Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize Awarded To Globally Recognised Ceramicist

The winners of Australia’s most prestigious awards for small-scale sculpture, the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, were announced on Thursday, with an internationally recognised ceramicist taking out the top prize.

Auckland-based artist Virginia Leonard used clay, pure gold and resin for her work Glad that you are not here all the time — an urn for unwanted limbs and other things, combining glazed ceramics with resin casting to explore the tensions between opacity and transparency.

“I am super grateful and honoured to win the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, and to be showing alongside some incredible works,” she said. “It is such a massive feeling to be acknowledged with this new body of work, as I pour and cast resin in my garage late into the night hoping that what I see and feel, other people will as well.”

Prize allows local and internationally-recognised artists to show in the same space

With 2025 marking the competition’s 24th year, the prize celebrates dynamic and innovative approaches to contemporary sculpture, with the winners highlighting the transformative potential of materials and form.

Local artist Thomas Mason won Special Commendation for his work, Torque, which draws on the physics of wave motion and the embodied mechanics of making using toneware, glaze, construction adhesive, epoxy putty and cornice cement, its twisted forms reflecting the energy and resistance of clay in process.

A prize of $1,000 was also awarded to emerging artist Alicia Cox for the Mayor’s Choice Award, selected by Mayor Sarah Dixon. Cox’s work Rack uses ceramic casts of her own body to explore the intersections of domesticity, gender and the body as a vessel. Using mould-making techniques, Cox reconfigures herself into tableware to examine ideas of function, decoration and objectification.

“Rack shows objectification in a very real, practical way and makes a comment on the role of women in the home,” said Dixon. “It’s both familiar and challenging, and also quite fun.

“It’s a great example of why the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize is so fantastic — it gives emerging artists like Alicia Cox the chance to be in the same room as better-known names in the art scene, and her work absolutely holds its own.”

The 2025 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize exhibition, featuring works by all 54  finalists, is on display at Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf from 26 September to 16 November.