2025 Experimental Print Prize

Castlemaine Art Museum presents the fouth Experimental Print Prize (EPP). Established in 2019, the biennial, non-acquisitive prize is open to artists residing in Victoria. There is a strong tradition of printmaking in Victoria and the EPP seeks to foster new directions in the field, through both the exhibition of shortlisted artists and awarding of prizes. Unique amongst printmaking prizes, EPP recognises that experimentation and risk are essential to art.

Judges Sally Foster and Melissa Proposch are pleased to announce the following prize recipients: First Prize ($10,000); Highly Commended ($5,000) and Emerging Artist Award ($3,000).

Acquistive Prize: August Carpenter - the pressure here is immense 2025
Monotype with beeswax and ballpoint pins Courtesy of the artist and Australian Galleries – Melbourne and Sydney

Highly Commended: Silvi Glattauer - Dissolving Landmarks 2025, 2 plate Photogravure & Artist book with photogravure book pages - drum Bound by the artist
Emerging Artist: Emily Fong - The stone on my shoulders is chasing light between boulders 2025, Moving image (4m15s), drypoint on tetrapak, photography, sound, 3D printed bone, USB-C, stone. Courtesy of the artist

The finalists for 2025 are:

Amanda Morgan, Amy Grover, Andrew Nille, Annie Brigdale, August Carpenter, Aylsa McHugh, Benjamin Bannan, Chelle Destefano, Clare Humphries, Clare McCracken and Heather Hesterman, Chris Orr, Damon Kowarsky, David Lewis, Dianna Wells, Ellie Malin, Emily Fong, Emma Stoneman and Cam Ross, Erica Elgin, Finn Keighley, Greg Somerville, Huiyi Xiao, Ingmar Apinis, Janet Neilson, Jennifer Tarry-Smith, Jinette de Gooijer, John Loane, Justine Mary Philip, Kate Shaw, Kim Barter, Kylie Jayne, Lori Kirk, Margaret Manchee, Matthew Clarke, Melissa Nguyen, Michael Rigg, Peter Ward, Rebecca Murray, Ruth O'Leary, Shirley Ploog, Silvi Glattauer, Simon Klose and Zoe Amor.

2025 Judges

Sally Foster

Sally Foster is Curator, Prints & Drawings at the University of Melbourne. Before joining the University in 2023 she worked at the National Gallery of Australia (NGA), Canberra, where she was the Senior Curator, Prints and Drawings (2021-2023), and Curator, International Prints, Drawings and Illustrated Books (2016-2021). Prior to this, Sally held curatorial positions in the departments of Prints, Drawings & Photographs at the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, and in International Art at the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane.

Melissa Proposch

Melissa is a local artist whose recent work could be described as journeys into the dreamscape of her unconscious. Her landscapes and domestic interiors are as much psychological self-portraits and autobiographical mystery stories, as they are interpretations of the world around her. She returns repeatedly to themes of ghosts and shadows, haunted houses and objects, fortune telling, hidden knowledge, secrets, treasures and unforeseen dangers. She often works with hybrid techniques, bringing together aspects of printmaking, photography, drawing, collage and found objects, in both digital and analogue formats.

Melissa currently works from her studio in Newstead. She is co-director of Artpuff gallery at the Mill in Castlemaine, has previously worked as a master printer, lectured in printmaking and drawing at RMIT, was a founding committee member of Castlemaine Press and publisher of Trouble street press arts magazine.

IMPORTANT DATES
Exhibition Dates: 8 November 2025– 1 March 2026
Announcement of People’s Choice: 1 March 2026

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