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Contemporary Art Awards

Finalist Exhibition 2017

 

 

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Highly Commended

Lillian Morrissey

 Contemporary Art Awards 2017 Highly Commended | Lillian Morrissey | Awakening | Acrylic on board | 120 x 240cm | 2016

Awakening
Acrylic on board

120 x 240cm

2016
 

 Contemporary Art Awards 2017 Highly Commended | Lillian Morrissey | Awakening | Acrylic on board | 120 x 240cm | Detail

Award Winner

Amy Carkeek

Contemporary Art Awards 2017 Winner | Amy Carkeek | Little boy blue | Archival Injet Print | 100 x 66cm | 2016 |

Little boy blue
Archival Inkjet Print

100 x 66cm

2016
 

 

Highly Commended

Jeramie Scahill

Contemporary Art Award 2017 | Highly Commended | Jeramie Scahill | Walking Stick

Walking Stick
Stirling silver and rosewood

10 x 85cm

2016
 

 

Alejandra Sieder
Alenjandra Sieder | Melting Snow | Acrylic on Canvas | 100 x 60cm | 2016

Alejandra Sieder

New South Wales, Australia

This is a tribute to all the years I lived in Norway. It is my farewell... 

 

This is the snow melting in my soul because I feel at home in Sydney. I feel I belong here. While in Norway, snow is starting to fall right now, I am having the most wonderful weather, sunshine and energy everywhere. Thank you Norway for the souls I met, for the son I had and for the opportunity to believe that utopias exist.

Melting Snow
Acrylic on Canvas

100 x 60cm
2016

Alice Penco
Alice Penco | Sphenopalatine Ganglioneuralgia | Spray-Paint on Plywood | 60 x 25cm | 2016

Alice Penco

New South Wales, Australia

 

At present, food is a constant source of inspiration in my art practice as it plays a significant part in our social and cultural lifestyles. For me, food not only triggers enjoyment but it also references family connections, and adventure. Aesthetically, the objective is to unleash the audiences’ imagination with its colour and shapes provoking the viewer to consider how food connects to their lifestyle, family, and the everyday. We are inundated with new food creations daily and it seems that nothing is out of the ordinary.

Sphenopalatine Ganglioneuralgia
Spray-paint on plywood
60 x 25 cm
2016

Alison Peters
Alison Peters | Black Sugar White Sugar | Installation | 176 x 93 x 35cm | 2016

 

 Black Sugar White Sugar (2016) is a reflection on Australia’s Sugar Bounty. Under the provisions of this 1903 Act, the Commonwealth government paid a bounty for ‘White Sugar’ – sugar cane cut by white labourers. Cane produced using South Sea Island, or Kanaka labor was known as Black sugar. Same product, different price. It was one of a raft of measures that excluded these sugar industry pioneers until World War II when the exclusion measures were finally repealed.

Alison Peters is a multi-disciplinary artist and writer. Her process is informed by her background as a TV reporter and producer.
 

Alison Peters

New South Wales, Australia

Alison Peters | Black Sugar White Sugar | Installation | 176 x 93 x 35cm | 2016

Black Sugar White Sugar
Repurposed textiles, palm husk, thread, white raku clay, raw sugar

176 x 93 x 35cm

2016

Amy Campbell
Amy Campbell | The More I Digest, the less I Know | Mixed Media collage on paper | 2016

The More I Digest, The Less I Know
Mixed media collage on  paper

110 x 150 x 20cm

2016
 

Amy Campbell

ACT, Australia

My work reflects on the information overload present in the digital age, and the way that the media and internet comprise of simulated realities which distort the original meaning of information. By printing photographs of previous paintings and collaging these into new works, I endlessly reuse imagery to show the effects of image reproduction and deterioration. This occurs in the imagery, which is also physically distorted by the folding contours of the sculptural surface. The dynamic support and clashing saturated colours evoke chaos and uncertainty in the viewer which is reflective of the turbulent, information-saturated world we live in.

