Vipoo Srivilasa's work Beneath the Love has been acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria, using funds donated by the Rob Gould Foundation.

Vipoo says of the work:

"Beneath the Tree of Love is my way of honoring love, commitment, and companionship. Inspired by the ceramic sculpture "The Music Lesson" from the Chelsea Porcelain Factory in the NGV collection, I wanted to blend old styles with a modern twist. This piece shows the close bond between two people and their pet, symbolizing unity and harmony in a loving relationship. It also shows a few pairs of animals who often visit my backyard. I hope the piece brings you the feelings of warmth and happiness. A celebration of love."

IMAGE:
Beneath the Tree of Love 2024
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased with funds donated by Rob Gould Foundation
Image courtesy the artist

Bundit Puangthong has been working on multiple murals for Soi38's new location. Soi38 brings authentic Thai food to Melbourne, with distinct street food style architecture and seating. The restaurant thrived and became an institution. And its fiery salads, raw seafood and moo kata (Thai barbeque) helped kick off a new wave of Thai dining in Melbourne.

The mural has Bundit's distinct mix of bold street art and traditional Thai drawing on a monumental scale, featuring imagery of the monkey god 'Hanuman'.

"The walls are covered in swirling, star-studded murals by Melbourne-based Thai artist Bundit Puangthong, and a stainless steel bar anchors the room, allowing for an expanded drinks menu that includes Thai beers on tap, natural wines by the bottle, and a signature cocktail menu that features gin infused in-house with Thai ingredients like lemongrass, chilli and makrut lime."

READ MORE HERE

IMAGE:

Installation view, Bundit's Soi38 mural, courtesy Chege Mbuthi

Bundit Puangthong has been teaching crowds of visitors this week in the National Gallery of Victoria's 'Drop By Drawing' sessions. Occurring every Saturday during their summer program, the drawing sessions encourage members of the public to learn new tips, tricks, and drawing techniques from renowned artists, taking inspiration from the Gallery's collection.

READ MORE HERE

IMAGE:

Drop By Drawing session at NGV, 2025, courtesy Michael Pham

In a new book dedicated to the creative environments of Sunshine Coast Artists, Stefan Dunlop has been featured. The book includes a stunning collection of photographs from each artists studios, taken by Christine Hall, as well as audio from the artists. Stefan Dunlop's bright, airy workspace as seen in Hall's photographs is in harmony with his bold, colourful, and confident canvases.

READ MORE HERE

IMAGE:

1/ Cover of 'The Studio Project', courtesy Christine Hall

2/ Stefan Dunlop in his studio, courtesy Christine Hall

Congratulations to Vipoo Srivilasa for his exhibition ‘re/JOY’, which is currently at the Australian Design Centre and touring across five states over the next three years. These statues, standing 1.5 metres tall, centre a collection of broken ceramic pieces that were personally significant to a range of families and their experiences of migration. Fragments of teapots, tiles, and bowls from across the world are included in this reimagining of strength, community, and healing. The creation of these figures was inspired by a previous project of Srivilasa’s (of the same name - re/JOY) in Warrnambool, repairing people's broken ceramics that were too sentimental to be thrown away. Srivilasa continuously brings new life and joy to old pottery.

The exhibition is currently on at the Australian Design Centre, Sydney until 19 February 2025. The exhibition will tour Australia from 2025 to 2027.

READ MORE HERE

We are delighted to share the recent publication of ‘Vipoo Srivilasa: Positive Art Work’. This comprehensive monograph celebrates over 25 years of Vipoo Srivilasa’s influential career in ceramics.

Known for his accessible, positive, and beautiful work, Vipoo’s art reflects his life in both Australia and Thailand, using clay to tell stories and bring people together.

The essays have been contributed by:
Alice Pung: Writer and editor
Glenn Barkley: Artist, writer, and curator
Samantha Littley: Curator, Australian Art, QAGOMA
Lisa Cahill: CEO and Artistic Director, Australian Design Centre
Tiffany Johnson: Publisher and author

Published by Paper Boat Press Edition and The Australia Design Center

READ MORE HERE

IMAGES:

1/ Front cover of 'Vipoo Srivilasa: Positive Artwork'

2/ Example Spread of 'Vipoo Srivilasa: Positive Artwork'

Curated by Vipoo Srivilasa, ‘Generation Clay: Reimagined Asian Heritage’, opens on Saturday 3 August at Bunjil Place, Victoria.

‘Generation Clay: Reimagining Asian Heritage’ is an exhibition celebrating the vibrant versatility of clay, presented by a new generation of Asian-Australian contemporary artists. Together, these artists are reimagining traditional and ceramic forms in ways that resonate with our current moment.

This exhibition will engage with a multiplicity of concepts – from personal histories and memories, cultural heritage and family ties to mythological and popular culture narratives. Curated by Vipoo Srivilasa, a recognised leader in the field of ceramics, ‘Generation Clay’ started with fourteen artists from across Australia being invited to create a new work using a palette of predominantly blue and white. The colour blue is also a unifying feature of the exhibition’s design, alluding to the wider discourses of blue and white patterning, it’s connections to global movement and its reinterpretation and translation through form and motif over time.

Nestled in the heart of the exhibition is ‘The Bloom Room’ a special making area where exhibition visitors can participate in a range of changing monthly activities, from hand-crafting origami flowers and tiny clay objects, to sharing secret powers and stories, ‘The Bloom Room’ is your space to create, connect and collaborate with the artworks and artists featured in ‘Generation Clay’.

3 August - 24 November 2024
Bunjil Place Gallery, Narre Warren, Victoria

READ MORE HERE

We are thrilled to announce that Vipoo Srivilasa’s interactive exhibition, “Marvellous Mythical Mates,” opens at Counihan Gallery in Melbourne this Saturday 3 August, 2024.

The exhibition explores the theme of belonging. Inspired by the sights, sounds, smells, and textures of Merri-bek, attendees are encouraged to create their own mythical dream pets from clay. Whether your pet dings like the Number 19 tram or gurgles like the Merri Creek, the possibilities are endless.

Contribute to a growing menagerie of Merri-bek creatures by proudly displaying your dream pet in the gallery. With every passing day, new creations will emerge, transforming the exhibition into a living habitat for fantastical companions!

Join the opening ceremony on Saturday, August 10 from 2 – 4pm.

The exhibition is current until October 27, 2024

READ MORE HERE

Congratulations to Vipoo Srivilasa who has been invited to present his interactive art exhibition ‘Flower Bear Deity’ at the Fremantle Arts Centre as the lead artist for the 2024 Indian Ocean Craft Triennial (IOTA). The exhibition will run from 16 August - 20 October 2024.

The Indian Ocean Triennial Australia (IOTA) is a not-for-profit arts organisation based in Perth, Western Australia. IOTA presents the extraordinary work of contemporary artists and artisans from around the region; particularly those who build on the traditional skills and mediums of craft practices.

READ MORE HERE

Curated by Vipoo Srivilasa, ‘Generation Clay: Reimagined Asian Heritage’, opens on Saturday 3 August at Bunjil Place, Victoria.

‘Generation Clay: Reimagining Asian Heritage’ is an exhibition celebrating the vibrant versatility of clay, presented by a new generation of Asian-Australian contemporary artists. Together, these artists are reimagining traditional and ceramic forms in ways that resonate with our current moment.

