#103 JAN – MAR 2023 ISSN 2209 – 7317 Print Post approved PP235387/00100 RRP AUD $24.95 (incl.

ncl. GST) NZ $25.50 (incl. GST)

50 THINGS COLLECTORS SHOULD KNOW

03

9 772209 731009 >

TEARS OF FLOWERS
23 FEBRUARY – 18 MARCH 2023
SULLIVAN + STRUMPF SYDNEY
HIROMI TANGO
AUCKLAND
189 Ponsonby Road
Ponsonby 1011 NZ
+64 9 218 4399

WELLINGTON
241Cuba Street
Te Aro 6011 NZ
+ 64 4 976 7663

@suite.co.nz
@answestra
info@suite.co.nz
www.suite.co.nz

{Suite}
Claudia Kogachi
Aotearoa Art Fair 2023
 Photo Cheska Brown



 

 
 John Nixon 16 Putiki Street
Two Rooms Auckland 1021
Works 1990 - 2001 New Zealand
+64 9 360 5900
10 February - 11 March 2023 tworooms.co.nz

John Nixon, Untitled, 2001, enamel and MDF

Summer ‘23
January 2023

nsmithgallery.com N.Smith Gallery

Scan to preview
 Dylan Mooney
Still Here.
February 2023

nsmithgallery.com N.Smith Gallery

Scan to preview
Luke Sciberras, Darling in Flood, Wilcannia II, 2022, gouache & pastel on paper, 100x150cm

Luke Sciberras
From Scratch
14 March - 8 April, 2023

King Street Gallery

on William
10am – 6pm Tuesday – Saturday
177-185 William St Darlinghurst NSW 2010 Australia
@kingstreetgallery kingstreetgallery.com.au T: 61 2 9360 9727 E: art@kingstreetgallery.com
www.kingstreetgallery.com.au
CONTENTS 50 Things Collectors Should Know

ON THE COVER: Claudia

Kogachi, Kill Bill, 2022.
Acrylic on canvas, framed,
170 x 138cm.

Read about Claudia

Kogachi’s practice in our
Collectors Love feature
on p150.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND
JH ANA MILLERS GALLERY,
WELLINGTON.

UPFRONT

43 | Previews 56 | Cultural Capital 63 | The Test of Time 66 | Art Fair Report

The notable exhibitions Hannah Wohl continues her series on What gives a gallerist/artist The international art fairs
to be staged this quarter her concept of creative vision as it applies relationship longevity? you should pay attention to
across the region. to the endeavours of art collectors. in the year ahead.

9
50 THINGS COLLECTORS SHOULD KNOW ART COLLECTOR
#103 January-March 2023

Editor-In-Chief
80 | Cool Hunter Predictions
Susan Borham
The artists we’re keeping an eye on.

Editorial Director
104 | Curator’s Radar
Camilla Wagstaff
These artists have recently garnered significant attention from curators.
Editor
120 | Notable Accolades Rose of Sharon Leake
These accomplished artists took out major prizes during the year.
Art Director
134 | Debutantes Justine Scott
Premier gallerists have recently thrown their weight behind these artists by staging their debut exhibitions.
Publisher

150 | Collectors Love Siobhán Spratt

With sell-out shows in 2022, these artists were collector favourites.

Digital Editor
Erin Irwin
160 | New Directions
These artists have recently taken their practice somewhere notably different.
Social Media Manager
Charlotte Middleton
176 | Sad Farewells
The 2022 art world losses we’re lamenting. Editorial Board
Dr Rex Butler, Sue Cato,
184 | Standout Shows Dr Alan Cholodenko, Dr Edward
Colless, Ben Crawford, Michael
The most talked about exhibitions last year. Hutak, Lindy Lee, Dr Jenna Price,
Beatrice Spence, John Young
196 | Remarkable Collectors
The collectors and philanthropists going above and beyond to support local art. Editorial
Rose of Sharon Leake
rleake@artcollector.net.au
206 | Agenda Setters
The artists, curators and directors set to influence the art world in 2023. Subscriptions
subscriptions@artcollector.net.au
214 | Tastemakers artcollector.net.au/subscribe
The curators to put on your watch-list.
Advertising

220 | Zeitgeist feedback@artcollector.net.au

The 2022 art world trends we noted.

Produced & Published by
Art Edited Pty Ltd
ABN 48 614 849 197

REGULAR FEATURE Director & Founder

Susan Borham

Reproduction in whole or in part is not

permitted without the written authorisation of
226 | Seen, Heard, Read
the publisher. In the reproduction of artworks
The book, podcast and film you might like to know about. all reasonable efforts have been made to trace
copyright holders where appropriate.

ISSN 2209-7317

Correction: In Art Collector issue 102 we stated that Art director of Art Week Tokyo (AWT) Atsuki Kikuchi developed the fair’s Art Collector acknowledges and pays
lineup, when in fact he did not. AWT was organised by Japan Contemporary Art Platform in collaboration with Art Basel. respect to the Gadigal people of the Eora
In the same feature we stated that Art Basel Miami Beach featured a line-up from 35 countries, when in fact it was from 38 Nation, the traditional custodians of the
countries and regions. land on which we operate.

10
Jon Rafman
Neon Parc
17 Mar – 29 Apr. 2023
Counterfeit Poast (still) 2022 © Jon Rafman. Courtesy the artist and Sprüth Magers

Brunswick 12–5pm, City 12–5pm,

15 Tinning Street Wednesday–Saturday 1/53 Bourke Street Thursday–Saturday
Brunswick, 3056 neonparc.com.au Melbourne, 3000 neonparc.com.au
 FREDDIE TIMMS
2 - 25 February 2023

MAR TIN BROWNE CONTEMPORARY

15 HAMPDEN STREET PADDINGTON NSW 2021 TEL: 02 9331 7997 MOB: 0414 881 999
info@martinbrownecontemporary.com www.martinbrownecontemporary.com
GALLERY HOURS: TUESDAY - SATURDAY 10:30AM - 6PM
SUNDAY - MONDAY BY APPOINTMENT
 MARLENE GILSON
2 - 25 March 2023

MAR TIN BROWNE CONTEMPORARY

15 HAMPDEN STREET PADDINGTON NSW 2021 TEL: 02 9331 7997 MOB: 0414 881 999
info@martinbrownecontemporary.com www.martinbrownecontemporary.com
GALLERY HOURS: TUESDAY - SATURDAY 10:30AM - 6PM
SUNDAY - MONDAY BY APPOINTMENT
CONTRIBUTORS
Charlie Ashfield is a Melbourne-based
photographer.
Lucinda Bennett works as a writer and editor based
in Tāmaki Makaurau. She holds an MA (First Class)
in Art History from The University of Auckland.
Judith Blackall is a curator and writer with
extensive experience in Australian and international
contemporary art.
Daniel Browning is a Bundjalung and Kullilli
journalist, radio broadcaster, documentary maker,
sound artist and writer. Currently, he is Editor
Indigenous Radio with the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation (ABC) and produces and presents Awaye!,
the Indigenous culture program on Radio National,
the ABC’s specialist arts and journalism network.
Dr Christina Chau holds a PhD in Art History
and Media Studies from the University of
Western Australia, is currently a lecturer at the
School of Media, Culture, and Creative Arts
at Curtin University, and is the lecturer and
course coordinator for Honours in the Faculty of
Humanities at Curtin. In 2017 Chau published her
first book titled Movement, Time Technology and
Art, and was also a television presenter on ABC’s Art
Bites: Shock Art, which looked at controversial art
for Australian audiences.
Dr Daniel Mudie Cunningham is an independent
curator, consultant, writer and artist. From
2017 to 2022 he was the director of programs
at Carriageworks, having held prior curatorial
positions at Western Sydney University, where he
completed his PhD in cultural studies in 2004.
Briony Downes studied Art History at the University
of Oxford and Australian Aboriginal Art at Curtin
University, Perth. She has worked in the arts for 20
years as a writer and art theory tutor.
Emma Finneran is a writer and artist based in
Sydney.
Kelly Fliedner is a Perth-based writer and curator.
She is the Collections Officer and Art Consultant for
the Australian Government’s Artbank initiative in
Western Australia, and a Board Member of the Perth
Institute of Contemporary Art.
Joe Frost is an artist represented by Liverpool Street
Gallery, Sydney.
14
Sebastian Henry-Jones is a curator and writer
led by an interest in DIY thinking. He is currently
Associate Curator at West Space, Melbourne.
Maya Hodge is a Lardil and Yangkaal writer and
curator. Her creative practice explores the power
of disrupting colonial narratives through curatorial
and project-based work dedicated to uplifting First
Nations autonomy and storytelling.
Lucy Jackson works as a Wellington-based writer,
curator and communications specialist. She has
held roles at Te Papa and City Gallery Wellington.
AM Jonson is CEO of the Sherman Centre for
Culture and Ideas. She has written and edited widely
on society, ethics, technology and the arts for many
presses and publications, including co-authoring
two books on Brian Sherman.
Duro Jovicic is a writer currently completing his
Associate Degree in Professional Writing and Editing
at RMIT, Melbourne.
Courtney Kidd has written for publications
including Artist Profile, Art Monthly Australasia, Art
+ Australia and The Sydney Morning Herald. She is
also an art consultant at Artbank.
Joanna Kitto currently holds the position of Art &
Collections coordinator at the Bundoora Homestead
Art Centre. She is a curator and writer based in
Naarm/Melbourne.
Russell Kleyn is a Wellington-based photographer.
Louise Martin-Chew has been writing about the
visual arts for 25 years. She completed a doctorate
at the University of Queensland in 2019, and
remains an Honorary Research Fellow in the School
of Communication and Arts at the University of
Queensland.
Jacquie Manning is a Sydney based photographer.
Emil McAvoy is an artist, art writer, educator,
gallery professional and a consultant for artists
based in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand.
Nina Miall works out of Sydney as an independent
curator and writer. She has more than 20
years experience working across institutional,
commercial and public art contexts. Primary among
her curatorial concerns are socially engaged,
interdisciplinary and site-specific practices.
Michelle Newton is the deputy director of Artspace,
Sydney where she has co-commissioned and
co-curated significant projects with artists and in
partnership with leading international institutions.
Brian Obiri-Asare’s writing examines the nuances
within a racially diverse society, inspired by his
Ghanaian heritage. He won the 2021 NT Literary
Award and an Arts NT Varuna Fellowship.
Sophie Penkethman-Young is an artist and digital
producer. She recently completed a Master of
Art Curating at the University of Sydney focusing
on digital museum culture and internet-based
practice. Sophie held the 2019-2020 board position
of Digital Manager of Runway Journal.
Diego Ramírez works as an artist, writer and arts
worker. His practice employs a variety of mediums
to unpack representations of otherness from the
perspective of a Mexican subject.
Anne Ryan holds the position of Curator, Australian
Art at The Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney.
Judith Ryan is Senior Curator of Indigenous Art
at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). She has
curated numerous exhibitions of Indigenous art,
has published widely in the field and has been
responsible for developing the NGV’s collection of
Indigenous Art.
Henry Skerritt currently holds the position of
curator of the Indigenous Arts of Australia at
the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the
University of Virginia.
Jm Tubera is a Melbourne-based photographer.
Emma-Kate Wilson is an art and design writer who
has been published in Art Almanac, Artist Profile, Art
Monthly and The Sydney Morning Herald.
Hannah Wohl received her Ph.D. in Sociology
from Northwestern University and completed her
postdoctoral fellowship at Columbia University.
Sharne Wolff is an arts writer and critic. She has
written on art for numerous publications including
Art Monthly Australia and The Guardian Australia.
Coen Young is a Sydney-based artist represented by
Kronenberg Mais Wright, Sydney and Fox Jensen
McCrory, Auckland.
sea night, acrylic on polyester, 167 cm x 213cm. photo: @docqment

LUKE KENNEDY
sea night
2 - 25 March 2023

243a Liverpool Street East Sydney NSW 2010 +61 2 8353 7799
info@liverpoolstgallery.com.au liverpoolstgallery.com.au
DELAFIELD

COOK
WILLIAM DELAFIELD COOK
JONATHAN DELAFIELD COOK
8 MARCH – 1 APRIL 2023

OLSENGALLERY.COM
NATURE KNOT
8 FEBRUARY - 5 MARCH
HONEY LONG & PRUE STENT | MARINA ROLFE | CYRUS TANG

CYRUS TANG, TREE STUDY 6, 2022, PIGMENT PRINT, EDITION OF

5 + 2 A/P, 80 x 80 CM.

ARC ONE GALLERY

45 FLINDERS LANE
MELBOURNE 3000
TELEPHONE: +613 9650 0589
WWW.ARCONE.COM.AU
MAIL@ARC1GALLERY.COM
 2020

THE COVID YEARS

Conciergerie, Palais de la Cité, Paris
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Paris Photo New York - Cancelled
Archibald Prize - Winner
Sulman Prize - Finalists
Wynne Prize - Finalists
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
PAC Padiglione d’Art Contemporanea, Milan
2021
Australian Embassy, Paris
TarraWarra Museum of Art, Melbourne
Art and History Museum, Brussels
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
Asia-Pacific Triennial, QAGOMA, Brisbane
IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, New Mexico
Paris Photo Paris - Cancelled
ACCA, Melbourne
Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane
Monash Museum of Art, Melbourne
National Portrait Gallery, Canberra
Paris Photo OVR 2021
Australia-Japan Foundation, Asialink
2022
Tate Modern, London
Gropius Bau, Berlin
Archibald Prize - Finalists
Sulman Prize - Finalists
Wynne Prize - Finalists
Deletaille Gallery, Brussels
Art Gallery of Western Australia
MONA, Hobart
National Gallery of Singapore
Seoul Museum of Art, South Korea
Art Basel OVR 2022
Palais De Tokyo, Paris
Fondation Opale, Switzerland
Tropen Museum, Amsterdam
Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
Aichi Triennale, Japan
Marshall M Fredericks Sculpture Museum, Michigan
Kaiserslautern Foto Festival, Germany
Armory Center for the Arts, California

2023...

www.thisisnofantasy.com
@thisisnofantasy
 SYDNEY WORLDPRIDE
LINGER, DASH, TALK
18 FEBRUARY - 23 APRIL 2023
KIRLI SAUNDERS
TROY-ANTHONY BAYLISS
STELLY G, KIKI ONER & GARDEN REFLEXXX

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MATHEW CALANDRA & STUDIO A
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AND MORE . . .

LINGER, DASH, TALK

LAUNCHING SATURDAY FEBRUARY 18 6-8PM

36 GOSBELL STREET PADDINGTON NSW 2021 | GALLERY HOURS THURS - SUN | 11-5PM CEMENTFONDU.ORG
HIRIA ANDERSON, Te Rerenga, 2022, oil on canvas, 505mm H x 400mm W
Gene A’Hern
the pilot and the passenger
04 February – 11 March 2023

4 George Street, South Melbourne, VIC 3205 info@1301sw.com 1301sw.com @1301sw_melbourne

CELEBRATING 20 YEARS

PHOTO BY IVANA SMILJANIC

+61 439 770 362 89 ISLINGTON STREET

INFO@JAMESMAKINGALLERY.COM COLLINGWOOD VICTORIA 3066
JAMESMAKINGALLERY.COM AUSTRALIA
REPRESENTING SHILA KHATAMI
FOX JENSEN & FOX JENSEN McCRORY
 JODY GRAHAM
VOILÀ
2 – 18 MARCH, 2023

Jody Graham, Dionysus Frenzy 2 - Berbie Palace Gardens, Albi, France, 2022, 12 – 14 Meagher Street nandahobbs.com
114cm x 130cm 155 x 122cm Chippendale \ NSW \ 2008 info@nandahobbs.com
2023
GORDON S HE PHE RDS ON
1 T O 1 8 FEB

PETER SHA RP
2 2 FEB T O 1 1 M A R

ELYSS MCCLEA RY
1 5 M A R T O 1 A PR

A RRYN SN OWBA LL
1 2 T O 2 9 A PR

A N TON IA SELLBACH
2 4 M AY T O 1 0 J U N

N ICOLE KELLY
14 JUN TO 1 JUL

PHILJA MES
5 TO 22 JUL

MILES HA LL
2 6 J U L T O 1 2 AU G

TON EE MESSIA H
1 6 AU G T O 2 SEP

VIRG IN IA CUPPA IDG E

SY D N EY C O N TEM PO RA RY

RHYS LEE
1 3 T O 3 0 SEP

KA RLA MA RCHESI
4 TO 21 OCT

A MBER WA LLIS
2 5 O C T T O 1 1 N OV

WEN DY STAVRIA N OS
1 5 N OV T O 2 D EC

REW HA N KS
6 T O 2 3 D EC
 TOM ALBERTS
4 - 25 March 2023

CHARLES NODRUM GALLERY

267 CHURCH STREET RICHMOND VICTORIA 3121 AUSTRALIA
WWW.CHARLESNODRUMGALLERY.COM.AU TUES-SAT 11AM-5PM
GALLERY@CHARLESNODRUMGALLERY.COM.AU +61 (0)3 9427 0140
Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, 2020, oil on linen, 61 x 50cm
 S torm front - recycled painted and burnt galvanised steel, rusted steel, formply & c o n c re t e re s id u e , 6 0 x 6 0 c m

A l ex Asch
C LIM A C T ER IC
9 – 2 5 F eb r u ar y 2 0 2 3
EMILY
WOLFE APR 2023
6 - 29

PAGE GALLERIES INFO@PAGEGALLERIES.CO.NZ PAGEGALLERIES.CO.NZ

 TONI WILKINSON
Tough Pleasures
Exhibition and Book Launch

2/565 Hay Street, Cathedral Square, Perth Toni Wilkinson, Scarlett with Banana, 2022
+61 8 9325 7237 // art@artcollectivewa.com.au // www.artcollectivewa.com.au archival digital print, 120 x 160cm.
MICHAEL HIGHT
MARCH 2023

Mesopotamia (detail), 2022, oil on linen, 1100 x 2800mm

GOW LANGSFORD GALLERY

CNR KITCHENER ST & WELLESLEY ST AUCKLAND NEW ZEALAND
PO BOX 5461 T: +64 9 303 4290 WWW.GOWLANGSFORDGALLERY.COM
 Mildura SPEEDWAY
Atrocity
MATTHEW WARE
Exhibition
FEBURARY 3 – MARCH 10, 2023
Alexandra Peters
Burchill/McCamley
Lauren Burrow

Curated by
Helen Hughes

Feburary 3 – March 10, 2023

RY
NAP CONTEMPORA
E, MI LD URA VIC 3500
94 DEAKIN AV
ORARY.COM.AU
WWW.NAPCONTEMP
ORARY.COM.AU
INFO@NAPCONTEMP
+61484258885
 GALLERY 9

LOUISE TUCKWELL
25 JANUARY - 18 FEBRUARY

MASON SALTARELLI, JAKE

WALKER & LOUISE GRESSWELL
22 FEBRUARY - 18 MARCH

TONEE MESSIAH & JADE PEGLER

22 MARCH - 15 APRIL

Gallery 9 9 Darley St Darlinghurst NSW 2010 Australia

www.gallery9.com.au allan@gallery9.com.au +61 2 9380 9909

Image Credits: Cropped image of LOUISE TUCKWELL‘gravitational waves are altering my orbit’ 2022,
acrylic on panel, 50 × 50 cm | Photography: Anthony Hodgkinson
 JONNY NIESCHE

ART SG - BOOTH FC34 12 - 15 JANUARY 2023

MARINA BAY SANDS, SINGAPORE

510 Karangahape Rd, Auckland 1010 & 1–7 Earl Street, Queenstown, New Zealand
contact@starkwhite.co.nz +64 275777128 @starkwhite
Jonny Niesche, Prismatic Grotto (detail), 2022, Voile, acrylic mirror and wood, Dimensions variable
 important
australian paintings
2 8 F E B RUA R Y T O 2 5 M A R C H

2 ARTHUR ST, FORTITUDE VALLEY, BRISBANE ∙ 10.00AM – 5.00PM TUE TO SAT

TELEPHONE: 07 3358 3555 ∙ EMAIL: INFO @ PHILIPBACONGALLERIES.COM.AU
Fred Williams Rising tide, Cannon’s Creek 1973 oil on canvas 92 x 92 cm
 KARLA DICKENS
EMBRACING SHADOWS
3 JANUARY – 12 MARCH 2023 | CAMPBELLTOWN ARTS CENTRE

Located on Dharawal land, Campbelltown Arts Centre is proudly owned by the people of Campbelltown and is a cultural facility of Campbelltown
City Council. Campbelltown Arts Centre is assisted by the NSW Government through Create NSW and also receives support from the Crown Resorts
Foundation, the Packer Family Foundation and the Neilson Foundation. Image Credit: For Sale, 2022. Mixed media, 124 x 124 cm.
 STRENGTHENING OUR ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER5 CULTURAL PRACTICES
UMI Arts Gallery
4/1 Jensen Street
Manoora QLD
(07) 4041 6152
umiarts.com.au

Image: Shell World , Michelle Yeatman.

The Summer Show, 2022-23. Courtesy
Lovegreen Photography.
u t o p i a a r t s y d n e y

celebrating 35 years 1988 - 2023

BARBARA
HEPWORTH
IN EQUILIBRIUM

Made possible by the

generous support of
The John and Rose
Downer Foundation,
Christine Collingwood,
Bed Bath n’ Table and
the Hepworth Circle.

Supported by

5 NOV—13 MAR HEIDE.COM.AU image: Barbara Hepworth, Eidos 1947

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Barbara Hepworth © Bowness
 UPFRONT | Previews

Previews
Notable exhibitions to be staged this quarter across the region.

WORDS | ROSE OF SHARON LEAKE

JODY GRAHAM
Voilà
NANDA\HOBBS, SYDNEY |

2 TO 18 MARCH 2023

Comprising drawings made in France and

more than 20 larger charcoal artworks
inspired by French architecture, bridges,
and statues, Jody Graham's upcoming
show at Nanda\Hobbs, Sydney combines
architecture and history with the contem-
porary everyday. In her charcoal sketches,
we are confronted with a sense of move-
ment while the detritus of the French
cultural landscape provides a constant
thread throughout the work. In Graham's
streetscenes, feats of architecture are shad-
owed by the city's other inhabitants – rats
and pigeons. "The challenge for me," says
the artist, "was to work on a series of draw-
ings that challenged my skill as a draftsper-
son, creating a body of work that exhibited
my creative vision of France. I wanted to
explore the range of drawing approaches
and mediums – and how the act of creation
could influence the essence of my vision
for a place so steeped in history."

RIGHT: Jody Graham, House Rat, 2022.

Charcoal on paper, 92 x 92cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND
NANDA\HOBBS, SYDNEY.

43
UPFRONT | Previews
G E N E A ’ H E R N the pilot and the passenger
1301S W, M E L B O U R N E | 4 F E B R U A RY T O 11 M A R C H 2023
His debut exhibition in Melbourne, Gene
A'Hern's the pilot and the passenger contin-
ues his confident and unique take on classic
Modernist narratives with an underpinning
Australian sentiment. In the show will
feature a group of large-scale paintings in
oils and tufted works with cotton alongside
smaller works on paper, all presenting
the artist's experimentation and emphasis
of material, technique and process. Each
44
work offers thick gestural marks made
with a combination of processes revealing
recognisable elements from his everyday
landscape: mountain peaks, rain, sky, and
bushland. Raw pigment is rubbed and
spattered across the surface, muddying into
mess and chaos. "Whatever the medium,"
says 1301SW director Jack Willet, "A’Hern’s
work is striking and will control the viewers’
attention for long periods of time."
LEFT: Gene A'Hern, Untitled,
2022. Oil, pigment and pastel
on linen, 180 x 193cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND
1301SW, MELBOURNE.
OPPOSITE: Abbey Rich, Paths
that don’t go where people
want them to go, 2022.
PHOTO: SAM BIDDLE. COURTESY:
THE ARTIST AND MARS GALLERY,
MELBOURNE.
A B B E Y R I C H Paths that don’t
go where people want them to go
M A R S G A L L E R Y, M E L B O U R N E |
4 TO 25 FEBRUARY 2023
Abbey Rich's first commercial exhibition
seeks to navigate the ego intrinsically embed-
ded within public space. Known primarily
for their mural works, Rich plans to extend
the exhibition at Melbourne's MARS Gallery
outside the confines of the gallery, with a new
mural on the side of the gallery's building.
"Through sculptures such as Stick a flower on it
and a focus on distilled forms, Abbey is able to
make their work accessible and engaging to all
audiences, while critiquing the space around
us," says MARS director Andy Dinan. While
Rich's work can be quickly reduced to its
aesthetic, the approachability of the paintings
and sculptures – with their clean lines and a
well informed, harmonious colour palette –
performs a larger role. Here, Rich is providing
a nuanced commentary on public and private
space by navigating the well intentioned yet
harmful effects that urban planning has on
the functionality of public space.
UPFRONT | Previews

45
UPFRONT | Previews
J O H N W O L S E L E Y Regenesis - Slow Water - Deep Earth
R O S L Y N O X L E Y 9 G A L L E R Y, S Y D N E Y |
27 JANUARY TO 25 FEBRUARY 2023
Comprising more than 40 artworks consist-
ing of oil paintings, watercolour paintings
on paper, charcoal drawings and four
7-metre long panoramic watercolour paint-
ings, Regenesis - Slow Water - Deep Earth will
pack a punch.
In his first exhibition with Roslyn Oxley9
Gallery in four years, John Wolseley
returns to the city with an exhibition of
new multi-panelled works the artist calls
"landscape polyptychs". This is a new way of
working for Wolseley who has taken inspi-
ration from Japanese Ukiyo-e printmakers.
46
Through triptychs and polyptychs,
Wolseley is able to present a number of
modes or graphic systems in one work.
"There’s the charcoal frottage on paper
and the more cartographic birds-eye draw-
ings," he says. "A favourite one is the more
traditional perspective view. Usually, I tend
to have these modalities in one painting.
But in these multi-panel works, they are
ABOVE: John Wolseley, Slow
in separate framed panels juxtaposed in water and the rufous songlark,
a single work which brings together the Bibbaringa 3, 2019-20. Oil on
masonite, 73 x 122cm.
different systems found in a complex bit of PHOTO: DAVID SUYASA. COURTESY:
THE ARTIST AND ROSLYN OXLEY9
country." GALLERY, SYDNEY

J A N E T L A U R E N C E Once were forests
A R C O N E G A L L E R Y, M E L B O U R N E | 8 M A R C H T O 1 5 A P R I L 2 0 2 3
In Once Were Forests, Janet Laurence’s atten-
tion is on the south of the globe – Antarctica
and its inhabitants. In the summer of 2021-
2022, Laurence travelled to Antarctica after
being awarded the prestigious Australian
Antarctic Arts Fellowship. Laurence’s pilgrim-
age to the ice continent continues her study
of the fundamental fragility of the natural
world. "The impact of Janet Laurence’s voice
on contemporary art culture within Australia,
and the wider audience internationally,
has held a powerful position for over four
decades," says ARC ONE director Fran Clark.
"Consistently focusing all her energy on the
UPFRONT | Previews
bigger picture, with the key subject of human
existence and impact on the blue planet and
its exquisitely complicated natural life force,
Laurence’s work remains utterly remarkable
in its resonance and reverence to nature."
Gently recalling Laurence’s iconic Verdant
series, the four large-scale, multi-panelled
works in Once Were Forests are beautiful,
open, luminous and poetic but loaded with
deeper meaning. Her important subjects of
ABOVE: Janet Laurence, Worlds
loss, memory, change, and the beauty and That Disappear V, The Healing
Flowers, 2020. Duraclear on
disappearance of one of Laurence’s greatest shinkolite acrylic, aluminium, oil
passions, the natural world, are for her audi- pigment, 100 x 219 x 10cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND ARC ONE
ences to seriously contemplate. GALLERY, MELBOURNE.
47
UPFRONT | Previews

LEFT: Sarah CrowEST, RE-UP #12,

2022. Cotton, acrylic and cotton
strapping, 182 x 109cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND
LON GALLERY, MELBOURNE.

