National Robert Foster Metal Prize
Alison Jackson, Ash Allen, Bic Tieu, Diane Appleby, Flynn Parker-Greer, Kenny Yongsoo Son, Kirsten Haydon, Lindy McSwan, Melinda Young, Nicholas Burridge, Oliver Smith, Radka Passianova, Rebecca Selleck, Robert Wuldi, Sean O’Connell
5 November – 12 December 2026
Location | Craft + Design Canberra, Level 1, North Building, 180 London Circuit, City ACT 2601
Opening Hours | Open Wednesday – Saturday | 12pm – 4pm
Entry | Free | No bookings required
Access | Wheelchair accessible, accessible parking, accessible toilets, off-street parking
SEE OPENING | SEE TALK | SEE MEMORIAL EXHIBITION
The National Robert Foster Metal Prize exhibition showcases outstanding contemporary metalwork, highlighting how imagination, skilled making, thoughtful design and material exploration can shape the ways we see and engage with the world around us.
In the spirit of Dissent, the Prize celebrates artists and makers who bring individual perspectives to the medium. Featuring the work of 15 finalists from across Australia, the exhibition reflects the ways artists continue to question, reinterpret and evolve the possibilities of metal as a contemporary practice.
The National Robert Foster Metal Prize exhibition is presented in partnership by Craft + Design Canberra and F!nk + Co Director Gretel Harrison, with thanks to the Tall Foundation.
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Alison Jackson is a metalsmith based in Braidwood, Australia. With more than two decades of experience in metal forming, her practice is characterised by an elegant, timeless and minimal aesthetic, expressed through fine jewellery, tableware, large scale installations and limited edition exhibition works.
Alison completed a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Gold and Silversmithing at the Australian National University and has received numerous awards and grants, including project funding from the Australia Council for the Arts and artsACT. Her work is held in public and private collections and has been exhibited widely across Australia and internationally.
Alongside her studio practice, Alison is Creative Director of Ferro Forma with Dan Lorrimer. The metalsmithing workshop specialises in handcrafted, small batch objects that celebrate materiality, skilled making and the enduring qualities of contemporary craft.
SEE ARTIST WEBSITE HERE -
Ash Allen is an artistic engineer based in Naarm/Melbourne. His design practice focuses on creating heirloom objects with simple narratives and a considered environmental footprint. Combining a refined approach to making with a dry sense of humour, Ash brings a playful and unexpected quality to functional design.
Since 2019, Ash has experimented extensively with steel weldmesh, drawn to its malleability, translucency and inherent strength. Through playful experimentation, he investigates the relationship between form and function, taking a holistic approach to design that spans ideation, sketching, prototyping, troubleshooting and the realisation of the final work.
Ash completed an Associate Degree in Design (Furniture) at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University and has exhibited his award winning furniture both locally and internationally.
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Bic Tieu is a designer, object maker and jeweller based in Sydney, and a lecturer at the School of Art and Design at the University of New South Wales. Her practice explores how objects can act as vessels for stories, cultures and knowledge, drawing on both traditional and contemporary craft and design methods.
Working across metal and lacquer, Bic's practice is informed by her Asian Chinese and Vietnamese cultural lineages, exploring personal and cross cultural narratives through material, process and form. Her recent work investigates ideas of mapping, hybridity and the spaces between cultures, reflecting diasporic experiences and evolving identities within Australia's diverse communities.
Bic holds a Master of Design (Honours) from the University of New South Wales, professional training in Japanese lacquer and contemporary metalwork, and a PhD in Jewellery and Object Design from the Australian National University School of Art and Design (2022).
SEE ARTIST WEBSITE HERE -
Diane Appleby is a jewellery designer and maker based in Gadigal/Sydney. Working primarily in copper with enamel and oxidised finishes, she creates wearable works and hand-held sculptural forms characterised by rich colour, generous forms and sensuous texture.
In 1998, Diane undertook a six-month Design Consultancy and Lecture Program in the Philippines as part of a United Nations Development Programme for the Department of Trade and Industry. She was also a participating artist in Artistica Australia (1997–99).
Over the past 30 years, Diane has exhibited widely across Australia and Southeast Asia, presenting work in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Japan, Korea and Indonesia. More recently, she has exhibited at Gallery Funaki and Alta Forma in Melbourne.
Diane holds a Master of Fine Arts (Gold and Silversmithing) from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University and has taught in Jewellery and Object Design at Sydney Institute of Technology, Design Centre Enmore and the College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales.
