Kate Dorrugh has been announced as a finalist in the Northern Beaches Environmental Art & Design Prize for 2026 for her beautiful work Calligraphic Language of the River.
The practice of Dorrough sustains a conversation between paint and clay, launching an inquiry into the interplay and tension between the gestural mark and the hand built ceramic form. The artist's recent work explores landscape as metaphor, with its inland river systems a vital source of survival and bestowal of fertility. Dorrough considers the cyclicality of renewal and destruction that defines the land, her painterly gestural marks evoking totemic symbols of this enduring landscape.
Now in its sixth year, the prize is the leading national environmental prize for artists and designers, platforming inspiring and critical works that engage with today’s environmental issues.
An exhibition of finalists will be on display at Manly Art Gallery & Museum from 7 August — 20 September.
