Author Archives: Artist Profile
The 60th Venice Biennale
If the central exhibition at the Venice Biennale is any indication of the direction in which the leading discourses in the art world are headed, then for this critic it seems like there’s little to be looking forward to. The trending shift towards focussing on an artist’s identity over the art itself is cemented with […]
TIME MACHINE
While making our new film Yellow House Afghanistan I have often looked down at my feet and realised what it must have been like for an Apollo astronaut when they looked down to see their feet on the surface of the moon. No foreigner would have walked in the places where I have had the privilege […]
Asher Bilu: Early Works 1957-79
Bayside Gallery is inherently disjointed, sliced in half by a corridor leading to other council run arts facilities. To the left, is the introductory gallery space. Here, there is minimal lighting, and the rooms are heavily punctuated by black floors, ceilings, and walls. Conversely, the gallery space to the right is airy and lifted by […]
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Gauguin’s World: Tōna Iho, Tōna Ao
In major art historical exhibitions of recent years, a slightly uncomfortable part of the entertainment has been to watch the museum preserve every inch of its turf while gesturing to acknowledge disputes about the legitimacy of the artists or movements represented. In this regard Paul Gauguin requires judicious handling. Adored by a massive public for […]
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Tagged Gauguin's World: Tōna Iho, National Gallery of Australia, Tōna Ao
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Reko Rennie
The western suburbs of Melbourne in the late 1980s. A single mum gathers her children in the morning of what will prove to be a breathless, scorching Melbourne summer’s day. They make their way into the city and enter the doors of the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). The air conditioning sweeps over them. The […]
Honor Freeman: all that was solid is liquid
Working from her home studio on South Australia’s Fleurieu Peninsula, artist Honor Freeman draws her inspiration from family, domestic objects, and the remnants and detritus of everyday life. Her delicate and life-like porcelain pieces mirror the day-to-day as she explores the human relationship to the familiar and ordinary. Freeman works between craft and contemporary art […]
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Precipice: The Edges of Things
Variously defined as “a cliff, a steep or overhanging place, a hazardous situation,” being on the “precipice” may imply immediate danger or refer to a critical point where significant change is imminent. As the show’s wall label notes, these works “speak to meeting points, boundaries, transitions and the charged dynamic of the threshold, that precipice […]
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Tagged Kat Shaprio Wood, Tweed Regional Gallery, Tweed Regional Gallery and Margaret Olley Art Centre
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David Moore: Painted Atmosphere
Moore’s latest exhibition Painted Atmosphere (5-29 September 2024) demonstrates the ways in which his practice has been reinvigorated by the decision to relocate to Castlemaine, in west central Victoria, in 2019. The surrounding areas of Harcourt, Taradale, Malmsbury, Elphinstone and Maldon are replete with the varied formations, escarpments, and swathes of bush Moore finds visually […]
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Tagged Cascade Art Gallery, David Moore
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As Above, So Below
The symposium includes scholars, artists, and scientists to explore the intersections of art, science, and technology. First held in 1988, the program has since become one of the most significant forums for exchanging ideas and presenting cutting-edge work in electronic art and related fields. Taking place in Australia for the first time since 2013, this […]
Jo Chew
The first time I saw Jo Chew’s paintings, I immediately begged a mutual friend to introduce us. It was at the 2010 Tasmanian College of the Arts graduate show and as part of her third-year submission, Chew created a suite of small paintings of tree houses and three-legged dogs—a series that, in retrospect, she sees […]
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Wilder Times: Arthur Boyd and the Mid-1980s Landscape
It was early in 1989 when I decided to head down to the South Coast, taking the Princes Highway from Sydney to Shoalhaven, to visit the painter Gary Willis, who at the time was living in the Singleman’s Hut at Bundanon. The latter was one of two properties owned by Arthur and Yvonne Boyd; the […]
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Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize
Gartside, a Melbourne-based artist, won the $25,000 prize for her work #19, part of her ongoing series, Bunnies in Love, Lust and Longing, 2024, that anthropomorphizes second-hand gloves into rabbit forms. The work was recognised for its emotional depth, use of repurposed materials, and personal exploration of tenderness, desire, and introspection. The piece will join the […]
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Tagged Hannah Gartside, Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf, Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize
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Sydney Contemporary 2024
