Tom Malone Prize 2021

Kate Baker is an Australian artist whose practice merges photo, print and digital media technologies with studio glass.

Before graduating from the Glass Workshop at the Australian National University School of Art in Canberra in 1999, Baker studied photography, printmaking and sculpture. Today, her practice seamlessly integrates these mediums, erasing the traditional divisions between them.

Baker locks ghostly, elusive and suggestive images into layers of glass, mirror, and also metal. Her themes are of a complex human environment layered with physical, psychological and emotional strata, inviting the viewer to consider the relationship between the self and one’s experience.

In 2017 Baker returned to the Australian National University as a full-time PhD Candidate to further develop her studio research in a critiqued setting. She was recently awarded the 2018 Hindmarsh Prize, which recognises excellence in the field of Contemporary Art made primarily from glass.

Baker’s work has been widely exhibited both nationally and internationally including at the Corning Museum of Glass, New York, the Toyama Museum of Glass, Japan, the Palm Springs Art Museum, California, the New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe and the Glass Biennale, Venice, Italy. Both a finalist and winner of national and international art prizes, scholarships and grants, her artworks are featured in collections globally.

(Photo by Brenton McGeachie).

Inspired by experiences in the natural world for many years now, Clare Belfrage has forged an international reputation for her distinguished work with detailed and complex glass drawing on blown glass forms.

She has maintained a vibrant practice for thirty years. She has been an active part of artists’ communities particularly in Adelaide and Canberra, including the glass based studio blue pony, of which she is a founding member, the JamFactory Glass Studio in Adelaide and, Canberra Glassworks where she played the pivotal role of Creative Director from 2009 to 2013.

Clare has had a long involvement in education and has lectured in the glass programs at the University of South Australia, SA, and Ohio State University, USA and Curtin University, WA. She is currently an Adjunct Professor at the University of South Australia. She has also taught numerous workshops throughout Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the United States.

In addition to Australia, Clare regularly exhibits in North America, Europe, Hong Kong and New Zealand. Her work has been recognized for its innovation and originality and in 2005 and, 2011, she was awarded the Tom Malone Glass Prize by the Art Gallery of Western Australia. In 2016 she was awarded the inaugural FUSE Glass Prize for Australian and New Zealand glass. In 2018 Clare was the South Australian Living Artist Festival feature artist and subject of the festival’s annual monograph, Rhythms of Necessity, written by Kay Lawrence and Sera Waters.

Clare’s work is represented in major public collections including: National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Corning Museum of Glass, USA, Museo do Vidro, Marinha Grande, Portugal, Tacoma Museum of Glass, USA, National Art Glass Collection, Wagga Wagga, ArtBank, NSW, Art Gallery of South Australia, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Museum and Art Gallery of Tasmania and Northern Territory Museum.

(Photo by Pippy Mount).

Originally from Victoria, Hannah Gason moved to Canberra to work as a cartographer. After an introduction to glass through a number of workshops, Hannah enrolled at the ANU School of Art and in 2015 graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Arts with Honours and was awarded a University Medal. Reflecting her interest in mapping, Hannah’s glass works explore depth, light and perspective. Through the use of kiln forming processes, Hannah creates works that explore the illusion of depth through the careful placement of glass tiles with their shifting tones. Her works play with repetition and fluidity to suggest rhythm and a constantly moving, changing surface.

Hannah has travelled widely as an artist and has been an artist in residence, teaching assistant and visiting artist at the Bullseye Glass Company, Berlin Glas, Corning Museum of Glass and North Lands Creative Glass in Scotland. Working from her studio at the Canberra Glassworks, Hannah has exhibited nationally and internationally, with work housed in the Australian Parliament House Art Collection, the Australian National Art Glass Collection and the ANU Art Collection.

(Photo by Sam Coopeer).

Marcel Hoogstad Hay is an Adelaide-based glass artist, working primarily with blown and kiln-formed glass. He received a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Hons) in 2012 from the Glass Workshop at the Australian National University School of Art and Design, Canberra. During 2013 and 2014 he was a JamFactory Glass Studio Associate. Hoogstad Hay’s work is influenced by ideas that arise in astrophysics and quantum mechanics. Through the application of traditional Venetian cane techniques, he creates patterns in glass that illustrate and explore these ideas.

In 2015 Hoogstad Hay was the recipient of the Endeavour Executive Fellowship from the Australian Government, to undertake a residency at Berlin Glas e.V., Germany. In 2018 he participated in the Rosenberg Residency at Salem State University, USA and was a recipient of the Rick and Val Beck Glass Scholarship at Penland School of Craft, USA. Hoogstad Hay was a FUSE Glass Prize finalist in 2020 and a Tom Malone Prize finalist in 2021. His work is held in the Ernsting Foundation Glass Museum collection in Germany.

Rita Kellaway spent her early, formative years in the South Australian outback town of Woomera, surrounded by an arid, treeless desert. The imagery she first encountered there, of ancient geological formations, continues to inspire her.