Amy Campbell | The More I Digest, the less I Know | Mixed Media collage on paper | 2016 Amy Campbell | The More I Digest, the less I Know | Mixed Media | 2016
Amy Carkeek
Amy Carkeek | Little boy blue | Archival Injet Print | 100 x 66cm | 2016 |

Amy Carkeek 

Queensland, Australia

These two photographic works depict a collision of worlds and the consequences of continually striving for the unobtainable — a manufactured dream — pre-packaged and sold for our inevitable descent. The works aim to bring desire and fantasy to a head in a new world, one where the fantastical and glittering illusion is actually obtained. By altering certain discarded children’s ceramic figurines into states of absurdity and unthinkable violence, a nightmarish reality is revealed.

 

Little boy blue
Archival Inkjet Print

100 x 66cm

2016

Amy Carkeek | Children should be seen but not heard | Archival Injet Print | 100 x 66cm | 2016 |

Children should be seen but not heard
Archival Inkjet Print

100 x 66cm

2016

Carol McGregor
Carol McGregor | Blood rape, get'm before they menstruate | 15 x 75 x 15cm | 2016

Carol McGregor

Queensland, Australia

Blood rape, get'm before they menstruate

Possum skin, cotton, ochre, "Englischrot hell" pigment, gum binder

15 x 75 x 15cm

2016
 

Catherine Leung
Catherine Leung | The Secret Place | Archival print | 2016

Catherine Leung

New South Wales, Australia

 

 This work is inspired by words from the book of Psalm. 'He who dwells in the secret place of the most high shall remain stable and fixed under the shadow of the Almighty' (Psalm 91:1)

 

In this ever-changing volatile world, we live in, to have a place where we can remain stable is crucial. We all need a secret place.

 

 

Secret Place

Archival Print

90 x 67.5cm

2016

Danny Kneebone
Daniel Kneebone | Ethereal Beauty | Archival photographic print on fine art paper  | 80 x 64cm | 2016

 

 

 

Ethereal Beauty (2016) is a photographic work that showcases the award-winning burlesque performer Sina King. In creating this piece, I wanted to pay homage to the heritage of burlesque, I attempted this by placing particular motifs in the background and blurring the performer on the left. These methods were used to control the depth of field and direct the audience attention across the image. By capturing the artist in three different poses it represents the mental preparations of performing on stage. By combining the theatricality of burlesque and the dream-like quality, it transports the audience into an alternative world. Therefore, I invite the viewer to consider not only the historical aspects but also the contemporary modes of burlesque today. ​

 

Daniel Kneebone 

Victoria, Australia

Ethereal Beauty

Archival photographic print on fine art paper

80 x 64 cm

2016

Dean Walker
Dean Walker | Invisible Dragon | 18ct yellow gold, precious gems, leather, & paper​ | 2016 | $35,000

Dean Walker

Tasmania, Australia

 

A new art form I call Pretiosus Novella. It involves the creation of jewellery through narrative and vice versa. During the creation, it is almost as though I am possessed. I travel to other worlds, becoming a part of them, while my hands write and create.


This piece is called Invisible Dragon (2016). The 12,000-word short story is set in ancient China. It tells the story of Min's journey to avenge his mother's death.

 

The Invisible Dragon

18ct yellow gold, precious gems, leather, and paper​

36cm x 19cm x 6cm​

2016

Dean Walker | Invisible Dragon | 18ct yellow gold, precious gems, leather, & paper​ | 2016 | $35,000
Elmari Steyn
Elmari Steyn | Courage | Etching and Aquatint | 28 X 31cm | 2016

Elmari Steyn

Western Australia, Australia

Courage to change your life/circumstances.
To stay, to hold on or to leave?
The storm created by one’s decision.
Swallows - symbols of leaving/returning.
Difficult choices results in freedom (flight).

Courage

Etching and Aquatint on fine art paper

28 x 31 cm

2016

Elmari Steyn | Silence | Etching and Aquatint | 28 X 31cm | 2016

Acceptance generates a stillness within.
Peace of mind with circumstances/changes/what was left behind.
Silence is not the absence of noise, more the presence of soft sounds, the falling of leaves.
Body clothed. Present in the here and now.

