Sung Hwan receives the Springboard award for Visual Arts, gifted by the Edgar family.

박성환 Sung Hwan Bobby Park is a visual artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau. Sung Hwan has been working with ceramics since 2016, and is self taught in ceramics and art making. His early works were presented at the ‘Emerging Practitioner in Clay Awards 2018’ in Whanganui and had been involved in many more nation exhibitions in surveying contemporary ceramic practices. His late solo exhibition, BTM Complete in Reflection, was shown with Auckland Ceramic Potters in 2022. It incorporated various materials in conjunction with ceramics to make ceramic bullet proof helmets, as an exploration of the queer experience in the Korean military.

Sung Hwan will be mentored by 2015 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate Lisa Walker ONZM.

Widely regarded as one of New Zealand’s most influential contemporary jewellers, Lisa Walker has received numerous New Zealand and international awards. Her work has been acquired for major public and private collections both in New Zealand and overseas.

Walker’s work directly challenges the accepted notions of what is beautiful or precious. She is continually pushing towards the extreme – a style of working which enables her to expand her thinking and ways of working. This breaks down conceptual barriers about just what constitutes jewellery, as well as creating general issues which inform her practice.