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

Congratulations to Sally Anderson who is a finalists in the 2024 Portia Geach Memorial Award with her work ‘Self and still life (shared garden, future nurture)'.

The Portia Geach Memorial Award was established in 1965 to be annually presented to an Australian female artist. Portia Geach was an iconic figure in the Australian arts community, acclaimed for her art and media presence, and as such the award was created in her honour. The award is specifically for the best portrait painted from the life of someone well renowned in art, academia, or science.

Finalists exhibition will be held at the S.H Ervin Gallery, 25 October – 15 December 2024, Sydney

IMAGE:
Sally Anderson
Self and still life (shared garden, future nurture) 2024
acrylic on polycotton
183 x 198cm

READ MORE HERE

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

READ MORE HERE

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

Delighted to announce that Sally Anderson has been selected as a finalist in the Sir John Sulman Prize with her work ‘Holding a hurricane, quilt curtain carrying the sea’.

How do you hold a hurricane? How do you hold close things that are spiralling out of your control? Can you contain the sea in a quilt? How do we measure domestic, creative and maternal labour? With time? How does one get more time in a day? How do we hold households, partners, children, paintings, parents and ourselves simultaneously? This painting speaks to the ways motherhood, domesticity and creative practice are, for me, reciprocal and ultimately entangled. Each informs and infects the other. This work deliberately dances between abstraction and representation and employs still-life and landscape motifs as symbols of containment and care.

- Sally Anderson, 2024

IMAGE:

Sally Anderson

Holding a hurricane, quilt curtain carrying the sea 2024

synthetic polymer paint on canvas

182.5 x 198.2 cm

READ MORE HERE

Congratulations Sally Anderson who is a finalist in the 2024 Bayside Painting Prize for her 2024 work ‘Placenta banksia, Bridal Veil Falls view, the sea in me, PB nude quilt tablecloth’. Established in 2015, the Bayside Painting Prize is one of the most generous non-acquisitive painting prizes in Australia. The exhibition draws together a breadth of artists with varied approaches to painting. This allows the Bayside City Council to further develop its collection and promote artists to the Bayside community.

The finalist exhibition will be held at Bayside Gallery from 3 May to 23 June 2024.

IMAGE:

Sally Anderson

Placenta banksia, Bridal Veil Falls view, the sea in me, PB nude quilt tablecloth 2024

acrylic on polycotton

168 x 137 cm

Image courtesy the artist and Jessica Maurer

READ MORE HERE

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

Congratulations to Sally Anderson, who has been announced as a finalist in the Grace Cossington Smith Art Award for her painting 'Nat Silk’s Seatown Still Life, PB Nude Quilt, Bromeliad Washdown'.

The biennial Grace Cossington Smith Art Award is a $20,000 National acquisitive award. The award theme is 'Making Connections' inspired by the work of Abbotsleigh graduate and artist Grace Cossington Smith - renowned for her Modern abstraction paintings of Australia. The finalist exhibition opens 27 January 2024 at the Grace Cossington Smith Gallery, Wahroonga, Sydney.

IMAGE:

Sally Anderson

Nat Silk's Seatown Still Life, PB Nude Quilt, Bromeliad Washdown 2023

acrylic on polycotton

153 x 137 cm

READ MORE HERE

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

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

Sally Anderson is featured in the July/August edition of Art Guide Australia.

Motherhood, domesticity, landscape, memory—these are just some of the experiences and memories Sally Anderson has captured in her two-decade painting practice, underpinned by a persistent blue.

The outer edges of Sally Anderson’s paintings reveal multiple layers of canvas, the evidence of past works painted over yet still present deep within. Integral to how Anderson works, this layering connects to ideas of containment and the action of being physically held. “This could refer to a mother carrying her baby, being restricted to the home, a vessel holding flowers, frames, windows or pools,” she says.

- Briony Downes, Art Guide, 2023

IMAGE:

Sally Anderson in her Studio, courtesy Jessica Mauer

READ MORE HERE

Congratulations to Sally Anderson who is a finalist in this year's Ravenswood Australian Women's Art Prize with her work ‘Sea Town Lawn Roof Song with NO’s Vessel.’

