Hatched: National Graduate Show 2025

Each year, PICA’s Hatched: National Graduate Show presents artworks by outstanding graduates from across the country. Showcasing the next generation of Australia’s contemporary creative voices, this year Hatched will be presented for the first time in an offsite venue in Perth’s CBD from 2 August to 5 October. Hatched 2025 features the works of 23 artists from 20 tertiary art schools who were nominated by their lecturers and selected by a panel comprising Shannon Lyons (artist, Hatched alumni 2005, WA), Tristen Harwood (art critic and writer, VIC) and Gemma Ben-Ary (curator, PICA, WA). Hatched 2025 is curated by PICA’s newly appointed Hatched Curatorial Associate (2025-2026), Mia Palmer-Verevis.

Celebrating its 34th year, PICA has partnered with ISPT who is generously donating an expansive light-filled space in Forrest Chase in the heart of Perth’s central business district. Perfectly positioned near Perth’s central train station, this vibrant new location is a dynamic and diverse hub of contemporary culture – a welcoming space and a beacon for students, artists and the broader public to discover Hatched. 

In 2025, Hatched sees participants take part in some of the most important conversations of today – through use of mediums such as painting, ceramics, drawing, woodwork, printmaking, textiles, metalwork, photography, performance, video, sound and sculpture. Collectively, they address urgent contemporary issues the through innovative use of materials and fresh conceptual frameworks. This year’s Hatched cohort unpack issues that bridge the personal and universal, such as resistance and transformation, environmental impermanence, performative identities and data and surveillance.
 
In addition to the exhibition, PICA offers tailored professional development programs, equipping the artists with knowledge about funding opportunities, applying for exhibitions and residencies, and ways of making their practices more accessible. PICA also provides month-long residencies to one interstate and one Perth-based Hatched artist every year. In 2025, Chloe Catto from the University of Tasmania (TAS) and Elsa Mona from Edith Cowan University (WA) will undertake month-long studio residencies with PICA.  

In 2025, PICA continues its partnership with The University of Western Australia to present the Dr Harold Schenberg Arts Awards, the largest prize pool for emerging artists in Australia – totaling $50,000. This year, the Dr Harold Schenberg Arts Awards will be judged by Hannah Mathews (Director, PICA), Dr Theo Costantino (Director, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery), alongside esteemed guest judge Archie Moore (Winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale 2023 and Hatched alumni). The Dr Harold Schenberg Arts Awards are made possible by funds bequeathed to The University of Western Australia by Dr Harold Schenberg.