Art Category
Amy Bailey
indebted
Amy Bailey, indebted, 2026. Chiffon, dowel, tricleanium, ink, 200 x 200 x 150mm.
Artist Statement
My installation, indebted, critiques mass social media consumption and its devastating effects on memory and cognition. indebted was created using citrus strip transfer techniques on chiffon fabric, depicting double-layered images of Instagram Reels. The work aims to evoke the decaying and fragmented nature of the modern digital mind — exposing the absurdity of what we consume daily through social media.
Bio
Amy Bailey is a 2nd year student at USYD studying visual arts and design, specialising in painting.
Charles Boobar
Promises We Hold
Charlie Boobar, Follow the signs, 2026. Nikon FM1 Film Camera, Fujifilm ISO400, 210 x 140mm.
Artist Statement
Promises We Hold is presented in fragments. These fragments inform the stories we hold and the associated permeations they affect. We follow the signs in front of us, disregard those which do not affect us, and teach our young to focus on our choosing. These intricacies interpolate our personal, never universal, experience.
Bio
Charles Boobar is a 5th year Master of Architecture student.
Ginia Caldwell
This Is Where I [Should] Pray
Ginia Caldwell, This Is Where I [Should] Pray, 2026. Mild steel, stainless steel, 900 x 1500 x 600 mm.
Artist Statement
Inspecting faith through Catholicism, there is an apparent interaction driven by physical contact and space which allows a faith to thrive. Religion can be inferred as a framework that allows individuals to view, interact and participate in the world with preconceived thoughts and feelings.
Bio
Ginia Caldwell is a 3rd year SCA sculpture student working on Gadigal land. Their practice draws attention to Catholic thoughts, opinions and hypocriticism. Using objects, either found or welded metal structures, they investigate the values objects give us, whether with satire or contemplation.
Clydine Carboni
come back, i wanna go for a drive to white hills
Clydine Carboni, come back, i wanna go for a drive to white hills, 2026. Oil on canvas, paper, perspex, tape and glue, 920 × 530 × 200mm.
Artist Statement
My work materialises the intersection of memory and place. As experience of memory transcends the physical, the material world becomes a bleached-out vessel through which to explore visions of a time and home that exist only in memory.
Bio
Clydine Carboni is an emerging artist working primarily in paint and sculpture. Having moved from her hometown of Coober Pedy, SA, she is currently both practicing and studying on Gadigal land as she completes her second year at the Sydney College of the Arts.
Iris Cuddy
The View Inside
Iris Cuddy, The View Inside, 2026. Glass, lead cane, photographic decal and wood, 110 x 60 x 19 mm.
Artist Statement
The View inside is a work examining domesticity, childhood, and the role of the family home in shaping identity. The experiences we have as children in that domestic space inform our worldview as we grow and change. The window exists as an introspective lens.
Bio
Iris Cuddy is a third year SCA artist majoring in glass. She works in both blown and flat glass forms. Her current practice revolves around themes of childhood, family and identity using photographic and lead-lighting glass techniques.
Edwina Darling
My Wound Is My Hope
Edwina Darling, My Wound Is My Hope, 2026. Wood and glass, 680 x 810 x 50mm.
Artist Statement
My Wound Is My Hope explores the blurring lines between public and private. As these boundaries collapse in the post internet age, the work explores the self as both performed and platformed, questioning the relationship between artist and audience; individual and community. Whilst also analysing the role of the folktale and poetics in processing.
Bio
Edwina Darling works within expanded photography and installation, exploring the space between still and moving images and image as object. Her practice addresses the relationship between artists, artwork and audience and explores how the death of the grand narrative and the post-internet age has shaped how we make meaning. Her works question privacy, performance, and what we deem sacred.
Myles Donnelly
A Learning Experience
Artist Statement
A Learning Experience 2025 is a work that combines two very unassociated forms of the stocks, and the playground. However, it uses these themes to explore our systems of incarceration and punishment in modern society through the imagery of more barbaric mediaeval methods. Highlighting the childish and often humiliating treatment of individuals within the Justice system.
Bio
Myles Donnelly is a 3rd year SCA student, working within the discipline of sculpture. using a background in street art to inform his new practice, through a strong passion for colours and refinement/finish.
Alexia Fisher
Self Portrait (Mother, Son, Foetus)
Alexia Fisher, Self Portrait (Mother, Son, Foetus), 2025. Mid fire clay, bleach on cotton, dimensions variable.
