Renowned artist and 2023 Cossack Art Awards overall winner Jenna Pickering has been selected as this year’s Artist in Residence.
The Artist in Residence program, supported by principal partner Rio Tinto, returns to the historic town of Cossack in July, which the award-winning Jenna Pickering will call home during her four-week residency.
The 26-year-old has been awarded The Lester Prize’s Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize and Toni Fini Foundation Prize and was recently featured on ABC’s Portrait Artist of the Year.
She is known for her hyperrealistic style using found objects such as beer cans, signs, paperwork, and wood as her canvas.
City of Karratha Mayor Daniel Scott said Jenna Pickering’s selection as Artist in Residence was a testament to the calibre of artists attracted through the Cossack Art Awards.
“Jenna’s work is technically outstanding and conceptually powerful, and her connection to place through found materials makes her an exciting fit for a residency in Cossack,” Mayor Scott said.
“Having a former overall winner return to Cossack in this capacity speaks to the strength of our arts program and the lasting relationships built through the Cossack Art Awards.
“Cossack is a place rich with stories, textures and history, and the residency allows artists to immerse themselves in that environment and respond creatively to it.”
During her four-week residency, Ms Pickering will live and work in Cossack, drawing inspiration from the landscape, heritage buildings and local stories, with opportunities for the community to engage with her practice.
Jenna Pickering said returning to the Cossack Art Awards as the artist in residence is like coming full circle.
"Cossack holds such a special place in my heart as the first major prize I ever won,” she said.
“It gave me the gusto to believe in myself a bit more and that maybe I wasn’t so bad after all. So, this is a full circle moment to be able to give back to the prize that gave me the confidence.”
The 2026 Cossack Art Awards will open for submissions in March, with the public exhibition open from 19 July to 9 August 2026. For more information visit cossackartawards.com.au/information-for-artists.
The Cossack Art Awards are presented by the City of Karratha with principal partner Rio Tinto.