PHAPTAWAN SUWANNAKUDT

 Phaptawan Suwannakudt, Not For Sure, 2012, drafting paper, paper with vegetal fibres, ink, bitumen, gold leaf, dye and pigment, dimensions variable. Installation view of the 18th Biennale of Sydney (2012) at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. Photograph: Ben Symons.

PHAPTAWAN SUWANNAKUDT is featured in the current issue of Eyeline magazine. In the introduction to Uncertainty is Certain: The work of Phaptawan Suwannakudt, Adam Geczy writes of individuals being the passive observers on the faith of others, an inviting aspect in Suwannakudt’s art. While her work is faithful to the Buddhist notion, it seeks to introduce and incorporate the viewer despite their cultural or religious positions. The title from her 2012 installation Not for Sure, is derived from the yogic statement that ‘uncertainty is certain’, a reminder that our conceptions of the world are fleeting, relative, and fragmented.­

To view the article click here.

PETER DAVERINGTON

Peter Daverington, From the Future with Love #2, 2013, oil on canvas, 122 x 91 cm

PETER DAVERINGTON’s paintings From the Future with Love #1 and From the Future with Love #2 are part of the group exhibition Render curated by Simone Hine, currently showing at Screen Space, Melbourne. Artists alongside Peter Daverington include Magda Cebokli, Warren Hine and Zac Koukoravas. The exhibition is on from 9 August – 13 September 2014.

LYNDELL BROWN CHARLES GREEN

Lyndell Brown/Charles Green, Jon Cattapan, Lesson Plan (The Second Attention), 2014, oil and acrylic on inkjet print on linen, 180 x 350 cm

LYNDELL BROWN/CHARLES GREEN and JON CATTAPAN's stunning exhibition, Spook Country: A Collaboration has been given a stellar review by Dan Rule in The Age.

"The lasting resonance of this work, which is rich in personal and historical references, is that of the sheer historical, social, spiritual, political and infrastructural complexity and repercussions of conflict on us all."

To read the full article click here.

CATHERINE WOO

Catherine Woo, Ebb, 2014, mixed media on aluminium, 120 x 120 cm

CATHERINE WOO’s 2014 painting Ebb is selected as finalist for the John Leslie Art Prize, one of Australia’s most prestigious non-acquisitive prizes for landscape painting. This year the first prize recipient will be awarded with $20,000, made possible by the generous ongoing support of Gippsland Art Gallery’s long time Patron John Leslie O.B.E.

The opening and announcement of the winners is on Friday 19 September 6pm at the Gippsland Art Gallery and the exhibition is on show until 23 November 2014.

For more information click here.

PAT BRASSINGTON

Pat Brassington, Quiescent, 2014, pigment print 100 x 89 cm

PAT BRASSINGTON'S work Quiescent, from her exhibition in April 2014 at ARC ONE, is part of the 2014 CCP Fundraiser. Quiescent is an edition of 8 plus 2 artist's proofs and is exclusive to the CCP fundraising event. Support will provide a context for the enjoyment, education, understanding and appraisal of contemporary photographic practice.

The event runs from 5 - 21 September 2014.

For more information click here

DANI MARTI

Dani Marti, Mother (white) (detail), 2014, second-hand necklaces on aluminium frame, 170 x 170 cm

DANI MARTI's opulent wall sculpture, Mother (white) was a stand-out at this year's Melbourne Art Fair. A decadent layering of necklaces in hues of white and blue, this enigmatic work featured in Vogue Living's 'top picks' from the Fair.

To see the Vogue Living shortlist, click here

TRACY SARROFF

Tracy Sarroff, Mew Chip Gold, 2013, oil paint on Perspex, 56 x 83 cm

TRACY SARROFF'S painting Mew Chip Gold has been selected for the 2014 Sunshine Coast Art Prize in painting and drawing. Presented by the Sunshine Coast Council, the prize is among the nation's most significant regional art prizes. The exhibition will take place at the Caloundra Regional Gallery between 27 August – 26 October 2014. Queensland Art Gallery Director, Chris Saines will choose one winner at the opening event on 27 August.

SAM SHMITH

Sam Shmith, View from the Dayvan, 2008, pigment print on luster, 50 x 50 cm

SAM SHMITH’S photograph View from the Dayvan is currently showing at the National Gallery of Australia, part of a new photography show, Gifted artists: Donations by Patrick Corrigan AM. The National Gallery holds one of the most extensive collections of Australian photographs from the 1970s to the present and the Corrigan gift has contributed to this holding in a significant way. SAM SHMITH’S practice depicts expansive composite landscapes, often as they are encountered in states of transit, taking us to places unrecognizable, yet strangely familiar. Digitally layered from an image bank of over 60,000 self-harvested photographs, Shmith choreographs a hybrid of images from his personal archives into each photo-work.

The exhibition runs from 15 August – 12 January 2015.

