These young artists aren’t just amazing- they’re award winning!

Young people on the Northern Beaches have some serious artistic talent and now it’s on display at the Manly Art Gallery & Museum.

In its 25th year, the Express Yourself exhibition showcases incredible work from the twenty local secondary schools in the area.

We spoke to the two Theo Batten Youth Art Award winners Micah Lihachov (Pittwater High School) and Mia McFall (Northern Beaches Secondary College, Manly Campus) to find out a bit more about their artwork and how it feels to win the award.

Micah: I was interested in exploring the figure in the landscape. I’ve grown up on Scotland Island and spent a lot of my youth exploring the bays of the Ku-Ring-Gai national park and was aware of the variety of landscape there. I also find this area personally a big part of who I am and where I feel most at home.

Mia: My work is a series of three found object box sculptures, with some textile and film elements. It's based around the notion of the objectification of women, and the way in which our exposure to things such as media, advertising, films and toys socialise us to dehumanise and sexualise women.

Micah: My father is a Byzantine iconographer trained in egg tempera technique and I have grown up surrounded by the iconography of the Russian Orthodox Church and my father’s works.

We also studied medieval and renaissance art in our course work for Visual Arts and I loved the narrative structure of it. In year 11, I travelled with my family to Greece where we visited many beautiful monasteries and museums featuring iconography. This had a big impact on me as I began my major work.

Mia: I have always been very interested in feminism and feminist art so I was drawn to base my own work around those themes. I was definitely inspired by the #metoo and #timesup movements, which brought attention to the culture of sexual assault and harassment within the film industry. As these topics were getting a lot of media coverage during the time I planning my work out.

Micah: I’m happy with the overall effect of my work and really pleased with the nice feedback. But as I look at them now I see areas that I would now handle differently. I’ve definitely learnt a lot in the process and would now be able to make some adjustments to my application.

Mia: I think initially when I sent it to be marked I was more relieved that it was done than proud, but now I am definitely proud of the work I put in and how it turned out.

Micah: I have a place to study filmmaking in a Bachelor of Screen Arts Production at AFTRS next year. This year I’m travelling to Europe where I’m planning to visit the old masters and to undertake a course furthering my skills in egg tempera painting and gold leaf.

Mia: I'm enrolled in a Bachelor of Design in Visual Communication at UTS.

Micah: Yes, I am continuing to enter art competitions and looking at short courses in painting as I want to grow my painting skills and other mediums, in addition to my love of film.

Mia: Hopefully, though my studies and in my own time!

Micah: It was really wonderful to see my work displayed so professionally. I hadn’t been able to see them hung the way they were intended as it wasn’t possible during my school exhibition.

I was shocked to win the Theo Batten Award as there was so many impressive works on display and the prize money will really help me advance my education in the arts as I’ll be able to invest it into my painting course. Also the recognition of the award was a great acknowledgement of the hard work that I put into my major work.

Mia: It's completely surreal but so, so rewarding and encouraging to know that all the work I put into it has been recognised.

The Express Yourself exhibition will be open at Manly Art Gallery & Museum until Sunday 28 April.