Art Wank Fiona Verity and Julie Nicholson

We covered everything in this podcast with these amazing curators and artists. We talked about science, ecology, archaeology, art, curating and much much more.

Pippa Mott has recently taken up the mantle of Director of Woollahra Gallery in Sydney, after completing a Fulbright scholarship in NY and 8 years as a curator at MONA, Tasmania. 

Maya Martin-Westheimer is an artist, curator and founder of contemporary art publishing company, Floorplan Studio. She is also artist in residence at Woollahra Gallery until 13th September 2023. 

Thanks to you both for a great chat. Get yourself down to the gallery for the small sculpture prize opens September 28th. 

Coco Elder - The Never Never is on at Art2Muse Gallery until 18th September. 
Bellingen Arts Trail 10-12th November 

'My artwork is based on observations of the landscape and flora, notably in Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park, and more recently in the Bellingen Shire. My initial study in Landscape Architecture has inspired my interest in geology and indigenous botanical landscapes. Overtime, I have witnessed the bush thrive in the wet, fight or recoil in the dry, and brought back to life after the fires. I hope to transcribe reverence for the Australian bush and to reveal the mysterious and alluring qualities of our native plants and the lie of the land.
The natural landscape presents as an intriguing paradox. Up close, the bush is an unruly entanglement of prickly menace; from a distance, are distinct interlocking shapes that can be ordered by the eye into Cezanne's geometry. Patterns that appear on the macro level are reiterated at the micro. Whilst bodies of water lead the eye in and outwards through reflections, there is a mysterious chasm in time, yet it also appears infinite. Shadows of texture hem and define vibrations of light. I endeavour to capture some of these subtle ambiguities in my work.
I retrace the place, coming closer to the essence of form, yet ironically remove it, by carving back through the surface. The image becomes a visual description that blends aspects of botanical documentation (like the early Australian artists); a journey through nature, (influenced by Japanese scrolls); and a personal expression through patterns of whimsy, and reflections on the past inhabitants, the Carigal and Gumbaynggirr people, whose presence are keenly felt.'

thanks Coco for your time and good luck with the Bellingen arts trail! 

Many thanks to Draw Space founding members - 4 of which kindly spoke to us - if you would like to find out more about these artists please find links below.

Melinda Hunt, https://www.instagram.com/melinda.ink/?hl=en
and Chelsea Lehmann https://www.chelseajlehmann.com
and Daniel Press Art https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=daniel+press+art&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
and Belinda Yee http://belindayee.com/about.htm
and Luke Thurgate https://www.instagram.com/luke_thurgate/?hl=en
and Jeremy W Smith https://www.jeremywsmithart.com
and Lisa Pang https://www.instagram.com/jolibeol/?hl=en

Also many thanks to Kristy Gordon  https://www.instagram.com/kristygordon_art/?hl=en
and Joyce Lubotzky https://www.instagram.com/joylubo/?hl=en
who kindly spoke to us about their art current practises which was on show in Materiality https://drawspace.org 

Our latest guests on @art.wank won it!! In 2021, an arts collective, Array Collective won this prestigious prize for their installation, ‘The Druthaib’s Ball’. 
.‘The Druthaib’s Ball, new work for Turner Prize 2021, has been realised twice over. In Belfast it was a wake for the centenary of Ireland’s partition in the Black Box (grassroots venue), and was attended by semi-mythological druids along with a community of artists and activists wearing hand-made costumes. 
  At the Herbert, the event has been transformed into an immersive installation. An imagined síbín (a ‘pub without permission’) hosts a film created from the Belfast event, and a TV showing Northern Ireland Screen’s Digital Film Archive. A large canopy styled from banners provides a floating roof. The síbín is approached through a circle of flag poles, that references ancient Irish ceremonial sites and contemporary structures, and is illuminated by a dawn-to-dusk light. 
  Array invite us into a place of contradictions where trauma, dark humour, frustration, and release coexist. It is a place to gather outside the sectarian divides that have dominated the collective memory of the North of Ireland for the last hundred years.’ 
.We had a wonderful time chatting over zoom to two of Arrays members Sighle Bhreathnach-Cashell and Stephen Millar. Thanks for your time! 

We interviewed artist Marilou Palazon at Sydney Road Gallery surrounded by her beautiful artworks at her solo show, Realise, which is on until Sunday 27th August. Go see the exhibition or view online.  Marilou is a director of Sydney Road Gallery, a mentor, co-founder of online gallery The Brush artists Group Collective. 

'My Florals are really dramatic landscapes. I relish the simplicity of the monumental and sweeping the illogical large scale of an otherwise delicate and small subject disorientate and create a sense of awe.
I like my viewer to fall into my images and traveling along the surface of my images. My images of flowers become more iconic, monolithic, archetypal, ultimate and prime symbols. I rejoice in this transhistorical and ancient subject matter. They always continue to fascinate me.
Historically the flowers are emotionally and symbolically rich with content. To me they represent time, beauty , fragility, decay, cycle of life, life as a journey. I like the space of the struggle – the dichotomy of perfection and slow decline. One cannot exist and be appreciated without the other.
There is great beauty in all these stages. Life as journey and respect for all stages of nature. To get a sense of nostalgia of what was.'

We interviewed artist Belinda Yee  (winner works on paper and photography award), furniture designer and maker Jack Stannard (winner of  the functional design award) and artist and academic Laura Fisher (part of Kandos School of cultural adaptation winner of the Interdisciplinary Collaboration award) at Manly Art gallery and Museum last week. 

'Thought-provoking works by 215 artists and designers from across Australia have been shortlisted for the prestigious annual Northern Beaches Environmental Art & Design Prize.


Now in its third year, the Environmental Art & Design Prize brings together a community of creatives to highlight our environmental concerns and hopes across the nation.  The works selected present fresh perspectives on our global climate crisis and sustainable life on earth.  They will be on show in an outstanding exhibition of art and design from 4 – 27 August at Manly Art Gallery & Museum, Curl Curl Creative Space and Mona Vale Creative Space Gallery. '

Thanks for listening