Issue 38
It is astonishing today how the narrative of an artist’s work can alter with new conditions. In this issue of Artist Profile it appears differences in narrative are inevitable. Exposure to new places, cultures and histories can often release the unexpected in the artist’s chosen medium.
In Issue 38 of Artist Profile the cover story on John Firth-Smith has a fresh and objective narrative. After 50 years of painting by Firth-Smith we contemplate why his paintings have a crisper tactile quality, an immediacy and how these paintings explore his life and that of Hill End.
ISSUE
Cult of the Curator by Ashley Crawford
COVER FEATURE
JOHN FIRTH-SMITH by Judith Pugh, photography by Stephen Oxenbury
PROFILES
FIONA MCMONAGLE by Lucy Stranger
ZOE YOUNG by Bridget Macleod
ANNA PLATTEN by Fulvia Mantelli
ROBERT BESANKO by Kon Gouriotis
JOE FROST by Georgina Cole
MICAHEL BUZZACOTT by Sonia Legge
DEBRA DAWES by Kon Gouriotis
PREVIEW
Preview: Mami Kataoka’s Biennale of Sydney, by Michael Young
Archive: James Doolin, by Paul McGillick
Project: Mai Nguyen-Long’s Vietnamese residencies
Process: George Tilianakis
Process: Chase Archer
Preview: The National, by Melissa Pesa
View Australia
Discovery: Martin George
Genuine reflection, the quiet, unresolved, sometimes uncomfortable kind, feels increasingly rare. We are seldom invited to sit with what we do not yet understand. This...
As the title Westwood | Kawakubo suggests, the National Gallery of Victoria’s (NGV) latest fashion exhibition plays to the idea that these two titans of...
Operating within a commercial framework yet not representing artists, Project8 allows for a greater sense of curatorial freedom, privileging thematic and carefully considered exhibitions over...
Ron Mueck’s shockingly alive sculptures hit us at many points along the pathway from birth to death. But it’s more than just mortal decay that...
Women Photographers 1900–1975: A Legacy of Light draws on more than 300 photographs and photomedia from the National Gallery of Victoria’s (NGV) collection and the...
Motet Fail, 2026, reshapes Artist Run Initiative, West Space into an immersive backgammon board that operates as a site of reflection, encounter, and quiet concert....
Carvings have been made for all time by Aurukun men. However, the more recent innovation to emerge from Aurukun are paintings. Vested in Country and...
A stone’s throw from the Illawarra escarpment at Campbelltown Arts Centre, the introduction to Draper’s ecosphere is a gathering of rainbow forms which, as an...
In 1991, Maurice and Katia Krafft died during the Mount Unzen eruption on Japan’s island of Kyushu. Herzog’s documentary does meditate on their deaths and...