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Congratulations to Ari Athans whose work ‘A ripple and a rock’ is now installed at Wentworth Point in Sydney.

"This work is inspired by sedimentary rocks such as sandstone and shale which make up the ripple valley of Sydney Harbour.

"Seeking to re-invoke the soft and natural elements of the area, ‘A ripple and a rock’ signals a place and a point of arrival along the urban coastline. The forms appear to have tumbled together and washed ashore, their shape framing the bay and supporting view lines across the water." - Ari Athans

In collaboration with Urban Art Projects

Installation view:
‘A ripple and a rock’ 2024
sandstone, cast aluminium, fabricated steel
dimensions variable

Congratulations to Bridie Gillman who is a finalist in the 2024 Redland Art Awards with her work 'See from sky'.

The Redland Art Awards is a biennial contemporary painting competition open to all Australian artists, presented by Redland Art Gallery.

The finalists exhibition will be held at the Redland Art Gallery, opening Friday 6 December 2024.

IMAGE:

Bridie Gillman
See from sky 2024
oil on canvas
153 x 137 cm

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We are thrilled to share that John Bokor is a finalist in the 2024 Kedumba Drawing Prize with his work 'After the Feast'.

The Kedumba Drawing Award is a $20,000 acquisitive award open to resident Australian artists working in the broad sphere of drawing. The winning work will become a permanent part of The Kedumba Collection, which is considered to be the most important collection of Australian drawings outside the National Gallery.

The finalists exhibition will be held from 17 November - 15 December, Kedumba Gallery, NSW

JOHN BOKOR

‘After the Feast’ 2024

charcoal, wash and collage

71 x 90cm

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We are delighted to share that Paul Ryan is a finalist in the 2024 Paddington Art Prize with his work ‘Landscape. Unidentified floating object’.

‘The indigenous people of the Illawarra when they first saw the tall ships of the British floating past thought it was their ancestors’ ghosts returning.’

The Paddington Art Prize is a $30,000 National acquisitive prize, awarded annually for a painting inspired by the Australian landscape. The exhibition of finalists will be held at the Art Leven Gallery from 10 - 20 October 2024.

IMAGE:

‘Landscape. Unidentified floating object’ 2024
oil on linen
123 x 122 cm

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We are thrilled to congratulate Bridie Gillman on being selected as a finalist in the 2024 John Leslie Art Prize with her painting ‘Hanging, holding.’

The $20,000 Acquisitive Prize is named after John Leslie OBE (1919—2016), Patron of the Gippsland Art Gallery and celebrates landscape painting by Australian artists.

Bridie’s work will be on exhibition amongst the other finalists from 7 September to 24 November at the Gippsland Art Gallery, in Sale, Victoria.

Image courtesy Louis Lim

IMAGE

‘Hanging, holding.’ 2024
oil on canvas
137 x 198cm

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We are delighted to share that Julia Sirianni has been selected as a finalist in the 2024 Hadley's Art Prize with her work 'Turtle Creek' 2023.

Presented by Hadley’s Orient Hotel, the annual Hadley’s Art Prize, Hobart is an acquisitive Australian landscape prize which offers $100,000 to the winning entry. The exhibition of finalists will be held at the Hadley’s Orient Hotel from 3 - 25 August.

IMAGE

Julia Sirianni
Turtle Creek 2023
Oil on linen
152 x 122 cm

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Congratulations to Bridie Gillman who is a finalist for the The Elaine Bermingham National Watercolour Prize for her work 'Night Lines'.

Celebrating excellence and innovation in the watercolour medium, this non-acquisitive prize offers a winning of $20,000 generously donated by Elaine Bermingham.

Selected finalists will be exhibited at QCA Galleries, located within Griffith University’s Queensland College of Art and Design at South Bank, Brisbane from 30 November 2023 - 11 January 2024.

READ MORE HERE

IMAGE

Night Lines 2023

watercolour and ink on linen

102 x 115cm

Bridie Gillman is a finalist in the 2023 Girra: Fraser Coast National Art Prize for her work 'Quiet, after the storm' (2023).

The inaugural Girra: Fraser Coast National Art Prize is a major acquisitive prize of $25,000, that seeks to explore our reciprocal and inextricable relationship with the environment through contemporary art.

Selected artworks provide unique perspectives on industrialised landscapes, the forces of extreme weather events, our relationship to domestic gardens, ecological concerns and speculative solutions, ruminations on the beauty and power of nature, and much more.

Image details;

'Quiet, after the storm' 2022
Oil on linen, glazed ceramics and soundscape
various dimensions

The finalists’ exhibition, is held at the Hervey Bay Regional Gallery 23 September to 12 November 2023

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Congratulations to our artist Paul Ryan who is a finalists in this year's Mosman Art Prize for his work 'The King'. Exhibition open 23 September in Mosman, Sydney.

READ MORE HERE

Image:

PAUL RYAN
'The King' 2023
oil on linen
138 x 122 cm

Congratulations to our artist John Bokor who is a finalists in this year's Mosman Art Prize for his work 'The Flowering Plant'. Exhibition open 23 September in Mosman, Sydney.

READ MORE HERE

Image:

JOHN BOKOR
'The Flowering Plant' 2023
oil on board
140 x 120 cm

Bridie Gillman completed a residency at Córtex Frontal, for a 6 week placement in an 18^th century building located in Arraiolos, Alentejo, Southern Portugal, in April 2023.

Córtex Frontal is a multidisciplinary cultural project created in 2016 by the Cultural Association Córtexcult, in Arraiolos, Évora, Alentejo. The artists in residence program aims to provide the time and space to develop a project, fostering the sharing of experiences between artists and the community.

Bridie's new body of work directly inspired by her time spent at Córtex Frontal will be exhibited in her upcoming show, Watching Walls at Edwina Corlette Gallery 4 October - 24 October 2023.

Córtex Frontal is part of the Portuguese Contemporary Art Networks RPAC.

READ MORE HERE

On Sunday the 30th of July, PAUL RYAN featured in the ABC Art Works episode focusing on album cover art. Hosted by Namila Benson, this episode of ABC Art Works allows Paul to tell us his story as an Australian painter and about his collaborations with American musician Bill Callahan.