IMAGE:

Sally Anderson

Sea Town Lawn Roof Song with NO’s Vessel 2023

acrylic on canvas

115 x 97 cm

READ MORE HERE

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

Congratulations to Sally Anderson who is a finalist in this year's Muswellbrook Art Prize with her work ‘Lismore Island Roof Song with a Screenshot of Nat Silk’s Seatown’.

IMAGE:

Sally Anderson

Lismore Island Roof Song with a Screenshot of Nat Silk’s Seatown 2022

acrylic on polycotton

READ MORE HERE

Sally Anderson has received a glowing review in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Sally Anderson’s Guido 'Holding Folding Moulding' is another stand-out. Ostensibly a portrait of her artist husband holding their child, there’s a metaphysical dimension to the work, with a sculpture on a pedestal, a jug with flowers and a red, flag-like curtain taking up significant space in the composition. The play of curves and fractured planes adds to the mystery of the picture, as we feel we are looking through multiple doorways or windows, projecting a dream-like atmosphere.

- John McDonald, Sydney Morning Herald, 2022.

READ MORE HERE

Congratulations to Sally Anderson who is a finalist in the Portia Geach Award at SH Ervin Gallery in Sydney.

The Portia Geach Memorial Award was established in 1965 to be annually presented to an Australian female artist. Portia Geach was an iconic figure in the Australian arts community, acclaimed for her art and media presence, and as such the award was created in her honour. The award is specifically for the best portrait painted from the life of someone well renowned in art, academia, or science.

The exhibition is open 16 September – 6 November 2022

IMAGE:

Sally Anderson

Guido holding, folding, moulding 2022

acrylic on polycotton

198 x 153 cm

READ MORE HERE

Blue Island investigates the interplay of colour and memory in relation to individual experience. Paintings draw on hydrangea related respective experience to demonstrate the capacity for colour and object to hold and trigger memory and association. The exhibition seeks to question the reliability of memory and offers a way to authenticate experience through colour. In attempting to realise something perhaps visually impossible to verify within their paintings; mixing colour truthfully and straightforwardly from memory, the artists are challenged to settle on feeling and intuitive correctness rather than absolute truth and certainty.

Using a uniform size canvas, the 14 invited artists were instructed to translate, from their ‘mind’s eye’, the colour they most strongly associate with their experience of hydrangeas. The result is a collection of essentially monochrome surfaces steeped with hidden and concealed recollections of mothers and mother’s mothers, former neighbours and neighbourhoods, marriage, childbirth city front-yards, suburban backyards, households and broken family homes. More visually evident (than the personal histories imbued in the paintings) is the materiality and individually distinctive application of paint to surface. These largely monochrome works give a condensed, and detail like insight into each artist’s painterly signature, almost all of which are instantly recognisable.

- Sally Anderson, 2022

READ MORE HERE

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.

READ MORE HERE

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

‘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

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

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

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

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

Art, Activism And The Archibald

CREATIVE PEOPLE

Art has always been a vehicle for social dialogue, and a window into current political issues. When Sydney artist Julian Meagher met former professional soccer player, commentator and human rights advocate Craig ‘Fozzy’ Foster AM, he was inspired.

READ MORE ON THE DESIGN FILES HERE

WORDS EMMA-KATE WILSON

A few years ago, Sydney-based artist Julian Meagher welcomed the birth of his son and found himself working more instinctively. ‘I think I’m making better works because I am taking a lot more risks, I make so many more bad paintings that end up in the bin now than I used to,’ he comments.

When his daughter was born eight months ago, he went through a whole new level of sleep deprivation and heartbreak, with their little girl suffering reflux for six months. ‘Sleepwalking’ channels this energy, exploring the space between altered states, the subconscious and dreaming.

Alongside ultra-romantic pink and blue landscapes, complete with rainbows, built through active painting, raw brushstrokes and delicate fades, Meagher presents his sleeping family. The small and intimate portraits connect with the large glitchy, idyllic landscapes. ‘I’m trying to make sense of the complex human existence through the power and beauty of nature,’ he adds, ‘I feel like a rainbow next to a little sleeping baby is what we need right now … A hope that things will get better on both a personal and collective level.’

