In Pictures Published on 19 September 2025 Words by Art Guide Australia

In Pictures: Rigg Design Prize 2025 Winner and Finalists

In its tenth edition, Rigg Design Prize, is a triennial award that celebrates the nation’s early-career and established designers working across mediums through a range of materiality, form and function. Highlighting 25 designers under the age of 35, the 2025 prize, worth $40,000, has been awarded to Alfred Lowe, a ceramicist and an Aranda person from Snake Well in the central desert, north of Alice Springs.

Lowe works in clay and fibre, creating texture and sgraffito carving to reflect the landscape of Central Australia. On his win, “You and me, us never part is a declaration of love to my community. These works stand side by side holding their own space while joining in communion. They embrace collectivism and reject the self-made. With rigid and roughly textured clay combined with soft raffia adornments inspired by traditional practices, these works reflect the contradictions in all of us, capable of love and hate, pain and joy. They stand as witnesses—celebrating, commemorating and holding each other accountable. Embracing community is complicated and full of friction, but through the pain and the joy your people are there, side by side.”

The 35 finalists on display are:

Patrick Adeney (VIC, Furniture)

Kartika Laili Ahmad (WA, Lighting)

Ella Badu (VIC, Jewellery)

Walter Brooks (NT, Object Design)

Dallissa Brown (NT, Ceramics)

Andrew Carvolth (SA, Furniture)

Nicola Charlesworth & Kim Stanek – Object Density (NSW, Furniture)

Samantha Dennis (TAS, Jewellery)

Carly Tarkari Dodd (SA, Jewellery)

Hamish Donaldson (VIC, Glass)

Jack Fearon (QLD, Furniture)