Tom Malone Glass Art Prize 2025 awarded to Curtin University alumnus and Tasmanian-based artist Peter Bowles

Tasmanian-based glass artist Peter Bowles has been awarded the Tom Malone Glass Art Prize 2025 for his work Quiescent Object: Kepler-186F. A previous Tom Malone Glass Art Prize finalist on four occasions, Bowles was one of 24 artists shortlisted for this year’s prize — Australia’s longest-running acquisitive award for contemporary glass, that grants $20,000 to the winning artist. The announcement was made on March 12 at Linton & Kay Galleries, Cottesloe, where the finalists will be exhibited until April 6. Born in Birmingham, Bowles studied visual arts at Curtin University before moving to Northern Tasmania, where he is co-founder and director of independent glass studio and gallery Glass Manifesto, with fellow glass artist and partner Anne Clifton. The prize-winning artwork, Quiescent Object: Kepler-186F, comprises neodymium and cobalt-tinted striking phosphate opal glass, overlaid opaque coloured glasses with a blown, cut, ground and hand-lapped pumice finish. “I’ve never been so sure, and at the same time, so unsure about this work,” Bowles said. “It’s a genuine paradox that I’m still having to reconcile. I can genuinely say it’s taken me over 40 years as a glassmaker to arrive at this work. There is a complexity to its making that I thrive on, and a simplicity to its presence that I aspire to.” Bowles said the artwork’s origin could technically be traced back to 18th-century glass recipes from the Stourbridge area in the UK, after he had an extraordinary opportunity at the start of his artistic practice to review some archival recipe books, hand-written in beautiful copperplate on fading and fragile paper notebooks. “It was like hearing voices from the past, an echo, and for me the start of a new investigation,” he said. “I’ve reworked the chemistry, making the recipes far less toxic than they were back then, and modified them for use in my own studio. A year later, after testing, modifications and more testing, I’ve made a glass where I can control it’s transition of transparency, translucency and opacity through the numerous stages of making. “It’s genuinely fascinating and compelling to me as a maker.” The Tom Malone Glass Art Prize was established in 2003 by Art Gallery of WA Foundation governor Elizabeth Malone. This year’s shortlisted artists were judged by Dante Marioni, Dr Stefano Carboni and Dr Robert Cook, who noted in their comments how impressed they were by Bowles’ technical skill. “I’m absolutely thrilled to have this work acknowledged by such an esteemed panel of judges,” Bowles said. “My sincere thanks and gratitude to them for what must have been an incredibly difficult decision to make given the quality and calibre of fellow selected artists.” He also made special mention of partner Clifton, who he said supported him unwaveringly in the development and making of the winning glass artwork. “Her patience with me and the process, her skills and strength as a fellow maker, and her relentless spirit as an artist are all very much part of the work,” he said. The Tom Malone Glass Art Prize 2025 exhibition is at Linton & Kay, Cottesloe until April 6.