Meagher’s palette is deliberately muted, soft, subtle. He says, ‘I think painting is only good if you’re true to yourself. Painting is a kind of meditation for me in a way; I want the end result to slow down my breath rate.’

To construct his portraits and colour fields – which can be read as landscapes, abstracted, or the sky out of his studio window – Meagher applies thin layers and begins to remove the colour as it starts to dry. Working against the drying time of the paint stops the artist from ‘overcooking’ them. By revealing the linen below, the canvases hold luminosity, adding a watercolour effect evocative of the ocean-inspired landscapes. ‘We’ve all seen those storms out to sea; it’s in our collective consciousness,’ he explains, ‘most can associate strong memories and rites of passage with these coastline images.’

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

Sally Anderson has been included in an exhibition and article by The Australian which highlight new Australian art on the market.

It’s this moment of evolution that has inspired The Australian’s Summer Exhibition — a showcase of sculptures, paintings, photographs and works on paper. Beautiful to look at, it’s a celebration of some of the best and brightest artists working today. All 50 pieces have been selected because they signify what’s happening in Australian art and culture right now.

So, what is happening right now? The primary art market in Australia is experiencing a small boom. For obvious reasons, flying to international art fairs is off the cards, and this has led Australian collectors to rediscover a local market packed full of prodigious works by tomorrow’s household names.

It means there’s a renewed focus on Australian stories and more opportunities for emerging artists to have their work seen, as gallerists and buyers look toward home. It’s this time of risk-taking and yes, even optimism that our summer exhibition represents.

- Amy Campbell, The Australian, 2021

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

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

Subscribe: http://trt.world/Showcase

Livestream: http://trt.world/ytlive

Facebook: http://trt.world/facebook

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShowcaseonTRTW

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/showcaseont...

Website: http://trt.world

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

Congratulations to Sally Anderson whose upcoming exhibition has been featured in Brisbane Art Guide.

To coincide with her exhibition at Tweed Regional Gallery, Edwina Corlette Gallery is delighted to present a series of new paintings by Sally Anderson. Sally is a past winner of the prestigious Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship and a finalist in this year’s Portia Geach Award for female portraiture, with her painting of Claudia Karvan (below).

Born in Lismore, Anderson began her undergraduate studies in Visual Art at Southern Cross University before transferring to the College of Fine Art in Sydney. A past finalist in the Sunshine Coast Art Prize and the Paddington Art Prize, Anderson was invited to participate in the Association of Icelandic Visual Artists Residency in Reykjavik in 2014. Her work has been acquired by Artbank, the Australian Catholic University and corporate and private clients in Australia and Europe.

- Brisbane Art Guide, 2020

READ MORE HERE

The concept of home has changed in 2020. For a lot of people, home has never been just one static place, and yet in the last few months that stasis has been forced upon us. In the midst of shelter-in-place orders, we’ve been directed to decide on a single location that represents our place in the world and stay there, hoping it keeps us safe.

Reframing the domestic space as a new landscape intrigues artist and new mother Sally Anderson. Her new body of work is entitled Bridal Veil Falls, the Window and the Piano Lesson, and was created almost entirely in lockdown. The pieces will be on display at Edwina Corlette gallery in Brisbane from tomorrow, in an exhibition that explores the fusion between Sally’s subjective experience of parenthood, and the collective endurance of pandemic paralysis.

- Sasha Gattermayr, The Design Files, 2020

READ MORE HERE

To help my son sleep we put on white noise of a small river in Scotland and Llyn Gwynant waves in Wales. The toponomy of Lismore indicates it was named after Isle of Lismore which lies in Loch Linnhe, an arm of the sea, on the West Coast of Scotland. I was born in Lismore early 1990, an experience I hadn’t intimately considered until the birth of my son a couple of years ago. My son was conceived in the Nancy Fairfax Artist in Residence Studio at Tweed Regional Gallery. There’s a pair of hoop pines (aka Richmond River Pines) that dominate the side view from the residency verandah. I often use these trees, along with banksias, within my work to represent the Northern Rivers region, my transition to motherhood and European exploration/invasion of Australia.

