Congratulations to all students recognised as finalists for the 2024 Jenny Birt Award. 

For almost 30 years, Jenny Birt has been encouraging and supporting young artists to pursue and build careers as professional practicing artists. One of the ways she has supported young and emerging artists is through an annual award – the Jenny Birt Award at UNSW Art & Design. 

The Jenny Birt Award was initiated in 1995 by the ‘U Committee’ and is the longest running and most prestigious award for Painting within the UNSW Art & Design academic calendar. Candidates are nominated by academic staff and then selected for inclusion in the exhibition and consideration for the $4,000 Jenny Birt Award. 

This year’s exhibition at AD Space (19-28 June 2024) featured the work of twenty finalists:

Nell Bradshaw, Tash Brobyn, Jess Curran, Carolina de Almeida Guarino, Jordan Dempsey, Mercedes Dunn, Yolanda Dussek, Bridget Fung, Nath Gee, Keroshin Govender, Helen Holder, Chetan Immidi, Trinity Johnson, Mei Lin Meyers, Narrelle Odeh, Lucy Parkinson, Lige Qiao, Skye Wallace, Junnie Wang, Mark Wilson.

The judging panel included Julia Gutman (artist and UNSW alum) and Dr Verónica Tello (Senior Lecturer, UNSW Art & Design).

Congratulations to the winner of the 2024 Jenny Birt Award, Keroshin Govender for their work Vatsala and Marimuthu.

The judges commented: Govender’s work stands out for its sophisticated use of materials and processes to draw out a range of multi-layered narratives, connecting with complex diasporic histories and experiences from the Global South. The materials and ideas work together harmoniously. The materials carry their own resonances and meanings, which are complemented by layers of imagery to highlight the interconnections between personal, familial, and cultural histories. The work is enhanced by being able to be read from both sides, with embroidered lines connecting the two faces of the work. The work also has a strong sense of material experimentation, indicative of a practice with significant potential to develop into the future. Congratulations Keroshin.

Lige Qiao for 我，父亲，白桦林: Why are we still sitting here when it's winter outside.

The judges commented: Lige Qiao’s work uses modest materials to develop an engaging and thoughtful reflection on absence, memory, family, and class. The work’s sculptural form and spatial arrangement encourages an embodied experience that is playful and theatrical, but also poignant and poetic. There is a tenderness and vulnerability in the subject matter, which is enhanced through the consideration of colour palette and mark making techniques.

Nell Bradshaw for Untitled.

The judges commented: Bradshaw’s work is highly labour intensive, combining multiple techniques from painting, animation, and moving image. The combination of sound and image create a captivating viewing experience, with the visible textural and physical qualities particularly engaging. Through its multi-disciplinary approach to world building, the work speaks to inheritances in Australian art history and settler colonialism, while also questioning how to represent and reconstruct conceptions of landscape today.

Content warning: Some of the artworks in this exhibition engage with themes and imagery that could cause discomfort or be triggering for some.