Small Worlds Sculpture Prize - Exhibition 2026
SCULPTURE GALLERY
Marlena Basser & Mark Grainger
About the work:
This sculpture explores the tension between the built environment and the natural world, and the quiet loss that occurs as one encroaches upon the other. The work reflects a growing absence in our everyday landscapes. As urban and human-made spaces expand, the habitats of native birds and animals are diminished, and with them, the richness and diversity of life that once felt abundant.
Medium: Repurposed children’s wooden blocks, reclaimed timber, acrylic paint and timber varnish.
About the artist:
Marlena is an emerging artist exploring and refining my visual language. Working primarily with acrylic on canvas and wood, her practice uses abstraction to express inner experience and is shaped by both the natural world and her internal landscape. Rather than depicting specific places, Marlena creates compositions that evoke how a place feels—its energy, mood and spirit.
Price | $580
For sales, contact the artist
Mobile: 0404 486 712
@marlenabasser
Email: marlena.basser@gmail.com
Where have all the birds gone?
Jason Farrow
About the work:
Inertia consists of two waves moving together, almost joining and forming a single entity. I love heading down to New Brighton beach for a surf whenever I get the chance. There is something timeless about watching waves, waiting for the right one, and if you miss it, there's usually another one right behind it.
Medium: Carrara Marble
About the artist:
Jason works in the bush, regenerating rain forests, learning how to identify a Giant Water gum from a White Booyong, removing Devils Figs, battling leeches and ticks and scrub itch. Days spent walking around, looking at trees, and thinking. How do we really respond to our environments? What happens when we choose a path less traveled by?
NFS
For sales, contact the artist
Email: jasefarrow@gmail.com
www.jasonfarrow.com
Inertia
Susan Fell
About the work:
From time to time, I venture into the Gondwana Rainforest of Border Ranges National Park. Along Brindle Creek track, filtered sunlight moves through dense canopy as water tumbles over rock ledges. These walks inform a series of small shibori sculptures, shaped through a process analogous to geology, where folds and layers are compressed and transformed over time. In my work, this transformation occurs as silk organza is pleated, heated, and dyed with eucalyptus leaves.
Medium: silk satin organza, dried Monstera deliciosa flower, eucalyptus dye, timber support and a wooden base with Shou Sugi Ban charred finish.
About the artist:
Susan Fell is a contemporary textile artist, living and creating in her Gondwana Textiles studio, Mullumbimby. Her distinct work sits at the intersection of art and science, with a focus on plant dyes and natural fabrics. Within complexities of materiality, technique and aesthetics, underpinning her work is a deep appreciation of the country on which she lives – Bundjalung country.
Price | $3,750
For sales, contact the artist
Mobile: 0484 547 061
Email: susan.gondwanatextiles@gmail.com
Insta @gondwanacolour - fb/GondwanaTextiles
Between Fold and Forest
Sandra Guy
About the work:
“Sensitive” is a sculptural work that explores the relationship between internal and external landscapes, drawing on my lived experience of neurodiversity and my connection to the Northern Rivers landscape. The drawing functions here as an immediate and intimate mode of expression, while the recycled discarded sugar cane material situates the work within its regional context — referencing cycles of cultivation, consumption, and discard. At the same time, these materials suggest the possibility of more sustainable ways of making and thinking.
Materials: Perspex, Repurposed sugar cane as biodegradable sugar cane straws, copper wire, map pins, arches watercolour paper and pencil.
About the artist:
Across both painting and sculpture, Sandra examines the tension between natural and constructed landscapes. Motifs such as expansive skies and familiar regional elements — roads, signage, and agricultural forms — are used to reflect the complex relationship between land use, environmental pressure, and a sense of place. These works seek to elevate the ordinary, suggesting that ‘the sublime’ is not confined to untouched wilderness, but is present within lived and altered environments.
NFS
For sales, contact the artist
Mobile: 0411 565 805
www.sandraguyartist.com - @sandraguy.2
Email: sandra.guy2@bigpond.com
Sensitive
Michelle Noordink
About the work:
This piece represents a peaceful surrender to the tides. A body so deeply rooted in its local landscape that it has begun to be reclaimed by it. It serves as a monument to the stories that wash up on our shores and the memories that remain submerged within our collective identity. It asks the viewer to consider if we truly belong to the land, or if, eventually, the land (and the sea) belongs to us.
Materials: Intricate hand-built ceramics.
About the artist:
Michelle’s artistic journey began in a family deeply rooted in creativity. Growing up surrounded by artists, she was encouraged from an early age to see the world differently. Through this perspective, she developed an ability to find beauty and intrigue in unexpected places. Michelle’s sculptures embrace abstraction and are driven by a strong focus on texture, which she uses to enrich the visual narrative and draw viewers in. Her work explores earthy, organic forms, often inspired by nature. This body of work reflects a fascination with the ocean and the mysterious, rarely seen world beneath its surface.
