Art Collector I105 07.09 2023

#105 JUL – SEP 2023 ISSN 2209 – 7317 Print Post approved PP235387/00100 RRP AUD $24.95 (incl.
ncl. GST) NZ $25.50 (incl. GST)
THE UNDER 5K ISSUE

+ Ali Tahayori + Ricky Maynard
+ James Drinkwater + Kirsten Coelho
+ Conor Clarke + Wendy Sharpe
+ Jeffrey Harris + Georgia Spain
05 + Spencer Lai + more
9 772209 731009
LYNDA DRAPER
DRIFTING MOON
24 AUGUST – 16 SEPTEMBER / EORA/SYDNEY
SAM LEACH
EMOTION HARVEST
14 SEPTEMBER – 7 OCTOBER / NAARM/MELBOURNE
AIKO ROBINSON
Sydney Contemporary
7 - 10 September 2023
Under the shade of the trees (detail), 2023, watercolour and ink on paper, 760 × 1045mm
REREKĒ
3 – 26 AUGUST 2023
KEREAMA
JHANAMILLERS.COM
TAEPA
KEREAMA TAEPA, PĀKATIKARI, 2023. 3D PRINTED NYLON, LACQUER, PĀUA LAMINATE

4 August – 26 August 2023
no more than
RICKY
what you see MAYNARD
1993-2023
No More Than What You See, Contemporary Art T: 03 6231 6511

Portrait, Michael 1993/2023
Level 1 / 65 Murray Street Hobart E: info@bettgallery.com.au
silver gelatin print on paper,
40.6 x 50.8cm Tasmania Australia 7000 www.bettgallery.com.au
Petra Cortright
haunted lemon hunted spirit
08 July – 12 August 2023
4 George Street, South Melbourne, VIC 3205 info@1301sw.com 1301sw.com @1301sw_melbourne

Image: Petra Cortright, BNX bot 1.02_brazil + population + statistic_boredwife.com/sosc (detail), 2021
THE ARMORY SHOW
NEW YORK
YHONNIE SCARCE
JOHNATHON WORLD PEACE BUSH
RICHARD DUNN
THINKING PICTURES
22 JULY - 12 AUGUST
A SELECTED SURVEY EXHIBITION

TO COINCIDE WITH A FORTHCOMING MONOGRAPH
PUBLISHED BY KERBER VERLAG, GERMANY
CHARLES NODRUM GALLERY

www.charlesnodrumgallery.com.au (03) 9427 0140
267 Church Street Richmond Victoria 3121
Richard Dunn, PS1, New York, 1985, photograph by Branco Gaica

International
presentation
Liliane Tomasko
Justin Adian
Damien Meade
Martin Poppelwell
Raukura Turei
www.day01.gallery
Raukura Turei
The Return
(Te Hokinga/Kunmanara)
5 November - 17 December, 2022
189 Crown Street,

Darlinghurst 2010, Sydney
day01.gallery
LOUISE OLSEN
MANIFESTATIONS
30 AUGUST –
23 SEPTEMBER
Sumertime 2023
oil, acrylic, and pastel on linen
145 x 105 cm
OLSENGALLERY.COM
Hiria Anderson-Mita, Ice blocks at midnight, 2023, oil on canvas, 300mm x 250mm.
HIRIA
ANDERSON-MITA
29 JUN -
M A N A A K I 22 JUL 2023
PAGE GALLERIES INFO@PAGEGALLERIES.CO.NZ PAGEGALLERIES.CO.NZ
SARAH SCOUT PRESENTS
FIONA ABICARE
NADINE CHRISTENSEN
TONY GARIFALAKIS
JAKE PREVAL
KIRON ROBINSON
SIMONE SLEE
SALLY SMART
CHRISTIAN THOMPSON AO
LISA YOUNG
SUITE 307, THE HOTEL WINDSOR

111 SPRING STREET, MELBOURNE
Image: Jake Preval, You Need This, 2021, archival inkjet print, digital green screen paint, framed, 110 x 84 cm
CONTENTS The Under 5k Issue
ON THE COVER: Ali Tahayori, Impossible Desire, 2023. Hand-painted photograph, gouache paint and bodily fluid (semen), 31 x 22cm.
Video component: 4min 48sec on loop, dimension variable.
Read about Ali Tahayori’s practice on p166. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND THIS IS NO FANTASY, MELBOURNE.
UPFRONT
46 | Previews 68 | Art Fair Report

The notable exhibitions to be staged this quarter across the region. The art fairs to take note of in the coming quarter.
58 | Artworld Analysis 78 | On the Couch

This issue we’re looking at: a curator’s prestige; issues around collective Courtney Kidd sits down with Tim Olsen, the man at the
making; art faux pas schadenfreude and Perth’s rebirth as an art capital. helm of Olsen Gallery, now in its thirtieth year of operation.
13
ARTISTS ART COLLECTOR
#105 July-September 2023
Editor-In-Chief
100 | Under 5k 162 | Sustaining the Moment Susan Borham
Our writers present those artists who you Nathan Hawkes’ works begin with sensation; they
might be surprised to learn have work available are a call and response. Camilla Wagstaff writes. Editorial Director
for less than $5,000 AUD. Camilla Wagstaff

166 | Queer Light
118 | Look Out For... Ali Tahayori finds light in darkness. Editor
Rose of Sharon Leake
The artists on our radar now. Rose of Sharon Leake writes.
Art Director
124 | Pull Focus 174 | Her Own Agenda
Justine Scott
Prominent critics zero in on important major works. Georgia Spain likes to think of each of her painting
series as a family. Camilla Wagstaff writes. Publisher
130 | Collector’s Dossier
Siobhán Spratt
For four decades, Ricky Maynard has 178 | Collapsing into Reality
questioned photography’s persuasive power. Conor Clarke entangles ways of seeing with Digital Editor
Keith Munro writes. ways of living. Lachlan Taylor writes. Erin Irwin
142 | The Theatre 186 | Charmed, I’m Sure Social Media Manager
of Domesticity Janet Fieldhouse’s cultural knowledge, Maddy Matheson
In James Drinkwater’s latest series, the glamour connection and representation in her earthly
Editorial Board
of New York is worn threadbare by the works are deeply personal and strongly
Dr Rex Butler, Sue Cato,
impetus of time. Luke Létourneau writes. connected to her identity. Tina Baum writes. Dr Alan Cholodenko, Dr Edward Colless,
Ben Crawford, Michael Hutak, Lindy Lee,
150 | Sweet Impulse 216 | Exhibition Dr Jenna Price, Beatrice Spence, John Young
Spencer Lai serves up desire with a touch of kitsch. Tess Maunder goes inside Thin Skin at Monash
Editorial
Diego Ramírez writes. University Museum of Art | MUMA. Rose of Sharon Leake
rleake@artcollector.net.au
154 | Everyday Perfection 232 | One Sentence Reviews
Joanna Kitto examines the stillness and repose Recent exhibitions summed up in a single Subscriptions
of Kirsten Coelho’s ceramic works. sentence. subscriptions@artcollector.net.au

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COLLECTING
Produced & Published by
Art Edited Pty Ltd
ABN 48 614 849 197
190 | Art Centre: An Ali Curung Renaissance 212 | Portrait of a Gallerist:
Director & Founder
Kaytetye Country is palpable within the works of Andy Dinan
Susan Borham
artists from Arlpwe Art and Culture Centre. Andy Dinan continues to shoot for
the stars with ambitious gallery Reproduction in whole or in part is not permitted without the
196 | Dealer: From Kirikiriroa to the World written authorisation of the publisher. In the reproduction
programming. of artworks all reasonable efforts have been made to trace
For Laree Payne, authenticity is key.
copyright holders where appropriate.
214 | Seen, Heard, Read,
202 | If I Could Have ISSN 2209-7317
David Williams, curator at White Rabbit Gallery,
Experienced
Sydney, selects 10 works on his wish list. The book, podcast, streaming series and Art Collector acknowledges and pays respect to the
Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the traditional
experience you might like to know about. custodians of the land on which we operate.
204 | Collector: Focused Fusion
The Graeme and Mabie Briggs Collection of 222 | Survey Art Collector magazine has decided not to publish AI-
generated artworks in order to prioritize art created
Latin American Art answers the call on the breadth We asked art writers what is their
by human artists and maintain our commitment to
and depth of this region’s art. favourite art history moment. showcasing the work of human artists.
14
Spring 1883 Art Fair
The Hotel Windsor
Nabilah Nordin, Statue, 2023. Beeswax, bird netting, dry pigments, timber, marble, 293 x 150 x 100 cm.
9 – 12 August
Neon Parc
Neon Parc, Suite 407 The Hotel Windsor neonparc.com.au
Spring 1883 111 Spring Street info@neonparc.com.au
9–12 August, 2023 Naarm/Melbourne +61 03 9663 0911
No One’s Rose
No One’s Rose
Sofie Muller
Sofie
GideonMuller
Rubin
Gideon Rubin
Günter Umberg
Günter Umberg
Liat Yossifor
Liat Yossifor
Jane Bustin
Jane Bustin
Aida Tomescu
Aida Tomescu
Fox Jensen McCrory
Fox Jensen
& Fox McCrory
Jensen
& Fox Jensen
GRACE WRIGHT GALLERY 9
THE WORLD MOVES www.gallery9.com.au
12 JULY - 5 AUGUST
The Moon Turns Towards The Sun, 2023 9 Darley Street

Acrylic on linen Darlinghurst, Sydney
168 x 122 cm +61 2 9380 9909
CONTRIBUTORS
Ben Adams is a Sydney-based photographer. Con Gerakaris is a curator and writer based Tess Maunder is a writer, editor and a curator. She has a
in Western Sydney on Bidjigal land. His areas decade of experience working in the cultural sector both
Tina Baum is a Gulumerrgin (Larrakia)/
of interest frequently revolve around social in Australia and overseas; with a focus on programming
Wardaman/Karajarri woman who holds the
phenomena, subcultures, contemporary urban contemporary visual art practice.
position of Curator, Aboriginal and Torres
experiences and our relationship to the built
Strait Islander Art at the National Gallery of Emil McAvoy is an artist, art writer, educator, gallery
environment.
Australia. professional and consultant.
Ioana Gordon-Smith is a Sāmoan/Pākehā arts
Paul Brobbel works as a writer and curator and Kate Micaela is an Auckland-based artist and
writer and curator living in Aotearoa.
is the current Len Lye Curator at the Govett- photographer.
Brewster Art Gallery / Len Lye Centre in New Naomi Haussmann is a Christchurch-based
Jacqueline Millner lectures in art history and visual
Plymouth, New Zealand. photographer.
culture and is currently associate professor, Visual Arts
Abby Cunnane is a writer and curator based in Duro Jovicic is a writer currently completing at La Trobe University.
Ōtautahi Christchurch, Aotearoa. his Associate Degree in Professional Writing and
Keith Munro is Director First Nations Art and Cultures,
Editing at RMIT, Melbourne.
Brian Doherty is a Melbourne-based at the MCA Australia. He is a descendant of the
photographer. Courtney Kidd has written for publications Kamilaroi (Gomeroi / Gamilaroi/ Gamilarray) people
including Artist Profile, Art Monthly Australasia, of north-western New South Wales and south-western
Briony Downes studied Art History at the
Art + Australia and The Sydney Morning Herald. Queensland, Australia.
University of Oxford and Australian Aboriginal
Art at Curtin University, Perth. She has worked She is also an art consultant at Artbank.
Ingrid Periz works out of New York as a critic and
in the arts for 20 years as a writer. Anita King currently holds the position of Project curator.
Julie Ewington is a writer, curator and Manager for ACCA Beyond Walls Australian Centre Diego Ramírez works as an artist, writer and arts
broadcaster based in Sydney. She is an authority for Contemporary Art. worker. His practice employs a variety of mediums
on contemporary Australian art, especially art to unpack representations of otherness from the
Joanna Kitto is a curator and writer in Naarm
by women. perspective of a Mexican subject.
(Melbourne). She currently holds the position
Kelly Fliedner is a Perth-based writer and of Director at West Space, an independent Morgan Sette is an Adelaide-based photographer.
curator. She is the Collections Officer and Art contemporary visual arts organisation in
Lachlan Taylor is a writer and curator living in Pōneke
Consultant for the Australian Government’s Collingwood Yards.
Wellington. He holds MAs in both Art History (2018) and
Artbank initiative in Western Australia, and
Anna Kučera is a Sydney-based photographer. Creative Writing (2022) from Te Herenga Waka Victoria
a Board Member of the Perth Institute of
University of Wellington.
Contemporary Art. Luke Létourneau is the lead of the Curatorial and
Collections team at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre. Linda Tyler currently holds the position of Convenor
Elizabeth Fortescue is a journalist, writer,
of Museums and Cultural Heritage at the University of
editor. She is the Arts Editor of the Daily Louise Martin-Chew has been writing about the
Auckland.
Telegraph, and Australian correspondent for The visual arts for 25 years. She completed a doctorate
Art Newspaper. at the University of Queensland in 2019, and Hannah Wohl received her Ph.D. in Sociology
remains an Honorary Research Fellow in the School from Northwestern University and completed her
Dr Andrew Frost works as an art critic,
of Communication and Arts at the University of postdoctoral fellowship at Columbia University.
broadcaster and lecturer. Since 2004 he has
Queensland.
been the editor of theartlife.com.au and since Andrew Wood is a writer, poet, critic, art historian,
2013 an art critic for The Guardian Australia. Jacquie Manning is a Sydney-based photographer. educator, curator and translator based in Christchurch.
18
AMANDA PENROSE HART
Dragonflies
29 August - 23 September
Photograph: Riste Andrievski

UMWELT
DANIEL BOCCATO
GREG BOGIN
FLORIAN MAIER-ACHEN
GEROLD MILLER
ROBERT MORELAND
ELIZABETH PULIE
ANSELM REYLE
JIM ROCHE
ROSIE ROSIE
JESSICA STOCKHOLDER
VINCENT SZAREK
BLAIR THURMAN
BRENDAN VAN HEK
26 AUGUST - 30 SEPTEMBER 2023
+64 9 307 0703 ⚫ Auckland ⚫ Queesntown

contact@starkwhite.co.nz Anselm Reyle, Untitled, 2007, mixed media on canvas, steel frame, 135 x 114 cm
94 Newton Road 1-7 Earl Street
starkwhite.co.nz (photo: Matthias Kolb) Auckland 1010 Queenstown 9300
william robinson
15 AUGUST – 9 SEPTEMBER 2023
2 ARTHUR ST, FORTITUDE VALLEY, BRISBANE ∙ 10AM – 5PM TUE TO SAT ∙ P H : 0 7 3 3 5 8 3 5 5 5

Moss Garden, Carnarvon 2005 (detail) oil on canvas 122 x 276 cm
A N G E L A VA L A M A N E S H
2 August - 10 September 2023
GAGPROJECTS
39 Rundle Street, Kent Town, SA 5067, Australia | +61 8 8362 6354 | gag@greenaway.com.au | www.gagprojects.com
image: Angela Valamanesh, Morticia’s Garden Construct no 1, 2023, ceramic, 42 x 72 x 5cm, photo: Michal Kluvanek
SALLY WALK 6 - 23 July
MARGARET MCINTOSH 27 July - 13 August
BASIL PAPOUTSIDIS 27 July - 13 August
PATRICK DAGG 17 August - 3 September
SYDNEY CONTEMPORARY 7 - 10 September
CELEBRATING 20 YEARS
89 ISLINGTON STREET
COLLINGWOOD VICTORIA 3066
AUSTRALIA
IMAGE: MARGARET MCINTOSH +61 439 770 362
GOT IT FOR A SONG, 2022 INFO@JAMESMAKINGALLERY.COM
OIL ON CANVAS, 111 X 152CM JAMESMAKINGALLERY.COM
WINTER GROUP EXHIBITION
22 June - 12 August 2023
Adrienne Gaha, Sunlit Foal, 2023, oil on linen, 153 x 168 cm
MARTIN BROWNE CONTEMPORARY

15 HAMPDEN STREET PADDINGTON NSW 2021 TEL: 02 9331 7997 MOB: 0414 881 999
www.martinbrownecontemporary.com 15 Hampden St Paddington, NSW, 2021 MOB: 0414 881 999
ILDIKO KOVACS
New Light
17 August - 9 September 2023
Ildiko Kovacs, Inland, 2023, oil paint on plywood, 180 x 244 cm
MARTIN BROWNE CONTEMPORARY

15 HAMPDEN STREET PADDINGTON NSW 2021 TEL: 02 9331 7997 MOB: 0414 881 999
PH: 02 9331 7997 TUES - SAT 10:30 AM - 6:00 PM gallery@martinbrownecontemporary.com
GUO JIAN
OUR LIVES ARE FULL OF
SUNSHINE
我们的生活充满阳光
9 AUGUST - 16 SEPTEMBER
GUO JIAN, BLOW A BALOON, 2023, ACRYLIC ON CANVAS, 200 X 300 CM.
ARC ONE GALLERY

45 FLINDERS LANE
MELBOURNE 3000
TELEPHONE: +613 9650 0589
WWW.ARCONE.COM.AU
MAIL@ARC1GALLERY.COM
Joan Ross
Imagine if they’d cared.
July 2023
nsmithgallery.com N.Smith Gallery

Scan to preview
Thea Anamara Perkins
Atherreyurre.
September 2023
nsmithgallery.com N.Smith Gallery

Scan to preview
Jude Rae 16 Putiki Street
Two Rooms Auckland 1021
Recent Paintings New Zealand
+64 9 360 5900
25 August - 30 September 2023 tworooms.co.nz
VOID_MELBOURNE
Nancy CONSTANDELIA Travis JOHN FICARRA

Nick DEVLIN Jane O’NEILL
Sarah GOFFMAN Louise PARAMOR
Paul HANDLEY Elvis RICHARDSON
Mark HISLOP Todd ROBINSON
Lu cy Cu ll i ton
G raem e D rendel
3 1 A u g u st - 2 3 S e p t e m b e r 2 0 2 3
G ra e me Dre n d e l - ‘Th e t u t o ria l’, o il o n ca n va s, 6 0 x 7 1 cm (d e t a il) L u cy Cu llit o n - ‘Th e d o g ro o m’, o il o n ca n va s, 9 7 x 1 0 7 cm (d e t a il)
LAREEPAYNEGALLERY.COM
SARAH
SMUTS-KENNEDY
SYDNEY CONTEMPORARY
7–10 SEPT 2023

TOM ADAIR
Technium Naturae
17 – 30 AUG, 2023
nandahobbs.com 12 – 14 Meagher Street
Rock Paper Scissors, 2023, CMYK Polymer and LED, 130 x 175cm info@nandahobbs.com Chippendale \ NSW \ 2008
2 7 BE AC H R OAD AUC KL AN D C BD TĀM AKI M AKAURAU
AOTE AR OA
N E W Z E AL AN D
F IN E ART
SUM E R .N Z
SUM E R
IN FO @SUM E R .N Z +64 9 21 7 3 724

Jan van der Ploeg, WALLPAINTING No. 534, Untitled, 2023
Conor Clarke
Angle of Repose
18 August – 16 September 2023
Image: Objects in mirror are closer than they appear (Tapuae-o-Uenuku) jonathansmartgallery.com
26 JULY - 26 AUGUST 2023
FIONA CURREY-BILLYARD
DARK CROSSINGS
ANNANDALE GALLERIES
110 Trafalgar Street Annandale NSW 2038 (02) 9552 1699 Wed - Sat 11am - 4pm
info@annandalegalleries.com.au annandalegalleries.com.au
Shop 2, 175 Keira Street,
Wollongong, NSW 2500
info@egganddart.com.au
egganddart.com.au
29 SEPTEMBER – 21 OCTOBER 2023 Contemporary Art
Level 1 / 65 Murray Street
Hobart Tasmania 7000
03 6231 6511
LESSONS
info@bettgallery.com.au
bettgallery.com.au
FROM
THE LAND
STEPHANIE
TABRAM
Mantua Nangala
September 2023
Mary Napangati
Tjutalpi
6 - 27 May
proudly representing Papunya Tula Artists for 35 years
u t o p i a a r t s y d n e y
1988 - 2023
Spring1883 Art Fair Viii
9–12.August 2023
1301SW Haydens NAP Contemporary

Alpha60 Jacob Hoerner Galleries Neon Parc
Arts Project Australia Jonathan Smart Gallery Niagara Galleries
Blackartprojects Kalli Rolfe Contemporary Art Nicholas Thompson Gallery
Caves LAILA Sarah Scout Presents
CHALK HORSE Lennox St. Gallery {Suite} Gallery
Darren Knight Gallery LON Gallery THIS IS NO FANTASY
Egg & Dart MARS Gallery x OLSEN Gallery Void_Melbourne
FUTURES Michael Lett
Gallery 9 Murray White Room
The Hotel Windsor

Melbourne
Image:Matthew Harris spring1883.com @spring1883
V I R G I N I A C U P PA I D G E
Virginia Cuppaidge Grand Street Dawn 1982 acrylic on canvas 198 x 304 cm
UPFRONT | Previews
Previews
Notable exhibitions to be staged this quarter across the region.
WORDS | ROSE OF SHARON LEAKE
ABOVE: Guan Wei, As Myth has it No. 8, 2022.

Acrylic on 4 canvas panels, 130 x 30cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND GAGPROJECTS, ADELAIDE
OPPOSITE: Candy Nelson Nakamarra,

Kalipinypa, 2022. Synthetic polymer paint
on canvas, 183 x 183cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND
VIVIEN ANDERSON GALLERY, MELBOURNE.
ESTHER STEWART AND OSCAR PERRY

Counterintelligence
N A P C O N T E M P O R A R Y, M I L D U R A | 8 S E P T E M B E R T O 1 3 O C T O B E R
LEFT: Oscar Perry, Monitor (rain), 2023. Acrylic on

canvas assembly, 35 x 35 x 2.5cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST,
Counterintelligence is an opportunity for between their respective practices. Stewart NAP CONTEMPORARY, MILDURA AND THE COMMERCIAL, SYDNEY.
collectors to encounter work by two influ- will present one of her Sculpture Kitchens ABOVE: Justin Williams, A visit to the enclave, 2021.
Oil on canvas, 197 x 261cm.
ential artists – Esther Stewart and Oscar from the 1970s, while Perry will show COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND COMA, SYDNEY.
Perry – within a shared conceptual frame- a collection of abstract paintings, their RIGHT: Leila Jeffreys, Glossy Sisters, 2022. Limited
work. The show promises to both highlight pairing an ode to the legacy of abstraction edition photograph on archival fibre based cotton rag
paper, 140 x 110 cm.
the similarities and tease out differences evident in both artist's oeuvres. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND MARS GALLERY, MELBOURNE.
46
UPFRONT | Previews
LEILA JEFFREYS
The wound is the place where
the light enters
M A R S G A L L E R Y, M E L B O U R N E |
2 7 J U LY T O 1 9 A U G U S T
“For many years I have followed the work of

Leila Jeffreys,” says gallerist Andy Dinan.
“Now she has surpassed all of our dreams by
sharing Australian birds internationally. The
works speaks to deforestation and habitat
loss and our future coexistence with nature.”
J U S T I N W I L L I A M S Solo show Jeffreys’ upcoming show will feature a series of

limited edition photographs as well as a three
COMA, SYDNEY | 1 SEPTEMBER TO 8 OCTOBER channel video artwork, all created in response
to her recent considerations of knowledge
and pain, along with her collaborations with
A homecoming of sorts, Justin Williams’ works he is known for, as well as a selection conservationists, ornithologists and sanctu-
upcoming solo show at COMA, Sydney will of more intimate works. The Chippendale aries around the world. “These birds have
see his works occupy both of COMA’s spaces venue will feature 8 large scale paintings natural red markings; they appear to bleed, as
in Chippendale and Darlinghurst. Much that focus on community, migration, and if their bodies are manifesting the collective
like an institutional survey show spread modes of living while the Darlinghurst pain that is felt by this planet,” says Jeffreys.
across multiple sites, Williams will take this venue will show 10 to 15 works on paper, “Yet at the same time, they embrace their
opportunity to exhibit the larger figurative that are studies for his larger works. wounds with a spirit of openness and beauty.”
47
UPFRONT | Previews
ABOVE: Lissy & Rudi Robinson-Cole, Te Pupuke / The Increase, 2023. New Zealand wool and polystyrene, 50 x 40 x 17cm.
PHOTO: KALLAN MACLEOD. COURTESY: THE ARTISTS AND TIM MELVILLE GALLERY, AUCKLAND.
OPPOSITE ABOVE: Michael Stevenson, The Apply Chair: Apply for Funding, 2022. Laser-engraved polyester tufted pile fabric, shredded documents,
chipped foam, breathable non-woven polypropylene and metal rings, 100 x 100 x 100cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND MICHAEL LETT, AUCKLAND.
OPPOSITE BELOW: Bronwyn Hack, Untitled, 2022. Glaze and earthenware, 8 x 11 x 13cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND ARTS PROJECT AUSTRALIA, MELBOURNE.
48
UPFRONT | Previews
LISSY & RUDI

ROBINSON-COLE
E Te Tau
T I M M E LV I L L E G A L L E R Y,
AUCKLAND |
U N T I L 2 2 J U LY
E Te Tau (translating as my darling)

is husband and wife duo Lissy &
Rudi Robinson-Cole’s latest staging
at Tim Melville Gallery, Auckland.
Working together exploring mātau-
ranga Māori (Māori knowledge) and
their personal whakapapa (gene-
alogy) through crocheted sculp-
tural forms, later this year the duo
will present their most ambitious
project to date: a full-size Wharenui
(Māori meeting house) made from MICHAEL
crocheted wool, with the name STEVENSON
Wharenui Harikoa (house of joy). E
Waiting for the Other Shoe to
Te Tau includes large photographs
Drop: seating proposals for a
of three of the poupou (wall panels)
from Wharenui Harikoa and a dozen Grantmaker
crocheted wheku (carved face of an M I C H A E L L E T T,
ancestor).
AUCKLAND |
23 JUNE TO 5 AUGUST
GROUP SHOW Using historical research and recon-

Sensitive Antennae struction to produce installations and
artworks that index social, economic,
ARTS PROJECT AUSTRALIA, MELBOURNE | and ideological global forces, Michael
2 2 J U LY T O 2 6 A U G U S T. Stevenson seeks to distrupt the archi-
tecture of our existence. His latest exhi-
bition at Michael Lett in Auckland will
Exploring the magnetism of works that tap drawing and textiles, installed in Arts Project consist of a series of sit-able art objects,
into an inexplicable energy, Sensitive Antennae Australia’s freshly refurbished Collingwood pieces of furniture in the form of soft
promises to provide an emotive, abstracted Yards gallery. It examines pivotal break away cubic chairs or beanbags. Each of these
and minimal exploration of the transcendent periods of pure abstraction in the practice of seats re-presents content and archi-
beauty and elegance found in nature. The the exhibiting artists, notably Julian Martin, tecture taken from the now defunct
exhibition will include ceramics, painting, Fulli Andrinopoulos and Bronwyn Hack. website for FTX Future Fund.
49
UPFRONT | Previews
D A V I D N O O N A N MASKEN
R O S LY N O X L E Y 9 G A L L E R Y,
S Y D N E Y | 2 1 J U LY T O
19 AUGUST
The first exhibition Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery has