OPPOSITE: Freddie Timms, Cockwood

Springs, 2003. Pigments and acrylic
binder on Belgian linen, 80 x 100cm.
COURTESY: MARTIN BROWNE
CONTEMPORARY, SYDNEY AND
THE ESTATE OF FREDDIE TIMMS.

SARAH CROWEST
Painting RE-UP:
construction and deliquescence
L O N G A L L E R Y, M E L B O U R N E |

1 TO 25 MARCH 2023

Extending the ideas outlined in her forth-

coming National Gallery of Victoria,
Melbourne commission, RE-UP: Strap-on
Paintings, part of Melbourne Now 2023,
Sarah CrowEST's upcoming exhibition pays
homage to the artist's extensive exploration
of painting and textile mediums. Expanding
the territory of her iconic #straponpaint-
ings project, which uses artist’s Belgian
linen, screen printing and acrylic to create
wearable paintings, CrowEST challenges
perceived notions of value while engaging
with feminist histories. "The success of
this body of work," says LON director Adam
Stone, "led to CrowEST being included in
Vitamin T, published by Phaidon, which
is largely considered the definitive survey
of international textile practices. This is
an exceptional achievement, with only
two Australian artists featuring in the
publication."

48
 UPFRONT | Previews

F R E D D I E T I M M S Solo exhibition
M A R T I N B R O W N E C O N T E M P O R A R Y, S Y D N E Y | 2 T O 2 5 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3

The work of late Gija artist Freddie Timms
is known for its power. Bold and confident,
his paintings present us with aerial maps of
the Country where he was born, lived and
worked all his life and after which he was
named, Ngarrmaliny, East Kimberley. Timms’
work presents contrasting histories coex-
isting within the landscape. Martin Browne
Contemporary, in association with the Estate
of Freddie Timms, presents 15 works created
between 1998 and 2013. "Timms’ work not only
radiates with energy but with the knowledge
of one of the most important cultural leaders
of his generation," says Dominic Kavanagh,
manager at Martin Browne Contemporary.

49
UPFRONT | Previews
ABOVE: Ashlee Murray, King
Maireener shell necklace, 2021.
Single species necklace, 123 King
maireener shells, 69.5cm total length.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND
BETT GALLERY, HOBART.
OPPOSITE: Elyss McCleary, Nova and
Celine, 2022. Oil on linen, 107 x 92cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND NICHOLAS
THOMPSON GALLERY, MELBOURNE.
50
G R O U P S H O W kanalaritja tunapri - the new generation
B E T T G A L L E R Y, H O B A R T | 1 3 J A N U A R Y T O 4 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3
“It is so important we support and nurture the
women participating in the kanalaritja tunapri
exhibition, they are the future knowledge
holders who will ensure the continuation
of our traditional practice of shell necklace
stringing,” says Elder Jeanette James.
The art of shell stringing is a valued Palawa
cultural tradition that has remained intact
for thousands of years. This exhibition sees
well known stringers and emerging stringers
E LY S S M C C L E A R Y
A Tender Anchor
NICHOLAS THOMPSON
G A L L E R Y, M E L B O U R N E |
15 MARCH TO 1 APRIL 2023
For her forthcoming exhibition at Nicholas
Thompson Gallery, Melbourne, Elyss
McCleary will present a sequential suite of
medium to large paintings depicting rainbow
spectrum scenes of colour luminosity. The
works amalgamate notions of grounding and
lightness, as well as interconnected human
relationships, abstracted through vivid
and hovering compositional colour plays.
"McCleary’s initial fresh fast drawing is visible
in the final image," says Nicholas Thompson,
"so that under and over layers are highlighted
equally in presentation, with mistakes and
process left visible, creating works that open
up and evolve before the eye."
come together to show the importance of this
continuing practice, a practice that is passed
down generation to generation of Indigenous
women.
These necklaces are remarkably beautiful
and the women encourage collectors to wear
them. This exhibition creates an incredi-
bly important opportunity for collectors to
engage in and support Indigenous culture in
Tasmania.
UPFRONT | Previews

51
Goulburn Regional Art Gallery presents

3 feb. — 18 mar.

Julian Meagher

Image courtesy of the artist and Yavuz Gallery. Photo Mark Pokomy.
Julian Meagher, The Green Ray – 1, 2022, oil on linen, 245 x 198 cm,

The Green Ray

Goulburn Regional
Art Gallery is
supported by the
NSW Government
though Create NSW
UPFRONT | Cultural Capital
On Liking it Before it was Cool
In this third of an ongoing series on her highly intriguing ethnographic study
of the New York art world, Hannah Wohl explains her concept of creative
vision as it applies to the endeavours of art collectors.
WORDS | HANNAH WOHL
ILLUSTRATION | COEN YOUNG
In the contemporary art world, where
However, collecting anything – a giant hamster wheel or woven
the most iconic work pipe cleaners – can potentially be a work of
art, how do collectors select works and how
of blue-chip artists do they justify their decisions to others? In my
is not enough to be book, Bound by Creativity: How Contemporary
Art is Created and Judged, I set out to understand
validated as a good
how people evaluate contemporary art. Over
collector. Collectors the course of two years, I interviewed more
are also expected than 100 artists, dealers, curators, collectors,
and art advisers and observed people interact-
to express their
ing in countless studios, galleries, museums,
own creative vision and collectors’ homes in the New York City art
through the display world. I learned that, faced with uncertainty,
art world members orient their aesthetic judg-
of their collection. ments around perceptions of creative visions
– enduring and core consistencies within
bodies of work.
Collectors want to own work that they view
as embodying a distinctive creative vision.
This takes some expertise. They have to know
which contemporary artists are seen to have
an especially original creative vision and
what elements are iconic of this vision, so
that visitors can look at their walls and say,
“That’s a Mark Bradford,” or “That’s a Julie
Mehretu.” However, collecting the most iconic
work of blue-chip artists is not enough to be
56
validated as a good collector. Collectors are
also expected to express their own creative
vision through the display of their collec-
tion. Just as an artist has an oeuvre and a
dealer has a gallery program, a collector has
a collection. As a collection is comprised of
the work of multiple artists, it may be tied
together through somewhat looser threads
than a single artist’s oeuvre, but collectors still
conceive of their collections as adhered by
their distinctive aesthetic sensibilities, and,
like artists, they view these aesthetic sensibili-
ties as derived from their identities.
How do collectors build a collection that
they and others will view as economically and
aesthetically valuable, while also representa-
tive of their unique aesthetic sensibilities? The
former involves collecting in demand work by
high-status artists, while the latter involves
collecting unusual works by lesser-known
artists. Collectors purchase these works at
different price points. When they buy works
that are expensive, relative to their collection,
they find it especially important to purchase
works that are iconic of an artist’s creative
vision, and they are only likely to purchase
more idiosyncratic works if they already own
the artist’s iconic work.
UPFRONT | Cultural Capital

57
UPFRONT | Cultural Capital
In contrast, collectors view relatively inex-
pensive works by emerging artists as less
likely to retain economic value, so collectors
consider these works to be fliers and are more
willing to purchase one-off idiosyncratic
pieces from these artists.
Collectors use both iconic works and fliers
to communicate their broader orientations
toward collecting. Their private collections
are somewhat public in that they frequently
host art world members to show them the
newest rehanging of their collection and will
loan works out for exhibitions. They tend to
hang works of different price points in equally
prominent positions, and they explain to
guests that they value their collection for its
aesthetic value, not its economic value. In
their narratives about their collections, they
seek to reinforce their legitimacy as good
collectors.
Key to collectors’ narratives are claims
of what I call aesthetic confidence, or an
expressed willingness to purchase works
based on a belief in one’s distinctive and inde-
pendent taste. Elite art collectors are not the
only people who claim aesthetic confidence.
A music aficionado might similarly brag about
listening to a band or seeing them in concert
before they were famous. Across cultural
fields, people claim cultural expertise and
legitimacy by arguing, “I liked it before it was
cool.” But collectors go a step further because
they claim that they are willing to put money
down, sometimes a lot of money (even if
disposable income), on their belief in their
independent taste. Collectors particularly
58
emphasise that they often purchase works
early in artists’ careers, and they highlight
examples of specific artists who later went on
to greater critical and commercial success.
As one prominent collector I interviewed
stated: “I have confidence. I buy what I like
and hang it on my wall, and if you don’t like
it, that’s okay with me. If you do like it, it’s
fine with me too. I don’t ask permission... But
a lot of people follow, and because we have
a very public collection, and because we are
confident, and we purchase things that don’t
need a stamp of approval – these things that
are very early – and then other people jump in
and comment and pick things up. I guess you
default to being a tastemaker.”
But claims of aesthetic confidence are flex-
ible. Collectors assert that they bought early,
while pointing to different benchmarks in
artists’ careers. Is it still early after the first
solo exhibition at a major gallery, or the first
museum acquisition, or the first biennial?
Collectors also account for artists’ career
trajectories after their purchase in ways that
flexibly legitimise their taste. While collectors
use artists’ later success as evidence of being
a tastemaker, they argue that career failures
are evidence of their superior taste as well. In
their telling, they are sometimes so far ahead
of the curve that the market still has yet to
catch up.
The problem with aesthetic confidence is
that, while anyone can claim it, not all claims
are equally accepted by others. Collectors
accept or reject each other’s claims of
aesthetic confidence in ways that reinforce
While collectors use
artists’ later success
as evidence of being
a tastemaker, they
argue that career
failures are evidence
of their superior taste
as well.
status hierarchies among collectors. Higher
status collectors particularly scorn those who
use art advisers, accusing these collectors of
having to buy their taste instead of naturally
possessing it. They argue that they themselves
have no need for these formal recommen-
dations, as they buy with their eyes and not
with their ears. But elite collectors actually
receive a steady flow of chatter as they trade
information with collectors, curators, dealers
and others in the art world. It is the informal-
ity through which they receive these recom-
mendations due to their centrality within the
art market that allows them to downplay the
receipt of this information. It is worth asking:
Who gets to like it before it was cool?
KATE VAN DER DRIFT
Soundings
17 JAN - 12 FEB

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
 JULIE DOWLING, TRACEY MOFFATT,
TENNANT CREEK BRIO, JOSEPH WILLIAMS & LÉVI MCLEAN,
GOBAWARRAH-YINHAWANGKA TRADITIONAL OWNERS &
MICHAEL BONNER

UWA SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF

WESTERN AUSTRALIA 11 FEBRUARY — 22 APRIL 2023
Indigenous Berndt
Studies Museum LAWRENCE WILSON ART GALLERY
Perth Festival Principal Partner Perth Festival Visual Arts Program Partner

LAWRENCE WILSON ART GALLERY THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA

OPEN TUES - SAT 12 - 5PM 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA, Australia 6009
FREE ADMISSION P +61 (0)8 6488 3707 W uwa.edu.au/lwag
@LWAGallery CRICOS Provider Code: 00126G

Gombawarrah-Yinhawangka, Paraburdoo area, photograph by Michael Bonner

 12 Nov 2022 –
5 Mar 2023
Curated by Jane Eckett

Post-war Australian sculpture

came of age in the 1960s
with the advent of Centre 5,
a group of artists including
Vincas Jomantas, Julius Kane,
Inge King, Clifford Last,
Lenton Parr, Norma Redpath,
and Teisutis Zikaras.

Centre 5 aimed to bridge

Vincas Jomantas / Julius Kane
Inge King / Clifford Last / Lenton Parr
Norma Redpath / Teisutis Zikaras
the gap between artist and
public through exhibitions,
lectures, and media, and
fostered a closer relationship
with architects and developers.

This exhibition showcases

key works made during the
group’s most active years,
from 1958 to 1974.

McClelland
390 McClelland Drive, Langwarrin
Open Wednesday–Sunday 10am to 4pm
mcclelland.org.au
 ERIN COATES

MOORE CONTEMPORARY
moorecontemporary.com
Collapsing Taxonomies, 2020.
Graphite and collaged images from vintage
nature encyclopedias on paper.
120 x 150cm (framed).

The Test of Time
Celebrating a two-decade-long professional relationship, gallerist Martin Browne and artist Ildiko Kovacs
tell us the single most important thing about their relationship that has given it longevity.
MARTIN BROWNE
Her complete focus and dedication...
Looking at this photo [above],
taken on the opening day of
Ildiko Kovacs’ first exhibition
with my gallery, September 11,
2001, I am struck by the thought
that neither of us had any
conception of how the world,
within hours, would be irrevo-
cably changed. In the 21 years
since, there have been so many
other changes. Yet through all
these years there has been one
constant – Ildiko’s complete
focus and dedication to the
exploration of her art practice.
In Ildiko’s practice, a paint-
ing is never really finished but
rather she judges it completed
at a stage of its creation where
she is happy to release it into the
world. I’m always curious as to
what is happening in her studio
and there have been more than
a few occasions where she has
sent me images of a breathtak-
ingly painting, followed by a
brief SMS to say ‘It’s gone now’.
Yet I know that such is her
genius, she will conjure another
even more arresting image from
the ruins of the painting that had
existed before. I am in awe of
her extraordinary talent. And to
cap it all off, she is the warmest,
most wonderful person you
could ever wish to meet.
UPFRONT |
ILDIKO KOVACS
His respect...
I remember phoning Martin
Browne Fine Art (as it was called
back then) with no real intro-
duction and cutting straight to
the chase. I asked Martin if he
would like to show my work. He
pencilled in a date on our first
meeting. That was in 2000.
Martin’s subtle gestures,
rarely spoken, are always felt.
His perceptive nature and my
intuitive one have made for
good chemistry. His astuteness
combined with his promptness
leaves no floating uncertainties.
I remember many hot
summer days working away in
my studio, throwing buckets of
The Test of Time
FAR LEFT: Martin Browne
(left) and Ildiko Kovacs
(right) in 2001.
LEFT: Ildiko Kovacs,
Cauldron, 2021, oil
paint on plywood,
160 x 150cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST
AND MARTIN BROWNE
CONTEMPORARY, SYDNEY.
turps and reworking a painting
over and over. At times I’d send
an image to Martin of a work in
progress, and he would always
be there with a quick response.
As artists we walk a kind of tight
rope finding that balance of
doing the work and how we sit in
the world outside. Martin makes
way for the studio, he clears the
space. My experience of the
artist and gallery relationship,
over more than two decades
with Martin, has allowed me the
freedom to work. In turn I feel
gratitude. As my late Hungarian
mother said: ‘Darling, he is one
in a million’.
63
 VIP PREVIEW &
1 – 5 MARCH OPENING NIGHT
WED 1 MARCH
2023
THE CLOUD /
A K L W AT E R F R O N T
UPFRONT | Art Fairs

Out in Force
Art fairs for your travel calendar in the next quarter.

WORDS | DURO JOVICIC

Covid-19, Omicron, and murmurings of

further variants; Russia’s war on Ukraine;
galloping inflation interest rate rises, a
squeeze on household income; there’s much
to be preoccupied by and rightly so. A recent
trip to Europe somewhat assuaged those fears
for me. Any region or city remotely on the
cultural map saw queues and crowds pushing
and pulling at venues with glee.
This bodes well for the upcoming art fairs
– people, the general public and art inves-
tors alike, will undoubtedly be out in force
confronted with a dizzying array of choice and
experiences over the coming months.
Art SG (12 to 15 January) has overtaken
Art Basel HK (23 to 25 March) in sheer size,
hosting more than 150 galleries to Art Basel
HK’s 130, seeing it go from a mid-sized fair
to a global player. The fair director of Art SG,
Shuyin Yang, says that “Art SG will not only
invite the world’s leading collectors and art
leaders to experience Singapore and all that
the region has to offer, but also encourage a
new generation of emerging collectors to be
inspired by the rich diversity of art immedi-
ately at our doorstep.”

LEFT: Patricia Piccinini, The Balance, 2019. Fibreglass,

automotive paint and leather parts, 187 x 230 x 150cm.
COURTESY: YAVUZ GALLERY, SYDNEY AND SINGAPORE.

OPPOSITE: Yang Yongliang, Doe, 2021. Giclée print on

fine art paper or lightbox, 110 × 110cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND SULLIVAN+STRUMPF,
SYDNEY AND MELBOURNE.

66
UPFRONT | Art Fairs

67
UPFRONT | Art Fairs
This will be readily achieved with participa-
tion of Gagosian Gallery from New York (having
KAWS, Damien Hirst and Takashi Murakami
in its stable), Pearl Lam Galleries, Hong Kong,
Yavuz Gallery, Sydney and Singapore and Tang
Contemporary Art, Beijing. Charlotte Lin
and Vivian Har, of Tang Contemporary Art,
will represent artists at both Art SG and Art
Basel HK having previously featured leading
contemporary artists Ai Weiwei and Yue
Minjun at Art Basel HK, among others. Lin
and Har say that the main goal of the art fairs
is to expand the gallery’s global influence for
artists, collectors, and institutions of which
they select a different artist list dedicated to its
audience for each fair.
Art SG will showcase several Australian
galleries, including Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney
68
and Melbourne, Yavuz Gallery, Chalk Horse,
Sydney and Station, Melbourne. Chalk Horse
is exhibiting the work of Clara Adolphs, 12
expansive pieces adorning the walls in sets
of four at a time, before being rotated. Many
of her works are oil paintings based on found
photographs that tap into our own memories
and experiences.
Yavuz Gallery executive Dharshini Kannan
will feature critical works by artists Alvin Ong,
Patricia Piccinini, and Grace Wright as part
of its program. Kannan says being at Art SG
presents “an opportunity to showcase local
artists and connect SE Asia to international
collectors. Moreover, it’s an opportunity to
bring the community of artists, curators,
and collectors together to connect, share and
inspire… we are excited to see our local artists
recognised by international curators and
included in global programs.”
Ursula Sullivan and Joanna Strumpf,
co-directors of Sullivan+Strumpf, are partic-
ularly invested in Art SG; representing a
number of artists like Alex Seton, Ramesh
Mario Nithiyendran, Irfan Hendrian, Kirsten
Coelho, and Lindy Lee. They also have an itin-
erant pop-up space in Singapore that started,
pre-pandemic, as a space at Gillman Barracks.
Sullivan and Strumpf say that “exhibiting on
Singapore’s global stage for contemporary art
is an amazing opportunity to engage collec-
tors and new audiences with our Australian
and international artists – one that is never
lost on us.”
The Art Basel and UBS Survey of Global
Collecting indicates that more than three

quarters of collectors were optimistic about
the art market for 2022, with more than half
planning to buy art within the next six months
of that year. Art Basel HK and Art SG seem
to be the flagship destinations for collectors
to flex their financial prowess. However,
this isn’t only about galleries hiring booths
to display artworks available for purchase.
To maintain interest and relevance in recent
times, fairs have become more thematic and
multi-sensory in their offerings. Art Basel HK
has a Discoveries section dedicated to new
and upcoming artists; an Insights section
highlighting artists from Asia and the Asia-
Pacific Region; and a Conversations section
with artists and collectors, amongst others,
included in panels and discussions regarding
the global art scene.
Art SG similarly has themed events, such as
Futures, which is dedicated to gallery spaces
new on the scene (under six years in opera-
tion); Film, showcasing new moving image
practice; and Reframe, a section for galleries
presenting art that is engaged with, made or
presented using digital technology.
Reframe, amongst other initiatives is a
clever response to the times as suggested
by the Art Basel and UBS Survey of Global
Collecting. Despite the recent crypto melt-
down appetites for digital works, including
NFTs, have not reduced; in the first half of
2022 alone, surveyed collectors shelled out
an average of USD 46,000 on art-based NFTs,
more than what they spent on them in the
entirety of 2021 (USD 44,000).
A component at Art SG called Film will be
UPFRONT | Art Fairs
OPPOSITE: Tracey Emin, Save Me, 2018.
Neon (magenta and clear red), 48 x 122.2cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST, XAVIER HUFKENS,
BRUSSELS AND ART SG, SINGAPORE.
ABOVE: Art Basel Hong Kong 2022 with
Rossi and Rossi gallery booth.
COURTESY: ART BASEL HONG KONG.
curated by Gridthiya Gaweewong, one of the
most renowned curators at the Jim Thompson
Art Centre in Bangkok. Her curatorial projects
have addressed issues of social transformation
confronting artists from Thailand and beyond
since the Cold War. Such appointments ensure
a more balanced approach, steering away from
only a Western-centric representation of art by
seeing diversity and inclusion bought to the
forefront for the viewing and buying public.
69
UPFRONT | Art Fairs
The London Art Fair (LAF) (18 to 22 January)
has embraced multiplicity as well, with its
annual Photo50 section highlighting a timely
theme in current photographic contexts. Titled
Beautiful Experiments (taken from the 2019
book Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments:
Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls,
Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals by the
American writer Saidiya Hartman), the 2023
iteration is curated by Pelumi Odubanjo and
Katy Barron. The artists chosen are UK-based,
though have a range of diasporic heritages and
have produced work that reflects their histo-
ries. These artists include Bernice Mulenga,
Heather Agyepong, and Joy Gregory. In the
words of the curators: “We tried to find a way
to allow the photographers space to consider
their ideas and share them with us. Some of
these voices have not been heard and we feel
that they deserve a platform. The exhibition is
an opportunity for them to experiment with
their ideas without constraints.” This is part
of LAF director Sarah Monk’s strategy: “with
this coming fair, we wanted to create different
moments and rhythms for people to engage
with art.”
70
Dario Illari, founder of Jealous Gallery and
Print Studio, London, has attended LAF for
more than 30 years, first as a spectator, then
with his own gallery. He sees the benefits of
exposure in this forum by what the visitors
and collectors are responding to, and hearing
differing points of view concerning the exhib-
ited works. It can validate the choice of works,
or bring upon a realisation that unsuitable
works were bought to the fair. He never doubts
the works or the artists, but accepts that some-
times he may mistake the mood or timbre of
the moment. Illari does say that “one of the
reasons I love the LAF is that for me it holds
the air of a great dame whilst also being very
open to the contemporary, the experimental
and new.” It appears that art fairs are embrac-
ing works to appeal to a broader cross section
of people, and tease out a level of breadth only
seen in recent times.
With art exhibition booths in existence
for merely a few days, and costing tens of
thousands or even hundreds of thousands of
dollars, it’s a serious expense, and works need
to sell. This is underscored, for example, by
the Art Basel HK 2021 sale of a painting by
Joan Mitchell for $20 million USD, against an
upper estimate of $16 million. Inclusivity is
important, balancing prestige and relevance,
but being a financially profitable venture is
always an underlying aim of art fair forays.
Another factor it would be remiss to not
mention is how the pandemic has shaped
people’s perceptions of viewing and buying
art. Art Basel HK has seen the advent of online
satellite booths that are increasingly being
used by galleries, often in conjunction with a
physical booth. A virtual fair as such provides
the collector with an option to view and poten-
tially buy art, even if not present to see it.
Larry Gagosian (sole owner of 19 galleries
globally bearing his surname) acknowledges
that one of the biggest shifts since having been
an art dealer is the transmission of images
over the internet, seeing increased momen-
tum and the potential for more transactions
to take place. The Art Basel and UBS Survey
of Global Collecting shows that more collec-
tors are willing to buy online – a consumer
behaviour, ushered in by former pandemic
restrictions, that may be here to stay.
This has seen art fairs having to adapt to
public expectations that are no longer solely
based on visual presentation in person. Frieze
Los Angeles (16 to 19 February) for instance,
has an online presence with Art: LIVE, provid-
ing interviews with seminal artists and, closer
to the opening of the fair, an in-depth exclu-
sive preview of what to look out for.
Providing detailed insight into these
auspicious events can be an elusive affair.
A representative from the Crane Kalman
Gallery (partaking in LAF) appeared mildly
astonished at the question of which artists
would participate, saying artists shown will be
released just prior to the fair. Gagosian Hong
Kong gently side-stepped the question. This
is hardly surprising as many galleries want to
maintain a fevered level of interest. Surprise,
via an anticipated unveiling, potentially helps
consumer engagement.

Previously Gagosian enlisted an ensemble
of contemporary works by varying artists
for Art Basel HK. Will one be Anna Weyant?
Born in 1995, she went from selling works for
$2000–$12,000 USD in 2019 at her first solo
show, to now be represented by Gagosian. In
2022 a painting of hers titled Falling Woman
netted $1.6 million at Christies auction, eight
times its highest estimate. Another, labelled
Summertime, of a woman with lush undulating
brown hair, was bought in 2020 for $12,000
USD and sold, two years later, for $1.5 million.
Not surprising that she’s referred to as the
millennial Botticelli.
UPFRONT | Art Fairs
Closer to our shores is New Zealand’s OPPOSITE: London Art Fair, 2022.
PHOTO: MARK COCKSEDGE.
Aotearoa Art Fair (2 to 5 March) which is COURTESY: LONDON ART FAIR, LONDON.
showcasing a diverse contingent of artists: ABOVE: Chapter NY/Project Native
Informant, Frieze Los Angeles 2022.
such as Nell and Paul Yore by Station, Yavuz PHOTO: CASEY KELBAUGH.
COURTESY: FRIEZE, LOS ANGELES.
Gallery showing Abdul Abdullah and Julian
Meagher and the gallery Fox Jensen McCrory/
Fox Jensen showing a solo booth of work by
Australian artist Tomislav Nikolic. Nikolic’s
sublime and partly translucent abstract paint-
ings have found an eager stable of collectors
both overseas and locally, while Yore is coming
off the back of an early career retrospective at
Melbourne based ACCA named Word Made
Flesh.
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UPFRONT | Art Fairs

A R T S G | MARINA BAY
SANDS EXPO AND CONVENTION
CENTRE, SINGAPORE |
12 TO 15 JANUARY 2023

A R T B A S E L H K | HONG
KONG CONVENTION AND
EXHIBITION CENTRE, HONG
KONG | 23 TO 25 MARCH 2023

Aotearoa Art Fair, 2022. COURTESY: AOTEAROA ART FAIR.

Yore’s works are an assault on the senses,
highly sexualised and confronting – drawing
on iconoclastic imagery, pop culture refer-
ences, queer identity, current and past politi-
cal trends, to weave a mesmerising tableaux,
often in the form of appliqued quilts, collages,
and assemblage. The work challenges conven-
tion and demands to be seen.
THE LONDON
A R T F A I R | BUSINESS
in Aotearoa Art Fair) sums it up eloquently
DESIGN CENTRE LONDON |
in saying: “Art fairs are a great vehicle for
18 TO 22 JANUARY 2023
exposure of our gallery and artists to a new
audience as well as reinforcing existing
client relationships. Benefits are numerous,
FRIEZE LOS ANGELES
as we see clients, collectors, media, public SANTA MONICA AIRPORT,
and private institutional representatives and LOS ANGELES |
visiting art groups. For myself as a gallery 16 TO 19 FEBRUARY 2023

The post-pandemic resurgence of art fairs director, art fairs are a lively, exciting environ-
is here to stay – renascent, transformed, and ment to be in, where I also get to network with
ready for the anticipated surge of interest fellow gallery directors and speak with artists. A OT E A R O A A RT FA I R

in what contemporary artists have to say The global pandemic has not changed our THE CLOUD, AUCKLAND |
2 TO 5 MARCH 2023
during these curious times. Ben Bergman of approach to art fairs at all, they are essential
Bergman Gallery, Cook Islands (participating meeting points for the industry.”

