UniSQ Biennial Art Award Returns for 2026
With a $24,000 prize pool and an acquisitive major award, the UniSQ Biennial Art Award is once again calling for entries from artists across the country.
Pictured: 2021 Winner: ‘Florilegium ...traversing the poetry of plant’
Crafted by former local Sarah Rayner in collaboration with Sophie Carnell. The collection features intricate pieces finished with porcelain and silver. Sarah’s works are inspired by her admiration of the natural environment, particularly Australian native plants and their unique fruits and seeds.
Published 07 May 2026
Written by TFG Team
Photography supplied by Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery
Art prizes have long played an important role in shaping Australia’s contemporary art landscape. Beyond the prize money itself, they offer something equally valuable; visibility, momentum, validation, and a chance for artists to place their work into a broader cultural conversation.
Established in 1989, the UniSQ Biennial Art Award has evolved into an important platform for contemporary Australian art, continuing to champion both established and emerging artists from across the country.
Returning for 2026, the award once again places Toowoomba and the University of Southern Queensland within the national contemporary arts conversation, celebrating contemporary practice across a wide range of disciplines and mediums.
Artists are invited to submit works spanning painting, drawing, sculpture, textiles, ceramics, photography, works on paper and multidisciplinary practice, with no prescribed theme and an intentionally open-medium format that allows space for experimentation, individuality and conceptual diversity.
At the centre of the award is a $20,000 acquisitive major prize, alongside a $3,000 acquisitive Emerging Artist Award and a $1,000 People’s Choice Award, bringing the total prize pool to $24,000.
Importantly, the acquisitive structure means winning works become part of the University’s collection, helping build a growing archive of contemporary Australian art while also giving artists the opportunity to have their work permanently housed within a public institutional collection.
The award is open to Australian citizens and permanent residents, with artists able to submit up to five works for consideration.
There will be two rounds of judging, with finalists selected from submitted images before invited works are exhibited in the UniSQ Art Gallery later this year. Finalists will then be assessed on technical skill, originality and conceptual strength by a judging panel chaired by the Director of Creative UniSQ alongside independent guest judges.
For emerging artists especially, awards like this can often become pivotal career moments; opening doors to future exhibitions, gallery representation and wider recognition.
Entries for the 2026 UniSQ Biennial Art Award are now open and close 20 July 2026, with full submission details, terms and conditions available via UniSQ.