Even though they've never met, Paul Ryan and Bill Callahan share a mutually beneficial friendship. Paul has painted several of Bill's album covers and Bill's music has inspired Paul's paintings.

Paul shows us his process and eclectic studio, personifying his practice and shining light on his emotive connection to the landscape so often seen in his pieces.

You can watch Paul Ryan's feature on the ABC iView website HERE

Tim McMonagle's painting ‘Plaza’ 2005 is currently on view at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in the "brick vase clay cup jug" exhibition.

Guest curator Glenn Barkley selected the artworks in 'brick vase clay cup jug' by typing the words of the exhibition title into the Art Gallery of New South Wales’ online collection database, retrieving objects linked only by a word or medium. Unlike the typical approach to making an exhibition, where works are grouped conceptually according to meanings or historical associations, this selection process is non-hierarchical and echoes the random groupings seen in gallery storage. Usually guided by pragmatic considerations – maximising space and access or caring for the collection – these incidental groupings can create inspiring and surprising links between disparate objects, art-handling equipment and exhibition furniture.

Barkley has then taken cues from these search results, either aesthetic or conceptual, to cast a wider net through the collection, creating new connections – many of which are personal, visual, intuitive and emotional – between artworks.

In addition to the 270-plus collection objects, the exhibition also includes a new iteration of The Wonder Room, a house decorated with terracotta tiles made by communities of the Shoalhaven, NSW in a project with Shoalhaven Regional Gallery, Nowra. A video work by Dean Cross, Untitled (self-portrait as water and clay) 2015, on loan to the Art Gallery, is projected inside this space.

Until January 2024

'Plaza' 2005
oil on linen
180 x 180 cm

Ari Athans was featured recently in the Qantas In-Flight magazine in an article written by Noelle Faulkner.

Ari Athan's work 'Strata Sample One' is featured in the current issue of Belle Magazine inside Anna Spiro's home.

Image details;

ARI ATHANS
Strata Sample One 2022
Ceramic, wood and acrylic paint
57 x 20 x 20 cm

Marisa Purcell is a finalist in the 2022 Fisher's Ghost Art Award with her work 'Yesterday's Song' (image below).

The Award is an annual art prize inviting artists to submit works in a variety of artistic categories and mediums. Now in its 60th year, there is $72,000 in prize money to be won. The Open Award is acquisitive to the Campbelltown City Council collection and in 2022, in celebration of the 60th Anniversary; the award is valued at $60,000.

READ MORE HERE

Marisa Purcell is a finalist in the 2022 Mosman Art prize with her work 'Hovering Overhead' (image below).

Established in 1947, the Mosman Art Prize is Australia's oldest and most prestigious local government art award. It was founded by the artist, architect and arts advocate, Alderman Allan Gamble, at a time when only a small handful of art prizes were in existence in Australia and the community had very little support and few opportunities to exhibit their work.

As an acquisitive art award for painting, the winning artworks collected form a splendid collection of modern and contemporary Australian art, reflecting all the developments in Australian art practice since 1947. Artists who have won the Mosman Art Prize include Margaret Olley, Guy Warren, Grace Cossington Smith, Weaver Hawkins, Nancy Borlase, Lloyd Rees, Elisabeth Cummings, Adam Cullen, Michael Zavros, Natasha Walsh and Salote Tawale.

The 2022 judge of the Mosman Art Prize is Rhana Devenport ONZM.

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Congratulations to Christopher Zanko and Paul Ryan who are finalists with a collaborative work in the 2022 Sulman Art Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The Sulman Prize is awarded for the best subject painting, genre painting or mural project by an Australian artist.

Christopher Zanko and Paul Ryan's work is set against the backdrop of Wollongong in NSW. This painting is concerned with the vulnerability of the changing demographics of an area once defined by coal mining, steelmaking and allied industries.

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PAUL RYAN + CHRISTOPHER ZANKO
Bulli, Rock Steady 2022
oil and acrylic on wood relief carving
120 x 100 cm

The disparate textural layers of Aggregates in Construct blend the myriad forms and patterns of nature marked by the boundaries of human action. Ari Athans’ stacked, sculptural arrangements flow between the handmade, organic and industrial, marking the liminal points where the landscape rests upon and collides with the built world.

IMAGE:

Ultra Surface, 2022
ceramic, wood, vesicular basalt, acrylic paint
36 x 22 x 20 cm

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David Roach, co-curator of the Clifton Contemporary Art Fair, talked to one of the high-profile participating artists, Paul Ryan.

Paul Ryan’s striking, often provocative paintings are sort by collectors both in Australia and internationally. Many feature the Northern Illawarra coast and escarpment as seen from the ocean.

READ MORE HERE

Paul Ryan is a finalist in Newcastle Art Gallery's Kilgour Art Prize 2021.

The Kilgour Prize is Newcastle's annual art prize for figurative and portrait painting. It awards $50,000 for the most outstanding work of art and a People’s Choice of $5000 to the painting voted most popular by the general public. Each year the Gallery receives hundreds of applications from across Australia.

'Three Imaginary Boys' 2021
oil on linen
138 x 153 cm

We're thrilled to announce Bronte Leighton-Dore is a finalist in the Paddington Art Prize and has won the UNSW Art and Design Print Prize. The prize will offer Bronte the opportunity to create a limited edition print with Master Printer, Michael Kempson.

The Paddington Art Prize is a $30,000 National acquisitive prize, awarded annually for a painting inspired by the Australian landscape. Established in 2004 by Arts Patron, Marlene Antico OAM, this National prize takes its place among the country’s most lucrative and highly coveted painting prizes.

Image: 'By The Murray River, Corowa' oil on board 110 x 170cm

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Marisa Purcell is a finalist in the 2021 Sulman Prize with her work 'That Time of Day'. Administered by the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the prize was first awarded in 1936. Each year the trustees invite a guest artist to judge the competition.

Marisa's work 'That time of day' considers those moments between day and night, where the last burst of blue lets itself dissipate into the darkness. These transitory spaces are intrinsic to human experience everywhere.

The painting contemplates layers of light and colour and the affect it can have when you are surrounded by it. Supported by a warm ground of raw linen and pink, veils of transparent colour shift in and out of perceptibility, activating an awareness of looking. This is a human-scaled painting, intended as an opportunity to feel and connect with this shared human experience.