SEE ARTIST WEBSITE HERE -
Flynn Parker Greer is a Naarm/Melbourne based emerging artist whose practice is grounded in craft and expressed through the language of jewellery and objects. Aesthetically influenced by sharp lines, geometry and repetition found in architecture and design, their work explores construction, precision and spatial interplay through industrial fabrication, traditional jewellery techniques and computer aided design.
Flynn holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Gold and Silversmithing) from RMIT University and an Advanced Diploma of Jewellery and Object Design from Melbourne Polytechnic. Their RMIT graduate works received the Wolf Wennrich Award for Craftsmanship and the RMIT Technology Prize. Flynn was subsequently invited to exhibit in Craft Victoria's FRESH! 2026, where they received the Amaeah Foundation Award for Emerging Talent and were selected for the 2026 Fresh! Fellowship program. Their work will also be exhibited in Melbourne's 2026 Radiant Pavilion festival.
SEE ARTIST WEBSITE HERE -
Kenny Son is a contemporary jeweller and object maker based in Gadigal/Sydney. Working primarily in precious metals, his practice brings together traditional Korean metalworking techniques and contemporary design, exploring the relationship between cultural heritage, craftsmanship and form.
Kenny holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours) in Jewellery and Object from Sydney College of the Arts and a Master of Design from the University of Technology Sydney. In 2013 he was awarded an Australia Korea Foundation Scholarship, undertaking a six month mentorship with Korean Designated Metal Craft Master Sung-joon Cho in Seoul.
His work has been exhibited throughout Australia and internationally, including in South Korea, China and Japan. In 2022, Kenny was awarded Second Prize at the Itami International Craft Exhibition in Japan. He is a member of One Less Decision, a collective supporting contemporary art, craft and design, and maintains an active studio practice alongside teaching in Sydney.
SEE ARTIST WEBSITE HERE -
Kirsten Haydon is a gold and silversmith whose practice explores the potential of metal to communicate human experience and our relationship with the environment. Her work draws on themes of landscape, memory and observation, informed by research into Antarctica, historic photography and micromosaics.
Kirsten travelled to Antarctica as a New Zealand Antarctic Arts Fellow in 2004 and completed a PhD in 2009. Since 2002, she has taught enamelling at the Australian National University School of Art and Design.
Her work is held in major public collections including the National Gallery of Victoria, the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in France and the Dallas Museum of Art, among others.
Kirsten has received numerous awards, including the JMGA NSW Bundanon Fellowship (2021), the Australian Design Centre PROFILE Award (2022) and the Contemporary Wearables Award at Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery (2023). She is a three time finalist for the National Robert Foster Metal Prize.
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Lindy McSwan is an artist based in Naarm/Melbourne whose practice evolved through the study of gold and silversmithing. Working primarily with steel, vitreous enamel and found materials, she investigates the materiality and life cycle of steel, drawing on its social, industrial and gendered histories within Australian steelmaking communities. The vessel form is central to her work, incorporating reclaimed steel, rusted objects, fabric, cardboard and handmade pigments.
Lindy received an Australia Council for the Arts ArtStart Grant in 2015, undertook a residency at Bundanon in 2017 and completed a Master of Fine Arts (Research) at RMIT University in 2023.
Her recent solo exhibitions include Re.surfacing at ShopFront 342 Gallery as part of Radiant Pavilion (2024) and The Steelworks: Women's Work at Craft Victoria's Vitrine Gallery (2025). Lindy has been a finalist in the National Robert Foster Metal Prize in 2022, 2024 and 2026.
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Melinda Young is a maker whose research-based practice explores place, materiality and the relationships between people, materials and environments. Working with gleaned and repurposed materials alongside traditional metalworking techniques, her current research investigates migration and belonging through material correspondence with copper, iron, wood and domestic textiles.
Melinda has exhibited extensively in Australia and internationally since 1997. Recent projects include Landlines/Tracelines, a solo exhibition at Australian Design Centre, and Poetics of Place II at ATTA Gallery, Bangkok. In 2025 she was a finalist in the national MAKE Award exhibition presented at Australian Design Centre and JamFactory. Her work is held in public and private collections.
Alongside her studio practice, Melinda has worked across the contemporary craft and design sector as an educator, curator and writer for over 25 years. She is a Lecturer at the University of New South Wales and lives and makes on unceded Dharawal Country.
SEE ARTIST WEBSITE HERE -
Nicholas Burridge is a regional Victorian based artist whose practice has developed through extensive experience in foundries and industrial fabrication. This hands on background informs his approach to public sculpture, where making operates as a method for thinking through geology, ecology and environmental change.
