The Rigg Design Prize 2025 at the NGV

Australia’s most prestigious award for contemporary design, the Rigg Design Prize, has returned to the NGV for 2025. Since 1994, the triennial prize has celebrated Australia’s best contemporary designers but, for its landmark 10th iteration, curators have narrowed the focus to platform early-career designers.

The entries on display this year all come from Australian design practitioners under 35 years, encompassing glass, ceramics, metalwork, woodwork, furniture, lighting, textiles and jewellery. More than 30 young designers are debuting brand new works as part of the survey, showing off the skill and vision of contemporary Australian design and a willingness to experiment.

On September 18, a judging panel made up of past winners unanimously awarded the $40,000 cash prize to Aranda man Alfred Lowe for his work You and me, us never part, which he describes as “a declaration of love to my community”. It comprises two colourful, figurative vessels made of raku clay and raffia palm, standing side by side as witnesses and companions.

Other highlights of the exhibition include Tiwi designer Walter Brooks’s tunga (folded stringy bark baskets), ceremonially painted in earth pigments; a vernacular Australian dining space made from timber and salvaged Holden car parts by Andrew Carvolth; an imposing light sculpture, Veh – a “mother deity” – by industrial designer Jay Jermyn; and Isaac Williams’s dining set Rebirthed, constructed from discarded pine pallets and salvaged steel-framed chairs.

The Rigg Design Prize (previously known as the Cicely and Colin Rigg Contemporary Design Award) is named for Colin Rigg, former secretary of the NGV’s Felton Bequests’ Committee, whose bequest was used to establish the prize. Past recipients include this year’s curator, Simone LeAmon (2009) for contemporary seat furniture design, Adam Goodrum (2015) for object and furniture design, and Leo Burnett Australia (2022) for advertising and communication design.

All Rigg Design Prize entries will be on display at the Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia from September 19, 2025, until February 1, 2026. Entry is free.

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