Amy Dynan: Artist Statement & Bio

Amy Dynan’s art practice uses the framework of beauty to explore the relationship between humanity and nature. Merging photorealism with abstract sensibilities, Amy’s monochromatic artworks document moments of sublimity, movement and fragility in nature. An award-winning artist, Amy is known for her dynamic approach to drawing and her nuanced balance of conceptual rigour and classical skill. Using techniques, which range from traditional chiaroscuro to gestural marks, her work reveals elements of both figuration and abstraction – not as oppositions but as devices to bring about maximum expressivity. 

 

“For me, drawing is a lens through which the spectrum of our existence is revealed, and a means to marvel at how lucky we are to feel it fully. To this end my work documents nature in flux and celebrates the beauty of what we stand to lose.”  

Dynan, an award-winning early-career artist, has been recognised for her nuanced balance between conceptual rigour and classical drawing skills. Following a “tree-change” to Wagga Wagga in 2012, Dynan pursued her love of drawing and held her first exhibition, an experience which gave her the push to take things further.

Upon returning to Sydney, Dynan pursued a Master of Contemporary Art and Master of Fine Arts at Sydney College of the Arts to develop the conceptual undercurrent of her practice.

“As a visual artist, research can offer a deeper, more profound connection to the significance of one’s own art practice in a field beyond the studio. I knew that my passion for drawing, combined with rigorous institutional and art world scrutiny and support would provide the necessary framework to further my aesthetic.”

Amy Dynan sees drawing as a fundamental means of expression that is often overlooked as a preparatory stage in lieu of master artworks and is driven to continue to contribute to contemporary drawing in Australia. “For me, it is the most intuitive stage of the creative process and I want to continue to bring awareness to drawing as the veritable art form that it is.”

Most recently Dynan held her sold out solo exhibition, Water, at Stanley Street Gallery (July 2019), exhibited at Sydney Contemporary Art Fair and was selected as finalist in the Dobell Drawing Prize, an acquisitive award and major exhibition that explores the enduring importance of drawing within contemporary art practice. Currently Dynan is currently working on new projects incorporating soft pastels and oils, and in 2020 will be Artist in Residence in a number of AIR programs including Hill End, Mornington Peninsula Regional and Gunyah.

Amy Dynan: CV February, 2021

Andjana Pachkova: Artist Statement & Bio

I am a cosmopolitan oddball, born in Ukraine, transported by family circumstance to Russia, blown by the wind of change to America and finally putting some sort of roots here in Sydney, on the gorgeous east coast of Australia.

I painted and drew all my life but circumstances of my upbringing were such that I ended up a Wall Street and then a Silicon Valley corporate lawyer. Fortune has been decidedly mine, however, to be able to devote myself to art full time as of 2013 and here I am now proudly a represented artist with Stanley Street Galley in Sydney, with my first gallery solo exhibition, another two solo shows coming up within a year and many group shows I took part in.

I did not come to art early or directly or easily but I am here to stay because this path is deeply felt, thought through and wished for. Besides, being an artist is one of those careers where having a life of experiences - good and bad - is a positive thing, experience gives meaning and context.

As a visual artist I am captivated by everything I see in the world around me. I am enthralled by the things we hear - music and exploration of sounds really help the development of my visual language and expression of my themes. Music especially is a primary source of inspiration in my work.

I am not doing this to make pretty pictures. I want to make true pictures all the while reflecting the complex aesthetics I have developed over a life span of travelling across the globe. I am now settled in Sydney with my husband and our young family of boys. Life is busy and I am happy when I am in the quiet of my studio, listening to music and painting.

 

Andjana (Andy) Pachkova comes from the traditional Russian art tutoring background.  Following Perestroika, in the early 1990s, she took classes at Stroganov Moscow State University of Art and Industry, as well as studied with various private tutors.

In 1997 Pachkova won a prestigious Davis Fellowship and subsequently moved to the United States to pursue a graduate degree in liberal arts at Dartmouth College.  While at Dartmouth, Pachkova took a visual arts class to enhance her drawing technique.  After that she studied art at the night courses at NYU, and later, continued her studies here in Australia through a two-year study at Northbridge Visual Art School (“NVAS”) (earned Diploma of Visual Arts in 2014) and at the Willoughby Art Center (“WAC”) and the Wollarha Waverly Art School (“WWAS”).  At WAC, NVAS and WWAS Pachkova studied with such notable local artists as Idris Murphy, Jo Bertini, Brandt Lewis, Denis Clarke and Tony Tozer, among others.  Recently Pachkova started developing an interest in printmaking and ceramics which further informed her understanding of her artistic practice.

