Issue 73

Editor’s Note

In this issue there is a moving tribute to William Robinson AO who died in August. Back in 2017 William appeared on the cover of Artist Profile issue 41. He was surprised to be asked. Louise Martin-Chew interviewed William then and she has written the tribute for him now. There are many insightful moments in this tribute especially from the artist to other artists. This comment from William, “If you are going to do anything. . . you don’t have to make a lot of symphonic paintings—but you do have to make some. . . .One of the important things to me was the survival of the earth,” highlights two unexpected themes within many of the articles in this issue. The belief that artists influenced by continual flow see transformation not as instability but as essential to mirror and refract truth. The other is that continual flow does not preclude periods of focused exploration; in fact, it can enrich them. William’s landscapes, particularly the Creation Series, channel both personal grief and the dynamism of nature and are an important example to his ideas on symphonic painting.

On the cover is Gary Willis. We learn from Brad Buckley’s essay on Willis that he rejected the path laid out by his family to embrace art and frequent reinvention. We also discover that Willis has been a peripatetic artist, moving across countries and artistic genres; from early performances and installations such as, The Leopard (video performance), 1980–82, in collaboration with Richầrd Boulez, to post-punk-inspired tape-on-vinyl as in the work Cream Baby Dream—Feel Like Target, 1980. His move into paintings by the late 80s, he told Buckley, “Was [about] looking to extend my own neo-expressionist preferences, where the paint comes to the fore and the image remains intrinsic to the imaginative act of paint.”  The continual flow in Willis’s work demonstrates a sustained focus on the human experience and perception coexisting with constant evolution.

 Rosemary Lee’s drawings of densely layered cityscapes capture the restless rhythm of urban life. Nothing in her compositions is fixed: forms shift, and perspectives overlap. Her work blends cultural references and observations of human relationships with nature, albeit within the urban environment. Lee discusses with Joe Frost about her relationship to nature, “I do try to find subject matter that is sharp. . . especially in nature. I want it to look aggressive. I’ve always been drawn to thorns, and I don’t want to draw petals.”  

For decades Deborah Halpern’s practice has been in a constant state of becoming, change, and responsiveness. Her approach is gestural, intuitive, and iterative. Monumental works like Angel, 1988, or recent smaller works such as Dove, 2024, demonstrate a flow by combining vibrant colours, modular construction, and movement in space, so each encounter feels unique and alive.

During the production of this issue artist Rod McNicol died. McNicol’s photographic portraits confronted time and mortality with quiet intensity. The portraits of friends photographed over decades, has left a deeply personal archive of existence. Rod McNicol’s memory eternal.

Kon Gouriotis
Editor

Artist Profile acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the traditional owners of the land on which we work.

CONTENTS

ISSUE
Issue: Part 2: Does the demand for accountability really account for art? by Aleks Wansbrough

COVER FEATURE
Gary Willis: The Masked Traveller by Brad Buckley

PROFILES
Harrison Bowe by Lucy Hawthorne
Jim Lambie by Jack Howard
Rosemary Lee by Joe Frost
Deborah Halpern by Nikita Holcombe
Paul Hopmeier by Rhonda Davis
Shanti Shea An by Roslyn Orlando
Alex Hamilton by Loqui Paatsch
Sue Kneebone by Susan Charlton
Lae Oldmeadow by Pedram Khosronejad

INSIGHT
Poem: Nesting by Hasib Hourani
Poster: Helen Hyatt-Johnston
Process: Catherine Clayton Smith
Tribute: William Robertson: A Symphonic Spirit by Louise Martin-Chew
Essay: SABBIA: Standing Tall at Twenty by Eva Czernis-Ryl
Essay: Judging art prizes in Australia by Sasha Grishin
Review: Thomas Demand: The Object Lesson by Alan Krell
Review: Zen and the Void: the spiritual quest of Royston Harper by Ann Finegan
Review: Helen Britton: The Story So Far by Sarah Hetherington
Review: Ken Done: Done Right by Bradley Vincent
Review: Mitch Cairns: Restless Legs by Judith Blackall
Review: J.W. Power: Art, war and the avant-garde by David Ellis
Review: Sammy Hawker: Worlds Around Us by Emma Walker
Film Review: The Talented Arrowsmith-Todd by H. R. Hyatt-Johnston
Book Review: Eating Badly but Dressing Like a Celebrity: John Berger and Me by Nikos Papastergiadis by Peter Hill
Discovery: Zuza Zochowski by Brooke Boland
Short Story: Always a question by Nola Farman