National Art Glass Gallery Install Photograph

The 2012 Winner: Chris Boha

Chris Boha. Pile of bones. 2011.

sculpted glass, cast and marked beaver skull

Dimensions variable

University of South Australia

Doctor of Philosophy

Photography by Chris Boha

National Student Art Glass Prize 2012 Winner Announced

The latest winner of Wagga Wagga Art Gallery’s acclaimed National Student Art Glass Prize was announced on Friday, 23 March by renowned Australian glass artist and jeweller Blanche Tilden. A crowd of glass enthusiasts and patrons of the arts gathered outside the National Art Glass Gallery, on the banks of Wollundry Lagoon, as the Prize was awarded to Christopher Boha, from the South Australian School of Art, for his work Pile of bones, an exploration of home, distance and emotional territory.

Christopher Boha is a doctoral candidate at the South Australian School of Art, University of South Australia. Boha’s work featured in the inaugural National Student Art Glass Prize in 2010, when he received a Highly Commended certificate for The Space In/Between: 24 Weeks,  an installation featuring origami flowers in glass domes.

His winning piece this year will be acquired for the National Art Glass Collection. Christopher himself will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to attend masterclasses at North Lands Creative Glass in Scotland, UK, one of the world’s most prestigious centres for the study and development of glass as an artform.

The Prize was awarded by two of Australia’s most respected experts in the field of glass, Canberra-based artist Matthew Curtis and, from Wagga Wagga, artist and teacher Denis O’Connor. The judges also awarded Highly Commended certificates to three other entries in the Prize: Christine Atkins from the School of Art at the Australian University in Canberra, for her glass and LED wall installation Refractions IV; Kayo Yokoyama from the Sydney College of the Arts at Sydney University, for her blown and engraved piece Homeland Standing Together; and Zoe Woods, also from the South Australian School of Art, for her wheel-cut series, Microcosm 4.

The National Student Art Glass Prize is a biennial competition, established to reward and promote innovation and excellence in contemporary glass within the student sector. Works by thirty students from universities across Australia are featured in this year’s exhibition, which is on display at the National Art Glass Gallery until June 17.

The Prize was initiated and curated by Michael Scarrone, Curator of Glass at Wagga Wagga Art Gallery, who says that "the range of techniques in this year’s NSAGP have surpassed my expectations and the passion and dedication shown by the lecturers, tutors and demonstrators of the five universities involved is a clear indication of the inspirational environment they provide."