March 2026. At the award finalist's exhibition opening event at Waiheke Art Gallery, the 2026 National Small Sculpture Prize was awarded to Gill Gatfield for her work Tablet. The annual awards are presented by Perpetual Guardian and aim to celebrate new directions in sculpture. Announcing the premier award work, juror Deborah McCormick noted:
‘Compact in scale yet architectonic in structure, Gatfield’s work brings stone, metal, code and virtual apparition into a single sculptural system. It's three elements: stone square, copper cube, and gold code unlock ideas around the day-to-day technology of a tablet, archive and screen imbued in the traditional sculptural material of Carrara marble. The inscribed Fibonacci-derived gold barcode lures us to seek out its meaning and decipher its code. The cooper cube beneath it is not just a pedestal but an open space to allow volume to move around the sculpture.’ – Deb McCormick