Wollongong Art Gallery awards Sam Gold with the city’s top art prize
Sam Gold has etched their name in the Wollongong Art Gallery history books, securing the ‘Top Gong for the Gong’ Prize with their work, Lungs swollen with warmth from the mouths of exploding stars.
On Friday 5 December, hundreds of people packed out Wollongong Art Gallery to celebrate the opening of the Wollongong Art Prize exhibition, featuring the contemporary works of 220 prize finalists across the galleries on the ground level.
The opening coincided with the much-anticipated announcement of the acquisitive top prize winner. After much deliberation, judge Dr Kristen Sharp bestowed Sam Gold with the top honour and prize of $25,000.
Gold’s work, Lungs swollen with warmth from the mouths of exploding stars, explores care, fluidity, and resilient storytelling. The large-scale hand-built stoneware sculpture, finished with enamel, uses coiling and layering to resist fixed edges, carrying collective stories and asserting presence.
Dr Sharp, the Director and CEO of the National Art School, said it was the forms and materiality which first captivated her in Sam Gold’s work.
“The forming and unforming, twisting and folding into themselves. Then the intimate detail - the impression of pressed clay, the presence of a hand, of touch, of material responding to intention,” she said.
“The clay is both alive and then held static as a record of encounters and processes – of pinching and coiling. The conversation between the pieces and the whole.
“And then I read the title and knew this was the one - my imagination was taken away into a multitude of spaces all at once – into the stars, the earth and the body.”
Image: Sam Gold, Lungs swollen with warmth from the mouths of exploding stars (detail), 2025, hand-built stoneware with enamel.
Also judged by Dr Sharp, the non-acquisitive Local Artist Award sponsored by the Wollongong Art Gallery Friends was presented to Nicole Smede for their work YULIMBA (to come back). An 8-minute video work that reflects that reflects a return to self, ancestry, and Country, weaving song, spoken word, and ritual to honour memory and lineage while creating a living dialogue between past and present.
When asked about Smede’s work, Dr Sharp said it drew her in through the multiple materialities of human and Country – sound, vision and the tactility of clays being pressed onto the body and pushed through the hair.
“The sound creates a gentle intersection with the visual, echoing connections between body, spirit, material, space and time,” she said.
“There is a sense of transformation, immersion and movement from earth, to body, to water and to light,”
“It shares and opens what feels like a very personal, solitary ceremony with the viewer/listener. The sound followed me through the gallery and then compelled me to come back in again.”
Image: Nicole Smede, YULIMBA (to come back) (still from video), 2024, single-channel video, 8 minutes 49 seconds.
Nicole is one of 61 local finalists featured in the exhibition.
Wollongong Art Gallery Director Dr Daniel Mudie Cunningham said that the newly re-established Wollongong Art Prize is a testament to the extraordinary talent and vision of artists across our region and beyond.
“This year’s winners exemplify the power of art to challenge, inspire and connect us,” he said.
“We congratulate the winners and all the finalists, recognising the outstanding creativity on show.”
Lord Mayor of Wollongong Councillor Tania Brown expressed how the Wollongong Art Prize has solidified its place in our city’s art and cultural scene.
“A massive congratulations to Sam Gold and Nicole Smede as well as all our other finalists. It was such an honour to present them both with their well-deserved accolades,” she said.
“The Prize has ignited a creative wonder within our city, attracting 1,187 entries nationwide - an incredible achievement for our regional Art Gallery.
“It was amazing to see the Gallery full of artists, locals, supporters and more to celebrate this special occasion. It just shows the significance and potential the Prize has, and I can’t wait to see it continue to grow in the future.
“I encourage our community to visit Wollongong Art Gallery and see some of the best contemporary works from local and national artists. You won’t be disappointed.”
The exhibition will be showing until Sunday 1 March 2026.
The People’s Choice Award ($2,000) will be decided through a public vote. All visitors have a chance to choose their fan favourite before Sunday 1 February 2026.
For more information on the exhibition, please visit Wollongong Art Prize.
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