A U B R E Y T J A N G A L A Solo show
had with David Noonan since 2016, MASKEN
PA U L J O H N S T O N E G A L L E R Y, D A R W I N | 2 T O 2 3 S E P T E M B E R presents a new body of work which sees
Noonan working with materials and processes
not before seen in his oeuvre. Using liquid
Aubrey Tjangala paints in the tradition of Mackay). This exhibition, held in associa- pigment on hand-dyed fabric, Noonan has
his father, Ronnie Tjampitjinpa, having tion with Papunya Tula Artists, will show- created a series of 21 mask paintings which
studied under the internationally renowned case examples of Tjangala’s entire oeuvre. explore new and familiar faces that have been
master over the course of his life. “Aubrey Tjangala has been assigned with prevalent throughout his life and career.
A traditional owner for the Country Ronnie Tjampitjinpa’s cultural legacy,” says Noonan is known internationally for his
surrounding Kintore in the Northern gallerist Paul Johnstone. “These power- unique combination of traditional and contem-
Territory, Tjangala paints the Dreaming ful geometric interpretations of men’s porary methods where he superimposes the
stories of the area including Minma Kutjarra stories explore the Tingari ancestors and figurative with the abstract, uniting diverse
Tjukurrpa (Two Travelling Women), their travels over vast areas of the Western imagery into a cohesive whole. Drawing on
Ngintaka Tjukurrpa (Perentie) and the Desert region. [The works are] hypnotic and the conceptually familiar, Noonan's foray into
Waru Tjukurrpa (Fire) at Wilkinkarra (Lake arresting.” new materials will surely not disappoint.
50
UPFRONT | Previews
LARA CHAMAS, MATILDA

DAVIS, CHRISTOPHER
DUNCAN, EVANGELINE
RIDDIFORD-GRAHAM &
FIONA WILLIAMS
never together
FUTURES, MELBOURNE
| 2 0 J U LY T O 1 9 A U G U S T
never together is the second exhibition in

a series by curator Victoria Wynne-Jones
entitled Resources of the Social Imagination,
which looks at ways in which narrative
pleasure might engage with contempo-
rary art. Featuring new works made
especially for this exhibition, highlights
include a series of small realist paint-
ings by Matilda Davis, audio works by
Evangeline Riddiford-Graham consist-
ing of readings of original poetry, and
a textile work as tablecloth woven by
Christopher Duncan. “Well-curated
exhibitions can be art forms in
themselves, says Zara Sigglekow,
FUTURES director. “This show
promises to deliver a dreamy
experience that draws out literary,
magical and domestic elements of
participating artists’ practices.”
OPPOSITE LEFT: Aubrey Tjangala, Untitled,

2022. Acrylic on linen, 122 x 122.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST, PAPUNYA TULA ARTISTS
AND PAUL JOHNSTONE GALLERY, DARWIN.
OPPOSITE RIGHT: David Noonan, Theda,

2023. Liquid pigment on hand-dyed fabric,
aluminium frame, 57.5 x 42 x 4cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND ROSLYN OXLEY9
GALLERY, SYDNEY.
THIS PAGE: Christopher Duncan, Elephant

XI, 2023. Warp of cotton woven with
antique japanese cotton and silk.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND FUTURES
GALLERY, MELBOURNE.
51
Squaring the Circle
David Fenoglio
25 July - 12 August 2023
janmantonart.com | 54 Vernon Terrace, Teneriffe Qld 4005 | @janmantongallery

Credit: David Fenoglio, Golden (detail), oil on linen, 41 x 61cm.
AUGMENTED
SYDNEY CONTEMPORARY 7th -10th SEPTEMBER 2023
detail: Tove Kjellmark

Blanca, 2022, mixed media IAN WILLIAMS
MOORE CONTEMPORARY TOVE KJELLMARK
moorecontemporary.com JOSHUA WEBB
Trent Parke
MONUMENT
2 7 J U LY T O 2 6 AU G U S T
www.hugomichellgallery.com
Slow
Steady
Slippery
sweet pea is proud to represent Jack Ball and Nathan Beard
at this year's Sydney Contemporary
@sweet.pea.arts www.sweetpea.gallery
GOMA, BRISBANE
24 JUN – 2 OCT 2023
MAJOR PARTNERS
TOURISM & MEDIA PARTNERS SUPPORTING PARTNER
Michael Zavros / The Phoenix (detail) 2016 / James and Diana Ramsay Fund supported by Philip Bacon AM
through the Art Gallery of South Australia Foundation 2016 / Collection: Art Gallery of South Australia
Spring 1883 Bruce Hinana
Christine Burgon
Rupert Betheras
Peter Newry
Scott Redford
Hilda Mekio
Nick Mullaly
Edgar Mekio
Dolly Loogatha-
Thunduyingathui Bangaa
Fabian Brown
Marcus Camphoo
Jan van Schaik
Dionisia Salas
9–12 August, 2023 Woody Mellor
Christine Burgon, No title, 2022, Acrylic, graphite, and charcoal oncanvas, 101.6 x 88.9 cm
Accommodation Partner
UPFRONT | Art world Analysis
C U LT U R A L C A P I T A L art can be potentially anything – a urinal, a discount much higher than the typical ten to 15
banana taped to a wall, a blank canvas – and percent discount that repeat collectors receive.
nothing inherent in these objects themselves The higher status the museum, the steeper the
How Curators make them good or bad art. In the absence of

objective quality, art world actors must step in
discount. The acquisition itself is often more
valuable to the artist than the money received
Make Prestige and publicly proffer their judgments, sending

status signals in the form of prices, reviews,
in the sale. Even temporary exhibitions are
important status signals that artists publicise
gallery representation, museum acquisitions, and record on their curricula vitae, cementing
New York artworld sociologist and so on. No single status signal is powerful the artist’s reputation and potentially increas-
Hannah Wohl examines the role of enough to make the career of an artist, but ing the price point for the artist’s oeuvre. When
when status signals accumulate, they indicate loaning works, galleries and collectors both
curators in the contemporary art a consensus in the art world that an artist’s benefit financially and are seen as responsi-
ecosystem, and decides that they are work is good. This consensus is important ble patrons of the artist’s career and creative
because it gives people the confidence to vision. Furthermore, they cast these loans
the highest status gatekeepers. invest in that artist’s work, as when a dealer as philanthropic acts, as the works are made
offers to include the artist in a gallery exhibi- visible for public appreciation.
WORDS | HANNAH WOHL tion or when a collector purchases the work.
When these acts are publicly communicated,
In November 2022, ArtReview released its most they become additional status signals that
recent Power 100 list, ranking the most influ- further buttress the artist’s career.
ential people in the art world today. The top Curators are especially good status makers.
ranking went to ruangrupa, an Indonesian- Unlike artists, dealers, and collectors, who
based artist and curatorial collective who directly profit from selling and buying artwork, Curators play an essential
curated the 2022 Documenta 15. The second curators are buffered from these economic role in these processes,
ranking went to curator Cecilia Alemani, artis- transactions, as they typically derive salaries
particularly in the
tic director of the 2022 Venice Biennale. Why from art institutions or are paid as freelancers
do curators wield such power in the contem- per exhibition. They can cast their aesthetic production of prestige.
porary art world and how do they shape the judgments as pure and uncorrupted by mone-
circulation and reception of artists’ work? tary influence. They also can claim expertise,
In my book, Bound by Creativity: How as most have master’s or doctoral degrees in
Contemporary Art is Created and Judged, I art history, curatorial studies, or museums
explore how different players in the New York studies. Finally, their choices represent not
City art world make decisions about how to their own idiosyncratic tastes, but the needs In order to choose works for acquisition
produce and circulate contemporary art as of the institution that they serve. Collectors try and exhibitions, curators need to be able to
well as how they interpret the meaning and to choose works that they think fit within the find them. Curators pride themselves on their
value of this work. Curators play an essential distinctive vision of their collection and that networks. They seek relationships with those
role in these processes, particularly in the they hope will increase in economic value. who they view as having an on the ground
production of prestige. Through the inclusion In contrast, curators present potential acqui- perspective of the art world, especially artists
of artists’ work in museum exhibitions and sitions to the museum acquisitions commit- who might lead them to the studios of emerg-
collections, curators provide not only visi- tee, and they argue for each work’s historical ing artists. Curators also foster top down rela-
bility, but also what sociologists call “status importance and fit within the collection. tionships with galleries and collectors, whom
signals” – symbolic badges indicating high Artists, galleries, and collectors are highly they rely upon to loan works for temporary
quality. Status signals are especially important motivated to sell and loan works to museums. exhibitions. Curators often have specialised
in the contemporary art world, because there When a museum wants to purchase a work, the knowledge of certain genres and artists, and
is no objective criteria for quality. A work of artist’s gallery will usually offer the work at a they keep tabs on which collectors, galleries,
58
and institutions currently possess these works BEHIND THE SCENES when an artist is known to use assistants or
so that they can be retrieved when necessary. fabricators, the resulting work appears under
Curators are high-status gatekeepers, but they the artist’s name. Damien Hirst’s dot paint-
are ultimately dependent on their network to
supply the works.
The I in ings, almost 1,500 of them to date, are rarely
painted by him; every one bears his signature.
Curators not only influence which works
become visible to the public and the respective
Collective Outsourcing the work of making art is hardly
new. From the Middle Ages until the late 19th
prestige endowed to those artists, but also how century it was the basis of the European atelier
those who view the exhibition interpret the
The first question still asked system in which a master artist would work
meaning of artist’s works and creative vision about an artwork is “Who made it?”. with assistants and apprentices, often training
as a whole. Curators view their role as transla- them in the process. Even though many hands
tors for the museum-going public, whom they This needs reconsideration. might work on a single creation this was not
expect will have varying degrees of knowledge a collective but a hierarchical structure. Like
about the artist’s work. They spend months, if WORDS | INGRID PERIZ the works of their contemporary avatars –
not years, selecting works for an exhibition, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami, Kehinde
negotiating for the loans of these works, and The recent discovery that Indigenous art from Wiley, for instance – the results of this labour
crafting the written narrative of the exhibi- the APY Art Centre Collective may have been appeared under one name.
tion to be published as a catalogue and on the helped by white hands has had several conse- Within Modernism, conceptual and photo-
museum walls. Curators seek to tell a story quences, not least a joint State and Federal graphic practice have both worked to compli-
that traces the creative trajectory of an artist or inquiry into the matter in order to protect cate the question “who made this work?” in
genre over time. This generally entails includ- what South Australia’s Arts Minister Andrea large part by refashioning the notion of the
ing a painstakingly selected group of works Michaels called “the integrity of First Nations work itself. The former, favoring idea over
that include both more and less iconic works. art.” Questions about the authenticity of APY object, helped underwrite practices like Sol
As Paulina Pobocha, curator at the Museum work also caused the National Gallery of LeWitt’s and Lawrence Weiner’s, where others
of Modern Art in New York, stated during our Australia to postpone its First Nations block- executed the artist’s idea. For these artists
interview, “You don’t want it to be only the buster, Ngura Pulka—Epic Country, pending “making the work” means conceiving the
greatest hits. But the greatest hits are those its own investigation. And at least one Sydney idea. Warholian and Postmodern appropria-
for reasons, so you would want to include critic suggested that the shadow cast over the tion of existing photographs further fractured
them, but you tell a richer story by including Centre’s work extends to the Wynne Prize, won authorship in ways still being determined
lesser-known objects.” In displaying these this year by Zaachariaha Fielding, himself a by the United States Supreme Court which
works and describing their significance to the member of the APY Collective. recently decided a case against Andy Warhol.
overarching creative vision, curators not only Elsewhere in the world, the press has been At issue here, whether Warhol’s formal inter-
make more and less iconic works visible to the fretting about the use of artificial intelligence vention in using another artist’s photograph
public, but also solidify these works as more (AI) in contemporary art practice and visual was sufficient to be considered work.
or less iconic in the eyes of the public. culture more generally. In June, the English Collective artmaking, which answers the
Positioned as economically disinterested science journal Nature announced it would question of authorship with “we all made it,”
art experts, curators are endowed both with not publish any visual material in which AI is often driven by questions of politics – ie.
the authority to confer prestige upon and was used, again on the basis of what it called power relations, and frequently the power
communicate the meaning of contemporary “integrity”. All of which prompts a reconsider- structures of the artworld itself – as much as
art. In doing so, they help stabilize the uncer- ation of one of the first questions we ask about aesthetics. In 2019, the four artists shortlisted
tain value of contemporary art. n a work of art: who made it? for The Turner Prize turned themselves into a
In the popular imagination and most art collective in the name of “commonality, multi-
Art is an esoteric asset class. What is it about the other schools, works of art are produced by single, plicity and solidarity” and won, all sporting
people who buy and own it that makes you wonder? and often singular, individuals, a perception stickers supporting Labour candidate Jeremy
Send your thoughts to feedback@artcollector.net.au generally reinforced by the market. Even Corbyn and denouncing “devisiveness.”
59
There is strength in numbers. Ruangrupa, the MONEY SULLIES ART Da Vinci before running up to the painting,
Indonesian art collective invited to curate last punching the protective glass and smearing
year’s Documenta 15 in Germany, serves as a cake across it. “Think of the Earth,” he says in
platform of support of artists, most of whom Hungry French as he’s led away to a psychiatric clinic.
do not produce conventional art objects. The In Miami, at an artfair preview, a woman taps
group’s non-hierarchical and radically distrib-
uted method of working effectively unraveled
Art Student a shiny Jeff Koons balloon dog sculpture,
possibly to see if it is indeed a real balloon,
Documenta’s power structure, leading to resig-
nations and a government inquiry.
Eats Banana when it topples, smashing into a thousand
glass shards. Some preview attendees wonder
None of this helps us clarify the APY
case, but it does indicate the complexity of
Artwork if this is performance art; it isn’t. Insurance
covers the cost of the destroyed work. In
authorship within contemporary art where Seoul, a student eats Comedian, a work by
it is widely understood that an artist – and a When a public encounter with art Maurizio Cattelan comprising a single banana
collective – has authorship of a work regard- duct taped to the museum wall, then retapes
results in damage to the work, intended
less of whether it was physically made by the peel to the wall. Explaining that he was
or not, it’s almost always a source hungry, he is reported to say “Isn’t it taped
there to be eaten?” The banana is replaced.
of amusement. And the resulting
What might these little stories tell us beyond
media reports invariably include the their account of social missteps, of being,
in this case, improperly angry, clumsy (and
price of the work, to emphasise art’s
Outsourcing the work of doubting), or hungry in front of art? What do
ridiculous precarious preciousness. they say about art, now? As museums – their
making art is hardly new. holdings and their boards – have become the
WORDS | INGRID PERIZ site for activist intervention, those holdings
are shown to be at risk, threatened by hostage
The hushed and reverential demeanour of art takers armed with cans of tomato soup and
viewing, the genteel dance of advance and wearing t-shirts sporting ‘Just Stop Oil’ slogans.
them. Indigenous visual practice in Australia retreat that museum goers used to perform Art is vulnerable and museums can’t provide
found its place within contemporary art in the with others in front of masterpieces has long a cordon sanitaire between it and the public.
early 1980s and the position it occupies today been eclipsed by big, noisy walk-on-by instal- Non-reflective glass and guards is the best
is singular within settler societies. To suggest lations, naked gallery tours, and the up-close they can do. Given that a lot of advanced art
that work from the APY Collective is in some antics of selfie takers who approach a work only has been working to break down the barrier
way compromised because it might have been to flatter their own self-regard. No news here. between art and its public for decades, one
made with the input of others outside the Some residual sense of art and its audience’s might say job well done even if it does mean
Collective is to deny the Collective’s members former place remains however, acknowledged viewers will eat the work. This longed for
true agency. Not only does it fail to understand today only when it’s breached. My email inbox openness and accessibility has consequences
the complexities of artmaking, it refuses to announces ‘Man Throws Cake on Mona Lisa’; which extend to sites far beyond the ambit
extend contemporary art’s varied models of ‘Fair Visitor Smashes Sculpture’; ‘Hungry Art of contemporary art. Antiquities are repur-
authorship to all Indigenous artists. It suggests Student Eats Banana Artwork’. Equally funny posed as props. The two Ultima Generazione
Indigenous authorship is in need of special and bizarre, these stories from the telescoped climate activists who superglued themselves
protection and in this, it risks paternalism. n attention span of online art news, each one is to the Vatican’s Laocoön, flanking it, were
a little disaster unto itself. perfectly posed for the media, waiting for
Do you have a burning question about the way In Paris, in the Louvre’s largest room, a man their close-up, their own hands-free selfie.
the artworld operates? Send your thoughts to feed- disguised as an elderly woman – skirt, lipstick, Tales of collisions between buyers
back@artcollector.net.au wig and wheelchair – throws cake on the and works of art echo this sense of art’s
60
ART WORLD PROBLEMS the inner suburbs as Perth continues to grow.

Other new galleries, like sweetpea, have
retrofitted spaces in the east end of the city
Art is vulnerable and museums Go West proper. And this change is also demographic:
sweetpea, in particular, has emerged as an
can’t provide a cordon sanitaire
between it and the public.
Young Man important new home for a like-minded genera-
tion of artists. Helmed by Andrew Varano, the
gallery supports the likes of Jack Ball, Curtis
Amidst factors contributing to the
Taylor, Nathan Beard and Emma Buswell,
contemporary art scene revival with an explicit aim of supporting – and
making financially sustainable – arts practice.
vulnerability, of a precarious preciousness
happening in Perth right now, its It is embedded in institutional conversations
which is beyond price although the price is advantage of proximity to thriving while being commercially minded. As Varano
invariably mentioned. Every account of the states, “I want my artists to have sustainable
Koons crash noted the price of the destroyed Asian art capitals will in one stroke careers and part of that is finding new markets
work – AU $61,000 – along with the highest not only in Australia”. sweetpea connects to a
solve the problem of its isolation
price paid – AU $131.8 million – for his larger different contemporary reality that is pressing
balloon sculptures. Someone got a bargain. from other Australian capital cities. in the city’s zeitgeist, one where diasporas and
A smashed Koons, a nibbled Cattelan. Is transnationalism play an ever greater role.
there not, at the same time, some pleasure to W O R D S | K E L LY F L I E D N E R Recognising that Singapore is emerging as a
be had in contemplating both? The artworld is particularly important destination for Perth
hardly immune to schadenfreude but exactly In the past 18 months, there has been a gener- artists, sweetpea intends to have a presence at
whose misfortune is it that gives us pleasure ational, demographic and institutional change the 2024 Art SG.
in these stories? Is it the artists’, whose work in the Perth arts sector. Long time leaders have Perth-born artists and brothers Abdul-
stands revealed as a fragile, shiny bauble vacated their positions and a new cohort has Rahman Abdullah and Abdul Abdullah, who
filled with air (Koons), or a banal comestible, emerged such as Hannah Matthews at PICA, are both represented by Moore Contemporary,
better eaten than looked at (Cattelan)? Perhaps Anna Reece and Annika Kristensen at Perth are building a greater presence in Asia with
it is the protagonists’ misfortune, caught out Festival, and Colin Walker and Clothilde exhibitions or studios in Japan, Thailand
in what used to be called bad behaviour, in Bullen at the Art Gallery of Western Australia. and Indonesia between them. For gallerist
clumsiness, gaucherie, self-righteousness? That shift has mirrored the broader urbanisa- Margaret Moore, this has been built on prior
Maybe art makes people act up and out, enrag- tion of Perth which feels like it has gone from opportunities that have long defined her cura-
ing conservative geriatrics as in this headline a big country town to a small city, inclusive of torial practice, and fits a broader pattern of
from Paris: ‘Elderly man spray paints Miriam a new specific airport train line, new museum, international regionalism. As Moore states,
Cahn painting after attempts to censor it fail’; new stadium, and other infrastructural reali- “there are more and more interesting artists
the purple paint was hidden in a medicine ties in the latest mining boom. and arts professionals opting to stay in Perth
bottle; or this, from Florida: ‘Disgruntled man This shift in built environment is seen or return to Perth these days. The narrative
plows car into blue bunny public sculpture, his in galleries like Stala Contemporary, which of leaving has been diluted. With increased
second time vandalizing public art’. Perhaps, services a resolutely local audience. Directed international residency and exhibition oppor-
like toddlers, we simply enjoy naughtiness by long-time gallerist Sherri Staltari, tunities on offer, artists can use Perth as a base
and a measure of crashing chaos, especially it recently reopened in a newly renovated, and not be defined by geography.” Moore also
when it’s someone else’s. n spacious, multifunctional, warehouse gallery thinks that a recent pick up in interest in Perth
and studio space in West Leederville not too is driven by the artists themselves and the
When money compromises art, we want to under- far from the CBD. The beautiful purpose built quality of their work. Artists being recognised
stand how and why. Send your questions to feed- facility will surely support her network of raises the profile of the scene as a whole.
back@artcollector.net.au artists and cultivate a new collector base in In the last five years, this has also been
61
Fremantle Arts Centre, both of whom are emerging artists and audiences with those
Noongar, traditional custodians of this region, who have participated for far longer. It serves
leads to an even more focused remit than as an important reminder that art is cross
As Moore states, First Nations. This means greater support cultural inclusive of age and stage, and that
for commercial practice by a new generation there has been a sea-change in the last decade.
“there are more and more of independent First Nations artists who are What all of this commercial arts activity
interesting artists and arts invested in local expression, who return to means for Perth is that its changing gener-
urban and suburban motifs, and who connect ations, diversifying geographies and local
professionals opting to stay
beyond on-country Art Centres like Martumili inclusiveness speaks of a sector that is more
in Perth or return to Perth or initiatives such as REVEALED – important representative of the activity that is actually
these days. The narrative of as they remain. We see this in the celebration here and will continue to grow. What is on
of elder artists Laurel Nannup and Sandra offer right now is a vibrant small city that is
leaving has been diluted. Hill as well as the emergence of Rohan increasingly urban, which brings with it new
Kickett, Ilona McGuire and others who are
increasingly recognised.
All of this points to new opportunities for
an increasingly intersectional and diverse
reflected in broader arts practice in the city arts community, including in new spaces like
with the Indian Ocean Craft Triennial and Lawson Flats, which is a commercial private The commercial sector
Fremantle Biennale being exemplary. This club established by the Hesperia property
aesthetic change is situated in a recent State group, and currently home to a second space
stands to gain from a
Government subsidisation of new direct for sweetpea. Led by arts patron Adrian Fini, geography that sees itself
flights from Perth to nearby capitals, including Hesperia is one of the most important arts
as connected and close to
Seoul, Jakarta, Mumbai, Tokyo, on top of more adjacent companies to engage in this way,
established flight routes. With the Federal and has built strategic relationships through an emergent Asian market
Government’s new emphasis on public diplo- its properties including Mello House and rather than isolated from
macy, inclusive of the arts, Perth’s commer- the State Buildings, where works are hung
cial sector knows that there are possibilities throughout for a high end, complementary
national centres.
beyond Sydney and Melbourne that they can audience. This includes finding new anteced-
advocate for directly. The commercial sector ents, and celebrating a local scene that can
stands to gain from a geography that sees itself learn from introspection.
as connected and close to an emergent Asian This is true of Art Collective WA, which has
market rather than isolated from national just celebrated its 10th anniversary. It was ideas that can place artists in international
centres. started in response to the closure of many conversations about aesthetics, audience
In the context of this change, led by new important local galleries around that time and market all in a way that connects with
galleries and diasporic artists, there is also including Galerie Dusseldorf, Gallery East, post-colonial realities to reflect back on earlier
space for institutions to grow, especially Perth Galleries and Goddard de Fiddes Gallery. legacies. Almost paradoxically, this continu-
when it comes to championing local practice. Art Collective WA is a not-for-profit that is run ing complexity brings with it a clarity about
Although Western Australia often sends work for the benefit of its 36-strong membership possible future directions for artists to create
from First Nations Art Centres and indepen- of senior and established artists. All profit within. n
dent artists interstate, there have been recent goes back into the running of the business
changes in this led by First Nations artists and that engages in art fairs across Australia, What’s on your mind? Is there an artworld issue
arts workers. The important appointments of produces monographs and supports regional playing out now that you want to know more
Clothilde Bullen at the Art Gallery of Western tours to build audiences as part of a broader about? Send your thoughts to feedback@artcol-
Australua, or Glenn Iseger Pilkington at legacy project connecting contemporary and lector.net.au
62
SIMON KAAN
& WI TAEPA
4 - 30 JULY 2023
Osborne Lane,
2-4 Kent Street
Newmarket, Auckland
+64 9 520 0501
+64 210 243 7030
Open 7 days
sanderson.co.nz
info@sanderson.co.nz
Sydney Contemporary | 07–10 Sept 2023
Presented by
16albermarle Project Space & Project Eleven
Tanya Wales
In Between Sydney Contemporary Art Fair
Aug 25 - Sept 17, 2023 Sept 7 - Sept 10, 2023
Jennings Kerr
Shop 4, 74-76 Hoddle Street, Robertson NSW 2577
www.jenningskerr.com.au
+61 416 057 186
SAINT CLOCHE PRESENTS
S A XO N Q U I N N
H I S T O R Y R E P E AT I N G
FUTURE . HALL D . SYDNEY CONTEMPORARY . CARRIAGEWORKS . 07.09.2023 - 10.09.2023
SAINT CLOCHE GALLERY

37 MacDonald St, Paddington NSW Australia 2021 SaintCloche.com info@saintcloche.com
Suite 230:
Objects of
Affection
spring1883.com
artsproject.org.au
Terry Williams Untitled 2018

material, stuffing, wool
© Copyright the artist, represented
by Arts Project Australia
UPFRONT | Art Fairs
With Covid shackles

almost a distant memory... SPRING1883
A RT FA I R
The art fairs you should pay attention to in the upcoming quarter.
THE HOTEL WINDSOR,
WORDS | DURO JOVICIC MELBOURNE |
9 TO 12 AUGUST 2023
Art critic John McDonald has noted that artistic developments in this space, with the The Spring1883 Art Fair, now in its eighth iter-
Sydney Contemporary could be seen as an lingering shackles of Covid almost a distant ation, features a modest though quality-driven
index of cultural change. This notion can memory. offering of 28 galleries from Australia and
be applied to most fairs that bring in many The following art fairs demonstrate that New Zealand, held in The Hotel Windsor. The
differing galleries, seeing work by a variety the art market, and people’s thirst for new who’s who of exhibiting galleries includes
of artists, reckoning with their environ- and innovative works, has weathered past Melbourne’s Niagara Gallery, and LON
ment and beyond. This is showcased for and continued global turbulence and, if Gallery, and Sydney’s Darren Knight Gallery
earnest collectors and the general public anything, has grown – revealing that art and CHALK HORSE. Adam Stone, director
alike to enjoy, and hopefully to buy en remains a crucial site of appreciation, of LON, explains that, “Spring1883 is known
masse to make the venture worthwhile. The connection and understanding of the world for its electric, party-like atmosphere, which
next few months will bring some gripping at large. makes it a far more enjoyable fair for gallerists
68
UPFRONT | Art Fairs
“Spring1883 is known for its electric, party-like atmosphere” Adam Stone
and fairgoers alike. This is my fifth time at