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 GALLERY OF MODERN ART, BRISBANE
26 NOV 2022 – 23 APR 2023

STRATEGIC PARTNER MAJOR PARTNERS

TOURISM & MEDIA PARTNERS

SUPPORTING PARTNERS

Jemima Wyman / Pairrebeener people / Australia b.1977 / Plume 4 (detail) 2021 / Hand-cut digital photographs 142 x 106.5cm / Courtesy: Jemima Wyman, Milani Gallery, Brisbane, and Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney / Photograph: Ed Mumford
 BROWNE
M AT T H E W

Now represented in Australia

Klexos, vinyl tempera and oil on linen, 180 x 160cm

 AV EN COMBINE S WORKS
.T.. HIS HOMAGE TO THE SHOALH
AC TS, OB JEC TS AND
B..Y BARKL EY ALONGSIDE ARTIF
UN ITY, TRANSFORMI..G
...PIECES MADE BY THE COMM
JEW EL- LIKE SPACE
..THE GALLERY INTO A MAGIC AL,
 SKYE
L L E W E L LY N

Now represented in Sydney

Everything you touch is gold, oil on canvas, 152 x 123cm
The Farmer’s Daughter oil on canvas 120 x 120 cm

Sophie Gralton
New Works 29 Tedder Avenue, Main Beach Q 4217
Ph: 07 5561 1166 / 0417 707 326
February 18 to March 4 2023 www.antheapolsonart.com.au
 From a deep valley

S
I
25 artists
10 scientific researchers
T
E
W
K
OR S
4 weekends
bundanon.com.au 26 Nov to 12 Mar
50 THINGS
COLLECTORS SHOULD KNOW
 50 THINGS |
COOL
HUNTER
PREDICTIONS
We’re keeping an eye on these artists in the year ahead.
1
EJ SON
EJ Son continued presenting highly imagi-
native and playful work across artist-run and
institutional spaces all over the country in
2022; in Sydney, Perth, Newcastle, Adelaide
and Melbourne (twice). Their multidisci-
plinary practice collapses preconceived ideas
of – among other things – gender, sexuality,
Asian-Australian artistic practice, conven-
tional careerism, as well as rigid ideas around
who art is for and who can make it. Son was
responsible for perhaps the biggest moment
in the emerging Sydney arts scene this year,
for their solo presentation 댄싱머신: Dancing
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machine at Firstdraft – a comedically humon-
gous, stuffed teddy bear attached to a motor
causing it to sway from side to side. With an
in-built surveillance camera inside the teddy
bear’s left eye, the work troubled regular visi-
tations and proceedings at Firstdraft, temper-
ing its high entertainment value with a sinis-
ter reminder of our context of surveillance
capital today.
There is an exuberance to Son’s making,
giving one the sense that the gallery space is
just one place to show projects that the artist
can’t stop themselves from pursuing.
50 THINGS | Cool Hunters

Installation view of EJ Son’s

Titty tree, 2021 at Murray
Art Museum Albury, 2021.
PHOTO: JEREMY WEIHRAUCH.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST.

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They have a regular and private practice of

rearranging the art, furniture and appliances
in their home much like a gallery, and when
speaking with Son, they give the impression of
not minding whether most of the things they
make are shared with an artistic public or not.
Certainly, a material engagement with being
in the world forms the length and breadth of
the artist’s practice, rather than the narrow
scope of meaning-making afforded to those
working conventionally in the arts. With its
inclusion of a camera pointed at audience
members, 댄싱머신: Dancing machine seam-
lessly undermined the frailties, limitations
and historic power-dynamics formulated
within the conservative format for engaging
with art known as the white cube. For an artist
who has spent the last few years avoiding
making work that plays into the spectacle of
the facile identity politics expected of them,
it makes perfect sense – and plays out as an
artistic strategy – to redirect attention to
the architectures, histories and publics who
perpetuate those assumptions. The infectious
energy generated by Son’s creations prompts
those beholding them to care less about the
rigid structures and professionalism of the
arts, and more about the sensuous feelings
of joy and wonder that art and creativity can
Artist EJ Son.
induce. SEBASTIAN HENRY-JONES PHOTO: ANNA KUCERA.

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OPPOSITE AND ABOVE: EJ Son,

댄싱머신: Dancing Machine a.k.a
Dancing Teddy, 2022. Synthetic
fur, cctv camera, motor, led lights,
perspex, steel, wood and tennis
ball, 195 x 135cm.

LEFT: EJ Son, Flesh work, series,

2022. Bisque-ware, earthenware,
glass, pearl, silicone and stainless
steel, dimensions variable.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST.

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Dreams can take you away from what you
know, while life can condemn you to it. What
of the space in between these two worlds:
the murky, nebulous subconscious and the
meaty, glossed consciousness we all reside in,
simultaneously, day-to-day, night-by-night?
To engage with a Mia Middleton painting
is to entrain on a journey within, where the
somatic and psychological and the border
between self and world, are rendered with
both fragility and strength in equal measure.
Middleton reminds us of the turbulent
86
2
MIA MIDDLETON
threshold of what’s real and what’s not.
Since the completion of her double degree
(with Honours) in Photomedia and Philosophy
at the University of New South Wales, Sydney,
Middleton’s ascent as a busied, internation-
ally exhibiting artist could nauseate the faint
of heart. But as Middleton, who seems special
of spirit and in energy to me, says, “like my
paintings, I’m activated by the viewer and by
viewing.”
If windows function as things to look out
of in order to see, then Middleton’s paintings
function as portals, as thresholds, in order to
feel or examine the stuffs of life on the inside
that are sometimes hard to see. “Like pin
pricks of information,” Middleton’s humbly
sized portal-paintings allow multiple histories
and narratives to occur in unison. A door-
knob, a suited hand, a harlequin all lurking in
each other’s orbit. Painting almost always in
a series, Middleton ensures each image feels
like an unhurried, very stayed, yet ephemeral
moment – neither lost or without purpose yet
wandering and wondering.

Middleton acts as a gatherer, not owner, of
images that she mines from her own psyche
in order to activate and piece together her
own story. “I’ll have my answer, and you’ll
have yours,” Middleton muses, inviting the
viewer to build their own narratives. Living
in that kind of detail evokes so many ques-
tions around her works, but questions, unlike
answers, are so much funner: answers and
absolutes can kill imagination.
Middleton’s paintings, disarming and
charming, remind me that the elusive language
50 THINGS | Cool Hunters
of our bodies, our psyches, needs to be heeded. OPPOSITE: Installation view
of Mia Middleton’s Three
While having completed several residen- Secrets, COMA, Sydney 2022.
cies abroad – notably in Barcelona and Seoul ABOVE LEFT: Mia Middleton,
Cover I, 2022. Oil on Italian
– and being represented by COMA, Sydney, cotton, 30 x 25cm.
Middleton is showing no signs of slowing ABOVE RIGHT: Mia Middleton,
down. We speak while she is in London, in Rush, 2022. Oil on Italian
cotton, 20 x 20cm.
residence at PM/AM Gallery, and she tells me COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND
COMA, SYDNEY.
about her plans to relocate to Portugal in 2023.
Dizzied, but not surprised, Middleton’s dexter-
ity at existing in multiple worlds at once is not
only spell-binding but intoxicating, much like
her paintings. EMMA FINNERAN
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 50 THINGS |
JAMES LEMON
James Lemon isn’t afraid to cause offence. His
recent Powerhouse Museum commission of 60
dinner plates testifies to this – their surfaces
reading remarks such as “Neoliberal Peanut”,
“Horniest here”, “Bald”, “Only a plus one”,
and “You have the sexual prowess of a damp
vacuum”. There is an honesty in Lemon’s
works, born from a curiosity of his medium,
its history and its socio-political implications.
Coming from a background in perfor-
mance, the Aotearoa New Zealand-born
Melbourne-based artist started making with
ceramics in 2015 during a creatively-frustrated
time in his life. “I’ve never been particularly
good at the beginning, middle, and end struc-
ture [of a work],” he tells me. “I think I’m a
bit unfocussed at times, but that’s one of my
strengths.”
While his early works were situated within a
more design-oriented studio ceramics context,
Lemon has pivoted his practice beyond the
realm of utility, resulting in a conceptually
rich contemporary art practice.
“My work can sometimes sit in an uncom-
fortable place between design and fine art,” he
says. Yet it is precisely this uncomfortability
that makes it so successful. Just when we think
we know what we are looking at, our precon-
ceived ideas come crumbling down.
At the heart of his works there is an honesty,
unfiltered by any art school training. This
honesty manifests most notably in the form
of the brick. A humble building material, the
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3
brick has a long historical lineage and is at the
heart of the growth and progression of civili-
sations globally.
Stacked almost naively, Lemon’s bricks melt
with gold lustre and salt glazes, their salivating
surfaces stripping them of their utility – both
within the kiln as a firing tool and as a staple of
construction. Instead, they become products
of their own construction – their conception
the outcome of many other bricks insulating
the kiln’s transformative flames. These brick
stacks become receptacles for meaning; they
tell of their own construction and look beyond
their physical limitations.
Conceptually, Lemon’s works focus on three
main areas of inquiry: religion, the internet
and insects. These seemingly disparate things
have more in common than you might think.
“There is a familiarity with these kinds of
creation stories, they illustrate our rituals
and behaviours,” says Lemon. Ideas of
creation and storytelling feed into his work,
be it through the way religious beliefs are
expressed through objects such as crosses and
chalices, or how insects are a symbol of our
contemporary culture of consumption.
“Insects are also the original ceramicists in
many ways. For millions of years insects have
been using clay to create elaborate and city
like shelters, adapting to the forces of nature.”
Artist James Lemon with his
In Lemon’s works we are presented with a dog Beatrix Anna Nicole Smith.
lineage of evolution; we become witness to PHOTO: CH ARLIE ASHFIELD.
our own creation stories.
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90

Having recently been picked up by commer-
cial gallery Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney and
Melbourne, Lemon has a big year ahead. His
commission Swarming for Melbourne Now at
the National Gallery of Victoria in March 2023
will present an immersive participatory work
converting the space into an interpretation of
a beehive complete with ceramic lava, large
soft textile pupae that you can climb into and
moving UV RGB lighting that will shroud the
50 THINGS | Cool Hunters
space in an iridescent glow. Lemon’s purpose OPPOSITE: James Lemon,
Raegan, 2021. Kiln brick,
with this work? “I’m thinking about how we glaze, stoneware, gold,
photoluminescent pigment and
think as a species. What is it like to be a bee?” mixed media, 77 x 52 x 32cm.
I make a bad pun riffing on Shakespeare’s “To ABOVE LEFT: James Lemon, Kiln
stack plinth 1, 2022. Stoneware
be, or not to be…” but Lemon goes with it. “Big and glaze, 43 x 25 x 23cm.
questions can be answered with the right joke,” ABOVE RIGHT: James Lemon,
Babel, 2021. Kiln brick, glaze,
he tells me. Thus is the beauty of Lemon’s
gold, enamel and mixed
conceptually rich practice – poignance is media,180 x 50 x 60cm.
PHOTOS: MELISSA COWAN.
expertly interspersed with humour. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND
SULLIVAN+STRUMPF,
ROSE OF SHARON LEAKE SYDNEY AND MELBOURNE.
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4
ILONA McGUIRE

Ilona McGuire’s work is difficult to encapsu-

late because she has exploded across disci-
plines, scale, and materials over the last two
years. McGuire is a Noongar and Kungarakan
interdisciplinary artist whose training is
in printmaking, painting and installation,
although such a description does not capture
the variety and magnitude of what McGuire is
capable of. With a focus on familial ancestry,
and tropes of colonial Australian pop culture,
McGuire is interested in how storytelling can
equally create lines of empathy and commu-
nion, as well as dehumanise and generate
otherness through colonial narratives.
Since completing a Fine Arts degree at
Curtin University, Perth in 2021, McGuire
has been awarded the Schenberg Art High
Commendation Award at the national grad-
uate show Hatched at the Perth Institute of
Contemporary Arts in 2022, and she’s been
collected by key galleries including Janet
Holmes à Court, and John Curtin Art Gallery,
both in Perth. The works collected by these
galleries and institutions focus on her ances-
tral ties and wider emblems of Australia’s
colonial culture by performing sharp juxta-
positions to unravel race relations in ancestry
and anthropology.

Ilona McGuire, Our Place (detail), 2022. Mixed-

medium and ochre installation, 5 x 5m.
PHOTO: JACK BALL. COURTESY: THE ARTIST.

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50 THINGS | Cool Hunters

In 2021, McGuire collaborated with

Whadjuk Noongar traditional owners and
created a large-scale public drone light show
for the Fremantle Biennale. This inaugural
Moombaki (Noongar for where river meets
the sky) performed first stories of Whadjuk
Noongar Country at the Derbal Yerrigan (Swan
River), Dyoondalup (Attadale Reserve) and
Derbal Nara (Coogee Beach) with 160 drones
lighting up the night sky for eight nights for
epic large scale public audiences. With her
collaborators, McGuire has channelled her
connection to and fascination with First
Nations Dreamtime to highlight that they are
stories that are living and breathing today,
that connect people to Country in contempo-
rary cultures, rather than ancient stories that
are untold. Witnessing McGuire’s momentum
in the early stages of her career over the last
ABOVE TOP: Ilona McGuire, Holy Ground, 2022. Performance work at PICA Open Studios, 2022. two years shows that there no boundaries for
PHOTO: DANIEL JAMES GRANT. COURTESY: THE ARTIST.
McGuire, and that new horizons are on their
ABOVE: Ilona McGuire, King Wally 1947, 2021. Screenprint on paper, 74.6 x 106.1cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST. way. CHRISTINA CHAU

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Ilona McGuire, Moombaki, 2021. Drone performance. 95

50 THINGS | Cool Hunters

5
TIYAN BAKER

Tiyan Baker works across various subject
matter to make associations between recur-
rent trends and the way they exist as mani-
festations of a deep crisis in Western culture.
She explores this through medium as much
as she does through the content of her work,
which is to say that she’s deeply interested in
the ways by which ideas and information are
filtered and made accessible to publics and
individuals through media. For example, her
photographic series nyatu’ maanǔn mungut
bigabu, 2021 visually embeds the artist’s native
Bidayǔh language in images of her ancestral
lands in Sarawak, Malaysia. The particular
images are autostereograms, more commonly
known as magic eye images, a technology
made popular throughout the 1990s. For this
together language, landscape and story to
celebrate Bidayǔh knowledge and its radical
potential to upend Western ideologies.
Her work Personal Computer : ramin ntaan-
gan, 2022, commissioned by The Lock Up,
Newcastle, is a custom built PC computer
rendered in the form and materiality of a
Bidayǔh longhouse, which visually illustrates
the importance of digital technologies and
infrastructures to maintain a connection to
culture for those living far from their home-
lands. For My Mother’s Tongue, a 2022 solo
exhibition at Melbourne’s Bus Projects, the
artist presented an artificial swamp, held THIS PAGE: Installation view
of Tiyan Baker’s My mother’s
inside the sculpted form of her mother’s
tongue at Bus Projects,
mouth. Onto the surface of the pond were Melbourne, 2022.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND BUS
projected words in the Bidayǔh language. PROJECTS, MELBOURNE.

innovative body of work Baker won the 2022
National Photography Prize at MAMA, Albury.
Recently, Baker’s practice has more explic-
itly explored her Bidayǔh heritage, piecing
Baker’s works are the outcomes of a
focussed and embodied research practice that
continues to deepen.
SEBASTIAN HENRY-JONES
OPPOSITE: Installation view
of Tiyan Baker’s Personal
Computer : ramin ntaangan at
The Lock Up, Newcastle, 2022.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND THE
LOCK UP, NEWCASTLE.

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6
C O R A - A L L A N L A FA I K I T W I S S

ABOVE: Cora-Allan Lafaiki Twiss, Niue Island II, 2022. Whenua paint, kāpia ink on Hiapo, 65 x 67cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND BARTLEY & COMPANY ART, WELLINGTON.

OPPOSITE: Cora-Allan Lafaiki Twiss. PHOTO: HOLLY BURGESS.

Papakura, Pukepoto, Rangitoto, Otītori Bay.
In the practice of Cora-Allan Lafaiki Twiss
(Ngapuhi, Ngāti Tumutumu / Alofi, Liku),
this list of places around the North Island of
Aotearoa is also a list of pigments harvested
from those sites and used to colour her Hiapo
– Niuean Barkcloth – works. She explains,
“My methods and sources are reflective of my
place in the moana [sea]. I use whenua [land]
and ink sources from the taiao [the natural
world] in Aotearoa and bark cloth materials
from the islands… I only use natural pigments
and inks. Kauri gum is my main source for
my kāpia ink and I find sources of whenua
to make my paints. The different hues I find
are from exploring and getting to know my
surroundings. People are shocked when they
see the pink in my work and find out it’s from
a beach… Most of the base colours of my work
I have harvested myself.”
Twiss began this process of harvesting
pigment while undertaking the prestigious
McCahon House residency in 2021. This
residency and the resulting exhibition,
From Otītori Bay Rd, which opened at Te Uru
Waitākere Contemporary Gallery in February
2022, marked a major turning point in her
practice, most noticeably in the way her Hiapo
shifted from monochrome to earthy hues; her
use of whenua pigments a tangible marker of
a move towards combining her Māori heritage
alongside the Niuean.

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100

Installation view of Cora-Allan Lafaiki
Twiss’ Histories on Hiapo at Bartley
& Company Art, Wellington.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND BARTLEY
& COMPANY ART, WELLINGTON.
50 THINGS | Cool Hunters
In 2021, Twiss was also the recipient
of Springboard Arts Award through Art
Foundation NZ, as well as a significant
Creative New Zealand Grant that allowed
her to practice fulltime, resulting in further
aesthetic developments such as moving onto
wood, creating large Hiapo and painting
landscapes for the first time, having never
formally studied painting during her art
education. She explains, “Hiapo and paint-
ing patterns was my first introduction to any
form of formal painting, so Hiapo as a form
of Niue landscape painting introduced me to a
new way of mark making.” In 2023, Twiss will
continue exploring landscape painting with an
ambitious project titled Encountering Aotearoa,
which will begin with her joining a heritage
expedition that will travel by boat from Bluff
(at the bottom of the South Island) all the way
up to the Bay of Islands, visiting many import-
ant pre-colonial sites and colonial points of
contact along the way. On this journey, she
will position herself as the artist/cartogra-
pher, recording and mapping these sites using
pigments gathered from the whenua itself to
reinterpret the land from the contemporary
Indigenous viewpoint of a mana wahine Niue
Māori artist
Following the voyage, the works Twiss
produces will themselves tour across the
country over the next two years, exhibiting at
multiple venues including Dunedin Public Art
Gallery, Christchurch Art Gallery and Pātaka,
Porirua (with more venues to be announced).
She will also have work based on her moana-
based voyages to date exhibiting with Bartley
and Company at the upcoming Aotearoa Art
Fair. LUCINDA BENNETT
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7
GAIL MABO

Gail Mabo is a multidisciplinary artist inspired

by her experience of culture learnt from both
her parents, with her father, Eddie Koiki
Mabo known for overturning the terra nullius
fiction in Australia’s legal framework. Mabo
trained first as a dancer from 1978 to 1987, and
worked as a performer and director before
studying visual arts and becoming a cultural
advisor in schools. Her artwork, which often
relates the stories she learnt from family,
has been embraced, with her solo exhibi-
tion House of Cards, 2022 for Umbrella Studio
Contemporary Arts touring to Rockhampton
Museum of Art in November 2022. She was
included in rīvus, the 23rd Biennale of Sydney,
2022 and co-curated Legacy: Reflections on
Mabo which has toured nationally since 2019.
“Stories my dad told me go into my
artworks,” she says. “Now I’m digging deep
into stories that would look good in art form.
At the same time I need to connect and get
family permissions. Culturally I have respon-
sibilities to uphold. Seeking those permissions
helps you along by engaging with deeper
conversations, connecting culture and art and
maintaining cultural practice along the way.”
In 2021 Mabo undertook a residency at
Brisbane’s UAP Foundry, which opened more
possibilities to her explorations. Her editioned
Tagai was selected as a finalist in the 2022
Telstra NATSIAA Awards in Darwin. It was the
first of her works in bronze. the sky, with its connections to navigation, OPPOSITE: Gail Mabo, Tagai, 2021. Hand crafted
and cast bronze with tortoiseshell and black
Her engaging use of Torres Strait knowledge seasons, hunting and spirituality. patina, edition 1 of 3, 141 x 125cm.
systems continue her father’s advocacy in a Mabo’s exhibition House of Cards shows at COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND UMBRELL A STUDIO
CONTEMPORARY ARTS TOWNSVILLE.

way that offers an emotional narrative. A new Rockhampton Museum of Art, Rockhampton ABOVE: Gail Mabo, Party Dress 1, 2021. Monoprint
editioned bronze titled Wer (Star) connects until 19 February 2023. on paper, 111 x 64cm. Printed by Ron McBurnie.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND UMBRELL A STUDIO
Eddie Mabo’s story of the beach sand with LOUISE MARTIN-CHEW CONTEMPORARY ARTS TOWNSVILLE.

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C URATOR’S
RADAR
A round up of artists who have recently attracted significant

curator attention by way of commissions, acquisitions and inclusion

in major public exhibitions.

8
LISA REIHANA

“Everyone’s collaborating – I want to corrobo-
rate with everybody instead,” declares Māori
artist Lisa Reihana in relation to the creative
scope of her new work GROUNDLOOP,
commissioned by the Art Gallery of NSW
(AGNSW) for Sydney Modern. Working across
multiple media including film, photography
and sculpture, Reihana’s extraordinary career
over three decades has been a testament
to the power of knowledge sharing central
to her practice. Her most ambitious work
to date, GROUNDLOOP continues Reihana’s
ongoing interest in corroborating with multi-
Artist Lisa Reihana.
PHOTO: JACQUIE MANNING. ple creatives, thinkers and cultural leaders
to reconsider narratives of colonisation,
gender and representation. Among them are
Studio Gilay, a First Nations-led digital studio
directed by Jake Duczynski.
Displayed in the brightly lit central atrium
of the gallery’s new extension, the work is
a narrative of trans-Tasman connection set
in motion by histories of encounter and
exchange. Led by AGNSW curators Lisa Catt
and Ruby Arrowsmith-Todd over a two-year
period, GROUNDLOOP depicts an intergen-
erational group journeying from Aotearoa to
Australia and landing on the harbour shores
at Woolloomooloo near the gallery’s loca-
tion. This detail was pertinent for the work’s
site-specificity and the location of its display.

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106

Reihana explains: “The Art Gallery of NSW
was supposed to be facing Woolloomooloo,
but at the last minute, they turned the building
around to look at the Parliament House.” With
GROUNDLOOP, colonial history is literally
turned on its head through counter-narratives
that, as Reihana explains, “riff on science
fiction and a whole lot of popular cultures – all
of that stuff for the corroboree!”
Reihana’s last major presentation on
Gadigal land in Sydney was in NIRIN, the 22nd
Biennale of Sydney, curated by Brook Andrew
in 2020. Shot in 3D, this immersive film titled
Nomads of the Sea is told through a blend of fact
and fiction. It is a tale of two female protag-
onists: Pakeha mutineer Charlotte Badger,
who was incarcerated for part of her life in the
Parramatta Female Factory in Western Sydney,
and Puhi, a woman of Ngā Puhi descent.
“Making artworks, they’re like artifacts,”
explains Reihana of her revisionist project.
“They open up people to having conversa-
tions; there are always points that allow you to
hear things from a personal perspective and
you never know where they might influence
something that you make later.”
Nomads of the Sea will be shown at the Queen
Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston
50 THINGS | Curator’s Radar
OPPOSITE: Lisa Reihana, Flick, 2020. Photograph on
Fuji crystal flex paper, Ed of 5 + 2 AP, 120 x 120cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND GALLERY SALLY
DAN-CUTHBERT, SYDNEY.
ABOVE: Installation view of Lisa Reihana’s
GROUNDLOOP, 2022, commissioned for the
Sydney Modern Project.
PHOTO: Z AN WIMBERLEY. COURTESY: THE ARTIST
AND ART GALLERY OF NEW SOUTH WALES, SYDNEY.
in March as part of the festival Ten Days on
the Island. Collectors take note that Reihana’s
Sydney dealer Gallery Sally Dan-Cuthbert will
exhibit a suite of exquisite photographic stills
from Nomads of the Sea in March 2023.
DANIEL MUDIE CUNNINGHAM
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50 THINGS | Curator’s Radar
In 2022, Auckland-based Imogen Taylor’s exhi-
bition Quiet Motel opened at Whangārei Art
Museum. While the show was something of a
homecoming for Whangārei-born Taylor, it was
also a departure from the formal abstraction
familiar to viewers of Taylor’s work. In Quiet
Motel, Taylor embraced figuration: the soft
108
9
IMOGEN TAYLOR
moonlit curves of a sleeping woman, a tangle
of limbs, long hair and pendulous breasts, the
alien form of a squid laid on a platter, a wedge
of citrus nestled in beside. Taylor explains,
“I had initially painted more figurative work,
but used abstraction as a vehicle to conceal
the more explicit or erotic themes I’d always
been drawn to depicting. In some ways, the
art world felt way too homophobic for me, a
young artist at the time, to present paintings
that uncovered sordid queer desire. Queer art
practices were visible for sure, but not so much
by queer women or non-binary artists. A lot
has changed in ten years.”

