Art Guide Australia Podcast

“I was thinking about meditation as being a way of creating calm and openness so that more constructive conversation can happen,” says Katie West in the second episode of Notions of Care.In our latest podcast, West talks about dyeing textiles, creating spaces of meditation, and facing experiences of racism—all in a conversation centred on care and creating, linking with the NETS Victoria touring exhibition, Notions of Care at Ararat Gallery TAMA.The show features five artists and groups to consider care in art making, through materials, how we relate to one another, and as an approach to the world.West is a Yindjibarndi Western Australian artist, based in Noongar Ballardong country in Western Australia. She exhibits incredibly moving installations, which often feature dyed textiles and native plants which are sewn and woven.In 2016 as part of Next Wave Festival she exhibited the work Decolonist, which looks at how meditation can be a way to decolonise the self. And she later extended on this for a stunning installation at TarraWarra Museum of Art, giving audiences a space to meditate and contemplate.Now, her work in Notions of Care could be described as a tea installation, and she talks through this work and how it came about. We also talk about what the concept of care means to her, how she came to meditating and bringing this into the gallery space, and the process of walking, gathering, and dyeing the materials for her textiles.West also talks about the experiences of racism she has faced, and her words of encouragement to other people who have had similar experiences.You can listen back to the first episode of Notions of Care with Kate Tucker.Notions Of CareArarat Gallery TAMAUntil 26 February 2023A kind thank you to our sponsors for this series. The show Notions of Care is a Bus Projects exhibition touring with NETS Victoria, which is curated by Kathryne Genevieve Honey and Nina Mulhall. This project is supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria and received assistance from NETS Victoria’s Exhibition Development Fund 2020, supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria.You can subscribe to the Art Guide podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and don’t forget to rate the show as it helps people find us.Produced and presented by Tiarney Miekus, engineering by Patrick Telfer, and music by Mino Peric.

“Then we’ll get real systemic change,” says Eugenia Lim when talking about making structural changes in the art world that reflect genuine diversity, “but I think we’re still just the tip of the iceberg. It’s still quite surface, but it’s good to be even pushing and talking about these things I think.” At a moment where politics and individuals feel increasingly divided, Lim creates videos, film and installations that look beyond divisiveness, capitalism and exploitation, to forefront the power of collectivity—something she speaks to in our latest podcast series Conflated.This series centres on the ideas of inflation and conflation, linking with a touring exhibition also titled, Conflated. In ways both metaphorical and material, the show looks at ideas of inflation and deflation through creative, environmental, and political ways. And one of the artists in the show is Lim. Lim is an Australian artist of Chinese-Singaporean descent and her work partly explores this by subverting cultural stereotypes in ways both intelligent and very witty. In past works she’s taken on invented personas, inhabiting them across multiple videos, performances and sites. Lim is also one of the previous co-directors of the experimental art organisation Aphids, and we talk about one of Aphids’s latest performance works EASY RIDERS, which looks at the gig economy and capitalism—and we discuss how worker exploitation is an ongoing concern in Eugenia’s work. In addition to her thought-provoking practice, Lim also has co-directed the inaugural Channels Festival, and she was founding editor of the journal Assemble Papers. In our conversation she talks through her latest work with Kyneton locals, an area in regional Victoria, and how her work speaks to collective acts and what this means in a divisive political time like the one we’re living. You can also listen back to the first episode of this series with artist Zoë Bastin on conflation, bodies and transformative politics, and the second episode with David Cross on inflatables, experimentation and precarity.With a current showing at ANU School of Art and Design Gallery, NETS Victoria are touring Conflated nationally throughout 2022 and 2023:ANU School of Art and Design Gallery(Canberra ACT)29 September—4 NovemberLogan Art Gallery(Logan QLD)29 July 2023—3 September 2023Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery(Swan Hill VIC)1 October 2023—3 December 2023This series is kindly sponsored by NETS Victoria who are nationally touring Conflated, assisted by the Australian Government’s Visions of Australia program and the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria.Produced and presented by Tiarney Miekus, engineering by Patrick Telfer, and music by Mino Peric.

“The ideas that we attribute to bodies are arbitrary and often accepted but don’t really exist,” says artist Zoë Bastin in our latest podcast series, 'Conflated'. “Bodies are very malleable substances that can become whatever they want.”

