Andjana Pachkova: Artist Statement & Bio

Andjana Pachkova is captivated by the never-ending dance of nature and the human; passionate and loving to be sure, yet also violent and at times exploitative. Her painting practice is firmly grounded in the intuitive, responding to the invisible and the ephemeral, to landscapes both travelled and felt. Her process follows the flow of substance, finding a place for herself that is liquid, fluid and moving very quickly. Interested in the infinite and treacherous possibility of water and surface, her painting practice explores the mutual interaction of the human and the landscape, how they move to shape and touch each other.

Born in Ukraine, Andjana Pachkova comes from a traditional Russian art tutoring background. Following the political movement Perestroika, she moved to Moscow and took classes at Stroganov Academy of Industrial and Applied Arts.

In 1997 Pachkova won the prestigious Davis Fellowship and subsequently moved to the United States. Alongside her academic studies, Andjana developed a drawing and painting practice informed by a passion for human relationships to landscape, in particular exploring the subtle changes in human psyche that occur when a person moves through a series of places.  Andjana took art courses both at Dartmouth Colledge, New Hampshire and NYU, New York.

Grounded in the intuitive, Andjana’s paintings team with passion, submerging the viewer in an active experience of movement and self- actualisation. Responding to both invisible and ephemeral connection, to topographies both travelled and felt, her practice explores the mutual interaction of human within the landscape, how they move to shape and touch each other. Recently interested in the infinite and treacherous possibility of oceanscapes, her works and painting process have taken on the turbulence of substance, of flowing paint and swirling water, to find a place for herself on canvas that is fluid and living.

Pachkova has studied with notable artists such as Idris Murphy, Jo Bertini, Brandt Lewis, Denis Clarke and Tony Tozer. Upon her move to Australia in 2013, she began to exhibit her work in Sydney and since 2017 has been represented by Stanley Street Gallery in New South Wales.

Andjana's works are held in private collections across the United States, including Harvard Law faculty in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, Iceland, Finland, Israel and Lebanon.

Andjana Pachkova: CV April, 2024 Download

Shaun Hayes: Artist Statement & Bio

The collection of plastic objects that inform Hayes’s sculptures are evocative of certain memories and feelings, capturing these ephemeral moments in time. Hayes contemplates the nature of today’s throwaway society and using seemingly unimportant, everyday objects, humorously highlights the importance of being more conscious of the enduring impact waste has on the environment. Drawing on the aesthetics of traditional ceramic vessels combined with contemporary objects, his adorned vessels echo a blending of past and present, old and new as well as illustrating the material similarities between plastic and ceramics.

Interested in the feelings and memory these throwaway objects evoke, Hayes comically uses trash to build vessels of Western cultural heritage. Our garbage becoming a biographic assemblage of certain value systems. The unimportant plastic bottle, the takeaway container and toothpaste ironically put on a pedestal, vitrified, forever set in stone. Almost sarcastically, the works are critiques of how material value is manufactured. But in the environment, it does not matter, material hierarchy does not exist, and both refuse to break down and return to the earth.

Through methods of repetition, rearranging and joining of cast objects paired with a tonal colour palette, Hayes’s sculptures are reminiscent of fantastical and comical imagery whilst also highlighting the tensions of growing up in conversation with existing in a wasteful, thoughtless consumerist society.

Shaun Hayes is a ceramic artist who investigates the relationship between throwaway objects and their ability to instil a sense of reflection on memory, creating a deeply nostalgic and sometimes humorous representation of time and place.

Hayes received a Bachelor of Arts (Visual), with Honours majoring in Ceramics from the Australian National University School of Art in 2013. He is currently living and producing work in Ngario Country, (Captains Flat) NSW Australia.

Career highlights - Winner of the 2024 Muswellbrook Art prize (ceramics), 2023 - invited to exhibit in 'Temperature' an international ceramic art exchange exhibition in Jingdezhen China as part of the Taoxichuan Autumn Art Fair. 2022 finalist in the Waverley Small Sculpture Prize.  Represented Stanley Street Gallery at the Sydney Contemporary Art Fair, Carriageworks Sydney in September 2018 and 2023 as well as the 2023 Melbourne Design Fair. His trips to Jingdezhen China in 2011, 2013 and 2023.

