WINNER – DRAWING STUDIO Jack Willet Industry Engagement Award, 2025 Memory Transplants is a collection of paintings based on my grandparents’ photographic slides that explores identity, cultural memory, and the knowledge passed down and lost through generations of migration. Through
WINNER – DRAWING STUDIO Alpha 60 Prize, 2025 THE AVIARY The Aviary is an investigation of memory as a simulacrum: the notion that memory is reconstructive, simulatory, and slippery. The concept of the performance arrived to the artist in the
Bio Statement: Amelia Faye Perri is a ballet-trained artist and emerging arts manager currently completing a Master of Arts Management at RMIT University. A graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s Bachelor of Arts in Modern Ballet, her practice and
WINNER – DRAWING STUDIO Adele Wilkes Industry Engagement Award, 2025 I HAVE DETAINED YOUR ATTENTION My practice begins where systems break. In the noise of the glitch, in the unfinished code, in the loops that never resolve, I find a
FOND MEMORIES IN MY HEAD Be loud, Be funny, Reach each catharsis, Release shame. I want to put intimate things on a wall. Talk about things people have shamed me for. Become shameless and be myself, and in turn help
AWARD WINNER – Breaking the Mold Sculpture Prize for experimentation in the Sculpture Studio, 2025 I work across mediums to create intriguing and playful encounters that puncture the common sense of capitalism. I interpret economic analysis through intuitive associations
WINNER – DRAWING STUDIO Bold and the Beautiful prize, 2025
Bio Statement: Working with textiles and garment construction techniques, Asha Syms’ approach to fashion is rooted in storytelling through design and finish. While completing her Master of Arts (Arts Management), her practice has increasingly focused on sustainability and education around
Bio Statement: My cultural background plays a key role in shaping my interest and motivation for curating this specific event. I grew up bicultural, with my mum being Australian and my Dad being Balinese. As someone who has been involved
The Work of Quiet Hands considers the importance of prioritising care. While certain individuals like Beggs may place an emphasis on care, in general it is not highly valued. In contemporary society, women, immigrants, people of colour and other oppressed
Spliced is a collection of Photographs, Paintings, and costumes related to the theme of the characterisation of different parts of my own personality portrayed in the primary form of crocheted masks and costumes. Each costume represents a core
Uniform: An auto-theoretical reflection on agency and conformity within schooling institutions as an adolescent girl with ADHD Uniform employs a combination of representational and abstract painting techniques, drawing, and repurposed school uniform textiles to research the interplay between gendered expectations,
Bio Statement: David Xu is a graduate of Master of Arts Management student. He is passionate about LGBTQIA+ rights as a member of the Asian LGBTQIA+ community. His curatorial practice often focuses on the lived experiences of Asian LGBTQIA+ individuals
Invisible Transfers. As a young person, my father and I would often look through the binoculars, watching the pilot boats disembark at the Point Lonsdale Lighthouse. Due to the difficulty that large ships have entering Melbourne’s commercial port, shipping pilots
Bio Statement: Effye Chen is a Creative Producer, Event Planner, Marketing Strategist, and Designer who combines a decade of multinational marketing experience with artistic vision to empower artists and designers in engaging with diverse audiences. Born, educated, and professionally active
Fragmented Identities as Hybridity. Searching for belonging in a cultural “third space”. Eliza Byrne’s practice examines the cultural “third space,” where identity is shaped not within a single culture but through the interplay of multiple cultural worldviews. This space emerges
CONFINE DELL’INFERNO: PAINTING AS AN EXPULSION This practice-led research project grew out of a need to navigate my obsessive-compulsive (OCD) thoughts and actions related to the fear of disease and illness. My painting practice enables me to confront my
HOLDING THE MOMENT This practice-led research examines how the act of painting can transform ordinary, private moments into heightened visual experiences. Painting allows me to slow down what the camera captures instantly. The digital image is reinterpreted over time through
SOMATAESTHESIA: EXPLORING THE INEXPRESSIBLE SENSATIONS OF CHRONIC ILLNESS THROUGH EXPANDED SPATIAL PRACTICE Despite thousands of years of research into the human body, so much of it remains—or is kept—a mystery. As someone living with chronic illness, these mysteries define every
BEYOND THE SURFACE is a series of objects that aim to translate my ongoing inquiry into how we perceive. It explores our tendency to form judgments based on surface-level information, and the qualities that compel us to look closer, moving
Talk to Me – A Dialogue with Self-Portraiture My series explores self-portraiture as a fluid and mutable study of self. Turning up to sit repeatedly, I observe changes in mood, appearance and aesthetics. The portraits are designed to be viewed
Roadkill Approximately 10 million animals die on our roads each year from vehicle related incidents. Alone, afraid and abandoned; they are left on the side of the road to die, sometimes slowly and in pain. They are splattered and maimed
Bio Statement: Haotian Huang is a master’s in arts management with a background in painting and environmental design and an avid fan of electronic music and visual art. He has watched over 100 artists perform over the past nine years,
Why I Knit My practice explores neurodivergent experience through wearable textiles, participatory performance, and large-scale crochet installation. Rooted in hand-knitting, embroidery, and tactile making, my work transforms personal strategies of survival and regulation into shared encounters, positioning textile labour as
Bio Statement: Huafei Du is a fashion designer with a strong interest in curatorial practice and contemporary arts. Her work explores the intersection of fashion, exhibition-making, and culture narratives through interdisciplinary approaches. She is particularly passionate about innovative materials and
hush heresy heave (2025) Words are often clumsy in articulating the understanding of the body. This practice-led research project aims to explore how hysterical choreographies—across movement, language, and lens-based media—might critically engage with the bodily impacts of capitalist-driven terrains and
IN MY IMAGE In My Image explores painting as a space where memory stirs rather than settles; where the past flickers in fragments, half-remembered and half-imagined. Working with found and family photographs, I use paint to blur the edges between
THEATRE OF ONE explores interiors and exteriors. When masks are worn, a tension is created through the inclusion, alteration and omission of information. The video works present ambiguous masked characters in equally ambiguous domestic locations. Paired with videos of text
A ROOM OF HER OWN presents a collection of oil paintings that investigate themes of femininity, identity, and self-presentation within contemporary youth culture and queer spaces. Drawing from her own staged photographic imagery, Ivy depicts intimate scenes such as portraits,
Bio Statement: Jaeeun (Jay) is a South Korean producer and coordinator with practical experience across theatre, events, and arts management. Her roles have spanned producing, marketing coordination, and venue management, where she honed skills in overseeing budgets, teams, and performances.