The works in 'Arm of the Sea and the Fertile Tree' use landscape metaphor rather than subject. Intimate personal experience and collective experience are translated into paintings, bedspreads, windows, still lifes and stages.

- Sally Anderson, 2020

The exhibition is open from 3 July — 29 November 2020

READ MORE HERE

Sally Anderson's work 'Claude Swimming' has been selected as a finalist in the Portia Geach Prize for 2020. The painting of Claudia Karvan, actress, producer and writer will be exhibited at the National Trust's S.H. Ervin Gallery.

The Portia Geach Memorial Award was established in 1965 to be annually presented to an Australian female artist. Portia Geach was an iconic figure in the Australian arts community, acclaimed for her art and media presence, and as such the award was created in her honour. The award is specifically for the best portrait painted from the life of someone well renowned in art, academia, or science.

The exhibition will be open in Sydney from 14 August – 20 September 2020.

IMAGE:

Sally Anderson

Claude Swimming, 2020

acrylic on linen

168 x 137cm

READ MORE HERE

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.

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

My paintings talk of relationship, context and metaphor. They are loaded with autobiographical content, draw on past and present experiences and often arrive in pairs. Recent paintings use abstraction, still life and borrowed landscapes to reference everyday intimate experience held in object and place. They explore the self and use abstraction, landscape and still life as devices to do so.

- Sally Anderson, The Design Files, 2019.

READ MORE HERE

Sally Anderson's work 'Side of the Road River with Rousseau's Bluebells' has been selected as a finalist in the Mosman Art Prize

Mosman Art Prize was established in 1947, and is Australia's oldest and most prestigious local government art award. The winning artworks join a collection of modern and contemporary Australian art, reflecting 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 and Natasha Walsh.

The exhibition is open until 27 October 2019 at Mosman Art Gallery

IMAGE:

Sally Anderson

Side of the Road River with Rousseau's Bluebells 2019

acrylic on linen

courtesy the artist

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

We are delighted to see works by Sally Anderson, Belem Lett, Lucy O'Doherty, and Amber Wallis in the new exhibition 'The Whiteley at 20: Twenty Years of the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship', as previous finalists of the award.

Established by Ms Beryl Whiteley in 1999 in memory of her son, the 'Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship' provides young painters with the opportunity to travel through Europe to develop their artistic practice. Since its inception, 20 young painters have followed in the titular artist's footsteps.

The exhibition features works by Sally Anderson, Alice Byrne, Mitch Cairns, James Drinkwater, Petrea Fellow, Becky Gibson, Nathan Hawkes, Alan Jones, Nicole Kelly, Belem Lett, Lucy O’Doherty, Wayde Owen, Timothy Phillips, Tom Polo, Ben Quilty, Karlee Rawkins, Samuel Wade, Amber Wallis, Natasha Walsh, and Marcus Wills, alongside the four paintings that won Brett Whiteley the Italian Government Travelling Scholarship.

The exhibition presents not only the works that won the scholarship, but features works from each artist's residency at the Cite Internationale des Art, Paris and recent work.

The exhibition is open from 22 March - 5 May 2019 at the S.H. Ervin Gallery in Sydney.

READ MORE HERE

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.

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

After receiving a record-breaking 482 entries this year and careful deliberation from the judges, the Glover Prize has announced its 42 finalists for 2019. These finalists represent the Judges’ selection of the best artworks of the Tasmanian landscape, chosen from the 482 entrants coming from every Australian state and territory, as well as a number of submissions from New Zealand, Italy, and the United Kingdom. These 42 artworks will be on display at the Glover Prize Exhibition at Falls Park Pavilion in Evandale, Tasmania during March this year.

