Beyond the sexy blockbuster lies the truth

Contemporary art needs more work like this: eloquent but not reducible to convenient and approved formulas.

Art at work: Melinda Harper

From exuberant and optical through to pensive and moody, Castlemaine based artist Melinda Harper’s abstraction is endlessly absorbing and uplifting. Inspired by her lived experience of the visual world, Harper’s small precise paintings, watercolours and embroideries are equally influenced by early 20^th-century abstraction and mid-century modernists. We are delighted to say CAM is currently working with Melinda towards an exhibition at CAM in the not too distant future. Harper shares with us something of her working life in this email interview.

Maroon 5’s Jesse Carmichael Keeps it Short and Sweet with Two-Minute Movies

Participants can do as they like, but it can’t run longer than two minutes; that’s the idea behind 2 Minute Movies (2mm), a collective of filmmakers and artists founded in early 2019 by Maroon 5’s Jesse Carmichael. “The biggest takeaway from this period of isolation is just how important it is to have friends and family around to make things in life with; memories and art,” he tells “Southland Sessions.” Despite starting before the pandemic, the collective’s more recent videos reflect intimate portraits of the current moment.

Art Talks: Paul Davies and Kate Bryan

Join Head of Collections, Kate Bryan, as she talks to LA-based Australian artist, Paul Davies, about the painting he created for Soho Warehouse, now the largest work in the Soho House global collection.

Home comforts Artists find solace in the everyday

For this issue, Look asked three regional New South Wales artists – John Bokor, Zoe Young and Kiata Mason – to create new works inspired by Henri Matisse’s concept of an art of ‘calme’ – art which translates an atmosphere of joy and peace. We asked the artists, known for their depictions of interiors, to explore the things which bring them comfort, solace and calm during our current times of uncertainty.

Together in art

When the world retreated indoors, the art world went online, with screens suddenly transformed from museum support act to main event. While restrictions have begun to ease, digital encounters remain a valuable point of contact and engagement. This guide to some of our favourite online connections ranges from the Gallery’s own Together In Art project to a virtual writers’ festival. We’ve also asked artists how they’d like to see things change when we come out the other side. ‘My hope is that technology will continue to break down barriers between audiences and the art world,’ artist Kim Leutwyler says. We couldn’t agree more.

The former Sulman and Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship finalist brings his loony toons mashups of the sacrosanct and slapstick to Olsen Gallery, 22 July–15 August.

You Me & Covid-19: Michelle Cawthorn and Peter Sharp

The You, Me & COVID-19 series sees the region’s artists interviewed by the partners they’re sharing #iso with. Watch artists and partners Michelle Cawthorn and Peter Sharp in conversation from their home in the Sutherland Shire.

2 Minute Movies Bridges Music and Filmmaking

A new collaboration between Maroon 5’s Jesse Carmichael and artist Paul Davies connects visual art, music, and filmmaking.

Re-imaginings: Nostalgia and cultural memory in the paintings of Dani McKenzie and McLean Edwards

The packed dance floor each Thursday evening at the Rainbow Hotel in the hip inner-Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy was wedged between the corner of the bar and the heavy crimson drape masking the dimly lit entrance to the beer garden, the room thick with cigarette smoke, for the most part.

Jacqui Stockdale

Melbourne-based artist Jacqui Stockdale works across photography, drawing, painting, collage and performance to explore the disparate and overlooked histories of Australia. Through archetypal characters, symbolism and carefully researched theatrical settings, costumes, and props including live animals, Stockdale focuses her lens on the female narratives of the past in the hope of shedding some light on the fraught issues of Australia as a nation in the present.

Laura Jones 'Arcadia'

Arcadia by Laura Jones opens at Glasshouse, Port Macquarie 6 March at 6pm. The exhibition will run from 7 March â?? 19 April 2020.

Yaritji Tingila Young Is Leading The Way For The Next Generation Of Indigenous Artists

Yaritji Tingila Young’s award-winning artwork is immediately captivating. She is a leader and director of Tjala Arts, an Aboriginal owned and governed business where truly incredible work is created. Stories and culture are passed down to the next generation here, and artists are able to generate income on their own terms. It’s such an important place for the community, and Yaritji Tingila is a huge part of that.

My First Great Love

Dinosaur Designs' Louise Olsen first love was painting and she's preparing for her first solo show

Paul Davies Works Aquired by Geelong Gallery

Geelong Gallery have just acquired works from the series of sunlight photograms Paul Davies made on residency at the Frank Lloyd Wright Taliesin Westin Phoenix, Arizona.

Louise Olsen to silence the naysayers with solo show

In art school, Louise Olsen kept herself in paints selling colourful t-shirts and resin jewellery at Paddington Markets, heeding the work ethic of her father, the celebrated artist, John Olsen whose creed was: "Be lovers, not others, be givers, not takers, us Olsens are workers."

The Ned Kelly legend as you have never seen it

You don’t get much more Australian than this. Ned Kelly’s girlfriend, riding Phar Lap, which has just deposited a pile of golden nuggets.

Melbourne artist Jacqui Stockdale gets that it’s funny. It’s intended to be.

 But look again, she says.

“I’ve called it Such is Love. She’s a message. I don’t want to use the word powerful. But it’s absurd. Ned Kelly’s absurd. This is summing up Australia.”

The Office

'The world's most hopeless art heist': Sydney artist's bushfire relief painting stolen

A painting by a celebrated Sydney artist stolen from a Mascot business while the paint was still wet has been recovered.

Geelong acquisition news

Geelong Gallery have acquired works by Paul Davies from a series of sunlight photograms made on residency at the Frank Lloyd Wright Taliesin Westin Phoenix, Arizona.

'The world's most hopeless art heist': Sydney artist's bushfire relief painting stolen

A celebrated Sydney artist whose still wet painting was stolen from a business in Mascot last week hopes the thief is caught red-handed.

Painter Laura Jones had just finished an 81 x 61cm oil canvas of Australian native flowers that was to be auctioned for bushfire relief when she took it to a business in Mascot to be photographed ahead of the National Art School's Home: Bushfire Relief Art Auction Fundraiser on Wednesday.