This exhibition will engage with a multiplicity of concepts – from personal histories and memories, cultural heritage and family ties to mythological and popular culture narratives. Curated by Vipoo Srivilasa, a recognised leader in the field of ceramics, ‘Generation Clay’ started with fourteen artists from across Australia being invited to create a new work using a palette of predominantly blue and white. The colour blue is also a unifying feature of the exhibition’s design, alluding to the wider discourses of blue and white patterning, it’s connections to global movement and its reinterpretation and translation through form and motif over time.

Nestled in the heart of the exhibition is ‘The Bloom Room’ a special making area where exhibition visitors can participate in a range of changing monthly activities, from hand-crafting origami flowers and tiny clay objects, to sharing secret powers and stories, ‘The Bloom Room’ is your space to create, connect and collaborate with the artworks and artists featured in ‘Generation Clay’.

“I have brought together some of the most exciting ceramic talent and together we are creating, what I believe, is a first-of-its-kind exhibition – Asian Australian ceramicists interpreting the blue and white palette in new ways,” said Vipoo Srivilasa.

“I have also worked with the Asian diaspora on the exhibition design, construction, writing and photography of the show. The works, along with the participatory nature of the exhibition is something that I’m very proud of.’’

Bunjil Place Gallery, Narre Warren, Victoria, 3 August - 24 November 2024

Image courtesy Jessica Tremp

READ MORE HERE

Congratulations Vipoo Srivilasa whose work ‘Memory’ (2018) forms part of the Namedropping exhibition at the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Hobart. This expansive exhibition presents around 200 artworks and objects, examining the realm of status, influence and the power we place in a name.

‘Memory’ (2018) consists of five porcelain and cobalt pigment figures with gold lustre details, housed in wooden structures. Each figure relates to a childhood sporting memory from the artist and features different sporting equipment or uniforms to reflect this. The porcelain statues are each mounted in uniform L-shaped wooden blocks, inspired by an old trophy from the Australian Sport Museum collection.

On now and current until 21 April 2025.

IMAGE:

‘Memory’ (2018)

porcelain and cobalt pigment figures with gold lustre details

READ MORE HERE

Congratulations Vipoo Srivilasa whose work is featured in the Australian Design Centre On Tour exhibition SIXTY: The Journal of Australian Ceramics 60th Anniversary 1962–2022. Vipoo's 2019 ceramic 'Dvarapala (Ta-waa-ra-baan), Door Guardian Porter' is currently on show at Design Tasmania in Launceston until 21 July 2024.

The exhibition is presented by Australian Design Centre in partnership with The Australian Ceramics Association (TACA) to acknowledge this significant anniversary for the ceramics community in Australia.

"For this show, I created a pair of friendly Dvarapala. They do not only ward off evil spirits but also welcome visitors. Instead of holding a club, they offer flowers and leave to visitors. Both of my Davrapala come with their own “vahana “ or animal- vehicle which they travel on and keep their company. Both animals, cat and dog are the most popular pets in the world. They are not only our great companion but also a guard for our house and a therapy to heal our spirit."

READ MORE HERE

Image:
VIPOO SRIVILASA
Dvarapala (Ta-waa-ra-baan), Door Guardian Porter series 2019
stoneware, underglaze, gold lustre, acrylic, mixed media

Miranda Skoczek has been a guest on ABC Radio National, delving into the new direction of her current exhibition at Post Space in Exeter, England. In a vibrant conversation with Kimberly Price, Miranda explains the deeply personal body of work, and her distinctive abstract painting.

LISTEN HERE

IMAGE:

Miranda Skoczek with her exhibition 'Red Ribbons', Post Space, Exeter, courtesy the artist

At the time they both connected over their love for nature and now, roughly 10 years later Miranda has collaborated with Katie [Kolodinski] to curate The Protection Collection. Centred around symbolism and the rituals of self-protection including the iconic Aster flower, central to Katie’s upbringing, this was a harmonious alignment given Miranda’s style of art which is deeply influenced by historical references and ancient cultures.

For Miranda, her art allows people to explore other worlds and she hopes that placing her designs on clothing encourages people to have those conspectus conversations as well.

In line with this creative endeavour, she shared insights on her practices, creating the collection and her relationship with symbolism.

- Silk Laundry

IMAGE:

Courtesy Silk Laundry

READ MORE HERE

Vipoo Srivilasa has won the Civic Choice Award as part of the 2023 Melbourne Prize for Urban Sculpture.

The annual Melbourne Prize, now in its 19th year, continues its objective to provide opportunities to Victorian writers, musicians and for 2023, sculptors, demonstrating the importance of recognising and rewarding creative talent.

Artists practicing in expanded fields of sculpture, including public installation, new media, performance, sound-based and socially engaged practice were encouraged to apply, plus entries from artists at all stages of their practice, including First Nations people and artists from all genders and cultural, linguistic and diverse backgrounds.

READ MORE HERE

VIPOO SRIVILASA has been selected as one of the four finalists in the $60,000 Melbourne Prize for Urban Sculpture 2023.

READ MORE HERE

Congratulations VIPOO SRIVILASA who has been shortlisted for the prestigious Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award for his work The Kiln God Altar. Vipoo has been selected as one of the 40 finalists out of 422 entries.

The selection process was led by a panel of judges, including the renowned Australian artist Lisa Roet, the esteemed Curator Antony Fitzpatrick from TarraWarra Museum of Art, and the representative from Deakin University, Leanne Willis.

The finalist’s exhibition will open to the public on Wednesday 23 August at the Deakin University Art Gallery and the launch and announcement of winners will take place on Thursday 31 August.

Vipoo Srivilasa

'Kiln God Altar' 2023

A collection of Kiln Gods, created with various clay types, techniques, firing range and artistic style, symbolises the diversity within the clay community.

Displayed together on one stand, they represent unity, interconnection and shared spiritual traditions among clay workers worldwide.

READ MORE HERE

Grace Ebert featured Vipoo Srivilasa's exhibition 'Solitude and Connection' in the article 'Exquisite Porcelain Figures by Vipoo Srivilasa Express the Ineffable Nature of Beauty and Connection'.

"Flowers in gold lustre and cobalt, small portraits of mythical creatures with feathers and polka dots, and various geometric motifs embellish Vipoo Srivilasa’s porcelain figures, which celebrate abundance and joy through opulent details. On view now at Edwina Corlette in the artist’s solo show Solitude and Connection, the sculptures are otherworldly in form as they meld human anatomy with flora and fauna, exploring 'the diverse ways in which love takes shape.'"

READ MORE HERE

Congratulations to Vipoo Srivilasa who has been awarded the Visual Arts and Crafts Strategy (VACS) Major Commissioning Projects grant. Vipoo is a recipient of $100,000 to realise a major project 'Re/JOY' in collaboration with the Australian Design Centre. 'Re/JOY' is a collaborative, community-driven project designed to engage with overseas-born Australians.

'Re/JOY' will examine the emotional connection we form with objects by retelling migration stories and experiences. The project aims to provoke the complex feelings associated with overseas relocation and the difficult process of gaining Australian permanent residency.

READ MORE HERE

Image: Vipoo Srivilasa and the Happy Australian Sculptures at the National Portrait Gallery. Photo by Liv Cameron 2023.

Vipoo Srivilasa's work 'Happy Australian' will form part of the National Portrait Gallery's exhibition 'Portrait23: Identity'.

'Portrait23: Identity' is a major exhibition of new work from multi-award-winning contemporary Australian artists and collectives working across every state and territory. Street art, textiles, performance, photography, ceramics, painting, drawing, soft sculpture and bronze challenge the boundaries of portraiture. Many of the works move eloquently between installation, video, and animation, inviting you, the viewer, inside the portrait.