 

Silence

Etching and Aquatint on fine art paper

28 x 31 cm

2016

Graziela Guardino
Graziela Guardino | Your absence is as strong as your presence | Acrylic, tule & wood | 100 x 80 x 4cm | 2016

Graziela Guardino 

New South Wales, Australia

 

 Your absence is as strong as your presence (2016), explores material and investigates the binary forces in life such as darkness and light; past and present, absence and presence. The use of the colour black allows a full exploration those elements, the absence of them as well as the space in between.

Your absence is as strong as your presence
Acrylic, tule and wood

100 x 80 x 4cm
2016

Graziela Guardino | Your absence is as strong as your presence | Acrylic, tule & wood | 100 x 80 x 4cm | 2016
Jacky Cheng
Jacky Cheng | Dharam Wheel | Acid-free 110gsm archival paper | 63.5 x 60cm | 2016

Dharma Wheel

Acid-free 110gsm archival paper

63.5 x 60cm

2016

Jacky Cheng

Western Australia, Australia

My awareness towards the viewpoint of the act of ‘making and doing’ is highly influenced by my Chinese cultural background be it from gastronomic point of view to folding joss paper or spirit paper with my grandmother for people in the afterlife. It became more apparent during my Architectural studies in my university years, which later transposed as a series of artworks that looked like a topographical landscape even though this was not the case as it was just the act of mark-making. 

 

I have been correlating experiences and mapping the esoteric relationship between the art of making and attaining something sublime. I do not try to cut or imitate the perfect lines of a mechanical machine but much so to gain personal satisfaction in allowing myself to experience the ‘process’ to which it conveys emotions, behaviour and bio-rhythmicity of my experience. 


During the process, I am drawn to observing the power of ‘growth’. The dynamic constant change of shapes becomes an entity in itself and encourages the play of light and shadow. I am less concerned about the result and care more about the act of "doing". The journey is as important as the destination.

Jacky Cheng | Dharam Wheel | Acid-free 110gsm archival paper | 63.5 x 60cm | 2016

Lonely Alone

Oil on board

182 x 81.3 x 3cm

2016

 

Janet Angus’s oil on board paintings take the forms of stark three-dimensional constructions. 

The processes involved in the making are through the manipulation of wood for creating multiple surfaces that extends the flat surface, and enhance the viewing experience. Commencing with a vision or idea, Angus manipulates the image digitally until it reaches the desired state. This stage is crucial as she seeks to reflect an inner state of mind, with the intention of eliciting an emotional response.

Angus’s vertiginous structures suggest the difficulties associated with negotiating one’s way through any angst-inducing contemporary environment, physical, mental or emotional.

Janet Angus

Janet Angus

ACT, Australia

Janet Angus | Lonely Alone | Oil on board | 182 x 81.3 x 3cm | 2016
Jeramie Scahill
Jeramie Scahill | Walking Stick | Stirliing Silver & Rose Wood | 85 x 10cm | 2016

Walk Stick

Stirling Silver and rose wood

10 x 85cm

2016

Jeramie Scahill

New South Wales, Australia

"Youth Is a gift of nature, but age is a work of art." 
- Stanislaw Jerzy Lec.

Designed for strutting, this stick is sexy! Hand-crafted in Australia with attention to the smallest detail including the feel and the weight as well as the silhouette created when held in the hand.

The handle is hand forged sterling silver ergonomically sculpted to fit either hand. The curves of the silver blend into the ebonised rosewood shaft, which is hand carved with a curved taper and a triangular girth impossible to replicate on a machine.

Each piece of rosewood, a timber traditionally used in walking stick making, was especially selected for its tight grain and structural integrity. It grew on the Dorrigo Plateau, is over 150 years old and hardened by a lightning strike and bush fire.

The shaft separates into two pieces with a sterling silver sleeve and 
stainless steel rod to provide a reinforced join. This makes it easy to pack away into your travel bag. The tapered end is sterling silver with a replaceable non-slip tip that slides into an inner sleeve.

