This exhibition features the diverse talents of our region’s young, aspiring and emerging artists and offers them the opportunity to exhibit their work in a public art gallery.

There are 243 works on show with awarded entries in Junior and Senior Categories for Drawing, Painting, Photography, Printmaking, Sculpture and Video/Film. Other prizes include art materials and art scholarships from the Julian Ashton Art School, Northshore School of Art, Australian Watercolour Institute and the Jocelyn Maughan Art Foundation.

The works were judged by Jo Daniell, Youth Arts Coordinator at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Her report on the selection of the winners and the selection process is below.

Works selected for exhibition

• View list of works selected for this year’s Mosman Youth Art Prize
• View list of all winners by category
• Media Release: Mosman High School take out a record number of prizes in the Youth Art Prize

Photo gallery

• View the photos on Flickr

Judge’s report

I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of judging the 2010 Mosman Youth Art Prize. It was both a pleasure and a challenge to select from such a wide variety of fresh and energetic contemporary arts practice.

It’s a testament to the longevity, reputation and broad appeal of this competition that such a diversity of artmaking was submitted by young, aspiring and emerging artists. A key to the ongoing appeal of the Mosman Youth Art Prize is that it provides young artists with an opportunity to showcase their achievements to their local community – their families, teachers, peers and friends who encourage them in their artistic endeavours.

In my role in the Education Department at the Museum of Contemporary Art, I see the results of this nexus of community, peer friendship, teacher and family support every day. As Youth Arts Coordinator, I am in an ongoing dialogue with young people about the arts and visual culture. The MCA’s youth arts initiative, ‘generationext’, connects 12 to 18 year olds to art and artists after-hours in the gallery spaces, and we work with a volunteer Youth Committee to plan these events. I am regularly impressed by their, and their peers’ committment and enthusiasm towards expressing themselves and their immediate world through artmaking, music, film, and writing.

You can see this diversity of artistic expression in the Mosman Youth Art Prize, which is the only statewide award of its kind to encompass such a diversity of media and spread of ages.

Works were submitted in the categories of: painting; photography; drawing; sculpture; printmaking and video/film. It was certainly a challenge, but a rewarding and inspiring one, to select and award works across these categories of art practice. Painting and drawing were the largest categories, with photography and printmaking garnering considerable submissions for both age groups. It would be ideal to see a greater number of varied submissions for the category of video/film, although the time and imagination put into the current entries is encouraging. Video and film is a potential growth area, and offered some exciting entries from budding directors and digital artists of the future.

What caught my eye when selecting for the exhibition and for the prizes was an original approach, a sense of artistic potential or play, confidence and ‘risktaking’ with materials and choices, and conceptual or critical exploration in balance with unique technical abilities. Obviously younger entrants may not have developed the conceptual or technical abilities of the older age group, but the experimentation and freshness of some of the works by the youngest artists – particularly in drawing, photography and printmaking – was most engaging.

Congratulations to all the young artists who entered for your time, ability and achievements. To those who were not selected for exhibition, please do not be discouraged – look around you, be inspired, and try again next year.

Finally, I would like to offer my thanks and congratulations to the team at the Mosman Art Gallery for their expertise and commitment in organising and exhibiting this important Art Prize which has become such a highlight of the Sydney youth arts calendar.

Jo Daniell, Youth Arts Coordinator, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney

Thank you to our sponsors

The sponsors of the 2010 Mosman Youth Art Prize are Mosman Council, Mosman Toyota, Northshore School of Art, Bridgepoint Shopping Centre, Rotary Club of Mosman, The Spit Junction Community Bank, The Julian Ashton Art School, Jocelyn Maughan Art Foundation, Mosman Art Society, Art Smart, Australian Watercolour Institute, and the Friends of Mosman Art Gallery.