TEAM ARCHIVE
2022 JUDGES
Dr Michael Goldberg
Artist, curator, academic and writer
After teaching art for more than thirty years, Michael retired from his post of Associate Professor and Head of Sculpture at Sydney College of the Arts in 2018 and rediscovered the joys of watercolour painting.
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His large scale installation projects have been produced for significant national and international exhibitions such Tasmania’s Dark Mofo, the Havana Biennial and The B-side Festival in Portland U.K.
Between 1995 and 2000, he examined Australia’s colonial history with site-specific installations created for museums such as Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens, Tusculum House, Elizabeth Bay House and the Australian Museum. The projects explored alternative versions of political and historical issues, those often ignored by conventional museology.
From 2000, he delved into global stock markets and financial speculation. The possibilities of predicting the rise and fall of stock market prices led to projects involving precognition and psychic divination.
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Michael has also curated a number of projects in Australian locations of historical significance as well as produced public art projects involving significant Australian artists.
Todd Fuller
Artist
With a practice that integrates sculpture, moving image, performance and painting, Todd is, at his core, a draughtsman. Underpinning all aspects of his practice is a love of drawing and a belief in its power to connect, engage and delight audiences.
For ten years, he has been crafting hand-drawn animations that grapple with love and loss, as well as ideas of place, identity and community. Often narrative in form, these award winning works are derived from his experiences with different communities, sites and histories. He has been awarded a number of residencies that have informed and developed his practice, including time spent at Bundanon Trust, Hill End, Grafton Regional Art Gallery, as well as international stints at the Cite Internationale des Arts in Paris, the British School of Rome, and recently the NG Creative Residency in Provence.
Todd’s practice extends into curatorship and arts production, having held roles with Waverley Council, Biennale of Sydney, Sculpture in the Vineyards and dLux MediaArts. The areas under investigation within his curatorial practice overlap with his artistic output. Just Draw, the 2016 exhibition he curated with Lisa Woolfe, which toured regional galleries, showcased artworks that exemplified the varied nature of contemporary drawing practices, a subject close to his heart.
Vivienne Webb
Curator and writer
Vivienne's curatorial work is frequently collaborative and focused on creative responses to colonisation, environmental concerns and climate change. She has held curatorial roles at the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Art Gallery of New South Wales and is currently curator at the National Art School Gallery.
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Recent public artworks include Barlow street forest (2021) by the Dirt Witches for the City of Sydney and juguma (2020) by Judy Watson for the University of Sydney. Her work also includes extensive solo exhibitions of respected artists such as Fiona Hall (2008), Stephen Birch (2007), Rosemary Laing (2005) and Dorothy Napangardi (2002) and she organised a program of events and films for Janet Laurence’s H2O: Water Bar at the Paddington Reservoir Gardens, City of Sydney (2016). Group exhibitions range from the MCA’s flagship exhibition of work by young Australian artists, Primavera (2004), to the curatorium for National Art School and the NSW Landscape at NSW Parliament House (2022).
Over 20 years ago Vivienne began working with historical collections, pairing contemporary and historical first people’s work from Australia and the Pacific, with colonial European and Australian material. A recent collection project is the inaugural display from the University of Sydney’s vast holdings of art, archaeology, geology and natural history in the new administration building (2018). She is on the curatorium for Captivate: 200 years of stories from the National Art School and Darlinghurst Gaol, NAS Gallery (2022).
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2021 JUDGES
Cassandra Hard Lawrie
Curator & Visual Arts Coordinator Willoughby City Council
Cassandra has been with Willoughby City Council for four years, coordinating their Visual Arts branch, managing the Incinerator Art Space and Art Space on The Concourse.
She curates and administers an annual program of exhibitions and events, working with high calibre artists and creative professionals to produce exhibitions such as Grit!, exploring sport and endurance as a motif for contemporary art, Flame Seed, re-imaging the old furnace door of the Incinerator Art Space as a portal to ‘other worlds’ and a solo exhibition by Wade Marynowsky titled Algorithmic Pareidolia.
In 2019 she curated an exhibition for Vivid Ideas exploring the impact of technology on abstract art called Future Abstract as part of the Vivid Sydney, Chatswood precinct. And recently she produced an exhibition for the Sydney Comedy Festival—Shaping Wit exploring humour and irony in contemporary art.
Prior to her role at Willoughby City Council, Cassandra has been the curator of temporary public art exhibitions such as HIDDEN Rookwood Sculptures, In Situ and Sculpture in the Vineyards.
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Also a practicing artist, Cassandra has exhibited at the Tin Sheds, Incinerator Art Space, UWS Gallery, SCA Galleries, Penrith Regional Gallery, Government House and La Perouse Museum.