Jeramie Scahill | Walking Stick | Stirliing Silver & Rose Wood | 85 x 10cm | 2016
Jeramie Scahill | Walking Stick | Stirliing Silver & Rose Wood | 85 x 10cm | 2016
Joanne Morris
Joanne Morris | Looking Through | Charcoal on cotton rag | 100 x 75cm | 2016

Joanne Morris

Victoria, Australia

 

This artwork was created by combining the use of a raw charcoal stick and my unique method of ‘Painting with charcoal ‘ - a skill that involves applying the charcoal with dry brushes that I handcraft myself. I use this monochromatic medium to focus the viewers’ attention to the drama of light, shadow and texture without the added influence of colour. My unique technique resulting in a fresh and delicate contemporary piece.

 

Looking Through

Charcoal on cotton rag

100 x 75cm
2016

Joanne Morris | Studio Window | Charcoal on cotton rag | 100 x 130cm | 2016

This intricate portrait depicts the details of face and personality. My highly realistic, black-and-white style draws attention to light and shadow without the distraction of colour. My works are painted using finely ground charcoal and hand-crafted tools; an organic approach that breathes life and meaning into my portraits.

I create with a method called ‘painting with charcoal’ using fine animal hair brushes I craft myself, plus charcoal powder, I can achieve a dramatic effect of contrasting light and shadow. I love using these ancient techniques to create realism, drama and depth in my works.

Studio Window

Charcoal on cotton rag

100 x 130cm

2016

Joanne Schloss
Joanne Schloss | The Battle | Oil on wood | 60 x 90cm | 2016

Joanne Schloss

Victoria, Australia

In my work, I often use my immediate environment and people around me to express something from my subconscious. I piece together images from different contexts to create the new image. This gives my work a dream-like feel. I like to see the meaning emerge and unravel.


Ultimately my work is about the human condition. The struggle to find happiness and meaning in our lives. To live with the circumstances and choices we make. People’s relationship with nature and the wild always interests me. Nature is seen to be something to be owned, harnessed or conquered. Our treatment of animals reflects that.

 

The Battle

Oil on wood

60 x 90cm

2016

John Procter
John Procter | Charles Bukowski | Pencil on cresent board | 38 x 51cm | 2016

Take no heroes only inspiration! “We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.
This work was created out of inspiration and respect to the late Charles Bukowski, a German-born American poet, novelist, and short story writer. His writing was honest and influenced by the social, cultural, and economic ambience of his home city, and addressed the ordinary lives of poor Americans and the drudgery of work. “What matters most is how well you walk through the fire”.
“Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead."

Charles Bukowski

Pencil on cresent board
38 x 51cm
2016

John Procter 

South Australia, Australia

 

Jude Hotchkiss
Jude Hotchkiss | Cloudfield | Oil and Medium on canvas | 122 x 122 x | 2016

Jude Hotchkiss

New South Wales, Australia

Early childhood sensory experiences combined with current environmental concerns inform the structure, qualities and mood of my current abstract work.

Weather extremes and climactic drama were hugely important in a childhood spent in regional Australia. Dust storms, bush fires, flood and drought ruled life. Survival depended on anticipating and interpreting these occurrences. Days and weeks were foretold in colour, direction, temperature and cloud shape. A great deal of time was spent looking at the sky.​

Cloudfield

Oil and medium on canvas

122 x 122 x 4 cm

2016

Julie Hollis | Serendipity | Acrylic on canvas | 61 x 61cm | 2016

 

Serendipity….
"There isn't any questioning the fact that some people enter your life, at the exact point of need, want or desire - it's sometimes a coincidence and most times fate, but whatever it is, I am certain it came to make me smile.” 
― Nikki Rowe
This was an exploration for me with a limited palette. I used just 3 colours, cobalt blue, Expresso, and Havana Brown....It was fun mixing the colours to see what they became and how they applied to the skin tones.

Serendipity

Acrylic on canvas

61 x 61cm

2016

Julie Hollis

Queensland, Australia

Julie Hollis
Kailum Graves
Kailum Graves | #1 | 130 ceramic mugs | 204 x 116cm | 2016

Kailum Graves

Queensland, Australia

Billionaires—the crème de la crème of a society in which money is the principle gauge of success.

#1 presents 130 of the world’s 1,810 billionaires in the congratulatory style of #1 Dad mugs found in cheap gift shops. The work is an attempt to flip the celebratory logic of wealth on its head and give a middle finger to neoliberalism—economic system that values greed, self-interest, and extreme personal wealth.

