Photography Review by Brian Rope
Mullins Conceptual Photography Prize (MCPP) 2026 (Various artists)
Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre (MRAC) - 13 August to 10 October 2026
2026 sees the 8th Mullins Conceptual Photography Prize (MCPP), although it had other names in its early years.
The winner of this year’s $30,000 prize is Troy Ruffels for a digital print on Composite Aluminium, titled Architectures of Connection, 2026. It will be acquired and join all previous MCPP winners in the Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre (MRAC) permanent collection of post-war contemporary paintings, ceramic and photography.
The artist statement explains the title, telling us that “what usually escapes perception appears as a fleeting architecture of connection.” It shows us fine strands revealing patterns of movement and explores how photography can reveal delicate yet resilient connections.
Troy Ruffels - Architectures of Connection, 2026, Digital Print on Composite Aluminium, 70 × 120 × 3 cm
The adjudicators also Highly Commended Jenny Pollak for ‘A line in the sand’ and Aidan Galeger for ‘Into the Sun’. Those works, and all the other selected finalists and their accompanying artist statements can be seen in a virtual gallery here.
As always when an exhibition’s artworks are by numerous entrants, I’ll now follow my practice of discussing just a selection of other exhibits I found most interesting.
Ann Vardanega’s artwork is part of a project about domestic and family violence. In this piece, the artist has successfully explored the concept of the environment as a place of regeneration. It is excellent to have an artist responding to an incredibly important issue.
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| Ann Vardanega - Spirit of the Land 2, 2025, digital inkjet print on cotton rag paper, framed |
David Bignell’s ‘Reflecting’ looks at a person through an apparently moving train’s window. His concept is that by showing a blurred figure amidst reflections from inside and outside the window, he is showing us something of how our memories are often what determines how we see ourselves. I related strongly to this because reflections in and through windows are a significant part of my own photography - although I have never thought about my work in the way Bignell has done.
David Bignell - Reflecting, 2026, Inkjet print on Ilford Galerie Gold Fibre Gloss
Another artwork addressing a most important issue is by Julie Millowick. Its title clearly identifies the issue – plastic in waterways being ingested by marine life, thus causing the marine consumer’s death. Noting that plastic pollution has become endemic, the artist photographs plastic bags so they seem to be in waterways and so the created visual beauty hides the toxic impact.
Julie Millowick, Plastic in waterways is consumed by marine life who perceive it as algae or jellyfish_3, 2025, Digital Image, Inkjet print on 100% Cotton Rag
Lilli Waters is a Thai-Australian. Here she has explored her Thai heritage and ancestral mythology. The underwater still-life intertwines plants, flowers, and fish. The resultant meditative scene reflects Waters’ pre-occupation with the natural world in the context of her cultural memory. Essentially an autobiographical landscape, this is a most attractive visual artwork. Printing it on fibre rag adds to its beauty.
Lilli Waters - Nāga’s Lanterns โคมไฟของนาค, 2025, archival pigment print on fibre rag
Peter Charuk’s video artwork engages with a landscape where cane is grown. He has recorded a rapidly changing landscape. The outcome is an excellent contribution to discussion about the significantly important issue of climate change. It challenges us to ask ourselves what the social implications of our human use of the landscape are.
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Peter Charuk – Collateral Atmospherics 28 18’ 51’’ S 153 26’ 4’’ E, 2026, single-channel video, colour, sound (stereo)
Rebecca Polonski’s ‘Un-Becoming’ addresses yet another important social issue in today’s world. The artist has done this by using negative images and excluding elements that she did not wish to show. Lichen on one side of the artwork draws our attention away from the face on the opposite side. This portrays the feelings of today’s youth that are overlooked or pushed to the fringes of our crowded world. The artist statement says that over time the cloth on which the piece is printed will weather and the youngster will gradually disappear. Of course, or young selves all do that as we age.
Rebecca Polonski – Un-Becoming, 2026, Pigmented ink on linen
The final exhibit I will mention is by Sandra Barnard. Her artist statement reveals it is a camera-less photograph made by exposing photographic paper inside an enlarger’s bellows. She has put various objects into that space and exposed them directly. In the resultant “reversed” image, the subject has become the film and the print is, in effect, the negative. The artwork references William Henry Fox Talbot's 1844 negative-positive photographic process and, specifically, that artist’s work 'Articles of Glass'
Sandra Barnard - That Might Look Good in My Enlarger II – Cruets CMYKRGB, 2025, Hand printed Chromogenic Photograph
Go see this exhibition if you can. And study the works and artist statements closely online.
This review is also available on the author's blog.
