Finalist Exhibition 2018 | Contemporary Art Awards

This self-portrait is essentially a multi-layered and multi-faceted exploration of balance. I have explored the concept of balance through colour, shape, dark & light and also the aspect of balance within myself. Having had a long and tumultuous relationship with a variety of forms of self-expression, I have stumbled across a style of creating that I feel embodies my wish to create something beautiful, unconventional and controversial in its aesthetic. This work combines my love of folk-art & decorative elements, with the desire to explore spiritual aspects of myself, concepts of idealism and juxtaposition. Self Portrait in Winter (2017) is a pivotal or climactic piece in a series of abstract and surreal pen drawings.

Self Portrait in Winter

Mixed media on canvas

91 x 122cm

2017

Adam Pearson

Al Roberts

Tasmania, Australia

Every day, when I put my work shirt on I quickly contort my body into peculiar positions, so I do not have to undo any of the time-consuming buttons. I save approximately forty seconds per day putting on and taking off my shirt this way. Over the average working person’s life, it can save forty seconds per day, three minutes and thirty-three seconds per week, 2.66 hours a year, which equates to five full days over a 45-year working career. That’s a lot of time you can save from merely not wasting your time with buttons.

David

Bronze

61 x 19 x 26cm

2017

Alberto Monte Rego

Gripping for Life

Archival inkjet print

70 x 46cm

2017

Alberto Monte Rego

Queensland, Australia

Like a lot of my work, this piece began with an intended play with simple photographic techniques to bring movement and life to the subject. Secondary, through the editing process, a phase of revelation begins, when appreciable lines, shapes and colours combine to create a narrative. "Gripping for Life" reflects those elements and appearing forms, a dark, deep, perhaps damaged picture of our depressed forests. But, it also reveals a strong, resilient and alive state. Focusing on aesthetic values, the image is intended to stimulate our visual senses and encourage reflection on our relationships with nature.

In the Process of Healing (2017) is an immersive installation of photography, sound and space which attempts to remove the stigma around trauma and normalise conversations that are difficult. In the Process of Healing (2017) tells a story of hope and survival. Responding to the stories of institutional abuse and growing rates of suicide, I have worked with a local refugee family to create a moving and respectful collection that reflects the process of healing. My vision is to give hope. To document the invisible lives, drowned by society's attempts to maintain normalcy through keeping their eyes shut, pretending that lives don't exist, referring to them as numbers. These are important conversations to have in our community, and this installation provides a contemplative and physical space for conversations about trauma and moving forward in life. "
The room with the 'Chair of Nails' is terrifyingly effective and heightens a physical sense of traumatic experience within the body and the mind. The floating images on fabric depict a family of refugees with their faces hidden, conveying a sense of fear, hope and the journey towards healing.

Aldona Kmiec

Victoria, Australia

Aldona Kmiec | Invisible Lives - Chair of Nails | 300 x 120cm | Photographic on fabric | 2017

Invisible Lives (From the Process of Healing Series)

Installation View

2017

Invisible Lives

Photograph on fabric

120 x 300cm

2017

Invisible Lives - Chair of Nails

Antique chair, old barb wire and nails

Variable

2017

Aldona Kmiec

Alejandra Sieder

New South Wales, Australia

I am here in front of you. My soul is a fire, brilliant and powerful as yours. I control my thoughts, and I convert them into real evidence that is created from my mind. I have the potential to create everything I want, like you, in harmony with the Universe... All my thoughts are like seeds, they have life itself, and through my magical hands, they become realities when the environment is perfect to materialise them. I have my own power as you have yours. We are together through the path on this same Earth. I invite you to go on a journey inside your mind, your soul, and your skin and then find your own extraordinary gift. Have you realised all the power you have in your cells?

