Tim Allen’s bold and gestural paintings are a homage to the beauty and terror of nature. His process begins within the wilderness, in the grand tradition of en plein air painting. Laden with art supplies, Allen treks through bush and over mountaintops to reach his desired locations. In these remote places, he works with a necessitated urgency, rendering fleeting conditions of weather and movement. These dramatic and soulful paintings are further resolved at Allen’s studio in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales.

Kate Ballis is a Melbourne-based photographic artist whose work explores the theme of seeing the unseen. Her colour-drenched images use a range of in-camera techniques technologies to isolate colours within the spectrum, or expose colours not seen in nature with the naked eye. Referencing ancient mythology, feminist icons, or ideas derived from astronomy her work explores places and spirits, making them seem more foreign than the places we know

Born in central Java in 1957, Dadang Christanto has spent his career honouring the countless victims of political violence and crimes against humanity. His large scale paintings, which are mostly spare renderings on raw linen using the human head as a recurring motif, express the suffering of victims and lay bare the anguish and grief that is endured in silence. The sincerity and rawness of emotion in his work is due in part to the circumstances of his own father’s disappearance when Christanto was a boy, yet the artist continues to produce art which pleads for compassion regardless of differing faiths and political beliefs.

Isobel Clement‘s still life paintings are quiet meditations. Beyond shape and form, her works consider modest compositions and delicate propositions such as the space between objects, the fall of shadow or the play of light on a surface. Clement draws from her small collection of domestic tableware which is painted time and again at different angles and in differing light, with each new work an attempt to understand the myriad possibilities within the picture plane.

Known for her figurative paintings Rachel Coad evokes a sense of nostalgia and timelessness in her works. Her subjects are deeply human, with a focus on everyday gestures, expressions and body language. Coad renders old souls that exude wisdom beyond their years, their eyes hinting of secrets only they know.

Born in Toronto, Canada and living in Perth, Western Australia, Eva Ferndandez investigates her own pluralistic identity in relation to contemporary issues of global displacement and Spanish Diaspora in the 20th century. As the child of post Spanish Civil War migrants, Fernandez’ family, like many others, were displaced and left with a fragmented history. By carefully delving into the spaces of her past, she unearths narratives in order to evoke images which piece together a shattered, emotional and forgotten past. Drawing on these fragments, her works embodies the traces, voices and memories from the past that are blended and embedded with reference to Spanish art and history.

There is no doubt that Neville French is one of Australia’s most revered classical ceramicists. His humble, pared down porcelain structures explore a sincere engagement with the environment, paying homage to vast topographies, and silent, spiritual landscapes. A guiding principle of French’s work is the transformative effect of light on surface planes but through this mechanism, his works summon the eye across solid forms and into hollow spaces.

From his studio in Ipswich, Queensland, Ian Friend creates subtle and evocative works on paper using pigment, ink and gouache. With a fascination for alchemy between materials and an obsession with hand-made art papers, sourced worldwide, Friend’s works are made from the finest materials and developed using techniques which have been refined over many decades. Though materiality is an integral part of his practice, his works also reflect a rich engagement with jazz, poetry and architecture. Friend has developed work in response to contemporary poet Jeremy Prynne, and with composer Martin Freidel, among others.

In a quest to find universal values, Junko Go’s paintings are not tied to a particular art movement. Instead, they possess a unique aesthetic encompassing elements of painting, drawing and storytelling that combine her Japanese heritage with an Australian perspective. An interest in dualism results in works that are simultaneously abstract and figurative, simple and complex.

Working from her studio in Melbourne, Jennifer Goodman’s painting practice is a detailed investigation into colour and composition. Her work is informed by an acute understanding of linear and geometric abstraction, modernism and colour theory. Goodman’s rich, vibrant works are constructed from a unique combination of hues which are all hand-mixed in the studio. Her finished paintings are high impact, complex works, which command attention and continue to reward over time.

Fiona Hiscock’s practice emerges from a long historical tradition of utilitarian ceramics which use nature for decorative inspiration. Oversized, hand-built vases, pitchers, bowls and cassoulets provide a canvas upon which the artist depicts the life cycle of botanical specimens, allowing her abiding interest in the natural world to flourish. These ceramic objects depict a range of location specific species including Banksia Serrata which grows along the eastern Victorian coastline and native Grevillea found in Arnhem land.

Dena Kahan’s painting practice aims to subvert our natural inclination for order and perfection. Dena Kahan’s work concerns itself with our relationship with nature, and our attempts to control and classify it. In her work, the natural history collection acts as a metaphor for this attempt to organise the natural world and our impact on it. Glass display cases create reflections and ambiguities of space and scale, undermining the order and organisation of the museum environment, creating a fantastic world. 