Queer eroticism is at the fore of Quiet Motel,
with paintings such as Wet With Dew, 2022 –
which depicts a tunnel of fleshy trees, a pearl of
a moon hanging above, encircled in red, throb-
bing – leaving little to the imagination. Ironically,
Quiet Motel is one of Taylor’s less explicit exhibi-
tion titles, the openly queer sexual content of this
show perhaps rendering the subtle queer coding
of previous titles – In & Out, Glory Hole and
Balls Deep – redundant. In recent years, Taylor
has been the recipient of numerous residencies,
chief among them being the Frances Hodgkins
Fellowship in 2019, which resulted in the
luscious exhibition Sapphic Fragments at Hocken
Collections Uare Taoka o Hākena, Dunedin in
2020. Two years on and back up north, it seems
Frances Hodgkins has continued to cast her
influence over Taylor. When asked what drew
her to the night – for all the paintings in Quiet
Motel are nocturnes – Taylor is frank. “Let’s
face it, the lockdowns of the last two years were
bleak and at times depressing for many people.
I felt motivated to make nocturnes because I’d
seen ones by Hodgkins that she’d painted during
50 THINGS | Curator’s Radar
OPPOSITE: Imogen Taylor, Moths, 2022. Acrylic on
hessian, 150 x 200cm. Installation view of Quiet Motel,
Whangārei Art Museum, 2022. PHOTO: TESSA PATON.
ABOVE: Imogen Taylor, Limb Report, 2022. Acrylic on
hessian, 150 x 200cm. PHOTO: SAMUEL H ARTNE T T.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND MICH AEL LE T T AUCKL AND.
wartime. And far out they were so desolate.”
Despite their bleak origins, Taylor’s nocturnes
hum and glow, muffled moans of pleasure and
vibrant colour shining through layers of dusk.
Taylor is represented by Michael Lett,
Auckland. LUCINDA BENNETT
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110

10
JAMES GEURTS
James Geurts’s work excavates the unseen
histories, forces and phenomena that have
shaped our landscape and waterways over
millennia. Encompassing expanded forms of
drawing, experimental photography, sculp-
tural installation and public art, these “site-ac-
tions”, as the Melbourne-based artist calls
them, are grounded in conceptually driven
and highly site-specific ways of working. They
draw together research, fieldwork, cartogra-
phy, analogue and digital technologies, and
specialist knowledge to stage wondrous phil-
osophical encounters between humanity and
a natural world in flux.
Water is an enduring theme in Geurts’s
work, as is time, in all its vast, perplexing
abstraction. The two converge in a new site-re-
sponsive work Standing Wave, 2022, made for
Front Beach, Back Beach at Point Nepean on
the Mornington Peninsula. The installation’s
pulsing light articulates how the unique
interaction of tidal forces and currents at that
particular location gives rise to the phenome-
non of the standing wave, which oscillates in
time while appearing to be still.
This year, Geurts took up a highly prized
Australia Council residency at the ACME
studios in London, which has generated
further international opportunities while also
allowing him to research the international
dateline for a future project.
2022 also marked the completion of the
50 THINGS | Curator’s Radar
OPPOSITE: James Geurts, Flood
Debris: Princes Bridge, 2018. Neon,
2.2 x 1.8 x 1.1m. Floodplain Project,
Yarra River/Birrarung.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST, GAGPROJECTS,
ADEL AIDE AND NATIONAL GALLERY OF
VICTORIA, MELBOURNE.
ABOVE: James Geurts, EON Satellite
III, 2022. Bronze sculpture with
white patina, 130 x 105 x 58cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST, T.C.L.
L ANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS AND
GAGPROJECTS, ADEL AIDE.
ambitious 20-year-long EON project, 2002-22,
whose crystalline sculptural forms – simulta-
neously evoking early multi-cellular life forms
and high-tech satellite constellations – embed
time in ways that connect the primordial to
the technological. It represents a culmination
of Geurts’s ongoing desire “to create visibility
around these invisible forms”, whether wave
transmissions, data frequencies, tectonics, or
oceanic movement – all the dynamic, mirac-
ulous workings of a world that is continually
unfolding. NINA MIALL
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50 THINGS | Curator’s Radar
11
BUKU-L ARRŊGAY MULKA CENTRE
Currently touring the USA is Maḏayin: Eight
Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting
from Yirrkala, a collaboration between the
Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the
University of Virginia and the Buku-Larrŋgay
Mulka Centre in Yirrkala.
Developed over seven years, Maḏayin (a
Yolŋu term meaning sacred and hidden) has
been curated with a strong focus on gurruṯu
(the Yolŋu kinship system) which extends
to people, Country, waterways and all they
contain. It is the first major exhibition of
bark painting to tour the USA and is entirely
overseen by a curatorium of Yolŋu artists and
knowledge holders from the Buku-Larrŋgay
Mulka Centre.
Inspired by an idea instigated by Djambawa
Marawili, Maḏayin is designed to bring the
included bark paintings to life by incorporat-
ing interwoven elements of song, dance and
language. “This exhibition is a great oppor-
tunity for our people to come together and
share our culture, and do research on our
paintings,” says Marawili. “Our patterns and
designs have been laid on a certain Country,
when the ancestors passed through naming it:
“You are Marawili, this is your Country, this is
your identity.” Every individual clan has their
own Maḏayin, but there is also a Maḏayin that
brings all those clans together.”
Rather than relying on historical or chrono-
logical order, the exhibition takes in a much
broader cultural context. It features work
drawn from international public collections
in addition to 33 newly commissioned pieces,
112
including four large video projections of Yolŋu
ceremonial dance by filmmaker and co-cura-
tor, Ishmael Marika. “It’s a type of curation the
Yolŋu were born into, it’s part of their system,”
says Kade McDonald CEO of Agency Projects.
“The works might physically be on the wall,
but they must be presented with song, they
have a dance attributed to them, they repre-
sent a sacred place in Country. Everything
interconnects and must make sense.”
Embracing the separate yet interconnected
moieties Yirritja and Dhuwa, Maḏayin unfolds
as a unified whole with historical works mixed
in with contemporary works. The idea behind
this was to authentically reflect how Yolŋu
see their culture. “We have these paintings
for future generations to look upon and gain
respect for those people that came before,”
explains Marawili. “In that way, today we are
making art for the children who are coming
behind us, giving a clear message to them. It
is something that we really need to make the
art move into our eyes and our soul, to make it
really do something important.”
Maḏayin will show in the USA at the
American University Museum at the Katzen
Art Centre, Washington D.C. from 4 February
to 11 March; the Kleefield Contemporary Art
Museum at California State University, Long
Beach from 22 August to 2 December; The
Fralin Museum of Art at the University of
Virginia from 26 January to 21 July 2024; and
the Asia Society, New York from 24 September
2024 to 5 January 2025.
BRIONY DOWNES
 50 THINGS | Curator’s Radar

Installation view of Maḏayin, Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia.
PHOTO: ROB STRONG. COURTESY: KLUGE-RUHE ABORIGINAL ART COLLECTION OF THE UNIVERSIT Y OF VIRGINIA AND BUKU-L ARRNGGAY MULKA CENTRE IN YIRRKAL A.

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50 THINGS | Curator’s Radar
12
KARLA DICKENS
There is no such thing as coincidence. I first
met Wiradjuri artist Karla Dickens in 2007 at
a solo exhibition of her work at a commer-
cial gallery in the leafy inner Sydney suburb
of Paddington. It was also the first time in
which the often maligned and sometimes
revered crow (waagan in Wiradjuri, wagahn
in Bundjalung) first appeared in her work.
Crows are plain, seemingly unremarkable.
Their appearance however masks almost
human-like intelligence, deployed in a range
of behaviours best described as Machiavellian
along with an elephantine gift for visual
memory. Dickens’ grandmother regarded
crows as many blackfellas do, as messengers
from the other side – omniscient, with the
power to remonstrate with the living and in
dark times, to light the way. “She used to say,
‘they’re the old people’”, recalls Dickens, who
is the most straight-talking, unromantic black-
fella I know. It makes perfect sense then that
the gothic shadow of a crow is cast theatrically
across a range of Dickens’ works, drawn from
her three decades of contemporary art prac-
tice in a survey exhibition Embracing Shadows
at the Campbelltown Art Centre curated by
Emily Rolfe.
I have always regarded Dickens’ practice to
be as much about manual labour, hard physi-
cal work, as anything – infused with grit and
a sense of wilful tenacity, that this artwork
or that was forged in infernal heat. When we
first met however, Dickens’ work radiated a
gothic sensibility bordering on the erotic or
burlesque – all black Madonnas and crows
trimmed in black lace, lined with cursive text
in surfaces producing a visual effect which put
114
me in mind of Dutch floral painting, with their
exaggerated blooms piercing an almost liquid
black background. The next time I saw her
work it had been overtaken by a new aesthetic
sensibility, articulated in a visual language
that is wholly and solely hers. The key plank in
this new language was a Duchampianprocess
of upcycling, or creative reuse.
Across her career, Dickens has instrumen-
talised a wide range of discarded, obsolescent
objects – bits of farm machinery, saddles,
straightjackets, aluminium bins, whatever
found objects she could lay her hands on as
she fossicked at the local tip around Lismore.
Like a dulum, the male satin bower bird
who feathers his nest with objects in shades
blue, she almost obsessively classifies the
broken and salvaged into drawers, creating a
Dickensian system of order from the chaos.
From this unpromising raw material, Dickens
develops a scheme – as if led by the objects.
I’m thinking here of Bound, 2015, a disquiet-
ing series of ghostly straitjackets hanging like
flayed skins on the wall at Carriageworks,
Sydney for The National in 2017.
In this work there was no mistaking her
artistic or political intent, no softening. Her
power as a maker of feminist artwork that
bristles with rage at the toxicity of Australian
heterosexual male culture reverberated. The
rage fulminated in the lurid vulviform shape
of her Workhorse series, made from discarded
saddles with their yokes facing outwards, ABOVE: Karla Dickens, Pound-
For-Pound #4, 2019. Mixed
lined with rusted exhaust pipes and mufflers
media, 196 x 41 x 41cm.
salvaged from wrecked cars with objects such COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND
SULLIVAN+STRUMPF, SYDNEY.
as bull horns, tins and pencils protruding
OPPOSITE: Artist Karla Dickens.
from their cavities. PHOTO: NATALIE GRONO.
50 THINGS | Curator’s Radar

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116
 50 THINGS | Curator’s Radar

Rather than individual artworks, Dickens

produces bodies of work that constellate
around a theme – or a proposition – shot
through with a wry black sense of humour
edged with a no bullshit approach to life.
Dickens’ upcoming survey Embracing
Shadows does precisely that – collectively,
these bodies of work confront the darkness
at the heart of our nation, with its endgame
in the folding of Aboriginal children in youth
detention, spit-hooded and restrained in
metal chairs. Almost surgically, that darkness
is exposed and the viscera of the corpus that is
Australia is laid out on the floor of this impres-
sive and wide-ranging survey. Ultimately,
there is no hiding from the truth.
DANIEL BROWNING

OPPOSITE: Karla Dickens, Hook the baby, 2020. Mixed media, 64 x 64cm.
LEFT: Karla Dickens, Cruel buffoonery, 2019. Mixed media, 115 x 60 x 60cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND SULLIVAN+STRUMPF, SYDNEY.

ABOVE: Karla Dickens, Workhorse V, 2018. Mixed media, 106 x 56 x 32cm.

COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND CAMPBELLTOWN ARTS CENTRE.

117
50 THINGS | Curator’s Radar
Installed within Pier 2/3 as part of rīvus, the
23rd Biennale of Sydney, Never the same river
twice, 2022 appeared like a giant waterfall
cascading from the ceiling. Created by West
Australian artist Erin Coates, it was based
on the Derbarl Yerrigan/Swan River, a salt
wedge estuary flowing through Boorloo/Perth.
Meticulously constructed from oyster shells,
human hair, porcelain and river pearls, the
installation reflected the artist’s experiences
118
13
ERIN COATES
of free diving and her firsthand observations
of the effects of colonial occupation and land
management.
“My interest in underwater spaces began
when I was growing up,” says Coates. “My Dad
was a professional shell diver and there was
seafaring on my Mum’s side. We spent a lot of
time in and on the water. When it comes to my
art practice, my work draws from direct expe-
riences of free diving, memories of things
I saw growing up, and the important work
marine biologists are doing now.”
Also influenced by parkour, rock climbing
and the built environment, Coates maintains
an artistic practice encompassing film, sculp-
ture and drawing – bringing these experiences
together to create work focused on biology,
body horror and oceanic gothic.
A term coined by Coates and frequent
collaborator, Perth-based artist Anna Nazzari,
 50 THINGS | Curator’s Radar

OPPOSITE: Erin Coates, Never the same river

twice (detail), 2022. Discarded oystershell lids,
silicone, river pearls, porcelain, lead, animal hair,
human hair and glass, 500 x 240 x 3cm.
PHOTO: ANNA KUCERA. COURTESY: THE ARTIST
AND MOORE CONTEMPORARY, PERTH.

THIS PAGE: Erin Coates, Thigmotaxis, 2014. HD

video, 5.1 surround sound, 9 minutes.
PHOTO: BO WONG. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND
MOORE CONTEMPORARY, PERTH.

ocean gothic “is a less explored subgenre to
Australian gothic (a film genre made popular
by films like Picnic at Hanging Rock),” Coates
explains. “It focuses primarily on underwater
spaces, maritime histories, and submerged
ecosystems.”
Expanding on these themes further, in 2023
Coates will be engaging with the collection of
the Museum of the Great Southern in Albany
as part of an ART ON THE MOVE Activating
Collections Artist Residency. During this time,
Coates is producing a series of graphite draw-
ings and sculptures focusing on the intersec-
tions of memory, body and nature.
In February, her work will travel to Kuwait
City for Speculative Horizons, an exhibition
and symposium featuring Australian and
Kuwaiti photography and video art. Back at
the Holmes à Court Gallery in Perth, in March
Coates will show work in Bread to Bone, an
exhibition reflecting on how our relationship
with food is influenced by cultural heritage,
environment and modern consumerism.
BRIONY DOWNES

119
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 50 THINGS | Notable Accolades

NOTABLE
ACCOLADES
We examine the work of four artists who

took out major prizes last year.

14
WANI TOAISHARA

Imagine: a time gripped by the noble
burden of bearing witness. When cameras
were weapons used to objectify and clas-
sify. When people spoke, oh so innocently,
of shooting with said cameras, and in so
doing, hinted at the unsettling kinship
between photography and violence.
Now imagine bodies shaped by the
vexed histories of colonialism, by a certain
type of violence that has made the world
white, a world that we have now inherited,
to borrow from Marx, in circumstances not
of our own choosing. This is the all-too-fa-
miliar world. A world that is orientated
around certain types of bodies to the
Artist wani toaishara.
PHOTO: JM TUBERA. exclusion of others. The world, simply put,
structured for and around the white gaze.
Within the margins of this terrain –
stained by history, rubbing up against the
supremacy of whiteness – black artists have
sought to capture sites of almost liberation.
They have gifted us photographs suffused
with a temperament of reclamation. An air
of defiance is often palpable in their contri-
butions to the contemporary archive. And
often, with their investigations, the theatre
of witnessing is troubled.
wani toaishara works within this rich
tradition. His is a practice rooted in videogra-
phy and experimental theatre. And with his
photographs, he attempts to throw into ques-
tion the habit of being studied and watched.

121
50 THINGS | Notable Accolades
His recent Jospehine Ulrick and Win
Schubert Award winning work do black boys
go to heaven, 2021 attests to these aims. Here
we are greeted with two black bodies resplen-
dent in green. They look back at us, at the
camera. Their stares place our focus not on
the contrived portraiture setup or on their
122
gloves and pristine white socks, but on their
faces. Their beautiful and self-assured faces.
These are bodies aware of being seen, as they
watch us watch them. And in so doing, they
challenge our right to look.
Indeed, here we are being called on to do
more than simply bearing witness. Shifting
LEFT: wani toaishara, do black boys go to
heaven, 2021. Photograph, 120 x 180cm.
OPPOSITE: wani toaishara, do black boys go
to heaven, 2021. Photograph, 120 x 180cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST.
from the passive optics of looking, we are
called to the active struggle of looking with,
through, and alongside black life in the
present. With toaishara’s assistance, we are
encouraged to find connection to the people
we are chained to.
BRIAN OBIRI-ASARE
50 THINGS | Notable Accolades

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 50 THINGS |
15
W I T E TA U P I R I K A TA E PA
Wi Te Tau Pirika Taepa (Te-Roro-o-Te-Rangi,
Te Arawa, Te Āti Awa) is a master of Māori art
in clay with a career spanning more than 30
years. In 2022, Taepa was a recipient of the
Platinum Jubilee Queen’s Birthday Honours
and was appointed as an Officer of the New
Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) for his
services to Māori art, particularly ceramics.
124
Notable Accolades
Although clay is not considered a traditional
Māori medium, the artist believes it is ideal for
expressing Māori cultural values, and its use
by Māori has a significant history.
Taepa was born in Te-Whanganui-a-Tara
Wellington in 1946, and has been at the fore-
front of promoting uku (the medium of clay)
within te ao Māori since the mid 1980s.

He comes from a line of Te Arawa master
carvers, and with his uncle, Taunu Tai Taepa,
carved the pulpit in Rangiatea Church, Otaki.
He also carved a replica of St Faith’s Church in
Rotorua, and many whare tupuna (ancestor’s
house) around Aotearoa.
Taepa spent a number of years as a prison
officer at Wi Tako (now Rimutaka) Prison and
used art to open lines of communication with
the prisoners. He taught Māori wood and
bone carving, as well as work in leather and
copper. Among his achievements over this
time was participation in the carving of two
pou (column) for the Michael Fowler Centre
in Wellington, and helping to complete the
Orongomai meeting house in Te Awa Kairangi
ki Uta Upper Hutt.
When Taepa became a social worker at
Kohitere Boys Farm in 1985, art was also an
important part of his work in rehabilitation.
50 THINGS | Notable Accolades
Because wood was expensive and the carving
tools potentially dangerous, he was obliged
to look for alternatives. Taepa found clay to
be the most suitable material, as it was inex-
pensive and readily available. His own works
are predominantly hand-built using coil, slab
or pinch pot techniques. They are unglazed
and are sometimes fired in a hole filled with
sawdust – which is lit and burns slowly over-
night – or fired in gas or wood kilns.
Taepa holds a New Zealand Certificate
OPPOSITE: Installation view
of Craft Design from Whitireia Polytechnic of Maumahara at Sanderson
Contemporary 2022 featuring
(1998), a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Wanganui
Ipu Iwa, 2019 by Wi Te Tau
Polytechnic (1999), and a Master of Māori Pirika Taepa.
Visual Arts degree from Massey University ABOVE LEFT: Wi Te Tau Pirika
Taepa, Punga whakarite, 2022.
(2017). He has exhibited widely, both nation- Clay, 33 x 40 x 30cm.
ally and internationally, including a solo exhi- ABOVE RIGHT: Wi Te Tau Pirika
Taepa, Ipu Wha, 2019. Clay and
bition at City Gallery Te Whare Toi Wellington acrylic paint, 17 x 11cm.
in 2012, and a retrospective at Auckland Art COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND
SANDERSON CONTEMPORARY,
Gallery Toi o Tāmaki in 2018. AUCKL AND.
125
50 THINGS | Notable Accolades

LEFT: Wi Te Tau Pirika

Taepa, Kite haere I, 2022.
Clay, 80 x 45 x 12cm.

OPPOSITE: Wi Te Tau Pirika

Taepa, Kite haere II, 2022.
Clay, 85 x 25 x 8cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND
SANDERSON CONTEMPORARY,
AUCKL AND.

His work is featured in the collections of the

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa,
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki and Te
Manawa Museum. His work is also held in
private collections in Aotearoa, United States,
England, Europe, Africa and Samoa.
Taepa is represented by Sanderson
Contemporary, Auckland, first exhibiting with
the gallery in 2019 alongside artists Simon
Kaan and Jon Tootill. In 2021, Taepa intro-
duced a new suite of ceramics in Te Hā o te
Marama, an exhibition presented in collabora-
tion with Kaan. Lydia Cowpertwait, manager
at Sanderson Contemporary, notes: “We are
thrilled that Wi has been honoured with
this award. Wi has been promoting uku, the
medium of clay, within te ao Māori for many
years. He is a wonderful mentor and story
teller. It’s heart-warming to see his contribu-
tions to this art form and the arts community
in Aotearoa being recognised.”
EMIL MCAVOY

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128
 50 THINGS |
16
BRENDA L. CROFT
There is urgency driving Brenda L. Croft’s
prestigious appointment as Gough Whitlam
and Malcolm Fraser (GWMF) Chair of
Australian Studies at Harvard University. It is
an opportunity, beginning in July 2023, that
she contextualises with gratitude.
“I stand on the shoulders of many – my
immediate family, my siblings, my parents,
my grandparents, mentors – First Nations
and non-Indigenous – who have supported
me from my earliest days to now,” she says.
“They guide everything I do, as does my son.
Wanting to make opportunities available for
his generation, building on the opportunities
made available to me. Everything becomes
more urgent the older I get, there is no time
to waste.”
Croft, already celebrated in Australia as
an artist and academic, travels to Harvard
in March, and will then assume the GWMF
Chair of Australian Studies in July. Amongst
her plans are a series of events or symposia
with national and international First Nations,
Black and People of Colour creative-led prac-
Artist Brenda L. Croft.
PHOTO: JAMES HENRY. titioners and researchers. Close to her heart
is establishing a post-doctoral scholarship
129
Notable Accolades
in honour of her late brother, Lindsay Croft.
He attended Harvard courtesy of a Harkness
Fellowship in 1993-94.
“I feel a great sense of responsibility to
generate outcomes beyond my tenure – this
cannot simply be a personal professional
opportunity,” says Croft. “My time there has
to also create pathways for other Australian
First Nations peoples. Being based overseas
for an extended period in such a significant
position at one of the world’s leading tertiary
institutions requires intense focus and I do not
intend to waste one moment.
“The past few years have created a laser
focus in terms of what I may be able to
achieve in the remainder of my life. I will turn
60 while at Harvard… I don’t expect to have
another three decades so I’m intending to hit
the ground at a very fast walk (running is not
my thing!).”
In January 2023, Croft will present 60 large-
scale commissioned photographic portraits of
contemporary First Nations women and girls
in a series titled Naabami (thou will/shall see):
Barangaroo (army of me) for Sydney Festival.
LOUISE MARTIN-CHEW
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 50 THINGS | Notable Accolades

FROM OPPOSITE CLOCKWISE: Brenda L. Croft, Matilda I (Ngambri), 2019-22; Leanne II (Dharug), 2021-22;
Eva II (Wakka Wakka/Mulinjali), 2022; Ali I (Biripi), 2022; and Jilda I (Yuwaalaraay), 2021-22 from the series Naabami
(thou shall/will see): Barangaroo (army of me). Large-scale photographic portrait.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND NIAGARA GALLERIES, MELBOURNE.

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50 THINGS | Notable Accolades
Emmaline Zanelli’s three-channel moving
image Dynamic Drills, 2019-21, winner of the
churchie emerging art prize 2022, features a
series of vignettes reimagining a lifetime of
labour by the artist’s nonna, Mila.
Mila Zanelli was a manufacturing worker
across the car, wool, poultry, and fashion
industries. In Dynamic Drills, the pair cycle
through recollections of this work. Apricots
are ladled onto a treadmill, a production
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17
EMMALINE ZANELLI
line powered by pedalling from a deck chair
in a sunny suburban backyard. A lamp is
powered by an exercise bike. Grandmother
and granddaughter glide up and down on an
electric bed.
The action is punctuated by a soundtrack
of Mila reading (in Italian) Filippo Tommaso
Marinetti’s Futurist Manifesto, 1909, a text
that speaks to our century-long obsession
with industry. In one scene – where the
power of muscle memory becomes particu-
larly apparent – Mila recreates the delicate
dance of the hands and body that once
populated her working life. Zanelli follows
along, watching closely, keeping up. English
subtitles read, “our gestures must imitate the
movements of machines.”
Dynamic Drills pushes back against the
transactional methodologies of production,
and instead, is driven by relational exchange.
 50 THINGS | Notable Accolades

OPPOSITE: Installation view

of Emmaline Zanelli’s
Dynamic Drills, 2019 - 2021
at Meat Market Stables
Melbourne.
RIGHT: Video stills of
Emmaline Zanelli’s Dynamic
Drills, 2019 - 2021.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST .

Zanelli makes this distinction clear, saying,

“Nonna and I weren’t making anything in
our choreographies. If anything, we were
producing our relationship. Our product was
care and time.”
Zanelli tells me that winning the churchie
emerging art prize came as a great shock.
However, off the back of three awards in
her hometown in 2022 (SALA Festival,
August and Adelaide Fringe, February), it’s
the national recognition her compelling,
singular practice has been building towards
since graduating from Adelaide College of
the Arts, Adelaide in 2015, and a Master of
Photography at Photography Studies College,
Melbourne in 2020.
Presented at Brisbane’s Institute of
Modern Art since 2019, the churchie looks
to identify and profile the next generation
of contemporary artists from across the
nation. Sebastian Goldspink, judge of this
years’ prize, says Dynamic Drills reflects a
very “human” experience and, “encapsulates
many striking ideas: technology as a media-
tor, working with community and non-artis-
tic collaborators, and an engagement with
temporality.”
Most recently, Zanelli’s work has shown at
the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide;
Centre for Contemporary Photography,
Melbourne; and Les Rencontres de la
Photographie, Arles, France.
JOANNA KITTO

133
 50 THINGS |
DEBUTANTES
Artists who leading gallerists have thrown their weight behind
with a recent debut exhibition.
18
VISHMI HELARATNE
Vishmi Helaratne describes themself as
a “third culture kid” with a fluid identity,
born and raised in Te-Whanganui-a-Tara
Wellington, New Zealand to Sri Lankan
parents. Helaratne grew up keenly aware of
their immigrant status, where it was “hard to
find people who look like you”.
The artist moved to Sydney in 2014, gaining
a Bachelor of Fine Art in Social Practice and
Participatory Experiences from the University
of New South Wales in 2018. Following a visit
to Sri Lanka and on to Aotearoa to visit their
mother in 2020, Helaratne found the New
134
Debutantes
Zealand border rapidly closing due to the
onset of Covid-19 restrictions and decided to
stay.
While Helaratne’s formative experiences as
a migrant often involved feelings of isolation,
and instances of being ignored and silenced,
in response their recent work celebrates and
generously shares South East Asian culture’s
“explosion of colour and flavour”, in the
artist’s words, and its history in the Antipodes:
“everything is excessive in my culture – the
gold, the garments, the food, the conversation
– there is no chill,” they say.
 50 THINGS | Debutantes

Artist Vishmi Helaratne.

PHOTO: RUSSELL KLEYN

135
50 THINGS | Debutantes
Drawing on the artist’s experience growing
up around the busy family kitchen, Helaratne
reflects on their mother’s cooking as “rhyth-
mic and haptic” – a kind of dance. The artist’s
work is similarly sensual and labour intensive
– also drawing on their culinary background –
painting with piping bags commonly used in
baking and cooking, and working from above
136
a painting as a chef might plate a new dish to
be encountered and consumed.
Helaratne mixes pigments with moulding
paste to create vibrant, richly textured sculp-
tural paintings which often wrap around the
sides of the canvas. A suite of Helaratne’s
recent paintings and sculptures were exhib-
ited under hot pink lights at play_station,
Wellington in 2021 in the show Kandy Road.
The exhibition also saw the artist cooking
with their mother for guests, including stuffed
Pan rolls, Butu curry and a beetroot dip
infused with chilli. Helaratne reflects on how
rewarding it was to see members of the local
Sri Lankan community attend – from senior
citizens to children – foregrounding the role

of social customs, hospitality, multicultural-
ism, sensory language and storytelling in their
work. Art as nourishment.
The Ministry of Creation, Helaratne’s first
solo exhibition at a commercial gallery, will
be staged at Laree Payne Gallery, Hamilton in
February 2023. Helaratne will also show with
Page Galleries, Wellington in late 2023. The
50 THINGS | Debutantes
artist’s mother is a civil servant, and always ABOVE: Vishmi Helaratne,
KANDY ROAD, 2021. Moulding
told them to take a stable government job out paste and acrylic on wood,
of concern for their financial precariousness 103 x 36cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND
as an artist. For Helaratne, the exhibition will PAGE GALLERIES, WELLINGTON.
act as a new kind of creative ministry which
holds open “space for play, surprise and
participation”. The artist continues: “this is
me, icing my own cake.” EMIL McAVOY
137
50 THINGS | Debutantes

138
 50 THINGS | Debutantes

OPPOSITE: Vishmi Helaratne, POT

LUCK, 2021. Moulding paste and
acrylic on ply, 101 x 53cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND L AREE
PAYNE GALLERY, H AMILTON.

