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The Jury Art Prize 2026
Temporal State
Lauren Elise Kennedy
Ink, Acrylic, Graphite
As I write this, I am reflecting on the many places that lie beneath the surface. This painting has lived many lives. It began in the Macdonald Ranges, then in the Pilbara, which shifted to a wildly abstract work as Cyclone Narelle approached. It finally resolved in my native garden at sundown, where I raced the light under forced urgency and surrendered to the process.
What remains is not a singular landscape, but an accumulation of encounters. The work is not fixed: instead, it holds fragments of time, place, and emotional register.
Each layer acts as both record and residue, allowing different outlooks to coexist within the same surface.
For me, painting is the truest form of re-grounding amidst uncertainty, and this work, ‘Temporal State’, reflects how life, landscape and emotion continually fold into one another. In this sense, the painting is not just an image, but a lived process.
About the Artist
Lauren Elise Kennedy
Mid West
Lauren Kennedy's paintings unveil her sensitive observations and personal interpretation of surrounding Landscapes. Employing fluid, organic mark-making, often disrupted by the outdoor elements, Lauren is devoted to creating raw, honest paintings that embody her experience of place. Using tools and methods to relinquish control, she embraces her inherent spontaneity to enliven the surface and remain captivated in the present moment. Responding intuitively as a dancer would to rhythm. Gathering inspiration from everyday nuances of rural life in Midwest WA, where she currently lives and works. B. 1988, Lauren grew up in Geraldton and laid the foundations for her art career at Edith Cowan University, Perth, graduating in 2012 with a BA in Visual Arts and Textiles. Lauren was recently awarded the Hangers Prize at Glover Art Prize 2025 and was the overall winner of 'Heart of the Bush' National Art Prize in 2023. She has been named a finalist in many prestigious prizes, including the Glover Art Prize, the National Emerging Art Prize in NSW, the Royal Perth Art Prize for Landscape, the Midwest Art Prize, and the Melville Art Prize. Her paintings serve as a form of meditation, by escaping life's monotonous responsibilities and re-grounding into visceral depictions of her surrounding environment.