Natsiaa 2026: Ryan Presley wins $100,000 award for ‘monumental’ Renaissance-style portray | Indigenous artwork

An Indigenous artist’s portray that “presents a recomposed view of the past” and challenges the western canon, particularly Renaissance artwork, has received the $100,000 high prize on the forty third National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander awards (Natsiaa).

The Marri Ngarr artist Dr Ryan Presley obtained the award on Friday night for his 2.8 sq. metre oil on polyester portray, titled Our life-style of tranquillity undisturbed.

The portray depicts a male protagonist mendacity down on a ledge, draped in yellow sheets. A rifle rests in entrance of him, a canine yawns by his facet, and an owl flies overhead. Dark waters ripple off the sting in entrance of him, whereas a bushfire sparks on the orange horizon, signifying previous, current and future current concurrently.

Born in Mparntwe/Alice Springs and now primarily based on Yugambeh Country in Logan, Queensland, Presley stated he referenced Renaissance works together with Domenico Beccafumi’s The Annunciation (1546) in his portray to look at western archetypes.

“I wanted to put in the anachronism, this mixing of timelines … a past, present and future overlay,” Presley instructed Guardian Australia. “We see in western artworks how they set out archetypes … I really like that idea of translating that … and sort of redirecting and changing.”

In a press release earlier than the awards, Presley stated the portray “appears as a dreamscape that mediates the Orwellian slogan: ‘Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past’.”

The judging panel – Kamilaroi artist Warraba Weatherall, Kokatha and Nukunu artist Yhonnie Scarce, and Trawlwoolway artist Julie Gough – described Presley’s work as “a standout”, praising his incorporation of “diverse cultural, cross cultural and art history references”.

Adam Worrall, director of the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT), the place the art work is now on show together with the work of 64 different finalists, stated he was “captivated by Ryan’s monumental painting that presents a recomposed view of the past”.

“Across all career stages, First Nations artists are sharing stories through their creative practice, with language, culture and truth at the forefront,” stated Dr Shannon Brett, a Wakka Wakka, Butchulla and Gurang Gurang artist and curator who labored with Meriam artist Gail Mabo and Pakana artist Dean Greeno to pick this yr’s finalists from greater than 200 entries.

‘Genuine affirmation’

Jenna Mayilema Lee, a Gulumerridjin (Larrakia), Wardaman and KarraJarri girl primarily based in Naarm/Melbourne, received the work on paper class for her six danala (dillybags), known as Taking again taken, crafted from British Museum paper maps collected over 5 years.

“This is not theft for theft’s sake, but conceptual restitution, an act that asks: what does it mean to take from an institution built on taking?” Lee stated in a press release earlier than the award ceremony. “The danala stand as quiet refusals. Taking what was taken.”

Lee instructed Guardian Australia the win was “a genuine affirmation” from her group.

The Miwatj/Djapu artist Barayuwa Munuŋgurr received the bark portray award for The hidden reef at Yarrinya, an earth pigment piece on stringybark.

Speaking with a translator, Munuŋgurr stated the work depicts his mom’s Munyuku clan ancestors breaking kinship guidelines by killing their brother whale, Mirinyuŋu. Blinded by greed for fatty meat, a rarity amongst historically lean meals, they threw their stone knives into the ocean out of disgrace, forming the reef Garapana.

Applied oxide designs disguise the whale’s limbs and bones alongside the knives, concurrently concealing and revealing the narrative.

“What you see in those round bits is the tail of a whale skeleton left unpainted, that’s the actual natural bark that’s coming through,” he stated. “What you can’t see is that that’s connected, each one of those is connected to an entire skeleton.”

Munuŋgurr stated creating artwork is a part of his obligation as a standard lore-holder to protect cultural information.

‘Remember, the Country is listening to you’

The Western Aranda artist Vanessa Inkamala received the overall portray award for Arrkurla Nukala/Lyaarta Ntema (“before” and “after/today”). Painted in gouache and home paint on two recycled steel street indicators, the art work explores how her Tjoritja (West MacDonnell Ranges) homeland has modified in her lifetime.

Inkamala stated bitumen roads and cell phones have helped her keep related with long-distance household and permit her to seize reference pictures that she takes again to her artwork centre. But she stated it was essential to show the subsequent technology that “before phones we would just see the living Country, or we would see it in our memory”.

“We take [the kids] out bush and show this is the Country … remember, the Country is listening to you and you are listening to it, too, where you’re standing here.”

• The Natsiaa exhibition is on on the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory till 24 January 2027.

• Ima Caldwell lined the Natsiaas as a visitor of NT Tourism.

The full listing of 2026 Natsiaa winners

Telstra Art award: Our life-style of tranquillity undisturbed by Ryan Presley, who lives on Yugambeh Country/Logan City.

General portray award: Arrkurla Nukala/Lyaarta Ntema by Vanessa Inkamala, who lives in Mparntwe/Alice Springs.

Bark portray award: The hidden reef at Yarrinya by Barayuwa Munuŋgurr, who lives in Rurraŋala within the Northern Territory.

Work on paper award: Taking again taken by Jenna Mayilema Lee, who lives in Naarm/Melbourne.

Wandjuk Marika Memorial 3D award: Djambatj – Deadly hunter by Napuwarri Marawili, who lives in Yilpara within the Northern Territory.

Multimedia award: Ngirramini Ngini Amparruwu (The story of the widow) by Colin Heenan-Puruntatameri, who lives in Milikapiti within the Northern Territory.

Emerging artist award: Prismatic arc by Guruwuy Murrinyina, who lives in Gäṉgan within the Northern Territory.