Twenty-three artists and collectives present dramatic, ambitious and thrilling work about who they are and what it means to represent themselves, their communities, their histories and contemporary society. They break open the genre with deeply personal evocations of themes that resonate collectively, such as cultural knowledge, feminism, visibility/invisibility, activism and journeys of migration.

10 March – 18 June 2023.

READ MORE HERE.

Image details;

Four works from Happy Australian, 2022 Vipoo Srivilasa. © Vipoo Srivilasa. Photograph by Simon Strong

Miranda Skoczek is featured in ‘Artists at Home’ a new book about Australian female artists by Karina Dias Pires, published by Thames and Hudson, out now.

IMAGE:

Miranda Skoczek, courtesy Karina Dias Pires

READ MORE HERE

Noelle Faulkner from QANTAS Travel Insider Magazine spoke with Vipoo Srivilasa about his art practice. "With a playful approach that marries European-Australian and Thai motifs, this Bangkok-born artist’s figurines are full of charm."

READ MORE HERE.

Image details;

Pieces from Vipoo Srivilasa’s Always Better Together series (2022)

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.

READ MORE HERE

‘Expanded Canvas’ is a major exhibition at Town Hall Gallery exploring the dynamic and innovative nature of contemporary painting. The traditional grid and 2D picture plane are replaced by modern surfaces, including drop sheets, sign vinyl, virtual space, and the gallery wall itself.

Bundit’s mural painting will be exhibited in the major exhibition ‘Expanded Canvas’, showing at Hawthorn Arts Centre, Victoria - 23 April to Saturday 2 July 2022.

READ MORE HERE

For more than twenty years ceramic artist Vipoo Srivilasa has created intricate and elaborate artworks that reflect his bicultural experience living between Australia and Thailand. He celebrates the intersections and overlaps between cultural, social, philosophical and environmental contemplations on life in a pandemic. VAULT asked Srivilasa to share some of his most beloved artefacts.

There is more to Miranda Skoczek’s paintings than immediately meets the eye. They are built intuitively and in layers, from colours, patterns and objects that she absorbs in her immediate home environment – and all over the world. They are often abstract, sometimes with figurative elements; they focus on paint and colour, process and time, to create a space that takes us somewhere other, outside the material world. Inspiration comes from art and antiquities, folk art and contemporary design – and through obsessive consumption of images. Skoczek describes herself as “a sponge,” confessing to VAULT: “I have 95,000 photographs on my phone.”

The mystical is evident in Skoczek’s hope that her paintings work like amulets for those who acquire them. Protective elements aside, in their sensual textures and influences, so powerfully evoked, these paintings emerge as poignant and poetic visual essays written to the past and the present."\

- Louise Martin-Chew, Vault Magazine

IMAGE:

Front Cover of Vault Magazine, Issue 37, 2022, featuring Miranda Skoczek's Dreaming of Betty (Woodman), 2018

READ MORE HERE

Vipoo Srivilasa’s immersive, participatory installation Shrine of Life/ Benjapakee Shrine 2021, featuring five hand-crafted ceramic deities representing attributes important to the artist: identity, love equality, creativity, security and spirituality has been acquired by Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art. The work, finished with gold lustre and floral embellishments, reflects Srivilasa’s holistic approach to life, and encourages audiences to appreciate the things that unite us.

His artwork for APT10 expands his practice, building on its audience-oriented qualities. The artist has created a reflective, shrine-like space that houses five secular deities representing attributes important to him — love equality, spirituality, security, identity, and creativity — and asks visitors to join him in celebrating them. Through the work, Srivilasa venerates memories of his Thai homeland, acknowledges what his relocation to Australia has meant to him, and encourages viewers to appreciate both our differences and our commonalities.

QUEENSLAND ART GALLERY 'ASIA PACIFIC TRIENNIAL'

4 December 2021 - 25 April 2022

READ MORE HERE

Garland Magazine
WILL MY HEART REMEMBER?
By Aaron Bradbrook

Aaron Bradbrook presents, re/JOY, a project by Vipoo Srivilasa to reincarnate objects relinquished by residents of Warrnambool.

READ MORE HERE

The Art Gallery of Ballarat has acquired two Vipoo Srivilasa works for their permanent collection. The works are 'Aqium' and 'Lori the Healthcare Hero' from the COVID SUPERHERO EXHIBITION 2020.

What does a COVID-19 superhero look like? Ceramicist Vipoo Srivilasa has created a collection of superheroes inspired by the dreams of people in the Ballarat community. Each superhero has a special power to fight off COVID-19.

This project is a collaboration between the Art Gallery of Ballarat and the City of Ballarat’s Creative City team.

READ MORE HERE

NGV is committed to providing creative experiences for young people and their families and sharing new ways to be creative. The gallery invited Bundit Puangthong to conduct a series of online workshops for their NGV Kids programme, during the 2021 Melbourne lockdown.

With a background in puppeteering, Bundit created a range of workshops with an introduction to making paper puppets.

READ MORE HERE

This year Bundit Puangthong was a finalist with his work 'Riding Stars' 2021 in the Sunshine Coast Art Prize - a visual arts award reflecting outstanding contemporary 2D arts practice in Australia. 16 years into this annual award, it has become the pinnacle event for the Sunshine Coast’s Regional Gallery in Caloundra, attracting entries from emerging and established artists across the nation.

READ MORE HERE

Bundit Puangthong is a finalist in the 2021 Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize, with his work 'The Living Room' 2021. Occurring biennially, the 'Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize' attracts Australian artists and awards an acquisitive prize of $50,000. The Prize provides Bendigo Art Gallery with the opportunity to survey contemporary painting by established and emerging artists from across Australia.

READ MORE HERE

SDFSDF

Arts Hub
Exhibition Review: Vipoo Srivilasa: Wellness Deity, Linden New Art by Celina Lei
22 May 2021- 22 August 2021

Wellness Deity
The Wellness Deity Project, which Srivilasa undertook in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This collaborative, community-driven project encouraged people to reflect on their experience of the pandemic. The artist invited people to submit a drawing of their Wellness Deity, a being that has a special empowering or protective power. Srivilasa selected 19 of these drawings to provide inspiration for a series of ceramic sculptures. Each deity has its own unique characteristics based on the personal stories submitted. Each work is also accompanied by a piece of commissioned creative writing.

READ MORE HERE

Flash Forward is a Melbourne based project that aims to reinvigorate some lesser-known laneways with visual and acoustic designs from local creatives. The project has invited more than 80 artists to work on commissions of art installations, albums, and stage gigs across the city.

As part of the project Bundit was commissioned to make a large-scale work in Rose Lane.

READ MORE HERE

The 2021 Geelong contemporary art prize is a signature event that assists with the development of the Geelong Gallery’s collection while fostering Australian artists and contemporary painting practice in general.

Bundit Puangthong’s work ‘Skull splitter’ takes inspiration from a famous Buddhist story where a prince’s ship sinks, and he has to swim all the way back to shore. The story represents the challenges we all face, despite our social status, and the lessons we learn from them. ⁠

⁠
IMAGE:

Bundit Puangthong

Skull splitter 2020

synthetic polymer paint and spray paint

READ MORE HERE

Spanning over a career of 20 years, Thai-Australian artist Vipoo Srivilasa has harnessed art’s ability to connect creatives, organisations and the broader community.