Price | $990
For sales, contact the artist
Mobile: 0438 383 990
www.michellenoordinkart.com
@michelle_noordink_art
Email: mish@noordink.net
Tidal Memory
Suvira McDonald
About the work:
Inspired by observation of the architecture of weathered rock formations ubiquitous to Australian landscape.
Materials: Ceramic assembly, constructed elements and wood fired.
About the artist:
Planes at play - where elements of a timeless landscape, embellished with the most ancient of lifeforms, are oddly synchronous with architectures of our contemporary world. My faceted, sculptural form is guided by an intrinsic urge to produce in an architectonic language; constructed forms that are developed by human imagination reflecting and echoing those forms naturally occurring in the landscape. The deep time process of weathering has yielded and continues to yield an infinite variety of rock clusters and precipitous facia, where intersecting planes and unexpected folds dance and interact in a slow-motion ballet so slow the movement is imperceptible except by the tectonic textural record.
Price | $1,885
For sales, contact the artist
Mobile: 0402 125 922
www.suviramcdonald.com - @studiosuvira
Email: suvira@suviramcdonald.com
Rock cycle
Helen Otway
About the work:
This work forms a small field of attention, informed by the mangrove systems and tidal edges of the Northern Rivers, where organic matter is carried, gathered, and temporarily held within shifting ecological zones. The circular structure acts as a holding space, echoing the way mangrove environments trap and stabilise material, forming fragile yet resilient micro- ecosystems. Each element is shaped through repetition and touch, emphasising care, labour, and attentiveness to small environmental shifts.
Medium: Black Clay
About the artist:
Helen is an Australian artist based in the Northern Rivers of NSW. Her practice explores place, memory, and belonging through quiet, materially driven works that sit between painting and object. Working with natural and repurposed materials, Otway creates what she describes as fields of attention— spaces where repeated gestures, marks, and forms gather to hold subtle shifts in environment and experience. Emerging from close observation of coastal and hinterland ecologies, her work reflects the rhythms of tide, light, and seasonal change without directly depicting landscape.
Price | $600
For sales, contact the artist
Mobile: 0419 870 305
www.helenotway.com - @helenotway_art
Email: helenotway@gmail.com
Held in Current
Tara Pearson
About the work:
This sculpture serves as a tribute to Shanti Ananda, a quintessential figure of the Northern Rivers landscape. Instantly recognisable by his vibrant suits, wide brimmed hats, and meticulous details, from gemstone rings to painted nails. Shanti moves through the world with a walking stick in hand, a unique gait, and a singular sense of purpose.
Medium: Clay
About the artist:
Tara is a sculptor based in Byron Bay, Northern NSW, whose work is dedicated to exploring the human condition through the lens of classical figurative tradition. After a decade of study at the Byron Bay Sculpture School, Tara recently furthered her technical training at the prestigious Florence Academy of Art in Italy. Her practice focuses on the intersection of gesture and inner life, using ceramic and bronze to capture the vulnerability and quiet strength found in intimate human moments.
Price | $3,300
For sales, contact the artist
Mobile: 0421 603 482
@tara_pearson_sculptres
Email: tarap@me.com
Shanti
Dallas Rae
About the work:
Carousel explores the emotional impact of the loss of wildlife in Australia. The impact of colonization has left Australia with a precarious legacy for it’s native flora and fauna. In the original Roman circus, animals of all varieties were killed in their thousands for the entertainment of the masses. In the modern ‘circus’, humans assert their entitlement to nature with a lack of recognition and protection for Australian species. Carousel depicts six Australian animals that are now extinct: the Thylacine, Blue-Tailed Skink, King Island Emu, Toolache Wallaby, Southern Day Frog, and the Lesser Bilby.
Medium: Paper Mache, wood, electronic turntable, mirrors
About the artist:
Dallas is a figurative artist. She takes a critical view of environmental and cultural issues, often referencing Australian colonial history, while exploring the emotional impact of current environmental concerns. More recently she has been exploring nostalgia, by sculpting extinct or endangered animals as well as using a nostalgic form of ‘toy making’ as storytelling in her work. The automata she constructs combine the nostalgia of both a time gone by where ‘toys’ were handmade, along with the story of Australia’s loss.
Price | $800
For sales, contact the artist
@dallasraeart
Facebook/dallas.rae.92
Email: Dallasrae5@gmail.com
Extinction Carasel
Sarah Roth
About the work:
Hand-formed in stoneware, this piece echoes the organic growth patterns of coral: branching, clustering, and layering in a way that feels both ancient and alive. The concept is grounded in an awareness of coastal Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives, where land, sea, and life are deeply interconnected. Rather than referencing any single story, the work is informed by the broader understanding of Country as living, relational, and held through generations of knowledge. The reef becomes more than a physical structure—it is a meeting place, a memory-holder, and a system of balance.
