JEMIMA Wyman has been awarded the prestigious Wangaratta Contemporary Textile Award 2025, with its $40,000 prize, for her work, Haze 19, 2024.

The annoucement was made by guest judge Dr Blair French on Saturday afternoon, at the official opening and award ceremony held at Wangaratta Art Gallery.

Wyman's custom-printed Chiffon curtain spanning over six metres in length, forms part of a series of ‘Haze’ curtains which, according to the artist, function as ideological textiles.

Coined by the artist, 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".

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.

Dr French, an accomplished arts leader, curator and current CEO of the Murray Arts Museum Albury, said 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, he said 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 $2500 went 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 said 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," she said.

"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.

For more information, please visit www.wangarattaartgallery.com.au