Works from the next generation of artists, designers, and makers are on display at Australia's biggest graduate art and design showcase.
A highlight on Sydney's cultural calendar, The Annual exhibition is a launchpad for the careers of graduates from the School of Art & Design at UNSW Arts, Design & Architecture. This year, 187 of the best emerging creative practitioners in the country will display new work across the UNSW Paddington campus and online, ranging interdisciplinary practices across 3D visualisation, animation, ceramics, drawing, experience design, furniture, graphics, installation, interaction design, jewellery, moving image, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, textiles, visual effects, and more.
Professor Edward Scheer, Head of the School of Art & Design, said the 2024 graduate cohort is a testament to the importance of creativity, technical skill, and resourcefulness.
"Each year, it is my great privilege to witness the unique and remarkable creative talent that emerges from our School," Prof. Scheer said. "The exhibition showcases the full range of innovative and interdisciplinary approaches to creative practice and research in our bachelor, honours, master's and PhD programs.
"Congratulations to all our graduating students. I wish them the very best as they move forward to become the next generation of creative leaders, artists, designers and makers, both in Australia and overseas."
Winner – TWT Excellence Prize
Amy Prcevich, Master of Fine Arts graduate, was awarded the 2024 TWT Excellence Prize for their video Workaround (2023). Supported by TWT Property Group, the $3,000 Prize is awarded to an outstanding graduating creative practitioner across all disciplines. It includes studio space at the TWT St Leonards Creative Precinct for one year and a one-year mentorship by Creative Precinct artist Paul McDonald.
Prcevich's work, informed by personal experience as an arts worker, positions paid employment in competition with a commitment to an art practice. With wry humour, Workaround draws on office tropes and conventions of the instructional video to present a series of strategies used to claim time and space for art-making in the context of the office.
"It celebrates the artistic impulse to agitate, rebel, resist and destabilise and offers an alternative possibility of how a practice can be maintained and supported," Prcevich said.
The 2023 TWT Excellence Prize judging panel, which consisted of Dr Matt Harkness (Lecturer, School of Art & Design), A/Prof. Bianca Hester (Co-Director, Research, School of Art & Design), and artist Mel O'Callaghan, said the artwork was highly researched, beautifully executed and engaging.
"The student engages her audience in a meta-narrative about labour relations, asking questions about how artists today can negotiate capital and art-making simultaneously," the judges said. "The video was formally exceptional – perfectly edited and planned, cinematographically compelling and cleverly scripted.
"It is as cheeky and humorous as it is poignant and full of pathos."
Winner – Ross Steele AM Fine Arts Prize
Joshua Di Mattina-Beven, Bachelor of Fine Arts graduate, was the winner of the 2024 Ross Steele AM Fine Arts Prize for their work Tussle (2024). This prize is awarded to an outstanding fine arts graduate and comes with a $3000 bursary from the generous support of Ross Steele AM.
Joshua's performance practice takes a collaborative approach to object-making, moving, and curating.
"I explore the crash of late-stage capitalism and cruise its discards for latent intimacies," the artist said. "What might a queer subjecthood look like in the aftermath of this collision? How might we tenderly embrace the entanglement of object, thing, subject and desire?"
Judges Dr Prue Gibson (Lecturer, School of Art & Design) and Dr Gerwyn Davies (Associate Lecturer, School of Art & Design and acclaimed photographer) described the artwork as elegant, confident and dynamic, offering a poetic representation of the complex relations in the world today through intimacy, play and tension.
"The ability to resolve the documentation and presence of a performance work through video and sculpture, allowing for an artwork to linger through what is both present and absence, is particularly commendable," the judges said. "The installations ask questions that exist outside of the performance while also luring the viewers into wanting more.
"A mesmerising artwork in every way."
Winner – Frost* Design Prize
Carina C. Cunha (Bachelor of Design graduate) received the 2024 Frost* Design Prize for their app design Galaxa (2024) – a digital solution helping women and gender-diverse people navigate public spaces with an improved perception of safety. The $3000 prize, supported by the Frost*collective, is awarded to a Design graduate who has demonstrated originality, experimentation and critical enquiry in their work.
Inspired by earlier experiences wandering around public spaces and fearing uncertainty, Galaxa intertwines astronomical motifs with unique safety features through a feedback system that encourages exploration, community support and independent agency for woman-identifying users within their public spaces.
"I am a designer rethinking how branding can connect communities and innovate solutions in an evolving socio-cultural and sustainable society," Cunha said. "I carry a chimera of disciplines in my practice, intertwining graphics, interaction, public relations and advertising knowledge.
"Combining these offers strategic insight towards developing my graduate project."
Judges Carlo Giannasca (Frost*collective Partner and Chief Operating Officer), Dr Zoë Veness (Deputy Head (Design), School of Art & Design) and Dr Haider Akmal (Lecturer, School of Art & Design) commended the project as an excellent solution to the real-world problem of women's safety resolved in an eloquent way.
"A high design standard that reflects the values we aspire to at Frost*," the panel said. "The project could be rolled out tomorrow with a net benefit to the community."
The Annual 2024 will be on display until 15 December, with exhibitions in UNSW Galleries, AD Space, A-Block, Black Box, the campus courtyard and online. Exhibition venues will be open daily, and student-led public programs will be presented throughout the exhibition period.
