Studio A is committed to creating employment opportunities for artists with intellectual disability, which includes managing and brokering professional relationships and securing commission opportunities for our artists.

We welcome commissioning enquiries by Studio A artists. Our artists work in a wide variety of mediums and styles and after negotiating subject, medium, size and finish with our Artistic Director, we will assist you in choosing the artist who would best fit your commission.

Murals

Oysters Eating Rainbows, 2020, Cultural Capital for Westconnex

Where the Karingal Underpass in Kingsgrove, Sydney was once a featureless pedestrian thoroughfare, it is now the permanent home of Emily Crockford’s vivid double mural, Oysters Eating Rainbows.

The project was commissioned by Westconnex (in partnership with Cultural Capital) as part of their Public Art Program Canal to Creek, which runs between St Peters and Beverly Hills. The mural is a homage to this regions local ecology - from kookaburras and tawny frog mouths to the yabbies and oysters that populate the intersecting waterways.

Emily pays particularly attention, with her trademark dot-and-dash patterning, to the endangered species that live among the sprawl: the Regent Honeyeater takes particular pride of place.

Images: Document Photography

Tweety Lorikeety, 2020, Hazelhurst Arts Centre Cafe

Emily Crockford was commissioned to design and paint a suite of murals for Hazelhurst Art Centre’s onsite cafe Gymea in September, 2020. The result was Tweety Lorrikeety, a whimsical depiction of a lorikeet savouring a Paddle Pop ice-cream under wide blue skies.

The work stretches along Gymea’s servery wall and around the pillars beside the cafe’s dining area. “I hope the artwork makes people feel happy and they enjoy it” says Emily. The centre, which sits on the custodial lands of the Dharawal people, services an array tourists and day-trippers, many of whom have already delighted in Emily’s trademark patterning and palette. Hazelehurst is a focal point of the Sutherland Shire and sits forty minutes from Sydney’s CBD.

Images: Silversalt

Photos and Video by Motel Picture Company

Bird Life Jungle Disco, 2019 UTS Central

Studio A artists Victoria Atkinson, Katrina Brennan, Emily Crockford, Annette Galstaun, Meagan Pelham, Lisa Scott and Damian Showyin, with a support crew, hand-painted a 175 square metre mural in the newly opened UTS Central. The artwork Bird Life Jungle Disco was commissioned by UTS ART as the first in a series of new public artworks.

“Bird Life Jungle Disco tells a colourful story of birds and animals at play in a busy social world. The mural speaks to the character and passion of each of the artists who made it and to the diversity and energy of the UTS community itself.” - Stella Rosa McDonald, UTS ART.

Lorikeet Bushy Tree Mandala, 2018, Westpac Concord

Months in the making, Lorikeet Bushy Tree Mandala was one Emily Crockford’s largest and most ambitious commissions in her professional portfolio, scaling 200sqm in the foyer of Westpac’s Concord’s call and service centre. The work was produced in tandem with integrated design firm Group GSA, who rendered a further 100sqm of glazing graphics (sourced from ten hand-painted patterns supplied by the artist) for the meeting and training rooms of the centre.

The mural itself - the centrepiece of the project - was completed in October 2018, after six full days on site and a fortnight ahead of schedule. This turnaround was a testament to Emily’s work ethic and resolve, “I just do it. I love art and in my dreams I am colouring in and making cool designs” she says.

Construction Hoardings

Garden Pop Bird Bop, 2020, Lendlease for Barangaroo

With Garden Pop Bird Pop, Emily Crockford clad her charming depictions of animal and plant life on one of the largest canvases of her career — a temporary hoarding wall that reached along Hickson Rd in the Barangaroo precinct (then under development).

The mural measured 160m long and some 2m high and was well placed in a busy city corridor (where it quickly won the hearts of locals and visitors alike). At every stage, Emily worked with consistent regard for the requirements of her commissioner, Lendlease, to beautify an otherwise barren aspect of construction vehicles and honour the company’s goal of greening the industrial zone.

Garden Pop Bird Pop supplied Barangaroo with a fantasia of birds and boughs and partly anticipated the wildlife that would soon take up residence in the park. She also included a hanging Koala, thereby re-homing an endangered icon long since driven from the custodial lands of Sydney city.

Images: Lendlease