Lisa Freeman and Adam Frew announced as winners of the 2026 Golden Fleece Award
Published date: 24 Apr 2026
The Trustees of the Golden Fleece Award today announced the recipients of this year’s Award. Visual artist/ filmmaker Lisa Freeman and ceramicist Adam Frew have received the top prizes in each category – Visual Art, and Craft + Applied Art – with each receiving a Golden Fleece Award worth €10,000.
aemi & SIRIUS were delighted to announce Lisa Freeman as the recipient of their jointly offered commission for 2023. Lisa Freeman’s film ‘Approx 1 Second of a Sweet Kiss’ premiered at Cork International Film Festival 2023 and was exhibited at Sirius Art Centre in summer 2024. It then went on to be exhibited at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios in 2024.
The film follows a young woman as she makes her way through an unfamiliar city. During the course of a day, she encounters several people who meet her with their own sets of expectations and forms of communication. Freeman’s performative film includes sequences of intricately choreographed movement and disorientating spoken exchanges, which activate a surreal psychological experience. The protagonist appears to be set up to fail in her everyday activities and finds herself to be an uncomfortable participant in a set of scenarios that are either awkwardly detached or unexpectedly personal. The simmering hum of the cityscape and dislocated soundtrack suggests that the viewer is occupying the same headspace as the film’s protagonist, while bright southern European sunshine highlights the mirrored surfaces that ultimately reflect the protagonist’s experiences and the viewer’s own participatory role.
Lisa Freeman’s work explores the relationship between power structures, the body and the presentation of the self within everyday environments. Working across moving image, installation and scripted performance, her practice draws on archives, mainstream media and local knowledge, often unfolding within specific geographic and architectural landscapes. While her work is research-oriented, it is developed through collaborative processes, particularly through working with actors and musicians to explore how intimacy, tenderness and generosity can emerge in civic space. www.lisafreeman.net
Lisa Freeman’s recent exhibitions and screenings include: Hook, Spill, Cry Your Eyes Out, as part of Súitú, aemi Touring Programme, Ireland, Netherlands, Sweden (2023); Slipped, Fell and Smacked my Face off the Dance Floor, live site-specific performance, Naylor’s Cove, Bray Beach, with Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray (2022), Slipped, Fell…, video, aemi online (2022); Green Skies, A Double Rhythm, live site-specific performance, The Curragh, with Riverbank Arts Centre, Kildare (2019). Freeman’s work has also been shown in: Festival ECRÃ, Rio de Janeiro; RHA Gallery, Dublin; Somerset House, London; Prenzlauer Kunst Kollektiv, Berlin; Solas Nua, Washington DC. Freeman holds a Three Year Studio Membership at TBG+S. Her work is held in the Arts Council of Ireland Collection.
Adam Frew’s work centres on wheel-thrown ceramic vessels defined by clean, simple forms that subtly reveal the presence of the maker’s hand. Working primarily with porcelain, he explores the energy and spontaneity of throwing, pushing clay to its limits to create bold, voluminous vessels. While his practice is rooted in making, he treats the surface of each pot as a canvas, using expressive marks, colour and layered textures to create dynamic compositions that highlight the contours and movement of the form. His work balances control and spontaneity, emphasising both process and material. www.adamfrew.com
The 2026 Golden Fleece Award Ceremony took place at the City Assembly House on Thursday, 23 April. This year the Award attracted just over 240 eligible applications received across Category 1: Visual Art and Category 2: Craft + Applied Art. The 2026 prize fund worth a total of €40,000 makes the Golden Fleece Award the most generous art prize open to both visual artists and craft practitioners/makers in Ireland.
The Golden Fleece Award was established through a bequest by Dublin-born artist, educator and researcher Lillias Mitchell (1915-2000). She recognised the financial challenges faced by creative practitioners and the impact these could have on their work; in her Letter of Wishes to her Trustees she stated her desire that the Award should “give artists a ‘boost’ in times of particular need.” Accordingly, the mission of the Golden Fleece Award is to provide resources for practising visual, craft and applied artists to innovate and develop their artistic vision at pivotal points in their careers. The annual Award is open to artists originally from or currently living on the island of Ireland.