Wellness Deity captured this collaborative energy in the light-filled room of Linden’s ground floor gallery. The 19 drawing submissions and accompanying writing surround the walls while Srivilasa’s ceramic iterations sit across two tables at the centre of the space. The hand-selected drawings from a total of 63 submissions from Australia and overseas showcase stories rooted in reflections, experiences, and hopes emerging out of the pandemic. Words Celina Lei

READ MORE HERE

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.

Stefan Dunlop's work 'Splash II' has been donated to the Sunshine Coast Art Collection through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program, 2021.

The Sunshine Coast Art Collection now numbers over 800 works, including winning works of the inaugural Sunshine Coast Art Prize in 2006 by one of the foremost Nyoongar artists, Shane Pickett (1957 – 2010).

"The prize’s main impetus is to build the Collection, but it’s also a great device for visibility of the vibrancy of the Sunshine Coast arts and culture."
- Collection Curator Nina Shadforth, 2021

IMAGES:

1/ Philanthropist Ferre De Deyne, Collection Curator Nina Shadforth and artist Stefan Dunlop

2/ Stefan Dunlop
Splash II 2017
oil on canvas
200 × 240.5 cm

VIPOO SRIVILASA

Wellness Deity 22 May 2021 > 22 August 2021

This exhibition will present the Wellness Deity Project, which Vipoo Srivilasa undertook in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This collaborative, community-driven project encouraged people to reflect on their experience of the pandemic. The artist invited people to submit a drawing of their Wellness Deity, a being that has a special empowering or protective power. Srivilasa selected 19 of these drawings to provide inspiration for a series of ceramic sculptures. Each deity has its own unique characteristics based on the personal stories submitted. Each work is also accompanied by a piece of commissioned creative writing.

READ MORE HERE

E-CATALOGUE

How Vipoo Srivilasa is repairing happiness

STUDIO

19 May 2021

Ceramicist Vipoo Srivilasa has a penchant for intricate and layered decoration that, he explains, is influenced by the ornate Buddhist temples he encountered growing up in Thailand. With an aesthetic he cheerfully describes as “more is more,” Srivilasa’s distinctive work also draws on European historical figurines and “a healthy dose of contemporary culture”. We chatted over cups of sencha tea in Srivilasa’s clean, bright warehouse studio in the suburb of Cheltenham, in Melbourne’s south-east.

Place
I’ve made this space really comfortable because I spend most of my time here, almost seven days a week. I come here about 7:30 in the morning and leave at 3:30 in the afternoon, go home, and do some shopping. Then I work on the computer, like writing or administration, in the evenings. Most of the time I’m just here; I live 10 minutes from here, so it’s really easy. Sometimes I go home for lunch—but I’ve found it kind of distracting, like you go home and it’s hard to come back again. So I bring my own lunch, or I’ll walk around the corner for a Vietnamese lunch.

READ MORE HERE

Copywriter and content specialist Elle McClure was asked by the team at Medium Rare Content agency to help produce content for the autumn 2021 issue of the David Jones magazine, JONES HOME. As well as compiling trend pages and writing copy across the issue, Elle interviewed Otis Hope Carey, Louise Olsen and Miranda Skoczek as part of profiles on the artists.

READ MORE HERE

Stefan Dunlop's 2020 work 'Composition #1 with Bust' has recently been acquired by Artbank, Australia.

Artbank is part of the Australian Government Office for the Arts, in the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts. For 40 years Artbank has supported Australia’s contemporary art sector.

Established in 1980 by the Australian Government, Artbank’s two core objectives are to provide direct support to Australian contemporary artists through the acquisition of their work and to promote the value of Australian contemporary art to the broader public.

The Artbank collection was founded with an endowment of 600 artworks from the National Collection (now the National Gallery of Australia) and has since grown to include more than 10,000 works spanning media including painting, sculpture, video and photography. Through leasing works to individuals, companies and governments (at all levels), Artbank lives up to its policy principle of promoting broad access to Australian contemporary art. Through our leasing of artworks to Australian embassies and other overseas posts, we provide access to Australian contemporary art in approximately 70 countries across the globe.

IMAGE:

Stefan Dunlop

Composition #1 with Bust 2020

oil on linen

150 x 170cm

SHOWCASE

One in three American museums have not re-opened after lockdowns in March. But art continues to be bought, lent, and displayed by private banks. Dieter Buchhart, Art Critic

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In his podcast Alan Kohler tells the world that his three best non-share investments (that he actually owns) are:

1. A house in Richmond, Melbourne
2. A painting by Stefan Dunlop
3. A longines watch

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Vipoo Srivilasa has been awarded The 2021 Ceramic Artist of the Year by the editorial staff of Ceramics Monthly and Pottery Making Illustrated (USA).

The annual Ceramic Artist of the Year award is presented to an artist whose work reflects current aesthetics and sets an example for ceramic artists by embracing current trends, technology, studio, marketing, and/or community-focused practices.

“Over the course of your career, you’ve been very active with exhibitions, winning numerous awards, public art projects, teaching, mentoring, and community outreach. In addition, you have helped to support and advance the global clay community through innovative social media fundraising campaigns, among other projects.

You have also been very active in engaging with the field of ceramics and expanding creative connections with other creative fields and the wider community.

The fact that you can consistently create work as a self-employed artist in addition to having a busy international workshop, lecture, and exhibition schedule is impressive. In short due to all of your personal creative achievements, as well as your dedication to the field, we feel that you are more than deserving of the Ceramic Artist of the Year award.”

Jessica Knapp

Editor, Ceramics Monthly Magazine, Associate Editor, Pottery Making Illustrated, at The American Ceramic Society

In addition to the monetary award, The Artist of the Year feature will be in the 2021 Ceramic Arts Yearbook.

Congratulations to Stefan Dunlop who is a finalist in the 2020 Sunshine Coast National Art Prize with his 2018 work 'Pink, Green, Blue'.

The acquisitive Sunshine Coast National Art Prize is a dynamic visual arts award reflecting outstanding contemporary 2D and new media arts practice in Australia.

IMAGE

Stefan Dunlop

Pink, Green, Blue 2018

oil on linen

164 x 122cm

Vipoo Srivilasa’s interactive 'Love Lab' performance offers participants the chance to reflect on the ingredients that make up their love language and in turn, to finally find out how good or bad love tastes.

Love Lab will be performed on the opening night of Objects of Love Exhibition, 12 March - 13 May 2020. The show presents artworks which symbolise and reflect love of all kinds across cultures. Working from different cultural perspectives, the artists each explore themes of contemporary and traditional exchanges of love, connection to loved ones, and the strength and fragility of bonds of love.

Artists include Vipoo Srivilasa, Cyrus Tang, Kate Just, Zaiba Khan and Varuni Kanagasundaram.

https://www.craft.org.au/craft-whats-on-events/lovelabperformance

Image: Love Lab performance 2019

The Korea-Australia Arts Foundation Prize is run annually in cooperation with the Korean Cultural Centre.

Srivilasa's work 'The Course of True Love' is about the same-sex marriage journey. The series is realised in five bronze vignettes representing moments in world history that have contributed directly or indirectly to the acceptance of same-sex partnerships, and led Australia to pass the same sex marriage law in 2018. The moments including the Stoneware riots, Thailand decriminalising homosexuality, the establishment of Society Five, the first homosexual rights organisation in Melbourne, the Simpsons dedicating an entire episode to the same-sex marriage topic and the Yes campaign.

