Winner 2026
We are pleased to announce that Steve Lees is the recipient of the Hiroe Swen Award for 2026. His Ikebana container has been selected by Hiroe Swen as the best entry. Steve Lees will receive a cash award of $1,000 from the WA Melbourne Ikebana Festival.
We will publish the comment from Hiroe Swen in the next few days after all the events at Wa Melbourne Ikebana Festival 2026 has finished.
Steve Lees (b. 1988) is a ceramic artist based in Trentham, Australia. Driven by a fascination with nature and its ever-changing states, his work explores how materials interact, transform and deteriorate over time. He recontextualises these natural processes through form, surface and material.
Steve Lees: Feeling very honoured to have received the Hiroe Swen Ceramic Container Award at the Melbourne Ikebana Festival.
It feels particularly special to receive this award for this piece, which was made during my residency in Japan last year. The work came from an interest in the beauty of everyday encounters between nature and place. It means a lot to have this work recognised within the context of ikebana, where the relationship between vessel, nature and space is considered with such care.
A huge thank you to Hiroe Swen, and to the team behind the @wa.ikebana for the award and for bringing together such a beautiful celebration of ikebana and ceramics.
Instagram. instagram.com/steveleesstudio
