Sue Lovegrove: Artist Statement & Bio

'Small Dreams' Exhibition Statement

Falling Water

To watch water tumbling down waterfalls is both mesmerising and captivating. To feel its power is energising. The fascination we have with waterfalls traverses time across centuries and ranges from being the subject of tourist destinations, representations of the sublime as well as images of environmental conservation and activism. In this series of miniature paintings of waterfalls, I am drawing connections with all of these ideas.

In the late 19th and early 20th century, Tasmanian landscape painting and photography thrived. Adventurous artists, photographers, explorers and bushwalkers carried their tripods or paint boxes out into the unmapped wilderness of SW Tasmania in pursuit of adventure and the discovery of a new landscape, documenting vistas as they went. At the time, ideas of the sublime, the beautiful and picturesque were standard aesthetic formulae for picturing the landscape. Waterfalls presented the perfect subject matter for the Romantic sublime - an experience of the threatening awesome power of nature, and ultimately transcendence in the face of this untamed wilderness. Small figures, dwarfed by the waterfall, were often included in the composition to enhance the drama and beauty of the view.

In these paintings I aim to invert this notion of grandeur by reducing the size of the waterfall to something small enough to fit in your hand. My intention is driven by the belief that if something is so small and precious you can hold it in your hands, you are more likely to care for it. The notion of the wilderness in the 21st century, rather than generating a sense of fear, is now something that needs our care and protection. The healthy flow of water in the landscape is like blood, it is vital to the health and wellbeing of the planet. These days it is often in a constant state of flux between the extremes of drought and flood.

Waterfalls are never the same for any two moments, constantly shifting and changing – they remind us of the transience and impermanence of the natural world.

Sue Lovegrove’s artwork reflects her passion for the wild and remote landscapes of south west Tasmania, where she has spent significant periods of time. In her paintings she investigates the intersections between land, air and water through close observation and sensory perception. Sue has held over 30 solo exhibitions throughout Australia and her work is in numerous private and public collections including the National Gallery of Australia, Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery and Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. In 2020 she won the Elaine Bermingham National Watercolour Prize for landscape.

Camille Gillybœuf: Artist Statement & Bio

My art practice explores themes of comfort and foreboding, creating imaginary landscapes and situations that depict a sense of personal loss—of childhood innocence, freedom and wonder—while suggesting alternative worlds in which these feelings may be regained. I use material and technique to bring together conflicting elements using familiar shapes and the smooth rendering of charcoal on paper and felt. In my works, the textured paper and raw felt work in conjunction to offer a tactile experience related to the proximal relationship with the doudou (meaning comfort-object in French).

Doudou is a common French slang word and is the repetition of the word ‘doux’ meaning ‘soft’. The repetition makes it sound like a word invented by a child and sets the scene for my argument of tactility – ‘haptic looking’.

I believe adulthood is an artificial construct, the purpose of which is to enable us to survive in a harsh environment. It is a necessity that requires sacrifice and the gradual surrender of the child we were born as. The doudou can be understood as a kind of portal, opening up possibilities for creative exploration, rather than existing as a mere artefact of childhood.​

Camille Gillybœuf was born in Talence, France in 1995 and, since 2013, lives in Sydney, Australia. She is an emerging visual artist who recently finished her Master of Fine Art majoring in Drawing at the National Art School (Sydney). She also holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Fine Arts) from Federation University Australia (Victoria) and is currently employed as Registration Assistant at Penrith Regional Gallery, Home of the Lewers Bequest.

She is the winner of the 2022 Waverley Art Prize People’s Choice Award with her charcoal self-portrait For Myself and was also selected for the Tony White Memorial Art Prize as part of the 2020 Kangaroo Valley Art Prize, Fisher’s Ghost Art Award (2017), The Shirl National Youth Portrait Prize (2017), Mosman Youth Art Prize (2016), Blacktown City Art Prize (2016). Gillybœuf was awarded two years in a row the Marjory Baker Memorial Youth Award (ADFAS Camden) in 2016 and 2017. 

In 2021, her charcoal drawing Cyprès was acquired for the National Art School Collection, Sydney.

Camille Gillybœuf: CV October, 2022 Download

Christel van der Laan: Artist Statement & Bio

A collector of all manner of things, Christel searches for carefully considered relationships between sometimes disparate elements in her jewellery, with the intrinsic qualities of the materials as her starting point. There are two facets to her practice:  The precise carving of ceramic honeycomb components, a refractory material intended for the jeweller's soldering bench, and the use of found materials.  Placed together, the mundane, the discarded, the overlooked and occasionally the precious, create new poetic possibilites, inviting the viewer and wearer to see jewellery in a different way.

