& Gallery Australia is excited to announce the launch of a prestigious new art prize, designed significantly to impact the artist's career. Sixty artists from across Australia will be showcased over a two month exhibition, enriched with a series of artist talks, forums and events.

We are thrilled to announce that Ugochukwu - Smooth Nzewi - Artist & Curator of Painting and Sculpture from MoMA - Museum of Modern Art in New York will be the judge of The Sorrento Art Prize.

Smooth will be travelling to Australia to Judge the award and will also be involved in a series of events over 10 days. We can’t wait to host Smooth in Sorrento.

Bookings will be open shortly for all the events or you can buy an early bird VIP SAP PASS - details and bookings HERE.

About Smooth

Smooth Nzewi joined The Museum of Modern Art in July 2019 as the first Steven and Lisa Tananbaum Curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture. He leads the Africa group in the Museum’s Contemporary and Modern Art Perspectives (C-MAP), MoMA’s internal research and exchange initiative devoted to art in a global context. His projects at MoMA include the exhibition Frédéric Bruly Bouabré: World Unbound (2022). Prior to joining MoMA, Nzewi was Curator of African Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art (2017–19), where he organized Second Careers: Two Tributaries in African Art (2020) and co-organized Ama: The Gathering Place (2019). Before Cleveland, Nzewi was Curator of African Art at Dartmouth College’s Hood Museum (2013–17). There, his exhibitions included Inventory: New Works and Conversations around African Art (2016), and he spearheaded the acquisition of works by artists such as Kader Attia, Candice Brietz, Ibrahim El-Salahi, Julie Mehretu, and Obiora Udechukwu.

Nzewi holds a PhD in art history from Emory University. As an artist, he has exhibited internationally and is represented in public and private collections including the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, DC, and Newark Museum, New Jersey.