Spring1883 and every time the overwhelming
feedback from collectors is how much more
enjoyable a setting Spring1883 is in compari-
son to a standard trade fair style fair… there is
a more exciting range of exhibiting galleries,
from younger project spaces, to established
powerhouses exhibiting side by side… you get
a wonderful cross-generational intermingling
of artists, visitors, and galleries.” Stone takes
an inclusive approach at this fair, exhibiting
works from all his artists to give the viewing
public a more comprehensive outline of the
talent and range in his stable.
Darren Knight Gallery will feature works
that inject humour and political satire into the
cultural conversation, with the inclusion of
artists Paula Hyland and Melbourne-based
activist Nat Thomas. Thomas’ works Marcel
Duchamp as a Corporate CEO 1 and 2 are a witty
take on Marcel Duchamp’s practice in art of
readymades where, as Duchamp observes, “an FRIEZE SEOUL
ordinary object [could be] elevated to the dignity
of a work of art by the mere choice of an artist”. COEX, SEOUL | SEPTEMBER 6 TO 9 2023
Gallerist Darren Knight is cognisant of

the magnitude of representation in a forum
such as Spring1883, noting that “with the Very much in its infancy, Frieze Seoul will host its second OPPOSITE: Darren Knight Gallery,
Sydney at Spring1883, 2018.
majority of our interactions with collectors art fair this coming September, with the inaugural launch PHOTO: Z AN WIMBERLEY.
COURTESY: SPRING1883.
happening online, the attraction of Spring is hosting more than 110 galleries from around the world.
ABOVE: Bank, Frieze Seoul, 2022.
the opportunity to put artworks in front of Its standing was assured from the get-go, with the first PHOTO: LE T’S STUDIO.
COURTESY: FRIEZE.
people in real life. Geographic considerations occurrence having had London gallerist Richard Nagy
are less relevant now that this online engage- show some 40 Egon Schiele works – the first ever substan-
ment is so pervasive, however, as a gallery tial solo presentation of the Austrian artist. In 2023, Frieze
based in Sydney with a significant number of Seoul will welcome galleries from the United Kingdom,
Melbourne-based artists in our stable, Spring America, France, Germany, Canada, Japan, Singapore and
is a great opportunity to connect with inter- many more. Perhaps it is only a matter of time before the
state collectors both new and old.” Australian and New Zealand dealers make the trip to Seoul.
69
UPFRONT | Art Fairs
Project Eleven were both established to make

Indonesian art better known in Australia, and
to help connect Australia with our closest
neighbour.” They will enthral audiences with
the sculptural and paper-based works of
Arwin Hidayat.
Hidayat’s work is inspired by folktales told
to him by his father of mythical happenings
wherein people and animals change into each
other to form imaginary creatures. He will also
paint a mural at the fair, conduct a workshop,
and host an artist’s talk. It will be an interac-
tive spectacle not beholden to just what’s on
the walls. Cruthers and Kabo will also launch
a new portfolio of limited-edition prints made
by some of Indonesia’s leading visual artists,
in association with Devetru Print Studio in
Bali. Cruthers sees the clear benefits of being
at Sydney Contemporary as, “five days in the
SYDNEY CONTEMPORARY company of people equally obsessed with art

as we are, and having very good art that very
CARRIAGEWORKS, SYDNEY | 7 TO 10 SEPTEMBER 2023 few Australians will be aware of. We hope that
by the end of the fair, many more Australians
will be converts to Indonesian art.”
Sydney Contemporary, with more than 90 adviser John Cruthers, decking out a space David Hagger, director of Blackartsprojects,
participating galleries included in its unique with their shared passion and sapient under- has been a part of Sydney Contemporary
and immense space at Carriageworks, dove- standing of the Indonesian art scene. Kabo is since its inception, seeing it as a vital outlet to
tails well into emulating Sydney’s reputation Australia’s largest collector of Indonesian art promote his stable of artists. Robert Fielding,
as an international city. Melbourne’s Alcaston and with his wife Monica Lim, through Project Beth Thornber, Billy Bain, and Tristan Chant
Gallery will show Betty Kuntiwa Pumani and Eleven, has supported innumerable exhibi- will be included this year. Fielding’s work
late artist Sally Gabori, among others. It will tions and artist grants in drawing attention almost defies description, traversing canvas,
also show a rare seminal large format painting to the cultural and artistic richness shown by photography and handmade objects amongst
by Gabori that was recently seen at Fondation our Indonesian counterparts. Cruthers, with a other forms of media. The National Portrait
Cartier and Triennale Milano, Italy, 2023. legacy as a preeminent art adviser and whose Gallery of Australia recently procured a whole
Alcaston’s director Beverly Knight shares that, family has donated the largest collection suite of captivating Aboriginal elder states-
“an important and equally exciting aspect of of women’s art to the University of Western men photos by him. The common thread is
participating at Sydney Contemporary each Australia, now runs a space named 16alber- Fielding’s passion for his Aboriginal heritage,
year is the opportunity to present our artists to marle that focuses on contemporary art from which effortlessly resonates throughout his
a wide and diverse national and international southeast Asia, in particular Indonesia. highly accomplished oeuvre. Hagger opines
art audience… the event acts as a meaningful As Cruthers observes, “Indonesian art is that “…we look forward to returning every
platform for increasing visibility and reaching little known in Australia – surprising since year to reconnect with interstate clients,
a broader spectrum of individuals who appre- we are neighbours and the art scenes in colleagues, and institutions. While we spend a
ciate and admire art in its various forms.” Jogjakarta, Bandung and Jakarta are flourish- lot of time meeting new people at the fair, the
A momentous development at this fair is ing, sophisticated and show artists working most valuable work is done outside fair hours
the coupling of collector Konfir Kabo and art at a high level of creativity. 16albermarle and over studio visits, meetings, and dinners.”
70
UPFRONT | Art Fairs
THE ARMORY SHOW

JAVITS CENTER, NEW YORK | SEPTEMBER 8 TO 10 2023
The Armory Show, founded in 1994, New York, with an African focus seeing a more diverse OPPOSITE: Sydney
Contemporary art fair, 2022.
will host more than 225 galleries and represent gathering of works. Victoria Miro Gallery had
COURTESY: SYDNEY
CONTEMPORARY.
more than 30 countries. Though only a few days works by Chris Ofili, Kara Walker and Wangechi
ABOVE: The Armory
long, it holds events such as Armory Talks, which Mutu. It will be curious to see how it performs
Show, 2022.
is a year-round program of discussions that this year given the potential competition of COURTESY: THE ARMORY
SHOW, NEW YORK.
fosters thoughtful conversations between indus- Frieze New York, though so far, all signs indicate
try leaders, artists, and other unique voices. The that it will remain an international and domestic
fair has been assiduous in its representation, collector destination, and a must-see event.
71
UPFRONT | Art Fairs
LEFT: Leigh Namporan

with Ku’ (dog) at Cairns
Indigenous Art Fair, 2022.
PHOTO: LOVEGREEN
PHOTOGRAPHY. COURTESY:
AURUKUN ARTS CENTRE.
OPPOSITE: The Darwin

Aboriginal Art Fair, 2022.
COURTESY: DARWIN
ABORIGINAL ART FAIR.
THE DARWIN
ABORIGINAL
A RT FA I R
DARWIN CONVENTION
CENTRE, DARWIN |
11 TO 13 AUGUST 2023
The Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair is a great

way to immerse oneself in Aboriginal
T H E C A I R N S I N D I G E N O U S A RT FA I R culture and artistry, with purchases

directly benefitting the collective, Art
C A I R N S C O N V E N T I O N C E N T R E , C A I R N S | J U LY 1 3 T O J U LY 1 6 2 0 2 3 Centre or artist involved. Buying art
ethically and ensuring a system of trans-
parent conduct is paramount at this fair,
The Cairns Indigenous Art fair (CIAF) is an artists. The exhibit will feature the works of so buyers are well-placed with their
initiative established by the QLD Government Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori purchases. Given the recent controversy
and is committed to strengthening and cele- (c.1924–2015) alongside paintings by her involving the APY Art Centre Collective,
brating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander daughters, Amanda Jane Gabori, Dorothy with allegations that Indigenous
culture. This year’s theme is Weaving our Gabori, and Elsie Gabori. Additionally, the artworks were altered by white staffers,
Future: Claiming our Sovereignty; the aim, as gallery will present intricately woven sculp- this is heartening to see. That said, it
stated by artistic director Francoise Lane, is tures by Shirley Macnamara, a NATSIAA should be noted that questions around
to “present compelling contemporary perspec- 2023 finalist. Of Macnamara’s work, Alcaston the provenance of works is something
tives that are provocative and emotive, and Gallery notes that, “her creations, infused that all art fairs and gallery participants
raise the conscience of the broader society”. with great insight, evoke poetic allure and need to be vigilant about. Reputation is
Alcaston Gallery will participate in this poignant aesthetics, aligning seamlessly with cultivated over years yet can be stripped
fair with two generations of Kaiadilt women the fair’s overarching theme.” within minutes.
72
UPFRONT | Art Fairs
73
SIGNIFICANT
2 JUNE – 21 JULY 2023
40 Exhibition St, Melbourne VIC 3000 KAAPA MBITJANA TJAMPITJINPA 1926–1989

Wurundjeri Country Mikantji and Tywerl 1971 (detail)
+61 3 9008 7212 © KAAPA MBITJANA TJAMPITJINPA/
DLANCONTEMPORARY.COM.AU Aboriginal Artists Agency Ltd, 2023
SEDIMENT
YASMIN
17 Jun – 10 Sep
SMITH
Supported by Andrew Cameron AM
and Cathy Cameron, Lisa Paulsen,
Andrew and Philomena Spearritt
Seaweed collection, Koreé (Chowder Bay), 2023,
courtesy the artist and The Commercial, Sydney ©
the artist. Photograph: Elise Fredericksen
SOMETHING IN THE WATER

MADDISON
GIBBS
Maddison Gibbs, Something in the water, 2023, installation, exterior acrylic
polymer paint, leaves, acrylic spray paint, stereo sound, approx. 2.05 mins
(sound engineer Greg Le Couter). Image courtesy and (c) the artist
UNSEEN
KHALED
SABSABI
Supported by Create NSW
Khaled Sabsabi, Unseen, 2022, ink-jet photograph, ground coﬀee and acrylic paint.
Image courtesy the artist and Milani Gallery, Brisbane © the artist
DAAF Darwin & Online
11-13 August
Immerse yourself in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, design and culture at
the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair this August on Larrakia Country and online. Ethically
purchase artwork direct from over 70 Indigenous owned Art Centres, with 100% of all
sales made going directly back to support the artists and their communities.
 DarwinArtFair  DarwinArtFair  DarwinAboriginalArtFair www.daaf.com.au
Artwork: Kalipinypa, Dennis Nelson Tjakamarra, Synthetic Polymer on Linen, 2023, 152x122cm. Image Courtesy of Papunya Tjupi Arts.
UPFRONT | On the Couch
78
The Olsen Obsession

Turning his back on artworld tall poppy antics, Tim Olsen credits
his staff and artists with his gallery’s thirty years of success.
WORDS | COURTNEY KIDD

PHOTOGRAPHY | ANNA KUČERA
Obsession, the action of beguiling, and its tough, not just financially but emotionally.”
healthy neighbour… persistence, the charac- I’m sitting with Tim at a table crammed
teristics that have made Tim Olsen and Olsen with the workings of organizing his father’s
Gallery so successful. During its 30 years, Tim state funeral. It includes a huge cardboard
has presided over more than 900 exhibitions, box of condolence cards. The office-cum-sit-
connected with a flotilla of artists and made ting-room is encased with art: Lucian Freud,
many deep friendships. But 2023 may be his Frank Auerbach, Max Beckmann, Margaret
toughest year yet. On 11th April this year Preston, Melinda Harper, Deborah Russell,
his father, renowned Australian artist, John and on, artists whose work nods to the tradi-
Olsen, died. Further, the year is bracing to tional practices of drawing and painting, post
be financially hard, one where art as a luxury war and contemporary, the model that defines
item, may not be priority spending. the personality-driven Olsen brand.
On 20th June, 1993 the Sun Herald’s social Tim has grown up with more art than
pages recalled the opening of Olsen Carr most, his experience as a fledgling art dealer
Gallery in Paddington, the svelte young Tim beginning with “The King of Queen Street”
photographed with artist William Rose. The (Woollahra), the ebullient Rex Irwin.
article noted that the city’s newest art gallery “I loved having Tim as my Saturday helper,
was “flying in the face of all who say art galler- he made coffee, reminded me of people’s
ies cannot flourish in the financially spare names,” says Irwin. “He was 18, charm on a
90s.” Cut to 2023 and Olsen Gallery, nurturing stick, said ‘I know the smell of artists, been
a host of Australia’s leading artists, is thriving. around them all my life’. He understands how
“Sanity for me today is knowing that the artists like to be treated and that is integral to
gallery is 30 years old and that I’ve never Tim’s success.”
veered from my direction,” says Tim. “I’m Today, Tim’s warmth to artists carries
happy where I’ve ended up though feel I’ve through to his staff working in the gallery, its
only just begun. But losing my father and also operations streamlined by his indomitable
my friend, artist Nicholas Harding, has been manager of 26 years, Katrina Arent.
79
LEFT: Tim and John Olsen,

c.1999. PHOTO: PAUL GREEN.
sacrifice of long term good will. The art world

can be a nasty place, because the stakes are so
small.”
There have been some memorable
moments in the gallery’s history: “My father’s
2009 show Culinaria where he did paintings
based on his favourite recipes. We made the
catalogue into a cookbook. Jamie Oliver was
in Australia launching his magazine so he
came and cooked paella in the gallery with
John. The following week Rick Stein opened
the show – who could arrange that kind of
serendipity… I’ve had a lot of luck. The one
collector I was most taken aback by was when
Paul Simon turned up with Brian Eno and
procured a work while my son’s 6th birthday
disco party was in full swing, I don’t think
Tim recalls the Irwin privilege of being exhibitions from Warmun Art Centre, Mika songs by The Wiggles was their speed, but
able to work on a Henry Moore exhibition, Utzon Popov, and Louise Olsen, while Vivid is fortunately it didn’t put them off. We talked
of meeting Sir Alistair McAlpine, of cultivat- featuring John Olsen’s painting on the sails of at length about how music can be heard in
ing relationships, “I came to understand the the Sydney Opera House. art despite the silence. Buying the gallery on
importance of a gallery maintaining quality Tim was one of the initial founders of the Jersey Road and adjacent terrace was a mile-
and substance over fashion, of nurturing 2008 Hong Kong Art Fair that became Art Basel stone, as was publishing my memoir in 2020.”
artists whose works will endure.” Hong Kong backed by Tim Etchells. With In his memoir Son of the Brush, Tim talks about
Rex and Tim worked dashingly well together self-effacing amusement, gallerist Tim talks his alcohol addiction, saying, “Being sober in
as Olsen Irwin from 2013 to 2017. “It is a of the struggle to sell abstract art to Chinese the art world is like being fully dressed at an
beautiful space and a beautifully run gallery,” collectors, recalling his extravagant landscape orgy… You have to diversify your obsessions,
notes Rex who would front up to art fairs in analogies, describing Michael Johnson’s work to focus the appetite and now I have a sense
his tartan kilt. “Behind the gallery was always as “reflective lights on Hong Kong Harbour”. that everything will take care of itself if I look
the spirit of John and on every page of Tim’s By 2012 he had held a sell out stand at the fair after my side of the street.”
memoir too is the spirit of John, a gregarious, of Sophie Cape’s feverish abstract paintings. Tim holds an enormous amount of grati-
charming host, a great raconteur who loved “Art fairs are a melting pot of venom, envy. tude for what he has and works generously to
women as does Tim. Finally now Tim is a man People look at the Olsen stand and they are enhance the quality of life for others. I wonder
alone. He has that extra responsibility and I seething. It’s not because it’s a bad stand, what his future holds. “I’ve spent the last five
am confident he’ll make a go of it.” it’s people thinking ‘who do you think you years driving to the Southern Highlands every
And while a New York gallery venture in are?’ You’ve got to turn your back on the tall weekend to look after Dad,” he says. “I’m
2017, Olsen Gruin, was stymied by Covid, poppy stuff. I’m proud that I’m one of the few thinking, why not make life more interesting?
Olsen is now forging ahead and gearing up to owner/director galleries that have survived My son is in Oxford preparing for university.
exhibit John Young at the Singapore Art Fair in this long, there are so many new galleries that I’d like to be close to him. I’d love to open a
2024. Meanwhile the impressive line up for the are backed by corporate investors. This has space in Lisbon, chase the summers… I can
Olsen 30th anniversary celebrations includes made this game much more aggressive at the afford to do that now.”
80
The
Polyphonic Sea
8 July - 8 October
New work by artists from Aotearoa New Zealand
Antonia Barnett-McIntosh • Andrew Beck •

Ruth Buchanan • The Estate of L. Budd • Sione Faletau •
Samuel Holloway et al. • Sarah Hudson • Sonya Lacey •
Nova Paul • Sriwhana Spong • Shannon Te Ao
Nova Paul, Hawaiki, 2022, 16mm colour film (still)
bundanon.com.au
YIN Zhaoyang
Sydney Contemporary
ART
5/16 Hickson Rd, Walsh Bay NSW 2000
7 – 10 September 2023 • Carriageworks vermilionart.com.au
TERRY
TAYLOR
THE DEMONIC ASCENSION
28TH JULY - 12TH AUGUST
COMPENDIUM GALLERY
909 HIGH ST, ARMADALE
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
CROSSING PATHS
EDWINA EDWARDS
3–20 AUGUST 2023
Level 1 & 2, 322 Brunswick Street

Wurundjeri Country, Fitzroy VIC 3065 Australia
brunswickstreetgallery.com.au
ENTRIES OPEN
UNTIL 4 AUGUST
Entries for the 2023 Mosman Art Prize
are now open, with an acquisitive prize
of $50,000. Entries can be submitted
online via mosmanartgallery.org.au
PROUDLY SUPPORTED BY:

GILLIAN JONES and CHRISTINE FRASER
GOMA, BRISBANE
24 JUN – 2 OCT 2023
MAJOR PARTNERS
TOURISM & MEDIA PARTNERS
SUPPORTING PARTNER PUBLICATION SPONSOR
eX de Medici / The Seat of Love and Hate (detail) 2017–18 / Commissioned by MAAS with support
from the MAAS Foundation, 2018 / Collection: MAAS, Sydney / Photograph: Michael Myers
Featured artists
Platon
Andy Warhol
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Erik Johansson
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Kate Ballis
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As part of
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Foto Biennale
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over 60 days
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Nowhere Near
Brad Rimmer, Corrigin Town Hall, Spring 2020, 2020 2/565 Hay Street, Cathedral Square, Perth
archival pigment print, 100 x 134cm, ed. 3. +61 8 9325 7237 // art@artcollectivewa.com.au // www.artcollectivewa.com.au
Australasia’s
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sydneycontemporary.com.au
Galleries Gallery 9 Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery sweet pea
Sydney / Gadigal Land Sydney / Gadigal Land Perth / Boorloo
130 | SW | Starkwhite
Gallery Sally Dan-Cuthbert Sabbia Gallery Void_Melbourne
Melbourne / Naarm |
Sydney / Gadigal Land Sydney / Gadigal Land Melbourne / Naarm
Auckland / Tāmaki Makaurau
| Queenstown / Tahuna Gallerysmith Sophie Gannon Gallery
Melbourne / Naarm Melbourne / Naarm
A Secondary Eye Paper
Brisbane / Meanjin Gow Langsford Gallery Stanley Street Gallery
Auckland / Tāmaki Makaurau Sydney / Gadigal Land 16albermarle Project Space
Alcaston Gallery and Project Eleven
Melbourne / Naarm Hugo Michell Gallery STARKWHITE Sydney / Gadigal Land
Adelaide / Tarntanya Auckland / Tāmaki Makaurau
APY Art Centre Collective 5 Press Books
| Queenstown / Tahuna
Adelaide/Tarntanya | Sydney James Makin Gallery Melbourne / Naarm
/ Gadigal Land | Melbourne Melbourne / Naarm STATION
/ Naarm Melbourne / Naarm | Sydney Agave Print Studio
Jan Murphy Gallery Trentham / Dja Dja Wurrung
/ Gadigal Land
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Justin Miller Art Sydney / Gadigal Land
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| Melbourne / Naarm | Cicada Press
Sydney / Gadigal Land .M Contemporary Singapore Sydney / Gadigal Land
Art Collective WA Sydney / Gadigal Land
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Perth / Boorloo MARS Gallery Melbourne / Naarm Sydney / Gadigal Land
Artereal Gallery Melbourne / Naarm
Tezukayama Gallery Firestation Print Studio
Sydney / Gadigal Land Martin Browne Osaka Melbourne / Naarm
Arthouse Gallery Contemporary
The Commercial Jenny Robinson Print Studio
Sydney / Gadigal Land Sydney / Gadigal Land
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Blackartprojects Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin
The Egg & Dart Krack Studio
Melbourne / Naarm Sydney / Gadigal Land |
Wollongong / Dharawal Yogyakarta
Berlin
CHALK HORSE
Tim Klingender Fine Art Marco Luccio
Sydney / Gadigal Land Michelle Perry Fine Arts
Sydney / Gadigal Land Melbourne / Naarm
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Two Rooms Marnling Press
Melbourne / Naarm Moore Contemporary
Auckland / Tāmaki Makaurau Sydney / Gadigal Land
Perth / Boorloo
COMA
Utopia Art Sydney Melbourne Studios | Trudy
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D’Lan Contemporary Townsville / Gurambilbarra |
Wagner Contemporary
Melbourne / Naarm National Art School Sydney / Gadigal Land
Darren Knight Gallery Mossenson Galleries
Yavuz Gallery
Sydney / Gadigal Land Neon Parc Perth / Boorloo
Singapore | Sydney /
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day.01. Gadigal Land Northern Rivers
Sydney / Gadigal Land Niagara Galleries Contemporary
Melbourne / Naarm Seelands / Bundjalung and
Dominik Mersch Gallery
Sydney / Gadigal Land Nicholas Thompson Gallery Future Gumbaynggirr
Melbourne / Naarm DIGINNER GALLERY Print Council of Australia
EDWINA CORLETTE
Brisbane / Meanjin OLSEN Gallery Tokyo Melbourne / Naarm
Sydney / Gadigal Land EG Projects Southeast Studios
Everywhen Artspace
Flinders / Bunurong Country Onespace Fremantle / Walyalup Sydney / Gadigal Land
Brisbane / Meanjin (Whadjuk Boodja)
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Moulins | Habana | São Paulo Robert Heald Gallery Saint Cloche
| Rome | Paris | Dubai Wellington / Pōneke Sydney / Gadigal Land
BEN CRASE
Sydney Contemporary 07 - 10.9.2023
23 Foster St, Surry Hills, NSW

t: +61 2 9188 8933
www.piermarq.com.au @piermarqart
PIPPIN DRYSDALE
5 - 26 August 2023
SABBIA GALLERY
Anna Grigson, Director . sabbiagallery.com . 609 Elizabeth St, Redfern, NSW, 2016, AUSTRALIA
+61 2 9361 6448 . gallery@sabbiagallery.com . Tues - Fri 11am - 6pm + Sat 11am - 4pm
Wynne Prize 2023 Finalist, Art Gallery of New South Wales and touring exhibition 2023-2024
Wolfe Creek Crater, 2023, porcelain incised with coloured glazes, installation of 17 sculptures, 330 h x 1530 w x 480mm d installed. Photo Acorn Photography
L L E W E L L Y N S K Y E
Yesterday oil on canvas 180 x 150cm
SYDNEY CONTEMPORARY | CARRIAGEWORKS | 7 - 10 SEPTEMBER

An Art Gallery of
New South Wales
touring exhibition
country LAUNCHING
x Country 27.07.23 | 6PM
DEL KATHRYN BARTON JILL ORR
PAT BRASSINGTON PATRICIA PICCININI
LOUISA CHIRCOP CAROLINE ROTHWELL
LYNDA DRAPER JULIE RRAP
FREYA JOBBINS MARIKIT SANTIAGO
DEBORAH KELLY HONEY LONG & PRUE STENT
MADELEINE KELLY JELENA TELECKI
JUZ KITSON ANNE WALLACE
LUCY O’DOHERTY KAYLENE WHISKEY
JENNY ORCHARD AMANDA WILLIAMS
1 July - 3 September OPEN 10AM - 4PM DAILY | FREE ADMISSION
Hazelhurst Arts Centre

782 Kingsway Gymea Del Kathryn Barton,
T 0285365700 love wants to give (detail)
hazelhurst.com.au 2022, acrylic on linen
ARTISTS | Under 5K
ARTISTS | Under 5K
UNDER 5K
In this highly anticipated annual feature, our writers
present those artists who you might be surprised to
learn have work available for less than $5,000 AUD.
101
ARTISTS | Under 5K
HANY ARMANIOUS
BORN: 1962 | PRICE RANGE FOR WORK: Rings are priced at $2,400 each
CONTACT: Fine Arts Sydney
Everyone admires my simple, substantial gold, some silver, priced identically. That
gold ring. It’s a lovely warm colour, catches makes conceptual sense: the original wrap-
the eye. Then the fun starts. I ask, What does pers, you will recall, are gold on the outside,
it look like?; What does it remind you of?. silver inside. And the alchemy of the trans-
Some immediately guess the ring is cast from mutation is what is valuable here.
a piece of crumpled foil; others are baffled Armanious makes simulacra of everyday
by its strange familiarity. Very few spot the objects that initially trick the eye, simulta-
distinctive fine grain of a Ferrero Rocher foil neously pointing to the charm or curiosity
wrapper. And only one person, a Melbourne of the original: a fragment, a tool, an unex-
painter, immediately said Hany Armanious. pected juxtaposition of elements conjuring
Who has not idly twisted lolly wrappers the universe. Armanious has made many
into rudimentary rings? Especially Ferrero small objects that beg big questions about
Rocher wrappers, flexible squares casually the status of art, and replication, and origi-
cajoled into shape in after-dinner moments. nality, but none, perhaps, as sweetly as these
But there’s nothing artless about Armanious’ quietly seductive rings.
off-beat glamour. Each ring is unique – some JULIE EWINGTON
102
ARTISTS | Under 5K
PREVIOUS PAGE: Hany

Armanious, Rocher Wrapper
Rings collection, 2021.
OPPOSITE: Hany Armanious,
Rocher Wrapper Ring, 2021.
Silver, 10 x 19 x 19mm. $2,400.
RIGHT: Hany Armanious, Rocher
Wrapper Ring, 2021. Gold, 9 x 18
x 17mm. $2,400.
BELOW LEFT: Hany Armanious,
Gold, 5 x 21 x 22mm. $2,400.
BELOW RIGHT: Hany Armanious,
Silver, 8 x 20 x 23mm. $2,400.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND FINE
ARTS, SYDNEY.
103
ARTISTS | Under 5K
THIS PAGE: Fiona McMonagle, Study #5, 2018. Ink on paper, 18.5 x 18cm. $990.
OPPOSITE LEFT: Fiona McMonagle, In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different (study), 2021. Watercolour, ink and gouache on paper, 80.5 x 65cm. $3,000.
OPPOSITE RIGHT: Fiona McMonagle, Juvenile, 2018. Oil on linen, 46 x 41cm. $3,500.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND SOPHIE GANNON GALLERY, MELBOURNE.
104
ARTISTS | Under 5K
FIONA McMONAGLE
BORN: 1977 | PRICE RANGE FOR WORK: from $1,500 for works on paper to $8,000
for larger paintings | CONTACT: Sophie Gannon Gallery, Melbourne
Fiona McMonagle’s figurative portraits of times provocative scenarios, her subjects work either as poignant individual pieces
the everyday and celebrity culture are deli- often evoke a certain melancholy or nostalgia, or a composite narrative in series. Born in
cately rendered in watercolour, ink and wash, although McMonagle is also known for the Ireland and practising for more than 20 years,
and sometimes in oil on canvas. Her style dynamic play between abandon and control McMonagle has consistently exhibited in
is ethereal and suggestive, with minimal in the handling of her preferred medium of prestigious shows, including The Archibald
tones, translucent colour and pared-back watercolour which she has recently extended Prize, the Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art,
compositions that serve to heighten psycho- into digital animation. Works made in both and UQ Art Museum’s National Self-Portrait
logical impact and imaginative engagement oils and watercolours between 2018 and 2021, Prize. Her work is held in several national
in these little slices of life and fantasy. including for solo shows Smoke and Mirrors, collections, including the National Gallery of
McMonagle draws her references from mass 2021 and The Weekend, 2018, are still available. Victoria, the Art Gallery of New South Wales,
media sources, as well as from her own Their relatively small scale (between 50 x the Art Gallery of South Australia, the National
photographic archive and family and social 50cm and 90 x 65cm) is in keeping with their Portrait Gallery, and Artbank.
networks. In their solitary settings and at intimate mode of address, but means they JACQUELINE MILLNER
105
ARTISTS | Under 5K
RUTH CLELAND
BORN: 1976 | PRICE RANGE FOR WORK:

