Clarence Prize 2025
Congratulations to Finalists Adam & Jess
The Clarence Prize is a biennial exhibition and is the nation’s richest acquisitive furniture design prize. Launched in 2007, the Prize attracts entrants from around Australia thanks to its impressive prize pool and has a reputation in the design industry for demonstrating the breadth and diversity of contemporary Australian furniture design and making.
The launch event will be held in Hobart on Saturday 6 September, and all are welcome. The 2025 Clarence Prize judges are Jane Valentine of Jane Valentine Interiors, renowned furniture maker and artist Patrick Hall, and Brian Parkes, CEO of the JamFactory.
We’d like to congratulate our current Artist in Residence Jess Humpston and resident Alumni Adam Markowitz (collaborating with Ruth Allen) for being finalists.
Adam Markowitz / Ruth Allen: Kindling
In a visceral fusion of fire and form, hot glass sculptor Ruth Allen and fine woodworker/architect Adam Markowitz have reunited to push the physical limits of their respective crafts. Their new collaboration, Kindling, demonstrated live as part of Melbourne Design Week 2025, offers a striking celebration of the continuing role of skilled craftwork in contemporary design discourse.
Jess Humpston
This year’s Clarence Prize entry builds on my practice of structural and aesthetic lightness, integrating new materials within timber forms.
Pictured is my entry from 2023 Clarence Prize, Ch-air. The form is inspired by traditional stick chairs with the solid timber seat subtracted, again, exploring visual and structural lightness allowing for unobstructed views of a vista/table beyond.
