2025 Finalists Revealed for the 24th Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize

Published on 15 August 2025

Main image: Sassy Park, Familiars, Ceramic, various clay and glazes. Photo by: Karl Schwerdtfeger

Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf has announced the finalists for the 2025 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, Australia’s most prestigious award for small-scale sculpture.

Now in its 24th year, the Prize continues to highlight the dynamic and diverse creativity that defines contemporary sculpture. The selected works reflect the innovation and depth of the medium, spanning a variety of materials, forms, and themes.

The 55 finalists were chosen from 736 international and local entries and represent the remarkable breadth of sculptural practice today. This year’s finalists explore the transformative potential of materials, including ceramic, matchboxes, paper pulp, neon, photographic paper, hand blown glass and resin poured and frozen in time. Their works explore themes such as joy, grief, identity, transformation, knowledge and memory.

Gallery Director, Sep Pourbozorgi said: "These works are engaging in ways both intimate and expansive. They highlight how choices of scale and material shape our experiences."

Woollahra Mayor Sarah Dixson said: "I am delighted and intrigued by the ideas expressed in this year’s finalist sculptures, and so pleased that Woollahra Council is able to provide a platform to showcase the works of such talented artists. We look forward to welcoming visitors to our gallery in September to experience their creativity."

The 2025 finalists will be on display at Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf from 26 September to 16 November 2025, with the winners announced at the official opening on 25 September 2025.

The total prize pool of $29,000 includes the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize ($25,000), Special Commendation Award ($2,000), Mayor’s Award ($1,000), and the Viewers’ Choice Award ($1,000). 

The Finalists

The 2025 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize finalists are:

Alice Lang, Alicia Cox, Amanda Page, Amy Wong, Andrew Christie, Annabel Lahz, Anne-Marie May, Belem Lett, Bianca Hester, Brad Gunn, Bronwyn Sargeson and Floria Tosca, Carol Crawford, Christian Bonett, Christopher Jewitt, Christopher Langton, Daniel Agdag, Darcey Bella Arnold, Donna Marcus, Emma-Kate Hart, Jacqueline Bradley, Jake Clark , Jane Hosking, Jennifer Oh, Jessica Murtagh, Josephine Bridge, Joshua Copland-Nielsen, Joshua Rowell,Josina Pumani, Kat Shapiro Wood, Katherine Castillo Alferez, Kirsten Coelho, Lucie Billingsley, Lynda Draper, Martin John Oldfield, MeiMei Hodgkinson, Mel Booth,Michael Cusack, Michelle Ussher, Morgan Stokes, Nadine Schmoll, Nasim Nasr, Nuha Saad, Paul Davies, Paul McInnes, Robert Schwartz, Ruth Ju-shih Li, Sassy Park, Simon Chalmers, Stephen Bird, Stephen Ralph, Tahlia Undarlegt, Tai Snaith, Tanya Reinli, Thomas Mason, Virginia Leonard.

Finalist Highlights

Sassy Park, Familiars. Photo by: Karl Schwerdtfeger

Sassy Park (Darlinghurst, NSW), Familiars: Consisting of thirteen small ceramic sculptures, each uniquely shaped and painted. Inspired by ancient household deities, these intimate figures - ranging from portrait heads to everyday scenes - serve as a personal sculptural diary. The work reflects on themes of protection, domestic life, vulnerability, and the human desire to find meaning in objects around us.

Christopher Jewitt, Figure With 8 Horns

Christopher Jewitt (Brunswick, VIC), Figure With 8 Horns: Christopher’s vibrant ceramic sculpture is a wonderfully odd, abstract, mythical creature that was born out of spontaneity. Airbrushed and glazed in bold colours, its lively surface is etched with expressive marks that give it extra personality. Balancing simplicity and complexity, the piece has a joyful energy that’s hard to resist.

Josina Pumani, Maralinga

Josina Pumani (Mimili, SA), Maralinga: Josina is a Pitjantjatjara woman from Mimili, South Australia, whose ceramics tell the Maralinga story—the devastating legacy of British nuclear tests in the 1950s that displaced and harmed the Anangu people. Her hand-built pots use red to represent fires and grey for smoke, with textured surfaces evoking how the fallout travelled across APY Lands.

Ruth Ju-shih Li, Florilège IX

Ruth Ju-shih Li (Macquarie Park, NSW), Florilège IX: A wax sculpture with a single cotton wick, Florilège IX expands Li’s clay practice into new materials, ritual, and performance. Organic yet abstract, it releases sandalwood fragrance reminiscent of her grandmother’s home in Taipei. Its monochromatic floral forms blend personal memory with reflections on life’s transient nature.

Belem Lett, Life Cycle

Belem Lett (Marrickville, NSW), Life Cycle: A looping, multicoloured sculpture made from small painted timber sections. Its twisting lines create shifting shapes, colours, and openings that change as you move around it. Playful yet reflective, the work traces the stages of life, from growth to return, echoing the cyclical nature of our existence.

Amy Wong, BUTT (2025)

Amy Wong (Merrylands, NSW), BUTT (2025): A 3D-printed sculpture of Wong’s own buttocks, styled like a classical Greco-Roman bust. Created in response to growing up with body dysmorphia and a conservative Vietnamese mother who urged her to hide her figure, the work reclaims confidence, celebrates body positivity, and playfully challenges cultural and familial expectations.

Brad Gunn, Vanity Fairgame

Brad Gunn (Richmond, VIC), Vanity Fairgame: Gunn’s figurative sculpture critiques societal pressures on women’s bodies, drawing inspiration from the 1991 Demi Moore Vanity Fair cover. The piece is sculpted in mixed media, with surreal character design and bold textural contrasts, reflecting on the complexities of body autonomy and public perception.

Nasim Nasr, ASHKDAN Trio Pink: PERSEVERANCE

Nasim Nasr (Rushcutters Bay, NSW), ASHKDAN Trio Pink: PERSEVERANCE: Nasr’s work in mixed media includes Persian tear collectors, traditionally used in Persian culture to collect tears during moments of mourning. The artist reimagines these objects as part of a broader commentary on grief, identity, and cultural memory, using found materials and delicate craftsmanship to reflect on the intersection of personal and collective loss.

Judges’ statements

Sanné Mestrom, Artist, Academic, and winner of the 2017 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, shared her thoughts on the selection process: "Judging these submissions has been a great privilege. The diversity of voices, materials, and approaches across over 700 applications was genuinely overwhelming - in the best possible way. Collectively, these works reveal the remarkable creativity at work in sculpture today."

Justin Paton, Head Curator of International Art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales said: "Small can be beautiful — and also potent, alluring, dense, profound, magnetic, strange, wondrous, delightful, prickly, pithy. I'm looking forward to encountering small sculptures of all these kinds in the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize 2025."

Megan Monte, inaugural Director of Ngununggula, Southern Highlands Regional Gallery, said: "This prestigious prize celebrates the wondrous world of sculpture and its scalable possibilities. It also highlights artists' creative pursuits, echoing their ideas and conceptual inquiries."

Public Programs

Across the exhibition period, the Gallery will present a vibrant and inclusive program designed to engage families, art lovers, artists, and audiences with diverse access needs. Highlights include hands-on sculpture and creative workshops with exhibiting artists, tailored for both children and adults, as well as regular guided tours - led by Gallery staff, curators, and finalists - offering unique insights into the works on display.

Dedicated programs will cater to neurodivergent audiences, while industry-focused sessions explore pathways from small-scale practice to public art. Offsite events and artist talks will further extend the exhibition’s reach into the community.