The judges for the Glover Prize 2019 are Art Fairs Australia CEO and director, Barry Keldoulis; Sydney artist Joan Ross; and Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) director, Janet Carding. The judges next task is to carefully narrow down the 42 finalists to choose the winner of the $50,000 cash prize. After its display at the exhibition, the John Glover Society Inc. will acquire the winning artwork for its collection.

Julian Meagher's work Democratic Mountain has been selected as one of the finalists. The exhibition commences on the March long-weekend, running from Saturday the 9th of March, 2019 and continuing until the end of the following weekend on Sunday the 17th of March, 2019, at the historic Falls Park Pavilion in Evandale.

READ MORE HERE

John McDonald highlights Clara Adolphs practice in the Good Weekend Magazine:

'Clara Adolphs is not the first artist to be fascinated by the old photographs one finds in flea markets and junk shops. These faded snapshots, intended to immortalise loved ones and special events, have become mysteries, as we cannot identify people and places. Nevertheless it's easy to recall similar holidays and family outings, and enjoy a sense of familiarity.

It's in the nature of snapshots to concentrate on moments of leisure, and this is reflected in paintings such as Sunbather, where a woman relaxes in a deck chair, or Daylight Hours (pictured), in which three figures lie stretched out on the grass.'

READ MORE HERE

Sally Anderson's work ‘Guy’s Painting of Wollumbin on my Wollumbin’ has been acquired by Tweed Regional Gallery. In 2017 Sally was an artist in residence at the Nancy Fairfax Artist Residency through the Tweed Regional Gallery and throughout her life, has had strong connections to the region.

IMAGE:

Sally Anderson

Guy's Painting of Wollumbin on my Wollumbin 2018

acrylic on linen

140 x 122 cm

READ MORE HERE

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

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

Congratulations to Julian Meagher who is a finalist in the Paddington Art Prize 2018.

The Paddington Art Prize is a $30,000 National acquisitive prize, awarded annually for a painting inspired by the Australian landscape. 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.

Of his entry 'Wapengo Lake Tideline', Julian says

I wanted this work to chase the spontaneity and freedom of a watercolour. It was painted at a time of great change just before my son was born. A time of giving in to forces far greater than me, of tides, cycles and connection to country.

READ MORE HERE

Congratulations to Sally Anderson who is a finalist in the Paddington Art Prize 2018.

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.

This work uses ‘borrowed landscapes’ to look at ways we experience the Australian landscape from the comfort of our homes. It uses landscape as a device to demonstrate a shift in the way we experience landscape.

- Sally Anderson


IMAGE:

Sally Anderson
Sharing Thirroul (Paul Ryan's Post Of Thirroul With Curtain) 2017
acrylic on linen
140 x 124 cm

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

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

The Salon des Refusés was initiated by the S.H.Ervin Gallery in 1992 in response to the large number of works entered into the Archibald Prize which were not selected for display in the official exhibition. The Archibald Prize is one of Australia’s most high profile and respected awards which attracts hundreds of entries each year and the S.H. Ervin Gallery’s ‘alternative’ selection has become a much anticipated feature of the Sydney art scene.

Julian Meagher's work 'Wapengo #1' was selected in 2018.  Wapengo #1 is from a series painted after a recent residency on the Sapphire Coast where Meagher spent a month with his pregnant wife Beejal in Mimosa Rocks National Park. He says:

‘I wanted these oil paintings to chase the spontaneity and freedom of a watercolour. They are unashamedly romantic, painted at a time of great change just before my son was born. A time of giving in to forces far greater than me, of tides, cycles and connection to country.’

READ MORE HERE

Julian Meagher is a finalist in the Art Gallery of New South Wales' Archibald prize, the most prestigious portrait prize in Australia. His work is of Man Booker prize recipient Richard Flanagan.  Meagher says:

'Richard Flanagan’s novels are published in 42 countries and have received numerous honours and awards, including the 2002 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, the 2014 Man Booker Prize and the 2016 Athens Prize for Literature.

‘He is one of my favourite novelists but it is his writing and interviews on literature, the environment, art and politics that particularly make him one of Australia’s most important voices,’ says Julian Meagher. ‘Herb, Richard’s writing partner, was pretty insistent that he be included in the painting.’

