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Thanks to Catherine O'Donnell for speaking to us in her lunchbreak from teaching at the National Art School. We spoke to Catherine about her drawing practice, coming to art later in life, judging an art prize, and her love of the fibro shack! 

She has an exhibition coming up at Campbelltown Arts Centre in July and at Dominik Mersch in August. 

'Essentially my artist practice is about the beauty of the uncelebrated and ordinary.

My drawings an exploration of the architecture, culture and history in the everyday-ness of the urban environment. I see the suburbs as full of connection and disconnection, sameness and difference; in short, my drawings examine suburban living as a site of complexity. I am particularly interested in the way that the vernacular architecture and general street scapes of the places we regularly inhabit become recessed into our minds like wallpaper -they are at once visible and invisible.

It is the architecture of the suburban landscape which is the subject in my drawings. The absence of the representation of people in the drawings encourages viewers to consider the architecture from their own view point, perhaps igniting their own memories of suburban living. My drawings whilst uninhabited still capture traces of human intervention with narrative elements embedded in the commonplace structures: an open window; a door ajar.

My drawings are clearly representational but the realism in my work is not merely a reproduction of the visible. It is the elevation of the abstract form, the underpinning geometry and the distillation of the spatial composition that interests me. To this end I extract the building from its surroundings, deleting extraneous information, in order to emphasize the simplified form and obtain the final image. I use representation as a catalyst to ignite the imagination of the viewer and invite them to look beyond the mundane and banal. To revisit these spaces imaginatively and find the aesthetic poetry embedded within in the suburban landscape, while at the same time disrupting cultural prejudices which prevent people from seeing the underlying elegance of these simple buildings.'

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Thanks so much to Angus Fisher who picked us up from Patonga Wharf in his boat with his dog, to whizz us round to his home and studio on Dangar Island! It was such a special day out, we loved it. We also met his lovely wife and baby. We missed the ferry home from Patonga and were forced to have lunch at The Boathouse Patonga, such a shame!!!

We spoke to Angus about his love of drawing, printmaking and teaching. He is a wonderful man who is passionate about his practice.

'Angus Fisher’s art practice investigates nature and humankind’s relationship with the natural world. For Fisher, the idea of nature is a not a static term, but an evolving concept. Through the detailed study of history and natural subject matter, his work grapples with the idea of how nature exists, and has existed, in human imagination. Fisher does not only investigate ecology through his subjects, but the evolving attitudes and changing philosophical interpretations of the wider natural world. Primarily working with etching and drawing, he utilises traditional working techniques, methodologies and aesthetics to place his work in direct connection to historical contexts and traditions.'

Angus is represented by Australian Galleries in Australia and Jonathan Cooper Gallery in the UK

Links -
Sydney printmakers
Image for Dobell
Image for Hawkesbury Art Prize winning piece 

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What a great episode with artist, Tony Mighell, at his home and studio. Tony is extremely well read on the subject of art and artists, we could have talked for hours. We loved hearing about the NY Studio School when Tony attended in the 1970's, it sounded amazing. He also became the studio assistant of artist Roger Kemp.  Tony worked at the MCA in Sydney for 10 years as the manager of installations, and tells some fascinating stories about his time there. 

Since 2015 Tony has been concentration on his own practice and is now represented by gallery Nanda Hobbs in Sydney.

We hope you love this conversation as much as we did.

Thanks Tony.

Links to some of the artists tony mentioned -

Roger Kemp
Frederick Thursz
Robert Motherwell
Mercedes Matters

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Thanks you Emily Besser for your time and sharing your stories. You can find out more about Emily on her website.

https://www.emilybesser.com

or her instagram

https://www.instagram.com/emilybesser/?hl=en

You can find out more about Nicole Barakat workshop in the following link.

http://www.nicolebarakat.com.au/learn

Emily was also featured in Amber Creswell Bell’s new book, Australian Abstract!

Her upcoming show, 'Ground',  at Boom gallery opens 27th April - 21st May

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We interviewed Ali Tahayori at his home and studio in Newtown, Sydney, a long way from his hometown of Shiraz, Iran. Ali moved to Australia from Iran in 2007 after imprisonment and torture for being gay became unsustainable to remain in his homeland .  We discovered Ali at the NAS MFA Exhibition where he showed his impressive broken mirror artworks and video installation.

'Born and raised in the oppressively homophobic climate of 1980s Iran, Ali Tahayori assumed the identity of an outsider, further compounded by his migration to Australia in 2007. Combing fractured mirrors with text and imagery, his recent works draw on ancient Iranian philosophies about light and mirrors to create kaleidoscopic experiences; moments of both revelation and concealment hint at the conflicted nature of his identity. 