As galleries from across Australia, New Zealand, and much further afield were setting up their stalls with the works of over 400 contemporary artists within Sydney’s cavernous Carriageworks—overseen by Lisa Roet’s enormous twenty-metre wide Skywalker Gibbon— Scottish painter Peter Doig revealed in The Guardian that while his much-coveted paintings have sold for an estimated £380 […]
Madeleine Pfull
First impressions are formed within seconds of meeting someone. You judge them—and just as quickly, they judge you. These impressions are determined by mannerisms, facial expressions, body language, and they can be near impossible to shake. Madeleine Pfull’s characters are no exception. Her portraits, often presented in diptychs or triptychs, capture the subtle nuances of […]
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Australian Galleries at Sydney Contemporary
Drendel eschews a nostalgic view of rural life and the vivid experiences associated with his youth, recreating the low horizon line and flat plains of monotonous landscape, unrelieved by either natural landmarks or signs of activity. The relative absence of vertical structures in the local environment of farm blocks is referenced in Monument 2, 2024, […]
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Tagged Australian Galleries, Graeme Drendel, Sydney Contemporary
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Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery at Sydney Contemporary
The Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery’s booth of carefully curated works at Sydney Contemporary 2024 is drawn from their archive, which includes key historical moments, over the gallery’s forty-two-year history. A history of discovering and supporting some of the most recognisable Australian artists, alongside international artists, whose work is often unconventional, sometimes confronting, but always thought provoking. […]
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Tagged Roslyn Oxley9, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney Contemporary
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OLSEN Gallery at Sydney Contemporary
At Sydney Contemporary 2024, OLSEN Gallery will present new work from Leila Jeffreys, Shirley Purdie, Holly Greenwood, Eliza Gosse, and Dani McKenzie—five women whose work reflects variously on nature, on Country, or on scenes from contemporary life. For years, Leila Jeffreys has captured with great sensitivity the personalities of Antipodean birds. In her 2022 OLSEN […]
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Tagged Dani McKenzie, Eliza Gosse, Holly Greenwood, Leila Jefferys, Olsen Gallery, Shirley Purdie, Sydney Contemporary
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Hellyers Road Distillery at Sydney Contemporary
On the rugged northwest coast of Lutruwita | Tasmania, nestled near the leafy Fern Glade Reserve and the winding Emu River, you will find the carefully aged whiskies of Hellyers Road Distillery. With its commitment to exceptional artisan craftsmanship, Hellyers Road Distillery is partnering with Sydney Contemporary 2024 to introduce the splendour of premium single […]
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Tagged Derek Charge, Hellyers Road Distillery, Sydney Contemporary
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Arthouse Gallery at Sydney Contemporary
The title of Joshua Yeldham’s exhibition, Broken Head, comes from a moment of tragedy. After labouring for months on a large ceramic head, a moment of inattention saw Yeldham’s work fall and break into pieces on his studio floor. It is the kind of accident which would usually signal the end to an artwork. “I […]
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Lisa Sammut: How the earth will approach you
Entering the darkened exhibition space at the University of NSW (UNSW) Galleries forms a literal shift from the other two exhibitions on view—also mid-career solo presentations, by artists Lillian O’Neil and Paul Knight—both with brightly lit, white cube layouts. The darkness of How the earth will approach you requires a slowing of my pace and […]
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Sydney Contemporary 2024
Artist Profile is proud to be a media partner of Sydney Contemporary art fair. Tickets for Sydney Contemporary: here Artist Profile has partnered with Hellyers Road Distillery for a special Sydney Contemporary offer. Subscribe to the magazine and receive a FREE glass of Hellyers Road Double Cask Tasmanian Single Malt Whisky and Hellyers Road Tasmanian […]
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Kon Gouriotis OAM in conversation with Khaled Sabsabi
The Lock-Up and Artist Profile invite you to the opening event of the first Newcastle exhibition of the acclaimed Lebanese Australian artist Khaled Sabsabi. Kon Gouriotis OAM will be in conversation with Khaled Sabsabi from 2pm on Saturday 14 September 2024. “This exhibition presents works made over the last 12 years. It is a personal […]
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Grace Crowley & Ralph Balson
Working as closely together as Picasso and Braque ever did, Crowley’s and Balson’s work metaphorically unfolds before your colour-saturated eyes. Moving from figuration to abstraction, then confidently entering areas of the non-referential, it is a physical experience that simultaneously lifts your spirits and has you hopping about in excitement. Eventually, the exhilarated viewer ends up […]
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Tagged Grace Crowley & Ralph Balson, National Gallery of Victoria, NGV
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