Kailum Graves | #1 | 130 ceramic mugs | 204 x 116cm | 2016

#1

130 ceramic mugs

204 x 116cm each

2016

Karl de Waal | The Business of Art 1 | Mixed media | 36 x 25 x 25cm | 2016
Karl de Waal

The Business of Art 1

Found concrete, resin, dirt, oo/ho model items

30 x 20 x 25cm

2016

Karl de Waal

Queensland, Australia

These two works utilize the dynamic of sculpture to comment on the adverse effects the 'business of art' has on not only the artist but the very nature and development of an art practice. These works attempt to subvert the very nature of how the art world sees value in some works and not in others.The cult of celebrity and the 'so hot right now' system of curating destroying the fundamentals of creativity ultimately undermining the role of the artist and the diverse powers of expression the arts should be acknowledging and celebrating.

Karl de Waal | The Business of Art 1 | Mixed media | 30 x 20 x 25cm | 2016

The Business of Art 2

Found concrete, resin, dirt, oo/ho model items

36 x 25 x 25cm

2016

Karl de Waal | The Business of Art 2 | Mixed media | 30 x 20 x 25cm | 2016
Karl de Waal | The Business of Art 2 | Mixed media | 30 x 20 x 25cm | 2016
Kate Bender
Kate Bender | Untitled | Oil on canvas | 84 x-76.5cm | 2016

 

Kate Bender is an emerging artist whose colourful abstract paintings lie somewhere between abstraction, optical illusion and the representation of space.

While the paintings appear abstract, they are an exploration and representation of the navigable internal spaces of the mind. Interacting with these paintings becomes an immersive, sensorial experience. Multi-directional light sources activate a luminosity that emanates and pulses from somewhere deep within and outside of the canvas. 

Simultaneously there is a radiating charge of energy and sense of stillness within Bender’s paintings. This perplexing state of looking is balanced through the overriding harmony that flows from the colour relationships.​

Kate Bender

New South Wales, Australia

Untitled 

Oil on canvas

84 x 76.5cm

2016

Katherine Gailer
Katherine Gailer | Nesting | Genuine gold leaf and oil on linen | 77x56cm | 2016 | $3820

Nesting

Genuine gold leaf and oil on linen

77 x 56cm 

2016

Katherine Gailer

Victoria, Australia

I create imaginary landscapes exploring characters, cultural identity and spaces of magical realism. My artistic expression aims to underscore the main theme that looks at the complex relationship between fragility and strength, vulnerability and empowerment– and my artworks can be interpreted as a series of confronting tensions to articulate the essence of female existence. The representation of women is one of my core inspirations: the investigation of the female body as a symbol of sexuality, motherhood, beauty and ambiguity. Rediscovering a sense of the sacred and revisiting our ancient past embody the driving force for the development of my artworks.

Katherine Gailer | Weaving Of Oneself | Genuine gold leaf and oil on linen | 102x56cm | 2016 | $4100

Thread by thread we weave our destiny. We wrap and woof our thoughts, and so re-create our identity. The Weaving of Oneself is, therefore, a choice. We choose the patterns we embody; through those we filter and perceive the world, and recognise our own reflection. 

Through my work, I aspire to contribute to the ‘weaving’ or reconstruction of a contemporary female identity; a matrix of the female experience as a source of power.

The Weaving of Oneself

Genuine gold leaf and oil on linen

56 x 102cm 

2016

Kathleen Valks | You have until 5pm | Clay, wire and palm frond | 110 x 1890 x 15cm | 2016

Fish Trap

Clay, wood and wire

60x 100 x 22cm

2016

 

This work is Raku vessels with the beginnings of fish-nets resting on a driftwood PLATTER. This  work reflects the environment with which I surround myself, this body of work has evolved from materials i have collected on my many walks along our beach, visits to salvage yards  and garbage dumps for the sole purpose of recreating beauty from a big world of junk.