Andjana Pachkova holds a Master of Law from Harvard University (Cambridge, MA), Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from Dartmouth College (Hanover, NH) and a Bachelor of Laws from Moscow International University.  Pachkova has lived and studied law and art in many countries and has had a wealth of experiences and imagery that she has been working on integrating in her art.

Having moved to Australia in 2013, Pachkova developed a keen passion for the Australian landscape and has enjoyed the local art scene ever since. The artist has passionately explored the Australian landscape through line and color. Pachkova is interested in understanding the subtle changes in the human psyche that occur when a person moves through a series of places.  Her further interest lies in discovering how that mutual interaction of the human being and the landscape shapes both. Pachkova is captivated by the never-ending dance of the nature and the human, passionate and loving to be sure, yet mostly violent, and at times exploitative. 

Pachkova lives and works in Willoughby, NSW with her husband and three young sons. 

As of April 2017, Pachkova is represented by Stanley Street Gallery in New South Wales and Mercury Gallery in Moscow.

Andjana Pachkova: CV August, 2020

Claire Primrose: Artist Statement & Bio

When we think of a place, we imagine it not in its entirety, but rather as integral parts; feelings and images pieced together to create the impression of a whole.

In Primrose’s practice, she mirrors this concept, the serendipitous recreation and abstraction of these views encourage our eye to piece together the changing actions of material, much like Primrose herself does so in her studio - so that we too, may feel a sense of place. She pieces together the remnants of these places; a collection of memories, samples and studies which are then reworked into the applique of paint. Through a process of layering; she scratches, sprays and applies a mixture of mediums in a way that not only conjures up feelings of awe and wonder felt only by arriving at a greatly-anticipated scenic view, but does so in a way that allows the colours, layers and gestural mark-making to actively illustrate the scene before you.

Claire Primrose is a painter who works primarily with mixed media. Primrose graduated with a BA in Visual Arts (majoring in printmaking) at ANU, Canberra, in 1997. Based in Queanbeyan, she has also completed a Graduate Diploma in Secondary Art Education and has taught both Visual Art and Dance at various high schools in Canberra for ten years. She has been represented by Stanley Street Gallery since 2015.

Primrose has participated in various group and solo exhibitions both locally and nationally; including being selected for DIRECTION NOW> national touring exhibition with 10 other artists who also focus on abstraction. She was the winner of the 2017 Waverley Art Prize – Drawing. Most recently she has been selected as a finalist in the 2019 Wyndham Art Prize, SA; the 2019 Hunters Hill Art exhibition and the 2019 Highly Commended and People’s Choice Winner in the Wingecarribee Landscape Prize, Bowral.  She has also been selected as a finalist in the Paddington Art Prize, The Fleurieu Biennale, The Kedumba Drawing Award, The Tattersall’s Club Landscape Prize, The Hawkesbury Art Prize, Morton Bay Art Prize, the Norville Art Prize, the Whyalla Art prize and most recently, the Paul Guest Drawing Award.

Claire was awarded winner of the Queanbeyan City Council Regional Art Prize in both 2009 and 2015, the Goulburn Regional Art Award in 2016 as well as the Capital Chemist Art Award Tuggeranong in 2015. She has also been awarded a Highly Commended in the Queanbeyan City Council Art Award in 2010 and the Hawkesbury Art Prize in 2012.

Claire Primrose: CV January, 2020

Denis Clarke: Artist Statement & Bio

Painting for me is a bodily thing. It involves the relationship between one’s self and making contact with the tactile. Why tactile? Because I am touching materials and feeling out my experience of looking at a subject such as landscapes, people and buildings.

Drawing is the whole key. Not drawing for its own sake but drawing to explore ideas for connecting with the world. Finish is irrelevant. These drawings serve the purpose of the painting and illuminate my imagination to the possibilities of new compositions. I am interested in the physicality and directness of drawing which often finds its way into my works on paper as well as my paintings.

My interest is what I would call 'creating a process of informed experiment'. I allow myself to risk and play with media while aligning my senses with the observed. It is the otherness or feel of a subject which provides the impetus to experiment and find new solutions with mark.

For me, working before a subject is deeply complex and a chance to explore visual language. The test is to find graphic statements and abstractions which truthfully parallel perceptions and travel towards a resolved image. Previously Unseen explores my reactions and connection with the urban which has been an important aspect of my painting for many years. It is a reference to my wish to try and see the world anew.

After completing a Diploma in Art Education at the National Art School and Alexander Mackie College in Sydney in 1975, Denis Clarke was awarded the NSW Travelling Art Scholarship and Moya Dyring residency at the Cite International des Arts in Paris. He was invited to participate in the 90th Birthday Exhibition for Desiderius Orban at The Bondi Pavilion Gallery and was also included in The Macquarie Galleries annual Young Painters exhibitions 1973/74. Clarke progressed to postgraduate studies in London at the St Martins School of Art, Byam Shaw and Morley College and set up a studio in north London. From 1975 to 1998, he lived and exhibited in London and Switzerland, teaching at the Camden School of Art and the Hamptead School of Art, London and exhibiting most notably in London at Gillian Jason Gallery, Boundary Gallery and three one-man shows at James Colman Gallery, Knightsbridge.