Established in 2015, the Bayside Acquisitive Art Prize is a celebration of contemporary Australian painting. The finalist exhibition brings together a broad range of artists, both established and lesser known, whose varied approaches to the painted medium conveys the breadth and diversity of painting in Australia today.

The annual prize is an important opportunity for Bayside City Council to add exceptional works of art to its collection and to promote art and artists as a valuable part of the Bayside community.

Tim McMonagle's work 'Put Upon' 2020 is a finalist in this year's prize.

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Bronte Leighton-Dore's work is part of Wangaratta Art Gallery's exhibition 'Contemporary Landscape Perspectives: A Group Show' from 13 March – 30 May 2021.

This dynamic exhibition of five contemporary landscape Australian painters, Max Berry, Holly Greenwood, Dan Kyle, Bronte Leighton-Dore and Andrew Pye explores individual perspectives of elements of the Australian bush, the terrain, landscape and key symbolism of trees and flora in their immediate environment.

All five artists are emerging as contemporary painters in the Australian art scene. Berry, Greenwood, Kyle and Leighton-Dore are New South Wales based (Sydney and Blue Mountains), the four have partnered with local artist Andy Pye, the group have connections both through friendship but also their oeuvre, their painting practice and style. Each artists surrounding environments are re-interpreted in large scale paintings and works on paper.

This collection of artists and their work presents a diversity of expression and contemporary representation of the Australian Bush.

READ MORE HERE

John Bokor is a finalist in the Dobell Drawing Prize with this work titled Lounge Room in Spring 2020, charcoal, wash and collage, 84 x 100 cm.

The Dobell Drawing Prize is the leading drawing exhibition in Australia and an unparalleled celebration of drawing innovation. Presented in partnership with the Sir William Dobell Art Foundation (SWDAF), the biennial prize explores the enduring importance of drawing within contemporary art practice.

William Dobell’s love of drawing was recognised in 1993 when the Art Gallery of New South Wales established an annual drawing prize in his name, initiated by the trustees of the SWDAF. For twenty years, the annual Dobell Prize for Drawing encouraged excellence in drawing and draughtsmanship among Australian artists.

Lovelock is the presentation of a new suite of paintings by Tim McMonagle that have been directly informed by a new suite of sound works, produced for this project by Paul Knight, who is resident in Berlin.

Transference. The change of elemental states. The search for a place not here nor there.

These were our early concepts for the exhibition. Be careful what you wish for. Despite an unpredictable year in all corners of the globe, the original framework for the project is in place: to commission work from one artist to inform the work of the other. The idea & process is elliptical and is revealed over a period of time in three sections.

The fulcrum is a set of paintings by Tim McMonagle. They will be made using source imagery around the idea of “A Place Between / Not here nor there”. We approached Paul Knight in Berlin to create source images generated by this diaristic photographic practice. Then the pandemic happened, and nothing was the same.

In isolation in Berlin, Paul had immersed himself in his music practice, making soundscapes without traditional song structures, using sources completely derived from synthetic sounds: purely electronic space. The fit with the original concept was perfect. We devised a limit of the 12” LP to set the duration of the material. The square of the LP cover echoes Tim’s exclusive canvas ratio, the square.

The six tracks are to be issued as source material to McMonagle for his body of paintings. Tim has always hankered to work with a non-visual source for a group of paintings & this serendipitous outcome has both artists exhilarated by the possibility of extending their practice.

The final part of this work is the unification of the germinal sound work by Paul Knight,

Tim McMonagle’s paintings, and documentation of the exhibition to be presented at Greenwood Street Project in early 2021 in an LP/catalogue.

https://soundcloud.com/user-470862214/sets/lovelock-1

N\H artist Paul Ryan is a finalist in Australia's most anticipated art prize, the 2020 Archibald, Wynne and Sulman. The exhibition is on show at the Art Gallery of New South Wales until January 10th 2021.

Paul Ryan's painting "Three Imaginary Boys" is the artist's sixth finalist selection in the Sulman Prize. He is a 13-time Archibald finalist and five-time Wynne Prize finalist. Paul has won the Paddington Art Prize (2007 & 2010), Geelong Contemporary Art Prize (2012) and has been a finalist numerous times in the Mosman Prize, Moran Prize, Fishers Ghost, Kilgour, Tattersals and other major awards.

'Three Imaginary Boys' 2020
oil on linen
138 x 153 cm

Paul Ryan is a finalist in the Mosman Art Prize.

Established in 1947, the Mosman Art Prize is Australia's oldest and most prestigious local government art award. It was founded by the artist, architect and arts advocate, Alderman Allan Gamble. In it's seventieth year, the Mosman Art Prize has developed in stature to become Australia’s most prestigious municipally funded art prize with a national profile. It regularly attracts over 900 entries annually and currently offers over $60,000 in prizes.

The 2020 Mosman Art Prize was judged by Alexie Glass-Kantor, Executive Director of Artspace, Sydney.

The Ravenswood Australian Women's Art Prize is an annual acquisitive prize that was launched in 2017 to advance art and opportunity for emerging and established women artists in Australia. It is the highest value professional artist prize for women in Australia.

There are three prize categories – the Professional Artist Prize of $35,000, the Emerging Artist Prize of $5,000 and the Indigenous Emerging Artist Prize of $5,000.

Congratulations to Julia Sirianni for being a finalist in the Emerging Artist category for 2020.

Title: A Place to Hide
Medium: Oil on board
Size: 60 x 60 cm

READ MORE HERE

Bronte Leighton-Dore has been awarded Highly Commended in the 2019 Paddington Art Prize.

The Prize is a $30,000 National acquisitive prize, awarded annually for a painting inspired by the Australian landscape. Established in 2004 by Arts Patron, Marlene Antico OAM, this National prize takes its place among the country’s most lucrative and highly coveted painting prizes.

The prize encourages the interpretation of the landscape as a significant contemporary genre, its long tradition in Australian painting as a key contributor to our national ethos, and is a positive initiative in private patronage of the arts in Australia.

Image: 'The Shadows Run Both Ways, Berambing NSW, 2019, oil on board, 124.5 x 172.5 cm.

