By arts editor HELEN MUSA

Burra glass artist Annette Blair has won the 2026 FUSE Glass Prize, Australasia’s richest award for contemporary glass, taking home the non-acquisitive $20,000 prize for her work Remnants of Time – In Idleness.

The award was announced by Canberra Glassworks and JamFactory, South Australia, with Blair recognised for a work the judges described as exceptional in both ambition and execution.

Based at Canberra Glassworks and her own studio in Burra, NSW, Blair is one of Australia’s leading glass artists. Her profile rose significantly last year with Quiet Skies, a major commission for the Australian War Memorial’s new entrance.

The judges praised Remnants of Time – In Idleness for its technical sophistication and conceptual depth.

“Netty Blair’s work is exceptional in both its ambition and execution,” they said. “The scale and technical sophistication of the work are matched by its conceptual depth, drawing viewers into reflections on nostalgia, impermanence and transformation.”

Blair’s career has included finalist placings in the Ranamok Glass Prize, the Tom Malone Prize, the Still: National Still Life Prize and the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize. In 2022 she received the Vicki Torr International Year of Glass Prize.

She was also overall winner of the  QPRC & Bendigo Bank 2026 Art Awards.

The David Henshall Emerging Artist Prize went to Adelaide artist Isobel Waters for In the Absence of a Diagnosis (2025). The award includes $5,000 in prize money and a professional development residency at JamFactory valued at a further $5,000.

Established in 2016, the biennial FUSE Glass Prize is open to Australian and New Zealand artists and this year’s finalists comprised 12 established and six emerging artists.

The exhibition of finalists continues at JamFactory until July 5 before touring to the ANU School of Art & Design Gallery in Canberra from August 18 to September 4.

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