His work examines how industrial processes both mimic and reshape the natural world, and how materials carry embedded cultural and political histories. Burridge has produced projects involving man made lava, explosive metal forming, and machines that grind rock back into sediment, positioning sculpture as a form of material research.
His practice is research driven and site responsive, developed through fieldwork and engagement with specific ecologies and geologies across residencies at Canberra Glassworks, the Living Museum of the West and the Rio Tinto mining basin in southern Spain, among others.
Nicholas holds a Bachelor of Fine Art from Monash University (2016) and a Master's in Critical Design from Elisava, Barcelona (2025).
SEE ARTIST WEBSITE HERE -
Oliver Smith is a silversmith whose work encompasses craft, design, contemporary art and collaborative projects. His practice is informed by a deep engagement with the traditions of metalworking, alongside an ongoing exploration of the possibilities of contemporary silversmithing.
Oliver completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts in Jewellery & Object at Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney, in 1995 before undertaking a traditional journeymanship with prominent silversmiths and metalworkers across Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Germany and England. He later completed First Class Honours (2000) and a Master of Philosophy (2003) in the Gold & Silversmithing Workshop at the Australian National University School of Art.
Since then, Oliver has maintained an active studio and research practice, exhibiting nationally and internationally. He has worked as an academic at Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney, since 2005 and was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy in 2021.
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Radka Passianova is a Sydney based jewellery and object designer and maker, originally from the Czech Republic. Her practice explores the relationship between material, form and lived experience, informed by environmental concerns, travel and close observation of the world around her. Working across wearable objects and sculptural forms, Radka embraces the challenges of scale, technique and material experimentation, with a deep respect for the processes of hand making.
Radka studied Contemporary Jewellery and Object Design at TAFE NSW Design Centre Enmore and completed a Master of Design at the University of Technology Sydney in 2013. Since graduating in 2008, she has taught at Design Centre Enmore, supporting emerging makers through a focus on technical excellence, material understanding and conceptual development.
She has exhibited nationally and internationally and in 2023, founded The Metal Space, a silversmithing and jewellery making studio in Sydney's Northern Beaches. The studio extends her commitment to knowledge sharing, community building and supporting contemporary jewellery and metalworking practice.
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Rebecca Selleck is a Canberra based artist working across sculpture and installation, with a focus on casting, metal fabrication and mixed media processes. Her practice explores material transformation, environmental ethics and the shifting relationships between the human and more than human world.
Rebecca holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts (First Class Honours) from the Australian National University School of Art, majoring in Sculpture and Art Theory, alongside a Bachelor of Communications in Creative Writing and Literary Studies.
She has exhibited nationally and internationally, including at the Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art and Experimenta Lifeforms International Triennial of Media Art. Her awards include the Lake Light Sculpture Major Prize (2023) and the Robert Foster Memorial Award (2023). In 2023, Rebecca was commissioned by Craft + Design Canberra and Parks ACT to create a permanent public artwork for the Namadgi Visitor Centre, completed in 2025. Her work is held in numerous public collections across Australia.
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Robert Wuldi is a Ngarrindjeri, Tangani artist based on the shores of Lake Alexandrina, South Australia. Born at Patawalong, Glenelg in South Australia, his practice is informed by his rich cultural heritage and connections to Country.
Beginning his creative journey as a child making his own toys, Robert now works across wire, stone, Corten steel, wood, skins, paint and textiles. Through processes of deconstruction, transformation and reuse, he repurposes materials such as reclaimed machinery and wire to create sculptural works, baskets and bags that draw on traditional forms and contemporary material practice.
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Sean O’Connell is an artist, metalworker and jeweller living and working in subalpine Tasmania, on Luggermairrernerpairrer Country. He studied Gold and Silversmithing at the Australian National University and completed a PhD through Sydney College of the Arts and the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts.
Working across handmade metalwork, experimental photography and sound, Sean’s practice explores the structures, energies and processes that shape the material world. Through these interconnected approaches, he investigates the relationship between making, matter and the forces embedded within materials.
Sean has exhibited nationally and internationally and has received numerous awards, including the Itami Prize at the Itami International Craft Exhibition in Japan. His work is held in major public collections, including the National Gallery of Australia, and was presented in the inaugural NGV Triennial, with the work now held in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Victoria.
Presented in partnership with F!NK + Co.
Images
Radka Passianova | Circles Not Allowed 2026 | Image courtesy of Radka Passianova
Melinda Young | Vessels Landscape 2026 | Image courtesy of Melissa Young