Art Almanac

08/09/2025

2025 Wama Art Prize Australia’s National Award for Environmental Art $25,000 in awards! Wama Foundation

Entries Open from Sept 7 – 15 October

The Wama Foundation announces the launch of the 2025 WAMA Art Prize, a $25,000 national award recognising excellence in environmental art created on or with paper.

Now in its third edition, the biennial prize has established itself as Australia’s leading award dedicated to environmental art, highlighting artists deeply engaged with the natural world.

For the first time, this year’s exhibition of finalists will be presented in Wama’s newly opened National Centre for Environmental Art, located on the foothills of the Grampians (Gariwerd) National Park in western Victoria.

Images pictured left to right, with the previous years winners:

2023 Wama Art Prize Acquisitive Prize winner, Martin King, tree of life, diary of lost souls in twenty volumes No2, 2023

2023 Wama Art Prize, Award of Excellence winner, Zena Cumpston, ngarta-kiira (return to Country) #1, 2023

2021 Wama Art Prize Award of Excellence winner, Juanita McLauchlan, Found, 2021

27/08/2025

GIRRA 2025 | Winner announced

⁠Sunshine Coast-based artist Amanda Bennetts has been awarded the $25,000 major acquisitive prize at the launch of Girra: Fraser Coast National Art Prize 2025 on Saturday 23 August.
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⁠Bennetts' video work 'Carve Crevice from Grace' examines the capitalist ethos around productivity and the constructed notion of usefulness, particularly for those living with disability and chronic illness.

⁠Co-judge Michelle Newton described Bennetts' piece as a compelling performance that highlights the futility of labour under capitalism. "With the artist herself as protagonist, the work is characterised by a ritualised, Sisyphean endeavour - breaking up sandstone in a task that resists logic or resolution," she said.⁠ "It becomes a poetic encounter, where the inexplicability of her actions adds a layer of unexpected humour and poignancy." ⁠

⁠The work was selected from 16 finalists from across the country by a judging panel including Waanyi artist Judy Watson, Michelle Newton, Head of Visual Arts, Creative Australia and Sarah Thomson, Director of Hervey Bay Regional Gallery.

⁠'Carve Crevice from Grace' was originally commissioned by Accessible Arts and the Sydney Opera House. It will now join the Hervey Bay Regional Gallery collection alongside works by other leading Australian artists.⁠

⁠The Girra: Fraser Coast National Art Prize exhibition continues until 16 November at Hervey Bay Regional Gallery, Queensland.

Photographed by: Cody Fox credit (Picturing Amanda Bennetts and artwork in gallery)

25/08/2025

Expressions of interest are now open for Museums of History NSW's inaugural creative residency program at Vaucluse House.

EOIs close 5pm, 14 September 2025.

This 12-month, non-residential program gives NSW-based creatives access to four light-filled studio spaces in the historic caretaker’s cottage at Vaucluse House on Birrabirragal and Gadigal Country.

The residency offers time, space, connection and inspiration for individuals and organisations across a wide range of creative disciplines – from visual arts, writing and music to film, design and cultural practice. Open to creatives at any career stage.

👇Head to the Museum of History NSW's website or page below:

Website: https://mhnsw.au/creative-and-cultural-residency-vaucluse-house/

Facebook:

21/08/2025

Sculpture on the Farm Dungog!

170 sculptures, 116 Australia artists, 1 unmissable exhibition – 3 days only!

Dates: From 29–31 August 2025

Pictured: 2025 Finalist, Deborah Halpern, known for her iconic mosaics, many of which are held in major Australian and international collections.

Sculpture on the Farm Dungog returns with its biggest exhibition yet – showcasing over 160 sculptures by 116 Australian artists.

Set in the spectacular Dungog Common, this three-day event transforms the landscape into a vibrant outdoor gallery.

Visitors can explore large-scale works along the scenic Sculptural Trail, discover smaller pieces in the Indoor Exhibition marquee, wander through the Open Air Exhibition of garden and courtyard works, and meet the artists behind the work. With nature walks, artist talks, local food, music and more, the weekend promises inspiration for all ages.

Headlining artists include Deborah Halpern, Gillie and Marc, and Inge King, alongside rising stars and celebrated contemporaries.

Entry is just $10, with under 18s free.

