Finalists announced for the prestigious Wangaratta Contemporary Textil

Published on 08 April 2025

Finalists announced for the prestigious Wangaratta Contemporary Textile Award 2025

Wangaratta Art Gallery is delighted to announce the 10 finalists in the 2025 Wangaratta Contemporary Textile Award. The $40,000 acquisitive award exemplifies the very best of current textile practice.

Now in its ninth iteration, the Wangaratta Contemporary Textile Award was initially established to mark Wangaratta's long and prominent history of textile manufacturing and craft making. In furthering this unique tradition and social history the award celebrates and strengthens the development of contemporary textile practice in Australia. With the significant investment of project partners, the Kyamba Foundation, prize money now stands at $40,000, representing the richest textile prize in Australia.

The 2025 finalists, selected from over 430 entries Australia wide, are contemporary artists who not only demonstrate a mastery of technique in a broad textile medium, but innovation and excellence alongside a rigorous and robust conceptual practice. Finalists include:

Helvi Apted, VIC

Elisa Jane Carmichael, QLD

Hannah Cooper, NSW

Charlotte Haywood, NSW

Cara Johnson, VIC

Charles Levi, NSW

Emily Simek, VIC

Jacqueline Stojanovic, VIC

Sera Waters, SA

Jemima Wyman, NSW/USA

The finalists were selected by a panel comprising 2023 award winner and artist Sepideh Farzam, Katy Mitchell, Visual Arts Coordinator, Ararat Gallery TAMA (Textile Art Museum Australia) and Wangaratta Art Gallery Director Rachel Arndt.

Wangaratta Art Gallery Director, Rachel Arndt says:

“The award attracts a calibre of artists that are leading contemporary dialogue and practice both within the textile medium and across disciplines. Since inception, Wangaratta Art Gallery’s textile focus has been, and continues to be, demonstrated through programming and acquisition. The award is intrinsically embedded within this direction yet with more expansive aims - to recognise the textile medium as fundamentally situated within contemporary visual arts practice and to elevate textiles on a national scale.”

The biennial award showcases some of the most celebrated contemporary artists working in textiles from across the country and is one of the most significant art prizes in the national art calendar. Previous finalists include Raquel Ormella, Paul Yore, Kate Just and Hiromi Tango who regularly exhibit overseas and in major Australian galleries.

The winner will be selected from the finalist exhibition by Guest Judge, Blair French, CEO, Murray Art Museum Albury and will be announced at the opening and award ceremony on Saturday 24 May 2025.

The Wangaratta Contemporary Textile Award exhibition will be held at Wangaratta Art Gallery from 24 May - 17 August 2025. For more information, please visit www.wangarattaartgallery.com.au

For further information, please contact Gallery Director, Rachel Arndt on r.arndt@wangaratta.vic.gov.au

A Kyamba Foundation Project

Image 1: Jacqueline Stojanovic, Adria, 2024, wool, cotton, and satin on steel mesh, 180 x 540cm

Image 2: Charlotte Haywood, Mythkit: resonance + manifestations, 2024, mixed media, dimensions variable

Image 3: Jemima Wyman, Haze 19, 2024, custom-printed chiffon fabric,100% polyester with 100% polyester thread, 630 x 401 cm