Bridie Gillman has been been selected as one of six finalists in the prestigious Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship, administered by the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

The annual Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship is now in its 21st year and is open to Australian painters aged between 20 and 30 years. It was created from an endowment by Mrs Beryl Whiteley in 1999. The inspiration was the profound effect international travel and study had on her son, the artist Brett Whiteley, as a result of winning the Italian Government Travelling Art Scholarship in 1959 at the age of 20.

Through the Margaret Olley Art Centre, the Tweed Regional Gallery offers a unique experience of Margaret Olley’s home studio, provide insight into Australian art history and practice, and honor the artist’s legacy of mentorship and patronage. The Nancy Fairfax Artist-In-Residence (AIR) studio program encourages arts practice and creative engagement between artist, community and place.

The AIR studio will extend and complete the re-creation of Margaret Olley’s home studio at Tweed Regional Gallery. Throughout her professional life, Margaret Olley supported many artists through mentorship and financial assistance. To Margaret, the most productive ways of supporting artists were to encourage the public exhibition of an artist’s practice and to encourage sales. It is widely known that Olley mentored a number of younger artists and encouraged their representation in public and private collections. She actively supported artists and advanced their careers through purchasing works for collections or offering artists the opportunity to further their development through fellowship programs.

The AIR studio program will offer artists an opportunity to stimulate their practice in a creative environment. The Gallery will administer and promote a program which will see at least two invited artists participate in funded residency programs at TRG annually. The artwork resulting from these residences will be included in the Gallery’s exhibition program and displayed in the Friends of the Gallery.

Marisa Purcell will take up the Residency in 2020.

READ MORE HERE

Marisa Purcell has been awarded a Kedewatan Residency in Ubud which she will take up later in 2019.

The Kedewatan Residency Program was established by artists as a space for professional contemporary artists, writers, curators, dancers to make work, while providing the opportunity to immerse themselves in the vibrant community of Ubud. The studio residency offers a private residence for both the research and creation of new work.

READ MORE HERE

John Bokor's work 'Spring' has been selected as a finalist in the National Still Life Award at Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery.

Still is a biennial, acquisitive award for artworks in the genre of still life, in all mediums. The award is open to artists at all stages of their careers.

Still: National Still Life Award seeks to highlight the diversity and vitality of still life in Australian contemporary art practice, broadening the interpretation and meaning of this enduring genre.

The Still exhibition opens on Friday 20th September 2019, with the official opening on Saturday 21st September, and runs until Saturday 16th November 2019. The judge is Rebecca Coates, Director of the Shepparton Art Museum.

READ MORE HERE

The Muswellbrook Art Prize began in 1958 as the Festival of the Valley Art Prize with the winning painting Death of Voss by Tom Gleghorn becoming the inaugural work in what has grown to become an excellent collection of modern and contemporary Australian painting, works on paper and ceramics from the Post War period of the 20th Century and now the first two decades of the 21st Century. The Muswellbrook Shire Art Collection was created as a direct result of this ongoing acquisitive art competition.

John Bokor is a finalist in the 2019 prize.

Image: The Red Velvet Lounge 2018 oil on linen 68 x 91cm

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BRISBANE ART DESIGN FESTIVAL 2019 is where art, design and the city of Brisbane collide over a 17-day festival of dynamic exhibitions, performances, talks, art tours, workshops and open studios. BAD showcases more than 150 Brisbane artists, from emerging talents who are carving their mark locally, to trailblazers who are redefining creativity on the international stage.

Bridie Gillman collaborated with Brisbane designer Alexander Loterztain to make the work Breath as part of the festival held at Museum of Brisbane. Image: Jono Searle courtesy Museum of Brisbane.

Tim McMonagle

By Ellinor Pelz

Tim McMonagle intimately confronts both the fragile and robust nature of life. With an obsession for mark-making and the act of painting, he depicts humanised landscapes with whimsical contradictions of impasto and swathing washes. His paintings require a closer inspection, as dangling branches and wailing trees act like entwined torsos to question humanity’s relationship to the environment. Artist Profile spoke to McMonagle in his Melbourne studio for Issue 46.

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Bronte Leighton-Dore is a finalist in the 2019 Wynne Prize. The Prize is awarded annually for 'the best landscape painting of Australian scenery in oils or watercolours or for the best example of figure sculpture by Australian artists’.

This open competition is judged by the trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Finalists are displayed in an exhibition at the Gallery (although in the early years all entrants were hung). Many winning paintings have become icons in Australian landscape art, entering the collections of public galleries, including the AGNSW.

Bronte says of her entry, "...My painting is an attempt to give sense to the engulfing yet expansive nature of the landscape, as the eucalyptus trunks, the fallen leaves and the tufts of native grass become jewels of colour when suffused with light."

Image: Installation view "Blue to eye's touch, Merlin's Lookout" 2019, oil on board, 124.5 x 172.5 cm. Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.

The Moreton Bay Regional Art Award is an annual acquisitive exhibition proudly sponsored by the Moreton Bay Council. This year the Art Award offered an acquisitive prize of $8000, four category prizes of $2000 each, and two supplementary $1000 prizes for a Local Artist and a People's Choice Award.

Judged by Megan Williams, Manager of the University of the Sunshine Coast Art Gallery, Bridie Gillman was awarded the overall winner with her work 'Some sort of growth' 2018.

Megan Williams commented: 'The artist's sense of the materiality of paint, the play of colour, darkness and light make it a very strong and visually arresting painting. The colours reference the natural environment and you get a sense of the artists awe and love of nature, however, its abstract quality resists clear and direct communication. It is a work to become immersed in, to sit with, and to contemplate.'

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John Bokor is a finalist in the 2019 Sulman Prize, administered by the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

The Sulman Prize is awarded in the terms of the gift of the family of the late Sir John Sulman, to the best genre painting and/or mural project done by an artist resident in Australia during the five years preceding the date fixed by the Trustees for sending in entries.