ABOVE: Vishmi Helaratne, GOOD

NAMES FOR CATS (LIST ONE), 2021.
Moulding paste and acrylic on wood,
123 x 64cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND PAGE
GALLERIES, WELLINGTON.

ABOVE RIGHT: Installation view of

VISHMI HELARATNE: KANDY ROAD
at play_station, Wellington 2021.
PHOTO: HENDRIX HENNESSEY-ROPIH A.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND PL AY_
STATION, WELLINGTON.

RIGHT: Vishmi Helaratne, TEMPLE OF

TRUTH, 2021. Moulding paste and
acrylic on ply, 59.5 x 53cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND L AREE
PAYNE GALLERY, H AMILTON.

139
50 THINGS | Debutantes
AARON CHRISTOPHER REES
Aaron Christopher Rees employs the photo-
graphic lens to document moments of altered
perception. This includes shifts in the horizon
line, distortions of form and alterations in the
hue of light that infiltrates gallery spaces. He
is known for creating speculative environ-
ments that reference the photographic dark-
room, where he places monochromatic prints
of desire alongside large scale videos of the
sublime, engulfed by an intense red glow. The
artist explains, “I have always liked this notion
of the photographic apparatus as enabling a
140
19
vision that speaks to altered states of seeing,”
finding his interest in “how photographic
technologies enable a playful manipulation
of reality, since they are machines through
which we see the world.” Indeed, his practice
is suspended somewhere in between a chemi-
cal high and cinematic marvel.
This interest has served him well, having
exhibited in group shows at Melbourne galler-
ies Sarah Scout Presents and LON Gallery, and
scheduled to show new work in Melbourne
Now, at the National Gallery of Victoria,
Melbourne in 2023. His recent solo show
at NAP Contemporary, Mildura Firmament,
2022, is emblematic of Rees’ unique approach
to the photographic medium. Enveloped in
haptic red lighting, the show featured videos
of ocular pleasures and a series of prints. The
latter also inhabited the realm of desire, by
depicting libidinal symbols, such as flowers
and bed sheets. However, Rees positions this
appeal as an optic stimulation rather than
eroticism, by contextualising these scenes
with urban and natural landscapes.
 50 THINGS | Debutantes

One of his signature works is the video

Horizon, 2021, a sunset displayed across
three screens, rotated to appear as a vertical
landscape. “The sunset is the ultimate photo-
graphic event,” says the artist, “it contains all
the fundamentals of life, such as earth, fire
and water.” Rees uses this set up to fracture
the viewing experience of this wondrous sight,
by forcing the spectator to rotate their heads.
This is a strategy that compellingly dates to
his childhood, as the artist shares that “when
I was a young child, I often watched television
upside down. My mum would ask my why and
I would reply that it makes the images more
interesting.” Rees carefully identifies in this
anecdote how the simple act of a viewing OPPOSITE, ABOVE AND
LEFT: Installation views
a picture upside down is a form of agency of Aaron Christopher
Rees’ Fermament at NAP
for a child in an adult world of mass media. Contemporary, Mildura 2022.
And this is something he has been doing ever COURTESY: THE ARTIST
AND NAP CONTEMPORARY,
since. DIEGO RAMÍREZ MILDURA.

141
 50 THINGS | Debutantes

20
JOHNATHON WORLD PEACE BUSH

ABOVE: Johnathon World Peace Bush, No Justice, 2022. Naturally sourced ochres on canvas, 150 x 120cm.

OPPOSITE: Artist Johnathon World Peace Bush with his work No Justice, 2022.

COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND THIS IS NO FANTASY, MELBOURNE.

Poet, artist and human rights advocate
Johnathon World Peace Bush is one of
Australia’s most exciting painters. Walking in
his father’s footsteps, Bush worked as a stock-
man in Borroloola in an outstation, herding
cattle and horses. He moved to Milikapiti in
the Tiwi Islands to be with his mother. He
later started working at the Jilamara Arts and
Crafts Association. Bush was encouraged by
his brother artist, Kenny Brown, to delve into
creative practice. Over the years, he has grown
in his vision and notability in presenting
complex histories in such an innovative and
deep-feeling way.

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143
50 THINGS | Debutantes

144
 50 THINGS | Debutantes

In the past couple of years, Bush’s work

has been highly collected and exhibited with
significant institutions, including the Seoul
Museum of Art, Korea, Melbourne Art Fair
and the National Gallery of Victoria, both in
Mebourne, Artspace, Sydney, Northern Centre
for Contemporary Art, Northern Territory,
and Tarnanthi Festival at the Art Gallery of
South Australia, Adelaide.
His career has seen him exhibit at a world-
stage level to wider audiences and with incred-
ible generosity in re-telling personal stories of
people, religion, spirituality and Country.
Using materials from Country disrupts the
dominant colonial narratives of the Catholic
Bathurst missionary into a deeper story that
has impacted generations of Tiwi people.
Bush’s paintings depict figures drawn from
anthropological archival images of Tiwi
people and religious individuals in bodypaint
and Tiwi ceremonial ornaments. He paints
with ochre collected from Melville Island in
the three colours of Tiwi; kurrujupuni, arrikin-
inga, and yarringa (white, yellow, red). Among
the traditional designs appear figures of
angels, priests and local people as stories that
capture the complex histories of Indigenous
life and Western religious iconography. What
seems to be an arm holding a spear belong-
ing to a Tiwi man melts into the background, to live within. Over the past few years, Bush OPPOSITE: Johnathon World Peace
Bush, Seven Tiwi Angels, 2022.
engulfed by culture and a long line of history has become recognised for his depth in poli- Locally sourced earth pigments on
linen, framed, 150 x 120cm.
that predates and blends the introduction of tics, poetry and painting techniques. His work
ABOVE: Johnathon World Peace
Catholicism to the Island. has been exhibited nationally and internation- Bush, Mother and Child, 2022.
Bush is a rising talent in the global art ally, contributed to publications and has been Locally sourced earth pigments on
linen, framed, 120 x 120cm.
scene as an incredible storyteller integral to highly collected by major arts institutions.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND THIS IS
NO FANTASY, MELBOURNE.
the landscape of Australian art. Through his “Painting means to me a glimpse of the past,
iconic painting style, he holds both histo- a glimpse of the present and a glimpse of the
ries close together, uplifting love and peace future,” says Bush. “Sydney [Contemporary Art
throughout the narratives he depicts. The Fair] was a stepping stone to share my story
people Bush represents uphold truthtelling with the world. It was the first time working
and a deep understanding that healing from with [my new representative] gallery [This Is
the past is key to a better future. For his family, No Fantasy, Melbourne] and meeting Vincent
the Island and ultimately, the world he wishes [Namatjira] in the big city.” MAYA HODGE

145
50 THINGS | Debutantes
Hikalu Clarke’s recent debut solo show Dredge
at Sumer in Tauranga, New Zealand was a
knockout. The exhibition featured new sewn
fabric works on stretchers which read as
paintings. Constructed over the last two years
during successive lockdowns in Aotearoa
in the artist’s inner city apartment – which
146
21
HIKALU CLARK
overlooks a section of Tāmaki Makaurau,
Auckland’s elevated motorways where three
major arterial roads converge – the works
evoke an aerial view of these labyrinthine
motorways and their iconic depictions by
painter Robert Ellis.
Clarke’s instinctive, improvised, process-
based making is an alternative to the artist’s
usual conceptually-driven methodology.
Clarke sees the works as akin to drawings. He
describes: “utilising the existing languages
within the fabric (source, materiality, patina,
existing marks and stains, etc.) as a means
of finding points to highlight, crop, and shift
 50 THINGS | Debutantes

OPPOSITE: Hikalu Clarke, I Need Your Attention, 2022.

Retroreflective polyester, aramid kevlar, vintage
Japanese and salvaged fabrics, 110 x 150cm.
RIGHT: Hikalu Clarke, Reclaimation Ground, 2022.
Vintage Japanese fabrics, 165.1 x 96.5cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND SUMER, TAURANGA.

towards and away… They’re produced flat and

then are stretched — through this process
seams rip and fabrics tear — it becomes a
point where I can further intercede, decid-
ing whether I re-stretch or utilise the marks
produced and make them permanent through
hand-stitching.”
The works are constructed from diverse
fabrics including high-vis retroreflective
coated polyesters, carbon-kevlars, fire-retar-
dant aramids, heavy vinyl used for at-risk pris-
oner mattresses, and vintage Japanese prints
used in kimono and soft furnishings.
Speaking to the artist’s source materials
and their implications, Sumer director Dan
du Bern notes: “Fashioned from cast-offs and
remnants, as well as other bits and pieces
he collected on his recent travels and things
that were around the studio, their fabrication
involved the dismembering of costumes used
in past performances and previously exhib-
ited soft sculptures. And for these reasons they
elicited in Clarke a sense of unease; seeming
almost sacrilegious, iconoclastic, or at the
very least an act of self-sabotage, diminishing
his own artistic legacy through such acts of
destruction.”
Du Bern further reflects on the exhibition
title Dredge as evoking a “dragging up and
carving out, refashioning and repurposing old
things to serve new ends; to look upon things
with fresh eyes.”
The show ran from August to September
2022, with a number of the pieces reappearing
at the recent Aotearoa Art Fair in November.
Here’s hoping for more public outings of these
compelling paintings. EMIL McAVOY

147
50 THINGS | Debutantes
22
JOEL ARTHUR
Working predominantly with oil on canvas,
but often exploring the expanse of differ-
ent mediums such as alkyds, wax medium,
marble dust and acrylics, Canberra-based
artist Joel Arthur creates bodies of work in
dialogue with one another – setting anchor
points within each painting that oscillate
148
between abstraction and landscapes.
Taking pictures of the world around him,
Arthur seeks out artificial landscapes, such
as city parks, that have a utopian feel. In this,
his base of Canberra seems evocative, a city
that lends itself to the ideas of constructed
environments.
ABOVE: Joel Arthur, Behind the
Casino, 2022. Oil, acrylic and
alkyd on canvas, 153 x 183cm.
OPPOSITE: Joel Arthur, Arena,
2022. Oil, acrylic and alkyd on
canvas, 153 x 183cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND
GALLERY 9, SYDNEY.

“Quite often, these park spaces are planted
in a designed manner which lends to a sensa-
tion and tension that I want to translate to the
paintings,” he says.
As the everyday seeps into Arthur’s oeuvre,
the artist holds an interest in early 20th
Century French painting, from Impressionism
to Cubism. Similarly, he seeks out a sense of
distortion, playing with his mediums and
compositions to this effect, always aiming to
push the artworks. “This pushing allows for
a surprise in each painting which provides
me with excitement and interest to continue
painting,” he says.
After studying at the Australian National
University School of Art, Canberra in 2014,
Arthur undertook a six-month residency at
Canberra Contemporary Art Space in 2015 and
is currently practising at Australian National
Capital Artists (ANCA). In 2022, he received a
grant from ArtsACT, allowing him unlimited
time to paint in the studio.
50 THINGS | Debutantes
Arthur’s first solo exhibition at Gallery 9,
Sydney, A Landscape to Build On, 2022, came
together after discussions with Gallery 9 direc-
tor Allan Cooley in July 2022. “Joel had built
a body of work during Covid which had clear
structure and was progressive in its develop-
ment,” says Cooley. “He constantly challenges
his practice by inventing new imagery and
techniques, including introducing abstract
elements in the landscape genre.”
EMMA-KATE WILSON
149

COLLECTORS
LOVE
Collectors voted with their wallets at these sell-out shows.
Auckland-based Claudia Kogachi has been
popular amongst private and public collectors
over the last year, exhibiting with multiple
galleries. Kogachi’s playful and bright work
often depicts herself and those close to her
150
50 THINGS | Collectors Love
23
CLAUDIA KOGACHI
– in both true and imagined personas – and
explores recreational activities, banal bodily
functions, and moments of realistic fiction.
Blue Moon, an exhibition of spooky paintings
with collaborative frames, had an almost-sell
out exhibition at Melanie Roger Gallery in
August 2022. Ranging from small (22 x 22cm)
to near life-size (138 x 193 cm), Blue Moon was
inspired by Kogachi’s time at the Karekare
House Artist Residency in Winter.
 50 THINGS | Collectors Love

OPPOSITE: Claudia Kogachi, The one

with the mosquitoes (diptych), 2021.
Acrylic on canvas, framed, 80 x 160cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND JH ANA
MILLERS GALLERY, WELLINGTON.

THIS PAGE: Claudia Kogachi in her studio.

PHOTO: ROB TENNENT.

151
50 THINGS | Collectors Love

152
 50 THINGS | Collectors Love

“The Karekare coast is incredibly dramatic

and powerful,” she says, “and it’s also mythi-
cal and fantastical. I was kept busy painting
spooky ghost trees and cutesy evil smiling
suns.” Kogachi’s partner, Josephine Jelicich
accompanied her on the residency and hand
carved wooden frames to mimic the waves of
the coastline for Blue Moon.
In April, Kogachi exhibited Heaven must
be missing an angel at Jhana Millers Gallery,
Wellington. The series included Kogachi and
Jelicich depicted as recognisable duos, includ-
ing Lucy Liu and Cameron Diaz from the
film Charlie’s Angels (the soundtrack of which enjoys my art and exhibitions as a whole that’s OPPOSITE: Claudia Kogachi, The one with
the blue bottle jellyfish, 2021. Acrylic on
inspired the show’s title). “The exhibition was a good indicator to me that it is successful.” canvas, framed, 100 x 120cm.
an ode to the beginning of our relationship, Beyond painting, Kogachi also makes tuft ABOVE LEFT: Claudia Kogachi, Self Portrait
as Suki, 2021. Acrylic on plywood with rimu
an introduction to my practice, and cemented rug artworks which is a labourious process. frame, 127.5 x 125cm.
my recent coming-out to my family,” says Varying between mediums allows Kogachi ABOVE: Claudia Kogachi, Kill Bill, 2022.
Kogachi. The filmic duo paintings were a hit to rest and rejuvenate without getting bored Acrylic on canvas, framed, 170 x 138cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND JH ANA MILLERS
with collectors, with all but one painting from of one medium. A selection of her large rugs GALLERY, WELLINGTON.

the exhibition selling. and paintings will be exhibited at the 2023

When asked what a successful exhibition Aotearoa Art Fair with Jhana Millers Gallery
looks like, Kogachi answers simply: “My mum in the artist’s first solo show at the fair.
is a tough critic of my work, so when she LUCY JACKSON

153
50 THINGS | Collectors Love

154

24
MARINGKA BAKER
Senior Pitjantjatjara woman and artist “The works in Maringka Baker – A Survey
Maringka Baker lives and paints in Docker beautifully demonstrate Baker’s mastery of
River, Northern Territory. Baker’s works rich colour, her sophisticated composition,
mirror Country, ancestral sites, waterways, and the deep underlying connection she main-
Dreaming stories and lore that has passed tains to land and spirituality,” says Ashleigh
throughout generations of Pitjantjatjara Tuck, Tjungu Palya Art Centre manager.
peoples. She has been exhibited and collected “Though no longer residing in Kanpi, Baker
by many notable institutions, including the has strong ties and a rich legacy here, as a
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra and senior community member, a women’s lore
the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. keeper and a skilled artist.”
Baker’s significant near sell-out exhibition Much like the way Baker sits on the canvas
at Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne to paint her work, her large-scale paintings
amidst the 2021 Melbourne lockdowns, titled swallow their viewers whole. Baker’s painting
Maringka Baker – A Survey, presented a series series depicts the Minyma Kutjara Tjukurpa
of paintings, blending vivid colours of dusty (Two Sisters creation story), a journey of two
ochre to waterhole blue. sisters who travel across Irrunytju (Wingellina
50 THINGS | Collectors Love
OPPOSITE: Maringka Baker, Minyma
Kutjara Tjukurpa, 2018. Synthetic
polymer paint on canvas, 150 x 120cm.
OPPOSITE: Maringka Baker, Minyma
Kutjara Tjukurpa, 2011. Synthetic
polymer paint on canvas, 120 x 200cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST, TJUNGU PALYA ART
CENTRE, NYAPARI COMMUNIT Y AND VIVIEN
ANDERSON GALLERY, MELBOURNE.
Community) to Kaltukatjara (Docker River)
back to their family. They shape the landscape
as they go. Baker’s generous mapping of this
journey is a snippet of a much larger picture,
as the majority of the story remains protected
within the community.
The time and rhythm Baker spent creating
her work is reminiscent of the sisters tracing
the path back home to their family. The deep
brown, soft dawn pink and desert reds amass
among the inky background in her works.
This exhibition was a testament to Baker’s
skill to bend light with her colour palette and
her vision as a storyteller to move beyond the
confines of her canvas.
MAYA HODGE
155
50 THINGS | Collectors Love
Max Bowden might be the most successful
artist that you’ve never heard about. It is all
the more surprising when you consider that
her art practice spans some 25 years.
Her name Max, unusual for a woman, is one
she assumed as a teenager starting at a new
school: “I think I was trying to find out how
I could be stronger.” Clearly, with two sell
out exhibitions at Melbourne’s James Makin
Gallery (2022 and 2020), she has found her
power.
Most recently, Bowden won the Hadley’s Art
Prize Residency, 2022, and was a finalist in the
Rick Amor Self Portrait Prize in 2020. She was
156
25
MAX BOWDEN
the winner of the Whyalla Art Prize, 2002 and,
in 1995, was awarded a scholarship to attend
the Adelaide Central School of Art.
Bowden is frank about the issues that
have hindered her. “Anxiety affected how I
painted in the past, but now it just spotlights
an area that I can process, or tweak, so to
speak,” she says. “Early on, I had a show that
didn’t go well and it really rocked me. I kept
painting, but stopped showing.”
In recent years, she has found her way back
using an urgent mode of practice. With a young
family, she had less opportunity: “I would only
have half an hour, so started painting anything
LEFT: Max Bowden, Salt Dog,
2022. Oil on Belgian linen,
30 x 40cm.
OPPOSITE: Max Bowden,
Road with a tree, 2020. Oil
on canvas, 40.5 x 30cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND
JAMES MAKIN GALLERY,
MELBOURNE.
I could see, and fell in love with the cat and
mouse game of catching Darwin’s mind-blow-
ing atmosphere. I found I was at my best as a
painter tasting these moments and that I was
really present; there was a little bit of extreme
sport excitement.”
That urgency is conveyed in her gestural
paintings, with tension inherent in titles
such as The only surf day in Darwin, 2022 (the
painting’s looming grey sky reflected in the
wet road) and Mother’s Day, where the untidy
detail of a tiny kitchen is pressed close to the
picture plane.
LOUISE MARTIN-CHEW
157
50 THINGS | Collectors Love

158
 50 THINGS | Collectors Love

OPPOSITE: Laura Jones,

Nocturne (Yellow), 2022.
Oil and acrylic on linen,
137 x 112cm.

LEFT: Laura Jones,

Opening Titles, 2022. Oil
and acrylic on linen, 153
x 198cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST
AND SOPHIE GANNON
GALLERY, MELBOURNE.

26
LAURA JONES

Selling out a show is no uncommon occurrence
for Laura Jones, who will generally see all her
works snapped up before they even make it to
the floor. Music for Trees, presented at Sophie
Gannon Gallery, Melbourne in August 2022,
was no exception.
“Collectors love painting, and Laura is
a wonderful painter,” says gallery director
Sophie Gannon. “Her competence with the
medium is well acknowledged, and yet she still
pushes herself and her practice.”
The impetus for Music for Trees came from
Jones’ enduring concern about the threats
facing the natural world, as well as her more
recently established monotype practice. “I’m
interested in the process of painting, the repe-
tition of movements and getting into that deep
focus – so creating monotypes and resolving
an image really quickly interests me,” she says.
For the exhibition, Jones drew on the
approach she had learned for creating mono-
types, and applied it to painting. “She is an
artist not afraid to try new things – and that’s
a big contributor to her success,” says Gannon.
While previous works have confronted the
climate crisis head-on, with depictions of coral
bleaching in the Great Barrier Reef and the
changing landscape of Antarctica, Music for
Trees took a less literal approach. “It was more
a show about intimacy and emotion... it was
almost like a poem or a love song,” she says.
The works are characterised by an electrify-
ing use of non-naturalistic colour, with patches
of lurid neon green and hot pink injecting an
uncommon dynamism into still life floral
arrangements and landscapes.
Jones has an upcoming residency at Tweed
Regional Gallery in early 2023.
CHARLOTTE MIDDLETON

159
 50 THINGS | New Directions
NEW
DIRECTIONS
Artists who have recently taken their practice
somewhere different.
27
ALEX SETON
Alex Seton is renowned for his masterful
sculpture in marble; skilfully rendered every-
day items of modern utility, such as life vests,
anoraks and plastic stackable chairs that
belie the traditional monumentality of stone.
Recent exhibitions A History of Forgetting at
the Tweed Regional Gallery & Margaret Olley
Art Centre and Permanent Good Stream, Some
Rocks at Sullivan & Strumpf, Sydney, saw Seton
juxtapose new video work, photography and a
musical score alongside his refined sculptures
in local Wombeyan marble. Increasingly, he is
integrating different media in his projects to
heighten the themes he’s passionate about.
160
Seton is energised exploring new mate-
rials and ways of working. In mid-2022 he
undertook a six-week residency at Canberra
Glassworks, where he found the laval fluid-
ity of molten glass and physical dexterity
required in its handling to be both challeng-
ing and exciting. Reflecting upon this new
direction, Seton described the experience: “I
loved working with glass, the short working
time and immediacy of the molten glass that’s
created with a set of balletic movements by
the team of glassmakers – couldn’t be more
different from the solitary slow and static state
of marble carving.”
Artist Alex Seton.
PHOTO: VASILI VASILIADES.
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162
 50 THINGS | New Directions

OPPOSITE: Alex Seton, Everything was

Beautiful, and Nothing Hurt, 2022. 108 Soda
glass jars, nylon, steel and marble offcuts,
287 x 140 x 712cm (variable).
Glassblower: Katie Ann-Houghton.

RIGHT: Alex Seton, Unstuck in Time, 2022.

Soda Glass, copper and 1600lm LED lights,
128 x 12 x 12cm. Glassblower: Tom Rowney.
PHOTOS: MARK POKORNY. COURTESY: THE ARTIST
AND SULLIVAN+STRUMPF, SYDNEY AND MELBOURNE.

He’s created a new series of light works

specifically for a solo exhibition in Newcastle’s
The Lock-Up (until 5 February 2023). Titled
Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt,
nine light works installed throughout the old
cells and prison yard offer homage to a local
artisan glass industry, Leonora Glassworks,
which operated in Newcastle from 1947 until
1982. Elongated columns of fluid glass and
light remind us of modernist chandeliers that
featured prominently in the foyers of 50s and
60s-era buildings, clubs and RSLs. Here, Seton
explores local histories of post-World War II
Australia, immigrants and industry, wartime
culture and endeavour, notions of beauty,
progress and modernism.
Layers of poetic and political meaning
are at the heart of Seton’s work. This new
project contemplates memory, forgetting
and loss as time passes. The title is a satirical
line from Kurt Vonnegut’s anti-war novel
Slaughterhouse-Five, 1968, that relives the
Allied Forces bombing of Dresden in 1945.
The founders of the Leonora glassworks
started out making aircraft bombsights,
but flourished when they moved into art
glass. Seton is interested in ways Australian
communities dealt with the fallout of world
war, the role of RSL clubs as regional hubs of
selective memory, well-meaning yet complicit
in the longer-term failure to reckon with the
colonial legacy of conflict and acknowledge
and the Frontier Wars that underpin modern
Australia. JUDITH BLACKALL

163
50 THINGS | New Directions
“I’ve been reluctant to use colour in my prac-
tice, and I don’t really know why that was,”
explains artist Lucas Davidson of his new
work. “I didn’t feel like I had a grasp of colour,
so this is a new direction that’s been a long
time coming.”
Over more than a decade, Davidson has
produced a compelling body of monochro-
matic work that pushes at the boundaries
164
28
LUCAS DAVIDSON
of photography. The impulse to expand the
medium led to installation and video and
stemmed from “a struggle with photography’s
two dimensionality”.
Installation granted access and immersion:
“I wanted to be able to walk on the material
and to be in it and to experience photography
in a different way.”
Davidson’s work has consistently sought a
form of transcendent pure abstraction made
from reconstituted figurative elements. Using
readily accessible digital cameras, printers
and software, he pulls apart the limits posed
by photography and its ever-evolving tools.
Where his past work has been cerebral and
probing in its aesthetic and conceptual propo-
sitions, recent directions signal a glorious shift
in lightness and mood, achieved via colour.

“I felt that I needed colour in my life
because of this reoccurring cancer that I’ve
had for the last five years.” As a diversion from
the physical and mental pressures of illness
and treatment, Davidson would seek avenues
of distraction by going to the studio. “It was
a part of my day where I didn’t have to really
think about my health, and I would become
consumed in the work – it was therapeutic.”
But finding colour did not come naturally.
Looking through art books from his library
was a starting point and inspired a process
of photographing cropped details of works
by his favorite artists. In sampling colours
from artwork reproductions, the original
image became decontextualised and unrec-
ognisable. Once printed they become striking
colour fields, like Rothkos for a digital age.
Davidson’s new works speak to the horizon
and its capacity to create a state of flow, a
freeing up of the analytical mind. “It’s this
being in the moment that I’m trying to get
back to in a way.”
Titling his next solo exhibition at Dominik
Mersch Gallery, Sydney showing from 3
February to 4 April 2023, Learning to Let Go,
Davidson reflects: “I have been forced to
reconsider all aspects of my life and learning
50 THINGS | New Directions
OPPOSITE: Lucas Davidson, Learning to let go,
2022. Pigment print on photo rag, 118 x 166cm.
ABOVE LEFT: Lucas Davidson, From the
moment I met you, 2022. Pigment print on photo
rag, 118 x 166cm.
ABOVE RIGHT: Lucas Davidson, In perfect stillness,
2022. Pigment print on photo rag,
118 x 166cm.
COURTESY THE ARTIST AND DOMINIK MERSCH
GALLERY, SYDNEY.
to let go was a way to prepare myself for the
inevitable that we are all faced with at some
point in our life. Learning to let go of a family,
art, living, understanding, the list is long.”
DANIEL MUDIE CUNNINGHAM
165
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166

29
LOUISE FORTHUN
Life in Melbourne shifted on its axis in 2020-
21, with the pandemic giving Victorians, in
particular, some years of physical restrictions.
In this uncertain atmosphere of isolation and
separation Louise Forthun made a radical
departure from her own artistic past. She
spent time experimenting, moving away
from her stencilled, cityscape paintings to
create seemingly ephemeral forms in paper.
These objects have now been transformed
into bronze sculpture. Their solidity is a visual
conundrum – their evolution from crumpled
paper to bronze replicas is a visual sense of
holding the air taut.
Forthun was already in the mood for change
when she travelled to Japan in early 2020. “I
was doing automatic drawing with brush
and ink,” she says. “Even though they’re very
different to the more controlled stencilled
layering of aerial cities, they’re connected;
the drawings are a loose open aerial view of
cities.” Covid and stay at home directions coin-
cided with her return to Melbourne, and she
had time without deadlines.
In a forthcoming book on this new series of
Artist Louise Forthun. work, Forthun describes her method of crush-
PHOTO: ROB BL ACKBURN
AND CHRISTIAN CAPURRO. ing, folding and pressing paper into tight forms
which become almost flat and crumpled when
50 THINGS | New Directions
released. They are “an intriguing set of folds
and patterns which communicated a variety of
imagined landforms and structures reminis-
cent of topographical views,” she says. Bronze
sculpting specialist Meridian Sculpture gave
her advice about the lost-wax technique to
translate these fragile paper forms into exact
replicas in bronze. Her use of spray paint
assisted her to transfer iridescent colours onto
the paper sculptures; to complete the bronzes,
some are painted, waxed, or patinated.
These new technical challenges and
skills gained in recent years have energised
Forthun’s practice; she sees a relationship
between the three-dimensional work and her
paintings of city views as a reflection of the
fragility and strength of cities. “The crushed
and folded paper works and the more solid,
pleated and crinkled sculptures are little
essences of the wider city panorama.”
To date, 15 of these sculptures have been
produced in sizes from A3 to A5 with signifi-
cant collector interest. Exhibited at the RACV
City Club in A Sense of Place and in the The Cave
at City of Melbourne’s Library at the Dock
(both 2022), their innovative form has been
widely celebrated.
LOUISE MARTIN-CHEW
167
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168
 50 THINGS | New Directions

OPPOSITE: Louise Forthun, Winter, 2022. Patinated

Bronze, 19 x 12 x 9cm (including bronze base).

