Sam Bloor wins $25,000 Joondalup Invitation Art Prize

Sam Bloor has been awarded $25,000 for the 2025 City of Joondalup Invitation Art Prize. This year’s prize format, a significant departure from previous years, included a new model, commissioning ten artists, each of whom received $3,500 to create their works. The 2025 selected artists were Tom Blake, Sam Bloor, Bruno Booth, Erin Coates, Sarah Elson, Tim Meakins, Sherry Quiambao, Andy Quilty, Anna Louise Richardson and Tyrown Waigana. 

Before announcing Bloor as the winner, Joondalup Mayor Albert Jacob expressed confidence in the future of the arts in Joondalup, stressing its importance in enriching lives and fostering community. He stated, “As I prepare to step down as Mayor, I do so with immense pride, especially in the cultural space and the work happening to take that forward into the future.”

The award ceremony also celebrated the official opening of the Joondalup Contemporary Art Gallery. Previous awards had seen qualifying entrants show single works in local shopping centres. 

This year’s judges were Helen Carroll, curator of the Wesfarmers Collection of Australian Art; Glenn Iseger-Pilkington, Director of Content Strategy and Partnerships at the Aboriginal Cultural Centre Project and Abigail Moncrief, Curatorial and Collections Lead from Walyalup Fremantle Arts Centre and the City of Fremantle. 

Jacob echoed the judge’s observation that “artists bought a varied spectrum of works from the whimsical to the dark, making the exhibition a fulsome experience.” He also quoted the judges’ comments: “The winning artwork is a poetic and cinematic installation that invites repeat viewing and is comprised of individual components. This assemblage is both timeless and marks this particular moment in time. This work has site specificity, responding to the gallery’s infrastructure and bringing a moment of levity to a work that resonates with nostalgia, chance encounters, mystery chats, and elements of the unknown. The experience of the work invites participation from audiences as collaborators, tapping into our need for connection to each other within the context of Joondalup’s Art Collection. This work will evolve and shift its meaning over time and will always have a connection to Joondalup,” he said. 

Bloor’s response was heartfelt. In his acceptance speech, he acknowledged the high quality of the works of other artists, saying he felt like he was “entering another chapter and another level in his career.” Fighting emotions, Bloor expressed his gratitude for the community of selected artists and how grateful he was “to play a small role in what this scene is.” 

Bloor conveyed that although he began his work in January, the idea stemmed from a concept he had drafted years earlier. He appreciated the new prize model, which gave him the time and resources to fully develop his concept, including newspaper ads and a billboard. 

Bloor said his inspiration was a phone he spotted during a gallery visit. “Everything was blank and then there was a hole in the wall that had a fire suppression system phone that said ‘not art’ on it. Although I had planned on doing a suite of paintings for the prize, when I saw that phone, I thought, ‘all right, well if there’s a phone that says not art, you’ve got to make one that says art.”‘ 

Bloor said his next project is part of the Fremantle Biennale, noting he is working on two separate projects for the event – a musical piece and an installation for Room Service at the P&O Hotel, where 30 artists will take over different hotel rooms. 

The City of Joondalup Invitation Art Prize is free to view and will continue until December 13, 10 am to 4 pm, Thursday to Sunday.