Using innovative kiln-firing and casting techniques, Rita purposefully experiments with molten glass flow and colour reactions occurring at high temperatures, and cold-working processes applied when the glass has cooled, to imitate a variety of geological processes including sedimentation, metamorphism, extrusion and erosion. Her enigmatic artworks are conversely both fragile and strong, subtle and bold.

Graduating from the University of South Australia in 2019 with a Bachelor Degree in Visual Art (Glass), Rita was also awarded the prestigious Harry P Gill Memorial Award (awarded to most outstanding student in Ceramics, Glass or Jewellery & Metal) and the University Medal.

Since then, she has received numerous accolades including:

Finalist in the 2021 Tom Malone Prize, The Art Gallery of Western Australia
Highly Commended in the 2020 Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize, South Australian Museum
Finalist in the 2020 National Emerging Glass Art Prize, Wagga Wagga Art Gallery, New South Wales
Winner of the 2020 Vicki Torr Emerging Artist Prize by the Australian Association of Glass Artists.

Her work is held in private collections, both nationally and internationally.

In my 49th year of working with glass I cannot ignore the possibility that it may one day come to an end. There will be the last series, the last exhibition and the last piece. The circumstances and time are unknowable but the yearning to work expressively is undaunted. New ideas are being considered; old ideas being re-examined.

The work exhibited was some 20 years in the making. The notion of the real and the virtual as being constructs of the mind gave rise to the two dimensional ‘vessel’, here almost replicated in its partner form.

My works are exhibited, collected and published internationally. They are held in more than twenty public collections and many corporate and private collections worldwide. When will the world have enough of my works? Given the fragility of the environment perhaps I should refrain from or restrict further production.

Formerly Coordinator of Glass Studies and subsequently Head of the School of Design at the University of South Australia I have since 1996 been primarily engaged in exhibiting while also undertaking consultancy projects, design commissions and architectural projects. Periodically I publish articles on contemporary glass, teach workshops, give lectures and present conference papers internationally.

Jennifer Kemarre Martiniello is an award winning multidisciplinary artist of Aboriginal (Arrernte), Chinese and Anglo-Celtic descent, Kemarre skin.

She has won national awards for poetry, creative writing and visual arts, an International Women’s Day Award (2010), was named in the ACT’s Centenary Honour Roll (2013), and was an ACT Nominee for Senior Australian of the Year in 2018. She has won Canberra Critics Circle Awards for Visual Arts 2011 & 2013, the 30th Telstra NATSIA Award 2013, 2016 Bay of Fires Art Prize, Australia Council ATSI Visual Arts Fellowship 2013-15, and the Wollatuka Acquisitive Art Prize 2012.

As an internationally recognized glass artist her works are held in major private and public collections in Australia, the UK, USA, the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific.

She is represented by Sabbia Gallery, Sydney NSW, Paul Johnstone Gallery, Darwin NT, Vivienne Anderson Gallery, Melbourne VIC and Harvey Art Projects, Sun Valley Idaho USA.

Peter Kovacsy has lived and worked in Pemberton in the South West of Western Australia for more than forty years creating sculptural and functional artefacts from wood, glass, metal and ceramics. He chose to settle in Pemberton because land was affordable, it was a good place to build a home and start a business, and the relative isolation suits the nature of his practice. Inevitably, this setting has influenced his aesthetic and, as others have done, Kovacsy draws inspiration from the forest landscape and movement of light across natural phenomena.

Kovacsy started practicing as a designer-maker in 1989, specialising in bespoke wooden objects and fine wood furniture featuring native timbers. Notable works created during this era include a series of hollow lathe-turned bowls, such as Cosmic Tribal Hunters (1997) in the Art Gallery of WA collection. He began experimenting with cast glass in the mid–to–late 1990s after visiting Design Visions: the Australian International Craft Triennial at AGWA in 1992 where he saw contemporary glass art unlike anything he had seen before. This experience inspired him to switch his focus from wood to the design and production of large-scale kiln-cast glass sculptures. Selection for AGWA’s prestigious Tom Malone Prize in 2018 and 2021 illustrates recognition of his skills in this medium within the national glass art community.

Peter Kovacsy has always been fascinated by the challenge of working with wood or glass, or combinations of both, and strives constantly for excellence, whether working towards an exhibition, on a commission or public art project. His workshop is equipped with the only privately-owned kiln in WA capable of producing complex large scale cast glass sculpture. Investing in precision technology has enabled him to offer glass casting design and production services on commission, and provide access to foundry facilities for other artists.

His portfolio of wood and glass sculptural objects is extensive. His work is sought after and represented in public, private and corporate collections nationally and internationally. He has exhibited widely in Australia and overseas. Showcasing his practice and personal collection to visitors to his studio gallery in Pemberton underpins his belief that people are interested in seeing process as well as finished artworks in the setting that inspired them.

Lepisto received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Alfred University (in Alfred, New York USA) in 1997. He majored in Glass and Metals (with minors in Art History and Art Education).