“I was sort of staggered,” says writer Jennifer Higgie. “Why hadn’t I ever been taught about these women? Why weren’t they included in mainstream art histories?” Higgie is talking about the marginalisation of women in art history—and it’s something she speaks to in our latest podcast episode.Art Abroad looks at artists and creatives who moved from Australia to London, and while Jennifer Higgie studied fine art in Canberra and Melbourne, she moved to London in the 1997 when she was in her late twenties. Starting as a painter, she soon turned to writing in London, eventually holding a two-decade editorial role at Frieze arts magazine from the late 1990s until 2021.A few years ago, she began posting about historical women artists on Instagram, which gained a mass following, and led to the Bow Down podcast on women artists. Last year she published the brilliant book The Mirror and the Palette: Rebellion, Revolution and Resilience: 500 Years of Women's Self-Portraits, which looks at women in art history from the 1500s onwards, focussing on women artists who at some point painted a self-portrait. Higgie shows what it took for these women to create, and how individual their creations are.In our podcast interview, Higgie talks about her earlier life as an artist, her move to London and her time at Frieze. She also chats about the nature of arts criticism, the experience of editing a renowned arts magazine, and why women have been outcasted from mainstream art history.The Mirror and the Palette: Rebellion, Revolution and Resilience: 500 Years of Women's Self-Portraits is published by Simon and Schuster and Hachette Australia, available here.This series is kindly sponsored by Leonard Joel Auctioneers and Valuers, based in Melbourne and Sydney.Produced and presented by Tiarney Miekus, engineering by Patrick Telfer, and music by Mino Peric.

“I decided that art essentially is a communication, so my basis of my work is conceptual,” says artist Bonita Ely, a pioneer in environmental art in Australia, in our latest episode of The Long Run, a podcast talking with artists who have 60-year practices.Known for her sculpture, installations and performance art, Ely’s work is considered ground breaking, particularly through her feminist and environmentally driven works. She’s an often-cited influence for many environmental artists, and her works have been exhibited at documenta 14, and collected by institutions like New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Ely grew up in the rural Victorian town of Robinvale, and she spent time at the Murray River, the degradation of which would become a crucial topic in her art from the 1970s onwards. Her first major work relating to the river was the 1980 performance, Murray River Punch, which is a highly significant work that we talk through. Throughout the decades, her art has tracked severe ecological decline in across the Australian landscape. Ely also discusses her upbringing, creating art at a young age, and the freedom her parents her gave her to pursue her interests. The artist also explains how she came to performance art, and the role of trauma in her work at levels personal, ecological and political. Finally Ely talks through her role in Australia’s feminist art movement, and her idea of art as a catalyst.This series is kindly sponsored by Leonard Joel Auctioneers and Valuers, based in Melbourne and Sydney. Produced and presented by Tiarney Miekus, engineering by Patrick Telfer, and music by Mino Peric.

A pioneer in feminist and community driven art, Vivienne Binns talks about 60 years of interrogating what art truly is, and how art is a human activity.

“Black and white photography has always been my…I suppose it’s just kind of my life,” says Mervyn Bishop on his 60-year photography practice. Bishop is a Murri man and is Australia’s first Aboriginal photojournalist and documentary photographer. In the early 1960s, when he was just 17, he began a four-year cadetship with The Sydney Morning Herald. Later in the 1970s Bishop took a government position as a photographer for the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. It was during this time he took one of his most iconic images of prime minister Gough Whitlam and Aboriginal rights activist Vincent Lingiari. The first solo exhibition of Bishop’s images came about in 1991 and was curated by artist Tracey Moffatt, and he currently has a major survey Mervyn Bishop: The Exhibition at the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. Bishop began taking photos when he was young, and we talk about the influence of his mother in steering him toward photography, as well as the years at The Sydney Morning Herald. We also discuss the stories behind some of his most iconic images, and the emotional aspects of his work. And as a photographer who’s known for capturing incredibly empathic moments, we talk about how Bishop gets photography to such an intimate place. This episode of The Long Run is part of an ongoing podcast series, and you can listen back to previous episodes with Suzanne Archer, Robert Owen, Gareth Sansom, Wendy Stavrianos and John Wolseley. You can also subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, so you never miss an episode. And don’t forget to rate and follow the podcast. Mervyn Bishop: The ExhibitionNational Film and Sound Archive of AustraliaUntil 1 AugustThis series is kindly sponsored by Leonard Joel Auctioneers and Valuers, based in Melbourne and Sydney.Produced and presented by Tiarney Miekus, engineering by Patrick Telfer, and music by Mino Peric.

“Art is this amazing subject,” says Robert Owen. “It comes from different people and it contributes to cultural identity in a way that can question ourselves…"In this fourth episode of The Long Run, our podcast series talking to artists who’ve had careers spanning 60 years, Owen talks about what it means to create over six decades, and what he feels is the truth of his art: a sense of oneness.Now based in Melbourne, Owen has led an incredible life of creating, working across painting, sculpture, photography, installation, and public art. While his works are cemented in geometry and abstraction, they quite stunningly bring together a range of references from philosophy, poetry, music, literature, art history, mathematics and science.In this podcast Owen’s talks through his early practice and his ideas on art. He discusses his love of a certain shade of blue, memories of his childhood in Wagga Wagga, and the uncertainty he felt as a young artist. Owen also mentions the four years he spent on the Greek island of Hydra from 1963, living and working alongside well-known creatives like Leonard Cohen, and his time in Britain in the late 1960s working under constructionist painters.Finally, Owen tells us about the spiritual elements of abstraction, his reflections on a practice of 60 years, and his current survey show, Blue Over Time at the Heide Museum of Modern Art.The Long Run is an ongoing podcast series, and you can listen back to previous episodes with Gareth Sansom, Wendy Stavrianos and John Wolseley.Blue Over Time: Robert Owen—A SurveyRobert OwenHeide Museum of Modern Art Until 23 MayThis series is kindly sponsored by Leonard Joel Auctioneers and Valuers, based in Melbourne and Sydney.Produced and presented by Tiarney Miekus, engineering by Patrick Telfer, and music by Mino Peric.