“I work predominantly with ceramics but for this series I chose to work with bronze. I use bronze, a robust and permanent medium to symbolise the strong concept of marriage and a solid commitment a couple makes to each other. Bronze is also a medium for religion statues. It would represent the sacred concept of marriage in my work.” …Vipoo Srivilasa

The Course of True Love will be part of Objects of Loves exhibition at Craft Victoria, Melbourne. 12 March - 13 May 2020

Image: The Course of True Love 2019

Roopanakar Museum of Fine Arts, Bhopal, India

13 February - 30 March 2020

Inaugurated by the then Prime Minister of India, Mrs. Indira Gandhi on 13th February 1982, Bharat Bhavan is a multi art centre, set up to create an interactive proximity between the verbal, visual and performing arts. Bharat Bhavan provides space for contemporary expression, thought, quest and innovation. Bharat Bhavan seeks to provide a creative and thought provoking milieu to those who wish to contribute something new and meaningful, in contemporary scene in the fine arts, literature, theatre, cinema, dance and music.

Bharat Bhavan International Ceramic Exhibition is a feature part of the 38th anniversary celebrations. It is the first time an international exhibition of ceramic art has been organized in the state. Eminent ceramic artists from India, US, Australia, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Ireland, Italy, China and France are attending the exhibition.

Vipoo Srivilasa is representing Australia.

Image: vipoo at the opening

'Artefacts', Alison Kubler, Vault Magazine, Issue 23, 104-105pp.

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

Un/Thaid, curated by Vipoo Srivilasa and featuring Bundit Puangthong has been reviewed in the Sydney Morning Herald:

A new exhibition showcases the work of five Thai-born artists now living and working in Australia, the first of its kind in Melbourne. Curated by Vipoo Srivilasa, the show was designed to provide a platform, "for [the artists] to have a voice in Australia". An artist who moved to Australia 22 years ago, Srivilasa says when you emigrate, your cultural identity changes.

"All of them have a very strong sense of Thai culture in their work, yet it’s not traditional. It blends with Australian culture and becomes something new, something exciting."

- Kerrie O'Brien, Sydney Morning Herald

Un/Thaid runs until July 27 at Grau Projekt.

READ MORE HERE

UN/THAID Curated by Vipoo Srivilasa

This exhibition brings together the work of five contemporary artists from Thailand who now live and work in Australia. Arriving in Australia independently of one another across the 1990s and 2000s, these five artists are based in the urban centres of Melbourne and Sydney and have continued their distinct individual practices since arriving in this country. The work on display in this exhibition is a diverse offering, including performance, painting, ceramics, sculpture, video and installation. Articulating multi-dimensional and layered histories, all of these artists are emboldened in their shared cultural experience of growing up in Thailand and then relocating to Australia while continuing to develop and refine their artistic practices. This exhibition features the work of Phaptawan Suwannakudt, Nakarin Aaron Jaikla, Bundit Puangthong, Pimpisa Tinpalit and Somchai Charoen. A Thai born Melbourne based artist, Vipoo Srivilasa has initiated and organised this exhibition because of his desire to provide visibility and voice for Thai Contemporary artists who have been working and living in Australia.

The exhibition is open 13 June – 27 July, 2019

Grau Projekt, Melbourne

READ MORE HERE

Sarah Cox previews Stefan Dunlop's painting practice in the latest issue of Artist Profile magazine.

Dunlop contextualises his work in today’s world of ‘fake news’ and post-internet art by addressing the Western art tradition with irony. He adheres to a critical approach based on an aesthetic discourse that employs abstract art as a response to digital technology. His response to the chaos confronting us today is to go back to the old-school order of paint on canvas, using collage and fragmentation to evoke the digital milieu’s oversaturation of images.

Dunlop’s oeuvre has evolved from creating observational-based work and still lifes to figures in landscape. Early on, his work comprised monumental heroic figures painted in warm colours and bold gestural strokes. His recent work, in contrast, uses less structured, looser forms.

- Sarah Cox, Artist Profile, 2019

READ MORE HERE

Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award 2019

When: 29 May–12 July 2019
Tuesday to Friday 10am–4pm, Open only during exhibitions
Where: Deakin University Art Gallery, Melbourne Burwood Campus
Building FA, 221 Burwood Hwy, Burwood, VIC 3125

In its tenth anniversary year this annual acquisitive award and exhibition is organised by the Art Collection and Galleries Unit displaying the work of the 2019 finalists.

Image: VIPOO SRIVILASA Protection 2018, 66
 x 37
 x 23 cm, ceramic, acrylic paint, glaze ceramic flowers and mix media.

READ MORE HERE

In celebration of Gorman’s decade-long collaboration with visual artists, Heide is presenting a two-week pop-up exhibition in the iconic modernist building, Heide II.

The exhibition will feature garments from a new range by Gorman created in collaboration with ten artists who have worked with the Australian clothing label since 2009, including Miranda Skoczek. The garments will be displayed alongside the artworks which inspired them.

READ MORE HERE

Obsession: Devil in the detail examines our fascination with the meticulous and micro, the real and the hyperreal and brings together a range of historical and contemporary works under three broad themes of still life, portraiture and landscape. Featuring artworks that seduce us with the power of their realism and intricate detail, the devil in the detail becomes the ideas and concepts that exist beneath the surface.

Featuring work by local and international artists including Natasha Bieniek, Chris Bond, Erin Coates, Audrey Flack, Juan Ford, James Gleeson, Sam Jinks, Jess Johnson, Anna Kristensen, eX de Medici, Tully Moore, Callum Morton, Jan Nelson, Sandra Selig, Vipoo Srivilasa, Ricky Swallow, teamLab, Eugene von Guerard and more.

30 November 2018 - 17 February 2019

READ MORE HERE

Vipoo Srivilasa has been commissioned to design seven large sculptures for ICONSIAM, a mixed-use development on the banks of the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok Thailand, opening on 9 November 2018.

ICONSIAM is the ultimate shopping destination. The all-in-one complex, located on 750,000 square metres of the land on the banks of Chao Phraya River is a wonder to behold for those passionate about retail and development. It is divided into three main sections: the main ICONSIAM, the glamorous riverside ICONLUXE, and street facing side Siam Takashimaya.

READ MORE HERE

Stefan Dunlop's work was featured on the highly regarded Design Files blog.

'The 45-year-old came to his practice ‘in a round about way’. He tried out a range of jobs and a degrees not associated with art, before landing in New York for six months, where he enrolled in the New York Studio School. ‘This is what really kick started my painting career,’ he recalls. ‘Now I work in splendid isolation on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland.’

- Elle Murrell, Design Files, 2018

IMAGE:

Stefan Dunlop in his studio, courtesy the artist

READ MORE HERE

Miranda Skoczek, Julian Meagher and John Aslanidis are finalists in The Kings School Art Prize 2018.

The King’s Art Prize is a $20,000 acquisitive award presented to the best contemporary artwork created by an artist resident in Australia and represented by a commercial gallery, supporting both the artists and the fine arts industry. Entry is by invitation only and the finalists are selected by an appointed Art Prize panel.

READ MORE HERE

The Paddington Art Prize is a $30,000 National acquisitive prize, awarded annually. The prize is specific to paintings inspired by the Australian landscape, as the imagery is integral to the tradition of Australia painting and is an enduring motif within contemporary art, shaping national identity.

Bundit Puangthong is a 2018 Finalist with his painting 'Green Fields'.

IMAGE:

Bundit Puangthong

Green Fields 2018

150 x 135cm

acrylic & pastel on paper

READ MORE HERE

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.

