Brunswick Street Gallery 2026 Small Works Art Prize

SECOND PRIZE

THE PET

PHIL HAYES

Brunswick Street Gallery is pleased to announce the winner of Second Prize to Phil Hayes for their piece The Pet, as selected by esteemed guest judge Myles Russell-Cook and the Judging Panel.

Of this work, Myles Russell-Cook said in a statement:

“In second place, Phil Hayes’ The Pet is an evocative painting that captivates the viewer at first glance. A male and female couple stand in 1970s clothing, in a scene which initially appears to be drawn from a family photograph. It is excellently painted in a hyper-real aesthetic, with the matte blue Australian sky and drought-scorched brown grass rendered in exceptional detail. We are immediately placed in time, with the 1973 LJ Holden Torana partially obscured by the couple, yet taking centre stage nonetheless. In the foreground, Hayes has seamlessly introduced a third figure, a Thylacine, known more colloquially as a Tasmanian Tiger.

The last Thylacine, named Benjamin, passed away in 1936 at the Hobart Zoo, and as we approach nearly one hundred years since his death, Hayes’ work offers a poignant reflection on both loss and memory. The anachronistic time traveller has been displaced, transforming this hyper-real scene into a surreal one. Despite its warmth, I was struck by a profound sense of melancholy in the work. The anatomically correct jaw either yawns or snarls; however, the warm and placid demeanour of the couple, paired with the title of the work (The Pet), suggests a scene of domestic simplicity. There is no palpable aggression that one might associate with a carnivore showing its teeth; instead, the work’s strength lies in its blending of the mundane and the uncanny. The painting’s compositional arrangement and colour palette evoke references to Australian realist Jeffrey Smart; however, it is the fusion of realism with surrealism that underpins the work’s success.”

Congratulations to Phil Hayes, awarded the Second Prize, as selected by Myles Russell-Cook and the judging panel.