country, and travelling across Country.\u201d<\/p>\n The 26 finalist works on display at Hadley\u2019s, in a pop-up downstairs gallery, offer a fascinating insight not only into the Australian landscape, but how it is perceived through different eyes.<\/p>\n Walking through the exhibition, curator Dr Amy Jackett highlights details of each work.<\/p>\n One of the few works on paper is watercolour and collage work Entanglement by Grace Gladdish. Emerald Coral by Ken Done is so vibrant it spills off the canvas and onto the frame. The winner of the prize\u2019s residency award, Bunuru Nocturne, Derbal Yerrigan (High-Summer Night, Swan River) by Kelsey Ashe, is already unusual in that it depicts the landscape at night, then Jackett picks up a UV torch that makes the bioluminescent pigments glow wherever the light hits. Trill by Natasha Bieniek is so small and detailed it will be presented with a magnifying glass.<\/p>\n The climate emergency is a recurring theme across the exhibition. Joe Blundell\u2019s Tormented Land shows a scene of fallen trees, with the dirt between them littered with tracks of heavy machinery. It\u2019s an idea that also drove Alice Mannheim\u2019s work Log It!, which was awarded the Packing Room Prize.<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to show that these environments are disappearing because people are destroying them through logging and deforestation,\u201d Mannheim says. \u201cI chose the Daintree rainforest because it\u2019s very beautiful, but it\u2019s also at risk of being destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n At 19, she is the prize\u2019s youngest finalist, and this is the first time she has put her work forward for an award. She cites Harold Thornton\u2019s portrait of Bob Brown, Dr Brown and Green Old Time Waltz, 1983, as an influence. She says that living in Canberra, \u201cI\u2019ve always been drawn to it.\u201d<\/p>\n Her work is predominantly painted from memory, and she says: \u201cI chose the title Log It! because it\u2019s such a simple statement describing a simple action, but it has a very devastating impact.\u201d The irony is deliberate \u2013 the beauty and detail of the rainforest versus the ease in which it can be eradicated.<\/p>\n All the works \u2013 with the exception of Fielding\u2019s, which has been acquired by Hadley\u2019s \u2013 are for sale. \u201cThe prize to me means many things,\u201d says Fielding. \u201cIt means many opportunities. I\u2019m already planning.\u201d<\/p>\n For Fielding, this win is meaningful beyond a personal victory, and he emphasises the importance of paving the way for the next generation of artists and his work with Mimili Maku Arts in the APY Lands.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re here as a team, Mimili Maku Arts [to show] that art centres are our hub, our heartbeat, our unison, our grief, our sorrow, our finance, our fighting dream,\u201d he says. \u201cBut most of all, it\u2019s about respect.\u201d<\/p>\n The Hadley\u2019s Art Prize exhibition<\/a> is on at Hadley\u2019s Orient Hotel, Hobart, from August 1-23.<\/p>\n Elizabeth Flux travelled to Hobart as a guest of Hadley\u2019s Orient Hotel.<\/p>\n The Booklist is a weekly newsletter for book lovers from Jason Steger. Get it delivered every Friday<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n![\"Hadley\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/41ac1da2be94ddcebd7d22802f198e6cd42495ca.jpeg\")
Hadley\u2019s Art Prize 2026 winner Robert Fielding with his work Landscape.Jessica King<\/p>\n![\"Works](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/348820c681757242065784a57f9ade99e7425445.jpeg\")
Works by Imants Tillers, Betty Muffler and Mia Boe.Jessica King<\/p>\n![\"Bunuru](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/a68a42d3cf7040be64fa8feb89236f97f5a4bf59.jpeg\")
Bunuru Nocturne, Derbal yerrigan (High-Summer Night, Swan River) by Kelsey Ashe.Jessica King<\/p>\n![\"Artist](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/8f71ea3b290b3fc1e6171b29be2ac0c3ff67e912.jpeg\")
Artist Alice Mannheim pictured with her work Log It!<\/p>\n