THIS PAGE: Louise Forthun, Orange + Mauve, 2021.

Synthetic Polymer on Arches paper, 40 x 28 x 16m.
PHOTOS: CHRISTIAN CAPURRO. COURTESY: THE ARTIST
AND CH ARLES NODRUM GALLERY, MELBOURNE.

169
50 THINGS | New Directions
30
KENNY PITTOCK
“Big ideas can be nothing but hot air, at times,”
wittingly quips artist Kenny Pittock, well-
known for his whimsical, life-sized ceramic
renditions, and pithy paintings addressing
the banality in life, “however, blowing air as
a medium, with all its lightness and fragility,
feels so relevant.” Pittock, who is repre-
sented by MARS Gallery, Melbourne and has
established himself as an expert in evoking
170
nuanced responses to the mundanity in life
using nostalgic iconography and colloquial-
isms, has recently conflated his practice – and
rhetoric – and literally inflated it.
The World’s Gone Pear Shaped, 2022, is so
much more than the sum of its parts (plastic,
lights and fans, to be precise), it’s also a vessel
and a portal for us to address our inner-worlds
while engaging with our outer, shared worlds.
LEFT: Kenny Pittock, The World’s Gone Pear Shaped (once
bitten), 2022. Acrylic on ceramic, 10.5 x 7.5 x 7.5cm.
OPPOSITE: Installation view of Kenny Pittock’s The World’s
Gone Pear Shaped at Sydney Contemporary, 2022.
PHOTO: JAMES HORAN.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND MARS GALLERY, MELBOURNE.
This larger than life inflated pear-shaped-world
first exhibited on the outside of Shepparton
Art Museum, as part of White Night, then at
Sydney Contemporary, as a part of AMPLIFY,
2022. It is more than a site-specific installation,
it’s world-specific. Capturing our collective
ambivalence and anxieties around the state
of our shared planet, Pittock is reminding us
that our daily minor inconveniences – that
can easily acquiesce our moods, temperament
and thus, projective perceptions – really aren’t
that bad. That no matter how or why things
go pear shaped, things can still be fruitful.
Having actualised, conceptually, through an
earthenware depiction of the pear-shaped-
world in 2020 and a painting in 2022, all
with the same title, the opportunity to bloat,
magnify and maximise Pittocks signature
pun-like-message was a natural progression,
“responding to how big issues – personal
anxiety, anxieties about the planet – will
always feel relevant”. The shift to inflatable
from ceramic, large from small, The World’s
Gone Pear Shaped was Pittock’s first endeavour
in making sculpture at such a large scale, a
scale he intends to continue working in. “I
love the process of working with inflatables,”
he says.
The process of materialising this work
was no easy feat. Pittock photographed
its smaller predecessor, scanned it three
dimensionally, so that every mark made by
his hand in clay remained present in plastic
patina, offering not only insight into the
artists adeptness with clay, but his dexter-
ity in relating to any material he wields.
When asked “what’s next?” in true Pittock
fashion, he replied, “so many things, I may
blow up!” EMMA FINNERAN
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171
50 THINGS | New Directions
31
RUSS FLATT
In May of 2022, the exhibition Te Ahua, Te Wa,
Te Atea by Ngāti Kahungunu artist Russ Flatt
opened at MTG Hawkes Bay. Best known for
his cinematic, carefully staged photographs
examining political themes, this commis-
sion saw Flatt investigating land sales in
172
Heretaunga (a region within the Hawkes Bay),
reading historic documents and receiving oral
histories from those whose ancestors had
experienced the destruction or confiscation of
their wāhi tapu (sacred place) through coloni-
Artist Russ Flatt.
sation, urbanisation and industrialisation. PHOTO: SAM H ARTNE T T.
 50 THINGS | New Directions

ABOVE: Russ Flatt, Te ahua, te wa, te atea, 2022. Single-channel video, with soundtrack by Salvador Brown, 8 mins.

FOLLOWING PAGE: Russ Flatt, Arlita, 2022. Inkjet photograph on Hahnemühle photo rag, ed 3 + 1 AP, 50 x 85cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND TIM MELVILLE GALLERY, AUCKL AND.

With the aim of capturing the feeling of
being on the whenua (land) and learning
some of its history, Flatt chose to work with
3D mapping technologies to create his first
video installation. The resultant work offers
a birds-eye view of five local wāhi tapu – all
sites that are extremely sacred to iwi, which
were brutally confiscated by Pākehā settlers
in 1870. Flatt explains, “The project used a
mixture of drone, photogrammetry, 3D LiDAR
scanning and Linz Mapping point clouds.
This was then merged to give the sense of an
in-between space that is travelling through the
past, present and future. These tools gave me
the freedom to explore mauri (life force) and
wairua (spirit) while exploring these sacred
sites. The point cloud, in its rawest form, gives
you the sense potentially of what the whenua
(land) might have been before colonisation.
I was excited to work with technology that is
not used for this specific purpose and to test
its boundaries through storytelling.”
Following Te Ahua, Te Wa, Te Atea, Flatt
continued to work with these technologies,
developing Tekau Mā Rua, a continuation of
the project that was shown at Tim Melville
Gallery, Auckland in October. While the images
and videos in this series are also derived from
the 3D scans and point-mapping, many of the
sites depicted are populated by ghostly female
figures, gazing solemnly upon the wāhi tapu.
“I see [these works] as a form of decolonisa-
tion,” says Flatt. “In Europeans’ eyes, wāhine
[women] were less than the men. This was
not the case within whānau, hapū and iwi. I
have made a conscious decision to bring forth
wāhine on to the whenua of the Heretaunga,
to stand in an act of defiance against these
archaic Pākehā hetero-normative chauvinistic
narratives. As Papatūānuku holds our wāhine
within these images, they collectively speak to
the histories past and a new way to envision a
path forward into decolonising Aotearoa and
recovering from past trauma.”
LUCINDA BENNETT

173
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174
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175
 50 THINGS |
SAD
FA R E W E L L S
The 2022 art world losses we’re lamenting.
32
BRIAN SHERMAN
With his leonine locks, gently eccentric
demeanor and disregard for convention, entre-
preneur and philanthropist Brian Sherman
AM, who has passed away at the age of 79, was
often mistaken for an artist. This is fitting: his
epic life was one of creative invention, evident
in an enduring legacy of good works.
Arriving in Australia in the 1970s from
Apartheid-riven South Africa with wife Gene,
preschool children Emile and Ondine and
$5,000 in his pocket, Sherman built a fund
management empire with business partner
Laurence Freedman. Persistence against
overwhelming odds and two decades of inno-
vation saw their company, EquitiLink, book
billions under management. Leadership roles
followed, such as a distinguished nine year
presidency of the Australian Museum Trust
and chairmanship of the finance committee
for the triumphant 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Softly-spoken, unfailingly courteous, and
possessed of a bone-dry wit, Sherman found
his other metier in philanthropic and cultural
176
Sad Farewells
pursuits. He partnered with Gene on Sherman
Galleries in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, which
flourished as a vibrant locus of artistic activ-
ity under Gene’s directorship for 20 years
until 2007. It nurtured emerging talent and
assembled a stable of leading practitioners,
John Olsen, Imants Tillers, Mike Parr, Shaun
Gladwell, Janet Laurence, Gu Wenda, Guan
Wei and Zhang Huan among them.
Next was the philanthropic Sherman
Contemporary Art Foundation (SCAF), again
led by Gene, which exhibited celebrated artists,
designers and architects from Australia, Asia,
the Pacific Rim and the Middle East, staging
some 37 projects, including new commissions,
and 400 events over a decade.
Launching with a monumental commission
by Ai Weiwei, SCAF showcased the likes of
Brook Andrew, Jonathan Jones, Dinh Q. Lê,
Tokujin Yoshioka, Jitish Kallat, Alfredo and
Isabel Aquilizan, and Pritzker Prizewinners
Shigeru Ban and SANAA, the latter designers
of Sydney Modern.
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177
50 THINGS | Sad Farewells
Sherman and Gene’s final family-funded
gallery-based venture was the Sherman Centre
for Culture and Ideas (SCCI), a re-imagined
salon for cultural exchange which, uniquely,
elevated consideration of fashion and archi-
tecture. Over its five year program of events,
SCCI featured the world’s leading thinkers and
practitioners of these disciplines, culminating
in an international series at London’s Design
Museum in October, 2022.
There were many other philanthropic
commitments, to Jewish causes, arts, educa-
tion and medical research.
The couple were prodigious collectors and
active patrons, commissioning works and
amassing a 900 piece collection, including
178
pieces by international and Australian lumi-
naries such as William Kentridge, Zanele
Meholi, Barthélémy Toguo, Yang Zhichao
(Chinese Bible), Sopheap Pich, Lisa Reihana,
Do Ho Suh, Emily Kame Kngwarreye and
Danie Mellor. In recent years, they had begun
pruning, gifting widely to cultural institutions
including the National Gallery of Australia,
Canberra, the The Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney
and the Chau Chak Wing Museum at the
University of Sydney. Substantial monetary
donations were made to Sydney Modern,
UNSW Galleries, and the Australian Museum.
For nearly four decades this powerhouse
partnership – in the arts and life – reshaped
the creative landscape in Australia, Asia and
PREVIOUS PAGE: Jenny Sages, Gene Sherman with family,
after Tillers, after Freud, after Watteau, 1995. Oil, wax and
pigment on multiple canvas boards, 182 x 202cm.
LEFT: Brian Sherman.
COURTESY: THE SHERMAN CENTRE FOR CULTURE AND IDEAS.
beyond, making an indelible contribution
to cultural life. At the foundation was the
couple’s extraordinary 55-year love story.
Sherman considered his family his greatest
achievement. As adults, the children and he
remained exceptionally close. He informally
mentored Emile, with whom he had adjacent
offices for many years, and rejoiced when his
son, who had carved out his own distinguished
creative career as a film producer, took out
the Oscar, quipping that he was merely “the
producer of the producer”.
Daughter Ondine, a published book author
and lifelong animal activist, inspired in him
the great passion that animated his later
years – to end animal suffering, especially
that of the billions of sentient beings abused
in factory farms. They founded the influential
non-profit Voiceless in 2004.
Sherman also enjoyed close relationships
with Emile’s wife Carrie, a social entrepre-
neur, and Ondine’s husband, Dror, a wildlife
biologist active in social change movements,
and his six beloved grandchildren. For many
years, he applied his resources and dogged
persistence to a global quest, alongside Dror,
to find a cure for his twin grandsons Dov and
Lev’s debilitating genetic condition. He found
acceptance instead.
Sherman was held in deep affection, too, by
extended family, friends and colleagues, and
his loyal team.
He brought quiet grace and courage to
his long and difficult final journey with
Parkinson’s. To illuminate what it is to live with
a devastating degenerative illness and help
others, he produced a book about it. There, he
imagined his epitaph: “he saw and he acted”.
To this might be added: he was “beloved on
the earth”. AM JONSON
 50 THINGS | Sad Farewells

33
KEN WHISSON

With each visit I made to Ken Whisson’s Potts

Point apartment in recent years, his zest for
life dispelled the thought that one of these
days would be our last together. He turned 94
in December, 2021 and was enjoying a very
good spell of painting early in 2022. Day by
day, a cast of figures, automobiles and birds
were forming into new, poetic configurations
on his canvases, soaring against fully satu-
rated grounds of blue, green and yellow.
In February we tried several times to meet
for lunch but Sydney was being drenched by
rain, one torrent after another. Late in the
month Ken rang, marvelling at the top of his
voice that he wasn’t even noticing the showers
outside, so concentrated were his efforts at
the easel. We agreed to talk again in a day or
two, but that phone call would never be made.
Whisson died at home, suddenly and pain-
lessly, in the latter stages of completing his
next body of work.
That day brought to a close what many and precision to jolt his audience out of their ABOVE: Ken Whisson in his studio.
COURTESY: THE ESTATE OF KEN WHISSON
regard as one of the most original bodies of habits of seeing. His existence would always AND NIAGARA GALLERIES, MELBOURNE.

paintings and drawings made in this country.
While Whisson’s pictorial world is unmistake-
ably redolent of his homeland, he was not
the archetypal Australian artist. His career
began in Melbourne in the 1940s under the
influence of expressionist artists and Marxist
raconteurs who were more concerned with
world-consciousness than national identity.
Somehow, from the very outset, he under-
stood that painting is a tidal force that runs
deeper than the painter’s intentions. With
almost no formal training and few peers in
his earlier career, he worked and read his
way to becoming an artist with the power
be organised around the making of drawings
and paintings but a solitary way of life did
not prevent him from experiencing love and
forging long friendships. For 37 years he lived
in the Umbrian city of Perugia and from this
distance he managed to be a teacher of sorts
to many Australian artists, with his interviews,
articles and talks making his critical views
known to those of us whose curiosity had been
sparked by the wildness of his pictures.
What exactly were we able to learn from
him? It’s a good question. Whisson is not an
artist who can be imitated. The force that
enlivens his paintings is beyond emulation
and perhaps beyond explanation. But his story
is talismanic of courage, a salutary case of an
artist who trusts their own intuitions and, in
spite of the prolonged miscomprehension of a
large public, proves to have been correct.
I will never forget his warmth, his tough-
ness and the humour that undercut any false-
ness. I’ll cherish the memory of our friend-
ship. Although he lived an unusually long and
purposeful life, it is not easy to accept that the
author of those unforgettable pictures has
gone. There will never be another like him.
JOE FROST

179
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34
NICHOLAS HARDING

THIS PAGE: Installation view of Nicholas Harding’s Brachina Riverbed Light, 2020 at Olsen Gallery, Sydney.

180 OPPOSITE: Artist Nicholas Harding. PHOTO: GARY HEERY. COURTESY: OLSEN GALLERY, SYDNEY.
 50 THINGS | Sad Farewells

Well-loved and highly regarded Sydney artist

Nicholas Harding arrived in Australia as
a child and was immediately struck by the
strong light and abundant visual stimuli of his
new home. Self-taught, he became renowned
for heavily-impastoed paintings and densely
worked drawings of urban and natural land-
scapes, and empathetic and intuitive drawings
of the figure.
As a young man Harding worked as an
animator which honed his skills in drawing;
he drew constantly and compulsively, ever
responsive to the world around him. He devel-
oped his knowledge of painting through visit-
ing museums in Europe; the London School
of painters including Frank Auerbach were to
have a particular influence – Harding followed
their method of building images out of heavy
accretions of paint applied to the canvas
with brush and palette knife, replacing their
autumnal palette with Australia’s luminous
colours and sharp concentrations of light.
Harding was a thoughtful artist who
responded viscerally to his subject matter,
whether it be nature, urban landscapes or his
love of theatre and performance. His portraits
and figure drawings were highly attuned to his
subjects, whether they be strangers, actors
in rehearsal, or loved ones. He learned early
on that empathy was an essential ingredient
in the making of a good portrait, a quality
notable in both those he was commissioned
to paint and those he chose to make as an act
of respect and admiration. His lush paintings
of the bush, beaches and caravan parks of the
NSW North Coast evoke the heady Australian
summertime like few others. as King Lear and the Dobell Drawing Prize Manly Art Gallery and Museum and Landscape
Harding was known for his quiet good with Eddy Avenue (3). In 2022 Harding won and Birds at Olsen Gallery both in Sydney in
humour and thoughtful demeanour, and for the Wynne Prize for his painting Eora, a light- 2020. His final exhibition in November 2022
his support of other artists. He was a multiple filled image of a pocket of Sydney bushland. at Philip Bacon Gallery, Brisbane was a testa-
finalist in the Archibald, Sulman and Wynne His work was recognised in important ment to an artist at the height of his powers.
Prizes at the Art Gallery of New South Wales survey and solo exhibitions including Drawn to Harding passed away in November 2022
from 1994 with a portrait of art administra- paint at the S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney in 2010, after a long illness. He is survived by his wife
tor Kenneth Tribe. In 2001 he won both the 28 portraits at the National Portrait Gallery, Lynne Watkins, and son Sam.
Archibald with his portrait of actor John Bell Canberra in 2017, The Theatre Sketchbook at ANNE RYAN

181
50 THINGS | Sad Farewells
On May 4, 2022, the artist, curator and scholar
Wukuṉ Waṉambi left this earthly realm. His
unexpected passing drew tributes and mourn-
ing from every corner of the globe, such a
global ambassador for Yolŋu art and culture
he was. As an ambassador, Mr. Waṉambi knew
how to make every occasion seem special; he
had an acute ability to read a room, knowing
when to offer wise words or wise cracks.
Whichever technique he used, it was always
to make you feel welcome. His big smile, his
big laugh, his big ideas: they were all ways to
bring people into his big world. And it was a
big world: everywhere he went he brought
new people into his world. He could always
see the big picture.
Mr. Waṉambi often spoke of “all the things I
taught you” a list that is far longer than I could
recite here. But I think the biggest lesson I
learnt, to use Mr. Waṉambi’s own words, is
that “working together we can create a better
understanding.” This sounds so simple in prin-
ciple, but it takes someone with as big a heart
and mind as Mr. Waṉambi to achieve this. It
took him around Australia and around the
world, bringing him into the orbit of academ-
ics, celebrities and even the occasional prince.
It also drove his art practice, which extended
from bark painting to innovations in print-
making, installation art and video. From
2016, he adopted the role of curator, serving
as the lead on the major touring exhibition
Maḏayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian
Bark Painting from Yirrkala, which is currently
making its way around the United States.
Mr. Waṉambi, however, is now on a differ-
ent journey. It is a journey he spoke of often,
describing how his spirit would travel like a
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35
WUKUṈ WAṈAMBI
fish to its final resting place in the saltwaters
of Gurka’wuy. There it would meet its family,
circling the great rock Bamurruŋu, diving
deeper and deeper, until it reached its destiny.
I cannot recall how many times I heard Mr.
Waṉambi recount this story.
With his death, such talk seems morbid,
and yet, my memories of Mr. Waṉambi are
more often coloured by his playful humour
and husky laugh. I remember him dancing
down the Charlottesville mall, performing
his “pussycat” dance to the bemusement
of onlookers. Paws outstretched, shoulders
hunched, bounding forward with eyebrows
raised, he revelled in the joy and laughter of
his impromptu audience.
Mr. Waṉambi’s art was driven by this duality.
He was extraordinarily generous in his will-
ingness to share his culture; to bring people
into his worldview. He could be serious, he
could draw the line, he could put you in your
place. He was also acutely aware of the power
that came with sharing his culture. He had a
levity and humour that is uncharacteristic
among senior Yolŋu men – whose posture
tends more often towards a patrician gravitas.
To understand Mr. Waṉambi’s art is to recog-
nise that it is as playful as it is metaphysical.
In 2019, he recalled: “My grandfathers were
all artists, but that wasn’t my project when I
was a kid: my project was to be a politician.
But then I came to be an artist, because my
father was passing on, so I had to show that
I came from a family of artists to show what
I could do.”
As a young man, Mr. Waṉambi saw his
destiny as being planted firmly in the ŋäpaki
(non-Yolŋu) world. He worked numerous jobs,
as a sports and recreation officer, and then
a probation officer at the bauxite mine in
Nhulunbuy among other occupations. It was
only following the death of his father’s brother,
the great Duṉḏiwuy Waṉambi in 1996, that
Mr. Waṉambi was thrust into the role of leader
of the large Marrakulu clan. It was at this time
he began painting. One of his first works,
Bamurruŋu, 1998 was painted for the Saltwater
project spearheaded by Djambawa Marawili
as part of the Yolŋu’s campaign for sea rights.
Mr. Waṉambi’s painting was awarded the Bark
Painting Award at the National Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander Art Awards in 1998.
While this represented a triumphant entry
into the Australian artworld, Bamurruŋu is a
work of classical elegance, derived from the
timeless Marrakulu clan designs, or maḏayin
miny’tji, painted on the chests of young boys
before their initiation ceremony. Streaming
down the middle of the work are the sea
mullet – wawurritjpal – which would quickly
become the focus of his practice.
Over the next decade, Mr. Waṉambi’s
paintings would slowly divest themselves of
any traces of the maḏayin miny’tji in favor of
a swirling abundance of mullets. This is not
to suggest that Mr. Waṉambi adopted a more
secular or less Yolŋu approach to his art.
Rather, his oeuvre, whether on bark, ḻarrakitj,
prints, video or etched metal, represents a
profound meditation on the nature of life and
death, forged in the intersection of cultures.
One of Mr. Waṉambi’s favorite analogies
when describing the actions of his mullet,
circling round looking for their destiny, was
to compare them to what ŋäpaki (non-Ab-
origional people) do when they go onto the

Installation view of Mr. Waṉambi’s work in Eucalyptusdom at
the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Sydney in 2021.
COURTESY: THE MUSEUM OF APPLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES,
SYDNEY AND BUKU-L ARRNGGAY MULKA CENTRE.
genealogy website Ancestry.com. This might
seem strange to non-Indigenous readers, who
see heritage and destiny as opposite ends of a
trajectory from past to present to future.
Mr. Waṉambi liked to say that his artworks
were an attempt to “break down” Yolŋu theol-
ogy into simple parcels that uninformed
ŋäpaki could understand. Viewing them, he
would say, was like looking at the surface of
the waters. There are depths that you cannot
see: an entire ocean of knowledge hidden
from ŋäpaki eyes. In the swirling waters of
Gurka’wuy, Mr. Waṉambi points to a very
different spiral of existence. As his spirit
returns to these waters, it joins a family of
mullets, circling round Bumurruŋu. These
are not merely fish, they are Djuwany, the
entire reservoir of spirits for the Marrakulu
clan. “The spirit,” he said, “travels through
the water and returns to its source and then is
born anew.” But in their playfulness and allur-
ing visual energy, I think Mr. Waṉambi was
communicating something universal.
Mr. Waṉambi was one of a kind. Few other
Indigenous Australian’s have been so skillful at
crossing cultures, working to promote Yolŋu
art and culture in the world at large. This was
risky business, requiring him to regularly
50 THINGS | Sad Farewells
place himself in-between worlds. But it also
gave him a view of the world that animates his
art with a profound contemporaniety.
Mr. Waṉambi had a profound and incisive
understanding of the world at large, but he
never lost sight of the Country and culture
that grounded him. This is played out meta-
phorically in his paintings. For while his spirit
is most certainly swimming now in the waters
of Gurka’wuy, the fish in his works follow
no single path. They are like us all, trying to
find our way in the world, trying to find our
destiny.
HENRY SKERRITT
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 50 THINGS | Standout Shows

STANDOUT SHOWS
The shows and events that made a splash in 2022.

36
HODA AFSHAR: SPEAK THE WIND

So begins the untitled poem, inspired by artist through them, representing the landscape of
She wrote Hoda Afshar’s visits to the Strait of Hormuz the islands. The atmosphere was heightened, as
about an island islands in Iran. These trips to the sparse they were reproduced without colour, suggest-
surrounded mountain-scape formed the centrepiece of ing a timeless moon-like environment, one
by a sea Speak the Wind, curated by Pippa Milne at the Afshar says the locals find challenging to get
of red and white Monash Gallery of Art, Melbourne from April by in, yet are fiercely entrenched within.
and emerald to June 2022. The works in the exhibition A montage of 19 images, all touch-
about a landscape instilled a feeling of respect and connection for ing to give the impression of one varied
formed at once the island’s people and their rituals and tradi- image, adorned a wall. A partially obscured
by the wind tions, serving as an unvarnished love letter to man sat cross-legged in a leafless tree; a
and by the imagination their way of life. woman in richly textured robes was juxta-
a landscape As visitors entered the space, three soaring posed between the sparse land and sea; and
that seems to inhabit one rectangular blocks, 2.6 metres high by 2 metres dolphins glided through the waters. All provided
as much as one inhabits it long, were positioned so you could weave an impression of serenity in the everyday.

184
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185
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186
 50 THINGS | Standout Shows

There’s a belief, amongst the island’s

locals, that the mountains have been formed
by winds over a millennium. These winds can
carry misfortune leading to the adherence to
shamanism to exorcise the invading spirit.
Interestingly, some of these winds blow in
from Africa’s coastline – on the islands there
live some descendants from Africa and the
slave trade who, over time, have assimilated
and suppressed their origins due to extreme
prejudice. The winds almost act as a metaphor
for the sins of history, which come to reach
the islands with the fury of their spirits.
In Afshar’s video installation, held
on two expansive screens positioned like
an open card, she displayed a quasi-inter-
pretation of such scenes. There are drum-
mers, people singing ancient songs, dancing
– all in the presence of the shaman. One
figure is possessed, kneeling, fully envel-
oped in a sheet. The possessed person’s body
starts moving uncontrollably once a
song uncovers the associated wind spirit
within them. Afshar says it’s so intense that a
normal human body would not be able to do
it. She witnessed firsthand a number of these
possessions and says, “you just have to let go
of your assumptions at some point and just
observe and take it in”.
Afshar’s staged reality of this occurrence
allows us to ponder how we can be influenced
by visual representation and how we consume
images and relate to them. In some ways, we
ourselves become possessed by such imagery.
Afshar’s Speak the Wind succeeded in
sucking her audience into her world – and we
are better for it. DURO JOVICIC

PREVIOUS PAGE LEFT: Installation view of Hoda Afshar’s

Speak the Wind, Monash Gallery of Art, 2022.
PHOTO: Z AN WIMBERLEY.
COURTESY: MONASH GALLERY OF ART, MELBOURNE.

PREVIOUS PAGE RIGHT, THIS PAGE LEFT, ABOVE RIGHT AND

RIGHT: Hoda Afshar, Untitled, from the series Speak the
Wind, 2015-20.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND MIL ANI GALLERY, BRISBANE.