After graduating, Lepisto made his way to Portland (Oregon, USA) and was hired to be the Production Manager Apprentice at the Bullseye Glass Company. This role allowed him to work in every facet of the Bullseye Factory’s glass production areas as well as with any visiting artists who came to work at the factory. In addition, he was also engaged to teach classes and research new glass chemistries and processes. This experience formed the basis of his glass kilnforming knowledge. In 2001 he left Bullseye and co-founded an independent studio.

The studio (Studio Ramp LLC) was a custom glass kilnforming fabrication studio that translated artists and architects designs into glass from concept to completion. The studio typically worked on 8-12 client projects at a time over its eight-year history. Beyond being a place where other artists’ work was made it served as a stable platform from which Jeremy could engage with the wider creative community. For Lepisto this included exhibiting his work and lecturing internationally as well as serving on the Board of Directors for the Glass Art Society for over 7 years (with one year as Vice President and two years as their President).

After re-locating to Canberra, Lepisto established an independent glass studio in Queanbeyan (Jeremy Lepisto Projects). With this facility, Lepisto continues to construct works for other individuals as well as create his own work.

(Photo by Adam-McGrath).

Madeline is an early career glass artist, currently working out of Adelaide, Australia.

Studying under Richard Whiteley and Nadege Desgenetez, she received a Bachelor of Visual Arts from the Australian National University in 2009. Then relocated to Adelaide for the Associate Training Program in the Glass Studio at JamFactory.

Madeline is currently employed as Studio Technician in the Glass Department at JamFactory.

Madeline is heavily influenced by traditional Italian glassblowing techniques and the technical proficiency inherent in the process of making. She strives to make work that incorporates an element of the handmade. Her current work explores pattern, repetition and density of simple linework while simultaneously highlighting the optical qualities of blown glass.

Madeline has undertaken residencies at Canberra Glassworks, Berlin Glas e.V. and The Glass Factory in Boda, Sweden.

Madeline has travelled extensively, undertaking teaching assistant roles through USA for artists Clare Belfrage, Nancy Callan, Brian Corr and Ben Edols. Madeline was Craftsperson in Residence at Pilchuck Glass School in 2017 and 2019 and was invited to be an instructor in June 2018.

Prowd had her first solo exhibition Refract, Reflect at JamFactory in 2018 and exhibited in Distorted Trajectories at Craft ACT in Feb 2020. Prowd was a selected finalist in the Klaus Moje Glass Award in 2019 and the Fuse Glass Prize in 2020.

Kirstie Rea is a Canberra based artist with a studio practice embedded in contemporary glass. She established her studio after graduating from the Canberra School of Art in 1986 and has continued to develop her practice to become internationally recognised for her works in glass. She has exhibited nationally and internationally and her work is included in collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, National Gallery of Australia, Wagga Wagga National Glass Art Collection and Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung Foundation in Munich, Germany.

Kirstie lectured in the Glass Workshop, Australian National University between 1987 -2003 and was the inaugural Creative Director at the Canberra Glassworks. She continues to teach workshops around the world. Her practice has been recognised by the Ausglass Honorary Life Membership Award (2009), the CAPO Fellow Award (2014) and the Canberra Glassworks Fellowship (2016).

At the core of her practice lies the desire to seek an understanding of our often tenuous connections to place. Walking in places beyond urban environments, seeking solitude and distance from the everyday, Rea uses her photography and writing to inform her making.

Ayano Yoshizumi is an emerging glass artist originally from Japan. After completing her Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) at Musashino University of Art from Tokyo in 2014. In her professional career, Ayano took part in the Asialink Residency Program at Canberra Glassworks as the visiting artist in 2017. She has exhibited internationally including at the Canberra Glassworks, JamFactory, and the Toyama Glass Art Museum.

Ayano relocated to Australia in 2019 to participate in the South Australian glass community as part of JamFactory’s Associate training program. She is currently undertaking her second year of training.

Ayano’s work utilizes space and colour as primary tools for considering the work as a three- dimensional canvas to strike a unique balance between art and craft along with the serendipitous nature of the hot-glass medium with a twist. The building of both internal and external spaces using blown glass and painting creates a juxtaposed depth in space.

Madisyn Zabel is a Canberra-based artist who investigates the growing dialogue between craft and digital technology. Using glass and mixed media, she extrapolates the dynamic relationships between three-dimensional objects and their two-dimensional interpretations. Zabel’s fascination with the visually deceptive qualities of glass began when she discovered the Necker cube – an optical illusion created by Swiss crystallographer, Louis Albert Necker.

Zabel has a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Glass) (Hons) (2015) from the Australian National University School of Art & Design, Canberra. She has participated in residencies at Berlin Glas e.V., Canberra Glassworks and the Glass Studio at the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, USA.

Zabel was awarded Warm Glass UK’s Glass Prize (Bullseye Artists) in 2016 and the Jutta Cuny-Franz Foundation’s Talent Award from the Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf in 2017. Her work has been shown internationally – including the China Academy of Art, Hangzhou; Berlin Glas e.V and the Corning Museum of Glass, New York. Between 2019 and 2020 Wagga Wagga Art Gallery exhibited Perpetual Reversal, a commissioned installation of Zabel’s work.

(Photo by Kurt Bryant).