Known as a maker of quiet work, South Gippsland-based Olivia O’Connor – winner of the 2025 Art Almanac Award – has won the Tina Wentcher Sculpture Prize in the Association of Sculptors of Victoria 2026 Annual and Awards Exhibition for Eagles Soaring.
Olivia O’Connor, Eagles Soaring, 2025, timber, storm-fallen local oak and blackwood, stainless steel, 56 × 10 × 6cm / Courtesy the artist and Association of Sculptors of Victoria, Melbourne
The work holds a fleeting moment of stillness and strength – two wedge-tailed eagles soaring above a hill. Hand-carved in local timber, evoking connection to landscape, judge Daniel Agdag was drawn to its sublime simplicity, calling its execution and presentation “exquisite.”
