Art Collector • 18th February 2024 Cool hunters – Christopher Bassi Hazy and sun-streaked, almost yellowed with age, Meriam and Yupungathi artist Christopher Bassi’s paintings are reminiscent of time passed.
ArchitectureAU • 18th February 2024 Don Cameron Shifting between architectural photography, interior design, furniture and lighting, Don Cameron’s typologically diverse body of work belies its layered connections. For Artichoke
Art Almanac • 4th December 2023 Primavera 2023: Young Australian Artists “I wanted to ensure that the darkness was balanced with lightness too.” Curated by Talia Smith, Primavera 2023: Young Australian Artists explores themes of protest, perseverance, and reimagining through the works of six artists, all aged thirty-five years and under.
ArchitectureAU • 8th September 2023 Play House by State of Kin Located in a northern coastal suburb of Perth, Play House by State of Kin emphasises the use of colour as a key element in the design. Meanwhile, the clients wanted to pay homage to its environment – a neighbourhood growing in popularity for young families, with its proximity to the beach and relaxed atmosphere.
Domain Living • 7th September 2023 Collecting art with heart Art can make a home, especially original pieces with stories to tell. But even for the most avid art-lover, starting or adding to a collection can come with accessibility and affordability woes. Until now. A new type of contemporary art market has emerged over the past couple of years – one that grants easy access to the artworks, whether by reducing costs or breaking down the barriers between artist and buyer. Here are some galleries enabling ownership and supporting artists at a grassroots level.
Artsy • 1st September 2023 Inside Sydney’s Newly Blossoming Contemporary Art Scene Taking place between September 7th and 10th, the art fair Sydney Contemporary marks a key moment in the Australian art world calendar.
Art Almanac • 27th August 2023 nightshifts “The seen and the unseen.” The “after hours” as a metaphor is explored in nightshifts at Buxton Contemporary, Melbourne, with the exhibition focusing on the wholistic concept of retreat – an invitation to temporary seclusion, rest, and quietness from others.
ArchitectureAU • 22nd August 2023 Plucked from nature: The designs of Samantha Dennis Appearing to be plucked from nature, Samantha Dennis’s practice occupies both science and art. Crafted from metal and ceramics, spiders crawl over the wearer, or beetles shimmer pinned to clothing.
ArchitectureAU • 11th August 2023 Shiplap House by Chenchow Little Bold and untethered by contemporary discourse, Shiplap House by Chenchow Little juts from Sydney’s eastern suburbs landscape, a sharp contrast to the nondescript houses that dominate this headland ridge. Chenchow Little has looked to the architectural vernaculars that used to cover this exposed coastline, the ocean nearby offering its powerful swell and seabreezes.
Art Almanac • 9th August 2023 Rae Begley: Strange Quiet “Strange Quiet is a meditation on time, an intimate interaction with the ecosystem of the reef, its mystery, its beauty, and its quiet fragility.”
ArchitectureAU • 4th August 2023 Blok Stafford Heights by Blok Modular and Vokes and Peters Perched upon the suburban landscape, undulating across a steep site, Blok Stafford Heights by Blok Modular and Vokes and Peters is a lightweight modular building grounded through masonry elements and a purist Miesian floor plan. The prefabricated design employs a simple, modernist language, in a home centred on living.
Art Almanac • 18th July 2023 In the studio: Thea Anamara Perkins “. . . it’s the vulnerable parts of myself and others that I want to engage with.” Art Almanac sat down with recent La Prairie Art Award winner Thea Anamara Perkins who uses personal narratives in her highly detailed paintings that challenge misconceptions. The Sydney-based artist has just moved from her studio at Carriageworks Clothing Store into a home/portable studio in anticipation of a year of travelling, seeing art, and developing her technical skills.
24th June 2023 The power of repurposing: Australian designers transform history for a new generation. The Australian Interior Design Awards’ Sustainability Advancement Award divulges how we can push past the simple fabric of a building for a sustainable future and, instead, transform history for a new generation while reinventing communal living and social housing.
Art Almanac • 20th June 2023 TarraWarra Biennial 2023: ua usiusi faʻavaʻasavili ua usiusi faʻavaʻasavili is a Gagana Sāmoan proverb translating to “the canoe obeys the wind,” and is the curatorial theme of the current TarraWarra Biennial as it moves across the waters to reframe the relationships between Australia and archipelagos in south/southeast Asia and south/southwest Great Ocean.
Hunter & Folk • 17th May 2023 Creative Parenting – Kathryn Dolby Abstract artist Kathryn Dolby crafts colourful scenes inspired by nature, the beautiful landscape of the Northern Rivers, NSW on Bundjalung Country feeding into her practice, where she lives with her partner Steve, and daughters Freda, five, and Leni-Jean, one.
Art Almanac • 26th April 2023 In the studio: Abdul-Rahman Abdullah Working from his studio in rural Western Australia, Perth-born artist Abdul-Rahman Abdullah explores life through his ‘magic realism’ style. Animals, mythology, and family history translate into artworks set in otherworldly installations that immerse the viewer. Abdullah offers a refreshing and honest take on his life as an artist, plus raising his three children in the bush.
GROUNDSWELL • 13th March 2023 Tony Albert on the overlap between art and activism After the horrific bushfire season of 2019-20, conceptual artist Tony Albert invited audiences to rejuvenate the landscape differently. One that considered the effects of colonisation in both the environment and for those who had lived here for thousands of years. Titled ‘Healing Land, Remembering Country’, it was commissioned for the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, inside a greenhouse on Cockatoo Island (a former prison). Albert asked audiences to write an alternative narrative for children and young people who are incarcerated in Australia onto paper filled with Kangaroo grass seeds, before being planted back into the earth as a healing, holistic rejuvenation project.
Hunter & Folk • 25th February 2023 Jess Sellinger With their fluttering and textile-like quality, Jess Sellinger’s ceramics are full of enveloping folds. Evocative of life, they are transient, fragile at heart, imperfect yet deliciously smooth.
Art Almanac • 21st February 2023 Air “. . . what it means to breathe . . .” Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art’s (QAGOMA) summer blockbuster exhibition, Air, brings together an expansive collection of works by over thirty international and Australian artists, each who resist, disturb, and challenge notions of ecological harmony.
Hunter & Folk • 8th February 2023 The White House by Robson Rak & Lucy Fenton Located in the bayside Melbourne suburb of Elwood, The White House is a modernist makeover of a Californian bungalow.