Author Archives: Artist Profile
Art Basel Hong Kong 2024 – Is it the Epicentre of Asia’s Art Market?
“Hong Kong is back!” exclaimed collector and philanthropist Vivienne Sharpe at Art Basel Hong Kong’s (ABHK) First Choice VIP Preview. As a seasoned international art fair attendee, Sharpe’s genuine enthusiasm for the Fair, the high calibre of quality art on offer and the vibrancy of the city was palpable. The optimism amongst collectors, gallerists, artists, […]
Posted in Reviews
Tagged Art Basel, Hong Kong, Hong Kong Art Basel
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Verified Mysteries
Mysteries come in many forms and don’t always issue from the darkness. The light-filled pictorial universe that Cypriot-born, London-educated Andrew Christofides has prospected since the 1980s harbours certain mysteries, even though his paintings seem to be governed by decidedly rational precepts. Evolving Hierarchies, his current exhibition at King Street Gallery on William, Sydney, is a […]
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Tagged Andrew Christofides, Gary Deirmendjian, I Gusti Ayu Kadek Murniasih, Verified Mysteries
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Janaki Peart and Bush Tings
When I first saw Janaki Peart’s paintings, I felt a rare excitement. I couldn’t recall seeing work by a young painter that felt so certain and authentic. Bush Tings appeared to be split into three parts. The early works Soundscape, c. 2014, and Golden Repair, c. 2014, part of a group of canvas paintings with […]
Fairy Tales
Fairy Tales, curated by Amanda Slack-Smith at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), is a remarkable exhibition, featuring over a hundred works assembled from genres including film, set design, original costumes, animation, and contemporary art. The exhibition is divided, though the crossovers are fluid, into three themes: “Into the Woods,” which draws mainly upon European […]
Louise Bourgeois: Has the Day Invaded the Night or Has the Night Invaded the Day?
Hovering, nine metres above me on wiry legs of steely elegance Maman, 1999, Louise Bourgeois’ celebrated spider sculpture, a metaphor for her mother, greets me as I arrive at the AGNSW forecourt. Momentarily, Maman pulls me into a play of scale, a frequent tactic in Bourgeois’ work. I become aware of my size in comparison […]
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Tagged AGSNW, Louise Bourgeois
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Nadine Christensen
Over coffee and lamingtons (everyday suburban fare appropriate to the source material of much of her work) we discuss, in no particular order, flies, trompe l’œil, housework: “often when I’m painting I’m thinking of cleaning, and when I’m cleaning I’m thinking of painting,” op shop discoveries, dog walking, binging on Netflix, and bi-annual hard rubbish […]
Posted in Profiles
Tagged Around, Buxton Contempor, Nadine Christensen
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Owen Leong
Looking back over my artistic practice, I can clearly see the signposts leading to what I’m making in the studio today. In recent years, I have been playing with cycles of creation and destruction: casting my body in gypsum and concrete, smashing these casts into pieces, and reforming them into new sculptural forms to be […]
Posted in Exhibitions
Tagged Artereal, Artereal Gallery, Owen Leong, Summoning Circles
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The Aura of the Outsider
Without fanfare, a small group of works by an important American artist of the twentieth century were given a rare showing in Sydney last month. Five drawings by James Castle set the tone of The Enclave, Dutton at Darren Knight Gallery, an exhibition that had nothing to do with the Leader of the Opposition but […]
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Tagged Darren Knight, Drawspace, Flinders Street Gallery
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A Performative Entanglement: The Art of Kellie O’Dempsey
“Smashing the frame,” “moving past the border,” and “breaking out of our structures” are some of the expressions Kellie O’Dempsey uses to describe her need to represent or grasp at constant change. Growing up in pubs that her parents managed in regional Victoria meant living and working amongst a daily swirl of high-pressure adult, predominantly […]
Posted in Essays, Exhibitions
Tagged Grafton Regional Gallery, Kellie O'Dempsey, Wish You Were Here
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Mike Parr: Blind Obedience
The inscription could not have come as a surprise: Parr has long worked with language in a way that is pointed and political. An editioned print from the 1990s, titled Blind Obedience, was made by opening the thesaurus and looking up the word “Synonymous,” which yielded the word “Equivalent,” which in turn yielded the word […]
Posted in Essays
Tagged Anna Schwartz Gallery, Blind Obedience, Mike Parr
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18th Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Inner Sanctum
The notion of a contemporary art biennial as a site of refuge is appealing, if somewhat unexcepted, in our current climate. Biennials generally brim with curatorial concepts and statements, and often feature a near-overwhelming number of artworks. They are also spaces of social and political dialogue where commissioned artworks are presented to the public for […]
Posted in Exhibitions
Tagged Adelaide Biennial, Art Gallery of South Australia, inner sanctum
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Chris Dyson
Chris Dyson has spent the better part of fifty years producing a prolific body of work, including drawings, paintings, and sculptures. However, there is scant evidence of his legacy on the internet; a rare and refreshing phenomenon in the age of the “career artist,” and emblematic of Dyson’s general renegade spirit and inclination to follow […]
Posted in Profiles
Tagged Chris Dyson, Flinders Street Gallery, Small Works