Shaping thoughts into physical manifestations

Acrylic, oil and ink on canvas

150 x 120cm

2017

Alejandra Seider

Amalea Manifis

Amalea Manifis

New South Wales, Australia

Anamnesis in classical philosophy is the act of significant remembering; it does not simply refer to the past, but its resonance within the present. Anamnesis and its antithesis (historical amnesia) are central to the work of Amalea Manifis. Her work is an active reconstruction of the past from the fragmentary remains of an original trace. Amalea focuses on her own ancestor’s history, particularly the genocide in Smyrna in 1922. Without the individual and collective memory, narratives between generations can be silenced, barred from entering the field of history.

Anamnesis

Oil on board

90 x 90cm

2016

Amandeep Kaur

Amandeep Kaur

Australian Capital Territory, Australia

Amandeep Kaur experiments with digitally created photomontages that have layers of deliberately fabricated liminal spaces in which the idea of the self is explored. Amandeep creates the works using digital photographs of various local and foreign spatial environments that she has visited in the recent past. Her work is often women-centric and questions the displacement, dislocation and also the connections and negotiations of women through the journey of transmigration. Her current works are titled ‘Liminal Mindscapes’ as they explore possibilities of belonging to multiple places and the merging of local and global environments through multiple auto-ethnographic narratives.

Liminal Mindscapes (Aussies Clouds in Tokyo)

Digital print - limited edition of 9

118.9 x 84.1cm

2017

Amber Countryman

Amber Countryman

Queensland, Australia

I realise a dirty old piece of coal, and white satin gloves don't usually have much in common, but what connects them? MONEY. This coal jewellery is meant to represent wealth and excessiveness. I wanted to inspire questions of cost...not to the wearer, but to the environment. I want to ask if the economy, jobs and personal fortunes hold more value than the environment we rely on to sustain us. I want to suggest renewable, long-term energy sources as a more viable option than this dirty old piece of coal...leave it in the ground.

What's the Cost

Coal, jewellery findings, stand, satin gloves and fabric

30 x 20 x 30cm

2017

Amica Whincop

Amica Whincop

Queensland, Australia

"If I should die this very moment, I've never known completeness, like being here with you" - Lamb (Gorecki)

It is a constant effort to find balance amidst the unpredictability and chaos of life. Nature becomes the place I turn to where the chaos becomes calm, and the contradictions find balance. My art-making reflects this constant search to capture the beauty, tranquillity, and balance inspired by the rhythms and energy of the natural world. The mystery and the wonder that emerges within the natural world are sources of endless inspiration.

Gorecki

Ink, acrylic, enamel, aerosol on canvas

152 x 76 x 3cm

2017

Anastasia Parmson

Anastasia Parmson

New South Wales, Australia

I want to take drawing past its conventional two-dimensional format by combining it with other mediums such as sculpture & ready-made, video & performance, social media & augmented reality. To not just seen – but experienced.

Stripping everything down to the line - that is the most basic form of every drawing. A way to simplify, to blank out heavy implications and make things more light and approachable. Ultimately, I want my work to be about drawing people together. Perhaps creating a world in drawing can strip away enough preconceived notions to allow for a new space of co-existing.

Untitled (My space at May Space)

Ready-made objects, paint, paint marker

82 x 151 x 127cm

2017

Andy Mullens

Andy Mullens

Australian Capital Territory, Australia

Hear! Hear! (2017) is a sculpture featuring two megaphones pressed face to face. This piece was born out of my frustrations at contemporary political and social attitudes. I repeatedly found myself feeling futile despite my efforts to campaign for what I believe. Driven by an interest in the phenomenon of echo chambers and social media algorithms that only serve to reinforce one’s beliefs, this work questions these modes of communication and consumption. I also interrogate the effectiveness of trying to convince “the other side” of our own beliefs: it seems no-one wants to have their mind changed, including myself.

Hear! Hear!

megaphones and timber

70 x 30 x 20cm

2017

Anna Russell-Smith

Anna Russell-Smith

Queensland, Australia

Inspired by my love of the earth and to make use of everyday disposable materials my series of ‘Tyred Forrest’ artworks were born. The tyres used were found on the side of the road and from this an art piece transpired into something appealing. Interestingly, the steel cable inside the tyres is used to make the tree branches.