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MARIA FERNANDA CARDOSO

Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Emu next 5 Km, 2010-14

MARIA FERNANDA CARDOSO is part of SOUTH, a group exhibition conceived as a shared response to the identity af the artists living and working in our colonised and relatively remote Southern part of the world. The work presented is personal, political and socially engaged and reflects the changes in our globalised society. 

Exhibition opens: 6-8pm Thursday 7 August 2014
Exhibition closes: 6 October 2014
Location: Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre, 782 Kingsway Gymea NSW 2227 

For more information click here

JUSTINE KHAMARA

Justine Khamara, Now I Am Radiant People 5 & 3 part of the exhibition Vertigo at POSCO Art Museum, Seoul, South Korea.

JUSTINE KHAMARA’s works are currently showing in Seoul at POSCO Art Museum, in the touring group exhibition VERTIGO: chaos and dislocation in contemporary Australian art, organized by Asialink and BLINDSIDE. The exhibition runs from 23 July to 27 August at POSCO Art Museum. Artists alongside Justine Khamara include Boe-lin Bastian, Cate Consandine, Simon Finn, Bonnie Lane, Kristin McIver, Kiron Robinson, Tania Smith, Kate Shaw and Alice Wormald.

Exhibition text:

"The artists interrogate contemporary life, exploring the fracture, chaos and dislocation that arises in the human condition and in a world which is imbued with flux and change. The experience of dizziness and a loss of perspective are explored within a world that is gripped by an acceleration of time and pace.

Presenting sculptural works, painting, neon, collage, drawing and video, the artists disrupt the ordinariness that can pervade life, building new narratives of human experience. By conveying feelings of anxiety and humour, or by using absurd gestures, the artists in Vertigo attempt to make sense of the world around them, with dizzying effects." 

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View the catalogue

PHAPTAWAN SUWANNAKUDT

Phaptawan Suwannakudt in the studio working on a bust of her mother. (Image from belmoreitch.com)

PHAPTAWAN SUWANNAKUDT talks about her experience in Chiang Mai after winning an Asialink residency. During this residency she took part in making ceramics, a process that she was not previously familiar with, allowing her to form and develop new skills in ceramic art.

To read more about Phaptawan Suwannakudt’s residency experience click here

GUO JIAN

Guo Jian, Untitled, 2007, oil on canvas, 152 x 213 cm

GUO JIAN is currently featured in Artist Profile magazine, discussing the inspiration of his paintings from his time in China’s military. Throughout his life Guo Jian has experienced China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), from being an army propaganda painter, then ten years later, removing bodies from the horrific scene at Tiananmen Square, after forces opened fire on him and his classmates on 4 June 1989. These experiences have provided him with a lifetime of propaganda inspiration that he documents in his paintings. In particular, he discusses the entertainment provided for army troops in ways to rouse them to their cause, including the visits of singers and dancers; with this subject matter highlighted in his paintings.

To read the full article, click here

DANI MARTI

DANI MARTI’s current exhibition, Run, Run, Run, features in a brilliant review by Robert Nelson in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.

This bold new series of work is a visual feast: bright, intriguing and sensuous.

“[Marti’s] twisted inscrutable surfaces are radiant” – Robert Nelson

Don’t miss this evocative show at ARC ONE Gallery, showing until 16 August.

To read the full article, Marti’s Garden of Distortion, click here
 

JULIE RRAP

Julie Rrap, Self-portrait with mouche, 2013, pigment ink-jet print on cotton paper, 127 x 105 cm

JULIE RRAP has been selected as a Finalist for the 2014 Bowness Photography Prize. Established in 2006 to promote excellence in photography, the Bowness is one of the country's most coveted photography prizes. 

JULIE RRAP’s playful photograph, Self-portrait with mouche, 2013, has been short-listed and the winner will be announced on Thursday, 4 September 2014. JULIE RRAP says of the work:

"I am interested in images that arouse our curiosity and play with our expectations. Our imaginations are what free us from the mundane and return us to the magical. ‘Self-portrait with mouche’ was created in response to a fleeting image I had seen in a documentary on immigrants arriving in Australia in the early 20th century. One image stood out of a young man with a very noticeable facial mole whose position echoed that of the artificial beauty spot made famous by Marilyn Monroe. The blowfly became my muse in the process of cross- fertilizing these two contrasting images of the natural and the contrived; the beautiful and the grotesque, to create a new hybrid. Like a metaphor for photography itself, Self-portrait with mouche suggests both the fragility of presence and the stillness of death. Serendipitously, I discovered that the word for artificial beauty spot is the French word for fly; mouche."

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NIKE SAVVAS

Joseph Kosuth, #II49. (On Color/Multi #3), 1991. neon, transformer and certificate of authenticity 14 x 400 cm. Collection Anna and Morry Schwartz

NIKE SAVVAS will be participating in a group exhibition titled Optical Mix, opening next month at the Australian Centre of Contemporary Art (ACCA). 

