Jemima Wyman announced as winner of the $40,000 Wangaratta Contemporar

Published on 24 May 2025

JEMIMA WYMAN has been awarded the prestigious Wangaratta Contemporary Textile Award 2025 for her work, Haze 19, 2024. The winner was announced at the official opening and award ceremony by guest judge Dr Blair French at Wangaratta Art Gallery on Saturday 24 May.

The work, a custom-printed Chiffon curtain spanning over 6metres in length, forms part of a series of ‘Haze’ curtains which, according to the artist, function as ideological textiles. Coined by Wyman, this is a term for textiles that carry political ideas in their fibres, like soviet

era propaganda textiles, war rugs, military camouflage and protest attire. At the same time, they’re decorative, deceptive and tactical devices for conflict.

The winning work, Haze 19 is derived from Wyman’s hand-cut photographic ’Haze’ collages, which weave together smoke clouds that occur during global protests. According to the artist “the titles for each work in the ‘Haze’ series list archival details about each individual piece of smoke: the colour, protest, place and date. For Haze 19 the unabridged title is 5074 words long.”

While the artist considers protest smoke as a cloud to be contemplated, she also notes: “It’s a warning sign of past, present and future discontent, yet also an empowering reminder of collective resilience and hope for change, illuminating the biosphere we inhabit today.”

Jemima Wyman is a Palawa artist living and working between Australia and Los Angeles. Her practice explores patterns, masking, and camouflage as visual strategies of resistance and tools for negotiating identity. Since 1996, she has exhibited extensively in Australia and internationally since 2004. Recent solo shows include Sullivan + Strumpf (Sydney and Melbourne), Commonwealth and Council (Los Angeles), and Milani Gallery (Brisbane). Wyman has participated in major group exhibitions worldwide, including the Whitney Museum, Hauser & Wirth, and ZKM. Her work is held in prominent collections such as the Whitney Museum, National Gallery of Australia, and the 21st Century Museum of Art, Japan.

Judging the $40,000 acquisitive award this year was Dr Blair French, an accomplished arts leader, curator and writer originally from Aotearoa New Zealand and current CEO of the Murray Arts Museum Albury. In choosing the winner French noted:

“Jemima Wyman’s Haze 19, 2024, is an immediately arresting work, an explosion of colour and pattern billowing across the gallery space. Created from hand-collaged photographic work then printed onto chiffon drops creating a large, free-hanging curtain, Haze 19 is a visual accumulation of clouds of smoke generated at protests around the globe – political protests, social justice protests, human rights protests, environmental protests. The work conveys the fury, the energy and the interconnectedness of the contemporary world through a form with associations to various histories of textile print – fashion (clothing as both display and disguise), interior design, public proclamation. Simultaneously seductive and subversive Haze 19 is a standout work within an exhibition of outstanding contemporary textile art.”

The Highly Commended Ruth Amery Award of $2,500 was awarded to ELISA JANE CARMICHAEL for her work Mirrigimpa, 2024.

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 Wangaratta Contemporary Textile Award exhibition continues until 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