ANU School of Art Drawing Prize 2016

The Annual School of Art Drawing Prize 2016 presents student artworks from all disciplines and workshops from the ANU School of Art. The selected winner will receive a prize amount of $1,000.00

A wonderful selection for this year's School of Art Drawing Prize. Congratulations to this year's  joint winners : Julia Higgs and Peta Thurling. The winning entries are pictured below.

Many thanks to this year’s judge, Annie Cattrell. Annie is currently a visiting artist and the 2017 Stephen Proctor Fellow in the School of Art's Glass workshop.

Many thanks also to this year’s selection judges: Jacqueline Bradley and Ben Rak. Thanks also go out to curatorial students Alison Reid, Rachel Duggin and Lara Patterson who assisted with the organisation, layout and installation of the prize.

This prize was originally established and is supported by Jan Brown, former long serving member of staff and Head of Foundation at the ANU School of Art and significant Australian artist.

The judges comments are below:


It has been a real pleasure to spend time looking at all the artworks submitted for the ANU School of Art Drawing Prize 2016. All of the work in this exhibition is of a very high standard and the exhibitors and selection judges should be commended for their contribution to this process.

The breadth and imaginative possibilities that drawing can engender is palpable and erudite in this exhibition. The artworks shown, highlight how the act of drawing can be seen as a discursive yet focussed common language that crosses boundaries in all the creative disciplines. This egalitarian activity allows for communication and meaning of many kinds to surface, reveal and to enlighten.

The two Joint Winners are Julia Higgs and Peta Thurling.

In The curious incident of the man in the night-time, Julia Higgs uses specifically chosen tools and means to create marks and imagery that appear to map a schematic internal narrative, territory or incident. The subtlety and balance of the incised and drawn marks in combination with the expressive emotional gestural lines and the objective detailed imagery make for a highly charged material drawing.

Peta Thurling’s Light Origami Studies (Triptych) reveals how intensities of illumination and transparency can make matter appear evanescent. The triptych references the act of folding and consequent physical and philosophical possibilities of a single two dimensional white paper plane becoming a three dimensional multi-facetted structure. The physical and metaphysical combine to make for a poetic and thought provoking series.

The three drawings that are Highly Commended are Mark Making by Jessica Ashcroft, Space Interrupted: The Room by Keith Bender and Other Halves 2 by Shanti Shea An.

Mark Making by Jessica Ashcroft allows us all to ruminate on how the language of line, structure and composition can be understood through an exploration of different material voices and methods. Mark Making comprises a series of components, which are juxtaposed in such a way that they allow for new intimate meanings to be made and conceptual parallels to be drawn.

Keith Bender’s Space Interrupted: The Room is an ambitiously scaled interlocking suspended structure that appears to navigate, activate and explore the architecture of the air space in the atrium.  This installation thoughtfully prompts questions about our perception of the micro and macro, the unseen but present, plus the precarious nature of life itself.

Shanti Shea An’s work Other Halves 2 is a sophisticated, fresh and unadulterated drawing which appears to harness the oxygen of creativity and makes visible the beauty and importance of playfulness.

Annie Cattrell - August 2016


Julia Higgs	The curious incident of the man in the night-time	2006	Crayon, pencil, acrylic paint, black and white printed images, transparency film, glue on wood	108 x 90 cm	Sculpture	Master of Visual Arts

Julia Higgs (Joint Winner, 2016 SOA Drawing Prize), The curious incident of the man in the night-time, 2006, crayon, pencil, acrylic paint, black and white printed images, transparency film, glue on wood, 108 x 90 cm. Sculpture Workshop,  Master of Visual Arts

Peta Thurling	Light Origami Studies (Triptych)	2016	Acrylic, acrylic mediums on board	30 x 30 cm	Painting	Bachelor of Visual Arts

Peta Thurling (Joint Winner, 2016 SO Drawing Prize) Light Origami Studies (Triptych), 2016, gesso on Hahnemühle Bamboo paper, each 32.4Hx25W cm (overall 32.4H x 83W)  Painting Workshop, Bachelor of Visual Arts

Jessica Ashcroft	Mark Making	2016	Tapestry weaving, drawing and stitching	Dimensions variable	Textiles	Bachelor of Visual Arts

Jessica Ashcroft (Highly Commended, 2016 SOA Drawing Prize), Mark Making, 2016, tapestry weaving, drawing and stitching, dimensions variable, Textiles Worksop,  Bachelor of Visual Arts

Keith Bender	Space Interrupted: The Room 	2016	Wood, bamboo and acrylic paint	14 m	Sculpture	Bachelor of Visual Arts

Keith Bender (Highly Commended, 2016 SOA Drawing Prize), Space Interrupted: The Room, 2016, wood, bamboo and acrylic paint, 14 m, Sculpture Workshop, Bachelor of Visual Arts\

Shanti Shea An	Other Halves 2	2016	Coloured pencil and marker on Chiri rice paper	97 x 63 cm	Painting	Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours)

Shanti Shea An (Highly Commended, 2016 SOA Drawing Prize), Other Halves 2, 2016, coloured pencil and marker on Chiri rice paper, 97 x 63 cm, Painting Workshop, Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours)

Updated:  14 September 2016/Responsible Officer:  Head of School/Page Contact:  CASS Marketing & Communications