BLUSHING LACE- Content warning: the work discusses gender-based violence Blushing Lace explores the rising issue of violence against women in Australia, drawing from my personal experiences of abuse by my father and other adult men during my childhood. Through this
Bio Statement: Nihkee N. has a cultural background in Southern China, with an academic background in Visual Arts from the University of Sydney and current postgraduate studies in Arts Management at RMIT. Nihkee’s creative practice is centered around creative design,
ENERGISING THE SPIRIT: MOMENTUM AND MINDFULNESS IN THE ART OF EXERCISE AND MOVEMENT EXPLORED THROUGH PAINTING Jocelyn is an emerging artist specialising in mixed media painting, focusing on themes of energy, movement, and emotional expression. With a solid background in
Bio Statement: As an international student from China, I decided to study in Australia, starting my journey as an overseas student in high school. After completing my Bachelor’s degree in Fashion Business, I pursued a Master’s degree in Arts Management.
Bio Statement: Junke Zhang, holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts and is currently pursuing a Master of Art Management. This emerging academic field not only broadens her career prospects but also enables her to integrate art creation with business operations,
PORTABLE STILLNESS: Handmade Miniatures as Traces of Home and Memory My master’s project explores how the making of miniature objects and floating altar-like displays can express memory, collection, and the domestic in transition. Motivated by the instability of diasporic living
Bio Statement: Le Tram Anh Nguyen is a Vietnamese international student pursuing Master of Arts Management at RMIT University. With over five years of experience in the Vietnamese music and events industry, she has worked on artist management, bookings, live
THE TRACE OF THE TEAR is a sculptural neckpiece born from Lilian Fung’s own healing journey. Rooted in research on the crystallisation of dried human tears under a microscope, it gives form to what is often unseen — grief, memory,
WINNER – DRAWING STUDIO Bold and the Beautiful prize, 2025 We Gather, We Rise, We Fall. This large-scale robotic fabric installation reflects on the cycles of nature, their duration, rhythm, and caring reliability. Its scale intentionally includes the human body
Bio Statement: Lucy Elbrish is an Australian artist graduated with Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and currently completing her, Master of Arts Management from RMIT University. Her plans are to get a big studio in a suitable place to create
IT’S NO LONGER ABOUT YOU, I NO LONGER REMEMBER YOUR VOICE. This work is about my first relationship at 18 years old. It has forever changed how I view myself and sexuality. This work is a visual dive into my
HIT ME AS HARD AS YOU CAN: The Carnivalesque Against Australian Nationalism. Australia has a long history of phobic nationalism which utilises any instance of global economic insecurity to scapegoat whichever individual strays too far from what has long
Sundowning—the term for increased confusion in the late afternoon and evening for people with Alzheimer’s. Sundowning reflects on the tensions between permanence and impermanence and intends to resist modernist ideals of monolithic permanence. As its title suggests, Sundowning is
I.V9000 (IN VITRO 9000) reimagines human reproduction through an absurdist, monochrome lens by merging found footage, stock imagery, AI-generated visuals, and animation into a surreal baby-making factory. The work explores what happens when reproduction becomes fully technologised. What are the
RỒI MỘT NGÀY CON SẼ MẤT (SOMEDAY I WILL LOSE YOU) In 2017, at the age of 15, I began studying abroad in Australia. With my immature thoughts at the time, I never imagined that life would take me so
WORKING FACES: PORTRAITS IN PLACE Working Faces: Portraits in Place explores the connection between people and their working environments through a series of environmental portraits. Each image captures individuals in their authentic settings, from bustling city streets to quiet studios,
X marks the spot: Traversing the tension between Liminal spaces, The ‘Australian Gothic’, and a permeable reality X MARKS THE SPOT is a large-scale, multidisciplinary installation that critically engages with the aesthetic and psychological dimensions of the “Australian Gothic”, questioning
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PLASTICITIES, malaises, SURVIVALS PLASTICITIES, malaises, SURVIVALS is a practice led project that has emerged out of a personal experience of displacement. Working between Dight’s Falls, the foundry, and the gallery I cast beeswax sculptures, gather found materials, and record video
I LOVE MY SISTER investigates the fragile boundaries between childhood memory, safety, imagination, and grief. Through a studio practice rooted in play and collection, deconstructed recollections are transformed into paintings that blur realism with dreamlike reconstruction. This project reinterprets a