 

Kathleen Valks

Queensland, Australia

Kathleen Valks
Katrin Terton

Katrin Terton

Queensland, Australia

 

I wander and listen to the dying things

Whisper, haunted, intangible

Skins loosened, memories stripped bare

Remnants, fragile, forgotten

Hidden beneath the layers

Where the dust settles into another truth

Katrin Terton | Shifting Skins | Mixed media installation | 2.5 x 4 x 4m | 2016

Shifting Skins

Mixed media installation - fabric, snake-skin, sheds, feathers, bones, skeletons, thread, wood and image projection.

2.5 x 4 x 4 m

2016

Kim Bennett
Kim Bennett | I did it for you | Acrylic, ink, graphite & charcoal | 2016

Kim Bennett

New South Wales, Australia

Part of a body of work named 'Fervour and Forfeiture' that explores the self and our experiences of loss, grief, reflection, and empowerment. The work is a response to the defining moments in life that determine our path, whether that be planned or unplanned. Hindsight challenging insight – we often do not fully understand or see the truth of a situation and the choices we have to make as a result.


These observations and experiences are responded to through the process of laying down material and instinctually placing textured layers and washes; often resembling abstracted landscapes and figurative forms and portraiture. Haptic and considered mark making and layering were specifically chosen to convey the emotional content of the work – revealing, hiding or hinting at what lies beneath or is left behind, but never forgotten. To reinforce the central premise, I used my whole body to create sweeping marks and lines and to lay the paint and ink, creating movement and textures. As with life, if you look closely or scratch the surface so much more is shared with you.

I did it for you

Acrylic, ink, graphite and charcoal on board

120 x 120cm

2016

Larissa Rogacheve
Larissa Rogacheve | The Festival of Birds | Assemblage of 5 canvases | 80 x 150cm | 2016

Larissa Rogacheve

South Australia, Australia

 

The collision of formal play, dry composition of circles overlaid with cinematic, illustrative ,medieval and grotesque imagery is the key to this stylised piece.

The Festival of birds

Assemblage of 5 canvases, gold leaf, and tempera

80 x 150cm

2016

Larissa Rogacheve |The Unfinished Piece for Mechanical Pianola Pianola roll | Mixed media | 35 x 250cm | 2016

The Unfinished Piece for Mechanical Pianola

Pianola roll, watercolour, silk, acrylic medium

35 x 250cm  

2016

This is a rhapsody about the nature of the grotesque dream, which makes us come back to artificial subjects in fruitless effort to escape the rational and inevitable. Who would not wish to find this hidden pianola roll of life narrative? What if the imagery and music it produced could have been amended? The sense of time, antique surface, constant loss of information, embedded into the image is at the center of my interest here.

Laura Delaney
Laura Delaney | Saved from Landfill | Found polypropylene objects | 130 x 100 x 200cm | 2016

Laura Delaney

Victoria, Australia

Saved from landfill (2016) highlights the widespread environmental atrocity of plastic chairs being buried in landfill with a ‘harem of zebras’ being saved from such a fate. By ‘animating’ the chairs, it is hoped that it will encourage people to think about the often thoughtless purchasing and discarding of these ubiquitous objects. 


The narrative aims to highlight the collective disassociation of the environmental impact of excessive consumerism. One source claims the chairs can take up to a thousand years to decompose.

Saved from Landfill

Found polypropylene objects

130 x 100 x 200cm

2016

SOLD

Leah Doeland | Healing Rain | Acrylic on canvas | 100 x 75cm | 2016

Healing Rain

Acrylic on canvas

100 x 75cm

2016

Leah Doeland

New South Wales, Australia

Leah Doeland

Embedded into the first layer of paint is my artistic representation of the Hebrew script for "Adonai Roph'ekha", The Lord who heals.

This is a deeply spiritual piece encouraging an encounter with the ONE who heals.

 

Leah Doeland | Winter Splendour | Acrylic on canvas | 100 x 75cm | 2016

The season of winter is often characterised by coldness-loneliness-barrenness, but why is it viewed in that light? Winter is essential; winter is the earth's time for rest and regeneration. 
A place of rest can sometimes look and often feel unproductive and alone... but beauty comes from resting and time spent restoring your soul. 