Designed as an invitational award, The Gold Award aims to acquire contemporary Australian painting to Rockhampton Art Gallery’s collection by means of the most outstanding work or works by an artist awarded a cash prize of $50,000 and acquired by Rockhampton Art Gallery. The Award was conceived in 2010 when the then Rockhampton Art Gallery Trust received a substantial bequest from the Estate of Moya Gold for the acquisition of Australian paintings. With industry review and guidance, the Trustees advised to expend the interest accumulated by the Gold Trust to fund a new painting award. Now in its fourth iteration The Gold Award has become a premier biennial event of national significance. Presented by Rockhampton Art Gallery, The Gold Award is a joint initiative of Rockhampton Art Gallery Philanthropy Board and Rockhampton Regional Council.

The Gold Award 2018 has been judged by Simon Elliott, Deputy Director, Collection and Exhibitions, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art.

Bundit Puangthong was selected for the Gold Award in 2018.

IMAGE:

Bundit Puangthong

Sharp Knife 2018

acrylic, spray paint and soft pastel on linen

168 x 168 cm

READ MORE HERE

Vipoo Srivilasa's work forms part of a touring exhibition through the Australian Design Centre titled 'Obsessed: Compelled to Make' which is on now at Cairns Regional Gallery.

Obsessed: Compelled to make presents the work of 14 artists from across Australia, delving beyond the finished object, beyond the personality of the maker, into the fundamental conceptual framework of their creations. We look at the complexities of their materials and processes, the realities of their day-to-day studio routine and unravel what compels each maker to create over the course of their personal career – Why this technique or material? Why that concept? How does the mind of a maker work?

This exhibition explores the act of making through the framework of obsession – how it consumes us, carrying
 us along in its wake, colouring every aspect of our lives.
 With these professional artists, it is their obsessions, and all the associated angst, failures, breakthroughs and milestones, that feeds their productivity and to deliver exceptional outcomes. 

Artists: Gabriella Bisetto | Lorraine Connelly-Northey |  Honor Freeman, | Jon Goulder | 
Kath Inglis |
 Laura McCusker |
 Elliat Rich and James B Young (Elbowrkshp) | 
Kate Rohde |
 Oliver Smith | Vipoo Srivilasa | Tjunkaya Tapaya | Louise Weaver | Liz Williamson. 

Obsessed: Compelled to makeis an Australian Design Centre of ADC on Tour exhibition touring to 12 venues across Australia, accompanied by a series of films and a full-length catalogue.

READ MORE HERE

Vipoo Srivilasa's work #happy_together VI 2017, acquired by Wollongong Art Gallery, is currently being exhibited in 'East Meets West' until 11 November 2018.

The Mann-Tatlow collection of Asian Art, gifted in 2003 and the Nancye Dryden Collection of South East Asian Textiles bequeathed to the Gallery in 2012, have formed the Gallery’s newest collecting area. This exhibition relates collection works by contemporary Asian artists and Australian artists who have responded to Asian culture within their practice and to the Mann-Tatlow Collection of Asian Art including works by Julie Bartholomew, Lionel Bawden, Kirsten Coelho, Tom Dion, Dongwang Fan, Sarah Goffman, Tie Hua Huang, Shotei Ibata, Lindy Lee, Joanne Saad, Shigeo Shiga, Vipoo Srivilasa, Laurens Tan, Andy Warhol and Gerry Wedd.

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. 

Barnaby Smith has reviewed Vipoo Srivilasa's exhibition Everyday Shrines at Gippsland Art Gallery:

'The experience of belonging to two or more countries is an increasingly universal one, especially for Australians. An affiliation with multiple cultures and an identity formed by multiple traditions is, after all, the migrant experience. It is a theme that has been widely explored across the arts spectrum, yet rarely with as much playfulness as in the work of Thai-Australian ceramicist Vipoo Srivilasa. His new exhibition Everyday Shrines, shown at Gippsland Art Gallery as part of Craft Victoria’s Craft Forward series, takes an impish yet thoughtful approach to fusing the imagery and iconography of Australian and Thai societies.'

The exhibition is current until 17 June 2018 at Gippsland Art Gallery.

Read full article HERE

Vipoo Srivilasa's solo exhibition 'Everyday Shrines' will open at the newly refurbished Gippsland Art Gallery on 31 March 2018 and run until 17 June.  The exhibition which has been developed jointly with Craft Victoria, looks at similarities between Srivilasa's Thai heritage and his adopted home in Australia.

READ MORE HERE

Vipoo Srivilasa's work 'Deity of Immortal' has been selected as a finalist in the Tom Bass Prize for Figurative Sculpture Exhibition at Juniper hall in Sydney from 2 - 25 March.

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

Vipoo Srivilasa's work 'Sang Thong' has been acquired by the Whitehorse City Council in Victoria.  

The City of Whitehorse is located just 15 kilometres east of Melbourne and covers an area of 64 square kilometres.

Srivilasa's work 'Sang Thong' is based on a well-known Thai folk tale, centred on a marriage between a man and a woman of different social status.

READ MORE HERE

Miranda Skoczek's exhibition 'Rag Rugs and Lion Heads' is featured on the Art Guide website. Miranda spoke with Louise Martin-Chew about her latest exhibition 'Rag Rugs and Lion Heads', her inspiration and the shift in her practice to looser, more expressive works:

Miranda Skoczek’s abstract paintings evoke old walls with layers of forms and shapes that emerge over time. In her studio, she might work simultaneously on nine canvases. Transferring from one to the other, she allows each oil layer to dry before repeatedly painting over it until jewel-like colours resonate and a spatial sensibility has been established within which the viewer may dwell. Skoczek told Art Guide Australia, “I don’t paint about social concerns. I create wholly immersive, beautiful pictures. They are places for escape and restoration: harmonious, calming pictures.”

- Louise Martin Chew

Miranda's exhibition is at the gallery from 14 November until 5 December 2017.

READ MORE HERE

Miranda Skoczek was a featured artist in the international group exhibition, The human experience, we are the ones doing works on canvas/Paintings XXXX at the Carlsberg Byens Galleri & Kunstsalon in Denmark. The exhibition was curated by Galina Munroe (Great Britain), Simon Ganshorn (Denmark) and Jordan Kerwick (Australia). The show featured 116 artists each working with abstraction through painting in their own distinct manner to promote diversity and highlight the possibility of medium and painting theory.

READ MORE HERE.

Congratulations to Julian Meagher and Vipoo Srivilasa for being finalists of the 2017 National Still Life Award at Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery.

The acquisitive Award offers a major award of $20,000 as well as a People’s Choice Award of $5,000. This years' judge is Lisa Slade, Assistant Director of Artistic Programs at Art Gallery of South Australia. 

Finalist works exhibited Friday 24th November 2017 to Saturday 20th of January 2018 at Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery.

In conjunction with National Clay Week, Artaxis presents 12 hours of live-streaming conversations with 24 Artaxis members from 16 countries.

Vipoo Srivilasa is scheduled to talk between 12:00pm - 1:00pm, 11 October 2017. Questions may be submitted here. 

Vipoo’s work explores similarities between the cultures of his native home, Thailand and his adoptive home, Australia. His work is a playful blend of historical, figurative and decorative art practices whilst engaging with contemporary culture.

Using blue and white colour, he creates complex narratives through highly decorated images on ceramic forms. His work requires an intimacy in which the key elements of the drama are often found in unusual places within the forms themselves.

Collaboration has been an important part of Vipoo's creative practice. He has been using clay to engage communities into his creating process in the past 10 years. In addition to exhibiting his work, Vipoo actively initiates and organises cultural exchange projects between national and internationally artists.

Get your questions ready and join Vipoo and others for a Q&A. To watch click here.