 

Christel’s work has been exhibited in Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, Ireland, Norway, Japan, and Poland and is held in private and public collections including the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of South Australia, the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Sydney and the Alice and Louis Koch Collection in Switzerland. She has staged two solo exhibitions, Price-Less (Katherine Kalaf Gallery Perth, 2006) and Parts of the Story (Stanley Street Gallery, Sydney, 2014) 

Born in the Netherlands, Christel has lived and worked in Perth, Western Australia since 1981.

Christel van der Laan: CV April, 2023 Download

Catriona Secker: Artist Statement & Bio

In my practise, I use old natural history illustrations and images from biology texts as inspiration. I am intrigued by processes, consciousness and connections in nature. As I work, elements from different organisms, often small invertebrates, will be combined and transformed as a way of exploring these ideas.

Catriona Secker is an artist and teacher living in Sydney. She received a BFA from the College of Fine Arts, NSW in 1999, and received a Master of Electronic Arts majoring in animation from the Australian National University in 2003. Her work has been exhibited in galleries in Australia and Hong Kong. Her artworks are inspired by old natural history illustrations and biology texts and are influenced by visual styles ranging from illustration, fine art, visionary and decorative arts.

Kirrily Anderson: Artist Statement & Bio

“There is something of the marvelous in all things nature.” - Aristotle

Inspired by details of the landscapes I find myself in, my current work takes a more abstract direction than previous work, yet maintains themes of human emotion by exploring the landscapes we feel connected to the most. 

Studying tiny elements of the landscape as memory of, and connection to place, my miniature watercolour and ink works depict the still details of my environment. Detailed ink patterns and textures sit atop layers of delicate watercolour on heavyweight cotton rag paper.

The enlargement of a small natural object, I refer to as ‘treasure’, reflects the impact of my connection to where it came from and reveals to the viewer a new depiction of a tiny wonder. The combining of different details or elements of the landscape in a miniature collage style creates a new treasure, encompassing an entire location, experience or memory. 

These works connect to their audience through the recognition of specific elements of nature, colours and textures, sparking the viewers own memories
of a particular landscape, time or place. 

During the time of Covid restrictions these works have become more precious and important as reminder of the beauty which surrounds me.

Award-winning artist Kirrily Anderson creates nature inspired art with a nostalgic bent. Influenced by the intricacies of the natural environment, both her work on paper and her murals embrace tiny details that call the viewer to slow down and see the often unseen. 

Kirrily has exhibited and curated both in Australia and internationally. She has curated and co-curated a number of exhibitions and street art-based events, including Art de la Roo, (Toronto, Canada, 2012) and Street Advent (various international locations 2011 & 2012). She also immersed herself in Melbourne’s street art scene between 2010-2013, while practicing under the name I & the Others.

In 2017, Kirrily and her partner relocated from Collingwood, Melbourne to the still beauty of Chiltern, in Victoria’s North East. Since moving to the area, Kirrily’s work has focused strongly on public art, installing murals for a number of local councils, schools, festivals and businesses. Her work has also won a number of awards in local art prizes.

2021 saw the return of her exhibition work with a solo exhibition at the Murray Art Museum Albury (MAMA) in December. ‘And Tomorrow the Beauty Returns’ reflected on the impact and recovery of the natural environment of North East Victoria following the Black Summer fires of 2019/20. 

From a graphic design background to visual art, street art and workshops, with turns in commercial illustration, curation and event management thrown in, Kirrily has evolved into a multi-disciplinary artist whose work aims to connect people, places and memories. Incorporating a strong focus on community, her practice is now a happy blend of murals, visual art and creative workshops.

Viktor Kalinowski: Artist Statement & Bio

Artist Statement

In the evening at the end of my day, I allow myself to relax before sleep. My mind wanders and leads me to other worlds. In a state of mind like a dream, an idea for an image emerges. Sometimes it’s an image I have never seen before, this brings excitement as it takes my imagination to a new place, somewhere different. Often drawn slowly, sometimes fast, I don’t know a direction or reason but being involved with the process leads me to discovery and brings joy.

'Small Dreams' Exhibition Statement

Taking scale down to a miniature format was very challenging at first. Capturing the details in penwork so finely required practice. It was of course a challenge I enjoyed and now have become familiar with this tiny world, it pushed me to find new qualities in expression…. I dream and play at this scale in the same way I have always done, aiming to freely express what comes without censorship!

Born in central Poland into a creative family, from a young age Viktor carried plasticine in his pocket to mold and shape into figures. In the European tradition, he then went on to train with artisans in Warsaw where he opened a jewellery design studio in the 80’s before moving to Australia.