Medium: White rake clay, glazes, lava glaze and light fitting.
About the artist:
Sarah’s work is an exploration of form, texture, and connection to the natural world. Using stoneware clay and layered glazes, she create sculptural pieces that draw inspiration from the ocean and coral reefs — environments rich with movement, fragility, and resilience.
NFS
For sales, contact the artist
Mobile: 0420 674 449
@saltwater_ceramics_gc
Email: indigo.sales@hotmail.com
Echoes of the Reef
Rae Saheli
The quiet coreAbout the work:
Constructed from shot aluminium, this process leaves the metal perforated, twisted, and rough, creating a "chaos" that mirrors the external pressures of both the natural and personal world. Encased within these distorted panels sits a four-petal flower, also crafted from perforated aluminium. Light interacts dynamically with the work, filtering through thousands of shot-holes to cast shadows—a suggestion that even through the fractured parts of our life, light can still reach the center.
Medium: Aluminium
About the artist:
Rae Saheli explores the intersection between random and controlled elements as a result of deliberate and non-deliberate actions. Rae's work is defined by a process in which she uses a 12-gauge shot gun aimed at various supports to create explosive and gestural 2-dimensional and sculptural artworks. Rae’s work represents a synthesis between her passion for the sport of shooting and the power of art to be at once dynamic and beautiful.
Price | $950
For sales, contact the artist
www.raesahelieartist.wixsite
@Rae_Saheli_Artist
Email: skychute12@gmail.com
Darwin Smith
About the work:
This sculpture draws inspiration from whale movement along coastal waters and the layered rhythms found in both ocean currents and timber grain. The contours of the wood are used as an active visual element, creating a sense of flow across the whale's body. The layering process reflects repetition found in nature - tides, migration, erosion and growth rings - linking marine life with the history imbedded in the material itself. The suspended presentation allows the form to appear as though moving through water.
Medium: Timber and steel rods
About the artist:
Darwin is a self-taught wood artist based in Northern NSW, working primarily with timber, exploring organic form, layered construction and the relationship between natural material and living subjects. His work focuses on craftsmanship and translating movement into sculptural form.
Price | $590
For sales, contact the artist
Mobile: 0491 027 089
@darwinsmithart
www.facebook.com/darwinsmithart
Email: darwinsmithart@gmail.com
Tidal Memory
Glenn Smith & Katherine Mahoney
About the work:
Taking inspiration from nature, we found a common interest in nurture, protection and cocooning. The various ways an animal creates a space to make new life and care for it. The places they in habit in the natural a built environment and the materials they repurpose. We saw opportunity in the use of materials integration with surrounding objects and environments and the resulting forms.
Medium: Naturally fallen Acacia salicina (sally wattle) Wiradjuri people of New South Wales use the name Guba. Reclaimed after cyclone Yasi in 2011. High fired wheel throne stoneware with a signature glaze.
About the artists:
Trained in Industrial design Glenn has designed products for brands locally and internationally. In 2013 he turned to creating bespoke objects and furniture to fulfil his passion as a designer maker. He lives in the Tweed Valley NSW, Glenn's achievements include the Yvette Brewster art prize in 1976, Dean's prize Queensland University of Technology 1999 and Australian International Good Design Award 2012.
Katherine Mahoney first fell in love with ceramics in 1974, after visiting her brother, a potter, who was working at a studio in Kent, England. She adored everything about it: the stacks of pots, the wheels, the clay-covered floor and tightly packed kilns – ribbons of trimmed clay skimming off leather-hard pots.
Price | Collection $900 - In dish $275 - On sticks $330 - Tall $390
For sales, contact the artists
Glenn: 0424 981 144 - Katherine: 0402 153 439
www. glennsmith.com.au
@glennsmithdesignermaker
Email: email@glennsmith.com.au
Nest
Dean Stewart
About the work:
Totem #35 is part of an ongoing series of stacked sculptural forms built from objects collected over many years from op shops, tip shops, refuse centres, and garage sales across the Northern Rivers. The individual elements — turned timber bowls, dishes, platters — arrive carrying the accumulated life of the region's communities: the households they passed through, the hands that used them, the local cycles of use, discard, and rediscovery that characterise this place.
Medium: Reclaimed timber, lacquered bamboo, steel
About the artist:
Dean Stewart is an artist and designer with deep roots in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales. His family has called this region home for four generations, and he has lived across its communities — Ballina, Murwillumbah, Mullumbimby, and Tintenbar — developing a profound connection to the landscape, its materials, and its stories.
