Thom, The Architect at Brand X Greenland Centre
In Thom Roberts’ newest art installation, he became the architect of his own city, a playful and vivacious metropolis where each skyscraper bursts with character.
The public exhibition was situated in the window of the new Brand X space of the Greenland Centre on Bathurst Street, Sydney. An initiative supported by the City of Sydney, Brand X is a multilevel studio providing spaces available for hire for artists and creatives. The project materialised during Roberts’ artist's residency on-site, where he worked with Guest Artist Simon Wheeldon. The finished display was highly visible for passersby to enjoy from October to December 2022.
The installation consisted of a three-dimensional urban diorama placed against a digital screen backdrop. Made using woodwork and cardboard techniques, the tall building sculptures were painted with abstract patterns, including those reminiscent of traffic lights, Rubik’s cubes and piano keys.
The installation celebrated Roberts’ love for Sydney's architecture and the human-like identities he attributes to each building in the cityscape. Through his graphic art style, the city structures become as alive as the people surrounding them.
The video aspect of the work starred Roberts on site as The Architect, equipped with a hardhat and rolls of city plans under his arm. The video intermixed this footage with animated versions of his drawings. Amongst the colourful buildings, his signature ‘Bert and Ernie’ characters also made an appearance on screen. To soundtrack his city, Roberts worked with Wheeldon to layer his voice for a ‘La Bamba’-inspired beat that accompanied the installation.
Words: Anna McKey
Photos: Christina Mishell, Brand X, Simon Wheeldon, Studio A
2022 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize
From over 650 submissions, Studio A artist Guy Fredericks’ small sculpture was selected by judges Joan Ross, Kon Gouriotis OAM and José Da Silva as one of 49 finalists in the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize (2022).
The artwork, named Baby Blue, is a majestic small sculpture of a blue-ringed octopus and was originally made as a prototype for a larger sculpture commissioned by Erth Visual & Physical Inc. to feature in the ‘Inside the Tide’ exhibition at Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens as part of the Sydney Festival (2022).
Fredericks’ unique, low-fi, papier-mache technique brought the creature to life, and transformed the usually shy, venomous creature into one which almost asks to be held, with friendly golden eyes, bright blue rings and tentacles that are perfectly folded over an invisible human form.
Guy’s sculpture was displayed in the Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf from 13 October 2022 to 20 November 2022.
Words: Sam Kalis
Photos: Studio A
2022 Seed Stitch Contemporary Textile Award
In 2022, three Studio A artists were included as finalists in the Australian Design Centre’s Seed Stitch Contemporary Textile Award (7 October - 16 November 2022). The Seed Stitch Award has celebrated and supported excellence across Australia’s diverse textile practice. Having presented for the third time since 2018, the 2022 Seed Stitch Award showcased fifteen finalists from across NSW and ACT with woven, stitched and sculpted pieces of textile work.
Catherine McGuiness, Victoria Atkinson and Damian Showyin were all selected as finalists from a pool of 48 entries. In a surprise announcement on the night, Damian was presented with the Digital Fabrics Award. The prize came with $500 to spend with master textile printers Digital Fabrics and the opportunity to experiment with translating his work to fine printed fabric. His piece, Building Grids, combined two of his favourite artistic approaches, weaving and painting.
Catherine McGuiness used embroidery and sequins on vintage brocade to create Little Little Little Little Monkeys, a glistening jungle portrait of two cheeky monkeys surrounded by lions, jungle greenery, and clear blue skies.
Victoria Atkinson’s Disco Fever & Rock ’n’ Roll consisted of a series of colourful soft sculptures and included vibrant people, a kangaroo, kookaburras, and a possum all rockin’ out to disco.
In addition to the Prize, opening night saw the launch of Sydney Craft Week and its catalogue which featured Guy Fredericks’ Earthen Seed on the cover, an intricate sculpture commissioned by the Australian Design Centre specifically for Craft Week. The artwork, made with recycled fabrics, explored Guy’s love for the planet and sustainability. In his words:
“[Earthen Seed] is a planetary atmospheric seed that harbours life…The solitary tree represents the many endangered tree species and deforestation. I have created two views of the seed. The close-up view shows a mini landscape with lush regrowth, and then there is an almost aerial view, showing our atmosphere and oceans as if we are looking back at our planet from space…I used recycled fabric for the green growth [it] represents Hope.
Words: Sam Kalis
Photos: Rhiannon Hopely
Catherine McGuiness and Shan Turner Carroll at Flow & Glo
Studio A’s Catherine McGuiness has recently worked in collaboration with artist Shan Turner Carroll to create an avant-garde princess costume, which debuted at the Flow and Glow art markets on the 26th and 27th of May 2022.
