DRAWN TOGETHER
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 Timothy Williams
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.
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
Artworks pictured L-R Leo Cussen, Armani Tia, John Huggins, Cameron Noble, Drawn Together exhibition curators Elyss McCleary and Suzanne Brown, Arts Project Australia, February 2015