2018 FUSE Glass Prize | Winner announced

The biennial non-acquisitive ‘FUSE Glass Prize’, Australasia’s richest prize for glass, provides a platform for Australian and New Zealand artists to push themselves and their works to new limits and focuses public attention on the importance of glass as a medium for contemporary artistic expression.

The 2018 iteration includes works of 12 established and six emerging artists selected as finalists by judging panel: Clare Belfrage (glass artist and 2016 FUSE Glass Prize winner); Kim Paton (Director, Objectspace, New Zealand); Lisa Slade (Assistant Director, Artistic Programs at the Art Gallery of South Australia); and Brian Parkes (JamFactory Chief Executive Officer).

Jessica Loughlin, receptor of light V, 2018, glass, 450 x 530 x 170cm. Photograph: Rachel Harris

Established artists include: Kate Baker, Verity Jasmin Burley, Mel Douglas, Mark Eliot, Liam Fleming, Brenden Scott French, Holly Grace, Jessica Loughlin, Jennifer Kenmarre Martiniello, Tom Moore, Nick Mount and Kathryn Wightman; joined by emerging artists Lewis Batchelar, Madeline Cardone, Hannah Gason, Ursula Halpin, Thomas Pearson and Bastien Thomas.

The judges noted that a particular work was confident and completely resolved with every edge and surface considered – Jessica Loughlin’s receptor of light V (2018), selected as the overall winner of this year’s $20,000 ‘FUSE Glass Prize’. The sophisticated and poetic way in which the work captures and alters the colour of light – echoing natural atmospheric phenomena – is the result of Loughlin’s deep understanding of glass as a sculptural material.

Ursula Halpin, Náire orthu, 2017, kiln-formed pâte de verre Bullseye glass, nylon and steel, 350 x 150 x 150cm. Photograph: Grant Hancock

An additional prize of $2,500 cash and a professional development residency at JamFactory was awarded to Ursula Halpin (the emerging artist category winner) for her work entitled  (2017). The judges were impressed with the formal and conceptual ambition of this work. The references to domestic crafts, the fragility of the individual components and the play of light and shadow created by the installation stimulated great discussion during the judging process.

The closing date for entries for the 2020 ‘FUSE Glass Prize’ will be in March 2020.

JamFactory
18 May to 8 July, 2018
South Australia

JamFactory at Seppeltsfield
17 July to 16 September, 2018
South Australia

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