John Donegan: Artist Statement & Bio

John Donegan was once driven to make photographs by the chaos of his madness.

Now he is driven by a sense of peace, belonging and calmness.

John Donegan was moved as a child to observe the minutiae of suburban life by the writings of Australian authors like David Malouf and George Johnston whose ability to turn a tram journey; a bike ride or a swim into something magical was an inspiration. 

He sold his first photograph to a newspaper aged 14 and still pinches himself everyday that photography provides him with a living 40 years later.

John grew up in suburban Melbourne but his career has taken him to live on three continents, visit 20 countries, and to have lived in three Australian states. He is constantly humbled by the access into people’s lives he is afforded simply by dint of his photography.

John began his professional career as a cadet photographer at The Herald and Weekly Times in Melbourne in 1985 where he was promoted to Sport Photographer of The Herald at the age of 21.

In 1988, John relocated to London where he worked as a stringer for The Evening Standard, Associated Press, The Express, The Sunday Correspondent et al.

John moved to Jerusalem in 1991 on a retainer for The Guardian and stringing for Associated Press covering Jerusalem, West Bank and Gaza.

Returning to Australia, John returned to the now-merged Herald Sun as a photographer and took over as Picture Editor in 1996. John won two Walkley Awards for his photography whilst at the Herald Sun.

John joined The Age in 1998 taking over as Picture Editor of The Sunday Age in 1999 and moving to the role of Chief Sport Photographer in 2006.

John moved to Sydney in 2009 for personal reasons, taking on the role of primary carer of his three young children. During this period he served on the Walkley Advisory Board and as a judge and curator for the Head On Photo Festival.

In 2012, John broke new ground as a multimedia reporter for radio station 702 ABC Sydney providing photography and reporting for the station’s website and live reporting on air.

John remains as enthused and energised by photography today as he was on the 19 August 1985 when he walked nervously through the brass and glass doors of The Herald & Weekly Times and, after 35 years as a  photojournalist, he has turned his camera to the native landscapes around the water ways of Yorta Yorta country.

John Donegan: CV October, 2022 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

Agus Wijaya: Artist Statement & Bio

Wijaya’s practice questions the construction of both the personal and cultural self through 3D abstraction, experimental sculpture and new media.

He draws on the beliefs and elements from his home country as he seeks to reconnect with the cultural heritage – that he stayed away from, but came to realise – that despite everything, helps explain his perception of things.

His recent works are a multi-medium exploration of identification and dis-identification, of personal and cultural histories, of the bridges and glitches between ways of knowing and seeing.

Born in Cianjur, a small town in West Java, Agus Wijaya is an Indonesian artist of Chinese background who now lives in Australia. He embraces what are seen as separate cultures and disciplines, for they all have a part in his identity construction and practice. His works make similar connections, serving as his place of reconciliation.

Wijaya has been selected as a finalist in the Grace Cossington Smith, North Sydney Art Prize, Fisher’s Ghost, Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize and the churchie at the Institute of Modern Art. He will next present his work at Pari and Sydney Contemporary 2023, and is one of the four artists commissioned as part of the expansion project by Newcastle Art Gallery. 

Agus Wijaya: CV September, 2023 Download

Jackson Farley: Artist Statement & Bio

This new body of work is exploring our collective self through the lens of the artist's very selfish self! The works are a hyper-yuck renaissance resurgence that see accepted forms fragmented, repurposed, collaged, put back together and then broken once more. Thank god for the power of AI to give the artist some abs where needed! Jackson becomes his own muse in these works while cautiously navigating the AI landscape. Intentionally celebrating its most advanced and rudimentary aspects to create arresting imagery that references the place from which we have all come, while pondering as to what might come next. Each work acts as a snapshot into a neo-non-narrative of self; a minor moment in time of our impending collective self-work journey. Like when you want to stop nurturing your 'little me' you decide to kill it instead (with a light saber), indeed the little dance between our inner and outer 'me' that is constantly in flux. Ultimately the works aim to bring voice to the little feelings that we all face, but forget to talk about. Because literally, the only person who cares about your self-work journey is you! And your therapist (because you pay them to care).

Jackson Farley is a multidisciplinary artist living and working on unceded Gadigal land. His practice intertwines narrative and humour to point out the absurdities and pointlessness of fine art definitions and power structures. Using digital media, biro pens and ‘self-care’ pencils, Farley’s work is as sentimental as it is a parody, pondering naïvely on categories of art, material, and painting process.

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.   