Each year in Australia, the equivalent of 48 million tyres reach the end of their life, only 16% of these are domestically recycled. Around two-thirds of used tyres in Australia end up in landfill, are stockpiled, illegally dumped or have an unknown fate.

Tree of Hope

Recycled tyres

80 x 105 x 8cm

2017

Annalise Fogg

Annalise Fogg

Queensland, Australia

Growing up in beautiful sunny Queensland, Moreton Island became our annual camping holiday. There is something about the clear blue waters, fresh air and abandoned beaches that relaxes me. Each trip we trek up to the lighthouse at the end of the island. The array of blue hues that spread from coast to coast is filled with an abundance of marine life. As the waves crash up onto the rocks below, the sea turtles become clear in a cloud of white foam. I get to see this view every year as I sit on the seat that overlooks the island.

This piece is a response to the movement, colour and calmness that I feel at the lighthouse. Although the waves may crash, the sounds of the water hitting the rocks from a distance are mesmerising. Combining acrylic with water and manipulating the angle of the canvas while wet, I was able to portray a calming movement that takes you from one edge to the next. The closer you look, the more you will see. Separating forms, developing cells and intricate dots create a piece that allows you to look close, close your eyes and hear the ocean.

Beneath the Ocean Current

Acrylic on canvas (solid oak frame)

125 x 65 x 10cm

2017

Arjang Razzazian

Arjang Razzazian

Victoria, Australia

Universal Punk (2017) puts together the visual icons that once belonged to a counterculture; to bring to attention that it is now fed by consumer fashion industry and homogenised to be a part of the mainstream market. So, if the counterculture still exists, it cannot be defined by such clichés.

Universal punk is made of everyday advertisements objects: mannequin, leather necklace, ice cream cone, stilettos and headphone.

Universal Punk

Glass, resin, found objects

34 x 34 x 22cm

2017

Carmel Lousie

Carmel Louise

Victoria, Australia

This artwork consists of 8 hand cut layers mounted to create one piece. This process emulates many levels of the gentrification process occurring across Melbourne. It begins with acquisition/demolition of defunct warehouses, then construction of “contemporary apartments”. As a result, the traditional industrial flavour of the area has been transformed by a new demographic. The businesses now sell gourmet everything, to provide for the population boom which in turn drives the need for more housing. The result becomes a metaphor for both the deconstruction process/ reconstruction of our neighbourhoods into something new, contemporary and divergent from its past.

Constructional No.1, V1 in 3D

Mixed media

100 x 100cm

2017

Danae Thyssen

Beyond the Illusion of Hope and Despair

Boxed frame with Giclee Print on photo rag

90 x 60cm

2017

Danae Thyssen

South Australia, Australia

When we let go of the illusion of hope and despair, we recognise there is only love. Challenges are just misguided reminders that we can adapt and overcome. We can survive any situation that presents itself.

Transformation begins when we relinquish fear and open ourselves to the magic of possibilities. The time for change is here, the time for change is now. Let go of the old self, let go of all things holding oneself back. Now is the time to manifest our divine purpose and live in the power of true identity. It is time to step into thine most authentic self and awaken the soul.

Daniel Kneebone

Victoria, Australia

Danny Kneenone

Daniel Kneebone | The Jewelled Rose I Archival digital print | 100 x 80cm | 2017

The Jewelled Rose II, takes a luxuriously illustrative look behind the curtain at the opulent and sensuous world of burlesque. This image portraying renowned burlesque performer Zelia Rose a leading Australian burlesque performer who actively contributes to the vaudeville scene in Australia and Internationally. Therefore, the aim of the work is not only to shed light on the burlesque industry but to reveal the artists who continue to cultivate this genre in Australia. Capturing a moment of evolving drama, creating a sense of wonder and intrigue, bringing the viewer to a foreign midpoint between reality and illusion and revealing the freedom of expression that is burlesque.

