A Castlemaine artist has won this year’s prestigious Melbourne Prize for Urban Sculpture $40,000 Rural and Regional Development Award.
Laura Woodward took out the award, which was judged on a body of the artist’s work spanning the past decade.
“I am very appreciative and humbled,” said the artist who has her studio at Castlemaine’s Wesley Hill industrial estate and specialises in large-scale sculptural installation pieces.
“They’re very much about the experience of the work – so what happens when you encounter it,” the pleased artist told the Express on Friday.
“They’re very sculptural and a lot of them are kinetic, and the site is really important.
“They’re often site specific and site responsive and they’re working with the internal logic of the work.
“I’ve got work in a touring show that’s doing galleries around Australia at the moment and coming to Victoria next year.
“I’d love to do some for this area.”
The award winners were announced last Wednesday evening at Melbourne’s Fed Square.
Ms Woodward’s $40,000 award, sponsored by the Geoff and Helen Handbury Foundation, will now provide the local artist, who shifted to Castlemaine last year, with the opportunity to develop her practice and benefit her local community.
A recording of the awards event can be seen at www.melbourneprize.org along with the online catalogue.
