Brisbane-based artist Elena Churilova has won the $40,000 acquisitive 2026 The Percival Portrait Painting Prize in the biennial portrait competition – revealing the smartphone’s power to reshape perception.
Elena Churilova, Smartphonization, or Gateway to Inner Reality (detail), 2026, portrait of Victor Churilov, watercolours on Arches paper, 76 × 40cm / Winner of the 2026 Percival Portrait Painting Prize / Courtesy of the artist and Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Queensland
Known for a lyrical, magic realism style, in Smartphonization, or Gateway to Inner Reality, 2026, the smartphone becomes a portal; reality bends as the street is reframed as a stage. Ibises and a dingo – which could just as easily be a stray dog – become an audience. And action, a myth. On show at Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Queensland, until 30 August 2026.
