‘Discarded’ wins $15,000 Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award

Emerging artist Kat Parker from Shepparton Victoria has won the 2026 Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award with a delicately constructed life-sized paper sculpture of the now extinct Northern Pig-Footed Bandicoot.

Selected from 43 finalists, Kat Parker was named winner of the annual $15,000 prize by Caretaker Vice-Chancellor, Deakin Distinguished Professor Matthew Clarke, at a ceremony held at the University’s Art Gallery.

The Award celebrates sculpture works of 70cm or less from artists across Australia and this year attracted 670 entries.

Judges awarded the acquisitive first prize, supported by Michael and Emily Tong, to Parker’s work Discarded which they described as unique, conceptually focused and highly resolved.

Professor Clarke congratulated all the finalists and acknowledged the creativity, dexterity, hard work and discipline that had gone into producing their artworks.

‘Art created by real humans deserves to be acknowledged, now more than ever. And the very physical and tactile medium of sculpture reminds us that art is fundamentally about human connection and storytelling,’ he said.

‘That’s why I’m so proud to be here celebrating the Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award.’

^{Image: Kat Parker, Discarded, ink and watercolour on Australia Through Time pages, UV resin, MDF, boxboard and glue and layered linocut prints, 19.5 x 40 x 11.15cm, Winner of the 2026 Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award supported by Michael and Emily Tong. Image © and courtesy of the artist. Photo by Fiona Hamilton.}

Created by layering linocut prints on secondhand book pages, Discarded memorialises and informs. The Northern Pig-Footed Bandicoot is one of only two marsupial species (both extinct) to evolve hoof-like feet and was lost due to habitat destruction and predation by foxes and cats.

Parker is an emerging artist based in Shepparton, Victoria whose practice considers the relationship between humanity and nature; aiming to encourage accountability, alongside an appreciation, for the natural world. Utilising printmaking and paper art processes, she promotes overlooked aspects of our environment, especially unremarkable creatures and extinctions.

Senior Manager of the Deakin University Art Gallery, Leanne Willis, was joined on the judging panel by Amy Barclay, from the City of Melbourne Public Art Team, and Kent Morris, Barkindji artist and curator.

The judging panel noted that Discarded is a work with quiet beauty and power, inviting contemplation of the sorrowful loss of this endemic marsupial through its beautiful composition and skilful use of techniques, which sees layers of lino prints and second-hand book pages delicately cut and feathered, to mimic the fur of the animal. It confronts the extinction of a native animal, recreating the Northern Pig-Footed Bandicoot to scale, giving viewers a chance to connect with a marsupial which has not had a recorded sighting since the 1950s.

^{Image: Daniel Agdad, The Frequency, cardboard, paper and piano wire, 52 x 18 x 12cm, Winner of the Highly Commended Award, supported by UniSuper, in the 2026 Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award. Image © and courtesy of the artist. Photo by Fiona Hamilton.}

Melbourne/Naarm artist Daniel Agdag was awarded the $3,000 Highly Commended Award supported by UniSuper for his work The Frequency. Handmade from sustainably sourced recycled cardboard, the judges described the work as magnificently constructed and possessing an engaging poetic intrigue.

The work depicts a weatherboard structure on stilts with a set of unfolding shutters revealing an empty curtained stage. Atop sits a tuba-like instrument with complicated pipework leading to a downturned horn section creating a type of feedback loop – a process where the output of a system is fed back into the system as input will inevitably lead to an empty stage.

Judges said the understated use of recycled materials contributed to an exquisite piece that is evocative in both the fragility and fineness of the form as well as the strength, clarity and imagination of the storytelling.

^{Image: Lucie Billingsley, Spores in Moonlight, porcelain, glass beads and nylon, 23 x 30 x 30cm, Winner of the Emerging Sculptors Award in the 2026 Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award. Image © and courtesy of the artist. Photo by Fiona Hamilton.}

For the first time this year, the University also awarded a $5,000 Emerging Sculptors Award to expand support for early-career artists. Lucie Billingsley, a ceramic and mixed-media artist living on Gadigal land in Sydney was the recipient of the award for Spores in Moonlight that explores the cyclical nature of existence and the quiet beauty in regeneration through textured ceramic forms and glass beads.

The work echoes fungal structures such as mycelium and fruiting bodies, while tiny glass beads emerge from the base like tendrils seeking nourishment. Through this work, Billingsley celebrates fungi as symbols of connection, transformation, and the silent magic of the forest floor.

Judges described the sculpture as a sophisticated and gentle work which beguiled the eyes. It speaks to the viewer through a combination of colours, surfaces and manufactured materials that evoke natural living processes, its simplicity indicating an understanding and observational approach to the subtle transformations within nature and their inherent beauty.

^{Installation image of the Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award 2026, featuring works (L-R) by; Sean Meilak, A Series of Transpositions; Katey Smoker, Persistence; Andre Sardone, Habitat for the locals; Pia de Bruyn, No Pride; Dónal Molloy-Drum, Haven Wall; Marija Patterson, I am so glad I left; De Lamby Wulff, Brainstorm; Laurel Kohut, One Last Embrace; Martin Moore, Bruiser; Brenda Page, Before Absence; Ian Munday, Making art…; Lucie Billingsley, Spores in Moonlight © and image courtesy of the artists. Photo by Fiona Hamilton.}

The winning sculptures as well as the finalist works are on display at the Deakin University Art Gallery until 9 October where visitors will be able to vote for the $3,000 People’s Choice Award that will be announced after the exhibition closes.

When: Open now until 9 October
Gallery hours: Monday to Friday, 10am-4pm
Where: Deakin University Art Gallery, Building FA, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood

Entry is free