Bio Statement: Promise Mudzingwa is stage manager, designer, director and killer storyteller. Graduating from a Bachelor of Dramatic Arts degree (Majoring in Theatre Practice) at Excelsia College, she received training in stage management by Mary Benn, a nationally known stage
WE PART FOREVER IN TOMORROW’S SUNSHINE（我们在阳光灿烂的明天永别）is a large-scale oil painting with gold leaf, focusing on water and reflections to explore themes of farewell and memory. The work was created as the artist prepared to leave Melbourne, reflecting on the emotions
Bio Statement: Quynh Hoa’s curatorial practice centres on the question ‘What does it mean to be a Vietnamese in the contemporary world?’. In the journey of answering this question, she wants to investigate narratives that have been neglected in the
Bio Statement: Rachael Marie D’cruz is a Master of Arts Management students at RMIT University with a background in art history and curating. Originally from Singapore, her academic and professional focus centres on inclusive and community-responsive curatorial practice, particularly amplifying
Bio Statement: Bec Gynes is an interdisciplinary creative and arts worker. With an undergrad in Fine Arts from the VCA, her love and care for the arts comes from the underpinnings first learnt as an artist. With main interests in
Shang Gao is an artist based in Melbourne whose work focuses on the reclamation of materials and the simulation of natural textures. The core of her research is to explore how materials generate new visual and tactile languages in the
PAINTING THE DARK ECOLOGY engages with the ecological crisis not only as an environmental issue but as a cultural one, confronting life and death, the aftermath of Colonialism and the sixth mass extinction event seen through the lens of post-humanism.
Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof (I only know the way to the train station) Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof (I only know the way to the train station) 2025, ink, pencil, digital print on Bible paper, 14.8×21cm (Single size, 28-piece
Bio Statement: Stella Wadeson (she/her) is a multidisciplinary arts worker engaging working with people from all walks of life. She is an artistically driven, enthusiastic collaborator who is actively working in the arts and culture. Through using the simple fluidity
WINNER – THE MOAT Video award, 2025 Su Shar Latt is a video-based performance artist who explores the relationship between her body and her past. Drawing on concepts relating to seeking refuge and its lasting effects, she investigates how the past is never
WINNER – DRAWING STUDIO Joseph Beuys Cafe Drawing Award, 2025 Tate Maxwell is an artist working in the expanded field of drawing. In a recent departure from representational charcoal drawings, Maxwell has begun to explore spatial potentiality, quality, and
AWARD WINNER – BDS Sculpture Prize for outstanding folio, 2025 Teagan is a sculpture-based artist with a vested interest in repurposing and reimagining overlooked and discarded objects from her immediate environments. Her practice is characterised by an intuitive and
Highly commended: All the Very Best Award RUIN “The truth is, cathedrals don’t mean anything special to me. Nothing. They’re something to look at on late-night TV. That’s all they are.” Raymond Carver
SECOND SKIN “As I stretch the hood over my face, I enter my second skin. Anonymity is my armour, self-expression is my tool, and with them I build my relationships and join a community of likeminded freaks.” Second Skin is
Bio Statement Ulises Resendiz is a Mexican-born, St Kilda–based symbolist-surreal artist whose work explores the tension between beauty and contradiction. As an LGBTQIA+ creator, Ulises uses vibrant colours and bold imagery to express layered emotional and cultural experiences. His art
Bio Statement: Uvini Ashcharya Yahampath is a Master of Arts (Arts Management) student at RMIT University, with a background in fashion and textile design from Sri Lanka. Her practice explores the intersection of fashion, abstract expression, and mental health, using
Bio Statement: Vanessa Tang is a Naarm/Melbourne-based arts manager and artist. Formerly an educator, she is passionate about connecting art with the public and creating inclusive cultural experiences. Since moving to Melbourne, Vanessa has become involved in the street dance
Meow meow meow meow meow (Welcome to the digital realm) My practice explores the performance of self through digital media, using the screen as both a mirror and a stage. I record myself through tools like Photobooth and screen capture,
Sub 27 Exhibition Award Winner I love exploring and creating jewelry and objects inspired by nature. Nature offers a diverse range of feelings, emotions, and thoughts. In early 2019, the Victorian bushfires caused devastating losses. Many people lost their
Bio Statement: Yu Tian is a postgraduate student in Arts Management, with an undergraduate background in Music Education. With expertise in both music and arts management, her research focuses on how art can serve as an emotional support tool within
