Sarah Tracton is a multidisciplinary fine artist and bespoke lighting designer. A graduate of the National Art School, she has built a reputation for using innovative ceramic techniques to create bespoke handcrafted lighting that is an intersection of fine art, craft and functional design. She fuses innovative cordless technologies with traditional craft processes to create lighting that emits exquisitely luminous and ethereal outcomes when paired with LEDs.
In the final year of her BFA, Sarah refined a technique of building architectural porcelain slabs from pouring wet porcelain slip onto a smooth plaster surface. Her distinctive iridescent colouring creates a marbled chromatic panorama akin to landscape topography. Her creative process involves pairing traditional clay crafting techniques with the finest grade porcelains plus high-end design, manufacturing & fabrication for bespoke architectural lighting applications. She uses Kintsugi golden repair technique, in line with the ethos of circular economy in combating wastage.
Sarah is a Good Design Award Winner, recipient of Creators Fund awarded by Creative Victoria and twice finalist for Australia’s Next Top Designer. She exhibits as part of Launchpad’s emerging designer showcase at ICFF Manhattan in New York City, May 19 - 21, 2024 as part of Design Wanted.
SOLO EXHIBITION
2024 Green Design Show, Decor + Design, Melbourne
2023 Sound is Illuminated, Linden Project Space, Melbourne
2022 Light Permeates Silence, Glowing Structures Gallery, Melbourne
2018 Hearing it for Silence, St Heliers Street Gallery, Abbotsford Convent
GROUP EXHIBITION
2024 Wanted Design, ICCF, New York City.
2023 Design Fringe, Linden New Art, Melbourne
2022 Beyond Ordinary, Sturt Gallery, Mittagong NSW
2021 Design Fringe, Linden New Art
Renew Australia, Fitzroy Street
2019 Connected, Federation Square
2018 Crosspoint Perceptions, Testing Grounds, Melbourne
2016 Small Works, Group Show, Project 504
Ephemeral Nature, Group Show, Gallery Klei
2015 Tools & Containers, National Art School, Stairwell Gallery.
2008 24 Hour Monitor Exhibition, NT Museum of Contemporary Art
FELLOWSHIPS & GRANTS
2022 Recipient, Rupert Bunny Fellowship Special Project Grant
2021 Recipient, Creators Fund, Creative Victoria
2020 Recipient, AMP Tomorrow Fund
Recipient, Sustaining Creative Workers grant, Creative Victoria
Recipient, Thrive, Port Phillip Council
Selected, Foundry 658, State Library of Victoria and ACMI
2019 Selected, Space Tank, Bench 2 Business, Launch Victoria
2016 Recipient, Creative Fellowship, State Library of Victoria
Recipient, Australia Council for the Arts Skills and Development Artist Grant
2009 Recipient, Churchill Fellowship
AWARDS
2023 Finalist, Interior Design Excellence Award - Object and Lighting (Rising)
Finalist, Australia’s Next Top Designer
Finalist, Northern Beaches Environmental Art & Design Prize
Winner, Best Fine Artist & Lighting Designer, Australian Made Awards, APAC Insider
2022 Finalist, Australia’s Next Top Designer
Finalist, Northern Beaches Environmental Art & Design Prize
Finalist, Wyndham Art Prize
Honourable Mention, SIT Furniture Award
Finalist, Circle Awards for Art & Design
Finalist, Interior Design Excellence Award - Object and Lighting (Rising)
2021 Winner, Good Design Award for Lucent Collection in Lighting -
Finalist, Interior Design Excellence Award - Object and Lighting (Rising)
2020 Finalist, Interior Design Excellence Award - Object and Lighting (Rising)
2019 Finalist, Connected Art Prize
Finalist, Workshopped19, Australian Design Centre
Finalist, VIVID Award
2018 Peoples Choice Award Winner, Macquarie Group Emerging Artist Prize
Finalist, Collins Place Summer Salon
Finalist, Klytie Pate Award and Exhibition
Finalist, VIVID Award
2017 Finalist, Connected, No Vacancy Gallery
Finalist, Aikenhead Centre for Medical Discovery Award
Finalist, Craft Victoria Awards
Finalist, Contemporary Art Awards
Finalist, Klytie Pate Award and Exhibition
2016 Finalist, Contemporary Art Awards
Finalist, Make It Award, MakerSpace Sydney
Finalist, North Queensland Ceramics Prize
2015 Winner, Australian Association of Ceramics Prize for 3rd Year, National Art School
2008 Finalist, ATOM Award, Best Short Form Documentary, White Sound, Melbourne
Winner, Pamela A Walker Award Superfest, San Francisco
Winner, Harmony Film Festival, Best Film, Sydney
Winner, World of Women Film Festival, Best Short Documentary, Sydney
Highly Commended, Perspectiva Film Festival, Moscow
Winner, Read My Shorts, Best Film, Sydney
Best Sound, Katoomba Film Festival, Blue Mountains
2006 Winner, 3rd Year Drawing Week Prize, National Art School
Highly Commended, Waverley Art Prize
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Fine Arts, National Art School East Sydney
Bachelor of Arts in Communications, UTS Sydney
Interactive Digital Media Scholarship VFX, Metro Screen
Documentary Filmmaking Scholarship, Metro Screen