Stephen Bird: Bastard Son of Royal Doulton

Put all shame and modesty aside when visiting Stephen Bird’s exhibition Bastard Son of Royal Doulton. Autobiographical in much of its content, this show features sensational artworks with explicit scenes of sex in the bush, petrol sniffing, and decapitation alongside the banal, stuff of everyday life. This is a survey show of Bird’s ceramics and works on paper from 1992 – 2014. The artist sees the show as a celebration of these 22 years of his career and a creative document of his journey from Scotland to Australia.

Paul Davies

“My work is driven by friction between opposing forces of built and natural environments, design and art, abstraction and figuration.” We chat to Davies about his new exhibition ‘Other Desert Spaces’ and the direction his move to Los Angeles has steered his work.

From World War II to the Archibald: landscape master Guy Warren going strong at 94

Guy Warren denies being Australia's oldest working and exhibiting artist, but he's willing to concede that he may be our best looking. At the grand age of 94, he still paints and draws several days a week in his Leichhardt studio.

"I feel 40," he says. "What the hell, age doesn't really matter."

In the past 18 months, Warren has been travelling in Ecuador, Alice Springs and remote NSW. The Dust of Memory, his exhibition of landscape paintings drawn from his travels, opens this weekend at Olsen Irwin Galleries.

Storm could not wash away inspiration

AIn April this year, the day after Sydney's spectacular storms, artist Alan Jones arrived at his Alexandria studio to find 17 of his new paintings floating in melted hail.

William Delafield Cook: the amazing realism of an Australian landscape artist

This artist, who died In England in March, left a legacy of work that identifies him as one of the most significant Australian landscape painters.

LA Love Story

Many people find the concrete and glass sprawl of LA to be ugly and isolating, but Paul Davies sees the city as a work of art. "You have this incredible built environment of modernist architecture right within a natural environment of sunshine, canyons and oceans," he says. "You can't help but be inspired."

Bill Callahan and Paul Ryan

When the painter meets the musician this week at the Vivid Sydney festival, it will be a meeting of the senses.

William Delafield Cook: Artist hailed as one of Australia

Delafield Cook's name was put firmly on the British art map when Elton John bought almost an entire show.

Former medical student swaps scalpel for brush

Julian Meagher's latest exhibition is oddly contemplative for a painted study of masculinity and Australia's drinking culture, especially by someone whose main training was in medicine.

Julian Meagher - Drinking with the other Sun

On the back of a sell out show at Merry Karnowsky Gallery in Los Angeles, Julian Meagher returns to his hometime of Sydney for his debut exhibition at Olsen Irwin, Drinking with the other Sun.
The exhibition extends on notions of ritual, identity and masculinity from previous bodies of work, exploring Australian identity and its emergence from imperial roots. A suite of still lifes feature robust native fauna juxtaposed by delicate images of the English rose - pointing to the British influence of our national identity- set in intricate compositions of meticulously arranged, reclaimed glass bottles.
The still lives are couples with portraits of the decedents of key figures in Australian history. Meagher’s soft, intimate approach to these works probes notions of personal versus collecting history and inheritance.
Meagher originally trained as a doctor, choosing to leave the world of medicine to pursue a career in art following a period of study in Florence. His unique watercolour- esque style somewhat reflects the traditional oil portraiture techniques he learned at this time; he applied multiple thin glazes over many sittings. One can see elements of his original training too, in his precise execution and a careful, specimen-like treatment of his subjects.

About Face

‘I have never feared failure,” says Anh Do, glancing up at one of his thick-layered paintings in his studio on the NSW south coast. “My father took us from Vietnam across to Australia — 40 people on a 9m-long fishing boat — and if he failed, 40 people including his wife and two baby children are dead. So I ask myself: if I fail at painting, are 40 people going to die? No? Then just move ­forward and have a go.”

Anh Do paints big lives for his first solo exhibition at Olsen Irwin Gallery

With a portrait in last year's Archibald Prize exhibition and as a finalist in several other art shows, Anh Do's artistic credentials would seem to be beyond doubt.
But Do's gallery dealer Rex Irwin has been a tough judge to please.
"He came before last year's Archibald and he looked at all the work and he went 'This is pretty much all not good enough'," Do says. "And I said 'What about that one? That's my dad and I'm going to put him in the Archibald' and he said 'No, not very good'."

Sophie Cape: Getting the art fix

Sophie Cape is a former professional athlete who retired from competitive sport ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics due to injury. She dabbled in art from a young age – inspired by her artist grandmother (Gwenna Thatcher) and mother (Ann Cape) – but it was when her sporting career came to an abrupt end that her art making became the perfect outlet for her restless, athletic energy and her love of being outdoors. Cape immerses herself physically and emotionally into the landscape. It’s here that she has discovered and developed her unique visual language, making large-scale, visceral artworks composed predominately outside, on the ground in seclusion.

Into the wild

Life works. Blood, sweat and tears are embodied in the creations of every one of these visionary artists.

Scents, sights, sounds as artwork nurtures natural instincts

Things Collectors Need to Know 2015: Curators's Radar

Curator's Radar 

Our writers look at those artists who are currently attracting curatorial interest from public institutions through inclusion in exhibitions or major acquisitions.

Is There Great Art on Instagram?

For me, Instagram is a land of the midnight sun, a wide-open place that's always lit up, bristling with visions, pictures, strangers, shooting stars, screwballs, and well-known artists posting images from everywhere, together creating this immense abstract missive or amazing rebus that seems to speak just to me, the curious curator of my own lit-up Instagramland. Strangest in this strange land is that 123,000 people now follow me. Or are following their idea of me: New York Magazine's art critic acting out in pictures online.

Visual Art - The Planner

Stephen Ormandy's spatial and tonal sensibilities play out in a series of paintings and small digitally generated acrylic sculptures which are a three-dimensional expression of his works on canvas. Pictured is Unsquare Dance

Art News

Natural Geometry
Bold colour, intuitive composition and playful design are the hallmark elements of Stephen Ormandy's work. A collection of his new paintings, including Look Both Ways (2014), right, shows at Olsen Irwin gallery in Sydney from 18 November - 7 December. olsenirwin.com

Previews - Stephen Ormandy

As a descriptive term, abstract painting is a bit vague. After all, both Joan Miro and Jackson Pollock were abstractionists.  But Miro expresses an exuberant joie de vivre, while Pollock seems driven by a seething inner angst. If you had to place Australian artist Stephen Ormandy on Team Miro or Team Pollock, the choice would be clear. Ormandy’s abstraction is uplifting. His colourful canvasses are full to bursting with an almost irrepressible cheer.