$4,000 to $18,000 | CONTACT: Sumer,
Auckland
Ruth Cleland is a Tāmaki Makaurau

Auckland-based painter whose work
combines hyperrealism and abstraction,
reconsidering spaces between the everyday
and heightened aesthetic experience. Her
work depicts scenes drawn from an array of
non-sites such as supermarkets, shopping
malls, carparking buildings and roadways.
Cleland recently joined Sumer, Auckland
and her first solo exhibition at the gallery,
Ground, was staged in late 2022. Sumer direc-
tor Dan du Bern writes on the exhibition,
particularly the commonplace surfaces –
bitumen, concrete and terrazzo floors – which
Cleland elects to transform into exquisitely
crafted photorealistic paintings: “Through
their careful rendering, these modest (no) Northart, Auckland, 2022; Mall, Gus Fisher
things attain a sense of spectacle and beauty, Gallery, Auckland and Enjoy, Wellington
not only in their appearance but also in their 2010; and Saunter, Hocken Library, Dunedin,
objecthood, in the evidence of the artist’s toil, 2002. She has accrued several awards includ-
her investment of energy and time.” ing Gold Medal Winner, Team McMillan
These often-overlooked surfaces are BMW Art Awards, 2010, Park Lane Wallace
divorced from their surrounding context and Trust Development Award and a three-month
transposed from the ground to the gallery artist residency in Vermont, USA, 2008. Her
wall. The resulting works also implicitly work is held in public and private collections
invite us to look down, to ground ourselves including the Chartwell Collection, Auckland
in our immediate environment – a space in Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki; Hocken Library,
which we might find an experience akin to University of Otago, Dunedin; Trust Waikato,
painting. Her work elevates and reconsiders Hamilton; and Otago Polytechnic, Dunedin.
the everyday, inviting viewers to slow down, While collectors might be surprised
to contemplate moments which may have to learn her smaller sized paintings are
ceased to be visible as we go about our daily available for under $5K, Cleland has also
lives: noticing the play of light across the TOP: Ruth Cleland, Oil Slick with Grid 2, 2020. produced Floor 5, a lithographic print in an
Acrylic on Bristol board in artist’s frame, 22 x 31cm
floor, the iridescent rainbow of oil and water artwork; 36.5 x 44.8cm framed. NZ $3,800. edition of 10, which is priced for new collec-
on the road. ABOVE: Ruth Cleland, Oil Slick 4, 2022. tors at $1,800 unframed. This work is from
Acrylic on linen, 50 x 37.5cm. NZ $5,000.
Cleland holds an MFA (with distinction) her Terrazzo series of paintings, prints and
OPPOSITE: Ruth Cleland, Oil Slick, 2022. Acrylic on
from the Dunedin School of Art, and selected board, 30 x 22.5cm. NZ $3,700. drawings.
public exhibition highlights include Terrazzo, COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND SUMER AUCKL AND. EMIL MC AVOY
106
ARTISTS | Under 5K
ARTISTS | Under 5K
SHIRLEY MACNAMARA
BORN: 1949 | PRICE RANGE FOR WORK: $950 for small sculptures
to $55,000 for large-scale and commissioned sculptural work |
CONTACT: Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne
Indjalandji-Dhidhanu/Alyawarr artist Shirley historical tradition and the sacred value of other natural materials that are a reminder of
Macnamara maintains an enduring closeness this natural material when she makes guutu what Country has to offer.”
to the landscape. This deep intimacy and (vessels), woven baskets and installations. Often reflecting the organic forms found
understanding encapsulates the heart of her “To me, my art is a connection to Country in plants and the seasonal patterns of the
long-standing art practice and is most evident and to the landscape I live in, it’s part of landscape, Macnamara’s work incorporates
in the materials she chooses to work with. who I am,” she explains. “Inspiration for ochre, bones and feathers to add texture and
Part of Indigenous culture for thousands my art comes from a deep and continuous dimension. Small, palm-sized sculptures can
of years, spinifex and its runner roots have connection from the beautiful bush country be purchased for $950, while her intricately
long been used to create strong and func- that I live and exist within; it enables me to crafted series of Bush Fascinators, 2013 made
tional objects, with its thick resin also used make art. My sculptures are formed from the from spinifex and emu feathers are $3,500. As
as a natural adhesive. Macnamara taps into soft variety of spinifex (Triodia pungens) and Macnamara says, “Through my art practice
108
ARTISTS | Under 5K
OPPOSITE: Shirley Macnamara, Laga Bag,

I hope to convey the fragility of the environ- Macnamara: Dyinala, Nganinya. In 2022,
2022. Spinifex, Emu feathers, seeds,
ment, and the importance of caring for and Macnamara exhibited her largest work to date, ashes, yellow ochre, string from
Lancewood tree bark, wax threads and
respecting the landscape from which my Through the Gidgea and Gum Trees. Over Spinifex fixative, 19 x 13 x 13cm. $4,200.
works are formed.” Ridges and Black Soil Plains, 2022 for the Cairns LEFT ABOVE: Shirley Macnamara, Dust
Dreams, 2015. Spinifex, emu feathers,
In 2017 Macnamara’s work Nyurruga Indigenous Art Fair’s inaugural Big Sculpture kangaroo bone, ochre and fixative,
Muulawaddi won the prestigious Wandjuk Showcase. Most recently, Macnamara was 15 x 13 x 16cm. $3,500.
LEFT BELOW: Shirley Macnamara, Bush
Marika Memorial 3D Award at the 34th Telstra announced as a finalist in the 2023 Telstra Fascinator, 2014. Spinifex with Emu
National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander National Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Art feathers, 13 x 35 x 40cm. $3,500.
ABOVE: Shirley Macnamara, Out of the Dust
Art Awards, and in 2019, the Queensland Awards at the Museum and Art Gallery of the and Dry Ground, 2, 2020. Spinifex, ochre and
natural fixative, 29 x 20cm. $4,800.
Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art staged Northern Territory.
PHOTOS: SIMON STRONG. COURTESY: THE
the solo exhibition and publication, Shirley BRIONY DOWNES ARTIST AND ALCASTON GALLERY, MELBOURNE.
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ARTISTS | Under 5K
DADANG CHRISTANTO LEFT: Dadang Christanto,

Kuranthil #4, 2012. Cast
aluminium, gold leaf and
BORN: 1957 | PRICE RANGE FOR WORK: enamel as coating layer,
24 x 16 x 16cm. $4,900.
$3,300 to $68,000 | CONTACT: Jan
OPPOSITE CLOCKWISE
Manton Gallery, Brisbane FROM TOP LEFT:
Dadang Christanto,
Painted Black on Their
Faces #2, 2017. Acrylic
A freedom of expression underscores the $3,300; Painted Black on
Their Faces #9, 2017.
enduring career of preeminent Indonesian- Acrylic on canvas, 50 x
Australian artist Dadang Christanto. 40cm. $3,300; Painted
Black on Their Faces #6,
Migrating to Australia in 1999 at the age of 42, 2017. Acrylic on canvas,
50 x 40cm. $3,300;
Christanto was a key figure of the burgeoning Painted Black on Their
Indonesian New Art Movement in Yogyakarta Faces #11, 2017. Acrylic
and Bandung in the late 1980s. $3,300.
The artist steadily developed international COURTESY: THE ARTIST
AND JAN MANTON
GALLERY, BRISBANE.
recognition, exhibiting as part of the inau-
gural Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary
Art in 1993 before embarking on an illustrious
three-decade long career taking his work to nameless in the casualty tallies of this harrow-
Japan, Korea, Switzerland and beyond. ing mass murder.
Much of Christanto’s work emotionally Christanto worked on a smaller scale when
reflects on the politicidal mass killings
Christanto selflessly painting the Painted Black on Their Faces series
and disappearances across Indonesia from in 2017. The works are darkly confronting,
1965–66 perpetrated by the Indonesian Army seeks solace for the drawing upon the artist’s personal scarring
under Suharto. Christanto selflessly seeks innumerable victims memories of encountering lifeless bodies of
solace for the innumerable victims of this political victims washing downstream in a
of this tragedy
tragedy memorialising the friends, family and local river; their faces cruelly disfigured with
strangers lost in time. memorialising the thick tar to render the individuals unidenti-
Created in collaboration with master crafts- friends, family and fiable. Christanto’s violently gestural brush-
men in Java, Wuku 4 - Kuranthil, 2012 is both strokes and material treatment channels such
an homage to the past and a contemporising
strangers lost in time. brutality, triggering a forlorn bodily response.
of traditional craft practice. As one of 30 cast The bodies of work Wuku, 2012 and Painted
aluminium busts Wuku 4 - Kuranthil abstractly Black on Their Faces, 2017 courageously huma-
embodies the personalities of those killed nise those passed on an intimately individual
during 1965–66. Christanto created one anon- scale with delicate attention paid to the char-
ymous bust for each of the 30 Javanese wuku, acteristic personhood of each cast aluminium
analogous to the western zodiac, memorial- bust and acrylic portrait on canvas.
ising the very real human beings rendered CON GERAKARIS
110
ARTISTS | Under 5K
111
ARTISTS | Under 5K
OPPOSITE: Anne Zahalka, A Summer Morning Tiff, 2017. Pigment ink on rag paper, edition 2 of 5, 76 x 51.2cm. $3,300.
ABOVE: Anne Zahalka, Performing Seal, 2008. Type C photograph, edition 1 of 12, 28 x 28cm. $2,200.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND ARC ONE GALLERY, MELBOURNE.
112
ARTISTS | Under 5K
ANNE ZAHALKA
BORN: 1957 | PRICE RANGE FOR WORK:

$2,200 to $25,000 | CONTACT: ARC
ONE Gallery, Melbourne
It would be remiss to take Anne Zahalka’s

photographs at face value. Loaded with
meaning and multi-layered interpretations
of Australian identity, gender and diversity,
Zahalka’s work is known for restaging iconic
images of nationhood, art history and tourist
culture from a contemporary point of view.
Drawing heavily in style from documentary
photography and portraiture, early in her
career Zahalka was influenced by postcard
imagery and tourist visions of Australian cities.
Replicating the settings of Max Dupain’s late
1930s photographs of bronzed sunbathers at
Bondi, in 1989 Zahalka produced the photo-
graphic series Bondi: playground of the Pacific.
Among these images was The Bathers, a staged
portrait featuring a culturally diverse group of
beachgoers clearly reflecting how the contem-
porary Australian identity had changed. In
later work, Zahalka moved on to interrogate
Australian landscape painting, further expand-
ing on ideas of place, history and belonging.
“Anne Zahalka remains a landmark
artist in Australian contemporary art,” says
Fran Clark, director of ARC ONE Gallery in
Melbourne. “She makes approachable images,
which nevertheless deliver layers of research
and references underpinned by her erudite With a long-term preference for producing ourselves and consider the natural world.”
process. Appreciated by audiences and cura- editioned photographs in numerous series, Most recently, the Museum of Australian
tors alike, her work starts conversations.” Clark points out, “there are still great works Photography in Victoria launched the survey
Successful both critically and commercially, from Zahalka’s Bondi: playground of the Pacific, exhibition, ZAHALKAWORLD – an artist’s
Zahalka has exhibited more than 40 solo 1989 and Leisureland, 1999 series available at an archive, curated by Anouska Phizacklea.
exhibitions over the course of four decades accessible point of sale.” Featuring key works from across the duration
and is included in multiple public and private The WILD LIFE 2004 series should also be of Zahalka’s career, also included are treasured
collections, including the National Gallery of considered. “This is an iconic body of work full archival items that continue to inform and
Australia, the National Art Gallery, Wellington, of humour and surprise,” says Clark. “It has inspire her significant creative output. The
the International Polaroid Collection, USA and well withstood the test of time and remains a exhibition shows until 10 September, 2023.
Visart, New York. noteworthy series that challenges how we see BRIONY DOWNES
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ARTISTS | Under 5K
PRUE VENABLES
BORN: 1954 | PRICE RANGE
FOR WORK: $300 to $10,000 plus |

CONTACT: Beaver Galleries, Canberra
Prue Venables is one of the country’s leading object’s duality of art

ceramicists and this year Australia’s represen- and function.
tative in the international Loewe Foundation Venables’ mastery has
Craft Prize. Her elegant hand thrown Limoges, been on show in a number of
Porcelain Black Triangulated Form, on exhi- high profile exhibitions including
bition at New York’s Noguchi Museum, is the XV International Biennial, Ceramics,
among 30 beautifully crafted objects worthy Manises; Master of Australian Craft and the
of the EUR 50,000 prize. The Spanish luxury Clunes Ceramic Award. The ceramicist’s
brand founded in 1846 established the prize objects are readily snapped up by collectors,
to support quality design and craftsmanship, hence she’s represented in significant collec-
its jury noting of her win, “Venables’ work tions overseas and in all state gallery collec-
is a beautiful study in space and movement, tions in this country along with the National
its porcelain’s yielding flexibility daringly Gallery of Australia.
manipulated with skill and precision to create Venables says, “I make very risky things yet
a gently twisting shape with opposing triangu- there is a quietness to them. The porcelain
lar geometry. The result, harmonious, elegant that I use really wants to collapse, doesn’t want years of artistic production and experimenta-
and surprising.” to be that shape. Timing is crucial. I have to tion have evolved to become more sculptural,
The work’s rich satin-like glaze is also shared know when the clay will work for me.” their presence more commanding, stilling
by her Black Pointed Form, its title typical of the And work it magically she does, leaving the the eye to reckon with their energy and reso-
artist’s prosaic naming as if to play with the viewer with exquisite objects that over the 50 nance. COURTNEY KIDD
114
ARTISTS | Under 5K
OPPOSITE ABOVE: Prue

Venables, White jug &
sieve, red lacquer handle.
Thrown, altered Limoges
porcelain, cast jug,
Jingdezhen porcelain,
7 x 20 x 7.5cm. $950.
OPPOSITE LEFT: Prue
Venables Black
stemmed bowl, black
triangulated form, 2019.
porcelain, 16 x 26 x
18.5cm. $4,500.
OPPOSITE RIGHT: Prue
Venables, Black pointed
form, 2023. Limoges
porcelain, thrown and
altered, 15 x 12 x 24cm.
$2,800. PHOTO: IAN HILL
THIS PAGE: Prue Venables,
Black oval form with
blackened silver lid, 2019.
porcelain, fabricated
silver lid, 27 x 11 x 9.5cm.
$3,500.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST
AND BEAVER GALLERIES,
CANBERRA.
115
ARTISTS | Under 5K
DENIS O’CONNOR
BORN: 1947 | PRICE RANGE FOR

WORK: NZ $4,800 to NZ $10,000 |
CONTACT: Two Rooms, Auckland
Born in Auckland, Denis O’Connor – sculp-

tor, ceramicist and writer – studied at the
Wellington Polytechnic School of Design and
Otago University in Dunedin. His work, found
in many important public and private collec-
tions in New Zealand, has always crossed
boundaries between categories.
Early on his preferred media was imported
white porcelain clay and the iron rich clay
near his studio on Waiheke Island. After being
awarded Otago University’s Frances Hodgkins
Fellowship in 1985, he switched to carving in
limestone.
During a Moët and Chandon Fellowship
in France in 1996, O’Connor began incorpo-
rating objet trouvé and meticulously carving
burnished reliefs into black Welsh slate.
Since then, he says, “I have carved, engraved,
waxed, and sometimes, clad readymade
objects with sheets of this almost page-like
natural mudstone.”
These minimalist compositions bring up
surprising juxtapositions, blending personal
history with broader social narratives from
his ancestral Ireland to Aotearoa. “Welsh works retailing at Two Rooms in Auckland for OPPOSITE: Denis O’Connor, Burning Apples, 2022.
Carved pigmented Welsh slate, 22.5 x 18.5cm.
roof-slates from historic architecture,” says NZ $4,800.
ABOVE: Denis O’Connor, Drummer Boy, 2022. Bone
O’Connor, “are a rare source of a unique mate- These new, colourful works have a dominos, carpenter’s pencil, carved pigmented
Welsh slate, 22.5 x 22.2cm.
rial that has made the migratory passage from Duchamp-esque playfulness, a Magritte-like
COURTESY: THE ARTISTS AND T WO ROOMS, AUCKL AND.
the Northern Hemisphere. These days, those absurdity, and a brash Philip Guston-style
slates are usually destroyed during re-roofing.” humour to them that retains the mystery of
More recently O’Connor has been awarded their syntax and symbolism like geological every exhibition, and outlines the genealogy
the Rathcoola Fellowship in Ireland in 2005, ikons or pages from a stone book of emblem- of these stratified stories, that imbue the
and a Blumhardt Foundation Residency in ata. Of his work, O’Connor says: “My images heraldry of the motifs. Sometimes these texts
New South Wales from 2016 to 2018. While and texts traverse the borders where personal, are hand-lettered onto the reverse side of the
the 2022 Tylee Cottage artist-in-residence cultural and social histories intersect. Dense slates.”
in Whanganui, New Zealand, O’Connor layers of narrative are coded into my images, O’Connor’s exhibition Lucken’s Margin
produced a body of work which included a in a conceptual process that is almost archae- shows at Two Rooms, Auckland from July to
series of small, whimsical and surreal slate ological. My writing evolves in tandem with August. ANDREW WOOD
117
ARTISTS | Look Out For
LOOK OUT FOR RYAN H ANCOCK
Why pay attention?

Since completing a Master of Fine Art at the
Early career solo shows at leading contemporary galleries,
National Art School, Sydney in 2017, Ryan
museum inclusion and prestigious residencies, these three artists Hancock has nabbed dealer representation
at Melbourne’s LON Gallery, presented solo
possess promising prospects. shows at Gallery 9 and Alaska Projects in
Sydney and been curated into numerous
group shows.
What do they do?

Hancock’s ceramic works operate within the
history of studio ceramics, their shape taking
the classic vessel form, yet their aesthetic
appears almost anti-establishment. For his
latest series, Hancock has created slip cast
Maiolica earthenware vessels which act as his
canvas for abstracted narratives.
What’s going on?

Melding high and low art, Hancock finds
source imagery online before researching
the image’s history and significance in books,
joining the often conflicting representations
together to make new narratives. Describing
the scribble-like drawing and painting on his
surfaces as akin to a roll of film, Hancock
seeks to unpack the history of contemporary
image making.
The artist says

“I would like audiences to explore what is
happening within the narratives they see,
to find recognisible images that have been
abstracted or deconstructed. I hope upon each
viewing they glean more information from the
images. I hope it’s a constant interaction, a
continued journey.”
See it at
Ryan Hancock’s Spawn shows at LON Gallery,
ABOVE: Ryan Hancock’s solo exhibition Beserk Idyll at LON Gallery, Melbourne, 2021.
OPPOSITE: Ryan Hancock, Comfort Character, 2021. Maiolica and earthenware, 46 x 22 x 22cm. Melbourne from 20 September to 14 October,
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND LON GALLERY, MELBOURNE. 2023. ROSE OF SHARON LEAKE
118
121
122
K E R E A M A TA E PA
OPPOSITE: Kereama Taepa, Pākatiwhetū, 2022.

3D printed polyamide and lacquer, 24.3 x 30 x 5cm.
Why pay attention? He coined the term “whakapī” to describe ABOVE LEFT: Kereama Taepa, pākatipire, 2023.
3D printed nylon, lacquer and pāua laminate,
Artist Kereama Taepa (Te Arawa, Te Āti Awa) his approach. Whakapī riffs off whakairo 43 x 56.6 x 3cm.
is in high-demand. In 2020, Objectspace, (carving). While whaka (to become) is shared ABOVE RIGHT: Kereama Taepa, pākatipātene, 2023.
3D printed nylon, lacquer and pāua laminate,
Auckland, presented his major solo exhibi- across both terms, iro – which describes the 34.7 x 56.6 x 3cm.
tion Transmission. The show followed Taepa’s reduction of material – is replaced with pī COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND
JH ANA MILLERS GALLERY, WELLINGTON.
artist residency in Banff, Canada in 2019 and (bee) to signal a different process of succes-
commissions for Te Papa Tongarewa in 2016 sive layering, shared between bees making
and Maclean Park in Paraparaumu in 2020. hives and 3D printing alike.
Most recently, Taepa presented work in Toi Tū due to the environment here in Aotearoa. The
Toi Ora: Contemporary Māori Art at Auckland What’s going on? works in Rerekē both follow our customary
Art Gallery from 2020-2021 and Nuit Blanche, In his recent work, Taepa combines tiki forms conventions and adapt to our new environ-
Toronto in 2022. in the Te Āti Awa style with 3D printing, bright ment and propose that our most important
colours, and references to arcade games and tradition is the tradition of innovation.”
What do they do? popular culture.
Taepa uses digital technologies – including See it at…
3D modeling, 3D printing, and virtual and The artist says… Taepa’s solo exhibition Rerekē shows at Jhana
augmented reality software – to explore toi “Our ancestors brought a lot of things from Millers Gallery, Wellington from 31 August to
Māori from a contemporary perspective. Hawaiiki, however some things were dropped 23 September 2023. IOANA GORDON-SMITH
121
FIONA
C U R R E Y- B I L LY A R D
Why pay attention?

Fiona Currey-Billyard’s first commercial
show since graduating from a Master of Fine
Art at Sydney’s National Art School last year is
a total takeover of the renowned Annandale
Galleries. She’ll fill the impressively-scaled
space, a converted Masonic Hall in what was
originally a Methodist church, with equally
impressively-scaled mixed media canvases,
some standing an overwhelming three meters
high.
What do they do?

Currey-Billyard’s practice explores memory,
history, and suspended moments. She employs
a range of media – anything from nails soaked
in seawater and rusted into fabric, to ink,
charcoal, shellac, graphite, projected glass
and heavy glitter. Her resulting works span
transcendence and beauty and darkness and
violence, remaining consistently elegantly
resolved.
What’s going on?

Her coming show at Annandale is titled Dark
Crossings and explores the idea of moving from
one state of being to another. Canvases will be
divided, different materials of interest juxta-
posed. One of the larger cavasses is adorned
with thousands of staples, tracing the ocean
currents around Papua New Guinea, where the
artist was born and lived until age six.
The artist says…

