Amy Dynan: Artist Statement & Bio

"I use the framework of beauty to explore the relationship between humanity and nature. My large-scale pastel paintings merge photorealism with abstract sensibilities to document moments of sublimity, transition and fragility in nature. The dynamics of light and dark work as a metaphor for the opposing forces in nature and in ourselves, creating landscapes that hover between land and sky, material and ethereal.

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.”  

Amy Dynan is an award-winning early-career artist, renowned for her nuanced balance between conceptual rigour and classical drawing skills. 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. According to Dynan, “drawing 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.”

Following a ‘tree-change’ to Wagga Wagga in 2012, Dynan pursued her love of drawing and held her first exhibition ‘Solitude’, an experience which cemented her desire to pursue an artistic practice professionally.Upon returning to Sydney, Dynan pursued a Master of Contemporary Art and Master of Fine Arts at Sydney College of the Arts, developing a strong conceptual framework of beauty as a means to explore human relationships with the natural world.

“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.”

Dynan’s career has since taken off. In 2019, her solo exhibition ‘Water’ sold out and she was selected for Sydney Contemporary Art Fair; has been a finalist in the Dobell Drawing Prize in 2019 and 2021, and also a finalist in the Adelaide Perry Drawing Prize for 2018, 2019 & 2021. Dynan has been selected for art residencies in France, Norway and Iceland in 2018 and in 2020 in the Hill End, Mornington Peninsula and Gunyah programs.

Amy Dynan: CV May, 2022

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

Sally Simpson: Artist Statement & Bio

Sally Simpson draws inspiration and materials from specific sites in order to capture our moment in time, a period of rapid change with anxieties about the future, she states. Her working process begins as time spent on site, contemplating and collecting. Transformation of collected materials acts as a metaphor for the state of flux and transformation of the sites she engages with.

Her intention is to represent the present for an unknown future museum. She creates objects which belong to a continuous cross cultural tradition of humans attempting to influence and manage the forces that affect the world around them. Simpson says she creates objects that belong to a continuous cross-cultural tradition - humans have and continue to attempt to influence and manage the forces that affect the world around them.

Simpson’s work reflects her fascination with the way values and meaning, assigned to land and the environment, change over time according to point of view, culture and situation. She uses unexpected methods to transform natural and man-made materials found at particular sites, creating sculptures that evoke artefacts and specimens and drawings that reflect the fragility of the environment.

Her process draws on the tradition of humans making sense of the natural world through making artefacts and drawings with local materials.

In 2014 she travelled to Lake Gregory/Parraku in northern WA with a group of artists and writers. This lake system is the site of the oldest artefacts in Australia, and presents a variety of cultural, archaeological and environmental layers.

Simpson began her studies at the South Australian School of Art in 1982 and completed her BA at the College of Fine Arts in Sydney. She was the recipient of the Meroogal Women’s Art Award in 2006 and the ANU Student Drawing Prize in 2007.

Her Master of Philosophy in Practice-Led research in Sculpture at ANU School of Art was informed by materials and influences from her life on a small farm near Berry, New South Wales and participation in Contested Landscapes (2010), a field studies project run by the Environment Studio at ANU, focusing on Lake Mokoan near Benalla, Victoria.

She currently lives on a small farm on the outskirts of Canberra.