2014 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize

 New Zealand artist Natalie Guy has been awarded the 2014 $15,000 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize for her work, Form for modern living #2, a five-kilogram bronze cast of what was originally a reworked plywood school-chair. 

The ‘2014 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize’ – Australia’s pre-eminent national prize for small sculpture – has been awarded to an international artist for the first time in the Prize’s 14-year history. New Zealand artist Natalie Guy, based in Auckland, has been awarded the $15,000 acquisitive main prize for her work, Form for modern living #2, a five-kilogram bronze cast of what was originally a reworked plywood school-chair.

The winning work builds on a series of ‘pseudo-modernist’ sculptures that Guy began creating in 2012, exploring the nature of what is collected and exhibited in both the private and public sphere. Greatly influenced by modernist mid-century interior objects, domestic interiors and the familiarity of everyday objects, she also draws from celebrated British sculptor Barbara Hepworth’s series of Forms.

Guy has been awarded the Acquisitive prize money of $15,000, which was increased this year. The sculpture will be acquired into the Council’s permanent public collection.

A record number of entries were submitted to the Prize this year, with Guy’s sculpture being one of nearly 600 works submitted that was later chosen from a selection of 45 finalists. The judging panel for the 14th annual Prize was comprised of Carriageworks Director Lisa Havilah, former Director of Sotheby’s Australia, Justin Miller and philanthropist Gretel Packer.

Commenting on the judging process and choice of winner, Carriageworks Director, Lisa Havilah said: “This year there is a high level of submissions in terms of concept but also in terms of technical application. Having New Zealand artist Natalie Guy win for the construction of such a thoughtful form reflects the growing standard of the Prize in Australia and in international communities.”

Justin Miller commented: “The 2014 Prize is up there with the most exciting I have seen. There is a wonderful breadth of vision with Guy’s winning piece reflecting just this. It is so calm and beautifully resolved.”

Woollahra Council
Until 2 November, 2014

Form for modern living #2, 2014, bronze/steel, 48 x 8 x 7.5cm
Courtesy the artist