The Jewelled Rose II

Archival digital print on galerie prestige gold fibre silk - edition of 10

100 x 80cm

2017

Angel Peacock portrays Lola Ramone an Australian burlesque performer through narrative art. While society worships archetypical heroic male football images, there is no female equivalent — but for me, the answer is burlesque. Strongly influenced by women’s attitude and spirit, the artform comes to life through theatricality and strong visceral archetypes. Angel Peacock aims to shed light on the burlesque industry and how these performers inspire women to embrace their femininity, as well as shine a spotlight on the artists who make this unique cultural scene what it is in Australia.

Angel Peacock

Archival digital print on galerie prestige gold fibre silk - edition of 10

100 x 74cm

2017

Daniel O'Hanlon

Daniel O'Hanlon

Queensland, Australia

Torn was a vision I had for some time, by using metal slugs from a metal punching machine that is left to waste I created this sculpture with these slugs which enabled me to created this piece with all the curves and details in this piece of art work. The name Torn has come from this piece as it has an incomplete look about it is exactly what I visioned

Torn

Metal slugs from CNC punching machine

52 x 30cm

2017

Daniel Sherington

Queensland, Australia

Daniel Sherington

Transition 4 (2017), is a drawing that highlights the beauty that lies within the transitionary movement of Ballet: as performed by my sister. The piece captures my sister seconds before a ‘Grand Jette’. Decontextualizing her from her surroundings, and floating her on the page, she surreally exists just within that moment: the moment of the in-between; of freedom; and of the free fall. For each movement in dance to be complete, there exists a transitionary stage. These stages, which precede and follow the movement, are something that appears completely raw: moments of duality where freedom dilutes the immense amount of concentration and discipline to create what everyone is waiting for.

Transition 4

Ink on Arches paper (300gsm)

90 x 113cm

2017

There's something ironic about making an endangered animal entirely out of plastic. Blowing air in it - to pretend that it's there.

Hippo in Plastic

Ink on Arches paper (300gsm)

87 x 113cm

2017

Ella Baudinet

Ella Baudinet

Victoria, Australia

Ella Baudinet is a Melbourne based artist working primarily with oil paints. Baudinet's work focuses on the individual’s unique perceptions of abstract expressionist aesthetics. Combining elements of expressionism, abstraction and pseudo-surrealism, she explores the parallels between the conscious and subconscious mind. While we sleep, we are submerged in an environment created and perceived simultaneously by our own minds. Our brains are a virtual reality system, providing us with sensory stimuli based on our own experiences, emotions and the person’s characteristics. Our subconscious mind is highly active while awake and determines how we perceive our surroundings. As dreaming transports us from one state of mind to another, Baudinet's paintings provide a parallel platform by inviting the viewer to envision representational characteristics in the work, thus creating the individual's unique experience.

Genesis

Oil on canvas

76 x 122cm

2017

Elmari Steyn

Western Australia, Australia

Elmari Steyn

Eyrie: S28o37.595’/E116o25.327 (2017) is an abandoned eagles nest tree at Gullewa in Western Australia. It is part of my current printmaking project that explores the interaction that we allow ourselves with nature, through trees, especially unusual, individual and expressive trees, even misshapen trees. Every tree expresses its own unique narrative, character, size, shape and function. Whether in untouched wild places or in urban settings, trees retain their individuality, their true form and nature; their connection and relationship to an area, with its climate, wind and setting. Each work is of an individual tree, reproduced as a copper-plate line and aquatint etching.

Eyrie: S28o37.595’/E116o25.327

Etching and aquatint on archival paper

20 x 30cm

2017

Umbra: S33o38.347’/E115o01.567 (2017) is a unique tree located in a car park at Yallingup in Western Australia. It is part of my current printmaking project that explores the interaction that we allow ourselves with nature, through trees, especially unusual, individual and expressive trees, even misshapen trees. Every tree expresses its own unique narrative, character, size, shape and function. Whether in untouched wild places or in urban settings, trees retain their individuality, their true form and nature; their connection and relationship to an area, with its climate, wind and setting. Each work is of an individual tree, reproduced as a copper-plate line and aquatint etching.

