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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

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Earlier this year the Consulate launched the Monash Room Exhibition Program, giving Australian artists the opportunity to exhibit their work at the New York premises. From a broad range of applicants, four exceptional artists were selected for the program; John Aslanidis, Sara Morawetz, Jeremy Edmiston and Jemila MacEwan. Arts and culture has a vital role to play in strengthening Australia’s reputation as a creative and sophisticated nation. Through this program of work the Consulate aims to promote collaboration between Australian artists and international partners, while also generating awareness for our talented featured artists. John Aslanidis is the first artist to exhibit at the Consulate through this program.  A respected Australian artist, John's works are a celebration of his relentless aesthetic optimism. The vibrant colours and concentric patterns give the impression of a pulse, as if each painting has a very loud heartbeat.   

Belem Lett is a finalist in the inaugural Birmingham Prize. The overall winner will receive a $20,000 cash prize generously donated by Elaine Bermingham. 

The Elaine Bermingham National Watercolour Prize in Landscape Painting is a unique triennial art prize which aims to celebrate excellence and innovation in the watercolour medium. This non-acquisitive prize is open to all Australian artists and selected finalists will be exhibited in the Webb Gallery, located within Griffith University’s Queensland College of Art at South Bank, Brisbane. All finalist artworks will be available for sale to the public.

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.

Like bursts from a camera shutter, Abbey McCulloch’s new series Performance at Tweed Regional Gallery captures not only the most consciously posed and poised bodies, but those moments in between that reveal the out-takes, where gestures belie the vivacious, confident woman caught only a millisecond before.

Somehow, we all know one of these fabulous creatures. She oozes with self-possession, acuity and style. She has a kind of élan, or je ne sais quoi that can be neither bought or photoshopped. With a prolonged and desiring gaze we realise that she is not one, but many women. She is composite and contemporary taste. She is a construction created by you and I, and them ‘out there’.

In this moment, McCulloch’s aim comes into sharp relief, problematising the very act of looking. She asks simply, “What do you want from her?” And in asking this question, McCulloch characterises the expectations we place on others and ourselves in the performance of everyday life.  Dr Laini Burton, 2016

Friday 9 December, 2016 to Sunday 26 February, 2017 at Tweed Regional Gallery. 

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The Art Life's Sharne Wolff recently posed six and a half questions to Abbey McCulloch about being a finalist in the 2016 Portia Geach prize, and what it's like to paint portraits.  

Sharne Wolff: You’ve been an Archibald finalist twice and your portrait of curator and arts writer Alison Kubler Two 2016, is now showing in the Portia Geach Memorial Award. Tell us a bit about the process of making portraits.

Abbey McCulloch: Actually three times in the Archie but hey, who’s counting? They’ve all been great experiences getting to meet the subjects – even the ones that didn’t make the cut – so in some ways the motivation to have a specific encounter is behind my wanting produce a portrait at all. I think my idea of a person shapes the portrait, and playing around with that preconception is far more interesting to me than simply re-creating someone on canvas. I keep the sitting brief as there is usually something that happens in those initial moments of meeting someone that sticks with you and I don’t like to lose that feeling. There is this immediate wrestle with the person you expected in your mind and I like to play around with that. I also hope to capture some of the nerves as they’re there somewhere too – for both of us.

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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.

Congratulations to Jasper Knight who is a finalist in the Paddington Art Prize with his work 'Red Ladder, Yellow Ladder' 2016, enamel, acrylic, masonite, plywood, perspex and copper on board.

The Paddington Art Prize is a $25,000 National acquisitive prize for a painting inspired by the Australian landscape and is now in it's 13th year. An exciting addition to the Australian Arts calendar, the Paddington Art 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.