Translating the traditional Iranian craft of Āine-Kāri (mirror-works) into a contemporary visual vocabulary, his practice skillfully combines a discourse about diaspora and displacement with an exploration of queerness – in both cases, poignantly testifying to his experience of being othered. He holds a Doctorate in Medicine, a Graduate Diploma in Photography, and a Master of Fine Arts in Photomedia from Sydney’s National Art School. His work has been extensively exhibited in Iran, Europe and Australia.'

Ali is also a photographer, winning the 2022 Prix Yves Hernot Photography Award and in 2021 the peoples choice winner Bowness Photography award.  Ali continues working as a rehabilitation doctor in Sydney whilst being a very busy artist.

Congratulations Ali, your work is so multi-layered in meaning and beauty that we think you have a very long career ahead of you.

You can see Ali's work in his upcoming show, 'The Sky is the Same',  at Gosford Regional Art Gallery from April 1-June 4 2023. Opening Friday 14 April at 6pm. 

He is represented by This Is No Fantasy in Melbourne. 

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Many thanks to Trevor Victor Harvey from Harvey Galleries for an enlightening chat

You can find Trevor and his marvellous team on their website -

https://harveygalleries.com.au

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Many thanks for talking to us Mary Tonkin

To find out more about this Artist check out her instagram

https://www.instagram.com/mary.tonkin/?hl=en

or with Australian Galleries who represents her https://australiangalleries.com.au/artists/mary-tonkin/

'Landscape painter Mary Tonkin completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) in 1995 and a Master of Fine Arts in 2002 at Monash University, where she has also lectured. Tonkin has held solo exhibitions in Melbourne and Sydney since 1999. Her work has been included in group exhibitions at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery and internationally in New York. A survey exhibition titled ‘Home’ was held at Burrinja Gallery in the Dandenong’s in 2012. Tonkin was awarded the National Gallery of Victoria Trustee award in 1994 and 1995 and Dobell drawing prize in 2002. She was the recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshield foundation grant in 1998 and Australian post-graduate fellowship award in 2000. Tonkin’s work is held by the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, VIC and several regional and tertiary institutions.'

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Many thanks to Art Advisor Michael Powe for your time talking to us.

Michael’s business is Anala Art Advisory.

https://analaartadvisory.com.au

Johnny Romeos show, Cloud 9, is opening on Friday 10 March in Melbourne at West End Art Space.
https://westendartspace.com.au/exhibitions_details/johnny-romeo-pop-popart/

‘When it comes to capturing this overwhelming sense of being high on life, few expressions exude with the same joy and wide-eyed wonderment as ‘Cloud 9’. According to some linguists, the concept of Cloud 9 originates from the categorization of the world’s largest cloud, the Cumulonimbus, as a Level 9 cloud in the 1896 ‘International Cloud Atlas’. Others have suggested that the term was inspired by the ninth cloud in the journey of the Bodhissatva, considered to be the penultimate step to Enlightenment in Buddhism. Within the context of the series, Romeo masterfully combines the lofty grandeur of being on top of the world with a sense of spiritual ecstasy to express his own Cloud 9 philosophy, which encourages us to embrace life to the fullest in order to experience true joy.’

Curated by Michael Powe 

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Many thanks to Artist Ali Noble for your time. You can find out more about Ali on her website or instagram. Good luck with your Masters!

Ali Noble’s primary interest is the discourse of textiles; which she frequently explores alongside the aesthetics of abstract formalism and mysticism. Ali’s current work, as part of her MFA research, is connected to an ongoing enquiry into the transgressive spirit of textile architecture, or curtains. Together, textiles and space provoke discussions that explore sensuality, transformation, normative domesticity, and time.

https://www.alinoble.com

https://www.instagram.com/alinoble11/

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Many thanks to Cybele for welcoming us into her home and studio very close to us in Avalon Beach. 

'Cybele Cox’s practise explores ancient feminine symbols and occult mysticism, which is part of a larger enquiry into representations of women in the western art canon. Using hand built ceramic totems and figures, painting, drawing and more recently costume, Cox seeks to re-invoke occult practices of an imagined ancestral lineage. She makes the proposition that magic and ritual have been dismissed by the secular nature of Western society, which overlooks the importance of the spiritual realm and altered mental states. Making figurative sculpture is a means of entry into a mystical realm, which embodies hybridity of human-body-animal, fusing symbols from the mythic world with fantasies for a new feminist order. Her work proposes a return to occult knowledge, as a re-flowering of the spiritual.'

Thanks for talking to us Cybele.

Cybele is represented by Yavuz Gallery

Warning: please be advised this episode contains content of sexual abuse.