“My work is about memory, about everything
being soaked in memories and moments.
It’s about being seduced by the material. See it at…
Somebody once said to me, ‘be careful, don’t Catch Currey-Billyard’s debut solo Dark ABOVE AND OPPOSITE: Fiona Currey-
Billyard, Dark Crossings, 2023.
get seduced by the material.’ But that’s exactly Crossings at Annandale Galleries, Sydney, from Shellac, acrylic, staples and glitter,
300 x 200cm.
what’s going to happen. I want people to be 26 July to 26 August 2023.
seduced.” CAMILLA WAGSTAFF ANNANDALE GALLERIES, SYDNEY.
122
125
ARTISTS | Pull Focus
PULL FOCUS
What makes these major works work as works of art.
JEFFREY HARRIS
Religious and Allegorical Painting, 1973
This work dates from a crucial period in the elements of both types of devotional painting, be dressed in red, not blue. Or is this Veronica,
artist’s life when personal and professional and perhaps also the Resurrection, with hands at the ready with her veil, even though she has
events would change his outlook forever. of God reaching down from above to the cruci- missed her opportunity to wipe Christ’s face
Marrying fellow artist Joanna Margaret fied figure as if to elevate him as well. With its on the way to Golgotha?
Paul in 1971, Jeffrey Harris began receiving complicated layering of figures and scenes, But while the Christian narrative in this
instruction so that he could join her in the this early square work shows Harris’ skill at work seems jumbled and full of allusion to
Catholic faith. He became a father for the first manipulating the fictive space in a painting. local and European art history, it is possible
time in 1973 when daughter Ingrid Magdalena Created when the artist was just 23 years old, to pick up another story or two by exploring
was born, the first in what became a family it is an enigmatic composition where symbols the formal properties of the work. Follow the
of four children. That same year, Dunedin and references to Renaissance altarpieces colour blue, for example, around the work,
artist Patricia France paid for him to travel to resonate with viewers but confound expec- and see where it leads you. The red of the
Australia, his first overseas trip, enabling him tations of an easy read. Instead, they divert Greek cross in Christ’s halo is echoed in the
to experience the richness of the collections attention back to the composition itself. clothing of the female figure who retreats up
of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Clothing and attributes are all mixed up. the road with her black dog. Is she ignoring
Hugely impressed by the Australian landscape The pink male figure to the left who wears the foreground scene or repulsed by it?
as well as the art, Harris was to return to live a Homburg hat outlined in blue is surely a Like the French artist Paul Gauguin who set
in Melbourne 15 years later, before making Doubting Thomas, probing Christ’s wound his painting of the yellow Christ in Brittany,
Dunedin, New Zealand his home in 2000. in a conversational manner, yet why is he so Harris locates his religious and allegorical
Having received some early tutoring by naked, and what is the significance of the painting in the over-fertilised New Zealand
Colin McCahon who had also explored unicorn in the background, framed by the two countryside and makes of the representa-
Catholicism, Harris’ earliest compositions male bodies? Flanking this pair of connected tion of human sacrifice something startling,
were often religious works: Crucifixions and figures are two clothed women, a brunette and adventurous and unconventional, yet familiar.
Depositions. This work seems to combine a blonde. If one is Mary Magdalen she should LINDA TYLER
124
Jeffrey Harris, Religious and Allegorical Painting, 1973. Oil on board, framed, 125.5 x 125.5 x 5.4cm. NZ $185,000.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND {SUITE}, WELLINGTON.
125
L E N LY E
Fountain II, 1959-60
Len Lye’s (1901-1980) family of Fountains were giving the lie to the image of the artist as one
a ubiquitous part of his practice as a kinetic wrapped up in precision engineering. Less a
sculptor in America during the 1960s and technologist and more attuned to the natural
remain the quintessential example of the harmonic resonances in his chosen materials,
artist’s notion of “composing with motion”. Lye’s heart was in natural motion and never
Envisioned on various scales, some achieved more so than in this work. Just the smallest
in Lye’s lifetime and some intended as post- of start-stop rotations of Fountain’s motor sets
humous works, Fountain debuted in Lye’s 1959 the work in motion, imparting a perpetual and
film for the United Nations titled Peace (alter- random performance into the steel rods.
natively known as Fountain of Hope). Images of Fountain reappeared at the Howard Wise
an early Fountain in motion were juxtaposed Gallery in 1964 in the On the Move exhibition
with the word “peace” offered in various in the company of kinetic works by Alexander
languages to commemorate the International Calder, George Rickey, Tinguely and Takis.
Day of Peace. With the support of Howard Wise (a cham-
Lye’s film for the United Nations came at a pion of artists working at the nexus of art and
point where he had largely walked away from technology), Lye’s Fountains would become his
his career as an experimental filmmaker in most well-traveled sculpture series and estab-
favour of the flourishing kinetic art move- lished his sculptural practice firmly into the
ment. The shift, however, was academic, as American art scene, featuring in Directions in
Lye continued his lifelong work with motion Kinetic Sculpture, Berkeley Art Museum, 1965
through his conception of the tangible or and the 68th American Exhibition of Painting
tangible motions sculpture. Making motion and Sculpture, Art Institute of Chicago, 1966.
and energy visible, Lye could engage his audi- Notably, the work traveled to Stockholm to
ence with a kinaesthetic experience instead of featured in the Moderna Museet’s landmark
an intellectual one. 1961 exhibition of kinetic art Rörelse i Konsten
One year on from Jean Tinguely’s infamous (Movement in Art).
1960 performance of the self-destructive Like the majority of Lye’s tangibles,
Homage to New York in the sculpture garden Fountain was imagined by Lye on a large scale
at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, Lye with the variants Fountain I and Fountain II
presented his own performance in An Evening exhibited throughout the 1960s serving as
of Tangible Motion Sculpture in the museum’s models pointing towards grander visions.
auditorium. Far from the Dada-esque cacoph- Lye and Wise unsuccessfully lobbied New
ony of Tingeuly’s sculpture, Lye’s tangibles York University to install a 10-metre version
were choreographed like a dance recital. The of the work on university grounds, a project
evening included Fountain accompanied with ultimately realised by the Len Lye Foundation
a movement from Béla Bartók’s Dance Suite. for the opening of the Len Lye Centre in 2015.
Len Lye, Fountain II, 1959-60
Fountain is one of Lye’s more gentle works. Ultimately, Lye’s ambition for Fountain lay (reconstructed). Steel and
mechanical engine, edition
The steel rods sway under the most subtle well beyond even this mark, his goal a monu-
5/15, 274 x 200cm. $110,000.
of motivations. Lye felt that the slightest mental lake-set Fountain more than 20 metres COURTESY: 1301SW, MELBOURNE.
breeze would be enough to animate Fountain, tall. PAUL BROBBEL
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WENDY SHARPE
Three Fates with Cat’s Cradle, 2023
In Greek and Roman mythology, the Three game of cat’s cradle. Her knee points to a plate
Fates were divine beings charged with allocat- of fairy bread on a paper plate. Is she even
ing each person’s lifespan and deciding how taking her job seriously?
each mortal will live and die. The third figure in the triangular composi-
The Greek Fates were Clotho, Lachesis and tion is the older Atropos, cutting the thread of
Atropos. Their Roman counterparts were life (a pretty ribbon) with the kind of scissors
Nona, Decima and Morta. Clotho/Nona wound you pick up on special at Spotlight. Striped
the thread of life around the spindle. Roman tights and Docs with an aggressive, don’t-
Nona had the additional role as the goddess mess-with-me tread complete the picture of
of pregnancy. Lachesis/Decima measured the this woman with the power of life and death.
thread spun by Clotho, thus allotting a person’s Sharpe adores classical mythology, and it
lifespan. Roman Decima was also responsible is typical of her that she would strip away the
for birth. aeons to bring the ancient world into collision
Atropos/Morta cut the thread of life, cata- with our own. She believes that everyone
pulting people to their death. Artists have inhabits the here and now at the same time as
depicted the divinity’s shears glinting against they are remembering the past or occupying
the inexorable onset of everlasting night. the future by way of the imagination.
A length of thread, a spindle and a dove are The faux collage introduced into the paint-
other symbols associated with the Three Fates. ing was inspired by the Metro posters Sharpe
Pin cushions (a reference to sticking pins in observed in Paris last year. As one poster was
voodoo dolls?), plastic traffic cones (witches’ torn away, another was revealed underneath
hats?) and fairy bread, on the other hand, were it. Which is the truer image? The new one, or
definitely never part of the Fates’ art historical the one beneath?
symbology – at least, not until Wendy Sharpe Are we looking back through some strange
cast these formidable women in a contempo- magic at the moment of our own creation, and
rary light. seeing the very deities who designed our lives
Under Sharpe’s brush, the Fates emerge as and will one day cut them down? Or are we
creatures of flesh and blood. They’re self-con- merely seeing three models in dress-ups, who
fident, even sassy, flaunting miniskirts, arm have no more knowledge of the future than we
tattoos and Dr. Martens boots. do? Sharpe is leaving it totally up to us to make
Clotho seems more absorbed with the that choice.
miracle of her own pregnancy than she does Three Fates with Cat’s Cradle goes on view as
with bothering about anybody else’s destiny. part of a series of new paintings in Wheel of
The red and yellow spirals on her bra accen- Fortune, Sharpe’s solo exhibition at King Street
tuate her balloon-like belly. By her foot is Gallery on William in Sydney’s Darlinghurst,
an upside down teacup decorated with the from August 1 to 26, 2023. Wendy Sharpe:
ancient wheel of fortune, often depicted with Many Lives, a book on Sharpe’s life and work
Wendy Sharpe, Three Fates with Cat’s Cradle, people clinging to its grinding outer edges. produced by myself will be published later
2023. Oil on linen, 145 x 170cm. $45,000.
The middle figure, Lachesis, takes the red this year by Wakefield Press.
PHOTO: JOHN FOTIADIS. COURTESY: THE ARTIST
AND KING STREE T GALLERY ON WILLIAM, SYDNEY. wool of longevity and makes it into a children’s ELIZABETH FORTESCUE
128
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ARTISTS | Collector’s Dossier
130
PICTURING
SURVIVAL
For four decades, Ricky Maynard has questioned the photographer’s role,
the influence of the image in society and its persuasive power.
WORDS | KEITH MUNRO
When it comes to picture-making, documen- people see themselves in his photographs.

tary photographer Ricky Maynard has a belief Maynard is passionate about the materiality
that rings true. It is something that continues of the artform; he is process driven, collabo-
to guide this process. “A really good portrait rative and engaging.
is the result of an intimate conversation He is influenced by the work of leading
between two people,” says Maynard. What figures in the photographic medium who
has also become an important element in his changed and challenged the way we appre-
photographs is, “recognising the existence of ciate this art form. Pioneers such as Alfred
struggle beneath the image surface.” Stieglitz (1864–1946), Lewis Hine (1874–1940),
Through his considered professional prac- Paul Strand (1890–1976), Dorothea Lange
tice, Maynard thinks deeply about photog- (1895–1965), Group f/64 members including
raphy. He is a lifelong student of the photo- Ansel Adams (1902–1984), Edward Weston
graphic medium and a master storyteller who (1886 – 1958), Walker Evans (1903–1975) as
is driven by the importance of the subject well as Mary Ellen Mark (1940–2015) who was
matter and the need to share the stories of a lecturer of Maynard’s during his time at the
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australia International Centre of Photography in New
with others. York in 1990. He is also a founding member of
It is important to him that Aboriginal M.33 Photoagency, Melbourne.
131
His work is held in numerous national and relating to social justice and native title. His Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
state gallery collections, and he has exhibited images often bring the human story of these in Canberra. Working with historical images
nationally and internationally. Maynard has issues to the viewer’s attention. This human- of Aboriginal people in the institute’s digital
also been the recipient of various awards ness has been a fundamental aspect of his collection, he began to question the role of
throughout his professional practice including work and has provided his audiences with a photography and the powerful way it frames
the Mother Jones International Documentary deeper engagement with various Aboriginal not just a culture but also a people. Maynard
Award, 1994, an Australian Human Rights communities throughout Australia. has continued to work and develop his prac-
Award for Photography, 1997 and the Kate Maynard undertakes his photographic tice within this ethical framework.
Challis RAKA Award, 2003. work with a profound sense of responsibility Maynard’s photographs take viewers on a
Since the mid-1980s, Maynard has docu- towards cultural integrity, honesty and truth journey of understanding the unique rela-
mented various cultural practices, stories in picture-making by actively engaging with tionships Australia has with this country’s
and histories that remain vitally important the people and communities he documents. First Peoples and to question how the photo-
to Aboriginal identity. He has also examined He inherited this during his time as a trainee graphic lens has historically framed those
sites of occupation and contact, and issues photographer at the Australian Institute of relationships. This includes the colonial gaze
132
that dominated much of the studio portraiture birding on the windswept islands of the
of Aboriginal people throughout the colonial Bass Strait, situated between the southeast
period up until the 1950s and the inherent Australian mainland and Tasmania. The
power imbalance at play. Maynard family were one of 13 Aboriginal
Maynard was born in 1953 in Launceston, families living on the islands, and practising
Tasmania, and is a member of the Ben mutton birding, in 1847. The harvesting of
Lomond and Cape Portland peoples. While he moonbirds for their oil, meat and feathers is PREVIOUS PAGE: Ricky Maynard, 2000s,
places himself firmly within the tradition of an annual cultural tradition that continues photographing on Big Dog Island, Bass
Strait, Tasmania. PHOTO: MICK CUMMINS.
documentary photographer as social activist, today. It is clear from the easy way his subjects
OPPOSITE: Ricky Maynard, Untitled, No
his subjects are always strongly connected to carry themselves that they are comfortable in More Than What You See, 1993/2023.
Silver gelatin print on paper, 32.3 x 48.2cm.
his own life and upbringing as an Aboriginal front of Maynard’s camera as they go about
ABOVE: Ricky Maynard, Untitled, No More
person. The series that established him as a their business. “They knew they were involved Than What You See, 1993/2023. Silver
gelatin print, 32.3 x 48.2cm
photographer, The Moonbird People, 1985-88, in the process, and they trusted me,” he says
documents the annual tradition of mutton of this series. AND BE T T GALLERY, HOBART.
133
In his series Urban Diary, 1997, he captured While he photographed the earlier The over a three-month period in response to the
the profoundly personal journey of adults Moonbird People series with a 35mm camera, Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in
undertaking rehabilitation for drug and the majority of his professional practice saw Custody which was handed down in 1991.
alcohol addiction. He addressed the landmark him prefer the use of various medium format Exhibited for the very first time will be the
High Court of Australia ruling on Native Title cameras. entire 31 works that make up the suite. The
in the series Returning To Places That Name Us, This year represents the 30th anniversary images will be printed in a limited edition of
2000, while his series Portrait of a Distant Land, of Maynard’s seminal series No More Than ten, and will be larger in scale to the format in
2005–07 and Saddened were the hearts of many What You See, 1993 which will be celebrated which they were originally produced.
men, 2015 were completed closer to home in in an upcoming exhibition presented at Bett If the images that Maynard captures are
Tasmania, with narratives linked to history Gallery in Hobart come August. The series to record an archive of our time, what does
and place. They are the faces, places and came about following discussions with the this series invoke 30 years later as we revisit
landscapes that have informed, in intimate South Australian Department of Correctional this particular subject matter? They are a
detail, the co-authorship of image-making Services who granted Maynard permission to powerful reminder of why this body of work
that Maynard has developed over 30 years. document Aboriginal people in four prisons is important.
134
OPPOSITE: Ricky Maynard, Untitled, No More Than What You See, 1993/2023. Silver gelatin print, 32.3 x 48.2cm.
ABOVE: Ricky Maynard, Sean, Saddened Were the Hearts of Many Men, 2015. Silver gelatin print, 45 x 45cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND BE T T GALLERY, HOBART.
135
136
I am conscious that many parts of the world

have experienced Black Lives Matter, the
anger, the protests, the outrage and action.
These images open up space for the conversa- All too often there is
tion in a proactive and dignified way. It gives
voice to the voiceless. It also sheds light on the
a detachment and an
people that make up the disproportionately inability to connect
high number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
the figures we read
Islander people that are incarcerated in this
country. It recognises the humanity in this and hear about in
problem, and that they are not just numbers the latest news cycle
we read about when another death in custody
is reported in the news. All too often there is
with real people.
a detachment and an inability to connect the I am reminded of
figures we read and hear about in the latest
that when I revisit
news cycle with real people. I am reminded
of that when I revisit this series, and look at this series and
the sterile environments and into the eyes of look at the sterile
kids, expectant mothers, adults, parents and
environments and
the elderly that have collaborated in the devel-
opment of Maynard’s series. into the eyes of kids,
This body of work challenges, informs and expectant mothers,
empowers audiences with its subject matter.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
adults, parents and
per capita are the most incarcerated people the elderly that have
on the planet, and in many ways, it becomes
collaborated in the
less about what you see and more about what
you do. development of
Maynard captures the resilience, dignified Maynard’s series.
humility and stoic nature of Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander people. Long may this
continue.
Ricky Maynard will show his 1990s series

No More Than What You See at Bett Gallery,
More Than What You See, 1993/2023.
Hobart from 4 to 26 August 2023. Silver gelatin print, 32.3 x 48.2cm.
BE T T GALLERY, HOBART.
137
EMMA BETT
Director, Bett Gallery, Hobart
“Bett Gallery has represented Ricky Maynard mark 30 years since this series of photographs access to prisons with the support of the
for well over 20 years. I was originally drawn were first exhibited. Maynard began No More South Australian Department of Correctional
to Ricky’s work through its palpable sense of than What You See after returning from New Facilities.
connection between people and place. Ricky York where he had studied at the International “Ricky’s work continues to be highly sought
takes time to develop personal relationships Center for Photography. The series was made after by institutions and private collectors,
with his subject, be that person or site, and in response to the Royal Commission into acknowledging his importance as the creator
this sees him stand apart from and go beyond Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. 1987–1991. of some of the most compelling images of
other documentary photographers. There is Today, 30 years later, Indigenous Australians contemporary Aboriginal Australia over the
an intimacy to his photographs and a truth are the most incarcerated people on the planet last two decades. Never have these images
and authenticity to the work. You know that and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander been so important. Ricky upholds the contin-
you are looking at something very important, prisoners account for 32% of all prisoners. ued presence of his people and his connection
even if you can’t register why. These are incredibly significant and evoca- to their place, encouraging viewers to take the
“This upcoming exhibition of Ricky’s will tive images by Ricky, who was given special time to listen to these important stories.”
138
DR. SHAUNE LAKIN
Senior Curator of Photography at the National Gallery of Australia
“I first came to know Ricky’s work through projects (including colonisation and geno-
his Muttonbird series. When I first saw these cide) and that had historically been used to
photographs, maybe because I was young, I furnish “proof” of people and culture having
didn’t fully understand their power. passed or in demise.
“Everything that Ricky does is about pictur- “But he never uses the documentary mode
ing survival, using photography and the docu- in a didactic way. His photographs are always
mentary form to demonstrate the resilience open and straightforward, both as pictures
of his family and of First Nations people and and also as assertions of sovereignty and
culture on this continent. So he uses this survival. I began by stating that, when I first More Than What You See, 1993/2023.
Silver gelatin print, 32.3 x 48.2cm.
actually quite complicated set of practices – saw it, I didn’t fully understand the implica-
ABOVE: Ricky Maynard, Untitled, No More
documentary photography – that, certainly tions and the power of Ricky’s work, perhaps Than What You See, 1993/2023. Silver
gelatin print, 32.3 x 48.2cm.
by the mid-1980s, had become implicated in because I was too young. But maybe the work
the facilitation of ideological and political itself has helped me shift.” AND BE T T GALLERY, HOBART.
139
1 4
1950s 1990s
1953 1990
born, Launceston, Tasmania awarded Aboriginal Overseas Study Award and
travels to International Centre of Photography,
New York, USA
1992
holds solo show The Moon-Bird People at
National Aboriginal Culture Institute, Adelaide, 5
South Australia
1994 1995
holds solo show No More Than What You See, solo show No More Than What You See, the Prison
the Prison series at Stills Gallery, Sydney. | series tours to Adelaide and regional South
recipient of the Mother Jones International Australia | holds solo shows World Retrospective
2 on Documentary Photography, Centro de la Imagen,
Documentary Award, San Francisco, U.S.A.
Mexico City; The Moon-Bird People, Australian
National Maritime Museum, Sydney; and Dear
1980s
Mother, M.33 Photoagency collective exhibition,
Fitzroy Town Hall, Melbourne | undertakes Artist-
1983-86
in-residence, University of New South Wales
worked as photographic assistant,
Australian Institute of Aboriginal 1997
and Torres Strait Islander Studies, holds solo show Urban Diary, Manly Art Gallery and
Canberra Museum, Sydney. | awarded Australian Human
Rights Award for Photography
1987
held position of Aboriginal Arts 1999
Development Officer, Tasmanian holds solo show The Survey, Melbourne Arts Festival,
Aboriginal Centre, Hobart, Tasmania 3 Linden Gallery, Melbourne
1 | 1985 2 | 1985 3 | 1990 S 4 | 1993

COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND Ricky Maynard, Elliott (Bucky), Ricky Maynard, Athol Burgess, Ricky Maynard, self Ricky Maynard, Untitled, No More
BE T T GALLERY, HOBART..
The Moonbird People, 1985. The Moonbird People (detail), 1985. portrait with work Than What You See, 1993/2023.
Silver gelatin print, 28 x 36cm. Silver gelatin print, 28 x 36cm. Urban Diary, 1990s. Silver gelatin print, 32.3 x 48.2cm.
140
6 7
2000s 2010s 2012

Portrait of a Distant Land, touring
2007
2000 2010 exhibit shows at Tandanya
holds solo show In Response to
founding director of The portrait of Mick Dodson, First National Aboriginal Cultural
Place, Melbourne Town Hall,
Moonbird Heritage Trust, Nation scholar and leader, Institute South Australia
commission, and exhibition;
Indigenous archive, and commissioned by National
included in Paris Photo Quai 2016
community history programs Portrait Gallery, Canberra,
Biennale, Australian Embassy, holds solo show Saddened Were
| holds solo show The Elders now in its permanent
France and Busan Biennale, the Hearts of Many Men, Stills
Album, Tasmania Elders collection. | holds solo show
South Korea Gallery, Sydney
Council, Tasmania Portrait of a Distant Land, Bett
2008 Gallery, Hobart
2001
holds solo show Portrait of
holds solo show Returning to 2011
a Distant Land, Tasmanian
Places that Name Us Aurukun, holds solo show Portrait of
Museum and Art Gallery,
Wik Portraits, Stills Gallery, a Distant Land, Kluge-Ruhe
Tasmania
Sydney Aboriginal Art Collection,
2009 Virginia, USA
2003
holds solo show Culture
holds solo show Wik Portraits,
Warriors, National Collective
RAKA award exhibition,
at Katzen Gallery, American
Ian Potter Museum of Art,
University Museum
Melbourne | national winner 9
Washington DC, USA |
of the prestigious Kate Challis
Portrait of a Distant Land titled
Indigenous RAKA Art Award
for the Survey Collection, 2020s
2005 Museum of Contemporary
awarded Australia Council for Art, Sydney with national and 2023
the Arts, Aboriginal and Torres international tours. Entire upcoming solo show No More
Strait Islander Arts Board collection acquisition by the Than What You See at Bett
Fellowship Award Museum of Contemporary Art 8 Gallery, Hobart
5 | 1993 6 | 2005/08 7 | 2007 8 | 2015 9 | 2015

Ricky Maynard, Untitled, No More Ricky Maynard, The Spit, Portrait Ricky Maynard Ricky Maynard, Kerry, Saddened Were Ricky Maynard, Leigh, Saddened
Than What You See, 1993/2023. of a Distant Land, 2005/08. Silver in the darkroom. the Hearts of Many Men, 2015. Silver Were the Hearts of Many Men, 2015.
Silver gelatin print, 32.3 x 48.2cm. gelatin print on paper, 37 x 54cm. gelatin print on paper, 45 x 45cm. Silver gelatin print, 45 x 45cm.
141
ARTISTS | Profile
THE THEATRE
OF DOMESTICITY
James Drinkwater’s latest works were conceived during his 2021 stay in artist Julian Schnabel’s
Long Island holiday house. But then, he let time do its work on his memories.
WORDS | LUKE LÉTOURNEAU

PHOTOGRAPHY | BEN ADAMS
James Drinkwater is a painter attuned to sending catalogues and letters back and forth,
the minutia of his adventures. His thick and which led to Schnabel offering Drinkwater
gestural works reimagine the chapters of his and his family to stay at his holiday home and
life. His latest series American Salt: Montauk to studio in Montauk, Long Island. “I left a gap before
the Bowery has been crafted as a response to He shows me pictures of the studio, which
a seven-week period in New York in late 2022 looks as big as a community hall, has no roof
painting this series,
and will debut at Nanda\Hobbs, Sydney in July, and floor decking like an ocean liner. While he which is nice because
2023. urgently painted many works in that studio,
memories can distort
I met with Drinkwater at his Newcastle the paintings for American Salt have been
home and studio as many of the works were produced in Newcastle. Drinkwater takes and embellish,
being formed. “The show is processing that a lot of joy in transforming memories into especially when you
whole experience [of New York],” he tells me artworks. “I left a gap before painting this
start to think about
over lunch. “My practice is about celebrating series, which is nice because memories can
the theatre of the domestic. So, the show is distort and embellish, especially when you them in pictorial
about that time in America, and what we saw.” start to think about them in pictorial terms,” terms.” James Drinkwater
The impetus for the trip came via invitation he says. In different paintings I see diners with
from artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel. their bowls of spaghetti, fishnet stockings and
The two met through a mutual surfing buddy overhanging toenails, crusty Hamptons beach
on the Northern Beaches and kept in touch, scenes and energetic jazz bars.
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ARTISTS | Profile
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ARTISTS | Profile
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ARTISTS | Profile
“I’m touching on all of that

dusty glamour.” James Drinkwater
In explaining the origins of his exhibition

title, he tells me about how his senses were
activated on the drive from the airport to the
studio: “one of [Schnabel’s] guys picked us up
from the airport to take us out to his house,
which is at the end of the spine of the penin-
sula. As we were on the coast, I wound down
the window, because it was hot, and all this
humid salt in the air fell into the car. It felt
different. And so American Salt stayed with me
from that moment.”
It seems that his New York was also one
where the glamour is a little threadbare. As
I look at these paintings, I get the image of
the artist fiddling with loose threads in thrift
stores trying to harness the memory of the
feeling. This sense of the aged comes through
with some of the technical applications of
paint for these new works. “Oil paint wants to
be shiny,” he tells me, brush in hand. “Often
at the end of the day I’ll put my brushes in
water, and because oil and water don’t mix the will be presented in the exhibition as an artist
paint doesn’t dry out. But it does take away the book and are a generous look inside the artist’s
shine, it’s a beautiful thing that accelerates the process. The pairing of these contemporane-
look of the age of the paint.” And then he flicks ous sketches and the paintings made months
the watery brush at an almost-finished beach later is a wonderful insight into an artist who
scene, dabbing a figure with a matte pigment. is putting shape and texture to memories. For
“I’m touching on all of that dusty glamour.” an audience, every small detail is a line to
A key period of his travels was also spent picturing your own memories, a playful invi-
OPPOSITE: James Drinkwater,
at The Bowery Hotel, a seemingly glamorous tation from a similarly spirited artist. Children of Montauk 4, 2022. Oil and
hotel with a speakeasy mystery. Each night Drinkwater is represented by Nanda\ charcoal on paper, 127 x 89.5cm.
ABOVE: James Drinkwater, Lottie
as Drinkwater was winding down, he would Hobbs, Sydney; Edwina Corlette Gallery, Awake (Montauk 2.23am), 2022. Oil
sketch the lively characters of his nights-out on Brisbane; and Nicholas Thompson Gallery, on plywood, 244 x 213cm.
his Bowery-branded notepad. These sketches Melbourne. NANDA\HOBBS, SYDNEY.
145
ARTISTS | Profile
RALPH HOBBS
Director, Nanda\Hobbs Gallery, Sydney
Representing James Drinkwater for nine

years, Ralph Hobbs notes there is a vibrancy
to his mark making: “from ink to charcoal
through to viscous oil paint - the magic of the
fluidity of his line is combined with a narra-
tive that poetically morphs between family
history, place and an abstraction drawn from
his personal motifs.”
“There has been extraordinary interest
from New York and significant regional gallery
shows,” Hobbs continues, “including the
survey show at the Drill Hall Gallery at ANU
from 24 June to 20 August. Although relatively
new to the auction rooms - his recent auction
activity is keeping pace with the primary
market pricing. In addition, strong demand
from collectors is ongoing in primary and
secondary markets. The pricing is in line with
recent shows of the artist's work. While there
is a lot of attention on him, and there has been
for a few years now, we are keen for people to
be able to participate in collecting his work.
Both James and the gallery are keen for his
career to burn bright in the eyes of collectors
for decades to come.
“Generally speaking, James' exhibitions sell
out. Collectors are always asking for his work,
and it is vital to be on the gallery list for his
exhibitions. He pushes the boundaries every
show - some collectors like different sorts of
work from him; he is not an artist that paints
for a market. He paints for himself - he also
creates work that is not for the commer-
cial world. His recent ballet production
Storm Approaching Wangi and Other Desires
is an example of following a passion that
informs his painting. His vitality transcends
methodology.”
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ARTISTS | Profile
TERENCE MALOON OPPOSITE ABOVE: James Drinkwater, The sun

climbing into flowers, all over again, 2022.Oil on
plywood, 244 x 213cm.
Director, Drill Hall Gallery, Canberra
OPPOSITE BELOW: Installation view of James
Drinkwater's work in Singing in unison - Artists need
to create on the same scale that society has the
capacity to destroy, 2022 curated by Phong H. Bui
“Early recognised as an exceptional talent, also cunningly composed abstractions. and Cal McKeever, Brooklyn, New York.
James Drinkwater has never toned-down “Drinkwater is concerned to maintain ABOVE: James Drinkwater, Sun kissing your new
cheeks, 2021. Oil, enamel, charcoal, and found object
the intensity and bravura of his approach to maximum inclusiveness in regard to his on hardboard, 244.5 x 367.5cm. COURTESY: THE
ARTIST AND NANDA\HOBBS, SYDNEY.
painting. His work has mined a vast legacy of viewers, irrespective of their age, educa-
modern art – Australian, British, American, tional background or prior experience. His
French – as if all of it remains relevant, paintings seek to connect viscerally with the
fresh and available to him. His paintings viewer. Drinkwater’s exuberant use of oil
embrace great variety and complexity. Their paint produces a very distinctive richness of James Drinkwater’s solo exhibition American
formal make up, tonal intricacy and textural substance... he weaves layers of representa- Salt: Montauk to the Bowery will show at Nanda\
Hobbs, Sydney from 27 July to 12 August 2023.
complexity relate them directly to representa- tional elements together in a striking conden-
tional paintings, while paradoxically they are sation of interest.”
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ARTISTS | Profile
ABOVE CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEF T: James Drinkwater, BH-4; BH-5; BH-6; BH-7; BH-8; BH-9, 2022. All pen and liquid paper, on hotel notebook, 16.5 x 10.7cm.
OPPOSITE: James Drinkwater, Boy collecting clams, 2022. Oil on plywood, 244 x 213cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND NANDA\HOBBS, SYDNEY.
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ARTISTS | Profile
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ARTISTS | Profile
SWEET IMPULSE
Spencer Lai serves up desire with gemstones and faux fur.
WORDS | DIEGO RAMÍREZ
humorously set in places of conformity, such

as universities and upper middle class neigh-
bourhoods, where the aesthetics Lai is drawn
to are either rejected or embraced.
Lai frames their exhibition largely in terms
of desire, commenting on the “yearning to
be free, the emancipation of the self through
knowledge and identification and fulfillment
of various desires (material, sexual, intellec-
tual etc).” They continue: “Desires known and
not. Our desire to be loved, to provide love, to
care for one another. To have people remem-
ber our birthdays, to be provided guidance,
to guide others. To better oneself through
education (skill, labour), achieving virtuosity
through our appearances (material language
Spencer Lai’s upcoming exhibition at Neon engineered wings, is a combination of mystical accessories, fashion, codes of presentation),
Parc, Melbourne running from 14 July to 12 quotes that signal a state of kitschy ascension. thereby expressed through physical expres-
August 2023, builds upon their trajectory by Using a range of materials such as synthetic sion (demeanour, gesture, behaviour, poses).
repurposing and reproducing objects remi- felt, steel, balsa wood, and fabric, Lai presents To do what is expected of us. To become
niscent of middle school debris, tainted by an ironic version of self that is elevated with formed through instruction, as we are shaped
the perversity of 20th century modernism. coded styles. The exhibition also includes by the hands of many.”
The hilariously long title of their show, Let collaborative photographs with Tim Hardy This conflicting longing for freedom and
us be silent so that we may hear the whisper of that feature subjects drawn from the artists’ acceptance finds shape in the relationship
God: strained tremors of life rise from dark billows lives, ranging from peers to former teachers between objects and spaces that Lai estab-
of muteness as a modern wind soars beneath (notably Lou Hubbard). The pictures are lishes, for one feeds the other.
150
ARTISTS | Profile
OPPOSITE: Spencer Lai,

crushing, spit, 2022.
Synthetic felt and
adhesive, 140 x 69.5cm.
NEON PARC, MELBOURNE.
THIS PAGE: Spencer Lai,