'Four thirty pm is from a group of works I started making in 2017 depicting interior spaces. They are hybrid paintings of real and imagined scenes made using an airbrush and traditional painting tools. This painting took a very long time to resolve. I thought at one point in 2018 that it was finished and had it framed, only to realise early this year that it needed more work. I treated it as badly as it had me and sanded the surface down and reworked the whole painting, destroying most of what was underneath. When it was finally finished the light in the studio resembled the light in the painting. I checked my clock and it was 4.30pm' John Bokor, 2019

Image: JOHN BOKOR ' Four thirty pm' oil on board 125 x 147 cm

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Founded by Doug & Greta Moran and family in 1988, the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize is an annual Australian portrait prize supporting Australian artists. The prize has encouraged both excellence and creativity in contemporary Australian portraiture by asking artists to interpret the look and personality of a chosen sitter, either unknown or well known. With a first prize of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($150,000) it is Australia’s richest art prize.

Ari Athans is interviewed in the latest issue of Vault Magazine about the breadth of her creative practice - between sculpture, painting, and jewellery.

READ MORE HERE & PDF

Bridie Gillman's work as featured in Casula Powerhouse's 'Looking Here, Looking North'Exhibition has been reviewed in Art Asia Pacific Magazine.

SOO-MIN SHIM writes:

'At the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre in Sydney, a video portrays the interior of a restaurant, its walls decorated with Australian-flag bunting, and kitsch Australiana tea towels and posters, positioning us inside an ostensibly Australian establishment. It is revealed in subsequent shots of the staff, clientele, and the beach outside, however, that this is in fact a tourist spot in Bali. Bridie Gillman’s video work Bali State of Mind (2017–18) ruminates on the unequal power dynamic between Australia and Indonesia, the latter being economically reliant on tourism and subject to the objectifying tourist gaze that comes with over one million Australians visiting annually.

Still image from BRIDIE GILLMAN’s Bali State of Mind, 2017–18, two-channel video installation: 17 min 40 sec.

Gillman is one of seven artists included in the exhibition “Looking Here Looking North” by members of Woven, a collective with “continuing personal connections to Indonesia.” While Gillman’s work is subtly political, the exhibition holistically was striking in its ability to reach beyond essentialist identity politics, reconfiguring what it means to be part of the Indonesian diaspora by speaking to universal themes of memory, place and belonging.

“Looking Here Looking North” is on view at the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Sydney, until March 17, 2019

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looking here looking north is an exhibition by Woven, a collective of artists who each have continuing personal connections to Indonesia. Themes of identity, memory and cross-cultural experience are explored through performance, painting, installation, photography, video and sculpture.

Featuring work by: Kartika Suharto-Martin, Ida Lawrence, Mashara Wachjudy, Bridie Gillman, Sofiyah Ruqayah, Alfira O’Sullivan and Leyla Stevens.

looking here looking north is presented alongside an exhibition by artist Frances Larder and an exhibition of video works by Jumaadi as part of a suite of exhibitions showcasing perspectives on Indonesia.

CASULA POWERHOUSE ARTS CENTRE 12 JANUARY - 17 MARCH 2019

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John Bokor has been awarded a highly commended in the 2018 EMSLA prize.

Now in its twelfth year, the Eutick Memorial Still Life Award comes to Wollongong to coincide with the city’s signature festival, Viva La Gong. Judged annually by critic and art historian John McDonald, the EMSLA has added prestige to the festival and increased still life’s importance as a genre in art.

9 November - 1 December 2018

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Paul Ryan is a finalist in this year's Mosman Art Prize with her work 'Yeah The Boys' 2018.

Established in 1947, the Mosman Art Prize is Australia's oldest and most prestigious local government art award. It was founded by the artist, architect and arts advocate, Alderman Allan Gamble, at a time when only a small handful of art prizes were in existence in Australia and the community had very little support and few opportunities to exhibit their work.

As an acquisitive art award for painting, the winning artworks collected since 1947 form a splendid collection of modern and contemporary Australian art, reflecting all the developments in Australian art practice since 1947.

READ MORE HERE

John Bokor is a finalist in the Kedumba Drawing Award at Orange Regional Gallery. Now in its 29th year, the Award plays a vital role in fostering the production and appreciation of drawing in Australia. Initiated by Jeffrey and Marlene Plummer in 1989, the Kedumba Drawing Award has grown steadily. Each year, the Judge is an established artist whose only guideline is “to enrich and enhance the Collection”

The Kedumba Collection of Australian Drawings, with over 230 works, is currently on long term loan to Orange Regional Gallery. It is an Orange Regional Gallery and Kedumba Trust partnership exhibition.

20 October to 2 December 2018.

John Bokor's artwork, 'Collection Day' 2011 is now on permanent display at the State Library of New South Wales’ new galleries. The new space opens 6th October 2018.

'Collection Day' shows Organs Road, Bulli, looking east, the morning after garbage collection day. The bins, with lids flung open, capture the everyday aspect of suburban recycling practice. This loose and lively suburban street scene celebrates the commonplace.

'Collection Day', 2011, oil on board, 90 x 120cm

John Aslanidis, Belem Lett and Bridie Gillman are finalists in the 2018 Fisher's Ghost Award through Campbelltown Arts Centre.

The Fisher’s Ghost Art Award coincides with Campbelltown’s annual Festival of Fisher’s Ghost. Held over 10 days, the Festival dates back to 1956 and celebrates Australia’s most famous ghost – Frederick Fisher.

The Open section of the Art Award is acquisitive to the Campbelltown Art Centre permanent collection and is awarded prize-money of $20,000. In the past it has been awarded to some of Australia’s most respected Contemporary artists including Elisabeth Cummings, Khaled Sabsabi, Justene Williams, Marion Borgelt, Raquel Ormella and Philip Wolfhagen.

READ MORE HERE

John Bokor is a finalist in the 2018 Tattersall's Art Prize with his work A Walk in the Park 2018, oil on canvas, 108x122cm.

A total of 93 artists across Australia accepted the invitation to articipate in the 2018 Tattersall's Club and Mercedes-Benz Toowong Landscape Art Prize Award. The prize is acquistive and the winning painting is added to the Club's art collection. The judging panel for 2018 includes Dr David Middlebrook, former Tattersall's Art Prize winner and senior painting lecturer, Mrs Bettina MacAuley, Gallery and Museum Consultant Antiques and Fine Art Valuer , Ms Angela Goddard, Director of Griffith University Art Gallery and Mr Stuart Waddington, Committee Member of Tattersall's Club.

