Gabriella Bisetto has been awarded the 2024 Tom Malone Glass Art Prize, which for 22 years has recognized the most important work in glass by Australian or New Zealand artists. As part of the prize, Bisetto's work is on exhibit through March 30, 2025, at Linton & Kay Galleries location in Cottesloe, Australia, along with the 17 short-listed artists. The Australian art prize provides $20,000 (roughly $12,560 in USD) as well as displaying the winning artwork first at Linton & Kay before moving into its final home at a state art institution. The artwork in question, This Skin I'm In #2, is a kiln-formed and carefully textured glass sheet doing its own striking impression of skin, undulating and catching the display room's light and shadow.
Based in Adelaide, Bisetto works out of the JamFactory and teaches at the University of South Australia. Her previous works have focused on the human body's external and internal workings. This will actually be the second top prize in the Thomas Malone Glass Art competition, as she took top honors in 2015 as well.
In an interview published in The West Australian newspaper, Bisetto and the artists judging this year--Caterina Tognon, Eileen Gordon, Carly Lane and Marc Leib--spoke about themes of femininity, maturity, and changing beauty. This Skin I'm In #2, Bisetto told the newspaper, was inspired in large part by watching her daughter grow into a teenager and form a new relationship with her skin, as well as a growing consciousness of her own skin as it aged and what it was like to be contained by it.
The shortlist winners are as follows: Brenda Page, Denise Pepper, Drew Spangenberg, Eliana della Flora, Erin Conron, Jason Sims, Jeffrey Sarmiento, Jessica Loughlin, Jessica Murtagh, Kevin Gordon, Laurel Kohut, Mel Douglas, Nick Mount, Rita Kellaway, Sabrina Dowling Giudici, and Scott Chaseling. All shortlisted artworks will be displayed at Linton & Kay with the winner, and made available for sale.
"Tom Malone Glass Art 2024" will be available for viewing at Linton & Kay Galleries through March 30, 2025.