Jackson's work was recently exhibited in Indonesia and he will be exhibiting at the '24 Sydney Contemporary. Career highlights - selected as a finalist in the 2021 Dobell Drawing Prize #22; the recipient of the City of Sydney creative live/work tenancy program.  In 2019 - finalist in the Fauvette Loureiro Memorial Artists Travel Scholarship Exhibition; 2018 he was selected for the Blake Prize, a finalist in The Churchie National Emerging Art Prize in Queensland and a finalist in Hatched at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, WA.

Jackson Farley: CV August, 2024 Download

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

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

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

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

Lily Golightly: Artist Statement & Bio

Lily Golightly works across painting, drawing, sculpture, textiles and video. Her work is interested in concepts of collective imagining and fantasy. She is also interested in ideas of make-believe, playfulness and humour. Her work often uses images from nature in conjunction with those found in fantasy, myth and fairytale to create utopian images. Her work aims to have a softness and lightness to it, both materially or conceptually to provide comfort and calm to viewers.

Lily Golightly is an artist based in Sydney who works across painting, sculpture, textile, video and drawing. She completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts at UNSW Art & Design in 2018 and will be completing her Honors in 2022. She has exhibited in both Australia and abroad and worked on projects for Carriageworks, Sydney Opera House & The National. She is also the founder of Flower Books. 

Gretal Ferguson: Artist Statement & Bio

Gretal Ferguson creates conceptual exhibition work using traditional craft skills in a sculptural setting, challenging the utilitarian traditions of her craft while honouring what came before. With the material process an integral part of her conceptual motivation, Ferguson embraces the arduous nature of silversmithing, using the hours of hammering to explore the work both aesthetically and conceptually, allowing it to unfold in a way it wouldn’t if the process was quick and less laborious.

After completing a music degree and travelling the world, Gretal gave into her ever-present passion for making and enrolled in Jewellery and Object Design at Design Centre, Enmore in Sydney. Not wanting to commit to a 2 year course she only payed for the first 6 months. 4 years later she emerged with an Advanced Diploma, 1 year residency and multiple graduate awards. Not yet sick of study Gretal decided to further her education by completing her Masters of Jewellery, Silversmithing, and Related Products at Birmingham City University’s School of Jewellery in the UK. Upon her return to Australia Gretal was accepted into the Associate Program at JamFactory in Adelaide, working out of the Jewellery and Metal Studio where she had the time and space to develop work for several local and international exhibitions.  She has now established her own studio in Adelaide.

Her recent achievements are – Finalist of the MAKE Award, Australia; winner of the Robert Foster F!nk National Metal Prize, Australia; winner of the Helge Larsen Award, JMGA Profile ‘22 Jewellery, Object, and Metalsmithing Award; finalist in the 2022 International Silver Triennial Germany; honorable mention in the 2020 New Taipei City International Metal Craft Competition, Taiwan; finalist in the KOGEI Award, Japan. She has received a 2 month artist residency in 2022 at DIVA Museum's atelier in Antwerp Belgium, 

Gretal Ferguson: CV August, 2024 Download

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.

Denis Clarke works across painting and drawing, exploring the relationship between himself, the bodily and the tactile. Interested in creating a process of informed experiment, his paintings extend conversations of subject, texture and paint fluidity that suspend perception and reality. His work layer playful exchanges between drawing and painting processes, finding new solutions with mark-making to explore the subject. Contextualised within the European neo-expressionist movement, Clarke’s colourful gestural works deconstruct improvisation, inviting new and playful languages of representation.  

Clarke completed post-graduate study at St Martins School of Art, London, and received the NSW Travelling Art Scholarship as well as Moya Dyring residency at the Cite International des Arts in Paris. 

Based in Sydney, he has spent periods working and studying in London and Switzerland, teaching at the Camden School of Art and the Hampstead School of Art, exhibiting at Gillian Jason Gallery, Boundary Gallery and James Colman Gallery, Knightsbridge, as well as creating set designs and costumes for the experimental Opera Factory, in Zurich and London. 

Clarke returned to Australia in 1998. 

He has held 17 solo exhibitions since 1975 and has collaborated with several premier arts organisations 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. From 1999 - 2010 Denis was a sessional lecturer at the National Art School and tutor from 2011 ongoing. He also instructs master classes at Charles Sturt University, the University of Southern Queensland, the Mitchell School of Art and the McGregor School.  

Clarke has exhibited 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. His work is included in private and public collections including: the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Fitzwilliam College Cambridge and Lloyds of London. 

Clarke has been represented by Stanley Street Gallery since 2014.

Denis Clarke: CV July, 2022 Download