In 1986 Clarke exhibited in ‘50 years of British Drawing’ at Gillian Jason Gallery 1986, The Boundary Gallery, 1988/94, London, James Colman Fine Art,95/2000 London and Gallerie Ursula Wiedenkeller, Zurich as well as creating set designs and costumes for the experimental Opera Factory, in Zurich and London. In 1998 Denis returned to live and paint in Sydney and exhibited regularly at the Harris Courtin Gallery and in 2003 was awarded the Blackfriars Drawing Acquisitive. He has collaborated with several premier arts organizations such as Opera Factory in London and Switzerland, Warwickshire Arts Festival in the UK, and most recently as the artist in residence at Wollombi Valley Arts Council. Denis has been a sessional lecturer at the National Art School, Sydney, from 1999-2010 and tutored the Dobell School at the NAS from 2011 ongoing. He runs master classes and schools at the Mitchell School of Art, Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, the McGregor School, University of Southern Queensland, Cooee Bay Artists Camp, Yapoon, Queensland. He is represented in private and public collections in Europe and Australia, including The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Fitzwilliam College Cambridge and Lloyds of London. Since returning to Sydney in 1998 Denis has been an active exhibitor with the Australian Watercolour Institute at The Gosford Regional Gallery and Juniper Hall, Sydney.

Denis has exhibited widely both in Australia and internationally and has been represented in numerous Art Fairs including ‘Line Art, Ghent’, The Brussels Art Fair, The 20th Century British Art Fair, Royal College of Art, and The Islington Art Fair. Public Collections include: The Art Gallery of NSW.

Denis Clarke: CV May, 2020

Emily Valentine: Artist Statement & Bio

Feathers are my paint. Over the last twelve years I have developed my own technique and style using feathers.

I create mythical beasts - winged dogs and lizards, and now aeroplanes. The planes moves the work in a new direction - combining the man-made form with the bird. Planes are colonising the skies. Birds no longer dominate our view of the heavens.

In my work I wish to discuss how attitudes to wearing birds parts have changed. Is this just because of fashion, or has society become more caring of animals? I wish to stimulate the viewer with the uncomfortable nature of the feather, to question our callousness treatment of animals and birds, and ask how we sub-consciously classify animals – pet or pest, valued or worthless, beautiful or plain and why.

Emily Valentine is a contemporary mixed media artist living and working in both Australia and her native New Zealand. Using feathers as her paint, Valentine was initially trained as a jeweller, however her work now spans both contemporary wearable art and sculpture. Using feathers from a variety of bird species, Valentine has exhibited her wearable art and three-dimensional work in numerous solo, group and touring exhibitions in both Australia and New Zealand. She has also been a winner and finalist of numerous awards. In 2014, Valentine won the WOW Factor Award in the 2014 World Of Wearable Art, in 2011, she won The Cat Advocate Prize for Emerging artist, for her work Catty Bird and in 2007, she was a recipient of the 30th Alice Springs Acquisition Award, Northern Territory Craft Award for her Dog Flu Series.

Her work his included in the collections of the National Library of Australia, the Northern Territory Art Gallery and the Worldofwearableart Museum in New Zealand. 

Emily Valentine: CV January, 2020

Jackson Farley: Artist Statement & Bio

Jackson Farley is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in Sydney, Australia. With a particular focus on outmoded notions of masculinity in the contemporary he explores phallocentric histories, ‘genius art’ and the divine. 

 

Using irony, afforded by combining seemingly ‘pure’ and ‘impure’ imagery and text, Jackson channels the subliminal and parodies the way in which we see ourselves and our world. With the crudeness of slapstick, schoolboy humour and sexual innuendo, his work speaks to the irony of religion, god and notions thereof, whilst also conversely, being just as sentimental, heart-felt and self-reflective. He intertwines his narrative into each work to speak to a kind of universal history - an act of catharsis to mourn for naivety, love lost and family departed.

Jackson completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts with First Class Honours at the Sydney College of the Arts in 2017 and was awarded the University Awards for Drawing and Printmedia. He has also studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, USA and was awarded the China Cultural Centre residency in Chengdu, China in 2017. In 2019, he was selected as a finalist in the Fauvette Loureiro Memorial Artists Travel Scholarship Exhibition and in 2018, was selected for the Blake Prize, The Churchie and for Hatched. 

