We are now accepting entries for the 2025 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize
In 2025, the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize proudly upholds its reputation as Australia's foremost award dedicated to small-scale sculpture. Established in 2001 as the nation's first national acquisitive prize for original sculptures up to 80cm in any dimension, this esteemed competition continues to champion creativity and innovation. Hosted by Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf and proudly presented with Woollahra Municipal Council, the prize invites artists to explore the boundless possibilities within limited scale, showcasing diverse freestanding and wall-mounted works across various mediums.
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Prizes:
The Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize
An acquisitive award of $25,000
The Special Commendation Award
A non-acquisitive award of $2,000
The Mayor's Award
A non-acquisitive award of $1,000
The Viewer's Choice
A non-acquisitive award of $1,000
Key Dates:
Entries open:
2 May 2025
Entries close:
13 July 2025
Finalists announced:
15 August 2025
Cut-off for artwork delivery to Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf:
8 September 2025
Winners announced:
25 September 2025
Exhibition of Finalists:
26 September to 16 November 2025 at Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf
Judges:
Unanimously recommended by the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize Committee for their outstanding expertise in contemporary art and sculpture, the 2025 judges are Sanné Mestrom, Artist, Academic, and winner of the 2017 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize; Megan Monte, Former Director, Ngununggula, Southern Highlands Regional Gallery; and Justin Paton, Head Curator of International Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales.
Sanné Mestrom
Sanné Mestrom’s playable sculptures explore ideas of female representation in Western art, particularly modernism, through the personal lens of motherhood. Her work responds to the physical transformation of the maternal body, reimagining it as a site of shared utility, discovery and beauty. Through abstracted bodily forms, Mestrom advocates for sculpture that invites intergenerational, open-ended play—encouraging curiosity, imagination and resilience, particularly in children.
Born in the Netherlands in 1979, Mestrom moved to New Zealand in 1983 and to Australia in 1998. She holds a PhD and a Masters in Public Art from RMIT University and currently lives in the Blue Mountains, NSW. Her work has featured in major exhibitions including The Whole is Greater Than the Sum of Her Parts (National Gallery of Australia, 2025), Solar Cry (Sullivan + Strumpf, 2024), and From Will to Form (TarraWarra Museum of Art, 2018). Her sculptures are held in the collections of the Art Gallery of NSW, the National Gallery of Australia and the MCA.
Mestrom won the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize (2017) and the John Fries Memorial Prize (2011). She has undertaken residencies in Seoul and Mexico City and regularly contributes to the arts through talks, panels and public commissions.
"Thrilled to be invited to judge the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize alongside an incredible panel - I won this prize in 2017 on the eve of my son's birth, and the prize enabled the entire next chapter of my life, so it's such an honour to now help champion other sculptors - forging their way through art and life - and contribute to this important platform for contemporary sculpture."
Megan Monte
Megan Monte is the inaugural Director of Ngununggula, Southern Highlands Regional Gallery, which launched in 2021. Before this, she was the inaugural Co-Director at Cement Fondu, a contemporary not-for-profit art space in Paddington, and the Curator of Contemporary Art at Campbelltown Arts Centre. Megan holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Sydney College of the Arts, The University of Sydney), a Diploma in Secondary Education, Visual Arts (New England University), and a Masters in Arts Administration (UNSW Art & Design). Recent curatorial projects include; in a part of your mind, I am you a major solo exhibition with Tom Polo (2025), The Art World Came to Us: Macquarie Galleries 1938 - 1964 (2024), New Dog Old Tricks (2023) and Land Abounds: Abdul Abdullah, Abdul Rahman Abdullah & Tracey Moffatt (2022).
"I'm thrilled to be on the judging panel for this year's Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize! 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. It's an absolute honour to be involved this year!"
Justin Paton
Justin Paton is an acclaimed writer on art and head curator of international art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. His projects for the Art Gallery have included Louise Bourgeois: Has the Day Invaded the Night or Has the Night Invaded the Day? (2023), Dreamhome: Stories of Art & Shelter, Francis Upritchard's Here Comes Everybody, and the inaugural Nelson Packer Tank commission by Adrián Villar Rojas. Paton's books include How to Look at a Painting (Awa Press, 2005), McCahon Country (Auckland Art Gallery Toi O Tamāki and Penguin Random House New Zealand, 2019) and the book of the Dreamhome exhibition (2023). Paton is currently working on Mike Hewson's sculptural project, The Key's Under the Mat, opening in the Nelson Packer Tank in October.