Since arriving in Melbourne Viktor has run a sculpture studio and foundry creating sculpture, jewellery and also teaching. Viktor loves to share his passions with others. It is an ever-evolving journey, at times with full sculpture focus working on public sculpture commissions and then total jewellery focus. The studio is his happy place, it is large and well equipped and allows him to move from project to project freely.

Versatile in skill and scale Viktor creates fine wedding jewellery to large monumental sculptures in stone. Drawing is an important part of his design process with sketches appearing like an alchemical formula ahead of any three-dimensional piece of work. More recently Viktor’s drawings have developed into watercolour paintings, giving expression to his rich imagination.

Experimentation is vital in his practice, and he is largely self-taught. He doesn’t limit himself with mediums, it’s the creative process that drives him.

Viktor lives in Mt Dandenong amongst nature, it’s the perfect backdrop to his creative life.

Kendal Murray: Artist Statement & Bio

Kendal Murray is known for imaginative and often whimsical artworks that explore the links between interiority, and the performance of social knowledge. Her sculptures survey the embodiment of these connections, through her combination of emblematic materials and bespoke techniques, which inform the physical and emotive resonance of her artworks.

The manipulation of readily identifiable everyday objects, combined with a range of evocative materials, is used by Murray to prompt an assortment of narrative associations and the examination of personal and social concepts. Through her solo exhibitions, Murray has explored themes of gender and beauty, plastic surgery and the commodification of body image, the gendering of memory, nostalgia, and collecting, and more recently, dream imagery in the design of self-image.

Murray’s work is represented in private Australian and international collections, and public collections including the Powerhouse Museum, Goulburn Regional Gallery, Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, the University of New South Wales, Western Sydney University and, the Commonwealth Bank Collection.  Murray has also been the recipient of several prizes, including The Deakin University Small Sculpture Award (2015), and the Beowulf Prize, as part of the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize.

Kendal Murray is represented by Arthouse Gallery and Flinders Lane Gallery in Australia.  

Lucy Chetcuti: Artist Statement & Bio

Phenomena in the natural environment or in a gallery are not altogether self-evident. Their meaning and value are not inherently pre-determined but rather, are dependent on the individuality of the viewer. My work proposes that social “norms”, like heteronormativity, are perpetual and embodied, which influences the sensorial experience of art materials and artworks. My art practice examines the ways in which materials exist within the symbology of the viewer’s understanding of the world which is influenced by heterosexism, capitalism and colonialism. My research applies the theory of queer ecology, to frame my understanding of natural phenomena and objecthood in painting. 

My studio investigations have been led by material experimentation and the development of an abstract language, which includes paintings, objects and installation pieces. By presenting works as “phenomena” and in dialogue with each other, an alternative experience of their spatial reality and inter-relation is inferred. 

I explore the ways that abstraction can be used to queer normative understandings of nature. I emphasise the material state of my works as fragile, precarious, and temporal by incorporating found and natural materials outside of their economic value. My research considers the question, “what makes something queer?” within the realm of abstraction. 

Fragile artworks present themselves from a place of vulnerability and ask for the care they require to exist in the world. Using precarious and impermanent refuse materials critiques the use-value of an artwork and queers an understanding of phenomena in nature. My practice results in a wide array of “anxious objects” without having a secure or clear final form. Many of the works will change over time. My paintings which might be considered a more stable object are made with materials that will change. By presenting art objects in intimate relationships with one another, I propose a queering of natural phenomena. 

Words from 'All Fours' held at Canberra Contemporary Art Space 2023
(A selection of the works are in 'Reprise' 2023 at Stanley Street Gallery)

I use automatic drawing techniques to explore a range of new marks in these recent works. I have also featured monoprinted gestures, shifting between the predictable and the unpredictable. The marks I apply to the ground react within this framework to create a tension between spontaneity and intention, fixed gesture and the innocuous uncontrolled line and ultimately give life to the surface.

Works in this exhibition arise from the compositional prompt of a four section grid. For me, the grid functions as an enabling constraint within the picture plane, which produces more creative possibilities. I consider 'the edge' as a fundamental visual threshold or boundary that can be broached, conversed with, or erased.

The geometric grid is a structure that resonates throughout our everyday environments, memories and worlds. In my search for the exciting feeling of freshness in something mundane, different qualities of line are discovered.

Lucy Chetcuti is an emerging visual artist based on unceded Ngunnawal/Ngambri land, Kamberri / Canberra.