All works are for sale, supporting both artists and public art in the region.

Don’t miss this unforgettable art experience in the heart of the Hunter.
For more information and to book: www.sculptureonthefarm.com

Head to their website:
https://www.sculptureonthefarm.com/

Instagram

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Sculpture on the Farm Dungog is striving to become Australia’s leading regional exhibition of contemporary sculpture. Join us for a three-day celebration featuring over 100 sculptures showcased across the beautiful Dungog Common Recreational Reserve and township.

18/07/2025

STILL: National Still Life Award 2025 | 70 finalists announced
→ www.art-almanac.com.au/still-national-still-life-award-2025-finalists-announced/

STILL recognises excellence, diversity and innovation in contemporary still life practice while broadening the interpretation of the genre.

• Main award: $30,000 (acquisitive).
• Exhibition opening + winners announced: Saturday, 6 September 2025 at 5pm | Yarrila Arts and Museum

23/06/2025

PUBLIC ART OPPORTUNITY // The Lawn, Waterfront Brisbane


Entries close on Monday, 21 July 2025.

Artists are invited to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) for one of Brisbane’s most significant new public destinations - Dexus’s Waterfront Brisbane.

The Art Opportunity 3: The Lawn is an interactive, sculptural installation series forming part of the precinct’s permanent public art collection. It is a part of Dexus’s $2.5B transformation of Brisbane’s riverfront into a vibrant, city-shaping cultural precinct.

The opportunity is open to local, national, and international artists at all career stages.

Artists are encouraged to submit concepts that reflect the site’s cultural, environmental, and historical layers, and demonstrate strong suitability for outdoor public engagement and long-term maintenance.
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To find out more and for the full Artist Brief and to apply➡️ https://wdmanagement.com.au/eoi/
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23/06/2025

ON VIEW// Writers Revealed: Treasures from the British Library and National Portrait Gallery, London
Showing at HOTA Gallery, Gold Coast until 3 August 2025



This exhibition – a collaboration between two distinguished British institutions, the National Portrait Gallery, London and the British Library – displays for the first time seventy portraits with over one hundred rare manuscripts and first editions.

Spanning the sixteenth century to the present day, it explores the enduring legacy of writers across the ages, featuring such icons as William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters, William Blake, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and J R R Tolkien, along with contemporary luminaries Sir Kazuo Ishiguro and Zadie Smith.

“So many of the works in this show both reveal aspects of authors’ characters and lives,and also conceal things,” co-curator Catharine MacLeod – Senior Curator of Seventeenth-century Collections at the National Portrait Gallery, London – tells Dr Joseph Brennan about Writers Revealed. “But the things that are concealed – which in the case of women are often their gender itself – reveal things about the conditions in which people worked, and the societies in which they lived.”

➡️Feature story by Dr Joseph Brennan: www.art-almanac.com.au/hota-writers-revealed/
➡️More info: www.hota.com.au/whats-on/live/exhibitions/writers-revealed

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Image: George Charles Beresford, Virginia Woolf, July 1902, platinum print, 15.2 × 10.8cm
© National Portrait Gallery, London

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18/06/2025

ENTRIES OPEN// 2025 Mosman Art Prize | $89,000 in prizes


Entries close 11pm, Friday 18 July.

The Mosman Art Prize is an acquisitive award of $70,000 with the artwork entering the Mosman Art Collection – an historic collection that includes Margaret Olley, Guy Warren, Cressida Campbell, Guan Wei, Jasper Knight, Natasha Walsh and most recently Gemma Smith.

The prize is an open painting prize without a specific theme for submissions.

There are five prizes:
🏆 Mosman Art Prize (major acquisitive prize) – $70,000
🏆 Margaret Olley Commendation Award – $10,000
🏆 Allan Gamble Award – $5,000
🏆 Guy Warren Emerging Artist Award (less than 10 years practice) – $3,000
🏆 Viewers’ Choice Award – $1,000

For more information and to apply ➡️ https://mosmanartgallery.org.au/event/mosman-art-prize-call-to-entries/

04/06/2025

ON VIEW// Marisabel Gonzalez | De Rerum Natura: On the Matter of Things
Showing at Gallery Lane Cove + Creative Studios, Sydney, from 28 May to 21 June 2025.