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Dean Andersen
Gallery Manager
Martin Browne Contemporary
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Since 2011, working at Martin Browne Contemporary, Dean has been involved in showing some of the finest Australian and International, modern and contemporary works of art.
As gallery manager he is responsible for maintaining and improving the artistic and commercial success of the business, including its participation in art fairs and the delivery of specialist events.
Alongside the Director and working closely with artists, he is involved in curating and managing an annual exhibition program of new works and selected works from the secondary market.
With a strong focus on client services and an extensive knowledge of contemporary Australian and New Zealand art, Dean brings a bespoke approach to the acquisition and placement of artworks in both private and institutional collections.
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He has a Bachelor of Visual Arts from Sydney College of the Arts and is a practising artist .
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Sally Anderson-Barwell
Practising Artist
Sally began her career at National Art School, and with further study went on to work in commercial photo studios in Sydney and Amsterdam. While her creative practice encompasses textiles, object design, photography and writing, painting is her enduring passion and she has work held in many private Australian and international collections.
Working in predominately oils, her unique style has developed over 20 years of dedicated practice. Often overpainting, scratching back and re-layering paint, she works to eliminate traces of the ‘object’, in stark contrast to her trained photographer's eye–always looking to bring the object into focus.
'Once the object has been removed, the energy of form and direction of effort is laid bare. The paint work becomes the subject and the delicious consistency of oil is revealed.'
Always turning her creativity towards the development of new business ideas, Sally has recently launched BOLTspace Gallery in Maitland which she co-directs with local painter Andrew Bennett.
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David Field
Photographer
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David is the Chief Legal Counsel and Director, People & Finance at Canon Australia. Outside of work, he's a passionate photographer interested in portraiture, documentary, landscape and wildlife photography. He has a number of published photographic projects, including:
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That Exchange Project – documenting the craftsmanship of heritage telecommunications equipment
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Lifetimes in Law – a portrait project celebrating lawyers who have spent a lifetime using the law to contribute to the community through social justice, education or public service, and
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Laws of Creativity – a portrait project exploring the role that creativity plays in the practice of law.
David has been a finalist in the New South Wales Law Society Just Art competition on several occasions, and a solo exhibition of his portrait photography was shown at the Australian Bar Council Annual Conference. David serves on the board of the Minds Count Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation working to protect and promote mental health and safety in the legal workplace, and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
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profundum.com.au/
2020 JUDGES
Lizzy Marshall
Curator, Educator and Writer
Lizzy’s curatorial interests include site-responsiveness and the permeability of the museum walls and collections. Her exhibition making extends beyond traditional frameworks to encompass heritage buildings, object dense museums, a pristine rainforest, architecturally significant homes, interior and exterior of regional built environments, and most recently a former industrial site.
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As acting Curator and Public Arts Officer at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Liverpool she managed the inaugural Turbine Hall Commission featuring Fiona Davies’ Blood on Silk: Last Seen and has held positions with The National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin City Gallery – The Hugh Lane, The Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland, and Sculpture at Scenic World, Katoomba.
She has been commissioned to write for the Online Dictionary of Sydney, Architecture Ireland, Art & Australia and Artlink Magazine amongst others. As an independent curator she has consulted for Macquarie University Art Gallery and The National Trust – NSW.
Gary Deirmendjian
Artist
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Gary has an extensive exhibiting career, and has received numerous awards and commissions for site specific projects and private and public artworks. His practice encompasses sculpture, installation, photography, video and site-specific intervention. Working predominantly in public/ shared space, he is widely recognised for his thought provoking and socially concerned artworks; often challenging audiences with their scale and immersive qualities.
Gary graduated with Honours in 1990 from University of NSW as an Aeronautical Engineer, becoming immediately engaged in Defence R&D. He later established private practice in Industrial Design, and was Lecturer in the subject at Western Sydney University from 1996 to 2001. Majoring in Sculpture at the National Art School, Gary graduated in 2006 with a Master of Fine Art. Since 2012 he has been a Sessional Lecturer at the School.
He is the author/photographer of Sydney Sandstone (Craftsman House, 2002), containing essay contributions from collaborators, including Tim Flannery, Phillip Cox and Shirley Fitzgerald.
www.garo.com.au/
Catarina Fraga Matos
Communication Projects Officer, Cooks River Alliance
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With a background in journalism, Catarina has a passion for telling stories promoting environmental sustainability. Helping to create good news is what she loves most. She applies an assets-based approach to her work at the Cooks River Alliance focusing on the many joys and strengths of the river through various communications and community engagement projects.