Marisa Purcell's work Tesselate has been selected as a finalist in the Redland Art Awards.

This is a biennial contemporary painting competition open to all Australian artists. Redland Art Awards 2018 features four prizes, totalling over $20,000.

Now celebrating its 31st year, the competition is presented at the Redland Art Gallery in Brisbane. Opened in 2003, Redland Art Gallery is a vibrant cultural destination with a varied exhibition program of innovative and traditional works.

Sunday 2 September - Sunday 14 October 2018. Read more HERE.

Paul Ryan was awarded Highly Commended in the Winner Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales with his work 'Kembla, Mount Kembla".  Ryan says:

In 1922, DH Lawrence and his wife Frieda came to Thirroul, about an hour south of Sydney, by train. It was here that he wrote the novel Kangaroo, in which he described ‘the town that slid down at the bush-covered foot of the dark tor’. I have lived beneath this dark tor for most of my life. It is omnipresent, it shields us and acts as a gilded cage. In summer, spring and early morning, it captures the sun and glows. But in winter, it stands against the western sky as a dark fortress, blocking our escape and most of the afternoon sun. This a painting of a deep love of place. Paul Ryan, 2018

READ MORE HERE

Tim McMonagle is a finalist in the 2018 Wynne Prize for landscape painting at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. He says:

'In my painting Shadow captain I was interested in capturing an imagined anthropomorphic nature. In the changing low light of dawn or dusk the large eucalyptus seems to twist and contort, fastened to the ground where it is anchored.' Tim McMonagle, 2018

READ MORE HERE

Marisa Purcell is a finalist in the 2018 Ravenswood Art Prize with her work 'Cage'. More than just an art prize, The Ravenswood is a visual art movement championed by women. 

Approximately 70% of art school graduates nationally are female. However, female artists are significantly underrepresented in gallery exhibitions and prize recipients. ‘The numbers just don’t add up for women in the visual arts world,’ said Edwina Palmer, Head of Visual Arts at Ravenswood School for Girls. 

The prize is designed to promote and connect Australia’s female artists. It consists of two categories; the Professional Artists’ prize valued at $35,000, and an Emerging Artist prize valued at $5,000, making the Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize the richest professional art prize for women in Australia.

‘I see it very much as a space for women, and we hope we can do a lot for them. The Art Prize gives women another opportunity to build their careers, and to put the spotlight on women in art,’ said Palmer.  

Established in 2017, the inaugural Art Prize was an extraordinary success with over 780 entrants. Palmer was stunned with the reception the Prize received. 

Jo Hoban from the Design Files recently caught up with Bridie Gillman in her Brisbane studio, to discover the inspiration behind her work: cross-cultural experiences – from a childhood growing up in Indonesia, to residencies abroad and trips across Australia. Her bold, striking compositions convey moody landscapes, exploring both emotional and physical terrain.

READ THE DESIGN FILES HERE

Lyndal Hargrave's works 'Emerald Alchemy' 2015 and 'Cloud Poetry' 2015 has been included in the inaugural exhibition of the new Gippsland Art Gallery title 'imagine' which celebrates the imagination in all its wild and wonderful forms.

Curated by Simon Gregg, 'imagine' is about beginnings — the beginning of the world, the birth of consciousness, an awakening to the possibilities before us.

READ MORE HERE

Marisa Purcell's work 'Conceal' 2016 has been included in the inaugural exhibition of the new Gippsland Art Gallery title 'imagine' which celebrates the imagination in all its wild and wonderful forms.

Curated by Simon Gregg, 'imagine' is about beginnings — the beginning of the world, the birth of consciousness, an awakening to the possibilities before us.

READ MORE HERE

Stepping into Tomorrow, an art collective headed by Sep Pourbozorgi and Thomas John Whelan, presents Sweetness of the New, a group exhibition that approaches classic Australian imagery with a refreshing, optimistic, contemporary bent. The collective prides itself on finding the pleasure and value in contemplation, believing there is “no better way to celebrate our past than by stepping into tomorrow”. The collective "sees art as a medium that extends over generations, location and circumstance; uniting a multi-faceted national identity and aesthetic". The opening night of Sweetness of the New is on Thursday 25th of January from 6-9pm, and is open until the 28^th of January, from 11am-6pm on Friday and Saturday and 11am-3pm on Sunday, at Yellow House Sydney, 57-59 Macleay Street, Potts Point, NSW.

Read the Vogue Living Article Here

Paul Ryan features in an ABC podcast on Books and Arts. 

In her introduction Sarah Kanowski says:

'Paul Ryan lives and surfs on the south coast of New South Wales, and the beautiful landscape of the Illawarra features in many of his paintings.

He's also an accomplished portraitist (and many time Archibald Prize finalist) and has an abiding interest in depicting figures from colonial Australia.

Paul Ryan listens to music while he paints and has collaborated with American musician Bill Callahan.'

Paul discusses the methodologies of his practice and the prominent themes in his work surrounding colonial Australia. 

Download and listen to the full podcast here.

Paul Ryan is a finalist in this years Mosman Art Prize.

Established in 1947, the Mosman Art Prize is Australia's oldest and most prestigious local government art award.  It was founded by the artist, architect and arts advocate, Alderman Allan Gamble. In it's seventieth year, the Mosman Art Prize has developed in stature to become Australia’s most prestigious municipally funded art prize with a national profile. It regularly attracts over 900 entries annually and currently offers over $60,000 in prizes.

The prize will be judged by Kristen Paisley, Deputy Director of the National Gallery of Australia.

The Mosman Art Prize exhibition will be open to the public for viewing from Saturday 23 September until Sunday 29 October 2017. Details here.

IMAGE: Cook and Hounds, 2017, oil on canvas

Congratulations to artist Marisa Purcell for being a finalist in this years Paddington Art Prize 2017.

The Paddington Art Prize is a $25,000 National acquisitive prize, awarded annually for a painting inspired by the Australian landscape. Established in 2004 by Arts Patron, Marlene Antico OAM, this National prize takes its place among the country’s most lucrative and highly coveted painting prizes.