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Jónsi Hrafntinna (Obsidian), and Jean-Luc Moulène and Teams
Jónsi’s Hrafntinna (Obsidian) and Jean-Luc Moulène and Teams are two of Mona’s three showcase temporary exhibitions. While Jónsi’s installation arouses an emotional and even transcendental response in his evocation of Iceland’s natural environment, Jean-Luc Moulène’s exhibition is more subtle, with the French artist employing three-dimensional modelling and local technicians to shape elemental materials like wood, […]
Posted in Reviews
Tagged Jean Luc Moulene, Jonsi, museum of old and new art
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Michael McHugh
For Sydney-based, Auckland-born artist Michael McHugh his colourful paintings are informed by the reordering of plant form DNA; he undertakes extensive research in the field before following with experimental drawings and collage. Here is where the imagination kicks in, the artist commenting that, though there are certain structures audiences may recognise, there will always be […]
Posted in Profiles
Tagged Chroma, Martin Browne Contemporary, Michael McHugh
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Michael Butler: Bold and Beautiful
Initially trained as a printmaker (under Michael Kempson, Bruce Latimer and Rew Hanks) Michael Butler enjoyed the form, was thought to be thematically impressive, but technically a bit rough-around-the edges. Eventually he decided printmaking didn’t really suit—a bit stitched up, too many rules—so he circled back to what he loved most anyway—collage, drawing and assemblage. […]
Posted in Essays
Tagged John Kirkman, Michael Butler
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Canvas As Sanctum
Of course, no painter is forced to work on a traditional, stretched canvas and in recent years the informality of a sheer piece of material, hanging freely on or away from the wall, has been preferred by many. But the canvas’ firmly bordered plane can still, if handled well, be the perfect ground for painting, especially […]
Posted in Reviews
Tagged Lorna Napanangka, Maximilian Daniels, Nanda Hobbs, Piermarq, Stephanie Eather, Utopia Art Sydney
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Leah Fraser: The Thin Places
Leah Fraser is enchanted by the universal psyche that has connected civilisations, both ancient and contemporary, throughout history. “It’s so interesting that as humans we have these stories that are parallel to one another, it reflects our way of explaining the world and nature and science, before there were words for those things.” Charged with […]
Posted in Exhibitions
Tagged Arthouse gallery, Leah Fraser, The Thin Places
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Issue 65
Artist Profile acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the traditional owners of the land on which we work. EDITOR’S NOTE Throughout this issue of Artist Profile, inner and outer conversations that are searching for the proper order of these opposites are very noticeable. On 14 October Australians were asked to look inward and vote […]
Posted in Back Issues
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Kandinsky
So reads a wall text at the entrance to the Art Gallery of New South Wales’ Kandinsky, serving as a reminder that the artist’s aspiration towards the spiritual in painting was not solely a matter of self-realisation, but reflected a monumental ambition to shape the future of art. Eighty years after Kandinsky’s death, the world […]
Posted in Exhibitions, Reviews
Tagged AGNSW, Art Gallery of NSW, Kandinsky
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Savanhdary Vongpoothorn
Savanhdary Vongpoothorn’s iterative artistic practice is steeped in rich materiality and symbolism. Her detailed intricate works traverse landscape and spirituality, as well as her experiences as a Lao-Australian. For Vongpoothorn, who grew up in Campbelltown, her solo exhibition Aflame at Campbelltown Arts Centre, “feels like going full circle.” The ambitious scale of Aflame deepens Savanhdary […]
Posted in Exhibitions
Tagged Martin Browne Contemporary, Savanhdary Vongpoothorn, Space Element
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Kon Gouriotis OAM in conversation with Mai Nguyễn-Long
Kon Gouriotis OAM has been following Mai Nguyễn-Long’s practice since the 1990s, curating her first group exhibitions in Australia. Between 1997 and 2009, these opportunities included a series of expanding iterations of Vietnam Voices: Australians and the Vietnam War with Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre (CPAC). Through this broad lens into her practice – including Nguyễn-Long’s […]
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Fiona Currey-Billyard
An artistic life was inevitable for Currey-Billyard, who descends from a “family of artists,” her mother a visual artist, and her father a collaborator who also wrote limericks. Growing up, Currey-Billyard had always drawn, a practice “just given” in the household. She studied at East Sydney Technical College (now the National Art School), and rather […]
Posted in Essays
Tagged Dobell Drawing prize, fiona currey-billyard, National Art School
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Melbourne Art Fair 2024
I was sitting on a chair in the Piazza Bar at the Preview of the Melbourne Art Fair (MAF), sipping a Piper-Heidsieck champagne (one of many MAF partners), and angled so I had a clear view of Anna Schwartz’s vast booth. Like many galleries she had accepted the organiser’s recommendation to show the work of […]
Christopher Zanko
In his small studio located in a garage on the Illawarra escarpment, Christopher Zanko has temporarily set aside his wood-cut tools and brushes. His exhibition at The Egg & Dart, Sweet Misgivings, is on soon and final preparations are underway. Large- and small-scale artworks are propped against or hanging on the white walls, ready for […]
Posted in Profiles
Tagged Christopher Zanko, Daily Dilemmas, Edwina Corlette
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