Born in 1978 in Sydney, Meagher still lives and works there. This is his third time in the Archibald Prize. He has also been a Wynne finalist.

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

Julian Meagher is featured in the May/June edition of Vogue Living magazine.

5 x 5 – the Artist and the Patron

24 March 2018 – 20 May 2018

The artist-collector relationship has existed for millennia, manifesting in multiple forms with varying outcomes. During the Renaissance, the patronage of the Medici family enabled Raphael and Leonardo DaVinci to focus solely on art. Just outside Melbourne, during the mid twentieth century, at their home Heidi, John and Sunday Reed invited a young Sidney Nolan inside their world, creating a consummate creative union. In Sydney, Judith Nielsen has helped usher contemporary Chinese artists from emerging to legendary status. Each partnership has yielded significant outputs reverberating throughout different cultures.

5X5 recognizes the cultural significance of these types of pairings by exploring the trajectories of five artists and their parallel collector relationships:

• Amanda Love / Tracey Emin
• Dr. Dick Quan / Uji ‘Hahan’ Handoko Eko Saputro
• Lisa Paulsen / Patrick Hartigan
• James Emmett / Julian Meagher
• The Private Collector / Nigel Milsom

Marking a twenty-five-year relationship, artist Julian Meagher and collector James Emmett have the longest standing association of all the collector-artist pairings showcased in 5X5. Their journey begins when they went to high school together. The pair would become closer friends when Emmett’s partner, Peter Wilson commissioned Meagher to paint Emmett’s portrait during their university years (included in this exhibition).

The works included in this exhibition span the entire period of the Emmett and Meagher’s art collecting/ art making histories. Interestingly, Meagher admits that some of these earlier works are no longer representative of his current practice, revealing the temporal nature of collecting. Often new acquisitions redefine the collection or an artist’s output as a whole by casting new light on past works or acquisitions and suggesting possible directions for the future. Nevertheless, this relationship timestamps their shared experiences as they developed into their adult selves.

Click here to view the Catalogue

Tides and cycles

By Christopher Barker, Tuesday February 13, 2018

For Sydney artist Julian Meagher, 'Inlet/Outlet' is a new type of beast.

Not so much in its challenge to Australia’s contemporary cultural identity (something he is largely known and regarded for), but for translating those ideals to landscape works inspired by the far South Coast of New South Wales Australia. The result, a 21-piece exhibition at the Bega Valley Regional Gallery, chases freedom, the tide and slow looking. The effect on him, profound as it may be, is outlined in our interview below. 

READ THE ARTICLE HERE

Julian Meagher's three week residency at the Myer House at Blithry Inlet on the south coast of New South Wales and the resultant solo exhibition at Bega Regional Gallery is profiled on the Artist Profile blog.

'Sydney artist Julian Meagher's latest exhibition 'Inlet Outlet' is the fruit of a 2017 residency with Bega Valley Regional Gallery (BVRG). A pilot project for a long-term partnership between the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) and BVRG, the inaugural residency signals 'another key step in the development of the arts in the region and provides the opportunity for visual artists to draw from the unique natural environment of the local region, connect with regional communities and expand their practice outside of metropolitan studios', says BVRG Director Iain Dawson.'

VIEW THE ARTICLE HERE

In April 2017 Bega Valley Regional Gallery welcomed prominent Sydney artist Julian Meagher as inaugural artist in residence. A pilot project for a long term partnership between the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the BVRG, the residency offered the opportunity for visual artists to draw from the unique natural environment of the local region, whilst connecting with regional communities and expanding their practice outside of metropolitan studios.

Meagher spent time at the beautiful Sir Roy Grounds-designed Myer House set on Bithry Inlet in the pristine Mimosa Rocks National Park and Inlet Outlet showcases the artistic fruits of that stay.

Exhibition on until 10 march 2018

READ MORE HERE

Sally Anderson's recent exhibition 'Self Storage and the Really Real' is featured in the January edition of the Art Almanac.

