Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize announces 2019 judges

Published: 3 April 2019

The Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, Australia’s pre-eminent award for small sculpture presented by Woollahra Council, has announced three new guest judges for 2019 along with a prize pool of $24,000. A free exhibition of finalist works for the 19th annual Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize will be presented from 11 October to 3 November 2019 at Woollahra Council Chambers in Double Bay, Sydney.

The 2019 Prize judges will be Professor Ross Harley; Dean of the Faculty of Art & Design and UNSW Chair of Arts and Culture, an award-winning artist, writer and educator whose career crosses the bounds of traditional and creative arts research. Professor Harley is joined by Louise Herron AM, Chief Executive Officer, Sydney Opera House, who was the non-executive chair of Belvoir Street for more than 10 years and chair of the Major Performing Arts Board of the Australia Council before becoming the first woman appointed to the CEO role in 2012. The final judge for 2019 is Design and Architecture advocate, broadcaster, author and comedian, Tim Ross. Best known for his work on television and radio, Ross has a long-standing passion for architecture and design.

The Prize attracts a diverse range of professional and emerging sculptors from around the world with a total of $24,000 in prize money awarded to winning artists across four categories: the main acquisitive award of $20,000; a Special Commendation award of $2,000; the Viewers’ Choice award of $1,000; and the Mayor’s Prize of $1,000.

Tim Ross said, “I am delighted to be part of the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize this year and I’m looking forward to seeing firsthand the high standard of submissions. Continual support of the arts in Sydney is incredibly important and the ongoing commitment to this by the prize is to be commended.”

Established in 2001, the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize attracts strong support from artists, collectors and critics and is the first national acquisitive prize showcasing quality and diversity of smaller dimension sculptures. Entries will be invited until 5 July 2019, with artists required to submit images of their original, freestanding sculpture of up to 80cm in any dimension.

More than 600 Prize entries from national and international artists are received annually with around 45 finalists’ works presented in the exhibition. The main Prize winner in 2018 was New-York based, Sydney-born artist Tim Silver and his work Untitled (When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d 02). Previous winners also include Jan King (2002), Mikala Dwyer (2003), Louis Pratt (2006), Adam Cullen (2008), Alexander Seton (2009), Archie Moore (2010), Thor Beowulf (2012), Julia deVille (2013), Robert Owen (2015), Todd Robinson (2016) and Sanné Mestrom (2017).

View the 2019 judges' biographies.

Visit the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize website for further details.

Entries close: Friday 5 July 2019 Announcement of finalists: Early August 2019

A free exhibition of all the finalist sculptures will be presented from Friday 11 October to Sunday 3 November 2019 at the Woollahra Council Chambers. Finalists will be announced in August 2019 and the winners will be announced at the launch of the exhibition on 11 October with further details to be provided closer to the time. A series of Artists’ Talks and Community Workshops will be presented as part of the program.

To request interviews, imagery and information in relation to the Prize, please contact Articulate: Megan Bentley, [email protected], 0452 214 611 or Kym Elphinstone, [email protected], 0421 106 139.

Return to current news...