Darebin Art Prize 2026

2026 Judges

Amita Kirpalani is currently curator of contemporary art at the National Gallery of Victoria where she has curated collection exhibitions and several solo exhibitions and projects by Australian and international artists with a keen interest in the moving image and performance practices. She has worked in the Asia-pacific region for over 20 years, and has held curatorial positions at Gertrude Contemporary, ArtScience Museum Singapore, The Australian Centre for the Moving Image and Canberra Contemporary Art Space. She has published widely and edited the online art journal Stamm (2012-2015) as well as the publication outcome of a multi-year ARC funded project, Precarious Movements: Choreography and the Museum, amongst others. 

Alert to both history and science, Geelong-born and Naarm-based artist Nicholas Mangan (b. 1979) is internationally recognised for unearthing and interrogating the stories embedded in objects, events and spaces. Defined as material storytelling, his critically acclaimed practice, situated at the intersection of sculpture and film, generates disconcerting and politically astute assemblages that form the foundation of his iterative projects. Attentive to the unflinching primacy of material through its ability to both convey and conceal narrative, Mangan frequently mines latent histories to boldly confront some of the most galvanising issues of our time.

• Sarah Werkmeister | Curator at Bundoora Homestead Art Centre 

Sarah is a curator, writer, editor and researcher based between Melbourne and Brisbane. She has written extensively and worked with Next Wave, QUT Art Museum, Shepparton Art Museum, YIRRAMBOI Festival, Public Art Melbourne and more. She has edited publications around the environment (Ecologising Museums, 2016) and feminism (Feminisms, 2018) with L’Internationale Online, and co-edited a chapter on the 13th Istanbul Biennial in I Can't Work Like This (2017). Her research interests encompass conceptions of public space, representations of nationhood in public art collections, and the climate. She holds a Masters of Art Curatorship from the University of Melbourne. 

• & YOU!

The People’s Choice Awards will be judged by you, our community! Voting will be open at our front desk and announced in the final weeks of the exhibition.