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Artist Marisabel Gonzalez blends medical and natural images from an abstract point of view, using painting to illuminate the invisible structures that bind us – such as waves of energy, fleeting traces of life and the echoes of our shared humanity. Just as Lucretius sought to explain the unseen forces shaping existence.

Exhibition opening:
Wednesday 4 June, 6–8pm
Enjoy live Latin music by the band Oriente Tres
Light refreshments provided
Free event

➡️More info: www.gallerylanecove.com.au or email: [email protected]
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Image: Marisabel Gonzalez, From The Bottom Acrylic (detail), spray paint, pastels and oil pigments on canvas, 120 x 140 x 4cm.
Photograph: Kayapa Creative Studios
Courtesy the artist and Gallery Lane Cove + Creative Studios, Sydney
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28/05/2025

ENTRIES OPEN// The Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize | $29,000 in prizes


Entries close on Sunday 13 July 2025.

Artists of all backgrounds and experience levels are invited to submit entries for the 2025 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize. Presented by Woollahra Council and hosted at Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf, the Prize offers a platform for established and emerging, local and international artists to present original sculptures measuring up to 80cm in any dimension.

All works are blind judged, with selected finalists exhibited in a free public exhibition from 26 September to 16 November 2025. Winners will be announced at the opening on Thursday 25 September.

Categories include:
🏆 The Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize – $25,000
🏆 Special Commendation Award – $2,000
🏆 Mayor’s Award – $1,000
🏆 Viewers’ Choice Award – $1,000

There is no limit to the number of entries an artist can submit, and collaborative entries are welcome.
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For more information and to apply ➡️ www.woollahragallery.com.au/Artists/Woollahra-Small-Sculpture-Prize
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20/05/2025

ON VIEW// 'Fahn (James Gardiner) Presence' at Art Atrium 48 has been extended to 14 June 2025




➡️ Panel Discussion:
New date: Wednesday, 28 May 6-8pm, with Fahn (James Gardiner), Kon Gouriotis, Martin John Oldfield, and Simon Chan

➡️Artist Performance:
Saturday, 31 May 2–4pm

Register your interest for the panel discussion and artist performance:
➡️ [email protected]
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Rooted in architectural abstraction, Fahn’s works invite viewers to engage with multi perspectival ambiguity. His 'Sentience' and 'Presence' series – comprising floor drawings and digitally fabricated relief paintings, respectively – investigate those shifting perceptions of the digital age. 'Sentience' was consciously created without intention, while 'Presence' compounds the ‘perspectival flip’ idea by evolving his drawings through collaboration with a 3D digital cutting machine.
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Image: Fahn (James Gardiner), Presence Pr24-24, acrylic polymer on machine cut mixed media board (chip, resin, card and fibre board, styrene foam and plywood), 181 x 146 x 5cm.
Courtesy the artist and Art Atrium 48, Sydney.
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08/05/2025

ON VIEW// Fahn (James Gardiner) Presence
Opening Night: Thursday, 8 May 6–8 pm
Showing at Art Atrium 48, Sydney from the 8 to 31 May 2025.



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This exhibition of Sydney-based artist Fahn (James Gardiner) explores presence and unknowing through a play with ambiguity and “the perspectival flip.”

Rooted in architectural abstraction, Fahn’s works invite viewers to engage with multi perspectival ambiguity. His Sentience and Presence series – comprising floor drawings and digitally fabricated relief paintings, respectively – investigate those shifting perceptions of the digital age. Sentience was consciously created without intention, while Presence compounds the ‘perspectival flip’ idea by evolving his drawings through collaboration with a 3D digital cutting machine; here, we have blended analogue and digital techniques.

➡️Exhibition launch by Katrina Cashman, Gallery Manager, National Art School

➡️Exhibition Panel Discussion: Thursday, 22 May 6–8 pm
•Fahn (James Gardiner)
•Kon Gouriotis
•Martin John Oldfield
•Simon Chan

➡️Artist Performance: Saturday, 31 May 2–4 pm

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Image: Paper Sentience PaSe24-39, 2024, graphite, acrylic polymer, wax crayon and spray paint on Yupo, 96 × 79cm.
Courtesy the artist and Art Atrium 48, Sydney.
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