Catarina created the Cooks River Changemakers Course which supports the development of new community-led activities to enjoy along the river. Working under the direction of the the Alliance Aboriginal Working Group, Catarina established the now annual Wurridjal Festival (mullet festival) which reminds us that for tens of thousands of years the river was healthy and a source of food for Aboriginal people.
Prior to her role at the Cooks River Alliance, Catarina worked on the feature documentary BLUE which explores the impacts of human activity on the world’s oceans.
By the river or by the sea, Catarina loves being by the water. She’s quick to remind anyone who will listen that every second breath comes from our oceans, and every river is connected to the sea.
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Joshua Morris
Photographer
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Joshua graduated from Sydney College of the Arts with a Bachelor of Visual Arts major in Photography. He went on to work with a string of great photographers across the realm of fashion, advertising, still life and architecture before establishing his own Studio.
He was the 2018 winner of the Australian Life Photographic Prize, three times finalist in the 2018 Australian Photography Awards, a semi finalist in the 2018 Head on Portrait competition and a finalist in the 2015 and 2016 National Photographic Portrait Prize in the National Portrait Gallery.
His diverse portfolio includes portraits of pop stars, politicians, and everyday people from all walks of life as well as a stunning collection of landscapes from the world over.
He's often found photographing the head of a large multinational one day, and a bunch of kids the next, regularly shooting for Marie Claire, The Good Weekend, Blacktown Arts, Fraser’s Property Group, and countless others.
2019 JUDGES
Sophia Kouyoumdjian
Director of Parramatta Artist Studios
Parramatta Artist Studios is a leading contemporary arts incubator and peer support network providing professional development opportunities for its resident artists.
Sophia has over 15 years experience in arts management, with extensive knowledge of the Western Sydney arts sector. Key exhibition management positions include guest curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art ’s (MCA) Primavera 2017: Young Australian Artists exhibition and senior curator at Blacktown Arts Centre.
Sophia holds various Board and Committee appointments including the Chair of the Dance Makers Collective Board.
Michael Snape
Practicing Artist
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Michael is an established artist with professional experience spanning over 40 years. His work has been shown in more than 20 solo exhibitions and numerous group shows and is held in many significant gallery collections such as those of the Art Gallery of NSW and Powerhouse Museum.
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In 2004 he won the inaugural Cromwell’s Art Prize. He was a finalist in the Archibald, and Wynn prizes in 2002 and 2003, exhibited 13 times in Sculpture by The Sea, and recently participating in the 2018 Tarrawarra Biennial in Healesville. He is the successful recipient of a number of large public commissions across Australia, and also works as a painter, writer and poet.
Caroline Butler-Bowden
Executive Director, Public Spaces at NSW Department of Panning and Environment
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Caroline has over 20 years of leadership experience in large public organisations and has a strong commitment and drive to engage and inspire 21st-century audiences in the joys and relevance of public space, heritage and culture.
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She has deep subject knowledge as an award-winning author and curator in topics relating to architecture, cities, public space, museums and lifelong learning and as a media expert with extensive experience in engaging with audiences in the print and digital environment.
2018 JUDGES
Peter Poulet
Architect
Peter is the 23rd NSW Government Architect, and has over 30 years’ experience in both private and government architectural offices. Peter is also an artist, and holds numerous awards and appointments across art and architecture.
As an architect, Peter is a member of the NSW Architect’s Registration Board, Central Sydney Planning Committee, NSW Heritage Council, Trustee of the ANZAC Memorial, Sydney Opera House Conservation Council, Government Architect’s Network Australia, UTS Design Architecture & Building Advisory, UNSW Adjunct Professor and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Architects.
As an artist, he was honoured as Artist in Residence at Bundanon in 1999 and at the New England Regional Art Museum in 2002. His work is held in the collections of the major law firms Allen Arthur Robinson and Baker & McKenzie, and also in the University of New South Wales, Artbank, the Manly Hydraulics Laboratory, and the Bundanon Trust.
Caroline Rothwell
Practicing Artist
Caroline is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work investigates how ideologies have shaped our contemporary world. Often looking to science, data, history and nature, she creates a world exploring the unintended consequences of human activity. Her practice spans nearly 20 years, and she has exhibited both nationally and internationally, with her work being held in collections worldwide.
