Valerie Sparks (AU)
![Image: Valerie Sparks, [Prospero's Island - North East], 2016, from the series [Prospero's Island], Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection. Courtesy of the artist.](https://photo.org.au/api/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/2016_WINNER-Sparks-Valerie-200x127.jpg)
Image: Valerie Sparks, Prospero's Island - North East, 2016, from the series Prospero's Island, Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection. Courtesy of the artist.
Image: Valerie Sparks, Prospero's Island - North East, 2016, from the series Prospero's Island, Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection. Courtesy of the artist.
Valerie Sparks (b.1961) completed a humanities degree, majoring in Pacific studies and anthropology at La Trobe University, before training as a visual artist at RMIT, VCA and Monash University. Sparks’s artistic practice is informed by her studies in the social sciences, and is largely concerned with the way visual art can be used to domesticate and dramatise exotic landscapes. Sparks has been regularly exhibiting her work since 2004, and has received several awards, including the 2016 William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize.
![Image: Jacky Redgate, [Light throw (mirrors) #4], 2011 from the series [Light throw (mirrors)], 2010–11, Monash
Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection. Courtesy the artist.](https://photo.org.au/api/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Redgate-Light-Throw-Mirrors4-2010_2011-1-200x160.jpg)