PERTH.- Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA) has announced artists Jen Berean and James Carey as the recipients of the 2026 Judy Wheeler Commission – a prestigious annual initiative that champions the depth, diversity, and bold innovation of contemporary Australian arts.

Established in 2022, the Judy Wheeler Commission is a ten year program made possible through a philanthropic gift to PICA by the Simpson Family. It funds an annual site-specific work by an Australian visual artist that responds physically or conceptually to the architecture and history of the PICA building, embodying PICA’s spirit of risk and experimentation, and celebrating art’s power to connect people and places through curiosity, perspective and storytelling.

Titled Water Works, the 2026 Judy Wheeler Commission invites visitors to contemplate how institutions mark time and hold memory through the presence of water. Continuing their collaborative exploration of architecture, infrastructures and embedded systems, the duo aims to reveal the often unseen networks that move water through and around PICA’s site in Boorloo (Perth).

‘We are honoured to be awarded the 2026 Judy Wheeler Commission for our project Water Works,' says Jen and James. ‘This commission offers the opportunity to deepen our collaborative practice and create three interconnected works that reflect on the hidden systems sustaining the PICA building and its connections to broader water ecologies.

‘We are deeply grateful to the Simpson Family for their generosity in supporting this commission, to the judging panel for recognising the project’s potential, and to Hannah Mathews and the PICA team for their commitment and encouragement in bringing it to life.’

The three-part installation will include a sound-based work composed of recordings from water sources across Boorloo (Perth) that interact with the PICA building. These sounds will be amplified throughout the Gallery interiors, encouraging moments of pause and reflection, and inviting a deeper engagement with the presence of water within the space.

Another key element of the commission is a sculptural installation which sees water slowly drip into specially designed vessels over the duration of the year. These vessels draw a conceptual link to the civil infrastructure that enables the movement and management of water across Boorloo and beyond. This durational work encourages audiences to reflect on our relationship to the slow-moving, temporal and fragility of water systems.

A third work will explore the economic and environmental realities of water use within PICA. Jen and James will present a sculptural work made from metal that references the building’s internal plumbing and reflects the dollar value of PICA’s annual water consumption.

Artist Amanda Bell and curator Paul Boye from the 2026 Judy Wheeler Commission selection panel noted: ‘In Jen and James' durational proposal for the Judy Wheeler Commission, water and its distribution is considered alongside competing stretches of time, need and decay. Given the proximity and ongoing nature of the Perth Cultural Centre rejuvenation project to PICA, this timely work will expose and softly question the role water plays in Perth’s development culture. In thinking about the work, we were fondly reminded of Boorloo’s bore water stains, intermittent wetlands and beach parties located in stormwater runoff drains. Jen and James’ work will similarly count a year, giving shape and weight to the fragile privilege of access to and use of clean water systems here in Perth.’

Over the past three years, each of the Judy Wheeler Commission artists has created moments of pause for visitors by embracing different elements in their commission.

‘It is wonderful to see the commission continue to evolve as it enters its fourth year,’ says Judy Wheeler Commission benefactor, Tom Simpson. ‘Jen and James have provided a unique response to PICA’s architecture and history, drawing on the industrial formation of Perth in the late 1800s and recognising the building's role as a hub of education and learning. Support for the arts was always important to my mother and I'm sure she would've been grateful for all the good work that PICA is doing.’

In 2023 Elizabeth Willing drew inspiration from the smells and textures of the PICA building; in 2024 Diana Baker Smith focused on the past and present flow of physical movement around the central gallery balcony; and in 2025 Amanda Bell created rainbows to emphasis the light that streams through the windows and that has nourished the unceded land of the Whadjuk people for millennia. Amanda’s work will remain on display at PICA until 21 December 2025.

Jen and James will continue the high standard of artistic presentation and bring a new approach through an architectural lens to the 2026 Judy Wheeler Commission.

Visitors to PICA can view the 2026 Judy Wheeler Commission, Water Works by Jen Berean and James Carey from February to December 2026.