'Self Storage and the Really Real’ looks at ways we authenticate experience and store memory in object and place’, says artist Sally Anderson whose abstract compositions brim with clear references to past experiences; from the hydrangeas at her childhood home to shells from the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, and Norfolk Pines from recent Instagram posts to landscapes from past and present relationships. These works are a visual archive giving permanence to intangible memories and making them, as the title implies, ‘really real’.

- Art Almanac

IMAGE:

Sally Anderson

Tosha Falls as Curtains with Deegan Drive or LJs Mums Hydrangeas, 2018

acrylic on linen

122 x 122 cm

READ MORE HERE

Byron Bay's Byron at Byron Hotel recently completed a renovation which included a suite of works by Julian Meagher.

Designed by well known interior designer Luchetti Krelle, art takes pride of place within the newly renovated walls, with finalist of the 2015 Archibald Prize, Julian Meagher commissioned to paint a series of still life paintings featuring Australian natives for the hotel. 

READ MORE 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.

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.

Sally Anderson has been awarded the Brett Whiteley Travelling Arts Scholarship for 2017.

The prize is $40,000 and a three month residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, administered by the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

The annual Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship is open to Australian artists aged between 20 and 30. It was created from an endowment left by Beryl Whiteley, who witnessed the profound effect that international travel had on her son Brett Whiteley, as a result of him winning the Italian Government Travelling Art Scholarship at the age of 20.

The exhibition will open 13 October – 19 November 2017 at Brett Whiteley Studio, 2 Raper Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010.

READ MORE HERE

Clara Adolphs has won the Mosman Art Prize Emerging Artist Award for her portrait Sal, 2017 for her portrait of artist and friend Sally Anderson. This is the second time Clara has been awarded the 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, 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.

IMAGE:

Clara Adolphs

Sal 2017

oil on linen

83 x 67cm

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.

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

Hosted by the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA) in Sydney on 18 August, you now have the chance to learn life drawing from some of the best in the business, with a one-off class led by Archibald Prize finalists. 

Supporting NAVA, the 15-person only event will see past Archibald finalists Jasper Knight, Julian Meagher, Dean Brown and Oliver Watts give out tips via way of a life drawing class, discuss their work and also tour their Darlinghurst studio. 

“One of the things I like most about life drawing is the communal nature of it. Oliver, Jasper and I spent many of our teenage years together at life drawing classes. I'm looking forward to getting the band back together! Art can be a lonely pursuit so it is magical when you can bounce ideas and create work alongside your peers. NAVA plays a key role in our community and I think it is fitting to be able to support it in this way,” says Julian Meagher, who was selected as a 2015 Archibald finalist for his Daniel Johns portrait. 

Visit NAVA to book. 

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.

Sally Anderson has been selected as a finalist in Newcastle Art Gallery's Kilgour Prize.

In 1987 artist Jack Kilgour bequeathed funds for the creation of a figurative and portrait art competition to be run in perpetuity at Newcastle Art Gallery. Today the Kilgour Prize is one of Australia's major art prizes and awards $50,000 for the most outstanding work of art as determined by a panel of three judges, and $5,000 for the People's Choice Award, as determined by votes from the public.

The Kilgour Prize will be on display 5 August - 15 October 2017.

READ MORE HERE

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 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

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: Julian Meagher | The Ashes Fall - The Wine Spills | 2016 | oil on linen | 152 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: 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

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

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

Iconic Australian blog The Design Files visited Sally Anderson in her studio recently, to see how things were progressing in the lead up to her first solo exhibition.

Working predominantly with a muted colour palette, the artist will often add an unexpected contrast, like a brush of bright magenta. ‘For me, working with colour is very intuitive; I might spend weeks working with dusky colours, only to come in one day needing to mix a cyan blue,

The paintings are an ongoing process of adding layers and marks. Sometimes Sally will paint over a work in her studio that she’d thought she was long done with. ‘My partner once said that my pieces are a bit like découpage… with individual snippets and cut-outs layered heavily onto a surface,’ she says. ‘My mum has always loved crafts and used to actually découpage the furniture in our house… maybe that’s unknowingly made an impression on me!’