Shan Turner Carroll’s practice merges elements of performance and sculpture, often using miscellaneous materials to craft experimental garments to be photographed. During his Guest Art residency at Studio A, he partnered with McGuiness to create a magical gown inspired by her artworks, constructed with fabric scraps sourced in studio. The finished look was a custom assemblage of iridescent and mesh fabrics in an assortment of hues, which was paired with a sculptural tiara.
The art market was curated by Consuelo Cavaniglia and Abigail Moncrieff as a part of Flow and Glow, a two-day program of panel conversations, music and art in Wynyard Lane, Sydney city. McGuiness’ market stall featured a beautiful arrangement of her artworks available for purchase.
The two artists attended the event in costume as a regal ‘Princess and Prince Charming’ duo, McGuiness in her dazzling dress and Turner Carroll flaunting a textured gold and blue cape.
Words: Anna McKey
Trophy Dreams, UNSW Library
In May 2022, Studio A unveiled a new exhibition Trophy Dreams in partnership with UNSW Library and UNSW Art Collection on the university’s Kensington campus, curated by Elena Taylor. Comprised of existing and newly commissioned works from a total of nine Studio A artists, the exhibition tackles serious themes in an experiential, playful manner.
Featured in the exhibition is Annette Galstaun’s Magical Putt-Putt installation, originally shown at Cement Fondu earlier in the year. Galstaun facilitates a participatory experience for exhibition visitors who are invited to play mini-golf on the artist-designed course. The installation reflects Galstaun’s connection to the spirit world, with each mini-golf sculpture featuring a symbolic illustration of a meaningful icon or spirit. A video projection of Galstaun performing as a guardian angel watches over the activity.
Three commissioned pieces by Emily Crockford, Jaycee Kim and Victoria Atkinson were also created for the exhibition. The artists transformed UNSW graduation attire into wearable artworks, which creatively communicate their subjective perceptions of universities. Emily Crockford’s work expresses pride for her brother who has graduated from university as a doctor, whilst Victoria Atkinson celebrates her educational achievements as a graduate. Jaycee Kim creates the graduation outfit of his own universe's educational institution, where he is both the graduate and the principal. The commission aims to bring awareness to the inaccessibility of conventional education to artists living with intellectual disability.
Trophy Dreams also displays an array of Studio A works belonging to the UNSW art collection. Included are Meagan Pelham's watercolour parrots, Emily Crockford’s panoramic Australian wildlife painting, comic illustrations by Greg Sindel, and artworks from Catherine McGuiness, Victoria Atkinson and Damian Showyin. Mathew Calandra’s etchings, created during his UNSW Art and Design residency, are also featured as part of the collection.
Words: Anna McKey. Photos: Adrian Shek
Kennel Crafters at Cementa Festival, Kandos
This year, Katrina Brennan and Meagan Pelham were featured artists at the 2022 Cementa festival in Kandos, NSW. Their Kennel Crafters' installation transformed the Kandos Crafters store into a neon-hued art display inspired by the town’s resident canines.
Cementa is a contemporary art and culture program consisting of artwork, talks and events from over 40 artists over a four-day- and-night period. The initiative is artist-led and presents experimental and socially-engaged works in a regional environment.
Prior to the 2022 event, Brennan and Pelham travelled to Kandos for multiple artist residencies, accompanied by Studio A CEO Gabrielle Mordy and Principal Artist Emma Johnston. The Kennel Crafters installation was a continuation of the artwork created during their 2021 Kandos stays, during which they encountered many lovable dogs that influenced their creativity.
The transformed shop display featured hot pink fluorescent signs and Meagan Pelham’s poetry, enlarged and printed on colour-reflective surfaces. The store's mascot was “Chewy”, a dog sculpture surrounded in neon light, which peered out the front window at locals and event-goers. Brennan and Pelham’s Kandos Crafters takeover attracted many joyful visitors, including fellow creatives and countless puppy pals.
Words: Anna McKey
2022 Archibald and Sulman Prizes, Art Gallery of NSW
Meagan Pelham, Romance is LOVE, 2022. BELOW, L-R: Catherine McGuiness, Rosary with the Seagull, 2022; Thom Roberts, Rachey in the Mirror, 2022; Emily Crockford, The Pattern in the Mountains of Studio A Best Friends Emma and Gabrielle, 2022; Victoria Atkinson, Angel Mum, Noel Humphrey, 2022
Studio A has achieved great success in this year's iteration of Australia’s honourable Archibald and Sulman prizes (14 May - 28 August 2022). With a total of five artists being recognised as finalists, this has been a record number of inclusions from the studio. Individually, this represents each artist's long-time dedication to their art profession, and collectively, a sweeping achievement for NSW’s only supported studio for artists with intellectual disability.
