We are thrilled to present this year’s Pre-selection Panellists.
This dynamic group of professionals will select the 30 Finalists for the 2026 Youth Awards to be exhibited at the Old Gaol Building in the Western Australian Museum Boola Bardip from 24 April – 19 July 2026.
Amanda is a Badamia Yamatji and Yued Noongar artist living and working on Wardandi land in Goomburrup.
First exhibited as part of Revealed 2021 at Fremantle Arts Centre, a neon glass sculpture is the Amanda’s first acquisition into the State Art Collection currently on display at the Art Gallery of Western Australia. Titled From our lip, mouths, throat and belly, the bright pink work takes the form of the Noongar word “Moorditj”, which means good or awesome in English.
From our lip, mouths, throats and belly premiered at Fremantle Arts Centre’s (FAC) 2021 Revealed Exhibition, an annual showcase of Western Australia’s emerging Aboriginal artists. The work has gained iconic status and is an innovative use of neon glass.
In 2022 Amanda was a finalist in the John Stringer Art Prize at John Curtin Gallery, showed work at The Goods Shed, Bunbury Regional Art Gallery and the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery and curated Noongar Country 2022, an annual exhibition at BRAG showcasing the work of Aboriginal artists working on Noongar boodja.
In 2023, Amanda had work in a group exhibition Emergences at the Holmes a Court Gallery at Vasse Felix and co-curated and created an installation work at the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery for the Gallery’s second season Kanangoor/Shimmer. She also was part of Noongar Country 2023 at BRAG where her work My Blood, Your Blood, Our Blood was acquired by the City of Bunbury.
In 2024 Amanda was judged best overall the her artwork Untitled, an installation piece in response to the 2023 Referendum. This work was part of the Constellations exhibition at the Bunbury Regional Art Gallery. She also has work in N’yettin-ngal Wagur – Yeye Wongie , an exhibition at John Curtin Gallery which saw four contemporary Aboriginal artists respond to the Carrolup Collection housed at the Gallery.
Also in 2024, Amanda’s commissioned public artwork was installed; a neon work for the City of Kwinana. She also co-curated Noongar Country 2024 at the Bunbury Regional Art Gallery.
In 2025, Amanda’s work F.ma (five ways to make a rainbow) will be showing throughout the year as part of the Judy Wheeler Commission at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art. Also in 2025, Amanda has an entry in Revealed: New and Emerging WA Aboriginal Artists, had a work in Noongar Country Exhibition at Bunbury Regional Art Gallery (acquired), and was in the group exhibition, It’s Always been Always at FAC. In June 2025 Amanda was the inaugural Artist in Residence at Vessel Contemporary Art Gallery in Fremantle. Currently Amanda is preparing for the group exhibition Djoowak Moordidjabiny at MJAC and is writing a play based on her 2023 installation work ……and the crow are we.
Melissa Clements (b. 1998, UK) is a contemporary artist based in Perth, Western Australia. Her practice explores the dualities of human experience – love and violence, freedom and confinement, resilience and surrender – through figurative painting that draws on the tradition of spiritual texts and contemporary relevance of lived experience. Clements likes to grapple with the complicated and tragic fragility of human existence, urging her audience to consider the agency they hold over their own lives, their community and the planet as a whole.
She trained at the New York Academy of Art and the National Art School, Sydney, and holds a Bachelor of Philosophy (Honours) in Art History and Philosophy from the University of Western Australia. Her honours research examined the stylistic development of Abstract Expressionist Michael (Corinne West) during the atomic age. Clements’ ongoing commitment to art historical research has significantly informed the development of her contemporary studio practice, which she views as a continuation of this legacy.
Travel and immersion are central to Clements’ creative process, informed by her experiences as a migrant and her interest in place and identity. In May 2024, she undertook an intensive residency in Svalbard, supported by the Blackbird Foundation, investigating the psychological and aesthetic impact of the Arctic environment.
This research informed her major solo exhibition, The Flight of the Battery Hens (PS Art Space, Fremantle, 2025), a series of 22 works examining transcendence, resilience, and human vulnerability.
Clements’ practice spans intimate portraiture and ambitious narrative compositions, using oil painting as a vehicle to explore contemporary concerns. Her ability to connect with human subjects through story telling has seen her secure commissions to paint public figures including The Honourable Peter Quinlan, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Western Australia, and The Honourable Robert French, AC, Chancellor of the University of Western Australia. Clements has also been recognised as a finalist in the Archibald Prize, The Lester Prize, and the Darling Portrait Prize. Her work is held in public and private collections across the world.
Cedar Rankin-Cheek is an events producer based in Boorloo, Australia, and textile and sculpture artist. She holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours) from the University of Western Australia, where her research focused on craft, textiles, and gender. Cedar is currently the Functions and Events Producer at the WA Museum Boola Bardip, developing and facilitating community-led events that connect diverse communities and audiences with the WA Museum.
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