Her recent projects include: Falling Suspended, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery (2017) Another Green World, Western Plains Cultural Centre (2017); Inspiracje, Trafo Centre for Contemporary Art, Poland (2017); Composer, commission for Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (2016); Frágil, XIII Biennale of Cuenca, Ecuador (2016); Antipodes: cut apart, Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology, University of Cambridge, UK (2016); Habit, Temple Contemporary, Philadelphia (2015), Dark Heart: 2014 Biennial of Australian Art at Art Gallery of South Australia
Ann Ryan
Curator of Australian Prints, Drawings & Watercolours at the Art Gallery of New South Wales
Anne has organised a number of exhibitions and publications on Australian art on artists including Fred Williams, David Aspden and Lloyd Rees, and Australian printmaking. She studied at the Universities of Sydney and New South Wales, and was the Sarah and William Holmes Scholar in the Departments of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum in 2001-02. She was the curator of the 2014 and 2016 Dobell Australian drawing biennial exhibitions Drawing out and Close to home and curator of the annual Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes in 2015, 2017 and 2018.
2017 JUDGES
Roderick Simpson
Environment Commissioner at the Greater Sydney Commission and Associate Professor in the Urbanism Program at the University of Sydney.
Roderick has worked for the Commonwealth and provided consultancy services to state and local governments in planning and urban design.
He led the urban design for the City of Sydney Sustainable Sydney 2030 strategy with the SGS consortium and was instrumental in the development of BASIX and PRECINX. He is a member of various housing, transport and architectural design review panels including the UrbanGrowth Design Directorate.
Perdita Phillips
Independent artist, writer, editor and researcher
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Perdita works across a range of media on issues surrounding the environment and non-human worlds.
Recent exhibitions include We must catch up (solo, Paper Mountain 2017), Radical Ecologies (PICA 2016), 2° - Global Warming and its Environmental Impact, Worldwide site specific works curated by AININ for artCOP21 (Paris 2015), Novel Ecologies (The Cross Arts Projects 2013) and enhancement: MAKING SENSE (i3S, Universidade do Porto 2016)
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Vandana Ram
Director of Bankstown Arts Centre
Vandana has worked at local, state and federal levels in the areas of arts management and facilitation of cultural practice for thirty years. As both an arts manager and community based artist she has initiated a vast range of cultural programs mainly focusing on women and young people from culturally diverse backgrounds. She was awarded the Minister’s Award for Women in Local Government in 2014.
Vandana is also a visual artist whose practice explores questions of identity, memory and migration.
PAST CURATORS
2014, 2015, 2016
Christiane Statham
Christiane is a curator, a cultural strategist and a manager of public art projects. She has a Bachelor of Art Theory from the College of Fine Arts at the University of New South Wales in Sydney and the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in Utrecht, the Netherlands. She also has a Master of Curating and Cultural Leadership from the University of New South Wales.
She co-curated SafARI 2014 and curator of Sculpture in the Vineyards 2014 and 2015. From 2016 - 2018, she worked as a consultant and project manager with Futurecity, developing cultural and public art strategies for urban renewal projects in Australia and the UK. In 2018, she co-founded Studio TCS with Jennifer Turpin and Michaelie Crawford.
In 2020, Christiane became the Public Art Coordinator at the Northern Beaches Council, where she is coordinating public art along the Northern Beaches Coast Walk, a 36km track from Manly to Palm Beach.
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2017
Elyse Goldfinch
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Elyse is an independent curator and writer based in Sydney. Her curatorial practice is particularly drawn from expanded and experimental relationships between art, science, ecologies and new materialism. She has curated extensively and has written for both online and print publications.
Elyse currently works as Executive Assistant & Curatorial Liaison at Artspace. She holds a Bachelor of Art Theory (Hons.) from UNSW Art & Design and is currently completing her Masters of Art Curating at the University of Sydney.
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2018
Bronwen Dugan
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Bronwen is a Sydney-based emerging curator. Her particular interest in the nexus between art, place, and community, and the capacity for art to engage people with the environment in which they live, drew her to this role.
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Bronwen has curated exhibitions at Manly Art Gallery & Museum, including ‘Express Yourself’ (2015 and 2016), and ‘Abundance’ (2017) for a local artist cooperative.
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She holds a BA in Visual Art from COFA, and a Master of Curating and Cultural Leadership from UNSW Art & Design. With a particular passion for art in the public realm, she has also produced temporary installations in collaboration with artists across various disciplines for several Public Art Projects and Festivals in Sydney.
Nick Chapman
GreenWay Place Manager
Nick first got involved in the GreenWay in 2001 as a local resident and was awarded 2012 Ashfield Citizen of the Year in recognition of his voluntary contribution to the GreenWay. He has spent the last 10 years working in local government place management and sustainability education at UTS. Appointed GreenWay Place Manager in 2012 and now based at the Inner West Council, Nick oversees all aspects of the Program which includes place making, active travel, urban biodiversity, sustainability education, arts and culture. He views the Art Prize as one of the GreenWay’s signature achievements and continues to be amazed by the community’s capacity to celebrate the GreenWay in such a passionate and creative way through art.