Artist Statement
The chair, a symbol of support and comfort and one of control, “sit down and shut up”. I negotiate this tension by squeezing the clay through my hands. Held together by strands of a bleached cotton bedsheet, my babies and I no longer conform to ‘his’ head of the table.
Bio
Alexia Fisher is a visual artist completing Honours at SCA. Art serves as a voice for her silence, challenging censorship in patriarchal society, the Greek diaspora, and within the self. Material acts symbolically, and process mimics acts of rebellion—clay suffocated by fists, graffiti on white walls or words in concrete.
Ding Gao
The benefit of rest
Ding Gao, The benefit of rest, 2026. Oil on canvas, 609 x 1219mm.
Artist Statement
How do we rest in today's age? When do we ever truly rest? This piece is a self-portrait of the artist as they unwind after a long day, resting on their bed, face illuminated solely by the screen of an iPad.
Bio
Ding is a PhD Student and an award-winning artist. Originally from China, Ding's work has been exhibited in Bangkok and Singapore, and in 2026, they were shortlisted by London's National Portrait Gallery.
Celina Henke
Breathe Through the Glass
Celina Henke, Close up, Breathe Through the Glass, 2025. Glass and prints, 480 x 635 x 40mm.
Artist Statement
I wanted to investigate how objects and materials shape our perception of intimacy. The breath on the glass acts as a metaphor for presence and vulnerability. The layers between the print and glass symbolise intimacy’s complexity beyond surface level. I added a heart mark to suggest physical touch on the glass.
Bio
Celina Henke is a third year SCA artist working primarily with print media and glass. Her practice explores intimacy, materiality, and the human form through layered compositions and experimental processes. By combining delicate textures with figurative elements, she creates works that investigate presence, vulnerability, and human connection.
Katrina Jelavic
Fading Facades
Katrina Jelavic, Fading Facades, 2025. Graphite on paper, wire mesh, cotton thread, 670 x 980 x 3mm.
Artist Statement
Documenting the Bonnyrigg Housing Estate before demolition, Fading Facades archives the visual and oral stories of this social housing community. What began as an academic essay evolved into a personal mission of measuring, sketching, and interviewing, to preserve the voices, community resilience, and architectural legacy of homes lost to redevelopment.
Bio
An architectural graduate and heritage conservation student, Katrina explores the relationship between people, transience, and place. Inspired by childhood experiences of history-driven community unity in Fairfield, she now works on both heritage and ecclesiastical projects, dedicating her practice to supporting the continued use and celebration of meaningful places.
Ayesnur Kara
My mother/s tongue
Ayesnur Kara, My mother/s tongue, 2025. CMYK screen print on fabric, 455 x 290 mm.
Artist Statement
My mother/s tongue explores the intersection of culture, language and tradition, blending the hybrid experiences of being an Australian Turk through the CMYK printing process. Within my immigrant household, the kitchen often becomes a vehicle for exchange. Where curiosity, joy and hospitality meet to reveal family recipes, untold stories, connections to language and bonds over food. As the intermediary to this process, my Anne (mum) becomes the physical vessel to my homeland. Depicted here at my age in her family home in Istanbul, leaning on the kitchen counter, she towers over the Turkish proverb, “There is no love like a mother, and no love like a homeland”.
Bio
Emerging Turkish artist Aysenur Kara resides and studies on Dharug land. She is a Sydney College of the Arts student, specialising in print media and photography. Growing up as a second-gen in Western Sydney, her practice has always been informed by her experiences as an ethnic, Muslim woman in the Western context. It is inspired by her motivations to critique and question the Western conceptions of art, politics, media and history.
Her time as an emerging artist has taught her a wide range of skills and given her the ability to grow an interdisciplinary practice. It is significant to her practice as she acknowledges the long lineage of creative women in her family that has allowed her to come to this stage. Through them, she has been given the ambition to extend her practice in the exhibition and community space at The Casual Powerhouse, Bankstown Art Centre, The MCA and FBI radio.
Noah Mair
Armoured Letter
Noah Mair, Armoured Letter, 2026. Photographic dye process on canvas, speaker components, amplifier, sound source, 600 x 3200 x 80 mm.
Artist Statement
This work is derived from the experimentation with non-representational sound; recorded conversation, field recording, archival sound, noise generation and rhythmic studies. Using these as a conceptual foundation, the forms and marks that reveal themselves when analysed through audio editing software present a study into the sculptural form of atmosphere, and the imagined but invisible sound made in these spaces.
