Ryan Presley has won the $100,000 Telstra Art Award at the 2026 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA), announced at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT) in Darwin on 7 August.
Presley’s Our lifestyle of tranquillity undisturbed (2026), an oil painting on polyester measuring 187 by 152 centimetres, was selected from a field of 64 finalist works drawn from 221 entries. Born in Mparntwe (Alice Springs) and now based in Logan, Queensland, Presley is a Marri Ngarr artist whose practice spans painting, printmaking, sculpture, video, installation and writing.
His work examines the visual and material systems through which power is established and maintained. According to MAGNT, Presley’s practice is distinguished by its engagement with memory and resistance, using the legacies of settler colonialism to interrogate the relationships between currency, ritual and state authority.
The 2026 awards, now in their 43rd year, brought together artists working across painting, bark painting, sculpture, multimedia and works on paper. The exhibition also marks the 40th anniversary of the Wandjuk Marika Memorial 3D Award, recognising the legacy of the Yolŋu artist and leader.
Dr Shannon Brett, a Wakka Wakka, Butchulla and Gurang Gurang artist and the exhibition’s guest curator, said the selected works shared Indigenous perspectives from across Australia. “Across all career stages, First Nations artists are sharing stories through their creative practice, with language, culture and truth at the forefront,” she said.
Presley’s award places his work within a national presentation of contemporary First Nations art that encompasses diverse materials, cultural knowledge and artistic approaches. His practice has previously been exhibited at institutions including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Artspace in Sydney and the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven. He is represented by Milani Gallery and received a Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship in 2025.
The 2026 Telstra NATSIAA exhibition is on view at MAGNT in Darwin until 24 January 2027.
