Terence Maloon – New Judge for 2026 event

We are very excited to have Terence Maloon, former Director of the Drill Hall Gallery at ANU as the new judge for the 2026 event.

“A sculpture in the landscape develops a ‘self’,” says Terence Maloon. “It exists in dialogue with its setting — and that can be deeply thrilling.”

With a career spanning art criticism, curation and leadership, he brings decades of experience in art and a passion for sculpture. 

Educated at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts and the University of East Anglia, he lectured in art history before moving to Australia, where he became Senior Art Critic at the Sydney Morning Herald and later Senior Curator at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. There he curated exhibitions on Cézanne, Picasso, Pissarro, and the landmark Path to Abstraction 1867–1917.

He recalls being dismayed at Australia’s neglect of sculpture, until Sculpture by the Sea changed the landscape. “Suddenly, people encountered sculpture outdoors and developed taste through experience. It was transformative.”

When judging, Maloon looks for integrity, presence, and rightness of scale. “It must feel inevitable – as though it could only ever be that way. Materials to some extent don’t matter — steel, stone, wood, clay — what matters is distinctiveness, the work becoming a self that resonates with its place.”

For Maloon, Sculpture Bermagui continues this vital role: connecting audiences, landscapes and artworks in ways that transcend and inculcates a love of art.