Catherine McGuiness and Meagan Pelham exhibited as Archibald finalists for the first time this year. McGuiness painted artist Rosie Deacon in a work called Rosary and the Seagull which encapsulates Deacon’s colour-filled world. Sittings for the painting involved Deacon dressing up in various costumes and McGuiness capturing her essence through art.
Meagan Pelham’s entry Romance is LOVE depicts a beautiful dreamscape with Romance Was Born co-founder and designer Anna Plunkett at its centre. Having collaborated extensively over the past years with the iconic Australian fashion label, the portrait reflects Pelham and Plunkett's shared inspirations - emblems of romance and beauty. The mixed mediums of watercolour, gouache and acrylic paint succeed to achieve an ethereal quality for the work.
Emily Crockford and Thom Roberts secured second-time placements as finalists in the prestigious Archibald Prize. Crockfords acrylic work is a warm statement of friendship, painting her close friends and Studio A colleagues; CEO Gabrielle Mordy and Principal Artist, Emma Johnston. She titled the work The Pattern in the Mountains of Studio A, Best Friends Emma and Gabrielle, and focused carefully on intricate pattern work painted in vivid colour.
Thom Roberts selected Shelly Simpson, CEO, designer and founder of mud Australia, as his subject for the competition. Referring to her as “Rachey”, Rachey in the Mirror was a smaller scale piece, painted on a ceramic surface sourced from the mud studio with gouache, acrylic and resin. Unconventionally representing Simpson, her face is painted with four eyes and a foot for a nose.
Victoria Atkinson - placed as a finalist in the 2021 Archibald Prize - exhibits again this year, this time as a finalist for the Sulman Prize. Angel Mum, Noel Humphrey is a deeply symbolic work that memorialises Aktinson’s late mother. Painted on plywood, the work is installed with a surrounding glow of neon light, representative of Atkinson's mother’s shining spirit.
Studio A CEO and Artistic Director Gabrielle Mordy exclaimed that “Studio A is bursting with pride” at the achievements of the five artists.
Words: Anna McKey
Art et al. Peer/Peer - Season One, Cromwell Place, London
Studio A artist Thom Roberts and UK-based artist Cherelle Sappleton joined forces for the Art et al. facilitated Peer/Peer program. The program aimed to foster rich, collaborative practices between two geographically disconnected artists while also championing neurodiverse contemporary art.
The pair corresponded over three months (2021-2022), primarily through video messages, and discussed their shared loves of photocopying, drawing, and abstract art. Throughout this period, Thom and Cherelle created a body of work that took inspiration from both their individual art practices. Digital images were manipulated and layered behind graphic illustrations and text to produce statement visual collages.
Who is Woody Tiger, encapsulated the two artists' shared interests in names and disciplinary boundaries, as Thom’s mysterious portrait of “Woody Tiger” (Studio A Principal Artist Emma Johnston) piqued the curiosity of Sappleton. The text motif “Who is Woody Tiger” featured in the final art series.
Thom and Cherelle’s works were displayed at Arts Project Australia’s Pop up exhibition in Melbourne, as well as Art et. al.’s exhibition Season One (16 March - 27 March 2022) at Cromwell Place in London. Excitingly, this was the first international exhibition to feature a Studio A artist.
Words: Sam Kalis
Photos: Andy Keate
From Impulse to Action, Bundanon
Skye Saxon recently featured in From impulse to action, the first exhibition of the newly expanded Bundanon homestead and museum. Located in the South Coast region of New South Wales, Bundanon was once the home of influential Australian artist Arthur Boyd. In late 2021, it underwent renovations to include an exhibition space and learning centre.
From impulse to action ran from the 29th of January to the 12th of June 2022. Themed around Authur Boyd’s experimental drawing practice, 12 contemporary artists were prompted to create new and diverse commissions which mirror the energy of his works.
Saxon's passion for storytelling and performance is channelled through the series of celestial drawings she contributed to the exhibition. The collection, Cosmic mirror doors through space and time, layers lines and shapes to depict portals to the galaxy. By mixing materials such as markers, pencils and ink, each drawing is an entrancing kaleidoscope of bright and metallic colour.
Saxon enjoys blending together different inspirations and narratives. Many of her works feature scribble-like patterns reminiscent of those that appear on Australian gum trees or Eucalyptus haemastoma. Saxon possesses a deep and magical connection to her “scribble gum writing”, it is an innate and natural process that flows harmoniously with her imagination.
