FLOREY artist Krystal Hurst is among the 68 artists from across Australia selected as finalists in the 2019 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards – Australia’s longest standing indigenous art awards.

A noted jewellery designer who uses natural materials in her work, Hurst and her niece developed jewellery designs for the “Culture to Catwalk” fashion show in partnership with the NGA. More recently, she was featured among many artists in the “Emerging Contemporaries” show at Craft ACT early this year and in Darwin’s Aboriginal Bush Traders “Bush Bling” exhibition during March.

Hurst, a Worimi artist and co-owner of Gillawarra Arts, originates from the mid north coast of NSW. She was awarded the ACT NAIDOC Artist of the Year in 2017 and was recently featured in the indigenous women in business “Morning Sky” project.

280 entries by first nation artists from regional and urban areas were submitted for the award, which has a prize pool of $80,000, including a first prize of $50,000.

Curator of Aboriginal art at Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Luke Scholes says: “Once again, the calibre of this year’s Telstra NATSIAA finalists is extraordinary. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art continues to evolve, and Telstra NATSIAA continues to be the place to witness this shift in process.”

The winners of the 36th Telstra NATSIAA will be announced at an awards ceremony at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Bullocky Point facility on August 9.