The 2025 Woollahra Small Sculpture prize, valued at $25,000, has announced its winner, Auckland-based artist, Virginia Leonard. Her work, Glad that you are not here all the time — an urn for unwanted limbs and other things is crafted from clay, pure gold and resin. Her winning piece “channels personal frustrations into a layered form, combining glazed ceramics with resin casting to explore the tensions between opacity and transparency.”
The Special Commendation Award valued at $2,000 has been awarded to Sydney ceramic artist Thomas Mason for his work, Torque, crafted from stoneware, glaze, construction adhesive, epoxy putty and cornice cement. Mason’s piece, “draws on the physics of wave motion and the embodied mechanics of making, with twisted forms reflecting the energy and resistance of clay in process.”
With the Mayor’s Choice Award, valued at $1,000, selected by Mayor of Woollahra Sarah Dixson, awarded to emerging ceramic artist, Alicia Cox for her work, Rack. Cox casts her own body, to “explor[e] the intersections of domesticity, gender and the body as a vessel.”
The 2025 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize exhibition, featuring works by all 54 finalists, are on display at the Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf, until 16 November.
The 2025 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize
Woollahra Gallery
(Sydney/Eora NSW)
28 September—16 November
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