Photos: Zan Wimberley. Words: Anna McKey
Where I'd Rather Be, North Curl Curl Creative Space
In February 2022, artworks by selected Studio A artists featured in the exhibition Where I'd Rather Be alongside a collection of new work by Studio A Professional Pathway recipient, Matthew Elliott. The exhibition was held at Creative Space in North Curl Curl and was paired with a painting and drawing workshop hosted by Elliott.
The exhibition highlighted the diverse artistic techniques and styles of Studio A creatives, by featuring artworks that explore relationships with natural and imagined environments. Each artist reinterpreted the existing meaning of the landscape image, by depicting elements of nature through a subjective lens.
Awarded a 12-month professional mentorship from Studio A in 2018, Matthew Elliot has developed a skilled practice in abstraction, often using watercolour and crystal pigments to reflect dream-like, subconscious realities. On the 26th of February, a workshop and meet-the-artist event was held which encouraged participants to use a loose, gestural technique to create intuitive artworks inspired by their physical and social surroundings.
Words: Anna McKey
Photos: Tsz Kin LIU (William)
Magical Putt Putt, Cement Fondu
Magical Putt Putt (15 January - 27 February 2022) saw a collective of Studio A artists transform Cement Fondu’s main gallery into a spiritual mini-golf experience with performative activations. Inspired by Annette Galstaun’s passion for angels and putt putt, the exhibition aimed to connect people through participatory experiences themed around reverence, ritual and play.
Upon entering the gallery, audiences were invited to pick up a club and gently play their way through a series of hand-made mini golf sculptures, each featuring an icon or spirit of personal importance to Annette. Watching over the four courses was Annette herself, performing as one of her guardian angels.
"I made this artwork to make my Mum proud from heaven” says Annette. “I made these joyful things to honour people and angels who have cared for me throughout my life." - Annette Galstaun
Responding to the concept of reverence Meagan Pelham, Mathew Calandra and Victoria Atkinson chose to memorialise parents who have passed. Their portraits, painted on solid wood, were haloed with coloured light and glowed in the left hand alcove of the gallery.
"I wanted to paint this portrait of my mum to say goodbye” explains Victoria. “I painted her as a rainbow because she is a rainbow now in a better place. As she is in my dreams & memories."
In the expansive backspace of the gallery, Thom Roberts presented a four-walled, four-channeled animated installation that reimagined a courthouse as a tennis match, featuring a ‘defendant champion’ and a jury of ‘courthouse cats’. Audiences were invited to undertake their own match, using a Thom Roberts tennis table, painted in bright red and yellow (the colours of Thom’s favourite fast food restaurant).
"Courtrooms are scary and tennis courts are fun. I am playing around with lawyers and police cops and security people by making them play tennis. I want everyone to play my tennis game please, while my animation cheers around you." - Thom Roberts
Upstairs, Katrina Brennan and Paula do Prado invited audiences into the world of their collaboration, which saw them create a suite of soft sculpture ‘unicorn dogs’. "Unicorn Dogs are something I created with Paula, who is another artist” says Katrina. “They are a normal dog with a unicorn horn and wings."
Through these works, Magical Putt Putt explored connections between metaphysical and material worlds, encouraging audiences to think more expansively about reverence.
Images by Jessica Maurer. Commissioned by Cement Fondu.
Inside the Tide, the Calyx, Royal Botanic Garden Sydney
Inside the Tide is an exhibition that brought the beauty of the underwater to Sydney city. Situated in the Royal Botanic Gardens, it featured several aquatic-themed sculptural artworks on display within the curated horticultural space of the Calyx. Studio A’s avid sculptor Guy Fredericks contributed to the exhibition, creating an ambitious large-scale work using his signature papier-mâché process.
The work, titled Lady Octopus, depicted an enchanting blue-ringed cephalopod, crafted and painted with striking detail. Fredericks formed the shape of the underwater creature using armature wire, recycled paper and masking tape. The figure was then covered in papier-mâché layers, giving it a desired rustic texture. Covered in warm beige and yellow tones with blue circle patterns, the final sculpture captured the otherworldly beauty of the species.
Inside the Tide allows audiences to experience ocean life in an immersive yet theatrical way on dry land. With upwards of 20,000 plants surrounding the exhibition’s crafted creatures, it communicates the importance of conserving underwater plant types, often lesser appreciated. Dates of the exhibition span from the 7th of December 2021 to the 31st of July 2022.
The exhibition, and Fredericks's inclusion, was in collaboration with longtime Studio A partner Erth Visual & Physical Inc, a formed part of the 2022 Sydney Festival Program.
Photo: Sydney Festival and Erth
Words: Anna McKey
