2023 Competition Judges Announced

The judging panel comprises WOW Founder and Resident Judge, Dame Suzie Moncrieff, and several guest judges, from the worlds of art and fashion, who are invited to be part of the panel.

Meet the juding panel for 2023:

DAME SUZIE MONCRIEFF

Creator and founder of the original WOW concept, Dame Suzie Moncrieff staged the first WOW Show in Nelson in 1987 as a promotion for a rural art gallery, based on her vision to take art off the wall and exhibit it as a live theatrical show.

Dame Suzie Moncrieff has personally received several awards for her achievements and contribution to the arts. She was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 1998 and made a Dame in the 2011 New Year’s Honours.

SIR RICHARD TAYLOR

Sir Richard Taylor is the co-founder, CEO and Creative Director of conceptual design studio and physical effects manufacturing facility Wētā Workshop. He was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2004 and was knighted in 2010. In 2012 Taylor was named New Zealander of the Year.

Sir Richard Taylor will present the Wētā Workshop Emerging Designer Award; the winning designer receives NZ$6,000 plus the opportunity to complete an internship at Wētā Workshop which includes flights from anywhere in the world and accommodation in Wellington for up to four weeks.

BRETT GRAHAM

Brett Graham (Ngāti Koroki Kahukura, Tainui, b. 1967) is a sculptor and Arts Foundation laureate who creates large scale artworks and installations that explore indigenous histories, politics, and philosophies.

He conceives his Māori whakapapa (ancestry) as a Pasifika/Moana identity and affiliated with a global network of indigenous and non-Western peoples. It is from this basis that Graham's work engages with histories of imperialism and global indigenous issues. His recent exhibition Tai Moana Tai Tangata was nominated for the Walters Prize, 2023.

BENNY CASTLES

Benny Castles has been involved with WORLD for over 20 years and is a partner, Designer, and Director alongside founders Francis Hooper MNZM and Dame Denise L'Estrange-Corbet. WORLD, now in its third decade as one of NZ’s most iconic and Avant-garde fashion houses. Since 1989. WORLD has been New Zealand owned and loved, based in Auckland the factory of ideas and experiments, exclusively designs & creates locally manufactured, hand-made seasonal collections and haute-couture garments. WORLD is a personality and has proudly stood for three decades as an iconic innovator, outsider and pioneer.

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