Form: egg (watermelon),
2022. Powder coated steel,
foam core, acrylic spray
paint, rubberised spray
paint, synthetic felt, beads
and sequins, 68.5 x 47cm.
THE TA, NEW YORK.
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ARTISTS | Profile
ABOVE: Spencer Lai, Untitled, 2022. Faux fur, acrylic, A case in point is their sculpture Egg: form ideals that we put forth.
balsa wood, spray paint, varnish, beads, cotton, crab
claw remnants, deodorant ball applicator, screws, (watermelon), 2022, which features a powder Their upcoming exhibition Let us be
upholstery studs and wooden board, 30 x 40cm. coated steel egg form inlaid with foam core silent so that we may hear the whisper of God:
PHOTO: JACK BALL.
and felt shapes, a riff on Constructivist strained tremors of life rise from dark billows
OPPOSITE: Spencer Lai, Sound in head dissipates with
sweet impulsiveness brought protected from broken and Bauhaus sensibilities. Paired with the of muteness as a modern wind soars beneath
modern wind born again to completely new life,
2023. Foamcore, spray paint, graphite, beads, pearls, collaborative photographs with Hardy, engineered wings comes after an exhibition
lab-grown gemstones, sternocera aequisignata which features university as a backdrop, one at Theta in New York, called Academy for
beetle forewings and adhesive, 87 x 81cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND NEON PARC, MELBOURNE. encounters an abstract narrative of knowl- the Sensitive Arts, 2022 and a collaborative
edge and how it circulates amongst us. show with Jürgen Baumann titled A Patience
Lai follows an intuitive process to let the Game, 2022 at Holden Garage in Berlin,
materials unravel their meaning, letting making this exhibition an exciting oppor-
Spencer Lai’s solo exhibition shows at Neon them speak of belonging and class through tunity to see the recent developments in
Parc, Melbourne from 14 July to 12 August 2023.
pastiche. After all, it is through objects that Lai’s practice after working in the context of
we signal our position in the world and the major art capitals.
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Lai follows an intuitive process to let the materials unravel their

meaning, letting them speak of belonging and class through pastiche.
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EVERYDAY
PERFECTION
For the first time in her three-decade long ceramic practice,
Kirsten Coelho explores the possibilities of terracotta.
WORDS | JOANNA KITTO

PHOTOGRAPHY | MORGAN SETTE
There are two 17th century still life paint- being song for the home). Pairs and groups of
ings Kirsten Coelho has been returning to. vessels nestled on shelves form vignettes that
The Adelaide-based ceramicist draws on art capture the warmth and peacefulness found
history, and in particular the history of ceram- in environments of our own making. Larger
ics, in all her work and keeps visual reference works of similar familiarity sit atop a long
points close by in the studio. Recently, she has plinth. These are forms Coelho often returns
been drawn to the softly lit vessels on dining to in her practice, ginger jars, pots, vases and
tables of Still Life with Porcelain and Sweets by jugs, deftly brought to life for us to see their
Juan van der Hamen y León (c.1627) and Still details anew. For Coelho, this focus on points
Life with Four Vessels by Francisco de Zurbarán of reverie is where still life painting and
(c.1650). In these paintings, light brings every- ceramics share a common ability to frame,
thing to life. Van der Hamen and Zurbarán re-evaluate and elevate a simple form.
capture moments in time where the light hits Best known for her use of soft white porce-
just so, and four centuries later, their quiet lain to create serene ceramic objects, with
domestic scenes continue to hold attention. hauslieder, Coelho introduces terracotta for
Coelho’s most recent body of work takes its the first time in her three-decades long prac-
cue from still life paintings to capture the plea- tice. Porcelain, a vitrified pottery, with a white,
sures of the domestic space. Coelho gives the fine-grained body that can be translucent, is
work the title hauslieder, after songs composed considered of high standing among clays, and
by Franz Schubert for one voice and piano to its fragility and ability to form delicate curves
be sung in the home (the direct translation offers the material a sense of perfection.
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LEF T: Kirsten Coelho, The Fall, 2022.

Porcelain, matte glaze and iron oxide,
27 x 33 x 24cm.
BELOW: Kirsten Coelho, Runnel, 2022.
Porcelain, matte glaze, Celadon glaze and
iron glaze, 18.5 x 22cm.
OPPOSITE: Kirsten Coelho, Sustain, 2023.
Porcelain, matte glaze and banded iron
oxide, 28 x 30 x 25cm.
SULLIVAN+STRUMPF, SYDNEY AND MELBOURNE.
Terracotta, on the other hand, is a robust of her own life in South Australia, her home material pleasures. Coelho speaks of quiet
earthenware that is ochre in colour, porous, since migrating from Denmark via North moments at home, watching the light move
opaque, and considered a more common America in 1972. For Coelho, terracotta is a through a window and bathe the room in a
material for making vessels of everyday use. reminder of the stories of domestic objects in golden glow. She describes the sense of magic
Coelho is interested in the visual and histor- Australia, and, more personal still, she recalls in the way that light can illuminate objects and
ical interplay between the two, and, inspired visiting Bennetts Magill Pottery, as a child transform them momentarily, before shifting
by Zurbarán’s elegant treatment of a terracotta growing up in the Eastern suburbs of Adelaide again. It is this metaphysical connection to
vase, the way that ornate features can elevate with an early interest in the possibilities of what surrounds us that Coelho is compelled
terracotta and disrupt our understanding of clay. to capture, and hold, in both the process and
the hierarchy of matter. Coelho works with ceramics, but form, the outcome of her work. The pinning down
Coelho’s investigations into the histories space and light are all her mediums. She seeks of something we may not know exists, until it
of ceramics (with British, Greek and Chinese to pin down – and suspend – elusive moments does. A phenomenon that is clumsily framed
heritages) are grounded within the narrative of joy experienced in our engagement with in language, but beautifully realised in matter.
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OPPOSITE: Kirsten Coelho, Afar, 2022. Porcelain, matte pale

grey/white glaze and cobalt matte glaze, 31 x 45 x 25cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND SULLIVAN+STRUMPF,
SYDNEY AND MELBOURNE.
RIGHT: Kirsten Coelho, Proanos, 2002.

Porcelain satin white glaze, 21 x 30 x 26cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND PHILIP BACON GALLERY, BRISBANE.
ERICA GREEN
Director, Anne & Gordon Samstag

Museum of Art
“Love is undoubtedly found in the brilliant

porcelain vessels of Kirsten Coelho, who
draws on a deep well of nostalgia for the
everyday utensils of Australia’s pioneering
past; their elegant, restrained forms and
tantalising edges of minimal colour are richly
informed by a stream of other cultures.
In 2008 the Samstag Museum of Art commis-
sioned South Australian School of Art gradu-
ate Coelho to create a site-specific installation
for the University of South Australia’s new
JOANNA STRUMPF
Hawke Building, designed by John Wardle and
including the Samstag Museum of Art. Director, Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney and Melbourne
The commissioned work features nine
ceramic vessels made of porcelain and high-
fired with a matt white glaze and banded iron “Kirsten is a master of her artistry; her following amongst Singaporean collectors
oxide. The pieces are grouped in the cabinet ceramics have an ethereal quality to them, and exhibits regularly with her London
to create a sense of space around the objects verging on other-worldly perfection. Her dealer Adrian Sassoon at prestigious
and to allow for a linear reading of the objects. devotion to contemporary ceramic art is European fairs such as TEFAF Maastricht.
Later, as Curator of the Art Gallery of South matched by her deep understanding of its Her forthcoming exhibition will focus on
Australia’s 2018 Adelaide Biennial of Art, I history, a duality that appeals to me greatly. smaller groupings of works, and the prices
invited Kirsten to create an ambitious new The works have an air of both humility are reflective of this scale.
work, the resulting work titled Transfigured and confidence to them, together honed Kirsten’s work resonates with particu-
Night featured 73 vessels presented in an through the artist’s sensitivity to form and larly refined collectors who tend to collect
eerie half-light running the length of the to the material quality of porcelain. her work in depth. It is not uncommon for
JamFactory Gallery.” Most recently, Kirsten has had two solo collectors to buy a work from every show,
exhibitions at university museums: The or to fly around the world to see her work
Return, at UNSW Galleries, 2021, and a exhibited.
major installation, Ithaca, at the University There is a sense of stillness and repose
Kirsten Coelho’s solo show hauslieder shows at of South Australia’s Samstag Museum of Art, to Kirsten’s work. It resonates with
Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney from 27 July to 19 August 2023.
2020. collectors who like their works to invite
Outside of Australia, Kirsten has a large contemplation.”
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OPPOSITE: Kirsten Coelho, Remedy, 2022. Porcelain, matte white glaze, iron oxide and saturated iron glaze, 26 x 45 x 30cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND PHILIP BACON GALLERY, BRISBANE.
ABOVE: Kirsten Coelho, Ship #3, 2021. Porcelain, sheen glaze and iron oxide, 29 x 29cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND SULLIVAN+STRUMPF, SYDNEY AND MELBOURNE.
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SUSTAINING
For Nathan Hawkes, there’s just
so much to enjoy in the simple
THE MOMENT
pleasure of making.
WORDS | CAMILLA WAGSTAFF
When I visit Nathan Hawkes’ home and

studio in the Southern Highlands of New
South Wales – down a few kilometres of
unsealed road flanked by ancient eucalypts
– I’m greeted by five very large pastel draw-
ings in various stages of completion. I’m
also welcomed by Maggie, Hawkes’ adorable
2-year-old French sheepdog slash studio
assistant.
One of the drawings is soft and romantic,
a gestural figure’s long hair cascading over
fragmented florals. Another is frenetic,
energetic, the artist’s hand rendered in lively
pinks and reds, like fireworks. Yet another
is a systematic series of strips, almost medi-
tative, in the softest greens and yellows.
Viewing them individually, their distinctness
and diversity are apparent. But when seen en
masse, an intangible thread connects them,
making them cohere as a series, even as
Hawkes continues to resolve them.
Perhaps it’s their uniform format. Hawkes
works almost exclusively on an impressive
220 x 150cm scale. “I can’t seem to get away
from the scale I’ve been working in, it just
suits me somehow,” says the artist. “I like
it because it affords me more chances to
make numerous transitions from one corner
to another. The process of making work at
this scale is often quite rough and physical,
which I enjoy.”
LEFT: Nathan Hawkes, Autumn error, 2023.

Chalk pastel on paper, 220 x 150cm.
OPPOSITE: Nathan Hawkes, Two voices
speaking, 2023. Chalk pastel on paper,
220 x 150cm.
AND CH ALK HORSE, SYDNEY.
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It’s probably not an underlying conceptual

theme. “My way of thinking about the world is
very emotional and kind of atmospheric and
untidy and indirect,” Hawkes reflects. “I don’t
feel capable of working from a preconceived
theme or idea. I’ve tried and it has never
resulted in a drawing worthy of attention.”
Hawkes’ works instead begin with sensa-
tion; often a single, intuitive gesture of pastel
on paper, a call and response. His marks
are made with everything from fingers and
sponges to stencils, sandpaper, vacuum clean-
ers, sheepdog paws and tails. His initial actions
are very much material-based, grounded in a
dialogue with the quality of mark, tone, form,
and colour. “Sensation is kind of everything
when I’m working,” he says. “I get so bored
with self-expression because it’s so conscious
and limited. Sensation can accommodate such
a wider range of stimulus that doesn’t directly
represent conscious ideas. In some ways, the
word draw immediately implies sensation
when it’s used to mean haul or intake. I like
that parallel.”
For his forthcoming show at Chalk Horse
in Sydney, Hawkes has been observing a
wide variety of sensory states: bewilderment,
confusion, boredom, mundanity, fantasy,
desire, bliss, sadness, anger, apathy, over-
whelm. Each state collaborates with, contra-
dicts, and obliterates the next, within and
across the works.
As usual, Hawkes will frame the drawings
himself, the structures becoming a piece of
art in their own right. Often furnished with new ways, playing with and pushing the limits OPPOSITE: Nathan Hawkes, Outside
the chain of breathing, 2023. Chalk
cement, hessian, and general “gunky stuff” of paper and pastel. pastel on paper, 220 x 150cm.
(for the upcoming series Hawkes has been “There is a tendency to rush toward an ABOVE: Nathan Hawkes, River, 2023.
Chalk pastel on paper, 220 x 150cm.
collecting plastic wrappers and bitumen), answer, a knowing. But I want to suspend that
AND CH ALK HORSE, SYDNEY.
Hawkes views his frames as a sort of chorus in closure from happening too quickly,” he says.
a Greek drama – witness and responder to the “I think if you can hang in there and sustain
work they surround. that moment of discomfort even a little bit,
There are more figures appearing in there is a space for insight and possibility that Nathan Hawkes’s solo exhibition shows at
Hawkes’ recent drawings, which makes him shows itself. If I can stay in the simple pleasure CHALK HORSE, Sydney from 17 August to
9 September 2023.
uncomfortable. But discomfort is the goal, as of making, there’s just so much to enjoy.” And
it forces the artist to negotiate his materials in so much that a simple drawing can become.
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QUEER LIGHT
Ali Tahayori finds safety in darkness.
It's curious, then, that his work relies on light.
WORDS | ROSE OF SHARON LEAKE

PHOTOGRAPHY | JACQUIE MANNING
“I love images. I’m obsessed with them,” Ali and in the homophobic environment of Iran
Tahayori tells me. His obsession with the [means that] pain is so much part of my every-
politics of images and the way they reveal day experience. Then moving to Australia I
untold histories runs far deeper than I could thought I had found heaven, [only to feel] like
have imagined; it traverses continents, poli- a stranger again.”
tics, culture and identity. As I speak with him While his practice explores the idea of light,
over the phone, I am increasingly aware of reflection, and image-making, Tahayori’s
the pain, sadness and trauma ever-present in initial interest in darkness is what I find most
Tahayori’s life, yet hope, beauty and resilience interesting. “When I was a child I was always
also filter through the phone line; that is the drawn to dark places,” he tells me. “The
power of his story. Born in 1980 in Iran, the darkness was a place to hide. These places
Sydney-based artist fled his home country in gave me comfort and safety. When I went to
2007, searching for safer soil. “I am a child of the cinema, the darkness enabled me to be
a revolution, there was so much trauma and myself, I could be anyone.” Tahayori’s studies
conflict that continues today,” he says. “The in photography through a Master of Fine Arts
first eight years of my childhood were spent in Photomedia from Sydney’s National Art
running from one shelter to another. The School continued his yearning for somewhere
war finished when I was eight or nine. Then to be himself; the photography studio’s dark
the consequences came through. My life room liberating him from the confines of his
experience as an Iranian gay kid during a war own identity within society.
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He tells me of his first intimate experience “Āine-Kāri (meaning mirror works) was a craft OPPOSITE: Ali Tahayori, THE SKY IS THE SAME, 2022. Video
installation with sound, hand-cut mirrors and plaster on
in Iran as a young man: a public toilet in a developed in Iran in the 16th and 17th century. wood, dimension variable.
basement; dark and secluded, a “romantic When mirrors arrived from Europe, they often ABOVE: Ali Tahayori, Geometry of Belonging - triptych, 2023.
Inkjet print on plywood, hand-cut mirrors, 90 x 90cm each.
and beautiful” experience Tahayori recalls. came broken so Iranian artists used this to COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND THIS IS NO FANTASY, MELBOURNE.
Not able to return to Iran to visit this place, their advantage to make artworks for mosques
Tahayori asked a friend to take photographs and mausoleums.” Building this idea into his
a whole, Tahayori questions the idea of being
of the space as it is now. These images, along practice, Tahayori sees mirrors as a challenge
seen and the complexity of identity, particu-
with the emotions and memories Tahayori to the notion of representation. “Photos are
larly a politicised identity. “My work definitely
experienced recalling this place, formed the fixed, they are two dimensional and capture a
has a political message. I believe that message
basis for his work Impossible Desire, a video moment in time in the past. Whereas mirror
goes beyond the boundaries of Australia. I like
installation work depicting a series of photo- images are dynamic and contingent to time
my work to question rather than give possible
graphs being painted by Tahayori using his and space. In my practice I’m really interested
answers. [My work] requires time from the
own bodily fluids. While such arresting video in bringing that tension to the surface between
audience. Not to change their political views
works are a key part of his practice, it is his photographic image and mirror image.”
but to change the way that they see life, pain,
fragmented mirror works he has become The fluidity that these fractured mirror
and other humans.” While burdened with
recognised for (Tahayori was recently added works enable speaks also to Tahayori’s queer
an upbringing tainted by trauma, pain and
to THIS IS NO FANTASY’s stable in Melbourne; self. “Queerness for me is not a form of iden-
sacrifice, ultimately, Tahayori wants to foster
he won the Prix Yves Hernot Photography tity,” he tells me. “It is not restricted to gender
an environment he was denied through his
Award, National Art School, Sydney 2022; and identity or sexual orientation. It is more a state
upbringing. “I want queer bodies to feel safe
featured in Photo London 2023). of being. It is one that resists definition and
[around my work],” he says, “free and liber-
At this point in our conversation Tahayori labelling.” Tahayori talks of his new triptych
ated to express themselves however they
instructs me to Google the Shāh Chérāgh, a work Geometry of Belonging showing in a solo
want. I want to create a space for meditation,
mosque in his birthplace of Shiraz, Iran. Up show Looking at Me Looking at You with THIS
imagination and reflection.”
pop images of the interior of a building elabo- IS NO FANTASY in August. A self portrait, the
rately encrusted in broken mirror fragments; work depicts Tahayori’s bare torso with his
it looks almost contemporary despite its age. face obscured by fragments of mirror. As you
“The moment you step into this shrine you feel stand before it, any hopes of otherising the Ali Tahayori's solo show Looking at Me Looking at You at
THIS IS NO FANTASY, Melbourne from 3 to 26 August.
touched by light, you feel the tactility of light, subject are dismantled as our own reflection
its refractions and reflections,” says Tahayori. looks back. With this work, and his practice as
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TAI MITSUJI
Art critic and curator
“I first came across Ali Tahayori’s work at

an exhibition at the National Art School:
Braving Time: Contemporary Art in Queer
Australia. I had been commissioned to
write a short review of the show. To my
mind, it was too short. The article’s length
asked for more than an economy of prose
– it demanded an almost violent distil-
lation of the show. It was a problem. So,
when I sat down to begin writing, I asked
myself a simple question: what artwork
spoke to me? What piece still played on
my mind and whispered at the edge of my
thoughts? The answer was Ali’s.
DIANNE TANZER & NICOLA STEIN “In Ali’s work, concept and form elide,
and collapse into one another. Or put
Directors, THIS IS NO FANTASY, Melbourne another way, I always have the unmistak-
able feeling with his work that the physi-
cal object is not carrying an idea. Rather,
“Art has incredible power to shape discourse People’s Choice Award, Bowness Photography the idea has become the very thing itself.
and inspire social change and we were drawn Prize 2021. Tahayori was a recent finalist in To me, this is where his quiet brilliance
to the ways in which Ali Tahayori’s practice Vantage Point Sharjah 10, UAE, Hornsby Art resides. Across both his photographic
embraces this, combining both the political Prize and Blacktown Art Prize. practice, and his Āine-Kāri (mirror-
and the personal. His work unpicks complex “In 2023 Tahayori has been honoured with works), Ali creates works that complicate
themes of displacement, otherness, identity a solo show at Gosford Regional Gallery, the very idea of sight and the way that we
and belonging. It does this in a nuanced and featured in Photo London, curated by Roya see the world.
sophisticated way, often with an erotic and Khadjavi Projects, New York, and included “Much of Ali’s work is concerned with
subversive undertone. These themes are in Braving Time: Queer Contemporary, Sydney the idea of outsider-ness. It is a somewhat
particularly timely and relevant in the diverse World Pride, NAS Sydney. unsurprising concern for the artist, who
and evolving landscape that is Australia. “The mix of aesthetically arresting, tech- had to contend with the homophobic
“Tahayori’s work is attracting strong insti- nically skilled and thematically complex is climate of 1980s Iran and migrated to
tutional and collector interest. Although he what makes Tahayori’s work so compelling. Australia in 2007. The pressures of queer-
only completed his Master of Fine Art at the We think collectors viewing this art will see it ness, displacement, and diaspora all flow
National Art School, Sydney in 2022, he is on as privileged access, allowing them to explore through his work. Yet the simple fact of
an exceptional career trajectory. Tahayori’s world through a different, multifac- this biography is not what makes his
“He was winner of the Prix Yves Hernot eted lens. In particular, collectors may recog- work compelling. Rather, it is the way in
Photography Award, National Art School, nise something beyond ordinary explanation which Ali’s art is able to suture together
Sydney 2022; highly commended, Gosford taking them on a type of spiritual quest. His personal experience with form, arresting
Art Prize 2022; winner of Smith and Singer works are priced from $4,500 upwards.” our gaze as he animates our mind.”
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OPPOSITE : Ali Tahayori, Impossible Desire, 2023. Hand-painted photograph, gouache paint and bodily fluid (semen), 31 x 22cm. Video component: 4min 48sec on loop, dimension variable.
ABOVE : Ali Tahayori, Self-Portrait (Inverted Pink Triangle), 2023. Dye sublimation on raw aluminium, hand-cut vintage mirrors, acrylic paint and plaster 100 x 100cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND THIS IS NO FANTASY, MELBOURNE.
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HER OWN AGENDA

With a knockout solo show and new gallery representation, Georgia Spain is setting collectors’ tongues wagging.
WORDS | CAMILLA WAGSTAFF
Georgia Spain likes to think of each of her

painting series as a family. Each work brings
its own personality to the fore – a sassy aunt,
a belligerent mother-in-law, a slightly inappro-
priate cousin. She’s particularly interested in
how, much like a family, complex dynamics
emerge as the works relate to, compete with,
engage in, and converse with one another.
The UK-born, Melbourne-based painter
has quickly risen to fame for her huge,
gestural oil paintings that occupy the slippery
spaces between figuration and abstraction.
Frequently visited themes are also family
adjacent, examining ideas around the human
spectacle, theatre, relationships, and rituals.
“I see the canvas as a place to explore ideas
and I work very intuitively when it comes to
subject matter,” says the artist. “I’m learning
to trust my instinct; to trust that there is a
reason I seek out particular images even if I
don’t quite understand it at the time.”
These images – which Spain sources from
news, current affairs, films, and other texts –
often contain groups of people in the midst of
movement. She’s also drawn to looseness in
the physical act of painting, expertly transfer-
ring expressive energy from hand to canvas.
LEFT: Georgia Spain, One Fine Day, 2023.