Susanne Kerr is a New Zealand-based artist who has had a successful and extensive exhibition record since 2003. As a painter Susanne Kerr creates distinctive works that examine social connection, the interdependence of life and the environment and other critical issues of our time.

With a practice that alternates between abstract and more figurative painting, Waldemar Kolbusz’ works come naturally charged with a high energy. His large and richly painted canvases pulsate and move, creating an ongoing dialogue with the works. Kolbusz works in a fluid way, often resolving numerous paintings simultaneously, and whilst a significant shift in thinking is required to move between the different genres, his cerebral approach informs and nourishes the work; allowing freedom in the figurative works and giving shape to the abstract.

Sue Lovegrove’s painting practice reflects an intimate and personal experience of landscape; often remote and isolated places that are relatively free of the presence of human beings. Antarctica, Macquarie Island, Maatsuyker Island and Tasman Island, and places where the weather and the wildlife dominate, and where the balance and order is still in favour of the natural world.

Clinton Naina (formerly Nain) is a painter, dancer, performer and storyteller. Naina came to prominence in the late 90s with a poignant series titled White King, Blak Queen, which used a combination of bleach and bitumen to explore the tainted path of colonisation. His unique combination of materials and potent imagery exposes the impact of British settlement and imposed religious order on his people from the Torres Strait Islands.

Catherine Nelson is a photographic and photomedia artist whose fascinating practice has evolved from a degree in fine art from Sydney’s College of Fine Arts combined with subsequent film work in creating visual effects for films such as Moulin Rouge, Harry Potter and Baz Luhrmann’s Australia. With years of experience in special effects, Nelson’s refocus on her own studio practice in 2008 has resulted in her developing compelling photo composite images and video works that broadly address ideas about ecology and the environment.

Christopher Pease is a Minang/Wardandi/Bibbulmun man from South Western Australia, whose visual language is at once deeply embedded within the western history of figurative oil painting and traditional Indigenous storytelling. Western notions of home and land ownership and the consequent loss of Aboriginal culture are referenced throughout Pease’s vocabulary of visual metaphor. His paintings often comprise references to western culture superimposed over scenes of traditional Indigenous ways of living and interacting with nature.

Lori Pensini’s painting practice reflects the experience of living on pastoral land in remote Western Australia. Driven by her connection to place and the narrative of her family, Pensini’s figurative practice has been shortlisted for a number of prestigious prizes including the Doug Moran Prize, the Black Swan and the Kilgour Portrait Prize.

Stephen Pleban‘s heavily textured paintings depict saturated scenes of interconnection between humans, animals and pseudo-landscapes. Pleban explores the uncertainty of our altered relationship with the natural world and in dream-like depictions, examines the imaginative interplay between light and dark, night and day, and our desire to discover new ways of sensing, learning and being. His images are other-worldly but grounded in behaviours, gestures and relationships that enable connection. Drawing inspiration from imagery sourced from the internet, music, documentaries, and his personal collections, Pleban composes montages to create his compositions.

Lee Salomone graduated from the South Australian School of Art in 1991. He works in a range of media – including installation, photography, sculpture and works on paper. His work addresses both the contemporary world around him and his cultural heritage, with Italian peasant traditions having provided a life-long source of inspiration for his practice.

Lisa Sewards is a Melbourne artist who has followed traditional intaglio methods using drypoint, acids, copper and zinc plates over her decade long career. More recently, Sewards has begun working with a non-toxic, water and UV based technique called solar plate etching.

Valerie Sparks is a photomedia artist whose practice is driven by her interest in the history and aesthetics of immersive environments. Her visual dialogue with frescos, glass houses, stereoscopic photographs and French scenic wallpapers from the 1800s inspire the creation of floor-ceiling dioramas where the boundary between reality, history and fantasy is often blurred. The exploration of historical collections and archives is a core element in Valerie’s practice, including those at the Vienna and La Rochelle Natural History Museums, the Musueè du Papier Peint in Rixheim, the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Whitworth Gallery of Art, the Royal Institute of British Architects.

Born in the province of L’Aquila, Italy, Wilma Tabacco has lived in Australia since childhood, yet her diverse art practice reflects her Italian heritage and her fascination with western European archeology and history. Primarily an abstract painter, Wilma’s practice has expanded and contracted over the years to include elements of installation, collage and work on paper.

Born in Poland, and living in Melbourne, Gosia Wlodarczak interprets her immediate surroundings through the language of drawing. Wlodarczak’s practice is cross-disciplinary, extending towards performance, interactive situations, installation, sound, photo and moving-collage; she refers to it as trans-disciplinary drawing. Her works form rich linear tapestries that archive the artist’s fleeting perceptions. Tracing and re-tracing, she historicises the immediate moment through a pentimenti of mark-marking.