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About the award
Established in 2009, the Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award is presented by the Art Collection and Galleries Unit at Deakin University. It celebrates contemporary sculpture by artists from across Australia and culminates in an annual exhibition of shortlisted works held from August to October at the Deakin University Art Gallery.
Each year, a rotating panel of judges selects around 40 finalists from an increasingly competitive pool of entries, with 735 submissions received last year alone. The panel also determines the Acquisitive First Prize supported by Michael and Emily Tong, and a Highly Commended award supported by UniSuper. The winning work is acquired into the Deakin University Art Collection.
In 2026, the award will introduce an inaugural Emerging Sculptors Award, expanding its support for early career artists. The finalists’ exhibition runs for 6 to 8 weeks at the Deakin University Art Gallery on the Melbourne Burwood campus. At the conclusion of the exhibition, visitors vote to determine the People’s Choice Award recipient.
Image: Installation image of the 2025 Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award. Artworks right to left; Ann Ferguson, Connecting Threads, ceramic-mid fired paper clay, glaze, underglaze, waxed linen thread; Miranda Burgess, Fractured Earth, ceramic Raku clay body, Nichrome wire and yellow iron oxide; Euan Heng, Untitled, plywood; Brigit Heller, Underfoot, copper, brass, wood; Brenda Page, The Bell Tolls, glass; Michael Doolan, These Stories Know You (Him,) patinated bronze. Image © courtesy of the artists. Photo by Fiona Hamilton.
Key information
Each year the judging panel consists of the Senior Manager, Art Collection and Galleries, Deakin University, and two arts industry representatives. Together they assess submissions from across the country and determine the finalists and award recipients.
The judges for 2026 are:
Amy Barclay (MA Deakin, Postgrad. Dip. Monash, BA RMIT)
Curator
Over more than 25 years in the arts, Amy has built a career spanning curatorial practice, commissioning for the public realm and cultural leadership. She has worked across major galleries, independent arts organisations and local government, including several years as Curator, International Art Exhibitions at National Gallery of Victoria. She has been researching, producing and collaborating on multiform public art projects since 2010 and was awarded Deakin University’s Roslyn Lawry Award in 2013. Amy is of mixed-race immigrant heritage and lives and works on Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country, where she has held a senior role in the public art team at City of Melbourne since 2016.
Kent Morris
Barkindji people
Kent Morris is a Barkindji artist and curator living on Yalukit Willam Country and working on Wurundjeri County in Naarm/Melbourne. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Monash University and a post-graduate Diploma in Fine Art from Victorian College of the Arts and is an alumnus of the National Gallery of Australia’s Wesfarmers Indigenous Leadership Program.
Kent has exhibited widely throughout Australia, and he has also exhibited in the UK and the US. He has worked on major public commissions for the Metro Tunnel, Monash University, and University of Technology Sydney. Kent has also completed public artworks including digital projects for the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, the Glenroy Community Hub, and the Brimbank Aquatic and Wellness Centre. His works are included in numerous major collections, including the National Gallery of Victoria, Artbank, University of Technology Sydney, University of New South Wales, Monash University and the Parliament House Art Collection. His complete Sovereign Seconds series is held in the collection of the Foundation Opale in Lens Switzerland.
Kent also leads The Torch, a not-for-profit organisation that provides art, cultural and arts industry support to Indigenous community members experiencing incarceration in Victoria through its Indigenous Arts in Prison and Community Program which he began in 2011.
Kent Morris is represented by the Vivien Anderson Gallery.
Learn more about Kent at www.kentmorris.com.au.
Leanne Willis
Senior Manager, Art Collection and Galleries Deakin University
Leanne Willis is the Senior Manager Art Collection and Galleries at Deakin University. Since her appointment in 2007 she has had responsibility for the Deakin University Art Gallery, the Deakin University Art Collection and for managing the partnership with the NGV on behalf of the university. In a career spanning over 30 years in the arts industry, previous appointments include Director of the Shepparton Art Gallery (now known as SAM) and Director of Grafton Regional Gallery. Highlights of her career have included establishing the Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award in 2009.
Frequently asked questions
If the stand is needed to make the artwork free standing, it is included in the measurements and considered to be part of the artwork for the purpose of the size requirement. If the stand is integral to the work and the work must be attached to the stand then the stand is included in the measurements.
No. The only thing included in the measurements is the artwork itself and anything needed to make it free-standing. The white display plinth provided by the gallery is not included in the measurement.
No. All works must be free-standing; in other words, they stand up by themselves. Wall mounted works are not eligible.
No. There are strict size and weight restrictions that must be met, and to avoid disappointment it is best to just submit the actual work.
No. It is best to only submit the actual entry to avoid confusion.
You can bring your own plinth, but you do so with the understanding that it will be repainted to match the other plinths in the gallery. Please contact gallery staff prior to delivery to discuss.
No. Late entries aren’t accepted, as all submissions need to be received by the deadline.
No. Entry forms must be submitted online. Entry forms sent by email or postal mail will not be accepted.
Please check you have verified your email address by typing in the verification code emailed to your nominated email address. We do this to ensure that everyone has entered a valid email address. You must verify your email before submitting the form. The code is generated straight away so check your junk mail/spam folder to see if it is there. It will come from 'Snapforms'.
