George Watson awarded Jann Medlicott Award for Contemporary Art
GEORGE WATSON AWARDED INAUGURAL JANN MEDLICOTT AWARD FOR CONTEMPORARY ART
Tūranganui-a-Kiwa, Gisborne, artist George Watson has been awarded the 2026 Jann Medlicott Award for Contemporary Art.
The $30,000 prize, facilitated by Toi Tauranga Art Gallery and generously supported by the Acorn Foundation, recognises a single or body of work that has made a critical impact within the field of contemporary art in the last 12 months. 2026 marks the inaugural presentation of this significant new national art award which encourages and rewards early to mid-career contemporary artists or senior artists who are working in a new medium.
Watson (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Mutunga) was awarded for her exhibition Apologia, presented at Wellington's Robert Heald Gallery in August 2025. It explored invasion and ancestry using symbolic materials such as wool bale sacking, pins, cultivated sea pearls and paraffin wax. As part of the prize, she will present an exhibition at Toi Tauranga Art Gallery, opening in November 2026.
The 2026 judges were Andrew Clifford, Director of Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery in Whanganui; Sophie Davis, Director of Te Whare Toi o Heretaunga Hastings Art Gallery; and John Vea, an Ōtautahi Christchurch artist who works with sculpture, video and performance art.
In their joint statement, they said, “With the Jann Medlicott Award for Contemporary Art in its first year, selecting a recipient was both exciting and challenging, particularly without previous recipients to look back on.
“One criterion which prompted a lot of discussion for us was that the artist must be “rising in prominence.” While this could read as ‘emerging’, we felt it suggested something more nuanced. It spoke to an artist whose practice is gaining momentum, becoming more visible, more confident and more assured in its intentions. Although George has been practising for some time, we focused on her work produced within the timeframe of the award and were especially struck by her solo exhibition, Apologia. Known for a sculptural and installation practice that critically engages with colonial narratives and questions of cultural identity, Apologia fixes its gaze upon pākehā settler identity, focusing on the architectures of nationhood and belonging, and the potential of what is unrealised, suppressed or rendered invisible beneath these structures.”
Director of Toi Tauranga Art Gallery Sonya Korohina says, “We are extremely grateful that this generous New Zealand art prize now lives within the Toi Tauranga Art Gallery kaupapa for our community. After our hugely celebrated reopening in November and a stunning opening season, we look forward to welcoming George Watson into our spaces and introducing her poignant and beautiful work to our visitors in November.”
Lori Luke, CEO of the Acorn Foundation says, “Jann was a tireless supporter of the arts in the Bay of Plenty and beyond. This new contemporary art prize sits alongside her coveted Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction in the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards as two of the most significant prizes for New Zealand artists. This Jann Medlicott Prize for Contemporary Art, gifted in perpetuity, strives to uplift, inspire and support contemporary artists from Aotearoa New Zealand long into the future.”
George Watson says, “I am incredibly honoured to be awarded the first iteration of the Jann Medlicott award for Contemporary Art. It has been a privilege to get to meet some of Jann’s close friends and hear more about her love of, and ongoing support for, the arts in Aotearoa.
“This generous award will undoubtedly have a hugely positive impact on my work and the development of my artistic practice as well as the practices of future recipients. Thanks also to the judges of this prize, Acorn Foundation and Toi Tauranga Art Gallery, I really look forward to working towards a new exhibition at the gallery in November.”
Watson holds a Bachelor of Media Arts from Waikato Institute of Technology, an Honours in Art History from the University of Auckland, and an MFA from Elam School of Fine Arts. In 2019, she completed the Maumaus Independent Study Programme in Lisbon, Portugal and in 2024 was an artist-in-residence at the McCahon House Artist Residency.
Follow Toi Tauranga Art Gallery’s exhibitions and events on the website and social media channels (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn).
Ends
For further information, interviews and images, please contact: Siobhan Waterhouse on siobhan@siobhanwaterhouse.nz or via What’s App on +44 7 884 598 345.
About Toi Tauranga Art Gallery
Toi Tauranga Art Gallery is the preeminent visual arts destination in the Bay of Plenty region.
One of the key partners in Tauranga city’s civic precinct, Te Manawataki o Te Papa, the Gallery’s purpose is to help visitors build lifelong relationships with art by offering exceptional experiences that engage, inspire, educate and challenge.
With a year-round programme of work by leading national and international artists, Toi Tauranga Art Gallery works with emerging to established practitioners, across a wide range of research, media and creative practice.
The organisation values its partnership with tangata whenua of Tauranga Moana and prioritises partnership and kaitiakitanga (guardianship), operating in an environmentally and culturally responsible way.
About the Acorn Foundation
The Acorn Foundation has been connecting generous people with causes that matter in the Western Bay of Plenty region since 2003.
Acorn Foundation’s first ever endowment fund was gifted by the late Edna Brown in 2003. 22 years later, the Foundation now has over $110M in funds under management and has collectively distributed over $25M to the community, with over $5.1M distributed in 2025 alone. This funding has supported hundreds of charitable organisations that are important to our donors and are vital to our region’s well-being.
The Acorn Foundation is one of 18 community foundations across Aotearoa New Zealand that provide a unique way of charitable giving - our Smarter Giving Model involves pooling and collectively investing our donors’ funds, so that the capital in the fund remains intact, while a portion of the income is distributed annually to the local community. This means that our donors’ gifts continue to give back to causes close to their hearts, forever.