- Sally Tabart, The Design Files, 2021

READ MORE 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.

Museums & Galleries of New South Wales is delighted to announce five residencies have been awarded through the Artist or Curator Residency Program for 2017. Generously supported by the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund, each residency of $11,250 will provide artists and curators the space and time to immerse themselves in a unique place, community or collection within a regional gallery, boosting their creative process.

Bega Valley Regional Gallery, New South Wales

In partnership with the National Parks and Wildlife Services, Bega Valley Regional Gallery will host contemporary painter Julian Meagher on a month long residency within the south east NSW region. Over the month long residency Julian will deliver three workshops and one masterclass.

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

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

Julian Meagher has been selected as a finalist for the Shirley Hannan Bega Portrait Prize at the Bega Valley Regional Gallery. The prize is a $50,000 non-acquisitive award for realistic portraiture. The winner will be announced by the judge Dr. Christopher Chapman, Senior Curator at the National Portrait Gallery, Friday 17 June.

View Julian’s available works here.

Congratulations to Julian Meagher who has been selected as a finalist in the 2016 Gold Award at Rockhampton Art Gallery. The Gold Award is a national invitation painting award with an acquisitive cash prize of $50,000 made possible through a generous bequest from the Estate of Moya Gold. The winning artist will be announced by Chris Saines, Director Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art. 

The exhibition is current from 23 July – 4 September 2016.

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

Watch Bundit in the Studio Here

Julian Meagher's portrait of superstar National Rugby League player Johnathan Thurston is on the cover of the October issue for Rugby League Player Magazine.  Meagher was a finalist in the 2015 Archibald Prize with his portrait of Daniel Johns. The Thurston portrait is part of a suite of works from the 'Code' series which shines a light on the vulnerability of some of Australia's biggest football heroes, dramatising the precarious fragility in each man’s isolated facial expression.

Julian Meagher's solo exhibition 'Alone in the Sun' is on from 3 - 27 November 2015.

We are pleased to announce that Julian is a semi-finalist with his portrait Paul Ryan for the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize. Julian was also a finalist with his work Floating In A Darkened Sky for the Eutick Memorial Still Life Award (EMSLA) at Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery.

Julian will be exhibiting new works for Alone in the Sun at Edwina Corlette Gallery, November 3 - 21, 2015. This series of new work further investigates how our past inhabits our present. 'As I have grown older I have become interested in the concept of both collective and personal notions of inherited history,' he says.

Originally posted on CULTURAL FLANERIE:

View original 635 more words

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

Julian Meagher has been commissioned by Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney to bring the Company’s actors to life with a suite of drawings for their 2015 catalogue. Belvoir’s position as one of Australia’s most innovative and acclaimed theatre companies has been determined by such landmark productions as The Wild Duck, The Diary of a Madman, The Blind Giant is Dancing, The Book of Everything, Cloudstreet, Measure for Measure, Keating!, Parramatta Girls, Exit the King, The Alchemist, Hamlet, Waiting for Godot, The Sapphires, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Stuff Happens and Medea.

When Julian Meagher first met John Waters ‘He was rehearsing Looking Through A Glass Onion with Stewart, my girlfriend’s father, in his lounge room. They were making a lot of noise, laughing and playing Norwegian Wood. It was great to meet the man I had watched on Play School, now far removed from Big Ted’.

John Waters is an English film, theatre and television actor best known in Australia, which he’s called home since 1968.  Meagher says ‘I wanted to paint John in a puffy shirt, both as a nod to his theatrical profession and to re-imagine him as a kind of colonial character. ‘He has such a strong face, which really suited my painting style. It was my hope to capture a complex expression. Rather than looking back at the viewer, he is engaged with something outside our understanding’.

Born in Sydney in 1978, Meagher left work as a medical doctor nine years ago to paint full time and has exhibited regularly since then both locally and internationally. He studied the Atelier method in Florence, Italy. He has been a finalist five times in the Salon Des Refuses. He was a finalist in the Doug Moran Portrait Prize in 2009 and 2012, as well as in the Metro Art Prize and Blake Prize for Religious Art.