Sydney College of Arts New Contemporaries Exhibition 2025 -Reclaiming histories, reimagining possibilities
Her Hand’s Work by Lila Kools, 2026 Megalo Graduate Residency Award recipient. Photo credit: Document Photography
Sydney College of the Arts (SCA) presents its annual New Contemporaries Graduate Exhibi
The exhibition brings together more than 100 works across screen arts, photography, painting, print media, sculpture, ceramics, glass, jewellery and object, showcasing the culmination of years of research, experimentation and practice-based inquiry by the 2025 graduating cohort.
“Each year, New Contemporaries reminds us of the extraordinary talent emerging from Sydney College of the Arts,” said Co-Director Professor Julie Rrap. “These works are the result of rigorous study, bold experimentation and deep engagement with the world around us. This cohort has demonstrated remarkable creativity in a celebration of innovation and resilience.”
In parallel with the physical exhibition, an online showcase offers a digital platform for graduates’ work. Designed in consultation with students, this year’s site reflects the cohort’s commitment to accessibility and innovation, ensuring their achievements resonate beyond the gallery walls.
Exhibition highlights
Lily Thomas McKnight – Director’s Award: Honours
Lily Thomas McKnight’s multimedia project watch, listen, see explores the relationship between Country and language through screen prints and video. Drawing on ancient Yuin legacy and methods taught by Elder Uncle Max Harrison, McKnight positions Country as a text to be read before spoken language can emerge, a practice honouring her Wiradjuri and Gomeroi heritage while embedding cultural continuity and resilience within contemporary art forms.
watch, listen, see by Lily Thomas McKnight. Photo credit: Document Photography.
Will Naufahu – Director’s Award: Third Year
Receiving the Director’s Award for third year graduates, Will Naufahu’s Final Fantasy reimagines cinema’s sonic dimension through an immersive installation. Projector reels spin, digital tones reverberate, and archival audio loops across a 5.1 sound system, transforming abstract soundscapes into emotive gestures that examine experimental cinema traditions and the politics of spectatorship in the digital age.
Tucker – Jean de Ghee Award
Tucker’s series DENDRITE_ARCHAEOPARTY e
DENDRITE_ARCHAEOPARTY by Tucker, Jean de Ghee Award recipient. Photo credit: Document Photography.
Lila Kools – 2026 Megalo Graduate Residency Award 2026
Her Hand’s Work stages a feminine domestic interior to reclaim aesthetics historically dismissed as decorative. Combining ceramic and print processes with intricate lace adornments, Lila Kools’ interdisciplinary installation interrogates the invisibility of domestic labour and the embodied repetition of craft practices.
Kools’ approach activates the rich feminist histories embedded within women’s craft practices and feminine domestic traditions to reframe women’s representation through a process of reclamation.
Kirsten Beccaris – Sabbia Mentorship and Solo Exhibition Award
Glass installation Seirocism by Kirsten Beccaris captures transitional states of being through fluid, void-like forms that invite contemplation of uncertainty and stillness, positioning art as a way to examine how we perceive and experience the world around us.
With her artistic practice primarily focused on glass, Beccaris’ work highlights SCA’s unique position as one of the few Australian institutions offering advanced glass facilities, including a newly designed hot glass studio for glass blowing and sculpting, alongside kiln-forming and cold-working spaces. Beccaris will be mentored by local gallery Sabbia ahead of a solo exhibition in 2027.
Seirocism by Kirsten Beccaris. Photo credit: Document Photography.
Visit the exhibition
Join us in celebrating the vision, skill, and ambition of SCA’s graduating artists.
- DATES: Thursday 4 December – Saturday 13 December 2025
- WHERE: SCA Gallery and adjoining spaces, Old Teachers’ College, Manning Road, University of Sydney and online
- VIEWING HOURS: Monday to Friday 11am–5pm | Saturdays 12pm–4pm
