Pictured: Overall winner Eugene von Nagy with his winning work
A Melbourne artist has taken home the $20,000 top prize at an Adelaide art competition dedicated entirely to self-portraiture.
Eugene von Nagy was named the overall winner of the 2026 Smallacombe Self Portrait Prize for his oil painting Self Portrait with Reading Glasses in Mirror.
Now in its fifth year, the national art prize celebrates the many ways artists interpret themselves through portraiture, with this year’s winners announced at a prize night held at Gallery One on September 5th.
Around 150 guests attended the event, where Eugene flew in from Melbourne to accept the major award. The remaining prize winners, including the Carbins Trust, Hangers’ Choice and Chair’s Choice recipients, were all Adelaide-based artists.
“It is a great honour and privilege to win the Smallacombe Self Portrait Prize,” shared Eugene. “I have never won an art prize before and this has been a huge encouragement and a terrific validation for me as a painter.
“Of course the prize money will make an enormous difference to me, but the recognition from these eminent judges means even more. I go forward in my practice with increased confidence and drive as a result.”
The Carbins Trust Winner, worth $2,000, was awarded to Adelaide artist Libby Hoffmann for Self-Reflection, an acrylic painting on canvas.
“Self-portraiture is such a vulnerable and personal genre to work within, and seeing the range of ways everyone chose to depict themselves really showcased the limitless possibility of creative interpretation,” said Libby.
Adelaide artist Sarah Lubcke received the $500 Pamela Oborn Hangers’ Choice Prize for Awaken, an oil painting on aluminium panel, while Ariana Tsourtos took home the $250 Chair’s Choice award for The bloom between us.
The prize is supported by David Smallacombe, who has backed the event since its inception, alongside the Carbins Trust, which has supported its youth category from the beginning.
According to Gallery One, the competition is the only prize in Australia dedicated exclusively to self-portraiture that is open to any artist.
The 2026 finalists were selected by a panel of experienced artists and arts professionals, including Adelaide-based realist painter Tsering Hannaford, a ten-time Archibald Prize finalist, Sydney artist Guy Morgan, BMGArt gallery director Trudyanne Brown, South Australian artist and academic Chris Orchard, and portrait artist and curator Phillip David.
Founded in 1974 as the Mitcham Village Art & Crafts Association, Gallery One is a self-funded, not-for-profit community gallery and teaching studio. Alongside its annual national art prize, the organisation runs exhibitions, weekly art and craft classes, workshops, concerts, markets and community events.
With the 2026 Smallacombe Self Portrait Prize now celebrating its latest winners, the exhibition offers visitors an opportunity to explore how artists use their own image to examine identity, experience and creative expression.
Gallery One
Where: 1 Torrens St, Mitcham SA 5062
For more information, click here.
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