Lucy was a board member of Tributary Projects Artspace between 2019-2021. In 2021 she won the ANU School of Art and Design Drawing Prize. She was a finalist in the 2022 Goulburn Art Award. Her work is held in private collections in Australia. She received First Class in Honours in Painting at the ANU School of Art and Design in 2021. She is a studio resident of Australian National Capital Arts in Kamberri / Canberra.

Barbara Ryman: Artist Statement & Bio

Since childhood, Barbara Ryman has been a fascinated observer of nature, nourished by the stories of naturalists Gerald Durrell and Jean-Henri Fabre. They taught her the value of taking time and observing with all her senses. Fabre's minute and dedicated studies of insects, taught Ryman that the details of these tiny lives are remarkable and important; they provide an intimate and quiet world of inspiration for her work.

Her primary medium of Vitreous Enamelling is combined with many metalwork and etching techniques. Forty years of study and practice give her a remarkable depth of knowledge, enabling her to combine both traditional, Japanese and contemporary enamelling methods. This interplay of metal, glass and etching have become her intricate, creative language she uses when making her jewellery and vessels

Barbara Ryman has been a leading influence in Australian Contemporary jewellery for more than 30 years, primarily for her exquisite and extraordinary work with vitreous enamel.
In recent years she has spent much time in Japan studying Japanese enameling techniques with master craftsman and mentor, Tsuyura Sakurai. These influences have provided many new directions of exploration that can be seen in Ryman’s work. “As a mature artist, I have sometimes found this challenging, but it has also been inspirational and transformative. I hope I will always take such leaps of faith”. 

Barbara has exhibited frequently both internationally and nationally and her work is held in both public and private collections, including; the Australian National Gallery in Canberra, the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney and the Museum of Contemporary Enamelling in Salou, Spain. 

Barbara Ryman: CV March, 2023 Download

Claire Welch: Artist Statement & Bio

Small Dreams - Exhibition Statement

‘Dawn’ and 'watching it happen', explore the distortion of possible positive directions, which are warped by the anxiety and despair generated by negative media. Both works use monoprinting and reductive mark making techniques to create ambiguous bodily forms.

 

In our current state of uncertainty about our future we experience overwhelming apathy and despair. ‘Dawn’ explores this anxious state, an eruption of dark lines draws the eye to the strained body. The figure is entangled looking out to every horizon for hope.

 

‘watching it happen’ further explores this conflict. Presenting a chrysalis or a shroud, it emerges into life and draws away from it. The diptych exaggerates this conflict by loosely connecting the two halves, leaving a disconnect between them. The figure is caught in time between ambiguity and actuality. The open palmed hands both reaching out but still in a posture of self-protection.

Claire Welch’s printmaking practice revolves around ambiguous and tense bodily forms. Welch is an emerging artist based in Sydney, Australia. She completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts at the National Art School in 2020 majoring in printmaking. Welch has exhibited in selected group exhibitions, such as 'Rats' at 321 Project Space and 'Luxury Item' at DownUnder space. Welch received the Jocelyn Maughan Sketchbook prize in 2019 and the Bouddi Foundation of the Arts grant in 2016.

"In my practice I examine the body as being in a constant state of becoming; a progressive form. The anxiety I look to is in the slight but important dislocation between body and self. My printmaking practice focuses on this tension through ambiguous bodily forms. The technique of monoprinting is both immediate and unpredictable. This allows for unique textural lines and gestural marks in each print. The process can only produce singular prints rather than reproductions. In this way, my practice mirrors the constant state of change the body and mind undergo".

Claire Welch: CV November, 2022 Download

Renee French: Artist Statement & Bio

Renée French in Conversation – June 2022

Excerpts from an interview with Claire de Carteret

How does the concept of ‘miniature’ or working on a small scale resonate with you or your practice?

“I have always worked small, there is no time that I have worked large.  I used to illustrate comic books and children’s books and I like the fact that a book was something people could hold. The works were done at 100%, I didn’t create the works large and then reduce them down for the book.  When I started doing work for exhibitions I continued to do work that size or even smaller.

The idea of intimacy is important to me. Making a work so small that a person has to walk right up and put their face into the work brings them in, they can’t see it if they walk past it, they have to really engage. Sometimes viewers will miss it if it’s really small, but if they don’t miss it they will go up and feel a connection with having to physically engage with the work in that way. Getting really close.

Storytelling combined with surrealism is how I would describe my work.  I like to build characters and their story.  I played with facial features because there are particular elements in a drawing that you have to do to make a face read as a face, there are key elements like an ear, nose or an eye that put the characters together.  