Umbra: S33o38.347’/E115o01.567

Etching and aquatint on archival paper

15 x 30cm

2017

Eugene Rubuls

Eugene Rubuls

Queensland, Australia

“Nature is my religion, and the earth is my temple.”
My paintings express my infinite admiration for the diversity of colour, form and textures of the natural world. This is something I want to share with everyone who is ready to see it.
My artworks are inspired by some of the most spectacular visual images of the underwater world that have not only aesthetic impact on the viewer, but can also trigger emotions and important questions. When you love something, you naturally want to protect it so I would like my art to be a window into a world not everyone has the opportunity to see. My goal is to capture and preserve unique habitats and scenes, exquisite moments and create a visual depiction of the natural world - an endangered world, which sadly may not be here in the future.

Clown Fish

Oil on Canvas

60 x 75 x 1.5cm

2017

Chasing Coral

Oil on Canvas

122 x 92 x 3.5cm

2017

Greg Flynn

Queensland, Australia

Greg Flynn

This acrylic painting is in memory of those families of the 'FV Dianne' boating tragedy. This fishing vessel sank in wild seas off the town of 1770 in October 2017. Only one survived, two bodies recovered and four bodies unaccounted. This piece combines the underpainting tinged with red representing hope and despair, but also fear, isolation, hopelessness and the tempest at the time. The limited palette and the intensity of the angles express the torment of those on board and the families left behind.

Always Remembered

Acrylic on Canvas

40 x 40 x 3cm

2017

Helen Oprey

Helen Oprey

New South Wales, Australia

I play with paint, colour, texture and proportion in an attempt to portray work that is beautiful, unique and intimate. My style is emotional and not constrained by the limits of realism. Each artwork is an experiment and adventure to push my learning which creates something new to me, but always, in the end, the painting has to hold together. Thus I never get bored, and it helps to keep my work fresh.

The Lived in Room

Acrylic and textured paper on Canvas

102 x 102cm

2017

Letter to my Daughter (2017) is an emotional artwork depicting my daughter as she endures inevitable life struggles. It is what all mothers know of their daughters - that although life is sometimes hard, unkind, unfair and confusing, they are ALWAYS beautiful to their mothers. I have depicted my daughter with her big bright eyes in a sea of colour and chaos. LIFE

Letter to my Daughter

Acrylic and textured paper on Canvas

101.5 x 101.5cm

2017

Hugh Kerr

Tasmania, Australia

Hugh Kerr

Carnival (2017) is about behaviour under the mask of anonymity. I recently re-read Lord of the Flies by William Golding. Although allusions to indigenous people in the book often seem euro-centric and essentially racist, it remains a fascinating examination of the human condition. The boys’ donning of disguises worn and gradual descent into barbarism and to me has resonances with current trends in society and particularly social media where anonymity (or at least distance) removes normal rules of behaviour.

Carnival

Acrylic and ink on paper

52 x 70cm

2017

Rapacity is a stark illustration of the physical functions of human settlements. As well having an ideal for the best of human settlement, promoting general well-being, harmony, equality, vibrancy and the sharing of knowledge and culture, I feel it is important to examine them at their worst. Rapacity presents a view of a city as an almost cancerous entity, the embodiment of the insatiability of human consumption which sucks in the resources and degrades the surrounding land.

Rapacity

Ink on paper

30 x 41cm

2017

Jae Hyun Kwon

Jae Hyun Kwon

New York, United States

I see my sculptures as a residue of a series of unconscious struggles in pursuit of my cultural identity. Technically, my sculptures are American household commodities wrapped in Hanji, Korean traditional handmade paper. Through giving a Korean colour and texture to an American commodity, I investigate the issues with merging two different cultures.

Bottles

Dyed Korean handmade paper, beer bottles

18 x 12 x 22cm

2017

James Gardiner

Scape 2-17