187
50 THINGS | Standout Shows
Curated by Ngununggula, Bowral direc-
tor Megan Monte, Land Abounds brought
together artist-brothers Abdul Abdullah and
Abdul-Rahman Abdullah into conversation
with Tracey Moffatt, an influential figure
for both of their practices. Riffing off the
lyrics of Australia’s national anthem, Land
Abounds presented a counter-narrative to the
188
37
LAND ABOUNDS
archetypal forms of heroism that sit at the
heart of nationhood and obscure historical
and ongoing forms of colonial violence. The
thoughtful curatorial handling of the three
artists’ works across the four galleries devel-
oped an unsettling atmosphere, prompting
questions about place and identity and
enabling a layered dialogue between their
works. Moffatt’s video Doomed, 2007, was the
starting point to the exhibition. The work is
an uninhibited montage of appropriated film
snippets depicting apocalyptic moments of
doom and destruction. What at first seemed
like an ironic starting point, given its focus on
explosive endings, Doomed provided a concep-
tual spine for the exhibition, foregrounding
 50 THINGS | Standout Shows

popular culture tropes and stereotypes as key

players in narratives and lived experiences of
the colonial project.
The second gallery was immersive, featur-
ing Abdul’s Legacy Assets, 2022, a billboard-size
landscape painting overlayed with the text
‘what would our public collections look like
if we divested them of sex pests and paedo-
philes’ and Abdul-Rahman’s work Dead Horse,
2022, an uncannily life-like sculpture of a
dead horse. These works, which can be read
as referential of Ngununggula’s location, were
placed in conversation with Moffatt’s video
Other, 2009 – a seminal work exposing cine-
ma’s at best awkward and at worst offensive
constructions of race and identity.
The third gallery was dedicated to Abdul
Rahman’s The Dogs, 2017, a large-scale sculp-
tural installation of dogs gnashing their teeth
amongst the decadence of chandeliers. It is a
potent commentary on the gratuitous use of
force and intimidation deployed to demarcate
ownership of land and its borders.
In the final gallery space, Abdul’s large-
scale embroideries – Together 1, 2020;
Breach, 2019; Reach, 2020; and Together 2, 2022
– sat alongside Moffatt’s Art calls, 2014, a
mock television show where she interviews a
number of artists including the two brothers
at a very early stage of their careers. Moffatt’s
third montage work in the exhibition,
REVOLUTION, 2008, provided an apt conclu-
sion – a riotous compilation of scenes of rebel-
lion and revolt.
Land Abounds interrogated how intertwin-
ing narratives of nationhood and identity
OPPOSITE: Installation view of
are constructed and maintained, and how Land Abounds, 2022 featuring
Abdul Abdullah’s Breach, 2019
images can shape and reshape public under- and Reach, 2020 with Tracey
standings and discourses. Rather than merely Moffatt’s Art calls, 2014.

ABOVE: Installation view of

pantomiming the politics of these narratives,
Land Abounds, 2022 featuring
each of the artists in the exhibition, individ- Abdul-Rahman Abdullah’s The
Dogs, 2017.
ually and collectively, challenged the viewer
LEFT: Installation view of Land
to actively see and take note of the signs and Abounds, 2022 featuring Tracey
Moffatt’s Doomed, 2007.
signals that are already there.
COURTESY: THE ARTISTS AND
MICHELLE NEWTON NGUNUNGGUL A, BOWRAL.

189
50 THINGS | Standout Shows

38
S P E E C H PAT T E R N S: N A D I A H E R N A N D E Z A N D J O N C A M P B E L L

Curated by Robert Cook, Speech Patterns at

the Art Gallery of Western Australia (AGWA),
Perth was the first exhibition to bring
together the work of Nadia Hernández and
Jon Campbell. Their paintings, banners
and works on paper – many of which depict
text – inhabited the 120 degree angles and
modular walls of AGWA’s hexagonal shaped
galleries, as if it were a stage.
Oscillating between performance and
protest, between making the unconscious
heard and putting the deeply felt into direct
language, the works speak and listen to each
other in remarkably humanistic ways, like
old friends catching up.
Campbell’s bright yellow banner with
large text reading “it’s gonna take a lotta
love”, 2008 hung near Hernández’s flag
of similar size and colour, De mantequilla
a temperatura ambiente (Of butter at room
temperature), 2021, calling out and mirroring
each other.
In another space, Campbell’s Fuck
Knuckle, 2019 and Undressing in Public
Prohibited, 2019 bookended three works by
Hernández – Procession, 2020, Varios ingre-
dientes (Various ingredients), 2021 and Por la
vida: El Sol, como creek su amor, 2020. They
are all almost the exact same size and filled
with collegial, joyful patterns of text and
colour-blocked shapes in sky blue, burnt
orange, mint green and watermelon pink.
These moments of striking aesthetic similar-
ity, of artistic solidarity, were such a regular
feature of Speech Patterns that it’s hard to
believe that Campbell and Hernández had
never met before.

190

But the exhibition was not just one of
aesthetic solidarity but one of a shared poli-
tics also. Here, everyday speech, poetry and
discourse were in dialogue, depicting complex
idiosyncratic social and political narratives of
working class protest woven into popular folk
memory. “Strength Comes From Union” calls
out Hernández, “Fuck Yeah” answers Campbell
as both their works employ a pragmatic joy
in both their reflective and projective calls to
action. Speech patterns are the characteristic
way individuals use language; meaning their
particular phrases, their unique mannerisms,
50 THINGS |
their mode of delivery. And although there
is much to say about the similarities of
their works, both Hernández and Campbell
brought their own distinct ways of talking to
this conversation. They respectively gesture
to the different moments of their careers,
their different generations, different genders,
different cultural and linguistic backgrounds.
But their conversation resonated beyond iden-
titarian siloes to present a powerful under-
standing of community and a compelling
conversation that lovingly calls for freedom
and life, for living, for art. KELLY FLIEDNER
Standout Shows
OPPOSITE: Nadia Hernández,
Como el sol y toda su energía (Like
the sun and all its energy), 2020.
Wool, cotton, linen, oil stick, acrylic,
flashe, ribbon, grommets and rope,
dimensions variable.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND ART GALLERY
OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA, PERTH.
ABOVE LEFT: Jon Campbell,
It’s gonna take a lotta love, 2008.
Bunting cotton hand-stitched reverse
applique, 200 x 120cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST, DARREN KNIGHT
GALLERY, SYDNEY AND ART GALLERY OF
WESTERN AUSTRALIA, PERTH.
ABOVE RIGHT: Jon Campbell,
Up shit creek, 2014. Enamel paint,
cotton duck, 150 x 80cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST, DARREN KNIGHT
GALLERY, SYDNEY AND ART GALLERY OF
WESTERN AUSTRALIA, PERTH.
191
 50 THINGS |
39
MIRDIDINGKINGATHI JUWARNDA
S A L LY G A B O R I
In July 2022, I attended the opening by
the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese of
Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori at the
Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain
in Paris. It was extraordinary to experience
this visionary exhibition designed by Adrien
Gardère in which Gabori’s daring paint-
ings harmonised with the simple abstract
planes of the exhibition spaces and the
natural world beyond. The Fondation Cartier
building designed by Jean Nouvel in 1992 is
surrounded by a wilderness garden cultivated
over the past three decades. The ground
floor high-ceilinged galleries are bathed in
natural light, flooding through the expansive
windows. Here, I viewed Gabori’s vibrant
paintings of Thundi against luxuriant foliage
and blue skies from within and glimpse her
daring canvases from the exterior garden.
The subterranean galleries, by contrast, are
hermetically sealed low-ceilinged interiors
devoted to Gabori’s audacious representations
of Dibirdibi and Nyinjilki, which proclaimed
the power and physicality of paint and the
luminescence of colour. A space in which
huge 2 x 6 metre Dibirdibi canvases stretched
across the perimeter walls enclosed the viewer
in a palpable vision of a special story place
on Bentinck Island, which Gabori painted
with untrammelled freedom in diaspora.
192
Standout Shows
Thirty monumental canvases, rigorously
selected from the Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne
archive by Thomas Delamarre and Juliette
Lecorne presented Gabori painting at the
height of her powers. Moreover, the paintings
were displayed as great art, free of extended
texts and wall labels. The works’ titles and
dates were printed in white vinyl lettering on
the floor: this is a mark of the artist’s unique
achievement.
To see Gabori’s work being exhibited as
art in Paris, the centre of modernism, is the
stuff of which dreams are made. Given the
circumstances of Gabori’s life, her exile from
Bentinck Island in her early 20s and her chance
encounter with art in her 81st year, one could
never have scripted such a happening. From
the time of her first encounter with brush,
acrylic and canvas, Gabori was compelled to
paint, driven by a sense of having nothing
to lose: art gave meaning and purpose to
her existence in diaspora. Her canvases of
ambitious space, broken colour and vigorous
gesture startle the viewer into abandoning
their preconceived notions of Aboriginal art.
At the Fondation Cartier, the dramatic spec-
tacle of Sally Gabori’s energetic brush had an
aura all its own, her body of work was shown
as art of power and consequence on an inter-
national stage. JUDITH RYAN
 50 THINGS | Standout Shows

Installation view of Mirdidingkingathi

Juwarnda Sally Gabori at the Fondation
Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris.
PHOTO: LUC BOEGLY.
COURTESY: FONDATION CARTIER POUR
L’ART CONTEMPORAIN, PARIS.

193
50 THINGS | Standout Shows

194
50 THINGS | Standout Shows

Installation view of Mirdidingkingathi

Juwarnda Sally Gabori at the Fondation
Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris.
PHOTO: LUC BOEGLY. COURTESY:
FONDATION CARTIER POUR L’ART
CONTEMPORAIN, PARIS.

195
 50 THINGS | Remarkable Collectors

REMARKABLE
COLLECTORS AND
PHILANTHROPISTS
We recognise the significant contributions of these two very different private collectors.

40
NORMAN ROSENBLATT

Norman Rosenblatt, wearing his trademark
black beret, greets me warmly and ushers me
into his home. Upon entry, a 65-year art-col-
lecting legacy is revealed. He began at the age
of 14, wagging school to go to Leonard Joel’s
art auction. Pieces from his collection recently
featured at Melbourne’s Bayside Gallery in
a show titled Eyes That See: the collection of
Norman Rosenblatt, curated by Joanna Bosse.
On a wall near the landing, there’s a painting
of his late uncle, art collector Joseph Brown,
I ask: “Did he influence your collecting?”
Rosenblatt looks at me incredulously, saying,
“it’s like having a full forward from Collingwood
in your team. Of course he did!” I comment on
how the artwork, by Rick Amor, looks like it’s
painted in the style of John Brack. “That was
his teacher in art school!” he exclaims.

196
 50 THINGS | Remarkable Collectors

OPPOSITE: Norman Rosenblatt,

work in progress, 2022.

THIS PAGE: Norman Rosenblatt

in his studio, 2022.
PHOTOS: MARK ASHKANASY.
COURTESY: NORMAN ROSENBL AT T. 197
50 THINGS | Remarkable Collectors

198
 50 THINGS | Remarkable Collectors

The piece depicting Brown is surrounded

by eight paintings by Danila Vassilieff of his
wife Elizabeth in 1947, their year of marriage.
These pictures, capturing Vassilieff’s intense
love for Elizabeth, were never for sale in
his lifetime – yet decades later, Rosenblatt
happened upon the first of the eight paintings
in the series, titled Lisa with head on hand, in
an art auction house. As the Vassilieff estate
was auctioned off over time, he attained them
all, discovering the last one at Leonard Joel
years after the rest. It is apt that they surround
the painting of Brown given his shared abiding
love of the artist.
Fittingly, the paintings were included in the
Bayside Gallery show. An unusual endeavour
given they’re from a private collection, yet
Bosse wanted to highlight the pivotal role
private collectors play in the engagement with
art and artists, and how they become beloved
companions for life. The move was validated
by the outpouring of support and positive
responses by the public and critics alike.
OPPOSITE: Inside Norman
As we make our way through Rosenblatt’s Western art world is obsessed with who signed
Rosenblatt’s home, 2022.
house, he points out a 1951 Grahame King something when really, great art is great art, PHOTO: MARK ASHKANASY.
COURTESY: NORMAN ROSENBL AT T.
abstract, saying, “this was done a year before irrespective of the artist behind it.
ABOVE: Norman Rosenblatt at Bayside
Blue Poles, and if you didn’t recognise the name We stop to admire Amor’s 1997 painting Gallery with Eyes that see: the
collection of Norman Rosenblatt 2022.
on it, you would think it’s an early Pollock…. The Waiter, a seminal work in his oeuvre, PHOTO: DEAN SCHMIDEG. COURTESY:
NORMAN ROSENBL AT T AND BAYSIDE
art is not the language of Australia; it is the one that Rosenblatt saw at Niagara Galleries, GALLERY, MELBOURNE.

language of the world”. Rosenblatt is adamant
that the early abstract works of Australian
artists in the 1950s are comparable to those on
the global scale. Who am I to disagree?
Arts Project Australia artists Bill Luke, Alan
Constable, and Chris Mason are interspersed
in his collection, and Rosenblatt’s passion
flares up. “These aren’t outsider artists,” he
says, “they are artists. Arts Project Australia is
one of the great studios of the world for this
art.”
His conviction is understandable, given his
long-term support of this initiative. Rosenblatt,
in conjunction with Bosse, ensured that the
Arts Project Australia artists were represented
at the Eyes That See show. He believes that the
Melbourne and asked director Bill Nuttall
if he could take it home for his wife Robin’s
opinion. Her response was an unequivocal
“that’s not leaving the house Norman.” I ask
about his selection method, and he says, “I
must have a palpitation. It needs to be a cupid’s
arrow and if it does not do that it doesn’t work.”
Rosenblatt’s adoration and enthusiasm for the
arts appears to be as fresh and arresting as
when he started out, which is reflected in his
philosophy that, “I always have my L plates on
when it comes to the arts; every day we learn.”
When probed about his intentions for the
collection, Rosenblatt is quick to respond:
“I hope I am teaching people to open their
eyes. For me it is about falling in love with
something.” Rosenblatt holds the belief that
art is never truly owned by you, and is always
on loan.
While leaving this visual oasis, I reflect on
Dolly Parton’s words, “what people do behind
closed doors is certainly not my concern
unless I’m there with them”. Anyone who
enters the Rosenblatt world can’t help but
leave with an enlightened view of the power
of art, through their passion and generosity,
in sharing the stories behind the art on their
walls. DURO JOVICIC

199
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50 THINGS | Remarkable Collectors

OPPOSITE: Rick Amor, Joseph Brown,

1974. Oil on canvas, 117.4 x 89cm.
Collection of Norman Rosenblatt.

ABOVE LEFT: David Keeling, Culture,

1996. Oil on linen, 136 x 101.5cm.
Collection of Norman Rosenblatt.

ABOVE RIGHT: Rick Amor, The waiter,

1996. Oil on linen, 116 x 89cm.
Collection of Norman Rosenblatt.

LEFT: Installation view of Eyes that see:

the collection of Norman Rosenblatt,
2022, Bayside Gallery, Melbourne.
PHOTO: MARK ASHKANASY.

COURTESY: NORMAN ROSENBL AT T AND

BAYSIDE GALLERY, MELBOURNE.

201
50 THINGS | Remarkable Collectors

202

From left: Henry Skerritt,
Gabriel Maralngurra, Joe
Guymala and Margo Smith
in Munguymunguyh (Forever):
Celebrating the 30th Anniversary
of the John W. Kluge Injalak
Commission at the Rotunda,
University of Virginia, 2020.
PHOTO: TOM COGILL.
COURTESY: KLUGE-RUHE
ABORIGINAL ART COLLECTION OF
THE UNIVERSIT Y OF VIRGINIA.
50 THINGS | Remarkable Collectors
41
KLUGE-RUHE ABORIGINAL ART COLLECTION
OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
Bark painting by Australian Aboriginal artists
is described as “one of the most exciting art
movements of our time”, by curator Diane
Moon, with “its distinguishing feature being
cultural connections dating back tens of
thousands of years”. It may be for this reason
that Aboriginal art has, for so long, compelled
passionate interest. The long-awaited USA
tour of Madayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal
Australian Bark Painting from Yirrkala organ-
ised by the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art
Collection of the University of Virginia in
collaboration with Yirrkala’s Buku-Larrŋgay
Mulka Centre, invites interest in the way
Kluge-Ruhe came about and its trajectory
since its acquisition by the University.
The ancient antecedents of Aboriginal art,
with their important connections to Country
and culture, are now well known in Australia.
American professor Edward Ruhe (1923-1989)
was an academic who came to Australia to
work in 1965, and found his way to bark paint-
ing through relationships with individuals.
Ruhe developed a collection of bark paintings
which continued to grow on his return to the
US – well before its status as art was acknowl-
edged. Aboriginal art became a lifelong obses-
sion and he pursued assiduously its change of
status (from ethnographic to fine art) through
research, exhibitions and catalogues. After
his death, John W. Kluge (1914-2010), one of
America’s richest men, read about the collec-
tion in Ruhe’s obituary in the New York Times.
Kluge’s own burgeoning interest in Aboriginal
art had been piqued by Dreamings: The Art
of Aboriginal Australia, shown at New York’s
Asia Society in 1988. His own collection was
growing when he acquired the Ruhe collec-
tion in 1993.
The collection came to the University
of Virginia 25 years ago, and since then its
international activities and significance have
grown apace. Director Margo Smith said, “Our
mission is focussed on public education and
we take very seriously our responsibility to
Indigenous artists and knowledge holders who
are the best experts on their art and culture.”
She describes as turning points in the collec-
tion’s development the program of artist resi-
dencies, which began in 2011 (and supported
by the Australia Council since 2013), and
Mellon Foundation funding which allowed
the employment of curator Henry Skerritt.
This has facilitated long term projects like
Mayadin. Other research to date traced the
legacy of the Dreamings exhibition, which
put Aboriginal art on the agenda of American
collectors, documented in a 2019 UVA exhibi-
tion called Beyond Dreamings. Digitisation and
a discovery tool are also allowing increased
public access to the collection.
The residency program has been transfor-
mative for the Australian artists involved and
Kluge-Ruhe. Artists have recently included
Kent Morris, Barbara Mbitjana Moore and
Sharon Adamson, and Brian Robinson.
Smith notes, “The intention of the residency
was to integrate Indigenous Australian artists
into the academic life of the university, but
they became so much more than that. They
enabled us to... expand our audience’s under-
standing of Indigenous Australian art.”
203
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 50 THINGS | Remarkable Collectors

LEFT: Installation view of Irrititja Kuwarri

Tjungu | Past & Present Together: Fifty Years
of Papunya Tula Artists, Part 2, 2022 – 2023.
PHOTO: TOM COGILL.
COURTESY: KLUGE-RUHE ABORIGINAL ART
COLLECTION OF THE UNIVERSIT Y OF VIRGINIA.

“The artists came prepared to engage in

face-to-face dialogues about the most press-
ing issues facing Black and Indigenous people
and people of colour today,” Smith continues.
“Our histories may be somewhat different, but
we find ourselves in the same places, fighting
racism and oppression both in overarching
structures and in daily life.”
For Indigenous Australian artists, this
research-based collection functions like an
outreach. Smith says, “We have been told that
the artworks are like emissaries – Djambawa
Marawili said it best: ‘The art went first – all
those old paintings in the gallery. What follows
is reconciliation – and passing the knowledge
to America through our art. Because art is
really important to us. It represents our soul
and our mind.’”
The ethics of collecting have also been
rigorously assessed by Kluge-Ruhe’s staff.
Smith notes that its paintings and objects
were primarily created for sale to non-Indige-
nous people. ‘These sales were almost always
mediated by art centres and gallery owners
who had first-hand interactions with artists.”
To date, a small quantity of objects that don’t
belong in a museum or gallery are being
progressively returned to communities. The
current strategic plan (2021-26) articulates
Kluge-Ruhe’s commitment to increasing both
Indigenous leadership and participation in
museum activities.
This collection is dynamic, having grown
some 30% since it came to the University of
Virginia. The importance of bark painting is
being widely shared – with links to the past
and present extensively profiled by Kluge-
Ruhe – far from Australian shores.
LOUISE MARTIN-CHEW

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50 THINGS | Agenda Setters

Iain Dawson with Gangguan Tengarra - Edition Indonesi

at the Bega Valley Regional Gallery, 2020.
PHOTO: DAVID ROGERS. COURTESY: BEGA VALLEY REGIONAL GALLERY.

206
 50 THINGS |
AGENDA
SETTERS
The artworld people set to influence the
region in the year to come.
42
IAIN DAWSON
Staged at the Bega Valley Regional Gallery
between 2018 and 2020, the award-winning
South/East Interference exhibition series
brought local and international artists
together to explore themes of place and iden-
tity in an Australasian context. Curated by
the gallery’s director Iain Dawson, the series
embraced a cross section of works by artists
such as Sri-Lankan-born Ramesh Mario
Nithiyendran, Jogja-based Jumaadi and
Yolngu artist Gunybi Ganambarr.
Looking ahead, Dawson hopes to continue
the gallery’s emphasis on expanding cultural
boundaries. Currently steering the Bega Valley
Regional Gallery into its rebrand as the South
East Centre for Contemporary Art (SECCA),
Dawson is maintaining his focus on develop-
ing a culturally enriching space that reflects
the diversity of surrounding communities.
“SECCA will be reflecting this rich and
unique character back to the world,” he
says, “so the world can see itself in SECCA.
Our artistic program framework has been
Agenda Setters
designed to respond to this and we plan to
present Australian artists working around
these themes as well as artists from the Asia
Pacific region.”
Over the next 12 months, Dawson reveals
the SECCA visual arts program will include a
solo show by Indonesian/Canadian artist Ari
Bayuaji, exhibitions of work by Bonita Ely
and Jess MacNeil and several touring shows
including Dennis Golding’s POWER - The
Future is Here and the Archibald Prize 2023.
He points out that prior to the gallery’s reno-
vations, large scale exhibitions could not have
been staged due to size limitations. With the
interior now extended to double its previous
height and size, the scope of art SECCA can
accommodate encompasses a much broader
spectrum. A highlight of his 14-year run as
director, Dawson says, “SECCA elevates the
presentation of contemporary visual arts and
brings us into line with the world class offer-
ings already within our cultural ecosystem.”
BRIONY DOWNES
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 50 THINGS |
43
NATHAN PŌHIO
Artist and curator Nathan Pōhio (Waitaha,
Kāti Mamoe, Kāi Tahu, Ngāti Kahungunu,
Tau Iwi) was recently appointed as senior
curator, Māori Art at Auckland Art Gallery Toi
o Tāmaki and is already making his presence
and advocacy felt.
Pōhio attended the University of Canterbury
School of Fine Arts, gaining a BFA in 1997 and
an MFA in 2010, both majoring in film, and
his widely exhibited art is primarily based
in moving image and expanded cinema. He
was a board member of The Physics Room for
almost 20 years, and served as Chair for his last
two years. He is co-vice president of Te Ūaka
Lyttleton Museum, and a founding member
of Paemanu, a charitable trust formed by a
group of Ngāi Tahu art professionals coming
together to create and drive opportunities
that offer advocacy for younger generations.
Before joining Auckland Art Gallery, Pōhio
worked at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o
Waiwhetū from 2002 to 2021.
With the support of his Ngāi Tahu whānau
(extended family), Henare Rakiihia Tau, Riki
Te Mairaki Pitama, and most recently Rānui
Ngārimu, along with the support of Te Maire
Tau, Upoko for Ngāi Tūāhuriri, Pōhio assumed
a cultural role for the gallery, arranging
pōwhiri (welcome ceremony), mihi whakatau
(speech of greeting), karakia (ritual chant) and
waiata (song) to uphold the presence of Ngāi
Tūāhuriri, wider Kai Tahu whānui, and the
cultural integrity of Te Puna o Waiwhetū.
Since joining Toi o Tāmaki, he has overseen
the development and successful realisation
of Toi Te Kupu: Whakaahuatanga, Māori Art
208
Agenda Setters
Symposium, an ambitious endeavour celebrat-
ing and showcasing the transformative power
of mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge)
as expressed through art, exhibition-mak-
ing and wider creative practices. Pōhio is
currently working with his colleague Julia
Waite, curator, New Zealand Art at Auckland
Art Gallery on a refresh of the Romancing The
Collection exhibition. This is being undertaken
as the Grey Building is preparing to undergo a
two year restoration, offering an opportunity
to further balance the exhibition – which
features art works made during the Victorian
era alongside contemporary works – with
more a diverse and inclusive representation of
artists and subjects, including more women
artists, tangata whenua (Indigenous people),
artists of colour, and more representation of
queer and fluid gender identities. He has an
ongoing focus on more Māori art entering the
gallery’s permanent collection, and further
Māori engagement through the gallery’s
exhibition program, public programs and
events. He is also relationship building with
mana whenua (local tribe ) on project
development to engage with the respective
Iwi surrounding Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland
and beyond.
Pōhio describes the cultural value of
manakitanga being at the centre of what he is
doing: hospitality, making space for others to
feel welcome, and offering support and
advocacy. For Pōhio, this process of showing
respect, generosity and care for others
closely aligns with the roles of a curator.
EMIL McAVOY
 50 THINGS | Agenda Setters

Emeritus Professor Ngahuia Te Awekotuku (Te Arawa, Tūhoe, Waikato) at Toi Te Kupu: Whakaahuatanga, Māori Art Symposium. COURTESY: NATH AN PŌHIO.

209
50 THINGS | Agenda Setters

210

Artists Committee,
Weeping Woman 2017.
PHOTO: TATJANA PLIT T.
COURTESY: GABRIELLE DE VIE TRI.
50 THINGS |
44
GABRIELLE DE VIETRI
Gabrielle de Vietri’s artistic practice is collab-
orative, grounded in a deep engagement with
politics and the role of art in social transforma-
tion. For example, her 2019 work with collab-
orator Will Foster, titled Maps of Gratitude,
Cones of Silence and Lumps of Coal, takes the
form of a sprawling, interactive diagram that
traces the connections between Australian
arts organisations and the fossil fuels indus-
try. By illustrating the human relationships
between art and fossil fuels, the artists reveal
the larger structure of the arts as it is in direct
relationship with companies responsible for
our climate crisis today, and the financial and
social dependencies that these two industries
have to one another. As a founding member
of The Artists Committee – a group of artists
making public work around the intersection
of art, money, politics and culture – de Vietri
has staged unsanctioned, performative inter-
ventions at the National Gallery of Victoria and
Melbourne’s Parliament House, while her 2018
work ARTSLOG, allowed Australian artists to
catalogue their experiences along lines of pay,
working conditions and institutional standards.
Agenda Setters
It came as little surprise when de Vietri
became the Mayor of her local council, the
City of Yarra. An entry into local politics
seemed a natural progression for someone
who understands her practice as a way by
which to publicly embody the values she
wishes to see enshrined in society.
Early this year she announced that she
would be running for state parliament as a
Greens candidate for the Victorian electoral
district of Richmond. In late November, she
was officially elected to the lower house of
Victoria’s Parliament. On her agenda is the
protection of public land and green space,
responding to the climate crisis in Australia
by investing in sustainable energy, affordable
housing and First Nations justice. As an artist
who has always sought to understand the
arts sector as inextricably connected to other
social, economic and political structures, de
Vietri continues to advocate for the things she
believes in. Her example as both an artist and
politician is one that more working in the arts
could learn from.
SEBASTIAN HENRY-JONES
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 50 THINGS |
45
EUGENE YIU NAM CHEUNG
In March 2021, Eugene Yiu Nam Cheung
published the first editorial on his online
publishing platform Decolonial Hacker.
Titled, No Dignity in Resignation, the function
of the platform – to critically examine cultural
institutions, their alliances, interests and
behaviour – is outlined clearly in the piece.
Decolonial Hacker operates upon a simple
premise: the structures, notions of care, defi-
nitions of art and working conditions that we
have in cultural spaces today exist within the
legacy of a failing colonial project, and are not
fit for purpose in a world that urgently requires
us to change the way we understand our place
in the world and how we relate to each other.
A little over a year later and Decolonial Hacker
has established itself as a leader in critical
discussions around the colonial logics that
cultural institutions across the world abide by.
With a downloadable web browser exten-
sion that hacks the web pages of cultural insti-
tutions with critical analysis, the platform has
published material from writers and artists
based across the world. From stories of institu-
tional racism at London’s Barbican Art Centre,
workers’ struggles at the New Museum, New
York, to the Sydney Opera House’s problematic
212
Agenda Setters
relationship to orientalism, and the Museum
of Contemporary Art’s harmful willingness to
embody the status quo, Decolonial Hacker has
quickly become a leading platform for its deep
engagement with institutional critique on the
international stage.
Indeed, the initiative was programmed
as part of uber contemporary art festival
Documenta this year. The project is exem-
plary of the ways that young, engaged people
growing up in the context of contemporary
Australia and its unique history of colonisa-
tion, are becoming pioneering voices in a
global discourse around decolonial theory,
and as such art and activism, art and the envi-
ronment, and meaningful settler solidarity
with First Nations people and their fight for
Land Rights. The fact of the platform’s support
by federal funding body for the arts the
Australia Council, is indicative of a broader
cultural shift away from artistic excellence
and towards a deep engagement with what it
means to be an artist, an artsworker or artistic Eugene Yiu Nam Cheung at Privation in
Three Acts by Decolonial Hacker with LE 18
organisation on stolen land. Cheung and his Marrakech, Fridskul Common Library (Museum
Decolonial Hacker form an important corner- Fridericianum), documenta fifteen, 2022.
PHOTO: MIL AN SOREMSKI.
stone of this local-cum-global movement. COURTESY: EUGENE YIU NAM CHEUNG.
SEBASTIAN HENRY-JONES
50 THINGS | Agenda Setters

213
 Installation view of At Thresholds, City Gallery
Wellington Te Whare Toi, 2022 featuring work by
Debra Bustin (left) and Sorawit Songsataya (right).
PHOTO: CHESKA BROWN. COURTESY: MOYA L AWSON.

