"Augusta speaks to the material and the material speaks back: it exposes its imperfections, or it reveals its specific colour and tone, its aliveness, its ability to converse with, and react to, the properties of the air." —Naomi Riddle

Augusta Vinall Richardson (b. 1991, l. Naarm/Melbourne) has established herself as a leading sculptor of her generation. In her industrial metal studio in inner-city Melbourne, she works with sheet and cast metals to make abstract composite sculpture. Each element of each sculpture has its own idiosyncratic form but, in a puzzle-like way, becomes part of a larger, modular assemblage.

Her templates and maquettes are constructed out of recycled cardboard, paper and various tapes, easy vehicles for three-dimensional thinking. As well as offering freedom of studio experimentation in the development of sculptural ideas, Vinall Richardson chooses these ephemeral materials for their compelling aesthetic qualities. Her paper products play an important role in the encounter with the finished metal sculptures especially those in cast metals made in the foundry. Her hand-drawn templates and the volumes of her boxes that make up her maquettes speak to but depart from the perfect geometries of minimalism, allowing the expression of organic idiosyncrasy. These alt-ideals continue in the irregular jig-sawing of the volumes of her sculptures, a subtle and enlivening disorder in the way they occupy space.

In 2022, Vinall Richardson was awarded a Master of Fine Art by Monash University. As part of her undergraduate studies at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, she undertook an exchange semester at Gerrit Reitveld Academie in Amsterdam.

Key exhibitions

solo exhibition, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, 2026 Primavera: Young Australian Artists, curated by Tim Riley Walsh, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, 2025 Augusta Vinall Richardson: Wonder wall, The Commercial, Sydney, 2025 Melbourne Sculpture Biennale: The Burden of Objects, Villa Alba, Melbourne, 2024 Augusta Vinall Richardson: TEMPLATE / SKETCH, Caves, Melbourne, 2023 Circles of dialogue, curated by Amelia Wallin, La Trobe Art Institute, Bendigo, 2023 LIGHTMOVING, The Commercial, Sydney, 2022

Key readings

Naomi Riddle, 'On Wonder wall', exhibition text, The Commercial, Sydney, 2025 Augusta Vinall Richardson’ artist profile, RUSSH Home, Issue 3, 2024 Augusta Vinall Richardson: TEMPLATE / SKETCH, artist publication in conversation with Rose Nolan, Yanni Florence Design, Melbourne 2023 ‘Augusta Vinall Richardson TEMPLATE / SKETCH’, Random (re) View, 30.10.23 Augusta Vinall Richardson: Boxes, artist publication, edition 50, No One Special, Melbourne, 2021

Video interviews

'Augusta Vinall Richardson in conversation with Amanda Love', Love[f]Art#14, Sydney/Melbourne, 2024/2025

Collections

Cbus (437 St Kilda Road)
Celine Art Project (FR)

Lendlease (One Sydney Harbour)
Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
Seb Brown (AU and FR)
Susan Jones and Peter Taylor Collection

» View available works by Augusta Vinall Richardson