Sammy Hawker is an Australian-based visual artist working predominantly on Ngunawal / Ngunnawal / Ngambri Country [Canberra Region, ACT] and Walbunja Country [Southern Tablelands / South Coast region, NSW].
Through practices of reciprocity (facilitated acts of co-creation) Sammy’s works explore the potential of interspecies dialogue, giving voice to the presences of more-than human worlds. These works reflect on how knowledge and memory is inscribed within materials, spaces and bodies.
Sammy’s multi-disciplinary practice embraces photography, printmaking, text, sculpture, sound and moving image. These works form a vast and ongoing archive, documenting sites and moments of exchange.
Since graduating with First Class Honours from Sydney College of the Arts in 2015, Sammy Hawker has been recognised both nationally & internationally for her experimental approach to photography.
Over the past 5 years, Sammy has exhibited several critically acclaimed solo-shows. Works from these shows have been acquired by the Canberra Museum & Gallery, the ACT Legislative Assembly, the Canberra Hospital, Goulburn Regional Art Gallery, Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre and sold widely to private national and international collections. Sammy’s work has been exhibited at the National Museum of Australia, Canberra Museum & Gallery, Canberra Contemporary Art Space and as part of the 2022 Canberra Art Biennial.
Sammy was winner of the 2022 Mullins Conceptual Photography Prize and the winner of the 2023 Canberra Contemporary Photographic Prize. Over the years she has been a finalist in numerous prizes including (more recently) the 2024 National Photography Prize (MAMA), 2024 Mosman Art Prize (in collaboration with Uncle Owen Carriage) and 2023 Bowness Prize (Museum of Australian Photography). In 2021 Sammy was a recipient of the Canberra Critics Circle Award for photography for her exhibition ‘Acts of Co-Creation’.
In 2024 Sammy was artist-in-residence at both Woollahra Gallery and Goulburn Regional Art Gallery, exhibiting new solo shows at these galleries. In 2025 she was the annual funded artist-in-residence at Tweed Regional Gallery with her solo show Worlds Around Us exhibiting at the gallery from June – November 2025. She is also working towards a partnered residency with The Corridor Project (AUS) & Messums: Org (UK) travelling for a residency at Messums East (Lowestoft, UK) in September – October 2025 (funded by The Ian Potter Cultural Trust and artsACT). Her first international solo-show Ghosts & Monsters will be exhibiting at Messums West (Wiltshire, UK) from October 2025 – November 2025. In mid-2026 she is travelling back to the UK to present the work from the residency at Messums East. At the end of 2026 she will presenting a survey show of her work created between 2020 – 2025 at Orange Regional Gallery which will afterwards tour to Canberra Museum and Gallery.
