Rate My Professor Zoe Venness

Veness joined UNSW Art & Design in 2018 and has held senior academic leadership roles, including Deputy Head of School (Design), Director of the Bachelor of Design and Master of Design programs from 2022 to 2024, and Director of Education from 2021 to 2022. As Academic Lead for the Object disciplinary studio, she led curriculum development in jewellery and ceramics for the Bachelor of Design. She serves as Chief Investigator on a 2024 Australian Research Council-funded Linkage Project examining sustainable approaches to repurposing textile waste into contemporary jewellery and objects. Her achievements include numerous awards such as the winning prize in the 2023 Contemporary Wearables Biennial Jewellery Award Exhibition, 2024 Australian Research Council Linkage Project Grant, 2023 UNSW Art & Design Research Grant, and 2019 Exhibition Development Fund from Contemporary Arts Tasmania. Key publications encompass 'Post-COVID reflections on material-making for design students at Art & Design, University of New South Wales' (NiTRO, 2021), 'Sky Series: Painting the heavens with glass' (Garland Magazine, 2025), 'New Terrain in an Old World' (Frangipani: Garland Compendium Three, 2020), and her PhD thesis 'Towards Autonomous Jewellery: Examining the loop between jewellery and the body through a sculptural dimension' (2015). Veness has presented ten solo exhibitions, including 'Still Point' at Gallery Funaki (2024) and 'The Stream of Time' at Woollahra Gallery (2022), and participated in over forty national and international group exhibitions. Her works reside in prominent collections such as the National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of South Australia, and Musée des Arts Décoratifs (Paris), highlighting her impact on the field.