Shaun Hayes: CV August, 2024 Download

Toni Messiter: Artist Statement & Bio

Drawing from the aesthetics of 18th Century portraiture and in particular, familial portraits, Toni Messiter’s paintings embody modern baroque haunting. There is a stylistic affinity for theatrics which dramatically unfold as ruminations on human psychology and subconscious; presenting subjects that border upon absurdity and delight, provocation and enchantment.

For her new series Don’t Let Her In, the works embrace and celebrate girlhood and the concept of age rather than its denial, depicting fragments of memory, characters and episodes of my past. I am inspired by classical painting and portraiture, feelings of ambiguity, light and shadow. I am particularly interested in enigmatic compositions, raising questions between reality and illusion and creating a sense of uncertainty between the viewer and the figures depicted. I am interested in this dialogue of ‘who is looking at who’ between the audience and the painted subjects, which for me is tied up in my own reflection of my past; of me looking at these characters I’ve painted, and their gaze looking back at me. I feel an immediacy in their observation and strong sense of attachment to them, yet also I am an outsider to the canvas. It’s as if my painted characters challenge and speak to me, the creator and in turn the viewer. It is a kaleidoscope of memory, portraits of the past or the framing of a life, but at the same time questions of who is looking at who in the paintings confuse interpretation and subjectivity.

Toni Messiter paints from her studio on Gadigal land (Sydney). 

She has been exposed to a painting culture from early childhood, she holds an Arts degree from Macquarie University and has a knowledge and deep interest in history and all things horticultural.  

Messiter works are held in private collections both nationally and internationally and she has been represented by Stanley Street Gallery since 2019.

Toni Messiter: CV September, 2024 Download

Julie Blyfield: Artist Statement & Bio

Julie Blyfield has worked for over 30 years at her practice, currently from her own independent studio overlooking her garden environment in Maylands, South Australia. Julie’s jewellery and object work is inspired by research into botanical specimens, historical silver collections and the rich diversity of the Australian landscape, which she interprets using the technique of metal chasing, hammering and surface chiselling, predominately in sterling silver and more recently, copper.

Julie Blyfield has worked for over 30 years at her practice, currently from her own independent studio overlooking her garden environment in Maylands, South Australia. Blyfield’s jewellery and object work is inspired by research into botanical specimens, historical silver collections and the rich diversity of the Australian landscape, which she interprets using the technique of metal chasing, hammering and surface chiselling, predominately in sterling silver and more recently, copper.    

In 2007, Blyfield was a recipient of the prestigious South Australian Living Artists Award which celebrated her achievements with a major monograph about her life and work, published by Wakefield Press. An Australia Council - Creative Australia Award (2015-16) offered Blyfield the opportunity to create and exhibit Panorama a significant body of new jewellery and objects for an international touring solo exhibition at  Ruthin Crafts Centre, North Wales; The Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh and Bilk Gallery in Canberra in 2017. Blyfield collaborated with Kirsten Coelho, a potter to present Ormolu at Gallery Funaki opening in October, 2017 touring to The Jam Factory in Adelaide and The National in Christchurch, New Zealand. In 2018 she presented a solo exhibition Flora at Irene Belfi Gallery in Milan, Italy. 

Blyfield’s jewellery and metalwork is held in Australian and International museum collections including the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra; the Musée des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, France; the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, United Kingdom. Her work has been shown in International Art and Design Fairs such as Collect, London, UK and Chicago SOFA in America. Blyfield’s work has also been selected for the prestigious international jewellery exhibition - Schmuck and her silver objects have been shown at the Schoonhoven Silver Award several times in her career. 

Blyfield has travelled, lectured and presented workshops in Australia, United States of America, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. As part of her practice she regularly mentors emerging jewellers, sharing her knowledge, skills and professional experience. She is currently mentoring the Jam Factory Metal Associates in 2019. Blyfield has won numerous prizes for her work including the Overall Winner of the South Australian Museum Natural History Art Prize where her work was acquired by the South Australian Museum collection. 

Julie Blyfield: CV March, 2023 Download