I started to make portraits and then I began to explore how far I could push it before it wasn’t cute anymore. Thinking about distortion, and at what point does it turn from cute to ugly. How far can you go before it becomes something disturbing? Imagine if that character was walking around in real life on the street. How scary is that? Can it still be considered cute on paper when in reality it would be a hideous monster.

Can you talk through the work you are making for ‘Small Dreams’? Why do you use the materials you use?

The pieces for Small Dreams themselves are sort of sad characters, they have their heads in their hands, either crying or sad. Although you could also interpret them in another way, as stressed out or anxious. I think if I’m being honest they are about anxiety. They’re definitely COVID lockdown works.

For this exhibition I have used scratch boards and they look like metal plate etchings, but they’re not. You scratch off the top ink to reveal the white surface underneath. It is incredibly detailed, I use exacto blades to scratch it off and there is a very high contrast as there is no grey tone like in my other work where I use graphite”

Renée French was born in the USA  in 1963 and grew up in New Jersey.  Her most recent works have been animations in collaboration with actors and friends who are in the US and can be viewed on Instagram.

French is an exhibiting artist and an author of many children’s books, graphic novels and illustrated comics. She has lived between Australia and the United States for the past five years, although since 2020 and Covid 19 has remained in Australia.  

Shaelene Murray: Artist Statement & Bio

Shaelene Murray’s figurative sculptures speak of society, history, experience and nostalgia. By re-contextualizing materials and processes from industry and the domestic sphere, Murray explores archetypes of femininity, and the roles which women play in the context of social and domestic life. 

The long history of women sewing is given great reverence in Murray’s work. By amalgamating industrial materials such as stainless steel, which hold connotations of masculine work, and techniques derived from traditionally feminine crafts such as sewing; the artist positions familiar objects in unfamiliar contexts, evoking notions of the uncanny. For Murray, this material juxtaposition asserts that “strength and fragility can co-exist, [and] that women are stronger and more complex than the labels given to them by society.” In re-contextualising and personifying remnants of the domestic sphere ‘Kin’ constructs a portrait of the complexities of family life and acknowledges both the beneficial and indifferent legacies, of the women who “cut and sew the fabric of our lives.” 

Murray’s practice relies on the synthesis of material and subject matter; choosing “materials and processes for the readings they impart, and the emotional response they trigger.” Each work is born of a single strand of stainless-steel wire; twisted and folded into the desired ply and looped together stitch by stitch; imbuing the metal with a physical tension and memory. The material is then manipulated and hand-stitched, the components neatly sewn into a piece of clothing. Murray equates the slow and intimate nature of her process with mimicking the slow formation of personality. Through personality imbued stitch by stitch into the piece, the minute detail; laughing or crying, the concept of familial complexity is reiterated. 

Murray studied Ceramics at East Sydney Technical College and was awarded a First-Class Honours Degree in Visual Arts from Sydney College of the Arts in 1995. 

Her sculpture has been exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally. Solo exhibitions include Kin (Stanley Street Gallery, 2019), A Tracing of Thread (Stanley Street Gallery, Darlinghurst, NSW, 2013), Bouquet (La Trobe Regional Gallery, VIC, 2005, Ironic Inversion (Lions Art Centre, SA, 2005), and Home on the Range, held at the Centre for Contemporary Craft, Customs House in Sydney, NSW 1998. Murray’s sculptural work has also featured in group shows with Stanley Street Gallery including On Point (2017), Salon of Infectious Ideas (2016), Portraits (2015) and Over Your Head (2014); as well as other institutions nationally, including sPIN (Australian National Capital Artist’s Gallery, Canberra, 2015), Pin-a-4 (Australian National Capital Artist’s Gallery, Canberra 2014), It is What it is (Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, Windsor 2014) and Soft Sculpture (National Gallery of Australia, Canberra 2009). 

Murray’s work continues to generate critical acclaim, selected as a finalist in the Western Sydney University Sculpture Prize in 2018, Deakin Small Sculpture Prize VIC in 2017, Aesthetica Art Prize UK in 2016, the Kennedy Art Prize SA and the Wynne Prize AGNSW in 2013 and 2015 respectively. Her work is held in the collections of East Sydney Technical College, Manly Art Gallery and Museum, and the Barbara and Oscar Feldman Collection, Detroit MI, USA and has been featured in Art and Australia Magazine, Art Almanac, and “Future Now,” an overview of Contemporary Artists from the Aesthetica Art Prize. In 2000, Murray was a guest speaker at the Glass Society of America Conference held at Long Island University, USA. 

Shaelene Murray is represented by Stanley Street Gallery. 

Shaelene Murray: CV January, 2020 Download