Andrew Stephens is an independent visual arts writer based in Melbourne. He has worked as a journalist, editor and curator, and has degrees in fine art and art history.
Adorn explores how items we put on our bodies are invested with meaning – not only by their creators, but by the people who wear them. The result is a series of stories as varied as the individuals who wear the objects.
Bright, arresting portraits were on the hit list for National Portrait Gallery curator Christopher Chapman when he started putting together a new show to help celebrate the gallery’s 20th anniversary.
Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr present Biomess where animal oddities, living tissues and mysterious organisms penetrate the science/art divide.
Thai-Australian artist Kawita Vatanajyankur has long been interested in female labour and its relationship to textiles. Most recently she has explored this in video works in which she uses her own body to transform into various tools, such as a weaving shuttle or a spinning wheel.
John Nicholson’s latest body of work draws on industrial production, both in its medium and as its muse.
While many aspects of running a commercial gallery have changed since the 1960s, some things have remained the same. Two stalwarts of Melbourne’s art scene, Bill Nuttall and Stuart Purves, reminisce about the early days.
“This was really a period in which art absolutely changed. It was at this time when art didn’t have to be a painting or a sculpture anymore, it could be a movement or a performance or an action or a book.”
Yes yes yes yes at the Art Gallery of New South Wales is a timely injection of positivity via the decade of change.
Off the north-west coast of the United States, Orcus Island is the place where Aleph Geddis grew up and did his training in wood carving. He uses no machines, only hand tools for his extraordinarily complex sculptures.
Liam Garstang’s cross-disciplinary practice reveals a haunted, wounded vision of inland Australia.
John Young has embraced the potential of technology, even while continuing to paint the old-fashioned way – very carefully.
Stieg Persson’s practice has dealt with a multiplicity of themes over the decades. His survey show reveals this polyphony, steadied by art history.
