A highlight on Sydney’s cultural calendar, the A&D ANNUAL exhibition is the largest national showcase of graduate contemporary art and design. The exhibition presents more than 150 works across a range of disciplines including animation, film, photography, sound, digital media and graphic design, as well as painting, sculpture, object design, printmaking, textiles, spatial design, ceramics, jewellery, and more.
Jasmin Pilatos, Bachelor of Media Arts (Honours), was awarded the TWT Excellence Prize as the top graduating artist, generously supported since 2017 by the Bridging Hope Charity Foundation and TWT Property Group. The prize includes a $3000 bursary and studio at St Leonards Creative Precinct for a year.
Ms Pilatos’ work, Entasis, explores the relationship between natural light, illusion and architecture within everyday life through the medium of moving image. Employing an abstract approach to filmmaking, her project is founded in the study of phenomenology, investigating the experience and meaning of space through the involvement of emotions, imagination, memory, consciousness and senses as opposed to purely analytical reasoning.
Evie Jeffrey, Bachelor of Design (Honours), was recognised as the inaugural Christopher Doyle & Co Prize, supported by the Sydney-based independent creative studio. The prize is awarded to an outstanding emerging design practitioner, and also includes a $3000 bursary.
Ms Jeffrey’s work, Connecting the Threads, expands on her practice in graphics and textile design, taking inspiration from the social environment, interaction, sustainability and inequality. The program aims to develop the participant’s dressmaking skills, enabling them to reinvent garments and recycle fashion through an interactive journal. Her work also formed a creative community that provides a safe space for women experiencing homelessness and unemployment.
The winning works were selected by the 2020 judging panel comprised of UNSW Art & Design academic staff, esteemed artists and practitioners in the field led by Deputy Head of School (Design) Dr Mark Ian Jones and Deputy Head of School (Art) Dr Grant Stevens.
The judges acknowledged the resilience of the graduates and quality of work across the ANNUAL despite the unprecedented challenges of 2020.
The A&D ANNUAL Exhibition is presented across UNSW Galleries from 9 – 17 December 2020. The online gallery of graduate works is also available to view now.