"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."
Eligibility:
- For the purpose of the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, sculptures are defined as freestanding, non-site specific, three-dimensional objects or wall-mounted objects.
- Entries should not exceed 80cm in any dimension, and must have a stable base (or appropriate mount). The overall weight and dimensions must allow for easy transportation, and not exceed the carrying capacity of two average persons.
- All entries must be the original work of the submitting artist and must have been designed or completed within one year prior to July 2025.
- There is no limit to the number of entries an artist can submit. A separate entry form and fee must accompany each entry. Only one work per artist will be shown in the exhibition.
- Collaborative entries are acceptable.
Terms and conditions:
1. Exhibition Period
All works must be available for the full exhibition period: 25 September to 16 November 2025.
2. Transport of Artwork
Artists selected for exhibition are responsible for transporting their work to and from Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf. This includes all freight and transport costs in both directions.
3. Image and Information Requirements
Selected artists must supply high-resolution images (minimum 96 dpi) of their final work, as well as other supporting materials, to assist with promotion and interpretation of their work and the broader exhibition.
4. Sale of Works
All selected works must be available for sale.
- The gallery takes a 40% commission, plus 10% GST on the commission amount, from the listed sale price.
- Represented artists are charged a 20% commission, plus 10% GST on the commission amount.
- Note: GST-registered artists must include GST in their listed sale price. Woollahra Council is not responsible for remitting GST on behalf of the artist.
5. Sale Price Finality
Artists must nominate a sale price in Australian Dollars (AUD) on their entry form. If selected as a finalist, this price will be considered final and will appear in all promotional materials.
6. Insurance and Liability
While all care will be taken when handling artworks, Woollahra Council accepts no responsibility for loss, theft, or damage at any stage of the exhibition process. Artists are responsible for insuring their own works.
7. Display and Presentation
The presentation and placement of artworks will be at the discretion of the Gallery Team. All care will be taken to respect special display requirements to maintain the integrity of the artwork.
8. Moral Rights
Artists retain the moral rights to their work:
a) In accordance with the right of attribution (and the right against false attribution), artists will be correctly credited in all reproductions and presentations.
b) In accordance with the right of integrity, Woollahra Council will, to the best of its ability and within its control, safeguard the work from any treatment that may be harmful to the artist’s honour or reputation.
9. Copyright
Artists retain full copyright of their work.
10. Reproduction License
Finalists grant Woollahra Council a non-exclusive, unlimited license to reproduce their work and biographical material for promotional purposes and inclusion in the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize archive. Artists and their galleries (if applicable) will be duly credited in accordance with Clause 8(a).
11. Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) Rights
a) Artworks or texts containing ICIP will not be altered or adapted by Woollahra Council without the artist’s free, prior, and informed consent.
b) Council will consult with internal experts and/or the artist to ensure that ICIP content is not presented in a derogatory, degrading, or culturally inappropriate way.
c) Interpretation materials will include attribution of ICIP as directed by the artist.
d) Woollahra Council recognises that displaying the likeness of a deceased Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander artist may be culturally inappropriate. If notified of an artist’s passing, Council will, where reasonably practical, remove the artist’s likeness from any promotional or published materials at the request of a family member or representative.
12. Delivery Deadline for Catalogue Inclusion
Finalists must ensure their artworks are delivered to Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf by Monday 8 September.
Works not received by this deadline may be excluded from the exhibition catalogue and associated promotional materials.
Entry process:
Artists can submit entries via the Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf website, providing their name, contact details, artist bio, artwork details (including up to 3 images, title, date, materials, dimensions, weight, price, handling, and display requirements), and an artwork statement.
A non-refundable entry fee of $50 (plus a 0.55% transaction fee) must accompany each entered work. Entry fees contribute towards the cost of organising the Prize and exhibition.
Selection process:
- It is anticipated that between 45-60 entries will be selected for the exhibition of finalists.
- Judges will decide the winners of the 2025 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize and the Special Commendation Award from the works selected for exhibition.
- The Mayor of Woollahra will decide the recipient of the 2025 Mayor’s Award.
- The 2025 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, Special Commendation Award and the Mayor’s Award will be announced at the opening of the exhibition on 25 September 2025.
- The Viewer's Choice Award - voted on by the public - will be announced following the conclusion of the exhibition.
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