Vipoo Srivilasa is the recipient of the general skills and arts development grant from the Australian Council for the Arts to work with Sakarin Krue-On, a multi-disciplinary Thai artist, and Marije Vogelzang, the world's first eating designer from the Netherland, in order to develop and create new interactive ceramic work for an exhibition at Edwina Corlette Gallery in 2019 and the S.A.C. Subhashok The Arts Centre in Bangkok. 

Keep up to date here.

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.

The Drawing Wall is an ongoing series of site-specific, commissioned, temporary wall-based drawings or installations enlivening the foyer-space of the Eastbank Centre, directly outside Shepparton Art Museum. This year Bundit Puangthong has been commissioned to complete a drawing across the 4 x 12 metre space as well as conducting a stencil workshop in July.

READ MORE HERE

Occurring biennially, the 'Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize' attracts Australian artists and awards an acquisitive prize of $50,000. The Prize provides Bendigo Art Gallery with the opportunity to survey contemporary painting by established and emerging artists from across Australia.

Works from the shortlisted artists will be on display at Bendigo Art Gallery in the Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize exhibition from 17 June – 20 August 2017. The 2017 winner will be announced at the exhibition’s opening on Friday 16 June 2017.

Bundit Puangthong was selected as a finalist in the 2017 prize for his work 'No Where To Hide'

IMAGE:

Bundit Puangthong

No Where To Hide 2017

acrylic on linen

168 x 168 cm

READ MORE HERE

The Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award has shortlisted Vipoo Srivilasa's work, amongst others for its annual prize.

"This is the ninth year of the award and we were pleased to receive 232 entries, from which 40 finalists were selected.   

The external judges are Mr Ewen Coates (Sculptor) and Associate Professor Ken Wach, Former Principal Research Fellow and Head of the School of Creative Arts, The University of Melbourne.
 
The Small Sculpture exhibition launch is on Tuesday 6 June, 2017. 

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:

Bundit Puangthong

Where Is the Buddha? 2017

acrylic on linen

122 x 122 cm

READ MORE HERE

Miranda Skoczek presents her first collection of jewellery works at Pieces of Eight Gallery in Melbourne as part of the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival 2017.

In DESHILADO, Miranda pays homage to the samplers created by stitchers in the early 16th Century. The collection is a three dimensional gathering of a myriad of interests and influences remixing materials and techniques, blurring the boundaries between objects, jewellery and art.

With a desire to connect ancient traditions with fashion, while acknowledging the archaeological importance of jewellery as artefact, Skoczek takes the opportunity to bring permanency to ornaments that have up to this point existed as abstract fragments in her paintings.

The exhibition is current until 25 March 2017.

READ MORE HERE

Vipoo Srivilasa has won the 44th Muswellbrook Art Prize in the Ceramics section.  The $10,000 acquisitive prize was awarded to Vipoo's porcelain work 'The Good, The Bad and the Cuddly (self portrait)'.

The biennial Muswellbrook Art Prize began in 1958 and has helped form a significant collection of modern and contemporary Australian painting, works on paper and ceramics for the Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre.

The exhibition is current until 7 May 2017.

Muswellbrook Art Prize

Miranda Skoczek is featured on The Design Files blog with a look at her move from an inner city two bedroom apartment, to a bucolic retreat set amongst the verdant landscape of the Dandenong Ranges. Miranda and her seven year old son Harper speak about the influence of nature on their lives and the impact a move to the country will have on her painting practice.

IMAGE:

Miranda Skoczek and her son, courtesy Caitlin Mills

READ MORE HERE

Headlining the celebrations for Queensland's Gallery of Modern Art is 'SUGAR SPIN — YOU ME ART AND EVERYHTING' featuring over 250 contemporary artworks exploring light, space, architecture and the senses. From brand-new immersive works to large-scale visitor favourites, the exhibition reflects our complex connections to the natural world with an explosion of colour, sensation and spinning delights.

Major new artworks include Nervescape, a multi-coloured landscape of synthetic hair by Icelandic-born artist Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir a.k.a. Shoplifter, and the electrifying Heard by American sculptor and performance artist Nick Cave, a group of vibrant sculptural horses brought to life by dancers.

Vipoo Srivilasa's work 'BLEACH IV' is part of the exhibition which runs until 17 April 2017. Read more here.

Established in 2001, the Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennale in Korea is one of the largest ceramic events in the world, representing contemporary artists from over 70 countries. 

Artists are invited to take part in the competition which calls for works that mirror modern trends and point to the future of contemporary ceramics and redefine its essence by exploring spirit, values, forms and technique. 

The winner will receive a cash prize of KRW 50,000,000 (approx $43,000 US) and will be invited to have a solo exhibition during the 2019 Biennale. 

In 2017 Vipoo Srivilasa will be representing Australia. READ MORE HERE.

Miranda Skoczek is renowned for her engaging, energetic works and her spectacular use of colour. A fixture on the Australian art scene, her work is instantly recognisable for its layers of intuitive colour, pattern and motifs. Iconic Australian label Country Road thought her work was perfect for a collaboration with charity RedKite. Miranda has designed two tote bags and a t-shirt, with all proceeds from each sale going towards providing essential support to children and their families who are facing cancer.

IMAGE:

Miranda Skoczek in her home, courtesy Country Road

READ MORE HERE

The first Central China International Ceramics Biennale will be held at the Henan Museum. Curated by art historian Wendy Gers the biennale will exhibit work by 50 Chinese and international artists.

Vipoo Srivilasa is one of six artists to be commissioned to create a site-specific work for the Biennale. In November he will take a residency at the Ceramic Art Institute of Henan University to create six large figurines for the exhibition.

One of the biggest celebrations of cultural diversity in New South Wales, Parramasala will be held from 10-12 March 2017, thanks to a multi-year funding arrangement between the State Government and City of Parramatta Council. 

Parramasala’s new mascot, an illuminated six metre tall inflatable creature will be revealed prior to the festival. Created by Vipoo Srivilasa, the mascot represents the coming together of many cultures in a harmonious and friendly way. Vipoo incorporated the V symbol denoting peace to reflect the multicultural event.

“It was an amazing experience as I’d never seen my work this size before,” the Thai-born artist said.

Vipoo Srivilasa's work has been curated into Gippsland Art Gallery's 'Weird Ceramic' exhibition.

Weird Ceramic is a survey of the strange and peculiar in contemporary Australian ceramics featuring twenty-seven works by eleven artists: Glenn Barkley, Stephen Bird, Chris Dolman, Lynda Draper, Donna Green, Emily Hunt, Philjames, Jenny Orchard, Stephen Ralph, Sarah Smuts-Kennedy, and Vipoo Srivilasa.

With its basis in the 1970s arts/craft movement, contemporary ceramics has one eye on the past while looking forward to new forms, techniques and processes.

Saturday 26 November 2016 to Sunday 12 February 2017, open during Gallery hours.  Read more here.

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.

Melissa Pesa thoughtfully writes about Bundit Puangthong's latest exhibition in the current edition of Art Almanac:

Puangthong’s paintings explore, in depth, the cultural differences experienced since his arrival in Australia in 2000. Utilising a range of techniques from stencils to detailed, academic brushwork and an evocative colour palette, Puangthong creates texturally layered paintings that highlight his interest in American pop and Australian street art. Captivated by Melbourne’s creative ambience, its feast of colour, ideas and energy generated from public spaces, cross-cultural similarities became apparent. Puangthong reminisces, “When I came to Melbourne and saw all the street art everywhere it reminded me of the stencil work in the temples in Thailand.” Incorporating this approach with a modern medium, Puangthong brings a fresh art style onto the canvas.