Oil on linen, 198 x 152cm.
OPPOSITE: Georgia Spain, A gush of air,
2023. Oil on linen, 198 x 152cm.
PHOTOS: CHRISTIAN CAPURRO .
HUGO MICHELL GALLERY, ADEL AIDE.
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Her works’ surfaces are richly layered and deepened my understanding of myself as an painting and while I still see a lot of figuration
textured, revealing moments of control and artist,” she says. It seems the critics agreed, in this work, I think the ideas have become
chaos – at times, it appears her oils have taken with Spain taking home the prestigious broader and looser,” she says. “I’m thinking
on an agenda of their own. More recently, her Sulman Prize at the Art Gallery of New South through ideas around abundance, bodies,
work has drifted further from direct depic- Wales a year later. excess, ruptures, erasure, togetherness, prox-
tion; her figures and narratives have become After a knockout show with her Melbourne imity, and action. Plus birth, life and death, of
more enigmatic and obscured. gallery, Tolarno, in 2022, Spain picked up course!”
Graduating from the Victorian College of representation with Hugo Michell Gallery in
the Arts at the University of Melbourne in Adelaide earlier this year. The body of work
2015, Spain won the coveted Brett Whiteley for her debut show in South Australia is drawn Georgia Spain’s solo exhibition shows at Hugo Michell
Travelling Art Scholarship in 2020, which together by an attempt to capture and convey Gallery, Adelaide from 31 August to 30 September,
included a two-week residency in Kangaroo various emotional states, continuing Spain’s 2023. Spain’s work also appears in a group show at
Ngununggula in Bowral, alongside works by Karen Black,
Valley. Spain sees the residency as a pivotal exploration and expansion of paint as the
Michelle Ussher, and Cybele Cox until 13 August.
moment in her practice. “I felt I made some medium of choice.
personal breakthroughs in my work and “I’ve been looking at a lot of abstract
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OPPOSITE: Georgia Spain,

Nervous endings, 2023. Oil
ABOVE: Georgia Spain,
Flying out (Firecracker),
2022. Acrylic on linen,
198 x 456cm.
LEFT: Georgia Spain, Hot
Wind, 2023. Oil on linen,
198 x 152cm.
PHOTOS: CHRISTIAN
CAPURRO . COURTESY: THE
ARTIST AND HUGO MICHELL
GALLERY, ADEL AIDE.
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COLLAPSING
INTO REALITY
The photographs of Conor Clarke consider the relationship between
unspoiled natural landscapes and the colonial gaze.
WORDS | L ACHL AN TAYLOR

PHOTOGRAPHY | NAOMI HAUSSMANN
One way of understanding Conor Clarke’s the mountaintop. It’s just that small invading
landscape photographs is to think of them like element that gives up what the photograph
mirages. As if they function a little like stage really shows: masses of sodium chloride,
magic – appearing as one thing and then, in spoil heaps from potash mining in the region The power of
a moment of correction, revealing themselves of Germany where Clarke took the photo.
as something else entirely. Bustling smoke- The snap of revelation breaks the mirage.
images like Angle
stacks that look like fluffy clouds, piles of dirt A sublime fantasy of beautiful mountains of Repose is
presenting as mountains. The point of the exposes itself as the unwanted material excess
Clarke’s ability to
mirage is the moment of realisation, where it of heavy industry. The power of images like
stops being an illusion and becomes material, Angle of Repose is Clarke’s ability to entangle entangle ways of
where fantasy collapses into reality. ways of seeing with ways of living – compli- seeing with ways
Take an image like Angle of Repose, 2016, cating the engrained desire to separate a love
which looks on its face like an almost Olympian of natural beauty with the realities of living in
of living.
mountainscape. A band of trees bounds the extractive societies.
bottom of the image, a thick overcast sky the This function of Clarke’s work has remained
top. A mountain ridge crosses the centre in a part of her practice as it’s developed over
a familiar form but discordant colour. The recent years. But it has been joined by other
soil isn’t quite right, appearing an almost actions and impulses that have augmented
luminous grey. In the top-right corner, the far and transformed what exactly her photogra-
edge of some industrial machinery ventures phy does, and how we might read and under-
into the photograph, dumping material onto stand it.
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OPPOSITE: Conor Clarke, Angle of repose,

2016. Pigment ink on Hahnemühle Baryta
paper, edition of 3 + 2AP, dimensions variable.
RIGHT: Conor Clarke, Far seer (up in the
clouds), 2022. Pigment ink on Hahnemühle
Baryta paper, edition of 3 + 2AP,
dimensions variable.
JONATH AN SMART GALLERY, CHRISTCHURCH.
Work made in Europe and Aotearoa has

explored how the desire to look at unspoiled
and untouched nature was and remains
connected to the colonial gaze – fused to its
need to take, own, and organise the land it
touches. Clarke makes the camera itself a
conspirator in that gaze, a machine used to
enact its desires. And in this way, the mirage
has become more like a mirror, turning the
gaze back at the one making it.
Recently, Clarke has added further aspects
of reciprocity and personal history into her
images. Instead of a mirage, something like an
accordion or concertina seems a more appro-
priate model. The photographs stretch and
collapse, closing the distance between viewer
and subject while keeping open the option
to pull it all back out again. Mind map, 2021
was taken in a church on Clarke’s marae near
Kaikōura. The sawdust spilled by borer beetles
has left another set of mountain ridges. This
time, there’s no illusion that these moun-
tains might be the real thing, but they create
echoes in other ways. Out past the marae
rise the ridges of the Kaikōura Ranges, and
within them Clarke’s ancestral mountain. The
immediate image reflects its unseen referent,
and the mountains beyond connect back to
the place of the image. She softly upsets the
distance between what feels close and what
seems far away, while never pretending to Clarke makes the camera itself a conspirator in that gaze,
collapse it entirely. a machine used to enact its desires.
Clarke is represented by Two Rooms
Gallery, Auckland and Jonathan Smart Gallery,
Christchurch.
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ARTISTS | Profile
JONATHAN SMART
Director, Jonathan Smart Gallery, Christchurch
“I’ve represented Conor Clarke for only a I’m drawn not only to the visual qualities of
couple of years, and this will be her first Conor’s work but also the emotional integrity ABOVE : Installation view of Conor Clarke's
solo project with the gallery – which is very with which she works – there is a warmth, a work at Dunedin Public Art Gallery, 2022.
PHOTO: JUSTIN SPIERS.
exciting. She has worked and shown in Berlin certain emotional pitch at the core of what
OPPOSITE ABOVE : Conor Clarke, The
before returning home 4 years ago; and in she does – and that sense of community and Maternal Line, 2022. Silver Gelatin handprints
edition of 3 + 2AP, dimensions variable.
that time she enjoyed a breakout presence in of belonging is quietly growing as she works
OPPOSITE BELOW : Conor Clarke, The
a group show, curated by Melanie Oliver at now in Te Wāhipounamu, close to her Ngāi Maternal Line, 2022. Silver Gelatin handprints
edition of 3 + 2AP, dimensions variable.
Christchurch Art Gallery/Te Puna O Waiwhetū Tahu roots.
NEXT PAGE LEF T : Conor Clarke, Mind map,
– a series of photographs that overlaid images Angle of Repose is Clarke’s MFA show, 2021. Pigment ink on Hahnemühle Baryta
paper, edition of 3 + 2A, dimensions variable.
with braille and sound – the latter being text completed whilst teaching at Ilam School of
NEXT PAGE RIGHT : Conor Clarke, Sandclock,
read by partially sighted volunteers describ- Fine Arts, University of Canterbury. It prom- 2018. Pigment ink on Hahnemühle Baryta
paper edition of 3 + 2AP, dimensions variable.
ing their sensory experience of the subject ises to be one of the highlights of the Gallery
photographed. program for 2023.” JONATH AN SMART GALLERY, CHRISTCHURCH.
182
ARTISTS | Profile
MELANIE OLIVER
Curator, Christchurch Art Gallery

Te Puna O Waiwhetū
“I first saw Conor’s work on her website and

was intrigued, so invited Conor to make a new
body of work for the Christchurch Art Gallery
Te Puna o Waiwhetū. This led to her beginning
the series As far as the eye can reach that Conor
made with the Blind Low Vision community.
I love this project and how she invites us to
consider other ways of describing what we
see, using all of our senses.
Conor’s work is underpinned by rigorous
thinking, delivered gently, resulting in images
that are always beautiful and sometimes
reveal their importance gradually. Each has a
narrative that looks at our complex relation-
ship to place, how we view and represent the
world around us. She takes simple moments
and gives them a new slant, often challenging
our assumptions, in at times witty ways. She
makes us question what we see and why we
believe an image, playing with things like
scale and framing.
Conor has not only a love for photography,
but a broad knowledge of the history of how
photographs have been made and the contexts
they can circulate in. For example, she thinks
about the relationship of the photographer to
the subject and the community the images are
meant for, and brings an understanding of
how photographs might play different roles.”
Conor Clarke will show Angle of Repose at Jonathan

Smart Gallery, Christchurch from 15 August to 16
September 2023. Clarke will also show work at Sydney
Contemporary with Two Rooms Gallery, Auckland.
183
ARTISTS | Profile
184
ARTISTS | Profile
185
ARTISTS | Profile
CHARMED,
I’M SURE
Janet Fieldhouse’s ceramic works seek to fulfil the functional
and spiritual needs of the peoples of the Torres Straits.
WORDS | TINA BAUM
In the Zenadth Kes/Torres Strait Islands, firing techniques and adornment, position her
cultural charms had many traditional uses, works uniquely as her own. Since 2020 she has
most were very personal and made for cere- been exploring a different human charm form
mony or religious use. Sculptured garden with some early versions shown in the long As a woman of clay,
charms were one type popularly carved out of water: fibre stories exhibition at the Institute
Fieldhouse’s cultural
wood in the shape of male human figures in of Modern Art in Brisbane and the RITUAL:
profile. Painted with bright natural pigments, the past in the present exhibition at Cairns Art knowledge, connection
they were used to encourage good plant growth Gallery, Cairns in 2021. and representation in
when lodged nearby. Other smaller individual The title of her exhibition Never The Same
charms were made to ward off and repel evil at Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne
her earthly works are
spirits or for love to draw in affections. alluded to the individualism of the new charm deeply personal and
For Kalaw Lagaw Ya/Meriam Mir artist Janet works she created for it. In this showing she
strongly connected to
Fieldhouse, her new ceramic full bodied, improved the form again and added feathers
genderless charms are made only for good to her woven headdress or skirt adornments, her identity.
and positivity. thereby culturally rendering her contempo-
As a woman of clay, Fieldhouse’s cultural rary forms. “My work is an expression of my
knowledge, connection and representation Torres Strait Islander heritage: the material
in her earthly works are deeply personal culture, rituals of social and religious life, and
Janet Fieldhouse, Little sister charm, 2023.
and strongly connected to her identity. Her artefacts which are created to fulfil the func- Buff raku tranchyte, Cool Ice, Raffia and
wire, 48 x 51 x 30cm.
masterful use and combination of buff raku tional and spiritual needs of the peoples of the
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND VIVIEN
and cool ice ceramics, blended with different Torres Straits,” says the artist. ANDERSON GALLERY, MELBOURNE.
186
ARTISTS | Profile
187
ARTISTS | Profile
188
ARTISTS | Profile
Early in her practice, abstract form and mangroves, and trees. These new tile wall OPPOSITE: Janet Fieldhouse, Never The
Same Witchery (1), 2021. Buff raku
balance focusing on baskets, bowls, scarifica- hangings are a return to her early lino carving trachyte and japanese speckled paper
raffia, 20 x 10 x 8cm.
tion and pendants were key to her creations. days.
ABOVE LEFT: Janet Fieldhouse, Yam
Since then, she has continued to explore, From the beginning, the body and head Basket, 2023. Buff raku tranchyte, raffia,
experiment, and refine different represen- shapes of her figures along with bespoke wood, wire and feathers, 87 x 40 x 47cm.
ABOVE RIGHT: Janet Fieldhouse, Never
tations of these works. In her latest ceramic adornment of feathers and weavings have The Same Witchery (4), 2021. Buff raku
charm explorations, she has been working provided Fieldhouse with innumerable trachyte, japanese speckled paper raffia
and wire, 18 x 10 x 8cm.
with a paired back, more minimalist but possible charms configurations, each indi- COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND
VIVIEN ANDERSON GALLERY
fuller-bodied human body shape. For these vidualised and unique. These personable and
she again physically and conceptually pushed endearing charms honour their cultural intent
and pulled the new figures, completing them through exceptional contemporary represen-
with culturally inspired but newly imagined tations. These new works elevate her cultural
woven basket and chest pendant adorn- knowledge and connection, reinforce her
ments. Accompanying them in the show are identity and re-imagine traditional practice. Janet Fieldhouse’s solo exhibition
other dark baskets with white woven handles Collectively, these goodwill charms, tradi- HARVEST shows at Vivien Anderson
and additionally some paler coloured, felt tional basketry forms and contemporary Gallery, Melbourne from 19 July to
19 August 2023.
embellished, engraved flat tile wall hangings tile storyboards showcase the richness of
that look at the environment, the landscape, Fieldhouse’s masterly ceramic practice.
189
COLLECTING | Art Centre
AN ALI CURUNG
RENAISSANCE
The lifeforce of Kaytetye Country is palpable within
the works of artists from Arlpwe Art and Culture Centre.
WORDS | LOUISE MARTIN CHEW
In central Australia, Art Centres may be landscape. Art Centre manager Harry Price,
located a long way off the beaten track. Yet who has worked at Arlpwe for 15 months
Ali Curung, where the Arlpwe Art and Culture says, “The painting here is not always directly
The landscape is Centre is located on Kaytetye Country is only reliant on specific dreaming stories, but always
22km off the Stuart Highway, 378km north of deeply rooted in Country and culture. This
arid, without surface Alice Springs and 170km south-east of Tennant is a dog/dingo dreaming site for the Kaytetye
water, featuring Creek. Here collectors are able to visit and people, but four main tribes coexist here.
meet artists from the Kaytetye, Alyawarr, While people have their dreaming, it is their
spinifex grasslands
Warlpiri and Warumungu nations. choice to not always paint that.”
and trees over red However, despite Ali Curung’s relative The future looks bright, with Arlpwe’s first
sand plains, with accessibility, it feels remote from the rest ever Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres
of the world. The landscape is arid, without Strait Islander Art Award finalist shortlisted in
a sense of this dry surface water, featuring spinifex grasslands 2022. This was J. Nampijinpa Long, who has
geography palpable and trees over red sand plains, with a sense since passed away. The Art Centre also had two
of this dry geography palpable in the art that finalists in the 2021 Vincent Lingiari Art Award
in the art that
emerges from there. (J. Nampijinpa Long and Martha Nakamarra
emerges from there. The Art Centre was established in 2008. Poulson), and Sonya Murphy Napaljarri was
Maria Napanangka Dickenson, an artist, a finalist in the 2022 National Capital Art Prize
art worker and member of the board of in Canberra. A selection of work exhibited at
directors, says that most of the centre’s Japingka Aboriginal Art, Fremantle in 2022
artists focus on landscape, informed by time saw Levi McLean, now manager at Nyinkka
spent on Country. Her own work expresses Nyunyu Art and Culture Centre in Tennant
“my Country, my Father’s Country and my Creek, suggest, “There’s a bit of an Ali Curung
Grandfather’s Country. They used to tell me renaissance taking place. It’s not a place that’s
stories about how they would travel between been well known for painting, although there
the communities.” has been a history of exceptional carvers in the
OPPOSITE:Warrick Miller Art has offered an important outlet for this past. I don’t think the painting has really been
Japangardi at work.
community, with contemporary painting on the radar until now… The work is beautiful,
ARLPWE ART AND CULTURE CENTRE. related to bush medicine, bush tucker and fresh, and profound.”
190
191
What is distinctive about the contemporary

work is its abstracted expression of landscape
and varied approaches to bush medicine.
Price believes that “there is a healthy compet-
itiveness that is visible in our developing
profile. Artists want to have their own individ-
ual styles.”
Warlpiri lawman Warrick Miller
Japangardi creates Warlpiri designs related
to the ceremonial painting on the bodies of
rain-makers that are dramatic and minimal,
with bold shapes. Marcus Camphoo Kemarre,
aka Double O, paints abstracted windows in
a contemporary and minimalist style which
have been shown numerous times with the
Tennant Creek Brio, including in NIRIN: 20th
Biennale of Sydney, 2020. Rachel Nangala
Rankine’s Ngapa in the desert depicts rivulets of
water-like veins snaking across her canvases.
Maria Napanangka Dickenson’s finely dotted
works scatter depth through colour to evoke OPPOSITE: Sonya Napaljarri Murphy, Twempere, 2023. Acrylic on linen, 91 x 120cm.
ABOVE: Warrick Miller Japangardi at work in the Arlpwe Mens’ studio.

the spirit and special character of her places
BELOW: Sonya Napaljarri Murphy, Desert Hills, 2021. Acrylic on linen, 90 x 120cm.
while Sonya Napaljarri Murphy’s linear
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND ARLPWE ART AND CULTURE CENTRE.
canvases pulse with painted rhythm. Price
says, “People want to find their own way of
painting. We foster that. I look back on old
work and assist artists with developing their
individuality.”
Ali Curung currently has a population of
just under 500 people, and was originally a
mission town, established in 1956. Different
groups were moved there from their own
areas due to the impact of mining and massa-
cres. This drawing together of different groups
has caused tensions to erupt in the past, with
Price saying, “I believe it was a pretty classic
story of white fellas coming in back in the day,
and pushing all Indigenous people to the same
spot, despite different cultures, languages and
customs.”
Today, the Art Centre welcomes all
members of the community and is a place
that Dickenson suggests, “offers the capacity
to keep everyone real good, to go on painting
every day.” The results are spectacular.
193
ABOVE: Maria Napanangka Dickenson, Miyikampi, 2022. Acrylic on cotton canvas, 61 x 61cm.
BELOW: J. Nampijinpa Long, Pereltye, 2023. Acrylic on linen, 107 x 92cm.
OPPOSITE: Sarah Holmes Nabangardi, Goannas hiding in the sand, 2023. Acrylic on linen, 80 x 60cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND ARLPWE ART AND CULTURE CENTRE.
195
COLLECTING | Dealer Profile
FROM
KIRIKIRIROA
TO THE
WORLD
Laree Payne’s commitment to Kirikiriroa/Hamilton, the fourth largest
city in Aotearoa, is the driving force behind her gallery.
WORDS | ABBY CUNNANE

PHOTOGRAPHY | KATE MICAELA
“I wanted to work directly with artists,” says almost gravitational pull towards Auckland,
dealer Laree Payne. “To understand how she says: “It is important to stay put. Kirikiriroa
they’re thinking, and to genuinely support is the fourth largest city in Aotearoa. Out of
their practices through challenges and oppor- the seven largest cities in Aotearoa, we are
tunities alike.” the only one without a dedicated public art
This line of thinking has driven all the deci- gallery. Obviously Laree Payne Gallery cannot
sions that Payne has made since establishing stand in in this regard, however it is my firm
her space in Kirikiriroa/Hamilton, in 2018 belief that our communities should have
(self-titled since 2020). It took two years for her access to quality contemporary art made by
to be able to go full-time, leaving other work to artists from within but also from outside of
concentrate on what is increasingly becoming this region. This is something I am proud to
a well-recognised space in Aotearoa’s dealer offer Kirikiriroa.”
ecology. In addition to the ongoing work of running
Now in its second premises, an airy the gallery, in 2022 Payne was approached
concrete-walled former bank which sits over- by MESH Sculpture Trust to curate its fifth
looking the Waikato Awa (river), Laree Payne project. Since 2010, MESH has commissioned
Gallery represents a slowly but surely growing four large scale public artworks for Kirikiriroa
list of artists from Aotearoa and Australia. by established Aotearoa-based artists,
Payne wears her commitment to the city Seung Yul Oh, Lonnie Hutchinson, Michael
on her sleeve. Resisting what can feel like an Parekōwhai and Robert Jahnke.
196
197
ABOVE: Group exhibition City Slicker with Payne says, “Working with MESH has remains at the core of its identity, Payne also
work by Tia Ansell (left), Tia Ranginui
(middle) and Hannah Valentine (right), allowed me to work on a project of scale, enjoys thinking about the gallery’s involve-
April 2023.
within a team, and with an artist whose work ment in national and international dialogue.
OPPOSITE: Laree Payne Gallery booth
I love and whose practice I have respected Present at the Aotearoa Art Fair every year
at Aotearoa Art Fair 2023, with work by
Sarah Smuts-Kennedy, Rachel Hope for many years. It is also an opportunity since 2019, she values the breadth of audi-
Peary and Sam Kelly.
PHOTO: SAMUEL H ARTNE T T. to contribute to placemaking here, to the ence this offers, as well as the opportunity for
COURTESY: THE ARTISTS AND contemporary public art offering, and to the interested observers and collectors to connect
L AREE PAYNE GALLERY, H AMILTON.
betterment of our growing city. It is energising with the gallery in person. Later this year, and
to be in conversation with a passionate board, for the first time, Laree Payne Gallery will be
who fully understand what contemporary art at Sydney Contemporary with a solo presen-
can do for a city.” The artist for MESH’s fifth tation from Aotearoa artist, Sarah Smuts-
project will be announced in the coming Kennedy. Smuts-Kennedy has recently joined
months. the gallery’s roster, as has sculptor-jeweler
The gallerist is thinking on multiple scales. Jack Hadley, and painter Hannah Ireland.
While Kirikiriroa and local engagement Each of the artists have worked with the
198
gallery for some time, two of them for nearly Looking at her program you can see what she
three years, exemplifying Payne’s deliberate means: bold work, confident in style, subject
and considered approach to growth. and positioning. Represented artists include
When you ask Payne what she is looking Whanganui based photographer Tia Ranginui
Notably, 80% of
for when she takes on an artist, the answer (Ngāti Hine Oneone) whose vivid pop-gothic
is characteristically direct: “Authenticity. For photographs incline to the bogan and beauti- Payne’s represented
me, this is the most important factor (beyond ful, and Teelah George whose works are mate- artists are women,
already thinking that the work is good). I want rially rich, and rigorous in their connections
which is mirrored
to know that the artist’s practice is a genuine to art history. Notably, 80% of Payne’s repre-
extension of themselves and of how they see sented artists are women, which is mirrored in in the gallery’s
the world. If this holds true, all the subsequent the gallery’s programming. Indigenous repre- programming.
steps in their practice come more naturally, sentation is also primary. Payne expresses it
decision-making flows, and we are on solid simply: “It is important to me that the artists
ground to move forward.” Payne is drawn to that I show are representative of the diversity
works with “focus, intensity and character”. found in Aotearoa”.
199
FORTHCOMING
PROGRAM
HIGHLIGHTS
RACHEL HOPE PEARY | 2 6 J U LY T O 1 9 A U G U S T
Highlights on the horizon for the gallery in cotton or silk, these works are taut,
in 2023 include a solo exhibition with often sheer envelopes on cedar frames,
Rachel Hope Peary, a Kirikiriroa-based also made by the artist. Peary’s work
artist who has shown with Payne since balances the formal concerns of paint-
2018. Peary’s minimal wall-based works ing and sculpture, autobiographical
explore surface and line, light, shadow references, and embroidery traditions
and material relationships. Handwoven inherited through maternal lines.
200
OPPOSITE LEFT: Rachel Hope

Peary, The Cave, 2023.
Thread and cedar,
64 x 59.5 x 9cm.
OPPOSITE RIGHT: Hannah
Ireland, When It Rains It
Pours, 2023. Watercolour
and acrylic on found
window, 145 x 56cm.
FAR LEFT: Sarah Smuts-
Kennedy, Joy Field - Love
Window 8th May, 2023. Soft
pastel on 640gsm smooth
cotton rag, 76 x 58cm.
LEFT: Jack Hadley, LPLP#1,
2023. Thermoplastic
polyester and electrical
components,
38 x 12 x 12cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTISTS
AND L AREE PAYNE GALLERY,
H AMILTON.
HANNAH IRELAND SARAH SMUTS- JACK HADLEY AND

| 23 AUGUST TO 23 SEPTEMBER K E N N E D Y | 7 TO 11 N I C O L A FA R Q U H A R
SEPTEMBER | 27 SEPTEMBER TO 21
OCTOBER
Hannah Ireland (Ngāti Hine, Ngāpuhi), one

of Payne’s newly represented artists, will have Payne will show a solo presentation of
a solo exhibition come August. Ireland’s dark Sarah Smuts-Kennedy’s work at Sydney Late September will see an exhibi-
portrait-like images, which consider “relation- Contemporary. Smuts-Kennedy, whose tion of furniture topped with lamps
ships between the psyche, social and theatri- research based practice focuses on energy by Jack Hadley, alongside Nicola
cal space” (in the artist’s words), have gained fields, has shown with Payne once prior, in Farquhar, whose acidically coloured
a strong following since she graduated from 2022. This exhibition, Leaning into the Shine saw paintings often support sculptural
Te Waka Tūhura Elam School of Fine Arts and large-scale pure pigment on cotton rag works elements. Fresh pairings like this
Design in 2020. Ireland is primarily known for fill the space with light. Smuts-Kennedy’s work are becoming a staple at the gallery,
her paintings on glass, where what the viewer asserts the potential of light, colour and their frequently initiating a lasting dialogue
sees most clearly are Ireland’s initial marks attendant energies, and is grounded in ideas of between artists. Walk into the gallery
(the works are presented with the paint on the healing or generative power of materials. on a Waikato morning as the fog
the reverse side). Ireland’s portraits are often Payne is looking forward to bringing Smuts- lifts from the awa; visit the booth at
almost familiar, sometimes unsettlingly so, Kennedy’s “palpably joyous and irrefutably Sydney Contemporary. There’s a sense
and offer a highly relatable consideration of relevant” works back home to their original of momentum when you speak with
how we self-construct, disassemble, and code- audience: Smuts-Kennedy began working as Payne about the year ahead, like this
switch in response to different situations. an artist in Sydney more than 20 years ago. space is just getting started.
201
COLLECTING | If I Could Have
IF I COULD HAVE
David Williams, curator at White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney, selects 10 works available
from commercial gallery stockrooms that he would take home now if he could.
ABOVE: Nabuqi, Thread, 2022. Solid wood, fiberglass, rope and acrylic, 46 x 220 x 60cm.
US $28,000. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND KIANG MALINGUE, HONG KONG
BELOW: Ge Hui, Rotten Wood Begets Flowers, 2019-22. Oil on canvas, 250 x 300cm. RMB ¥412,000.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND PL ATFORM CHINA CONTEMPORARY ART INSTITUTE, BEIJING
LEFT ABOVE: Florian Baudrexel, Comy, 2023. Lacquered cardboard on wooden frame,
150 x 125 x 60cm, EUR €20,000. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND BARTH A CONTEMPORARY, LONDON
LEFT BELOW: Coen Young, Untitled (Mirror Painting 1-1 and 1-2), 2023. Acrylic, enamel and silver
nitrate on paper, each 115.5 x 158 x 4.5cm. NZ $26,000 each.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND FOX JENSEN/FOX JENSEN MCCRORY, SYDNEY AND AUCKL AND
202
COLLECTING | If I Could Have
ABOVE: Heather B. Swann, Melancholia, 2019. Ink and

acrylic on paper, 90 x 114cm. $6,000.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND STATION GALLERY, SYDNEY
RIGHT: Hailun Ma, Xinjiang Cowboys 1, 2019. Inkjet print,

100 x 67cm. US $6,000.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND GAOTAI GALLERY, XINJIANG
BELOW: Fu Jingyan, Dragon and Phoenix #4, 2021.

