Hotshop Demonstration with 2026 FUSE Glass Prize Winner Annette Blair

🔥 Join us for a Hotshop Demonstration with Annette Blair, Winner 2026 FUSE Prize 🔥

To celebrate the final day of the 2026 FUSE Glass Prize exhibition at the ANU School of Art & Design Gallery, join us to see local glass artist and ANU Alumni Annette Blair in action in the ANU Glass hotshop.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Annette Blair is a glassmaker based in the Canberra region. She completed a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) at the Australian National University School of Art in 2004, before relocating to Adelaide to undertake the JamFactory Associate Program in the Glass Studio. She returned to Canberra in 2008, where she continues to grow her diverse practice in both her own studio and at Canberra Glassworks. 

Blair has dedicated her practice to refining technical processes to create works that celebrate the beauty and movement of glass as a material, while exploring the connections we have to people, objects, and place. Blair’s work has been widely recognised, including as a finalist in the Ranamok Glass Prize, the Tom Malone Prize, The Still: National Still Life Prize, and the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize. In 2022, she was awarded the Vicki Torr International Year of Glass Prize. Her work is held in both private and public collections. Most recently Blair completed a commission for Canberra Glassworks at the Australian War Memorial.

ABOUT ANNETTE'S FUSE PRIZE WORK

Remnants of time - In idleness, 2026
Blown, cold worked, enamelled and rusted glass
460 x 750 x 500mm

‘Remnants of time – In idleness continues my reflection on the quiet life of objects and the human rhythms they absorb. I am drawn to forms that feel familiar and unassuming; vessels that might once have been useful, handled daily, then gradually set aside. In their idleness, they begin to speak differently. They hold not only traces of touch, but also absence, pause, and the slow movement of time.

This work considers what lingers when function falls away. I am interested in the space between care and neglect, preservation and decay, where objects exist in quiet suspension and memory rests within memory.

Surface becomes a language of accumulation. Through layers of enamel and the gradual oxidisation of embedded metal, I allow time to remain an active collaborator. Rust blooms slowly and unpredictably, extending the work beyond the immediacy of making. Scratches, abrasions, and softened edges evoke the tender erosion of use, marks that are not damage, but evidence of presence.

Glass allows me to explore the intersection between fragility and permanence. Each element is the result of thoughtful engagement with heat, time, and material knowledge, an exploration of both process and poetics. In this work, the vessel becomes a quiet archive, embodying time as something intimate, incremental, and deeply human.’

ABOUT THE FUSE PRIZE

Presented by JamFactory, the FUSE Glass Prize is a non-acquisitive biennial prize for Australian and New Zealand glass artists. 18 Finalists (12 Established Artists and 6 Emerging Artists) have been selected as part of an exhibition at JamFactory, Adelaide before touring to the ANU School of Art & Design Gallery, Canberra.

The major prize is a juried, non-acquisitive, AU$20,000 cash prize for established artists. The David Henshall Emerging Artist Prize, valued at AU$10,000 is awarded to an emerging artist and includes AU$5,000 cash and a professional development opportunity at JamFactory valued at AU$5,000.

The showing of the 2026 exhibition at the ANU School of Art & Design Gallery is supported by the ANU Visual Arts Endowment.

FUSE PRIZE SPONSORS

JamFactory, Sofitel Adelaide, Seppeltsfield Barrossa Valley, Foundation SA

Image: Annette Blair by Brooke McEachern