Bio
Noah Mair is an undergraduate artist studying at Sydney college of the Arts. Interested in the experience of sound sculptural installation. Using sound as a tool of visual abstraction. He engages in traditional means of mark making while focusing on the tool of noise and alternative modes of listening.
Xavier Marz
UNDER PRESSURE
Xavier Marz, UNDER PRESSURE, 2026. Kiln formed, screen printed and stained glass, brick, table, light, 1000 x 460 x 460 mm.
Artist Statement
As the world slides towards an increasingly right wing agenda, helmed by fascists and billionaires, how do we cope with the weight of it all? Can we centre empathy and human connection to build resilience, whilst protesting injustice? The right brick is both a building block and a weapon.
Bio
Xavier Marz is a queer, trans, multi-disciplinary artist currently working in glass at SCA. For over 20 years he has created work exploring the intersections of identity, visibility and representation, equity, gender and sexuality.
Hillary Monckton
I am Surveilled
Hillary Monckton, I am Surveilled, 2026. Plywood substrate, acrylic and watercolour, pencil, markers, synthetic gold foil, sagamoto paste, laser photocopied ‘paste-ups', 1200 x 1200 x 15 mm.
Artist Statement
I am Surveilled expresses how I am under surveillance in my unit and in society for unknown reasons. My painting comes from lived experience and also references the situation of the mainly psychiatric 'underclass' of 'citizens' under the control of psychiatry, drugs and surveillance - misery surrounded by gold and wealth - and the near impossibility of 'recovery' in this hyper-connected, persecutory, paranoid postmodern world drowning in substances and media.
Bio
Hillary Monckton is a female full-time student at the Sydney College of Arts in Print Media. She likes to combine Print media and Painting and has previously graduated with B.A. (Honors) and Social Work. Previously employed as a Bus Driver and as a Laboratory Assistant. Originally from the NT.
Claudia Padman
Neighbourhood
Claudia Padman, Neighbourhood, 2026. CMYK screenprint on paper made from suburban tree bark, 707 x 1000 x 2 mm.
Artist Statement
Neighbourhood draws attention to interspecies relationality, reframing perspectives of suburban life to reveal how it connects to non-human existence. Man-made and natural layers are entangled as paper made from suburban tree-bark is overlaid with industrial screen-printing and street mapping. The fragments come together to illustrate a complex network of belonging.
Bio
Claudia Padman is a third year SCA student who plays with visibility to critically disrupt how audiences understand the world around them. Specialising in printmaking and now venturing into glassblowing, she is deconstructing perceptions of local ecologies to question and reframe how we relate to our non-human neighbours.
Ruby Stephens-Naughton
Tomorrow’s Problem
Ruby Stephens-Naughton, Tomorrow’s Problem, 2026. Wood, sandstone, fabric, wool, 1500 x 1500 mm.
Artist Statement
Tomorrow's Problem employs social and political issues that impede collective progress. Each blade has a distinct topic, with embroidered whisper-like writing suggesting the everyday, informal discussions of these concepts. Tomorrow's Problem is immobile, bound, and tethered, unable to spin due to all of these global crises. This is social inertia.
Bio
Ruby Stephens-Naughton is a 3rd year SCA student majoring in Sculpture. Her work often discusses social or political frameworks through her multimodal practice including; fabric, wood, metal, sound and projection. Ruby most recently exhibited a series of textile works in Red Gallery, Fitzroy Melbourne.
Cian Stoermer
The Chair
Cian Stroemer, The Chair, 2026. Salvaged oak barstools, 1150 x 600 x 500mm.
Artist Statement
Not the best place to sit. This work subverts the stable, comfortable, conventional qualities and purpose of a regular seat by embodying the opposite - an uncomfortable, dangerous and uninviting object which evokes discussion around anti-homeless architecture and medieval torture devices.
Bio
Cian Stoermer is a Sydney-based artist in his first year of a Bachelor of Visual Arts and Advanced Studies at the University of Sydney. He enjoys working in wood sculpture as well as experimenting with other mediums, exploring themes of emotional connection, expectation and purpose.
Izabelle Valencia
Tender
Izabelle Valencia, Tender, 2026. Pen on paper, 500 x 400 mm.
Artist Statement
A mother octopus dedicates everything to protect her young, tending to her eggs until she has nothing left for herself. Her devotion carries a familiar weight. Across species love looks different, but its cost, and its abundance, is shared.
