THE 2014 CityNews Artist of the Year award has been awarded to sculptor Kensuke Todo.

The 2011 Artist of the Year, Michael Le Grand, presented Todo with the $1000 prize and glass artist Matthew Curtis presented him with a glass sculpture at the ACT Arts Awards ceremony at the Canberra Museum and Gallery.

Todo, a rising star on the sculpture scene, told “CityNews” he is “completely thrilled”.

“I have strong personal feelings towards this city. Canberra is where I first arrived in Australia, the city where I studied, where I have worked and where most of my friends are. I have been greatly supported by those friends along the way.

“Looking back at myself when I first came to Australia as an exchange student in 1999 who even didn’t know how to speak English nor get around, it is  hard to believe that the same person has been chosen for Artist of the Year.

“It is wonderful that my work is acknowledged in my home town here in Canberra.”

“Soft and solid” is how one curator described his steel sculptures, which range from elegant abstract works to representations of escalators and the Japanese futon or cushion. His work brings face-to-face Japanese spiritualtiy and Westernisation, seen in the sculptures and drawings of his 2014 exhibition “Kensuke Todo: A Survey” at the Drill Hall Gallery.

Born in Kyoto, Todo came to Canberra in 1999 later returning to complete his MA and settling in the ACT, where he is an active participant in the arts scene.

He is busy creating a new work for a show in Cowra, his work “Rest” was recently acquired by the ACT Legislative Assembly and a large abstract work by Todo can be seen outside the Commonwealth Club in Yarralumla.

The awards evening, hosted by the Canberra Critics’ Circle, also featured the Circle’s own arts awards and the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance’s Peer Recognition award.

The 2014 Canberra Critics’ Circle awards went to: visual artists Nicci Haynes, Kensuke Todo, Janet DeBoos, Denise Higgins and Gary Smith, Helen Aitken Kuhnen, Katy Mutton, Annika Harding, and artists Caroline Huf, Ellis Hutch, Blaide Lallemand and Genevieve Swifte, of “Relative Constructions”; filmmakers Sotiris Dounoukos, the creators of the feature film “Galore”; dance artist James Batchelor, theatre artists Domenic Mico, The Street Theatre, Alison Plevey, Karla Conway and Emma Gibson; musical theatre artists Jenna Roberts, Jim McMullen, Steve Walsh and Hanna Ley;  musicians Tate Sheridan, Beth Monzo and Ben Drysdale, Alan Hicks, Rowan Harvey Martin, Christopher Latham, Marcela Fiorillo, Larry Sitsky and Tobias Cole; writers Nigel Featherstone, John Clanchy, Omar Musa and “Biff” Ward.

The 2014 MEAA Peer Recognition Award went to recently retired ACT branch secretary Michael White for his many years of work supporting the theatre profession.