From robotic vacuums and kinetic sculpture to the Kimberley night sky, ten Western Australian artists have created new works for this year’s Invitation Art Prize.
Running from Thursday 29 October at the Joondalup Contemporary Art Gallery, one artist will take home the $25,000 prize and have their artwork added to the City’s permanent collection.
This year’s exhibition brings together a diverse mix of painting, photography, sculpture and installation, with plenty to discover throughout the gallery.
- David Attwood gives the humble robotic vacuum a new life, pairing used and worn-out ‘robovacs’ with fluorescent lights in two wall-based works exploring our fascination with labour-saving technology.
- Amanda Bell’s Ngaank wardiny draws on memory of First Nations experiences. Using a found baby’s cot, corrugated iron, hessian and other materials, the installation explores family, loss and memory.
- More than 150 aluminium channels move together in David Brazier’s Labour Patterns #26, a large-scale kinetic sculpture exploring the systems and forces that shape how we work.
- Christophe Canato blurs the line between people and objects in Performing Absence, a photographic series featuring almost human-like forms created from bedspreads, blankets, tent canvas and other everyday materials.
- Jacky Cheng transforms upcycled Chinese calendars into hand-formed vessels in Where Conversations Gather, reflecting on gathering, memory and how cultural knowledge travels across generations and places.
- Brett Leigh Dicks captures the changing industrial landscape around Neerabup in a series of 12 photographs exploring the impact of development, technology and industry on the places around us.
- Louise Malarvie’s Milky Way captures the night sky as seen from the Kimberley during the dry season, using natural pigments across a large three-part painting to create a sense of light and movement.
- Amy Perejuan-Capone brings together 144 handmade ceramic tiles in Vdes II, with individual bees preserved in metal and placed into small spaces formed by the artist’s thumb, reflecting on mortality.
- Inspired by stargazing under an unfamiliar sky, Ash Tower’s Wrong Sky Relic imagines a star map where the stars have fallen out of place, exploring our attempts to find order and meaning in the unknown.
- Ben Galmirr Ward brings to life Miriwoong Country, before and after the construction of Lake Argyle, sharing memories and stories of Country connected to his key Dreaming, Bilbiljim or Grasshopper Dreaming.
The 2026 Invitation Art Prize runs from Thursday 29 October - Saturday 12 December at the Joondalup Contemporary Art Gallery. Entry is free. The gallery is open Thursday to Saturday, 10am–4pm.
Come and discover the ten new works for yourself and see who takes home this year’s $25,000 prize.
Image: David Attwood, Post New Robomaids, 2026. Image courtesy of artist. Photo by Aleph.