The prize encourages the interpretation of the landscape as a significant contemporary genre, its long tradition in Australian painting as a key contributor to our national ethos, and is a positive initiative in private patronage of the arts in Australia.

This year welcomes the People's Choice award. Details here.

Exhibition current until Sunday 22nd October.

Lyndal Hargarve was a finalist in the 2016 Clayton Utz Art Award which is now being exhibited at Lethbridge Gallery by appointment. The Award is open to Queensland-based artists offering a $10,000 winner’s prize. Congratulations Lyndal Hargrave.

Ari Athans' work has been selected for Redcliffe Gallery's 15 Artists Exhibition 2017.

This annual award plays a pivotal role in the growth of the Moreton Bay Regional Council Art Collection. The $8000 acquisitive prize exhibits 15 Artists that reflect the collection’s focus of culture, identity, spirit and sense of place.

Artists selected for 2017 are Ari Athans, Glenn Barkley, Sue Beyer, Megan Cope, Hannah Cutts, Jeremy Eden, Martin Edge, Ian Friend, Stephen Hart, Barbara Heath, Abbey McCulloch, Kate McKay, Stephen Nothling, Graeme Peebles and Nan Dingle.

The exhibition runs from 01 September to 28 October 2017. Read more here.

Paul Ryan is a finalist in Newcastle Art Gallery's Kilgour Art Prize 2017. 

The Kilgour Prize is Newcastle's annual art prize for figurative and portrait painting. It awards $50,000 for the most outstanding work of art and a People’s Choice of $5000 to the painting voted most popular by the general public. Each year the Gallery receives hundreds of applications from across Australia.

The Kilgour Prize will be on display 5 August - 15 October 2017. For further information, please click here.

Ari Athans work 'Felsic Plume' has been selected as a finalist in the 2017 Moreton Bay Art Award. This annual acquisitive award exhibition is supported by the Moreton Bay Regional Council. The Art Award offers two acquisitive prizes of $7,500 and two supplementary $1,000 prizes for a Local Artists and a People’s Choice Award.

The Moreton Bay Region Art Award has featured prominent and emerging artists for the last 24 years, and is now an important feature in the cultural landscape of the region.

Dr Campbell Gray, Director of the University of Queensland Art Museum is the 2017 judge.

The Sunshine Coast Art Prize is a national contemporary acquisitive award presented by Sunshine Coast Council. The Award is open to any artist who is an Australian resident, working in a 2D medium.

Forty finalists have been selected for an exhibition at the Caloundra Regional Gallery and the winning work will be added to the Sunshine Coast Art Collection.

Angela Goddard is the judge for the Sunshine Coast Prize 2017. Angela is the Director of Griffith Artworks, responsible for the Griffith University Art Collection and the Griffith University Art Gallery, Brisbane. Angela was previously the Curator of Australian Art at the Queensland Art Gallery I Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA). Winners announced 31 August.

Image: Tim McMonagle | In The Middle | 2016 | oil on linen | 122 x 122 cm

Read more Here.

The Sunshine Coast Art Prize is a national contemporary acquisitive award presented by Sunshine Coast Council. The Award is open to any artist who is an Australian resident, working in a 2D medium.

Forty finalists have been selected for an exhibition at the Caloundra Regional Gallery and the winning work will be added to the Sunshine Coast Art Collection.

Angela Goddard is the judge for the Sunshine Coast Prize 2017. Angela is the Director of Griffith Artworks, responsible for the Griffith University Art Collection and the Griffith University Art Gallery, Brisbane. Angela was previously the Curator of Australian Art at the Queensland Art Gallery I Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA). Winners announced 31 August.

Image: Lyndal Hargrave | Tectonic Tremblings | 2016 | oil on canvas | 100 x 100 cm

Read more Here.

The Sunshine Coast Art Prize is a national contemporary acquisitive award presented by Sunshine Coast Council. The Award is open to any artist who is an Australian resident, working in a 2D medium.

Forty finalists have been selected for an exhibition at the Caloundra Regional Gallery and the winning work will be added to the Sunshine Coast Art Collection.

Angela Goddard is the judge for the Sunshine Coast Prize 2017. Angela is the Director of Griffith Artworks, responsible for the Griffith University Art Collection and the Griffith University Art Gallery, Brisbane. Angela was previously the Curator of Australian Art at the Queensland Art Gallery I Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA). Winners announced 31 August.

Image: Paul Ryan The Sea Was Angry That Day My Fiends 2017 oil on linen 123 x 123cm

Read more Here.

Arts writer Phil Brown reviews Paul Ryan's exhibition 'Happy Days in the Colony' in the current issue of Brisbane News.  Read the review HERE

Carrie McCarthy has written a thoughtful piece about Tim McMonagle's recent exhibition at Edwina Corlette Gallery for her brilliant blog Cultural Flanerie. The article coincided with Tim's first exhibition at the Gallery which continued his exploration of our majestic native gum trees.

Read the full article here.

Influential French blog site La Blogotheque recently featured a profile on Paul Ryan in his Thiroull studio. Paul has been painting American musician Bill Callahan’s album covers for the last five years. He talks about the role music plays in his art in the second episode of the blog's interview series “Music is my radar”:

Read and watch here.

Paul Ryan was recently interviewed by Steve Lopes for Artist Profile magazine:

'Paul Ryan’s gutsy paintings pack a punch that has won him many fans over the years. Ryan is not afraid to experiment with subject matter. A 13-time Archibald finalist, he regularly collaborates with other artists and also musicians, and often chooses to deal with confronting topics. He is happy with the choices he has made in his art career, and the apparent ease of life in his comfortable seaside studio belies the “collateral damage” that painting can bring to a life devoted to art.'

Read the full article HERE.

Edwina Corlette Gallery is delighted to announce the representation of Paul Ryan.

Born in Auckland in 1964, Paul Ryan has had regular solo exhibitions since 1988. Based in Thirroul on the New South Wales coast, Ryan's work looks at the Australian landscape and history, in particular as it relates to the area near where he lives.  

A finalist in the Archibald Prize 13 times, he has also been a finalist in the Wynne Prize three times and the Sulman Prize four times. He won the 2010 Paddington Art Prize for landscape painting and the Geelong Contemporary Art Prize in 2012. 