Jackson Farley: CV February, 2021

Margarita Sampson: Artist Statement & Bio

Human life to me has always been part of a rich and interconnected world, rising and falling, living and dying, interdependent: the mouth of a flower is also my mouth, the surface of a prickly pear is like testicles and soft anemone forms are like our own soft tissues. Healthy and unhealthy; reaching maturity and falling away. In my work, allusions to multiple forms are drawn but not cemented. For me, the power of the work comes from a rich soup of inferences which the viewer provides from their own experience. I say, “is this not unlike...” and you say “yes, but also...”.' The works bring up questions, invites narrative and suggests possible futures with any number of outcomes.

Margarita Sampson was raised on Norfolk Island, and the varied sea life made an indelible impression on her as a small child. As an adult, her sculpture and jewellery work draws upon this rich visual vocabulary. All works are meticulously hand-made by the artist, comprising of hand and machine sewn textiles. In Sampson's Infectious Desires series, the found furniture is sawn and altered, re-carved and gilded, before being overlaid with textile 'landscapes'.

Born in Nowra, NSW (1970), Margarita Sampson grew up on Norfolk Island, attending COFA in Sydney with a BA & M.Art in painting (1990, 92). She began textile sculptural work in response to the first Sculpture Sea (1997) & a photograph of her initial work ‘Urchins’ went become one of the defining images of the exhibition in its early days. Her following work “Fish Curtain’ received the People’s Choice in 1998. Her textile work is often inspired by her childhood summers spent moving between aquatic & terrestrial realms on Norfolk, and embraces hybrid soft forms that transition between human, animal, vegetative and mineral states. 

After some 15 years away from Australia, Sampson returned in 2011 and won the Object section of the Waterhouse Art Prize in 2012 with her work ‘Anenome Incursions: Zsa-Zsa', and subsequent works been finalists in the Wynne prize, the Blake Prize, twelve Sculpture by the Seas Exhibitions and most recently won the Hillview Indoor Sculpture Award 2018.  Her solo show ‘Infectious Desires’ at Stanley Street Gallery in 2015 received international press coverage and critical acclaim. 

Sampson’s work often takes a domestic object and imagines a paradigm of excessive growth, where the soft parts grow and overtake the host, a reflection on current environmental unbalances and possible ecosystem collapse. The work is also very personal, as the objects contain lush openings, curvaceous forms, are provocative and often feminist; meditating on the artist’s aging body within society and spiritually reflecting the artist’s Buddhist practice. She currently lives in a meditation retreat centre. 

Sampson works with commercially available textiles and found objects for her interior works, but also draws on her jewellery practice for work utilising enamel and copper, and wood and steel for large outdoor works.

Margarita Sampson: CV January, 2020

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 through the use of 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 Chinese ceramics 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.

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 was awarded an artist residency at Strathnairn Arts in July of 2014 and is still currently producing work there. His trips to Jingdezhen China in 2011 and 2013 continues to be an influence.

Shaun is represented by Stanley Street Gallery and was selected to represent them at the Sydney Contemporary Art Fair, Carriageworks Sydney in September 2018.

Shaun Hayes: CV February, 2021

Tor Larsen: Artist Statement & Bio

Tor’s artwork is inspired by film making processes in which a scene is defined by a camera frame enclosing environments, objects/props that viewers mentally and occasionally physically interact with. His disturbing and surreal creations are infused with a sense of lost history, changing social/philosophical values as well as well as darker subconscious themes.

The choice of materials has always been important for Tor. His preference for found and recycled materials and objects imbued with their own history, is crucial to his conceptual development, often informing the construction, ultimate shape and meaning in a given work.

Also crucial to his create process; is the juxtaposition of unlikely materials, objects and ideas as a means of stimulating thought and emotional responses in the viewer, sometimes affected through mechanical interaction with a work where the viewer becomes part of the process of its realisation.

Much of Tor's work attempts to recapture pasts; real, imagined or simply felt as well as to project a virtual and potentially threatening future into the mind of the viewer.

As an artist, Tor gained early exposure to tools and processes in his parent’s jewellery workshop. His first jobs were as a model and prop-maker which led to further employment in the film industry building miniature scenes and creating visual effects. In 1998, he completed a diploma in production design at the AFTRS, following which he worked for various companies and productions on the Gold Coast and in Melbourne as an art director and visual effects coordinator, eventually becoming a producer in Sydney. In 2015 Tor completed a degree in political economy at Sydney University. More recently he has been making jewellery, small sculptures and miniature installations that reflect his political, social and historical/cultural interests as experienced through the cinematic frame. His most recent exhibition was held with his parents and sister, Two Generations: Larsen & Lewers Pia Larsen, Tor Larsen at Spot81 gallery, Sydney in 2016.

Tor Larsen: CV January, 2020