Common Thread, at St. Helliers Gallery, Abbortsfor

February 19, 2020

I have a new painting in a group exhibition by the staff artists working at Arts Project Australia - a visual art studio supporting neuro diverse individuals with their contemporary art practices. I made the work in response to being in the studio with amazing artists, and the collective passion and influence Arts Project has had on my own practice as well. Below is a beautifully insightful essay written by Michael Schwarz, board member, art enthusiast and friend of Arts Project Australia, which is available also in hard copy at the exhibition.

Opening Night: 14th February 6-8pm All Welcome

Exhibition continues until 4th March 2020, St Heliers Gallery enter via Cam’s Cafe, 1 Heliers Street Abbortsford, Vic, 3067

Alysia Rees Anna-Maria O’Keeffe Carolyn Hawkins Elyss McCleary James McDonald Jodie Kipps Lyn Young Marcel Cooper, Penelope Hunt Peter Douglas Rob McHaffie Suzanne Brown Tom Pendergast, Yoshe Gillespie.

Exhibition invitation design by Carolyn Hawkins, 2020.

Elyss McCleary, A Lyric sound of exchange attach to the paint mixing desk, the beige blinds pulled halfway by the window, soft rain outside. Oil on linen, 148cm x 82cm, 2020

The Natural Way, at Arts Project Australia

November 19, 2019 in exhibition

The Natural Way considers how seven artists observe and work in their processes of art practice. Integrative approaches take on a wide view of sensibilities and thinking to each person. The sequences of works explore subject matter crossing the figurative, role playing, investigations of time travel, and essentially unique and individual ways of interpreting and creating.

Curated by Elyss McCleary, this exhibition evolved naturally with admiration and respect of the characteristic autonomy of how each artist approaches their process in and away from the collective studio of Arts Project Australia. This process of ideas and imagery encompasses a constant outflow of work, when seen in the studio and on mass, impressing of something bigger and expansive for us all to share and experience.

Jacob Cartelli Kaymay Hallas Danny Lyons Julian Martin Daniel Richardson Rebecca Scibilia Robin Warren

Opening: Saturday 26 October, 3-5pm
Exhibition: 26 October — 23 November 2019

Opening Speaker: Jeremy Eaton, an artist and writer based in Melbourne, he is the gallery coordinator of KINGS Artist-Run and the editorial coordinator of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art

Image | Daniel Richardson, Los Vegas inside Melbourne Museum in the 1940s, 2019, collage and paint pen on paper, 50 x 70 cm. — Image | Daniel Richardson, *Los Vegas inside Melbourne Museum in the 1940s*, 2019, collage and paint pen on paper, 50 x 70 cm.

Adrian Lazzaro, paint pen, fineliner and acrylic on paper, 29.7cm x 21cm, 2014.

Drawn Together at Arts Project Australia

February 06, 2015

Adrian Lazzaro Not titled 2014, acrylic paint, paint pen, and felt pen on paper.

Image credit: Penelope Hunt.

Upon entering the studio space upstairs at Arts Project Australia, there is an immediate sense of creative energy, vivacity, inventiveness and immense production generated by the activity of the artists making their work. Drawing is an integral and significant part of that process and the diverse contemporary practice of many of the artists.

Amani Tia’s beautiful, sensitive pen and ink drawing of artists in the studio space reflect his passion for observational drawing. He also fills sketchbooks with delicate line portraits of people on the train as he commutes between Arts Project and home. A number of other artists explore perceptual drawing in the still life and life drawing programs in the studio. Alvaro Alvarez makes complex, enigmatic pencil drawings that are repeatedly erased and redrawn as he seeks to resolve the conceptual and formal aspects of the work. This leaves behind both a trace of the process of making and the artist's thoughts. Often the drawing is obscured further by its preparatory role for the application of paint and colour. Gestural, expressive, markmaking produces an energetic layering of abstract line, space and colour in Wendy Dawson and Rebecca Scibilia's work. Bronwyn Hack, Samraing Chea, Emily Dober and Adrian Lazzaro's intriguing figurative drawings investigate personal subject matter and narratives derived from photographic and digital references, memory or imagination.

There are many kinds of drawing at Arts Project. It has versatility, immediacy and directness and encompasses a diversity of approaches, styles and mediums. From more traditional pencil, charcoal, pen and ink on paper to digital media, video and animation, Drawn Together brings together artists with a connection to drawing. The exhibition presents a broad scope of drawing being made by artists at Arts Project Australia. For many artists it is their primary medium or an important component of their practice. It is a way of seeing and investigating the world - and that may be with a pencil or a computer.

Artist(s): Alvaro Alvarez, Nicholas Capaldo, Riccardo Cardinale, Leo Cussen, Wendy Dawson, Jamie Dawes, Emily Dober, Martin Forster, Bronwyn Hack, Brigid Hanrahan, Miles Howard-Wilks, John Huggins, Thomas Iacono, Kate Knight, Bobby Kyriakopoulos, Adrian Lazzaro, Andrew Ledwidge, Fiona Longhurst, Orion Manzart, Julian Martin, Cameron Noble, Nhan Nguyen, Chris O’Brien, Warren O’Brien, Lisa Reid, Brendan Slee, Rebecca Scibilia, Amani Tia and Timothy Williams.

Curator(s): Suzanne Brown & Elyss McCleary

Monday to Friday 9am - 5pm
Saturday 10am - 5pm

Arts Project Australia

24 High Street, Northcote
Victoria 3070

T + 61 3 9482 4484
F + 61 3 9482 1852