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Colo High School is celebrating a moment of immense pride, with 2024 Year 12 graduate Evangeline Cruz-Tabua (Evie) achieving recognition at the very highest level of HSC Visual Arts.
Evie’s HSC major work has been selected for ARTEXPRESS 2025, the annual showcase of exemplary student artworks from across New South Wales. In an even rarer honour, her piece has also been chosen for inclusion in the William Wilkins Collection—one of only five works to receive this distinction statewide.
Her ceramics will be exhibited for 12 months at the Department of Education building in Parramatta, where the William Wilkins Collection has documented outstanding young artists since 1974. The collection not only celebrates talent but also reflects cultural shifts, technological change, and the evolving perspectives of NSW’s youth.
For Evie, working with clay is deeply personal.
“Ceramics, for me, is both a medium and a language through which I communicate the intersection of cultures and the multiplicity of my own heritage,” she explains. “The act of shaping clay mirrors the act of shaping identity, as it is through this tactile process that I find a deeper understanding of my personal connection to the diverse traditions that have influenced me. In layering textures, colours and forms in my body of work, I represent the blending of historical and contemporary influences, making a work that invites the audience to reflect on our shared histories and the fluidity of cultural identity.”
Evie drew inspiration from celebrated ceramicists and contemporary artists including Maria Martinez, Kathy Butterly, Betty Woodman, Grayson Perry, Brian Rochefort, and Sally Blackwell.
Colo High School staff are thrilled with the recognition. “To have Evie’s work acknowledged first by ARTEXPRESS and then by the William Wilkins Collection is an exceptional achievement,” a school spokesperson said. “She has shown not only immense skill but also profound insight, and we couldn’t be prouder.”
This remarkable accomplishment places Evie among the top emerging artists in the state and shines a bright light on the creativity thriving at Colo High School. The Hawkesbury community can take pride in seeing one of its own talents celebrated on such a significant stage.