This survey exhibition brings together works by a group of local and international artists including Joseph Kosuth, Martin Creed and Bridget Riley, exploring themes of light, kinetics and visual perception.

Optical Mix will be showing from 16 August to 28 September 2014.

For more information, visit the ACCA website
 

MARIA FERNANDA CARDOSO

MARIA FERNANDA CARDOSO will be part of a new exhibition, South: Contemporary Art from Australia, Mexico & South Africa, curated by David Corbet and showing at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre from 8 August to 6 October 2014.

The exhibition will include paintings, works on paper, installation, video and photomedia by thirteen contemporary artists from three countries across three southern regions: Oceania, Africa and Latin America.

For this exhibition, MARIA FERNANDA CARDOSO continues to explore creating work using materials from the natural world including emu parts - an animal which has come to form a potent symbol of Australia's national identity. 

For more information, visit the Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre here
 

SAM MARTIN

SAM MARTIN is part of the upcoming exhibition Depthless Flatness curated by Steven Rendall and Bryan Spier, at The Alderman, Brunswick East. This exhibition features the work of seven other artists and will commence on Tuesday 22 July 2014, as the opening exhibition for the Incidents Above a Bar project, a series of exhibitions developed by a group of artists in relation to practices and theories of painting today.

Depthless Flatness collects together the work of eight artists. The exhibition shows the result of a series of conversations between Rendall and Spier regarding aspects of range, spacing, differentiation, depth of meaning and flatness of surface in relation to what it means to paint today.

Building on a comment by Vito Acconci that there is a bias towards depth in Western culture, and that range could be just as good as depth, Rendall and Spier exchanged a series of views about painting, exhibiting and curating today. This exhibition is a partially distorted reflection of those views: a way of drawing upon the working conditions and parameters of the selected artists in relation to range and depth, flatness and the contradiction of the depthless.   

For more information click here

ANNE SCOTT WILSON

ANNE SCOTT WILSON has been selected as a finalist for the 2014 Bowness Photography Prize. Established in 2006 to promote excellence in photography, the Bowness Photography Prize is one of the country's most open prizes for photography. In the past, finalists have included established and emerging photographers, art and commercial photographers, all that are competing for $25,000 first prize and $1,000 People's Choice Award.

Anne Scott Wilson’s stunning photograph, titled Coathanger has been entered into the prize and the winner will be announced on Thursday 4th of September 2014. Anne Scott Wilson describes her photographic approach in the following statement:

“In the attempt to understand how the camera works I built a camera obscura and discovered that photography exists without us. That nature produces pinholes of light that form images came as a revelation. This spawned a new way of exploring the body in motion through photography.  Guided by instinctual body memory of light and space I impose rules on how and when I shoot.

In this series I ‘performed’ states of motion by combining elements together - a pas de trois of gravity, water and body mass caught in a flash, the action commonly known as ‘bombing’.  I continue to ‘choreograph’ the moment in Photoshop just like dance notation as if it could be read and repeated.”

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IMANTS TILLERS

IMANTS TILLERS is announced as the winner of the Gold Award 2014. As Queensland’s richest painting prize, Tillers is awarded $50,000 and his winning painting, Ephiphany, will be part of the Rockhampton Art Gallery collection. Gallery Director Tracy Cooper-Lavery said, “Imants Tillers is one of Australia’s most important artists and this work is a significant addition to the Gallery’s growing collection of contemporary Australian art. The painting pays homage to one of Australia’s great artists, Ian Fairweather. Tillers explains his “attraction to the layering of Fairweather’s enigmatic and spiritual paintings which are neither fully abstract nor figurative” and makes reference to Fairweather’s painterly approach by “capturing and perhaps amplify the distinctive and transcendental ‘blue’ colour which frequently appears in his work.” The exhibition runs from 5 July – 31 August 2014.

More information here and here

PETER DAVERINGTON

Peter Daverington, The Golden City Has Ceased, 2012, oil on canvas, 335.3 x 243.8 cm

PETER DAVERINGTON’s spectacularly large painting, The Golden City Has Ceased, has been selected as a finalist for the Archibald Prize 2014. Renowned for being Australia’s favourite and most prestigious art award, the prize is awarded to the best portrait painting of Australian culture including, but not limited to, portraits of politicians, celebrities, sporting heroes and artists. Daverington describes the painting as ‘a self-portrait of my imagination, where my signature geometric and spatial elements appear among figurative compositions drawn from various painting traditions.’ The painting has been approached with spontaneity over 18 months, where Daverington has drawn inspiration from socialist propaganda posters, Renaissance art, Romantic landscape painting, medieval European heraldry and religious iconography. The winner will be announced on Friday 18 July and the exhibition will run between 19 July – 28 September 2014.

For more information click here