The Institute of Modern Art is pleased to announce Max Athans as the eighth and final recipient of the Jeremy Hynes Award, which has run since 2009 thanks to the generous bequest by the late experimental artist’s family in his name.

As the recipient, Athans will present their first institutional show Breathform at the Institute of Modern Art from 12 July to 20 September 2025. The exhibition features Athans’s 3D-printed sound sculptures that hybridise human and animal, doll and machine, in ways that are intriguing, uncanny, and repellent.

The previous award recipients are Aha Ensemble, Tay Haggarty, Lu Forsberg, Liam O’Brien, Chris Howlett, Alex Cuffe, and Aaron Burton.

Jeremy Hynes was a much-loved figure in the Meanjin/Brisbane art scene. In the 1990s, he was known for his audacious, daredevil performance art (lighting fires, smashing mirrors, and confining his audience to taxis) and his experimental video work (with Georgie Pinn, he directed the animated music clip for Regurgitator’s Polyester Girl).

After his untimely passing, Hynes’s parents Jan and Ross donated his superannuation to the Institute of Modern Art to create an annual award for a Queensland artist working with his spirit of experimentalism.

About the recipient

Max Athans (b.1999) works with computer imaging to address concerns of contemporary history, image politics, and digital subculture. They make sculptures, videos, and graphics and have shown at Outer Space and Boxcopy in Meanjin/Brisbane. They live in Meanjin/Brisbane.