Price | $1,500
For sales, contact the artist
Mobile: 0408 088 941
www.deanstewartart.com
@deanstewartart
Email: dean@deanstewartart.com
Totem #35
Michelle Walker
About the work:
The maquette presents a clear and direct idea: a line of sixteen small, brick-like blocks rising and falling to trace the profile of Wollumbin. Each block is mounted on a thin metal rod, lifting it above a solid base. Together they form a simple silhouette, recognisable to anyone who knows the mountain’s shape on the horizon in the Tweed Shire. Across the blocks, the phrase reads: “I once was a volcano.” The act of reading follows the rise and fall landform. The text and the form work together. You don’t just read the sentence, you move through it, the same way your eye moves across the landscape.
Medium: camphor laurel, coat hanger wire, pigment (brick & chalk), egg & animal hide glue
About the artist:
Michelle Walker is an earth artist whose 2D and 3D works explore the landscapes we inhabit and the connections they hold in our hearts. Drawing on a creative practice spanning 20 years and an environmental consultancy spanning 25 years, her cross-disciplinary work combines themes of art/nature/science in an exploration of personal relationship to the natural world. Michelle works across disciplines of sculpture, painting, woodworking and metalwork with a focus on found, foraged, reclaimed and grown materials. These natural materials are not simply a passive medium but are active collaborators and storytellers in her work.m.
NFS
For sales, contact the artist
www.michellewalkerart.com
@michellewalkerart
Email: michellewalkerart@gmail.com
I once was a volcano
Michelle Walker & Chainsaw Newton
About the work:
'From This Fertile Soil' is a Marquette of five handmade paintbrushes set into a solid block of timber. Each brush is carved from reclaimed hardwood sourced from Lismore buy-back houses, carrying with it a direct link to recent flood recovery and the ongoing process of rebuilding. The materials are not neutral. They hold use, damage, and memory, and that history is left visible in the finished work. The focus is on material, form, and placement. The reclaimed hardwoods speak to resilience and reuse. The clustered paintbrushes point to a creative community that hasn’t lost individuality. Together, they describe a region where creativity flourishes on the natural history and beauty of the landscape.
Medium: Reclaimed timbers (spotted gum, crows ash, red gum, cedar), jute, cotton, grasstree fronds, hair, waxed linen, wire
About the artists:
Michelle Walker is an earth artist whose 2D and 3D works explore the landscapes we inhabit and the connections they hold in our hearts. Drawing on a creative practice spanning 20 years and an environmental consultancy spanning 25 years, her cross-disciplinary work combines themes of art/nature/science in an exploration of personal relationship to the natural world. Michelle works across disciplines of sculpture, painting, woodworking and metalwork with a focus on found, foraged, reclaimed and recycled materials. These natural materials are not simply a passive medium but are active collaborators and storytellers in her work.
Chainsaw Newton is a self-taught woodcarver works in recycled timber on themes inspired by his local environment. He is a regular exhibitor at SWELL and loves to encourage young people to explore their creativity through workshops and classes.
Price | $1,500
For sales, contact the artists
Mobile: 0407 119 795
@michellewalkerart
@chainsawnewton
Email: michellewalkerart@gmail.com
From This Fertile Soil
Sandy Weekes
About the work:
Many of our flora & fauna are iconic in their original habitat but as introduced species they are reviled & exterminated. They are still beautiful in their own right. It is not their fault they are here. It was not their intention to cause harm by flourishing. This hare is hand-built ceramic sculpture with impressed & stenciled leaves from some of our imported weeds.
Medium: Clay, slip & underglaze
About the artist:
Sandy Weekes is a potter & sculptor from the Far North Coast of NSW Constantly evolving , learning, & experimenting with techniques, materials & firing methods.
Price | $345
For sales, contact the artist
@sandyweekespottery
Email: potteroo1@hotmail.com
It’s Not My Fault I’m Here
Annie Long
About the work:
Australian native bees are saving the nation! As European honeybees struggle under the impact of the varroa mite, native species are quietly helping sustain pollination including in agricultural landscapes. In our region, solitary bees such as the Sugarbag, Teddy Bear, Blue Banded, Masked, Leafcutter, Reed and Carpenter bees are the unsung heroes. Solitary yet village-dwelling, these bees construct individual nests within shared habitats. ArcHive explores the varied structures these native bees require to thrive and celebrates their capacity to adapt to urban environments by utilising human-made cavities. These legends support ecological balance and resilience.
Medium: Wood, ceramic tiles and bamboo
About the artist:
Annie Long is an Australian visual artist with ceramic and mixed media sculpture at the heart of her practice extending into outdoor scuplpture and installation. Her artworks serve as a catalyst for dialogue, encouraging viewers to connect with the environment, nature, and the stories that shape the world around them.
Price | $1,500
For sales, contact the artist
Mobile: 0402 075 221
Email: annielong333@hotmail.com
@annielongart
ArcHive