Yes. There is a limit of three entries per person, as an individual or joint entrant. If you are entering more than one artwork, you have to submit a separate entry form for each individual artwork.
Entry is only open to individuals who are resident in Australia for legal or tax purposes at the time of entry and who provide an Australian residential address. Entries will not be accepted from non-residents or overseas.
Past winners
Mariana Del Castillo, State of Change, Australian hardwood, linen, clay paint, wool and cotton, 28 x 11 x 14cm, Winner of the 2025 Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award. Image © and courtesy of the artist. Photo by Fiona Hamilton.
Marlize Myburgh, Fragmented Connection, ceramics with oxides, underglazes and glazes, 25 x 20 x35cm, Winner of the Highly Commended Award, supported by UniSuper, in the 2025 Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award. Image © and courtesy of the artist. Photo by Fiona Hamilton.
Brad Gunn, Eggplant is For Everyone. Resin, synthetic fibres, 41 x 32 x 18cm.
Winner of the Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award, 2024.
Image © and courtesy of the artist. Photo by Fiona Hamilton.
Elvis Richardson, An Unsolved Study "The Funeral". Glazed ceramic, 30 x 20 x 15 cm
Winner of the Highly Commended Award in the Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award, 2024
Image © and courtesy of the artist and Void_Melbourne. Photo by Fiona Hamilton
Nina Sanadze, Gramophone. Clay, resin, hydrostone, acrylics, glue. Sculpture incorporates a replica of a studio plaster model of a revolutionary by Soviet monumental sculptor Valentin Topuridze (1907-1980), 62 x 24 x 27cm.
Winner of the Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award, 2023.
Image © and courtesy of the artist and Daine Singer Gallery, Melbourne.
Natalie Tso, your spit is my nest. Saliva and guar gum on isomalt crystals (sugar) coated with nail polish varnish
Winner of the Highly Commended Award in the Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award, 2023
Image © and courtesy of the artist. Photos by Simon Peter Fox
Scotty So, Surburbkin in Red, 01. Nylon, metal, 34 x 30 x 15cm.
Winner of the Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award, 2022.
Image © and courtesy of the artist and MARS Gallery, Melbourne.
Michael Le Grand, TRANSIT. Painted steel, 12 x 22 x 13cm.
Winner of the Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award, 2021.
Image © and courtesy of the artist and Australian Galleries, Melbourne and Sydney. Photo by Polo Jimenez.
The Award was not held in this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kate Ellis, Untitled, Poodle Paw. Beeswax, damar resin, silk thread, acrylic fur, poodle fur. 47 x 13.5 x 17cm.
Winner of the Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award, 2019.
Image © and courtesy of the artist.
Hannah Toohey, Archaea No. 4. Fabric, stuffing, porcelain, raccoon claws, 37 x 23 x 18cm.
Winner of the Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award, 2018.
Image © and courtesy of the artist. Photo by Simon Peter Fox.
Richard Stringer, House on Fire. Cultured marble, felt & Perspex, 64 x 56 x 56cm.
Winner of the Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award, 2017.
Image © and courtesy of the artist. Photo by Simon Peter Fox.
Geoffrey Bartlett, Fusion revisited. Bronze and Jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata), 70 x 27.8 x 27cm.
Winner of the Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award, 2016.
Image © and courtesy of the artist and Australian Galleries, Melbourne and Sydney. Photo by Simon Peter Fox.
Kendal Murray, Provision, Revision, Decision, Division. Mixed media assemblage: timber, porcelain, metal, plastic, paint, resin and pebbles, 30.8 x 18 x 18cm.
Winner of the Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award, 2015.
Image © and courtesy of the artist and Arthouse Gallery, Sydney. Photo by Ian Hobbs.
Mikala Dwyer, Empty Sculpture. Plastic, air. 68 x 40 x 30cm.
Winner of the Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award, 2014.
Image © and courtesy of the artist and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney. Photo by Simon Peter Fox.
Michael Sibel, Primitive Dance. Bronze, 55 x 29.3 x 21.8cm (in two parts).
Winner of the Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award, 2013.
Image © and courtesy of the artist. Photo by Mark Soutter.
Lisa Roet, Spider Monkey. Bronze, 45 x 60 x 20cm.
Winner of the Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award, 2012.
Image © and courtesy of the artist and Hugo Michell Gallery, Adelaide; Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland; and Pieces of Eight Gallery, Melbourne. Photo by Simon Peter Fox.
Stephen Bird, Boxers. Clay, pigment, glaze. 70 x 38 x 28cm.
Winner of Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award, 2011.
Image © and courtesy of the artist and Olsen Gallery, Sydney; and The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
Photo by Simon Peter Fox.
Robert Hague, Trojan Hammer (200%). Bronze, 24 ct gold powder. 39.5 x 13.5 x 13.5cm.
Winner of Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award, 2010.
Image © and courtesy of the artist. Photo by Simon Peter Fox.
Stephen Benwell, Statue, Grey-Pink Man. Clay, engobe, glaze stains, 23.5 x 9.5 x 9.5cm.
Winner of the inaugural Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award, 2009.
Image © and courtesy of the artist and LON Galleries, Melbourne. Photo by Simon Peter Fox.
Banner image: Installation of the 2024 Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award, Deakin University Art Gallery, August 2024, photography Simon Peter Fox.
