Nell’s Loti Smorgon Sculpture Terrace Commission honours the power and presence of women.

Women are often expected to balance competing demands, both from ourselves and society. Somehow, we manage to carry the proverbial weight of the world with poise and grace.

(Nell)

Australian artist Nell has been making sculptures of women for nearly two decades. With her utilitarian stick and suspended glass ghosts, this life-size, bronze representation of an archetypal woman speaks to the physical and mental ability of women to hold two things in balance. Embodying the form and purpose of a set of scales, Holding Both contains references as varied as the Buddhist practice of presence, art historical depictions of women and everyday carrying tools.

Based in Sydney, Nell (b. 1975, Maitland, New South Wales) is known for her fusion of pop culture, rock’n’roll aesthetics and Buddhist practice. She has a long history with the MCA, first exhibiting in Primavera: young Australian artists in 1999. Nell’s spectacular, large-scale wall installation Unlimited radiance (2001) is just one of the works by the artist in the MCA Collection.

The MCA’s Sculpture Terrace is named in honour of Mrs Loti Smorgon AO (1918–2013), who together with her husband Victor Smorgon donated 149 artworks to the MCA Collection. The creation of a Sculpture Terrace for the Museum realised a long-held desire by Mrs Smorgon to support Australian sculptural works, and was made possible through her donation to the MCA’s 2012 capital campaign.

Artists who have undertaken this commission in the past include Ricky Swallow (2025), Kate Newby (2024), Reko Rennie (2023), Cameron Robbins (2021), Danie Mellor (2019), Caroline Rothwell (2016), Sangeeta Sandrasegar (2014) and Hany Armanious (2012).