From a distance, this painting looks dull, muted and uninteresting, but please look a little closer, find the beauty in the intricacies, look for the splendour amongst the decay... Out of the darkest winter, spring blooms... and with spring comes new life and new opportunities. This artwork carries a blessing of rest and hope for tomorrow.

Winter Splendour

Acrylic on canvas

100 x 75cm

2016

Leah Emery
Leah Emery | Who Told You You Were Naked | Embroidery thread on aida cloth | 43 x 46cm | 2016

Leah Emery

Queensland, Australia

 

Who Told You You Were Naked (2015) marries imagery that evokes a forbidden fruit narrative, with pornographic human landscapes. The melange of the biblical and the sexual was borne from exploration into the role religion has played in cultural attitudes to sexuality, nudity, responsible sexual practices, and women's role in the discourse of sexual liberty. The viewer is forced to identify and confront their own relationship to pornography and body image in a theologically unnerving, aesthetically inviting facade.

I use my works to
protest the cultural etiquette of withholding healthy public access on topics surrounding sex and intimacy quintessential to human experience.

Who Told You You Were Naked #1

Embroidery thread on Aida cloth

43 x 46cm

2015

Lillian Morrissey | Awakening | Acrylic on board | 120 x 240cm | 2016

Awakening (2016) is the largest piece in a series investigating contemporary Australian society through the use of architecture as analogy. The works are based off line drawings from NSW and Victoria of suburban houses, overlaid with new postmodern architecture. The work is layered until the lines blur and disintegrate, in a visual metaphor for the tension between ideologies and epochs as culture changes with technology. The resultant image is both a memorial to the twentieth century 'Australian Dream' of the small suburban home, and a conceptual map of our position in a new world of information flows and globalised capitalism.

Lillian Morrissey 

Victoria, Australia

Lillian Morriessey

Awakening

Acrylic on board

120 x 240cm

2016

My work explores the shifting re-interpretations of motherhood as a subject matter in contemporary art. Specifically, it investigates the process of reorienting personal mother/child experiences by creating new narratives to reinstate a creative space within motherhood and art practice. This work is based on a narrative of my daughter, who leads the viewer into an unknown destination within the landscape. In this context, she leaves the weights and thread as metaphorical clues for the viewer. As I learn about her emerging identity, she leads me into an unknown ‘landscape’ where there is tension surrounding her need for independence, and my simultaneous reluctance to let go.

 

   

Lost/Found

Video projection, fabric, thread, sterling silver, pebbles, paracord

180 x 120 x 120cm

2016

Linda Clark

Queensland, Australia

Linda Clark
Lisa Kotoulas | No Mirror Required | Oil on linen | 56 x 66cm | 2016

 

This image is part of a body of work inspired by the idea of belief and overcoming challenges in finding ones own truths. 

In this painting, the subject discovers that contemplative introspection must be considered in finding any answers. With a shift in focus from looking outward, some sense is made as the answers gradually appear.

No Mirror Required

Oil on linen

56 x 66cm

2016

SOLD

Lisa Kotoulas

New South Wales, Australia

Lisa Kotoulas
Lucila Zentner | flooding at the Rivergums | 102 x 102 | oil on canvas | 2016

Flooding at the Rivergums

Oil on canvas

102 x 102cm

2016

 

This is a scene from bushlad on the borders of the Murray at Echuca-Moama during this year's minor floods. Repetitive shadows mirrored tree trunks and pieces of sky in the water.

 

 

Lucila Zentner

New South Wales, Australia

Lucila Zentner
Lucila Zentner | Springflowers of Emkatdee | 77 x 114 | oil on canvas | 2016 | $6500

 

This is a scene of bushlad around the Murray at the start or the 1026 spring with wildflowers in bloom.

 

Springflowers of Emkatdee

Oil on canvas

77 x 114cm

2016

SOLD

Luke O'Reilly
Luke O' Reilly | Contingent | Oil on aluminium | 100 x 100cm | 2016 | $2400

Luke O'Reilly

Queensland, Australia

 

 These two paintings are an intuitive contemplation of the countless forces that shape individual experience, often before it even reaches our conscious awareness to be interpreted. From the composition of warring microbial colonies in our digestive tract to experiences of our grandparents causing epigenetic ripples which reach down to us, as well as the many cultural/historical metanarratives within which we are helplessly embedded. It is also an exploration of the concept of human individuality comprising of an inner orchestra of states/subpersonalities/intelligence/etc.

