Tom Malone Prize 2020

Glass is one of the most exciting and dynamic art forms in this country. It is a uniquely captivating medium, capable of almost endless transformation. Glass provides a perfect vehicle for the exploration of a range of themes, from the personal to the observational, and Australian makers are some of the world leaders in the medium.

The Tom Malone Prize is a highly respected national event within the Australian glass arts community and it has played an integral role in the Gallery's acquisition of works by Australia's most inspiring, innovative and accomplished artists working in this art form.

The 2020 Prize features the work of Kate Baker (NSW), Clare Belfrage (SA), Peter Bowles (TAS), Lisa Cahill (ACT), Mel Douglas (ACT), Ben Edols and Kathy Elliott (NSW), Hannah Gason (ACT), David Hay (WA), Marc Leib (WA), Jeremy Lepisto (NSW), Jessica Loughlin (SA), Nick Mount (SA), Kirstie Rea (NSW), Jason Sims (SA) and Jarred Wright (QLD).

These fifteen shortlisted works demonstrate how our nation’s glass artists continue to invent and reinvent, to challenge themselves technically, and to find new frameworks to distil human experience in accessible and enlivening ways.

The winner of the 2020 Tom Malone Prize is Mel Douglas for her work Tonal Value 2019.

This year’s judges were Warren Langley (Sydney-based artist who’s worked with glass and light for 35 years, has exhibited globally and has works held by museums and galleries locally and internationally, was recently awarded “Lifetime Achievement Award, Australian Society of Glass Artists”), Elizabeth Malone (Tom Malone Prize inaugurator and AGWA Foundation Governor) and Robert Cook (AGWA’s Curator of 20th Century Art).

About Mel Douglas’ winning piece, the Judges stated: “While acknowledging a truly stunning short list, we were unanimous in our decision to award the Prize to Mel Douglas for her five-part wall work, Tonal Value. A study in colour, form and transition, balance and counter-balance, it is both subtle and strangely energetic and animated. While a quiet work, it has an undeniable, even commanding, presence as each of the unit’s two overlapping forms modulate over the work’s length; moving from light to dark the work seems to shift into presence from absence, or from light to shadow. Tracing the dependencies and interactions of line and volume, it builds on Mel’s previous work in three-dimensional form, most especially her near pitch-black objects that seem to carve out sections from their surrounding space. Composed from a type of printing and kiln fusing with glass powder, Tonal Value also evidences her commitment to creative experimentation and evolution with the always challenging medium of glass."

About The Tom Malone Prize
An acquisitive prize, each year’s winning entrant is awarded $15,000 and their work becomes a part of the State Art Collection where it joins works by previous winners: Clare Belfrage, Gabriella Bisetto, Charles Butcher, Cobi Cockburn, Brian Corr, Mel Douglas, Mark Eliott, Deirdre Feeney, Kevin Gordon, Marc Leib, Jessica Loughlin, Tom Moore, Nick Mount and Benjamin Sewell.

Now in its 18th year, the Tom Malone Prize continues with the generous support of Ms Sheryl Grimwood, AGWA Foundation Benefactor.

Image credit - David Hay Sense of Belonging 2019. Blown overlayed glass carved and sandblasted, 19 x 18 x 53.5 cm. Courtesy the artist. © David Hay. Photo: Robert Frith Acorn Photography.