- Melissa Pesa, Art Almanac

READ MORE HERE

Congratulations to Vipoo Srivilasa who is a finalist in the 2016 Basil Sellers Art Prize.  

The prize defines sport in the broadest possible sense. An acquisitive prize of $100,000 will be awarded to a single, outstanding artwork, displayed in an exhibition of shortlisted finalists at the Ian Potter Museum of Art, the University of Melbourne in July 2016.

This prize is supported by Basil Sellers in order to encourage contemporary artists to develop their practice, to engage with the many themes within sport past and present, and to contribute to critical reflection on all forms of sport and sporting culture in Australia.

View available works by Vipoo Srivilasa 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.

Congratulations to Stefan Dunlop who is a finalist in the Caloundra Regional Gallery's Sunshine Coast Art Prize. The prize is a national contemporary two-dimensional award with an acquisitive prize of $25,000 plus a studio residency at Montville Country Cabins. The winner will be announced on 1 September 2016.

IMAGE:
Stefan Dunlop
Stairs 2015
oil on linen
147 x 117 cm

READ MORE HERE

Vipoo Srivilasa’s solo exhibition ‘Red-Eared Slider’ is currently underway at the Subhashok The Art Centre in Bangkok, Thailand.

The ‘Red-Eared Slider’ is a turtle native to the United State and feral across the globe. Originally introduced by a Japanese trader in Thailand, these red-eared turtles disrupt the natural ecology of Thai waters, threatening the native freshwater turtles. For Vipoo, who divides his time between Bangkok and Melbourne, the red-eared turtle represents the disregard humans have for their environment.

The exhibition is current to 30 April, 2016.

Click here for more information.

Deianira Tolema explores the concepts behind Vipoo’s practice in ‘Vipoo Srivilasa’s Playful Kingdom of Ceramic Figurines’ for Hi Fructose: The New Contemporary Magazine. She writes,

"Srivilasa’s work also explores the commonalities between Thai and Australian culture and Eastern and Western culture, where he uses blue and white as a reference to the export of blue and white porcelain from China to Europe. While being fully aware of his heritage, Srivilasa has been mixing up echoes from the past with traces of the present in a carefully arranged juxtaposition of old and new ways of thinking.”

Read the full article here.

Vipoo Srivilasa’s  has been chosen by Rebecca Hill, Exhibitions and Collections Co-ordinator at Gallery Oldham, as her favourite piece in the Crafts Council Collection, London.

"I really love the fact that this piece is technically excellent, yet doesn’t seem to take itself too seriously.” Rebecca Hill, January 2016.

Read the full article here.

Vipoo Srivilasa's sculpture 'Collective Reef' has been shortlisted for the $65,000 Fleurieu Art Prize for Landscape, hosted at the Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of Art in Adelaide. The Fleurieu Art Prize focuses on landscape as a means of expressing the power of connection to place. This years judging panel includes Nigel Hurst, Director of Saatchi Gallery London; Suhanya Raffel, Deputy Director and Director of Collections AGNSW; and Erica Green, Director of Samstag Museum of Art. 

The winner is announced at opening night, Thursday 3 June 5 - 7pm at the Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of Art in Adelaide, University of South Australia, 55 North Terrace, Adelaide. The Exhibition is current 3 June - 29 July, 2016.

Vipoo will present a new body of work at Edwina Corlette Gallery 16 November - 3 December, 2016. To view Vipoo's available works, click here.

This March at the Festival of Live Art in Melbourne, Bundit Puangthong will take part in Asian Artists in Conversation. Participating artists will provide a critical overview of the Asian art landscape, and discuss the shifting boundaries and concepts of contemporary Asian art.

When: Sunday 6 March, 1pm – 5pm

Venue: FCAC Roslyn Smorgon Gallery

Cost: Free, bookings required

The Festival of Live Art is hosted by Arts House, Theatre Works and Footscray Community Arts Centre, and is current 1 – 13 March 2016.

Bundit's forthcoming exhibition is from 4 - 22 October 2016.

READ MORE HERE

Vipoo Srivilasa has collaborated with local indigenous artists for Collisions: Cross-Cultural Collaborations, a community cultural development partnership between Shepparton Art Museum and Gallery Kaiela. The project involves local Indigenous artists partnering with established Melbourne-based contemporary artists.

Through the sharing of ideas, narratives and techniques, the artists have engaged in an exploration of cultural difference and similarity, conflict and connection, forging relationships in a dialogic exchange that departs from the art-making process.

Collisions: Cross-Cultural Collaborations is on show at SAM and runs current to 14 February 2016.

Read more.

Watch Bundit in the Studio Here

Vipoo Srivilasa exhibited in 'More Love Hours' at The Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne. 'More Love Hours' brought together the works of contemporary Australian artists who use traditional techniques and processes in their practice. The works demonstrated the use of 'traditional' forms of creativity as a means to express contemporary values and complex ideologies.

'More Love Hours' installation at The Ian Potter Museum of Art, photographed by Viki Petherbridge

Carol Shwarzman writes, "at first glance, their balanced poise beckons for our approval, to satisfy desire for perfection, decoration, or to escape into the soft murmurs of collectible comfort and status quo. Inevitably, closer inspection reveals Srivilasa's take on cross-cultural social tensions, the commodification of artistic integrity, the role of the self within popular culture, and the history of ceramics worldwide."

To see more of Vipoo's work, click here.

Read Stefan Dunlop's feature in Issue #29 of Artist Profile.

Congratulations to Vipoo whose work New Family I (2014) was recently acquired by the Parliament House Collection, Canberra.

Congratulations to Vipoo whose work Soup Bowl With Turtle (2012) was recently acquired by the Lady Cilento Children's Hospital, Brisbane.

Congratulations Vipoo Srivilasa who recently visited the U.S. to be a part of the Roundtable Discussion for the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) on March 26, 2015.

‘”Pass the Peas: Food, Objects and the Making of Community”, will expand on themes explored in our 2015 keynote lecture. Namita Gupta Wiggers will moderate this lively discussion with Aruna D’Souza, Julia Galloway, Frederick Opie and Vipoo Srivilasa. As writers, artists, curators and historians these individuals all deal with the complex ways that we understand place and memory through objects, food and community engagement.’

Miranda Skoczek has collaborated with Gorman Clothing for their 2015 winter collection. In sync with the label’s aesthetic, Miranda’s artwork blends seamlessly into signature Gorman textures and styles. Her work is featured across all 53 pieces in the collection, with every print originating from five of her artworks.

READ MORE 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 Vipoo Srivilasa whose work Bleach IV (2012) was acquired by the Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art.

Image: Bleach IV (2012), pocelain and cobalt pigment

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.’

Congratulations to Vipoo Srivilasa who was announced the winner of the 2014 Gold Coast International Ceramics Award.  Vipoo’s thoughtful porcelain work Battle of Old and New Power was selected from 48 entries from several countries including Japan, Argentina and Isreal.  Judge Dr Patsy Hely from the Australian National University School of Art described Vipoo’s work as having ‘resonance not just with one country’s internal battles but with the pulls and pushes of global relations and power struggles more broadly. In this way, it is a work in which the contemporary world is writ large.’ Srivilasa’s work was described as ‘at once beautiful and unsettling’ and reflects the contemporary world by ‘speak[ing] loudly of this moment in time.’

Image: Battle of New and Old Power (2012), porcelain