Receiving the 2026 Springboard Award for Visual Arts gifted by The Edgar Family Trust – Mentored by 2016 Laureate Peter Robinson

Isabella is an artist currently based in the Rangitīkei/Whanganui Districts (NZ) working across the mediums of sculpture, installation and drawing. Loudon received a Bachelor of Fine arts with first class honours from Massey University, Pōneke Wellington in 2016. 

Known for her physically resonant and materially rich installations, Loudon’s practice explores the intersection between architecture, drawing, the body, and acts of making. Utilising industrial and salvaged materials, her works are characterised by their raw surfaces and sculptural intensity – environments that speak to process, impermanence, and elemental transformation. 

She was the 2023 recipient of the Olivia Spencer Bower Award, Ōtautahi Christchurch and 2025 Tylee Cottage Artist in Residence, Whanganui. She is about to present her first major solo exhibition at Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua, Whanganui, opening in early April 2026. 

Panel Statement: “Isabella is a sculptor and installation artist based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. Since completing her studies in 2016, Loudon has consistently pushed the limits of her materials and shown in group and solo exhibition contexts. Her ambition, tenacity, work ethic, and compelling sculptural works, as evidenced by her exhibition of site-specific installation works in December 2023, two years | one building in a derelict building in Tūtaenui Marton, has earned her the Springboard Award.”