 

Contingent

Oil on aluminium

100 x 100cm

2016

Luke O' Reilly | Contingent II | Oil on aluminium | 100 x 90cm | 2016

Contingent II

Oil on aluminium

100 x 90cm

2016

Michael Simms | Weight | Oil on wooden panel | 50 x 60cm | 2016

The first time I saw Andrew Wyeth’s 1948 painting ‘Christina’s World’, I was immediately reminded of a reoccurring dream from my childhood. In this particular dream, I would find myself crawling in a field, attempting to reach shelter before the sun set and I was plunged into darkness on my own. 

Through referencing Wyeth’s striking composition and reflecting on my memory of this dream, I wanted to explore the power of landscapes and their ability to shape our perspective and our place in the world.​

Weight

Oil on wooden panel

50 x 60cm

2016

Michael Simms

New South Wales, Australia

Michael Simms
Michelle Driver | Windows No.2 | Handwoven tapestry | 35.5 x 46cm | 2016

Windows No.2

Hand woven tapestry - wool, cotton and linen

35.5 x 46cm

2016

 

Windows No. 2 (2016), based on x-rays, invites the viewer to peer into the very core of what makes up our identity. It shows our innermost physical being – something that we cannot fake, airbrush or Photoshop. It is a ‘secret portrait’, laying bare all that is true within us. The medium of hand woven tapestry further imbues the work with a sense of humanity through the many hours of tactile, hands-on work required to render this piece. This process provides a contrast to the immediacy of x-ray technology.

Michelle Driver

South Australia, Australia

Michelle Driver
Michelle Webb | Cry Wolf | Archival Giclee Print | 2016

Cry Wolf

Archival Giclee print 

30 x 40cm

2016

 

 This work is a combination of my love of predators and the story about the boy who cried wolf, which my father recited to me as a child. Painted freehand in specialist art program with no use of references.

 

Michelle Webb

Victoria, Australia

Michelle Webb
Ming-Yu Chang | Transient Grace | Aluminium wire and rock | 20 x 20 x 30cm | 2016

 

 The blooming Jacaranda tree spreads its radiance and fragrance. The elegance and beauty represent a young lady. In this exhibit, benevolence is provided through shade and a touch of life to the otherwise barren earth. This juxtaposition shows that hardships can often yield the most beautiful results. The tender coils that make up the blossoms are worked finely to capture the essence of this tree when flowering.Through contrast, the jagged stone highlights the soft curves of the metallic tree. The finesse of each turn reflects a refined tone in the personality of the both the tree and the metaphoric lady.

 

Ming-Yu Chang

New South Wales, Australia

Ming-Yu

Transient Grace

Aluminium wire and rock

22 x 22 x 35cm

2016

Ming-Yu Chang | Intricate Dignity | Aluminum wire and rock | 20 x 20 x30cm | 2016

 

 Pines are held within a venerable status and are associated with longevity and wisdom. This exhibit represents the perseverance of nature and a wise aged man. The tree is depicted as having weathered through years of hardship, and yet remains firm from the experiences. Each carefully formed leaf is the fruit of patience, and every detailed root is shaped by the struggles and contours of the world. The metal that forms the plant life seeks to forever capture this image in time. Together it forms an image of strength, with each part equally important in representing a dignified character.

 

Intricate Dignity

Aluminium wire and rock

20 x 20 x 30cm

2016

 

Still lifes of origami silver unicorns came from the movie Blade Runner, in which they were left on the ground by one of the replicants to remind the lead character that he might be replicant since he keeps having possibly implanted dreams about unicorns.

Nada DeCat 

New South Wales, Australia

Nada DeCat
Nada DeCat | Finding My Herd | Oil on linen | 46 x 71cm | 2016

Find My Herd

Oil on linen

46 x 71cm

2016

Nada DeCat | Janelle Fawkes | Oil on linen | 137.5 x 137.5cm | 2016