The Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize is Australia’s first national acquisitive prize for original works up to 80cm in size. This year, from a pool of 751 entries, fifty-nine works were selected by a judging panel comprising Director of Curatorial Affairs at Mona, Museum of Old and New Art, Jarrod Rawlins, Executive Director of Arts Project Australia, Liz Nowell, and Art Gallery of New South Wales Curator, First Nations Art, Erin Vink.
Spanning a variety of mediums, including clay, silk, porcelain, glass, ceramic, wood, silicone and more, these works delve into themes of dystopian futures, authoritarianism and the aesthetics of power, bodily memory, disability pride, folklore, fantasy, kin, cultural inheritance, and the intersection of tradition and modernity. Provoking thought and engaging with contemporary issues and experiences, this year’s works reflect personal and collective narratives, materiality, and the human condition.
Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize 2024 winner: Hannah Gartside, #19 from the series ‘Bunnies in Love, Lust and Longing’, 2024, found leather gloves, stainless steel wire, cotton fabric, polyester sewing thread. Courtesy the artist
From this selection of finalists, Hannah Gartside was awarded the $25,000 prize for #19, a piece in her ongoing series Bunnies in Love, Lust and Longing, 2024, which will be acquired for the Council’s permanent public collection. After years of functioning as protection against impropriety and cold weather, the second-hand gloves bring to life tender interactions, and moments with oneself, through the form of anthropomorphised rabbits.
Based in Melbourne, Gartside is a sculptor and installation artist working with found fabrics, clothing and ephemera to articulate experiences and sensations of longing, tenderness, care, desire and fury.
The winning work “captivated the judges with its unexpected small scale and confident rendering of form,” said Nowell. “The use of repurposed gloves imbues the sculpture with a sense of nostalgia and everyday intimacy, evoking tenderness and care. Despite its modest size, the work drew us in with its emotional depth, creating a powerful sense of connection and vulnerability.”
Gartside added: “I use discarded, worn materials because I believe in their inherent worth and value. These materials act as portals for storytelling, and receptive vessels for emotional expression. At times in my life I have felt devalued or discarded, and I made this work during one of those times. Have you ever heard the phrase, ‘the poem knows things the poet doesn’t’? Well this sculpture showed me what I needed: aloneness, rest, introspection, and quietude. Having this personal work acknowledged in this way is deeply meaningful.”
Special Commendation Award winner: Erica Muriata, Recycled Jawun, 2024, wire, paint. Photograph: Jacqui Manning. Courtesy the artist
Additional awards:
Girramay woman and emerging artist Erica Muriata’s Recycled Jawun, 2024, was awarded the $2,000 Special Commendation Award. Girramay weavers of Far North Queensland are known for their lawyer cane bicornual baskets called Jawun – an important part of everyday lives used to collect and carry bush food, babies, message sticks and many other objects. Muriata has created the traditional Jawun with modern resources whilst upholding the customary weaving pattern.
Penny Howard’s After School, 2022, received the $1,000 Mayor’s Choice Award. The work depicts a classic after school snack instantly recognisable to Australian children of the 1960s and ‘70s. A slice of white bread spread with butter and Vegemite, a cold glass of milk topped with crunchy Milo and a chocolate chip biscuit summon memories of simpler times. This work is crafted from thread, heavily machine stitched onto water-soluble fabric. The stitched sections are moulded into shape when wet, requiring careful assembly by hand-sewing and internal supports.
Mayor’s Award winner: Penny Howard, After School, 2022, cotton and monofilament thread, polystyrene, wire. Photograph: Jacqui Manning. Courtesy the artist
Online voting for the $1,000 Viewers’ Choice Award is open until midnight, Sunday 20 October, with the winner announced the next day on 21 October. The 2024 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize finalist exhibition is on view at Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf, Double Bay NSW 2028, from 13 September to 20 October. All sculptures are on sale to the public.
On Saturday 21 September, the Gallery will present a program of artist talks featuring Andrew Lavery, Kirsty Collins, Grace Lee and Karen Black in conversation with Danielle Robson, Bonnie Cowan and Benjamin Clay. Over the course of the exhibition, artists Kien Situ and Minka Gillian will deliver workshops, and UAP will present a special panel discussion on Professionalising Your Practice in the Public Sphere.