Bio
Izabelle Valencia is a self-taught stippling artist whose work draws on close observation of subtle but intricate details, and natural forms. Her practice is grounded in intention and patience to construct small details that gradually form a larger perspective.
Phoebe Webb
Formal matters
Phoebe Webb, Formal matters, 2026. Copper sheet, copper wire and nylon string, 180 x 180 x 97mm.
Artist Statement
Formal matters celebrates form in its entirety, so the object relies fully on its formal qualities to communicate to the audience. The unfinished and dimpled surface takes this object away from traditional silversmithing pieces into a realm of organic relatability. The uniqueness of the object’s shape allows for a unique response.
Bio
Phoebe is a 3rd year art student at the SCA specialising in silversmithing and metal sculpture. She has been growing a body of work over the past 2 years, both through metalwork and other mediums, that focus on the primary elements of art and that celebrate them in their purest forms.
Yiwon Wu
Trace: You
Yiwon Wu, Trace: You (detail), 2026. Blown glass, pantyhose, 2000 x 1300 x 150 cm.
Artist Statement
Trace: You investigates the body as a vessel for art through the materiality of glass, and more specifically tattoos as identifiers. This artwork aims to challenge the practicality of glass and using its amorphous qualities to reflect images on our bodies as we move and age.
Bio
Yiwon Wu is a second year glass student at SCA. Whilst their works span a wide reach of ideas, common concerns include curiosity of the human body and/or themes of overconsumption and waste.
Estelle Yoon
우체국 소포 (Post Office Parcel)
Estelle Yoon, 우체국 소포 (Post Office Parcel), 2026. Bronze glass, packing tape, 332 x 480 x 357mm.
Artist Statement
A post office parcel is a home within a home. A vessel that carries identity across borders, an enclosure that stores fragments of the self, narrative and history. Reimagined in glass, this mundane cardboard archetype becomes a fragile and precarious architecture of identity and belonging.
Bio
Estelle Yoon is a Korean-Australian artist living and working on unceded Gadigal land. Working across glass and image, her practice interrogates displacement, queerness, and belonging through material and emotional tension. Yoon's works reflect on the fragile architectures of home and identity through a phenomenological and auto-theoretical lens.
Boris Zhang
The Flicker Adrift in Electric Blue
Boris Zhang, The Flicker Adrift in Electric Blue (1 of 7), 2025. Digital photographs printed on paper, 950 x 850mm.
Artist Statement
As technology changes our world, questions emerge: is it progress or erosion to embrace it? How does technology reshape both human identity and artistic expression? My work examines the tension between human creativity and conformity in times of development, while investigating the artist’s role during revolutionary technological changes.
Bio
Boris Zhang is a 1st year SCA student developing his art-making practice, with a primary focus on screen arts. He is eager to expand and sharpen his art-making skills, explore other creative mediums, and make the most of what the SCA has to offer.
Gin Zhang
All the Eyes I’ve Had to Meet
Gin Zhang, All the Eyes I’ve had to Meet, 2025. Print, dimensions variable.
Artist Statement
All the Eyes I've Had to Meet documents the ritual of the ID photograph as a site of performance and survival. Each image captures a self shaped by systems of scrutiny through applications, borders, institutions. The stamps are not decoration but rather the terms of my connection to a country I came from but must continually prove.
Bio
Gin is a fourth-year Media Communications student based in Sydney, Australia. Born in China and raised between cultures, her practices mixed media, photography, and digital art, centred on questions of identity, displacement, and belonging. Her work draws from personal experience to examine the systems that shape how people are perceived.
Sophia Zhao
Blue Homage (qīng chū yú lán)
Sophia Zhao, Blue Homage (qīng chū yú lán), 2025. Ballpoint pen on Stonehenge paper, 760 × 1680 mm
Artist Statement
Blue Homage is an embodiment of the Chinese idiom “qīng chū yú lán ér shèng yú lán” ("blue is derived from indigo yet is brighter than indigo") to honour my grandparents as the “indigo”, whose unwavering and redemptive love have anchored me as the “vivid blue” of my family’s becoming.
Bio
Sophia Zhao is a first-year Commerce/Arts student with aspirations of pursuing a Bachelor of Visual Arts and deepening her involvement in the SCA. This competition offers the recognition, encouragement, and exposure she needs to fully commit to her artistic practice of painting and drawing inside USYD’s prestigious art studios.