214

TASTEMAKERS
The curators setting the tone for the year ahead.
46
MOYA L AWSON
“I never imagined that I’d be a curator,” says
Wellington-based Moya Lawson. But, learning
from curators at City Gallery Wellington and
her peers at play_station where she is a facil-
itator, saw Lawson soon curating considered
exhibitions, that don’t shy away from explor-
ing heavy topics.
Lawson admits that curator can be a heavy
term with preconceived canons and conno-
tations. “Is that going to make me enemies?”,
she asks with good humour, but continues on
to say that she believes it’s “similar to being an
artist – it’s experimental, mobile, and can be
dysfunctional.” Lawson’s priority is to bring
care, friendship and rigour into her relation-
ships with artists. In exchange, Lawson gets
to experience the many complex, cryptic and
piercing ways people look at the world.
“I curate for artists, as much as I curate for
a public or a discourse, and I like exhibitions
that are led by the art rather than the curator
and leave space for ideas rather than heavy
concepts,” says Lawson. Pinning simple and
light conceptual threads between artists and
works allows ideas to be expanded and built
on. Lawson finds synergies between unlikely
pairings, like in her latest exhibition, At
Thresholds at City Gallery Wellington. The
exhibition explores the work of 12 artists and
asks how art can raise our awareness of our
entangled yet untranslatable relationships
with other species during a time of ecological
crisis.
Lawson doesn’t have a favourite space to
curate for: “Institutions are amazing because
you can offer artists more and have a team
to support you, but artist run initiatives are
also fantastic because you’re elbow deep into
everything. Both offer gratification.”
Before entering the curatorial world,
50 THINGS | Tastemakers
Lawson thought of herself as a “shy, art history
kid who hadn’t studied art post 1950.” This
introversion and humility have even been
explored in her curating, with Shrinking Violet,
an exhibition at play_station. With work by
Cao Xun, Jess Robins and Motoko Kikkawa,
the exhibition investigated photography as an
introverted act and medium.
Next on the list is Lawson’s final exhibition
at play_station, with a show of muka-rope
installations and sonic work by Abigail Aroha
Jensen. “In this space I refer to myself as a
facilitator. Artists take the lead and I am the
helping hand. That’s the approach I take to all
my work in art.”
LUCY JACKSON
215
 50 THINGS |
47
SARAH ROSE
With a steadily growing back catalogue of exhi-
bitions, Sydney-based curator and arts worker
Sarah Rose is gaining momentum. Becoming
increasingly adept at building accessible and
thought-provoking shows, a core priority for
Rose is working closely with artists to develop
deep connections between art and audience.
Citing her early experiences as co-founder
and curator at More Than Reproduction, a
Sydney-based ARI centred on the printmaking
practices of emerging female-identifying and
gender diverse creatives, as a pivotal point in
her career trajectory, Rose says, “I am strongly
influenced by my co-founders at More Than
Reproduction, Jennifer Brady and Millie
Mitchell, and the peer network we have estab-
lished within our initiative. Curating for me
is not just about exhibition-making, although
this is vital within visual culture, sometimes
the more important work is the ongoing care,
collaboration and curatorial advocacy that
occurs outside, beside and between these
more physical outputs.”
Describing her current role as associate
curator working alongside executive director
at Sydney’s Artspace, Alexie Glass-Kantor,
as a “dream job for my career stage,” Rose
continues to uphold an enduring interest in
the work of early to mid-career female artists.
In late 2021, she curated In the fibre of her being
for Fairfield City Museum & Gallery, which
won the 2022 Museums & Galleries of NSW
IMAGinE Award in the category of Exhibition
Projects, Small Galleries.
Looking at how fibre can serve as a conduit
for personal and collective histories, the show
featured the work of nine artists including
216
Tastemakers
Atong Atem, Kate Just and Julia Gutman.
Late 2022 saw Rose curate Pillow Talk at
Abstract Thoughts Gallery, Sydney and Hey
Siri, can you die of a broken heart? at AIRspace
Projects, Sydney with the latter focusing on
artists working with video, painting and sculp-
ture to contemplate the complex emotions
involved in relationship breakdowns. “Like
breath, art can be integral to our lives, teth-
ered to reality and sentience,” she says. “I
gravitate to themes that focus on the human
experience to generate a sense of relatability
and reflection; planting the seeds of an idea
to allow audiences to bring their own experi-
ences, associations, dreams and nightmares.”
In addition to her ongoing curatorial proj-
ects, Rose is a former member of the Art
Gallery of NSW’s Youth Collective and has also
held positions at National Association for the
Visual Arts and Create NSW. She is currently
the coordinator of the Contemporary Arts
Organisations Australia network, and points
out, “I have had the fortuitous position to work
directly with significant female leadership
and advocates throughout the Australian art
industry.”
A career highlight for Rose is her recent
appointment on the NSW Visual Arts
Emerging Fellowship curatorium for 2023.
“If I had to describe my curatorial style in a
word, it would be respiratory. Integral to my
practice is creating spaces; where we expand
to contract, enter to exit, inhale to exhale. I
like to give artworks space to breathe, to hold
their own space for audiences to appreciate
Installation view of Pillow Talk at Abstract Thoughts
and occupy the same breath.” Gallery, Sydney 2022. COURTESY: SARAH ROSE.
BRIONY DOWNES
50 THINGS | Tastemakers

217
50 THINGS | Tastemakers
48
NICHOLAS CURRIE
Nicholas Currie is an emerging artist,
curator and descendant of the Mununjali
clan of Yugambeh people of Brisbane and
Beaudesert. Based in Naarm Melbourne,
Currie works predominantly in performance
art, installation and painting. Following his
successful solo exhibition UN-SPORTS-MAN-
LIKE, Currie is continuing to capture Naarm
audiences through a mural at Hurstbridge
Basketball Stadium, private collections and
acquisitions for Nillumbik Shire Council and
exhibitions at Sawtooth Artist-Run, KINGS
Artist-Run, Blak Dot Gallery and twosixty.
Currie grew up on Larrakia Country in the
Northern Territory before moving down to
Wurundjeri Country to complete his schooling
in Diamond Creek. He is completing his third
year of a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Visual Art) at
the Victorian College of the Arts.
The support Currie received from artist-run
spaces led to he and his friend Lilly Skipper
co-curating and co-directing Temporalities
Gallery, Melbourne. The experiences he has
had being a part of these communities has,
according to him, “guided me into working
and wanting to support the creative commu-
nity as I was supported. It’s tough to be an
artist but to be supported has made me feel
empowered to keep making and continuing to
support good art.” The gallery began through
a residency supported by Creative Spaces and
the City of Melbourne, drawing crowds and
creating a pivotal space for emerging artists.
Over three months, the gallery held more than
30 exhibitions for 70 artists and six opening
218
events. Currie has also stepped into curating
with his debut show Grimace Group Show,
highlighting young artistic talent at various
levels of their practice.
Currie’s storytelling through his art and
curatorial practices traverses themes of men’s
mental health, Indigenous bodies, culture,
identity and joy in humour. His multi-lay-
ered sweeps of vivid paint over hand-made
canvases, vulnerable performances, and
humour investigate the intersectionalities
between masculinity, sport and identity. The
movement of his practice encapsulates the
need to divert colonial teachings of painting
into a sphere where painting and painting-up
celebrates young explorations of selfhood as
an Indigenous man.
His current exhibition Making Echoes is
showing at Sawtooth Artist-Run, Launceston.
The show explores his identity through his
body as subject and theme, painting the
canvas with his hands, feet, arms, and legs.
Becoming a part of the artwork is integral to
his work, embodying the painting and there-
fore the idea itself. Collaboration and support
of curators and arts workers has been signif-
icant to Currie as he states, “these projects
have given me confidence and reassurance
Installation view of CRACK
that my practices are valued and celebrated.” out curated by SUBLET
SPACE (Leena O’Lou)
Currie’s promising career is on the rise as he and Temporalities Gallery
pours himself into his art and curatorial work. (Nicholas Currie and Lilly
Skipper) at Temporalities
In his words, “I’ll always be making.” Recently Gallery, Melbourne.
he has been working on a new body of work PHOTO: JEM KING.
COURTESY: TEMPORALITIES
for his upcoming exhibition at FUTURES GALLERY, MELBOURNE.
Gallery, Melbourne in 2023. MAYA HODGE
50 THINGS | Tastemakers

219
50 THINGS | Zeitgeist

Installation view of HEAVENS at Al Fresco, 2022, Yale-

Columbia Refractor, Mt. Stromlo Observatory, Canberra.
PHOTO: DAVID PATERSON. COURTESY: AL FRESCO.

220
 50 THINGS |
ZEITGEIST
The art world issues influencing our times.
49
A SHIF T AWAY FROM BRICKS AND MORTAR
When gallerist Ralph Hobbs graduated from
art school in Tasmania he held his first exhi-
bition in Snakepit, a gallery in a car park in
Launceston. Nobody came to the show. “It was
soul destroying sitting in that car park and as
a consequence I have a paranoia about empty
spaces,” he says. “I vowed ever after to create
energetic, vibrant and active spaces for art.”
That was back in the early 1990s when
exhibition spaces were clearly delineated
into artist run, commercial and institutional.
Cut to 2023. Those spaces still exist but what
is energizing the art world is the recent trend
for galleries to swap spaces, do pop ups, and to
operate more nomadically or collaboratively.
Agility is the key and Hobbs, like many
gallerists, recognises that whatever and wher-
ever the space, engagement with audiences
is paramount. During Covid he drove around
Sydney’s Rose Bay, boot open, showing art
to hungry collectors social distancing and
bidding for work – the ultimate pop-up.
“We’re about opening up conversations,”
says Hobbs. “Recently we’ve seen James
221
Zeitgeist
Drinkwater showing next to Sean Scully and
Ben Quilty in Thailand. It is about targeting
areas where there is growth and wealth.” 2023
is revealing a recurrent curiosity with how
different modes of exhibiting art can show
culture making in new ways. Further, we now
have gallery nomads finding new markets and
innovative operating models.
Such is the case with Al Fresco, a nomadic
space with no established architecture and
no lease on a building. The initiative of Oscar
Capezio, Al Fresco is located in the ruins of
Yale-Columbia, a burnt out telescope ruin
located at Mount Stromlo Observatory, just
out of Canberra and owned by the Australian
National University. Capezio says, “I’m
running this as a professional gallery model.
Work is for sale and it’s a seasonal program,
2023 commencing with a summer solo show
of sculpture.” Carpezio intends that Al Fresco
debunk any of the intimidation many people
feel in entering the white cube. “There is no
threshold or door on this space. The commer-
cial world and the public can come together.”
50 THINGS | Zeitgeist
Gerwyn Davies, Terrace, 2022. Archival inkjet print, 125 x 93cm. Produced for The Calile Hotel, Brisbane artist in Residence. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND JAN MURPHY GALLERY, BRISBANE.
The fixed cost of bricks and mortar has
meant using space in unique ways, imperative
as galleries acknowledge that high rents can
often lead to closed doors. The most successful
business models are collaborative, something
that Dianne Tanzer and Nicola Stein exemplify
in their model of successful operations at This
Is No Fantasy, Melbourne. “While galleries used
to be the first point of contact for museums
and collectors, that role is changing with the
presence of such platforms as Instagram and
Tik Tok. The upside is that galleries and artists
are working closely together, putting prices up
online too, which makes it less daunting for
young collectors to become involved.”
Jan Murphy in Brisbane recently collab-
orated with Hugo Michell in Adelaide, each
222
swapping six artists to exhibit in a group show
to reach new audiences. In 2022, Murphy also
collaborated with The Calile Hotel in Brisbane
where artist in residence Gerwyn Davies
exhibited, his luminous photographic images
garnering all day and night exposure.
Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney has a history
of shows in nomadic and pop-up spaces and
recently opened Sullivan+Strumpf Melbourne,
a new commercial gallery and testament to
the success of their earlier pop up model as a
way of building community. “Our first London
popup, a solo exhibition of Dawn Ng’s Into
Air, was presented in collaboration with the
London-based APSARA Studio UK, and took
place in the neo-Gothic interior of St Cyprian’s
church, Marylebone. 2023 kicks off for the
gallery with a pop up at Gillman Barracks,
Singapore, a solo exhibition of New York-
based Chinese artist Yang Yongliang.”
Max Germanos is known for his enterpris-
ing 333 Projects, successfully curating shows
in business settings to potential collectors.
Recently he has been doing pop up exhibitions
titled The Young Curators where one public
and one private school work in partnership
with an artist. His dream is to do this nation-
ally but in the meantime 2023 will see schools
collaborating with Sydney based artists
Caroline Zilinsky and Alan Jones to produce
pop up exhibitions in the school setting.
MARS Gallery, Melbourne launches a hefty
pop up presence in May 2023 with Photo
London, exhibiting new work by Nasim Nasr,

Ricky Maynard, No more than what you see - Pauly, 1993. Silver gelatin print, edition of 10 plus 1 AP, 30.5 x 40.5cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND BE T T GALLERY, HOBART.
Atong Atem and Scotty So. “I think this is the
way of the future, sharing opportunities for
our artists,” says MARS director Andy Dinan.
“I would like to get up to six international fairs
and a few interstate pops ups per year and am
lucky my artists are keen to travel with MARS
and try new art frontiers.”
Further south, Bett Gallery in Hobart is
breaking its usual gallery calendar in August
2023 by introducing a pop-up within its
space, a community focused exhibition with
the work of Cape Baron Island artist Ricky
Maynard. His 30-year-old evocative series, No
More than What You See, made in response to
the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths
in Custody, will go on show, resounding with
the fact that currently the rate of aboriginal
deaths in custody is four to five times worse
than it was when he made the work.
Michael Bugelli is working to minimise
overheads and staging pop ups in the old
Mercury newspaper building on Macquarie
Street, Hobart. “We’re rethinking the business
model,” he says. “In February we’re showing
Jessie French’s bio plastic art in collabora-
tion with the MONA FOMA Festival and the
International Seaweed Symposium which is
being held here for the first time in 75 years.”
Across the ditch and in nomadic style is
TENT. Organiser Hayley White says, “We’re
interested in seeing art in non-traditional
spaces, out in the real world. Most people don’t
live or work in white-cube galleries and we like
the idea of art as a part of everyday life.”
50 THINGS | Zeitgeist
Michael Reid’s enthusiasm for inventing
new spaces for art now propels, in his words, “a
congregation of art galleries”. “Covid changed
everything. Nothing was a sacred cow. We had
to look at how space was used. We created
the Art Bar at Star Casino [Sydney] as a way of
working space day and night. The pandemic was
like the Global Financial Crisis where trends
already occurring became concertinaed.” Reid
believes that net migration to regional areas in
the past two years is of a scale last witnessed
in the mid 19th century Gold Rush. The upshot
of this is that the well resourced, while able to
buy anywhere in the world, will be spending
locally too, potentially empowering the map of
future exhibition spaces and in turn enriching
tomorrow’s collector. COURTNEY KIDD
223

Games have always held a particular place
in popular consciousness, part artform, part
international sport and part multi-million
dollar business, it has always been difficult
for the arts, television and film to know where
to put their rambunctious sibling. Like televi-
sion, gaming is often consumed in the private
sphere, like the arts it is performative and
often communal and like film it is big budget
and international. However, through the years
we have seen the increased impact of games
on film, television and art, with films being
set in the world of games, television shows
dedicated to discussing the new releases and
more recently, museums and art institutions
bringing games into their collections.
Alongside this merging of worlds we are
also seeing the tools and aesthetics developed
within games disperse through the artworld,
224
50 THINGS | Zeitgeist
50
SERIOUS GAMING
from the 3D renders associated with NFTs to
the growing incorporation of motion capture
technology within performance practice.
As institutions and artists turn to games so
does the Australian Federal Government, with
the recent passing of the Digital Games Tax
Offset (DGTO), to encourage the development
of talent and creation of games. No doubt this
will help the creation of many new Australian
games, while also building technological
capacity within the larger creative sector.
It seems we may be the tip of a wave for the
gamification of art and institutions.
In June 2022 ACMI, Melbourne, the
National Film and Sound Archive and the
Powerhouse Museum, both in Sydney, put
out a joint media release to announce the
acquisition of Australian viral puzzle game
Untitled Goose Game, 2019. Untitled Goose Game
is a creation by four person Victorian studio
House House with support from Vicscreen
and music by composer Dan Golding. In the
game you are a goose, reaping havoc around a
small town, originally a one player only, it has
been extended to two player mode. The game
was praised for its silliness and sold more
than 100,000 copies within the first two weeks,
topping Nintendo charts in Australia, the
United Kingdom and the United States. This
somewhat surprise hit has become a short-
hand for the promise of the Australian games
industry and made many people outside the
games industries look to the local indepen-
dent studios for the first time with a promise
of cultural and monetary growth. Talking on
the acquisition, Seb Chan, CEO of ACMI noted
that “Collectively these three institutions have
committed to preserving, playing, research-
ing and understanding this game for the long-
term…. Untitled Goose Game is now safe as an
iconic part of the country’s creative history.”
This safety of games, and digital media in
general is a high concern for institutions and
individuals collecting in this space, as tech-
nological innovation advances, and obsoles-
cence of old media is now an everyday occur-
rence. “...software-based artworks, games are
very fragile by their nature, so preservation
is a big challenge for collectors,” continues
Chan. “A 70-year lifespan for a film canister is
not unusual, but we can’t expect the same of a
hard disk, which wouldn’t survive seven years
without assistance.”
A race to preserve the important creative
works in this medium is underway. “Untitled
Goose Game will remain a key part of Australia’s

creative history,” says Chan. “Its joint acquisi-
tion by three of the largest institutions in the
country will set a precedent for how we collect
local games… What has been learnt from
working with videogames is being applied to
media art from the 1980s to 2010s and also to
contemporary digital art.”
This exchange between games and the arts
goes beyond the conservation space with
many artists experimenting with the tools
developed to create games. These experimen-
tations can become screen works, designed
for a gallery setting, or performance works in
virtual worlds such as Lu Yang’s dance work
DOKU, The Binary World or Sally Coleman’s
virtual band Big Sand, both of which utilise
gaming softwares such as Unreal Engine or
Unity. Artists investigating virtual worlds
and interactivity are not new, David Haines
and Joyce Hinterding incorporated these
elements into their practice for some time
with large scale interactive works including
large scale interactive work Geology, 2015
which has been acquired by the Museum of
Contemporary Art (MCA), Sydney. However it
is now with younger artists that we are seeing
a more rapid take up of this technology. As
Chan notes, “For young people videogames
are often the first experience of interactive
art and as the tools of creation become more
accessible we are seeing game and game-like
experiences in all sorts of work.”
“Games leave room for a viewer to play
with the ideas before them. I think the struc-
ture and rhythm of games can create immer-
sive arenas for story-telling, learning and
exchange,” noted artist Kalanjay Dhir who has
been experimenting with game technology
and motifs in his new work Habit Habit, 2022
commissioned by Parramatta Council. “Also
they are just fun! The appearance of a game
can make complex issues approachable.”
Shanghai-based multimedia artist Yang
has made a name for herself creating vast
fantasy worlds and life-like avatars exploring
themes of consciousness, Buddhist scripture,
pleasure and pain. In 2022, Yang’s work was
shown at Sydney Opera House as part of an
interactive live mo-cap dance work in DOKU,
The Binary World. The work featured one
50 THINGS | Zeitgeist
OPPOSITE: Lu Yang, The Great Adventure Of
Material World – Game (video still), 2019.
Single-player role-playing computer game, ed 2
of 6. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND COMA, SYDNEY.
ABOVE: Still from House House’s Untitled Goose
Game, 2019. COURTESY: HOUSE HOUSE.
dancer in Sydney and another in Hong Kong,
meeting in a virtual world. Simultaneously,
Yang’s work was being shown at the MCA in an
exhibition Ultra Unreal, though instead of the
live dancers against an LED wall, the virtual
worlds were now across a multiscreen instal-
lation. A year earlier Yang’s works were shown
at COMA Gallery, Sydney in a solo exhibition
Āśrava World, 2021. The gallery exhibition
featured large fabric prints from game-like
environments, and aluminum cutouts of the
artist’s avatars. With the growing institutional
recognition of games and works that use the
technology behind them, we will no doubt see
an increase in commercial galleries showing
these artists, and with the growing integration
of screens into households, we could soon
see a growth in private collectors within this
space. SOPHIE PENKETHMAN-YOUNG
225
COLLECTING | Seen, Heard, Read
Seen, Heard, Read
WORDS | SHARNE WOLFF
BOOK | Ramesh
Amidst a resume brimming with exhibitions,
collections and accolades, it is hard to believe
that artist Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran’s
profile has been on the rise for less than a
decade. Also known for his fashion sense
and cheeky sense of humour, perhaps
Nithiyendran’s ultimate claim to fame (to
date) is that in 2016, he became the youngest
ever artist to hold a solo show at the National
Gallery of Australia (NGA), Canberra. Jaklyn
Babington, Ramesh’s editor, was NGA Senior
Curator, Contemporary Art at the time.
Ramesh is the first major monograph of
this exciting artist’s work and encompasses
a period that must have been a wild ride
for such a young practitioner. An electric
red cover delivers the first hint at the book’s
contents. It’s emblazoned with the artist’s own
handwriting and a photographic image of one
of his creations – a spiky blue, gold-toothed
earthenware head. Discussing such works
as “super charged avatars”, Russell Tovey,
in an adjective-laden foreword, suggests that
they “give us an experience through which a
language, continuously playing with form and
scale, presents us with a nose-bleed freshness
for contemporary portraiture”.
Alongside Tovey’s lively prelude and words
from the artist himself, are introductory
pieces from Art Gallery of New South Wales
(AGNSW), Sydney Curator of International Art,
Justin Paton and Chief Curator of the Dhaka
Ramesh is published by Thames & Hudson.
Art Summit, Diana Campbell Betancourt.
Paton acknowledges the influence of the
226
Sydney landscape where the Sri Lankan-born
artist spent his early years as an integral part
of his work. This includes the monumental
Avatar Towers – an installation of “seven-
ty-seven bronze and clay figures housed in a
ramshackle wooden scaffolding structure”
– commissioned in 2020 for the historic
entrance hall of the AGNSW.
Moving on, vibrant, provocative images
of the artist’s dazzling sculptures and deities
glare and stare, laugh at and play with the
reader from almost every one of its 368 pages.
Wrangling around 500 of these charismatic
creatures into some sort of order must have
been tricky. It has resulted in a book divided
into three separate parts. Sections titled
The Monumental, The Zoomorphic and The
Polychromatic, adopt their themes from
respective essays by Babington, educator and
curator Siddhartha V. Shah, and journalist
and filmmaker Santilla Chingaipe.
Exploring exhibitions from Hobart and
Hong Kong to Melbourne and Mumbai,
Ramesh presents a comprehensive overview
of Nithiyendran’s prolific output and imagina-
tion. While acknowledging history, his works
are saturated in imagery that challenges beliefs
around sex, gender, religion, colonialism, and
contemporary culture. Progress images and
photographs of completed projects in the
public sphere demonstrate Nithiyendran’s
flexibility working in monumental scale. This
book encourages you to stick around to see
what this artist will produce next.

HOPPER An American love story
A film by BAFTA award-winning director Phil Grabsky
®
SCREEN | Hopper: An American Love Story
Given the fraught relationship between
Edward Hopper and his artist wife
Josephine, Hopper: An American Love
Story seems a curious title for this film.
Apparently writer and director Phil
Grabsky intended to highlight Josephine’s
influence and the pair’s enduring artistic
partnership and here the film succeeds.
Perhaps however, the real love story could
be that between the artist and America.
In any case it’s a story that doesn’t start
well for Hopper who was bullied as a child
and who, at the start of his career, painted
for more than a decade without selling a
single work. The film explores how the
artist’s deep interest in architecture led
him to focus on New York – his city of
residence – as well as subjects near the
Hoppers’ country house in Massachusetts.
Numerous Hopper experts provide
commentary on a selection of paintings,
drawing out the artist’s skills with light
and colour, and his fascination with soli-
tary subjects. Although Hopper produced
no more than two or three works a year,
the film sheds light on how Hopper’s enig-
matic paintings both summon up the past
and foretell the future.
COLLECTING | Seen, Heard, Read
PODCAST | Death of an Artist
In six absorbing episodes, Death of an Artist
takes the listener back to the night of 8
September 1985 and its subsequent events.
On that night, Cuban American artist
Ana Mendieta fell to her death from the
34th floor of the New York apartment she
shared with her husband, the well-known
minimalist Carl Andre. While Andre was
later tried and acquitted of Mendieta’s
murder, US art historian and curator
Helen Molesworth was so intrigued by art
world silence over the artist’s death she
felt obliged to revisit the case and bring it
back to public attention. Molesworth puts
forward a compelling argument on the
circumstances of Mendieta’s death and
considers claims that Andre’s trial did not
deliver justice for his wife. Winding in a
fascinating look at power in the art world,
the podcast reveals numerous examples of
embedded sexism and racism.
227
ANDREW SALGADO
GOOD THINGS 27.04 - 21.05

23 Foster St, Surry Hills, NSW

t: +61 2 9188 8933
www.piermarq.com.au
@piermarqart
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17 October – 6 November 2023

280 Parnell Road

Auckland New Zealand
Ph: +64 9 303 1090
artis@artisgallery.co.nz

www.ArtisGallery.co.nz
Portrait by Raymond Sagapolutele
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