Acrylic on canvas, 75 x 85cm. RMB ¥64,000.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND MOCUBE, BEIJING
ABOVE: Kien Situ, Umbra 1 + 4, 2022. Chinese Mò ink and gypsum plaster, each
48 x 48 x 8cm. $2,000 each. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND YAVUZ GALLERY, SYDNEY
LEFT: Oliver Wagner,

Reconstructed Painting 50,
2021. House paint dust
on linen, 137.2 x 167.7cm.
$12,000.
SARAH COT TIER GALLERY,
SYDNEY
RIGHT: Chen Wei, Entrance,

2013. Archival inkjet print,
150 x 187.5cm.
US $25,000.
SH ANGH ART, SINGAPORE
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203
COLLECTING | Collector Profile
FOCUSED FUSION
The Graeme and Mabie Briggs Collection of Latin American Art is expansive and thought
provoking, positioning work from Latin America alongside Australian greats.
WORDS | DURO JOVICIC

PHOTOGRAPHY | BRIAN DOHERTY
When art writer Katy Hessel asked herself works beyond repair. Despite this hiccup, his artwork… we like to understand, where did
“can I name 20 women artists off the top of collecting continued unabated. Prompted by this work come from? What is its background?
my head? Ten pre-1950?... The answer was his wife Mabie, and taking into account the Is it something from your history? Your past?
no.” Imagine applying a similar lens to Latin absolute premium on space, Briggs started Your family? Or some experience you have. It
American art? Even naming 20 artists from collecting artisan Japanese lacquered fountain may well be something else they have expe-
Latin America regardless of gender. The pens. He amassed a formidable collection of rienced.” This offers Briggs, in simple terms,
Graeme and Mabie Briggs Collection of Latin more than 300 vintage pieces, all by the same an understanding of the work and a perspec-
American Art answers the call on the breadth manufacturer, Namiki. tive that he might not otherwise have seen,
and depth of this region’s art, being one of the The early 2000s proved fortuitous for Briggs. cementing an appreciation for the piece – at
largest privately held collections of its kind in He had, over the years, moved to running times acquiring it only after hearing the story
Australia. his own business, providing wealth creation behind the work.
Art collecting has always coursed through advice to some of the world’s wealthiest fami- His collection is unique in its range; within a
the veins of Graeme Briggs. In the mid-1970s lies, taking his business to varying locations. collection of more than 400 artworks (encom-
he headed to Hong Kong to further his career This bought Briggs to Latin America in 2000 passing performance, drawings, paintings,
in accountancy, with eight to ten paintings in and in 2004; after his first art purchase there, photography and other media) more than
tow by artists such as Louis Kahan and Pro he has not looked back. Briggs personally 200 Latin American artists are represented,
Hart. Soon after, while on a work trip for two knows more than half the artists represented from 14 different countries. Often, certainly
weeks, he left a window ajar in his apartment in his collection and says “there’s the visual pre-Covid, he and Mabie would travel exten-
during typhoon season, unwittingly allowing impact of the piece, it has to strike you. A lot of sively to galleries and art fairs and establish
in moisture that rendered most pieces riddled what we have is conceptual art. I like to meet key relationships within Latin America, but
with water damage and mould, leaving most the artist, to understand what is behind the also other countries advocating such works.
204
206
Moving back to Melbourne in the early of foreign interventions, primarily in Latin exploring the ways we inhabit time and space.
2000s, the pair purchased property in Red American countries. This installation consists In front of the video of Arjona performing the
Hill in 2014 and built an expansive house with of 73 wall and floor mounted laser-cut acrylic act is a table exhibiting some of the rubble that
an adjacent gallery space, being a sizable 900 panels, mimicking declassified but heavily was moved. It makes for meditative viewing.
meters square, to showcase the work. It’s redacted documents relating to CIA-recruited Briggs certainly hasn’t let go of his endur-
allowed them to run bespoke tours of 15 to 20 double agents that infiltrated the Mexican ing appreciation of Australian art, though,
people half a dozen times a year, one of which government in the 1950s–60s. The piece fans when tossing up between his favourite native
I was party to. across the wall and floor, seeming to almost artists his love of Fred Williams’ Winter’s Day,
This build, much like Briggs’ collecting glide across the room – beguiling and evoca- Botanist’s Garden just edges out the luminous
journey, was no small feat. The gallery is inte- tive despite its loaded subject matter. piece Love (Sun) Dreaming by Clifford Possum
grated into the side of the house and is partly When coaxed into revealing his favourite Tjapaltjarri.
underground with concrete flooring, white work Briggs pauses, and after some reti- Briggs, when asked about the future inten-
ceilings and walls, and at four metres high, cence, settles on the performance piece by tion of his collection, is considered in his
able to accommodate more substantial works Colombian artist Maria José Arjona. Entitled response. He is also the owner of a second
with ease. But I am the tiger, this is a 20-minute video of collection called the LARA (Latin American
One such work, by Chilean artist Voluspa the longer performance piece it references, Roaming Art) project where between 2012 and
Jarpa Saldías, is named Litempo. Saldias’ prac- which lasts for eight hours a day, over 30 days. 2018, 80 art works were made by 40 contem-
tice is derived from the meticulous analysis of She transports, at a slow and repetitive pace, porary artists from thirteen Latin American
declassified archives and leaked documents a piece of rubble from one place to another, countries.
207
His company is sponsoring artists to make

the works. These pieces are now stored in
Singapore. Briggs was exasperated at the time
as he offered the collection for viewing in
Singapore, yet was rebuffed with the common
excuse being that they wanted to show only
Singaporean and Southeast Asian art, despite
claiming as a priority being viewed as an
international arts destination. In time, Briggs
intends to combine both collections and possi-
bly look to have part of the collection lent out
for the public to experience.
Briggs claims, despite the capacious gallery
created for the artworks, he is still restricted
by space and may have to be more judicious
in his collecting. Given his remarkable collec-
tion, and his impending month-long visit to next iteration of this collection will be closely that can’t help but change, for the better, our
Latin America in October to view art, I find watched, as it offers art-lovers access to an understanding of the creative possibilities and
that an unlikely scenario. In any event, the astonishing trove of thought provoking works skill of artists across Latin America.
208
FIRST PAGE: Graeme and

Mabie Briggs standing
with Karina Wisniewska’s
The Inner Light, 2014.
PREVIOUS PAGE LEF T:

John McCarthy’s Untitled
(Marilyn Monroe), 2014.
PREVIOUS PAGE
RIGHT: Maggie Watson
Napangardi’s Digging Stick
& Hairstring Dreaming,
1996.
OPPOSITE ABOVE: Voluspa

Jarpa’s, Litempo, 2013.
OPPOSITE BELOW:
Matias Duville’s, Untitled,
2011 (left) and Marcela
Cardenas’s, Pseudoxia
epidemica, 2016 (right).
LEF T: Richard Crichton’s,

Fleet, 2003.
NEXT PAGE: From left:

Juan Rodriguez Varon’s
Transicion azul para rojo,
2017; eight digital prints
Colour is my Business,
2012 by Alexander Apostol;
and Fernando Uhia’s series
Copa America Argentina
2011 - Primera Ronda.
COURTESY: GRAEME AND
MABIE BRIGGS.
209
210
211
COLLECTING | Portrait of a Gallerist
Portrait of a Gallerist:
Andy Dinan
A transition from public relations to contemporary art isn’t common,
but then nothing much else about the MARS director is either.
WORDS | ANITA KING
OPPOSITE CLOCKWISE FROM TOP:

Andy Dinan sitting in MARS Gallery
in 2021 with work by Dani McKenzie;
Dinan at Photo Basel 2022 with solo
Andy Dinan has an instinct for art. It’s as if location and purchased a small red brick presentation by Atong Atem; Andy
sitting contemplating art by Lars
art sought her out, igniting a fervour that house in Windsor. She worked with JAM Braeur in 2019; Dinan in 2019; Dinan
at the National Gallery of Victoria’s
became impossible to contain. Raised in the Architects to transform it into an environmen- opening of Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion
south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Dinan tally conscious, multi-level gallery. MARS now Manifesto 2021; Dinan with her son
1998; Dinan on the phone, 1995.
was surrounded by beautiful things, but not presents at least two concurrent exhibitions COURTESY: MARS GALLERY, MELBOURNE.
art. “My mother had a great love of beauty each month, along with a regular rotation of
and aesthetics. Our house was filled with video works curated by Brie Trenerry, shown
fresh flowers and framed photographs,” she in a dedicated multimedia room. “I had a big
remembers. At the age of 16, Dinan first felt dream to have my own place, to know that no
the urge to collect art. She borrowed $120 matter what, I’d remain anchored down,” she
and purchased a gouache painting from the reflects. Every aspect of the gallery is designed piece sold. Dinan explains, “I firmly believed
Camberwell Rotary show. She still has the with art in mind. The rooftop sculpture garden in her significance as an artist and couldn’t
work, “It’s a really great reminder of the great displays a kinetic work by Cameron Robbins, believe that only one person had purchased
love of art I’ve always had.” even the elevator reveals a custom light instal- her work.” She is learning to trust her instincts
It wasn’t until she fell pregnant and sold lation by Jason Sims. though because they are usually right. This
her public relations business that she founded Dinan’s not interested in opening more year, Atem’s reputation continues to grow.
MARS Gallery in Port Melbourne in 2004. galleries. “Success to me is doing what I love Her work has been widely exhibited around
Dinan upended the norms of running a with utmost respect. I’m not about expanding the world, including at London’s Tate Modern,
commercial gallery and created her own rules, the gallery, but the work I present.” She also the National Gallery of Victoria, the National
making plenty of mistakes along the way. In facilitates transformative cultural place- Portrait Gallery and the Art Gallery of New
the early years, upset by not selling work, she making opportunities for artists, adamant South Wales.
turned to her husband, Mario LoGiudice, who that, “Securing a public artwork can be a As for the future of MARS, Dinan has a
responded, “Andy, aren’t you selling a mural of life-changing moment for an artist, allowing clear vision. “My primary goal is to showcase
nail clippings?” This period involved learning them to operate on a larger scale and earn a ambitious work. Over the 18 years of MARS,
on the fly. “I’m truly grateful I took this path,” substantial income.” I’ve shifted to a keen interest in truly challeng-
she laughs. “In the early days of MARS, I learnt Her goal has always been to take Australian ing pieces,” As her confidence has grown as
invaluable skills such as communicating with art to the global stage. Bold and willing to take a gallerist, so has the boldness of the art she
people about art and understanding the types risks, she often champions artists based on a presents. She seeks out pieces that address
of artists that appeal to me.” hunch. When she first showed Atong Atem pressing issues, driven by the desire for fresh,
In 2014, Dinan outgrew the Port Melbourne at Sydney Contemporary in 2019, only one confident, focused and trail-blazing works.
212
COLLECTING | Portrait of a Gallerist
213
COLLECTING | Seen, Heard, Read, Experienced
Seen, Heard, Read, Experienced

WORDS | ANDREW FROST
BOOK | UnAustralian Art: Ten Essays on Transnational Art History
The idea of an Australian art history has long dynamic relationships between Australian
been problematic. Much thinking on what and international art making, not through
might constitute an Australian art, as distinct designated influences, tendencies, or post-hoc
from any other kind, has been tied up with movements, but through the personal rela-
questions of form, of subject and genre, and tionships established by individuals, either
even more difficult questions of national iden- through travel, temporary or even permanent
tity, Indigeneity, artistic legitimacy, and heri- re-location from Australia to the world, or
tage. To argue that there is a distinct kind of the world back to Australia. Indeed, Butler
Australian art making is one thing, but to also and Donaldson see the immigrant experience
then try to construct a history out of it, seems as key to understanding a de-centralised art
nigh on impossible in any traditional sense. history. “What we seek to do in [the book] is to
Australia is the home of an artistic legacy generalise, sometimes almost to the point of
that dates back tens of thousands of years. universality, various immigrant and emigrant
To construct a story of Australian art, the artistic experiences, to see each as part of a
would-be historian needs to make a decision wider phenomenon, as pointing beyond itself
as to how any other immigrant histories can to a different conception of Australian art
be reconciled with it. And that history of altogether.”
immigrant artists, which often served as an The authors’ scope covers a vast amount of
ad-hoc rationalization of how local art could ground, from Australian and New Zealand art back at the twentieth century we see not a
be aligned with the currents of overseas art making in the 20th century, to Australian and single river but a vast delta of alternatives;
making and its criticism, served as a default American art in the same 100 year stretch, to not simply the old New York story of formalist
history that was both incomplete and ulti- the ongoing stories of Australian art and the reduction and its aftermath, but the explo-
mately unsatisfactory. UK, Asia, Germany and South America. There ration of colour, popular culture, feminism,
Rex Butler and A.D.S. Donaldson’s are also two extensive discussions of stylistic, queer, different forms of sociality, Indigenous
UnAustralian Art: Ten Essays on Transnational thematic and formal continuities that unites art, multimedia, forms of realism, etc. All of
Art History is an attempt to forge another kind both Surrealism and Abstraction, not between these have their own trajectories – and it is
of history, one that argues that an understand- countries as such, but by broader regional and this that constitutes the true history of the
ing of Australian art making is “not about the global cross-currents. present, how we must understand how we got
formation of some national ideal or character, There is also some much needed discussion to where we are today.”
not about the distance and isolation of us living of the nature of provincialism – as an attitude,
here, but about what we have in common with as a relationship to a perceived centre, and
other people and other cultures, about how thus to the idea of a linear art history that is
Australia is part of, and belongs to, the rest of orderly and ultimately orthodox. “What if this UnAustralian Art: Ten Essays on Transnational Art History
is published by Power Publications.
the world.” linear version of art history was not true, not
UnAustralian Art sets out to describe the only now but even back then? For looking
214
COLLECTING | Seen, Heard, Read, Experienced
EXPERIENCED | The Füde

Dinner Experience
The Füde Dinner Experience is a hot new

trend in dining where guests get naked.
Pioneered in New York by artist/model
Charlie Ann Max, the emphasis is on
aesthetics, not sex, and is touted as styled
SCREEN | Inside in a Renaissance vibe which “feels very

romantic”. Perhaps inspired by Australian
Perhaps cast for his nominative artist Stuart Ringholt’s nude gallery tours,
connection to Daniel Defoe, the it’s a trend that could wind up here.
author of Robinson Crusoe, Willem
Dafoe plays a would-be thief who
becomes marooned, not on an island,
but in a Manhattan billionaire’s pent- PODCAST | Stuff About Things: An Art History Podcast
house that’s full of art, but short on
food and water. A modern take on an Lindsay Sheedy is an art historian and host of Stuff About Things: An Art History Podcast.
archetypal story twists and turns with Unrestricted by geography or time, Sheedy takes us on tours of hidden, forgotten and over-
a refreshingly nihilistic attitude to looked art from illuminated manuscripts to a newly discovered Van Gogh self-portrait to the
contemporary art. Benin bronzes. Accessible and fascinating.
215
COLLECTING | Exhibition
THIN SKIN
Thin Skin explores how painters unearth the liminal, tender and transitory spaces between the human
and spiritual world, placing Australian painters in concert with international contemporaries.
WORDS | TESS MAUNDER
216
Thin Skin is a compelling insight into a Side: Women, Art and the Spirit World, 2023 Higgie is somewhat not your traditional
respected author-as-curator, Jennifer published by Hachette Australia. art publication editor. The standard move
Higgie, and engages with how ideas are Higgie was born in Vienna and grew for those wanting to edit prestigious art
developed and relationships made through- up in Paris and the UK before the family journals at the time would have been to
out her trailblazing career to date. She is of returned home to Australia. In 1990, study art theory and history, preferably at
course, most well known for her editorship following studies at the Canberra School of a distinguished art school in London, Paris
of Frieze magazine for well-over 20 years, Art, she began a Masters in painting at the or New York. Alongside this, Higgie was a
and subsequent novels including The Other Victorian College of the Arts. In this way, woman, and from Australia.
217
Tracey Emin speaks

to this visceral aspect
of the show, saying
“To me, thin skin
means blood seeping
through my pores.”
218
So despite all of these barriers, Higgie has

defied the model of success. And it is this
grounding of difference which has allowed
her to develop her own unique voice in a glob-
ally saturated arts media landscape. This is all
important and relevant context to introducing
the exhibition Thin Skin, which is curatori-
ally reflective of her life in art, insofar as her
choice of artists, her open and conversational
curatorial approach and the theme itself.
Thin Skin sits somewhere between a large
group show and a small biennale. The artist
list is huge and reflective of her passion and
energy. It sits at 36 contributors, raging from
historical figures such as Sidney Nolan and
Tom Kreisler to established post-war prac-
titioners such as Gordon Bennett, Jenny
Watson, Denzil Forrester, Rose Wylie and
Tracey Emin, to their emerging counter-
parts Mia Boe, Nick Modrzewski and Kieren
Seymour; just to name a few.
As a term, thin skin presents a myriad of
potential readings. For me, it is immediately
visceral, and physiological. When I was
younger, I used to experience Venephobia
which is the aversion towards one’s veins,
and the avoidance of thinking about or seeing
them. Emin speaks to this visceral aspect
of the show, saying “To me, thin skin means
blood seeping through my pores.” Blue background PREVIOUS PAGE: Gordon Bennett,
Wound, 1990. Synthetic polymer paint
Of course though, as a term, thin skin is changed when on canvas, 3 panels, each 80 x 60cm.
PHOTO: CHRISTIAN CAPURRO. COURTESY:
ambiguous, so in addition to the physiolog-
ical reading, we can also consider reading
converted to MONASH UNIVERSIT Y COLLECTION,
MELBOURNE.
OPPOSITE: Jennifer Packer, Untitled,

through an emotive lens. Indeed, this saying CMYK. Can we get 2017. Oil on canvas, 76.2 x 38.1cm.
is often used as a way to describe sensitive COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND CORVI-MORA,
23-2_MUMA_work-1- LONDON
folks. Haven’t we all been told at some point ABOVE: Peter Graham, A Cave in the
in time, by a relative, teacher or friend, that cropped.jpg supplied Mind of a Shadow: My Memory of
Looking upon Mantegna’s Rescue
to survive in this world we must develop a in CMYK or get image of Lost Souls from Limbo, 2023. Oil
and polymer paint on canvas, 176 x
thick skin? Contributing artist Boe speaks to
this saying: “In my family I have always been
colour on layout 202cm.
PHOTO: CHRISTIAN CAPURRO. COURTESY
the most sensitive one. It is often used against approved? OF THE ARTIST.
LEF T: Mia Boe, Wongari Marat Marat

me when I get too emotional. I’ve learnt to (Dingo Spirit), 2023. Synthetic polymer
paint on linen, 198 x 122cm.
appreciate my thin skin and see it as a way to PHOTO: CHRISTIAN CAPURRO. COURTESY:
THE ARTIST AND SUT TON GALLERY,
comprehend my sensitivities and emotional MELBOURNE.
condition.”
219
Some of the artists in Thin Skin may and Peter Graham in A Cave in the Mind
employ absurdity, caricature and/or dream- of a Shadow: My Memory of Looking upon
like logic to explore themselves and their Mantegna’s Rescue of Lost Souls from Limbo,
place in the world. This is seen in the work 2023.
of Vivienne Shark LeWitt’s work A Penny for Overall Thin Skin at Monash University
Your Thoughts, 2017; Gareth Sansom’s work Museum of Art | MUMA, Melbourne is a
Big Punch, 1982 and Kreisler’s work Lightness compelling insight into multiple generations
of Hand, Fleetness of Foot, 1984. Conversely, of painters exploring the myriad of possible
others such as Dorota Jurczak through her responses thin skin evokes.
work Trzech Swietych, 2010, Seymour’s Rivers It is refreshing to see an exhibition take
of Drool from the Dog of War, 2022 and Watson’s on such an artist-centered approach to
work White Horse with Telescope, 2012 depict exhibition making. No doubt this has been
bodies in rich, often intertwined, conversa- informed by Higgie’s time at art school in
tions with the psyche, the land, domestic or Australia, and her extensive journalism in
work environments and with animals. the arts, in speaking with so many practi-
Thin Skin also embraces the idea of thin tioners across the world.
places, an ancient term of mysterious prove- To circle back, this re-enforces the benefit
nance that refers to locations with a unique of studying art practice, as a writer or
or peculiar energy, this is explored by artists curator, to understand the nuances in actu-
Thin Skin runs from 20 July to 23 September 2023 at Michael Armitage in his painting Sleight of ally developing work from the perspective of
Monash University Museum of Art | MUMA, Melbourne.
Hand, 2016 depicting a mythological figure an artist, to understand and empathise with
of Sun Wukong from the Song Dynasty, their process, a trail worth following.
220
Some of the artists

in Thin Skin may
employ absurdity,
caricature and/or
dreamlike logic to
explore themselves
and their place in
the world.
OPPOSITE TOP LEF T: Vivienne

Shark LeWitt, A Penny for Your
Thoughts, 2017. Water paint on
linen, 61 x 61cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND ANNA
SCHWARTZ GALLERY, MELBOURNE.
OPPOSITE TOP RIGHT: Tracey

Emin, I Was Too Young to Be
Carrying Your Ashes, 2017-18.
Acrylic and pencil on canvas,
183 x 122cm.
PHOTO: THEO CHRISTELIS.
WHITE CUBE, LONDON.
OPPOSITE BOT TOM LEF T:

Michelle Ussher, Sunset in
a Blackhole – Lightbulb in a
Plughole, 2012. Oil on linen,
75.2 x 60cm.
MONASH UNIVERSIT Y MUSEUM
OF ART, MELBOURNE.
LEF T: Ms D. Yunupiŋu, Two

Sisters Together, 2021. Natural
earth pigments and recycled
print toner on bark, 154 x 86cm.
COURTESY: BUKU-L ARRŊGAY
MULKA ART CENTRE, YIRRKAL A
AND ALCASTON GALLERY,
MELBOURNE.
221
COLLECTING | Survey
We asked art writers: JUDITH BLACKALL
What is your favourite Joseph Beuys’ visionary urban art project

7,000 eichen (7,000 oaks) launched for docu-
moment in art history? menta 7, 1982 involved the planting of an urban

forest throughout Kassel, Germany, and was
expanded to tree planting world-wide. Each tree
was accompanied by a columnar basalt stele to
mark the site as a monument to Beuys’ inter-
vention for social and environmental change;
a conduit for urban renewal. Sydney has its
ANDREW WOOD LOUISE own Beuys tree; a Moreton Bay fig planted by
MARTIN-CHEW
René Block on Beuys’ behalf as part of the 5th
Biennale of Sydney in 1984. Beuys encouraged
The time in 2018 when a punter at The the planting of local indigenous trees rather
My favourite art history
Serralves Museum in Portugal fell in an than oaks in other countries. Beuys’ tree is
moment is the unsolved theft
Anish Kapoor work. growing well in the grounds of the Art Gallery
of Picasso’s Weeping Woman,
of New South Wales (AGNSW). Sydney’s stele
1937 from the National Gallery
was re-installed in 2022, a gift of Block with
JOANNA MENDELSSOHN of Victoria in 1986. This event
assistance from Anita and Luca Belgiorno-
took activism to culture, with
Nettis, and the tree and basalt column are now
those responsible, Australian
part of the AGNSW Collection.
This is not a favourite art history moment, Cultural Terrorists, demand-
but more a favourite art historian ing a ransom of increased
moment. In early 2004 the art historian funding for the arts. The BRIONY DOWNES
Joan Kerr was diagnosed with terminal good news (always) is that
cancer. As well as creating The Dictionary the painting was recovered
of Australian Art and Heritage: The National undamaged, 17 days later, When British street artist Banksy set off a
Women’s Art Book, she was the co-author in a locker at Spencer Street hidden paper shredder at the base of his
(with James Broadbent) of Gothick taste in station. It was a radical act work, Girl with a Balloon, immediately follow-
the colony of New South Wales. Her friends that I can only imagine was ing its 2018 sale at Sotheby’s London for AU
persuaded the NSW Governor, Marie borne of the frustration we all $1.93 million. With the artist later citing on
Bashir, to let them host a magnificent feel given the starvation diet Instagram, “the urge to destroy is also a creative
farewell dinner for her at Government cultural industries exist on in urge”, it was the ultimate shock that ironically
House, so that she would know how she Australia. I can’t condone the ended up giving the work an extra dimension
was loved. The artist Vivienne Binns sang act (and risk to this incredible of meaning and an even bigger price tag. The
to her ‘If I could plant a tiny seed of love painting) but understand the half-shredded work, now renamed Love is in the
in the garden of your heart...’ Both Jack frustration. The identities Bin, sold again at Sotheby’s in 2021 for AU $34.3
Mundey and Jill Wran paid tribute to her of the Australian Cultural million. With bidding lasting no more than 10
activism for Australia’s cultural heritage Terrorists have never been minutes, the sale proved a good story is worth
and art history. publicly revealed. millions.
222
THE 2023-2025 EDITION ON SALE IN OCTOBER
PRE-ORDER NOW
Art Atrium at Sydney Contemporary
William Yang & Dapeng Liu
William Yang - Self Portrait with Trees. Boranup Karri Forest WA
Dapeng Liu - Ethereal no. 1
ART ATRIUM 12 Daniel Street Botany

w artatrium.com.au m +61 411138308 e info@artatrium.com.au
STRENGTHENING OUR ABORIGINAL
AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER
CULTURAL PRACTICES
UMI Arts Gallery & Gift Shop
4/1 Jensen Street
Manoora QLD
(07) 4041 6152
umiarts.com.au Image: Black Cockatoo Dreaming #1 , Solace Barnaby
Culture Through Our Eyes, youth exhibition, 2023. Courtesy Lovegreen Photography
IMPORTANT
DATES
8 July to 27 August
Anne Ross:
Whichway
For over four decades, Anne Ross has explored

pathos and humour within the themes of
companionship, belonging and self-containment
through the medium of bronze.
Anne Ross, Bird watcher 2008 (detail), patinated cast bronze,

60 x 23.5 x 19 cm. Courtesy the artist
Bayside Gallery Opening hours:

Brighton Town Hall Wed–Fri, 11am–5pm
Cnr Carpenter & Wilson Streets Sat & Sun, 1pm–5pm
Brighton, Victoria bayside.vic.gov.au/gallery
T: 03 9261 7111 @baysidegallery
Image: Lisa Woolfe, Plateau 7, 2018. Charcoal on canson paper.
EXHIBITION Lisa Woolfe

Birds Launch Date: 11am • 17 June 2023
Exhibition Dates: 17 June – 15 October 2023
”These suspended bird forms are made of crimped and

twisted bushfire mesh and insect screen, ropes, irrigation
pipe, building lattice grids and fastening hardware parts.
Birds is as if in a post-apocalyptic existence—once survival
needs had been met—someone couldn’t help but tinker
with these everyday materials in search of beauty amidst
the cataclysm.”
Amber Boardman, for the BIRDS catalogue
1 Powerhouse Rd Casula NSW 2170 (Enter via Shepherd St)

Tel (02) 8711 7123 • www.casulapowerhouse.com • Free entry
Open Tue - Sun • Next to Casula train station • Free parking
NATIONAL
INDIGENOUS
ART FAIR
2023
Artists: Theo (Faye) Nangala Hudson Pikilyi Jukurrpa of Warlukurlangu Artists
Celebrate Indigenous art, culture & performance

Meet the Artists, experience First Nations art, music, dance & bushfoods
Gadigal Land • Overseas Passenger Terminal • The Rocks • Sydney
10 am - 5pm • 1 & 2 July • Gold coin entry
niaf.com.au
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ARTISTS | One-sentence Review
One-sentence reviews
Our writers review those shows and works that have recently caught their eye… in a single sentence.
CUT N POLISH
Curtis Taylor, Ngarnda, Carriageworks |

still from single
channel video work. SYDNEY 7 MAY 2023
AND DARK MOFO. Beautifully unrefined
and gloriously gritty,
CURTIS TAYLOR
CUT N POLISH gave
Ngarnda & Boong, Detached, Hobart | 8 TO 18 JUNE 2023 collectors a much-
needed glimpse into the
After viewing Ngarnda (Curtis Taylor’s visceral video depicting blood rituals),
realities of the working,
audiences enter Boong where they are surrounded by slogan-laden bull bars
and struggling, artist.
equipped with blinding headlights, while a frightening cascade of verbal atrocities
Rose of Sharon Leake
engulfs the space, recreating the lived experience of uncontrolled violence and the
disturbing folklore behind a racial slur – a deeply affecting confirmation of how far
CUT N POLISH 2023 with works by Anna Mould, Hugh Black and Sean Crowley.
we have yet to go to reach a unified place of equality. Briony Downes COURTESY: THE ARTISTS.
Installation view of
Florian Krewer’s Light
The Ocean, 2023 at
Michael Werner,
New York.
AND MICH AEL WERNER,
NEW YORK.
BRONI SARGESON, LOUIS GRANT FLORIAN KREWER

AND LUCY WHITELAW
Light The Ocean Michael Werner, New York
eating glass sydenham international, Sydney | 1 TO 22 APRIL 2023 | 5 MAY TO 17 JUNE 2023
Deliciously smooth and elegantly curated, eating glass did not live up to its title (in Krewer’s paintings impress with their brash colour, confidently distorted
the best way). Camilla Wagstaff figuration and (at times literal) contortions of animal and human lust yet stop
us short from a resolved sense of euphoria or ebullience – the viewer placed
Broni Sargeson, cysters.
PHOTO: CASSIE ABRAH AM. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND SYDENH AM INTERNATIONAL, SYDNEY. into a landscape of comfortable yet uncertain abandon. Paul Brobbel
232
David Noonan
21 July–19 August 2023
www.roslynoxley9.com.au
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery
MASKEN
Image: David Noonan, Thorn, 2023, liquid pigment on hand-dyed fabric, aluminium frame, 57.5 x 42 x 4 cm

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ARC ONE GALLERY

nsmithgallery.com N.Smith Gallery

nsmithgallery.com N.Smith Gallery

Nancy CONSTANDELIA Travis JOHN FICARRA

7–10 SEPT 2023

IN FO @SUM E R .N Z +64 9 21 7 3 724

proudly representing Papunya Tula Artists for 35 years

1301SW Haydens NAP Contemporary

The Hotel Windsor

WORDS | ROSE OF SHARON LEAKE

ABOVE: Guan Wei, As Myth has it No. 8, 2022.

OPPOSITE: Candy Nelson Nakamarra,

ESTHER STEWART AND OSCAR PERRY

LEFT: Oscar Perry, Monitor (rain), 2023. Acrylic on

“For many years I have followed the work of

J U S T I N W I L L I A M S Solo show Jeffreys’ upcoming show will feature a series of

LISSY & RUDI

E Te Tau (translating as my darling)

GROUP SHOW Using historical research and recon-

The first exhibition Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery has

LARA CHAMAS, MATILDA

never together is the second exhibition in

OPPOSITE LEFT: Aubrey Tjangala, Untitled,

OPPOSITE RIGHT: David Noonan, Theda,

THIS PAGE: Christopher Duncan, Elephant

janmantonart.com | 54 Vernon Terrace, Teneriffe Qld 4005 | @janmantongallery

detail: Tove Kjellmark

TOURISM & MEDIA PARTNERS SUPPORTING PARTNER

How Curators make them good or bad art. In the absence of

Make Prestige and publicly proffer their judgments, sending

ART WORLD PROBLEMS the inner suburbs as Perth continues to grow.

SAINT CLOCHE GALLERY

Terry Williams Untitled 2018