Paul Ryan's first exhibition at Edwina Corlette Gallery will be in 2017.

Marisa Purcell is a finalist in the 2016 Grace Cossington Smith Art Award.  

The award is sponsored by Abbotsleigh School and commemorates one of its alumni, Grace Cossington Smith, who is known as a pioneer of modernist painting in Australia.  Artists were invited to submit original two dimensional artworks reflecting the theme of Making Connections. The winning entry will form part of the permanent collection of Abbotsleigh’s Grace Cossington Smith Gallery. 

Read more about the award here.

Tim McMonagle's work 'Ken Pearler' recently featured in the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art's exhibition 'Painting. More Painting'.  

Presented in two chapters across ACCA’s four exhibition galleries, Painting. More Painting was a big-picture focus on contemporary Australian painting, featuring the work of over 70 living Australian artists.

Conceived by ACCA Curator Annika Kristensen and Associate Curator Hannah Mathews, and developed in collaboration with ACCA’s new Artistic Director/CEO Max Delany, Painting. More Painting brought together a range of painting practices that reflected the medium’s enduring importance and its recent return to the centre of much public debate.

Read more here.

The IN/OUT design blog features an article on Marisa Purcell’s ‘Screen’, an exhibition of new paintings. Katrina Arent writes, ‘Abstract art is deeply engaged with science and the natural universe and yet not always in specific ways that are readily apparent. Discovering ways to articulate these often complex ideas provides the central motivation for artist Marisa Purcell…  Intangible concepts about the nature of reality, coupled with the open-ended process of making an artwork, gives rise to paintings that provoke thought and engage the senses.’ Read the full article here. 

The exhibition is current until 11 June, 2016. For a copy of the catalogue, please email [email protected] or view the exhibition online.

Lyndal Hargrave is featured on the DAILY IMPRINT: Interviews on Creative Living. Interviewed by Natalie Walton, Lyndal talks about her inspirations and passions. Read the full article here. 

“I’m drawn to patterns that shape our universe – the hexagons of a beehive, the fractals of a fern, the prisms of minerals,” she says. “I’m moving away from hard edge geometry to a more organic, lighter approach.” Lyndal Hargrave, 2016.

Lyndal’s exhibition ‘New Geometricks’ is current to 27 February, 2016. View her available works here.

Please join us for the official opening drinks of Lyndal Hargrave's first exhibition with Edwina Corlette Gallery 'New Geometricks' this Saturday 13 February, 2 - 4pm. The exhibition is current 2 - 27 February.

Carrie McCarthy writes of Lyndal's practice,

To see the universe as Lyndal Hargrave does is to see the world in macro. An artist whose practice is informed by the twin concepts of fractal geometry and cellular biology, her work magnifies organic life to the point that recognizable forms are lost in a kaleidoscope of patterns and grids, fragmented and prismatic. Intrigued by the vast mysteries of the natural world, Hargrave’s explorations use key elements of complexity and repetition to consider theories of connectivity, evolution and interdependence. Balancing her scientific and mathematical sensibilities is an instinctive use of colour, arrangement and tone to illustrate the belief that we are all part of the world, not separate from it. Incorporating both painting and wall-based sculpture, each work is an organic and intuitive rendering of well-defined principles, created by an artist attuned to both the earth’s vibrations and her own personal cadences.

In New Geometricks, Hargrave expands on her previous ruminations on interconnectedness by immersing herself wholly in the creative process rather than focusing on strict geometric considerations. Technically confident, Hargrave has trusted past experience to guide this show, ultimately letting her subconscious decide which direction the work would take. The overall effect is ethereal and otherworldly, with compositional studies that drift between cloudy dreamscapes and emerald green underwater worlds. Gem-like prisms tumble upon each other in perpetual motion, floating forward and back, rising and falling with each undulation, giving the works a softness and tactility more akin to quilting or thread art than the hard edges of geometric abstraction. Devoid of representational forms and fixed-point perspectives, emotion is instead conveyed via the subtle nuances of colour, tone and shape, acting not unlike music’s ability to evoke feeling and sentiment. There is a sense of progression and impermanence across these works too, mirroring the moments of personal transition Hargrave herself experienced while in the studio. The result of this working style is a practice that serves as a filter between her outer and inner worlds, ambiguous to the audience, but a visual diary of lived experiences for Hargrave herself.

Ultimately though, Hargrave’s works aren’t intended for such didactic consideration. Rather, these shimmering compositions should inspire contemplation and introspection in the viewer, allowing an opportunity to consider the theories put forward, and to volunteer another interpretation entirely.

It is the constant push-pull of life – how we impact, and are impacted by, our surroundings that is key.'

To view Lyndal's available works, click here.

Marisa Purcell speaks openly about her practice leading up to her solo exhibition at Edwina Corlette Gallery:

“Getting my first studio was a significant thing for me – and since then I have taken a path of showing my work very regularly – in both artist-run spaces and commercial spaces in Australia and overseas.  Moving overseas and undertaking residencies allowed me to explore European art and see painting from an international viewpoint.”

Read the full interview on Daily Imprint here.

We paid a visit to Marisa's studio prior to her solo exhibition of new paintings titled, 'Unbounded'. Hear what Marisa has to say about her practice:

Freelance arts writer, Louise Martin-Chew, covers Marisa Purcell's 2015 solo exhibition Unbounded in a preview article for Art Guide Australia. Louise writes:

"In Unbounded, Marisa Purcell explores the natural, the sacred and the spirit through a series of abstract paintings. At turns poignant, moving and arresting in their capture of space, time and memory, they direct the viewer to an ephemeral moment just below the conscious."

Read the full article here.

Congratulations to Marisa Purcell who is a finalist in the 2014 Blake Prize with her beautiful work Quiver. Judges of the Blake Prize, Anne Ferran (artist), Alexie Glass-Kantor (curator), and Alex Norman (religion academic), said submissions had ‘cast aside the leaden notion of religions as simply collections of statements about the nature of things. Here instead we see the religious and the spiritual as diverse, contradictory, uplifting, and mundane, all at once. Some of the works are playful and wry. Equally, we also see darkness, fear, and lamentation. Taken together, a distinctly optimistic and positive sentiment is palpable.’