Issue 52

EDITOR’S NOTE

This issue’s cover artist Steve Lopes is important amongst those artists presently involved in a representation of humanity. Asserting that a realistic depiction of humanity must be physical and psychological, Lopes locates beauty in the uncomfortable, away from the theoretical, to provide room for emotion. An important development in his work is to balance opposing concepts: love and hate, freedom and conformity, so that the viewer engages both intellectually and instinctively.

Lopes, and others in this issue of Artist Profile, has created images of contemporary humanity long before our world of COVID-19 dissatisfaction. Perhaps without the disappointment of the pandemic there wouldn’t have been time for some to reflect on their involvement in the neo-liberalist ethic, which has waylaid other commitments to culture, the social and the environmental. This philosophy is the context in which artists Amos Gebhardt and Drew Pettifer discuss newer notions of mutual obligations to ‘multiple perspectives’ and to ‘openness’ to encourage expansive and expressive human engagement.

Uncovering human extremes of cruelty is a sober reminder that there are no limits to the pull of violence. Brad Buckley’s tribute to the late Ron Hogan beautifully interconnects Hogan’s journey to art through the global violence of the Second World War, with profound hatreds between peoples and faiths. And still Hogan succeeds to have a ‘love of people’.   

Lisa Adams’ new paintings explore a deeper awareness of a world in which humanity feels absent:, visualised by her rendition of an x-ray of human lungs filled with a blizzard, or a blacksmith forging a human heart. These paintings, and more, are scrutinising the taking from humanity.

Then all can instantly be altered in the creation of a human life, as Julian Meagher has expressed in his new paintings, which have been shaped by the birth of his son.

In this ‘unpeopled year’ as Emma Finneran writes in her preview of Nicholas Harding, I am humbled by Artist Profile’s supporters. Thank you!  

Kon Gouriotis
Editor

CONTENTS

ISSUE

OUT OF THE MYER by Ted Snell
THE SALIENT ARTISTS OF THE PERIOD by Anonymous

COVER FEATURE

Steve Lopes by Kon Gouriotis

PROFILES

Genevieve Carroll by Lucy Stranger
Amos Gebhardt by Drew Pettifer
Steve Lopes by Kon Gouriotis
Julia Morison by Balamohan Shingade
Trevelyan Clay by Oscar Perry
Noŋgirrŋa Marawili by Louise Martin-Chew
Gary Carsley by Rose Vickers
Eugenia Raskopoulos by Michael Do
Royston Harpur by H.R. Hyatt-Johnston
Kim Guthrie by Pippa Mott

INSIGHT

POEM Teena McCarthy
PROCESS Eleanor Louise Butt
PROCESS Richard Blackwell
TRIBUTE Ron Hogan by Brad Buckley
ESSAY Patronage without Power by Judith Pugh
ESSAY The First Nude by Paul McGillick
PREVIEW Michael Cook by Elli Walsh
AROUND THE GROUNDS Stephen Haley; Sally Stokes; Julian Meagher by Emma-Kate Wilson; Nicholas Harding by Emma Finneran
PREVIEW Michael Vale by Lucy Hawthorne
PREVIEW Lisa Adams by Amelia Winata
PREVIEW Mount Zero by Bridget Macleod
BOOK The Stranger Artist by Jeremy Eccles
REVIEW Xu Zhen by Michael Young
DISCOVERY Jonathan Kim by Liv Spiers