What does it mean to create art between two cultures? What relationships are formed when artists collaborate? What are the links between feminism, contemporary art and disability? These questions, and more, are explored in the second episode of our newest podcast series FEM-aFFINITY, featuring a very honest and intimate conversation with photographer Janelle Low. This podcast takes its name from an exhibition with the same title: FEM-aFFINITY is also a collaborative, female-led show that first began in 2019. It features a series of collaborations between seven female artists who practice from Melbourne’s Arts Project Australia, a studio and gallery for artists with an intellectual disability, and seven female contemporary artists.Low is one of the exhibiting artists in FEM-aFFINITY who collaborated with Arts Project artist Eden Menta, producing a series of vivid and poignant photographs. Low talks about this collaboration—the friendship, humour and life experiences that gave it strength—while also discussing her upbringing and art world experiences, and being the youngest person (and second female) to win the National Photographic Portrait Prize in 2013. Low is of Peranakan/Teochew heritage, and both of her parents migrated from Singapore. Low discusses how her work explores a sense of otherness between her cultural heritage and Western upbringing, and she further talks about navigating the art world as a person of colour, and why institutions need to curate diverse exhibitions with genuineness. FEM-aFFINITY is a nationally touring exhibition and is currently showing at Melbourne’s Bunjil Place Gallery. Exhibiting artists include; Bronwyn Hack, Cathy Staughton, Dorothy Berry, Eden Menta, Fulli Andrinopoulos, Heather Shimmen, Helga Groves, Jane Trengove, Janelle Low, Jill Orr, Lisa Reid, Prudence Flint, Wendy Dawson and Yvette Coppersmith.FEM-aFFINITYBunjil Place Gallery30 January—14 MarchRiddoch Art Gallery22 May—4 JulyBenalla Art Gallery6 August—17 OctoberThis series is kindly sponsored by NETS Victoria who are nationally touring FEM-aFFINITY, assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body.Produced and presented by Tiarney Miekus. Engineered by Patrick Telfer. Music by Mino Peric.

For over 60 years John Wolseley has been visiting, capturing and sharing his experience of landscapes. But what does it mean to create and innovate over six decades? And what can Wolseley teach us about the life-stages of an artist? Art Guide Australia’s newest podcast series The Long Run considers this question with artists who have had careers spanning 60 years, each reflecting on their art and lives. In this third episode Wolseley, one of Australia’s most well-known landscape painters and printmakers, speaks to us from his home in regional Victoria. Moving to Australia from England in 1976, he’s known for immersing himself in an environment before painting it, capturing landscapes ranging from the mountains in Tasmania, to wetlands and rivers, to the floodplains of Arnhem land. Known as a great storyteller, Wolseley captures worlds that invite engagement with nature and the environment. In this episode Wolseley talks about how he came of age when England was coming out of World War II, and his experience of growing up on a farm and later attending boarding school. The artist also talks about studying under prestigious artists, what it takes for a landscape to capture his attention, and how he balances an environmental awareness in his work without being didactic. And finally, Wolseley tells us what having a 60-year practice feels like, and whether he’s optimistic about the future.If you like this conversation, you can listen to the first episode where avant-garde painter Gareth Sansom talks about chance in making art, and his feelings on mortality and time; and in episode two hear Wendy Stavrianos discuss her experience of being a female landscape painter. This series is kindly sponsored by Leonard Joel Auctioneers and Valuers, based in Melbourne and Sydney.Produced and presented by Tiarney Miekus, music and engineering by Mino Peric.John Wolseley is represented Roslyn Oxley9, Sydney and Australian Galleries, Melbourne.

Creating, evolving and innovating over decades takes great stamina. Art Guide Australia’s latest podcast series features conversations with three established Australian artists who each reflect on their art and lives. What can they teach us about the life-stages of an artist?Our first episode in The Long Run features a lively conversation with Gareth Sansom. Based in Melbourne, Sansom is regarded as one of Australia’s most well-known and esteemed avant-garde painters. He had his first exhibition in 1959, and since then has gone on to create admired and debated works that look into pop culture, sexual transgression, the unconscious, and the history of painting itself. In works that are simultaneously chaotic and balanced, Sansom layers and blends everything from abstraction to collage to T.S. Eliot to Swedish film.Sansom talks about his talent in drawing, his great sense of ambition, the importance of chance in painting, his thoughts on death, and what changes he’s noticed over a 60-year practice and what remains the same. Sansom’s latest exhibition A Case of the Old and the New is currently showing online with STATION gallery.This series is kindly sponsored by Leonard Joel Auctioneers and Valuers, based in Melbourne and Sydney. Produced and presented by Tiarney Miekus, music and engineering by Mino Peric.

Raising children, having an art practice and making it through isolation—how do you do it in a way that works for everyone in the family? In this second edition of Faraway, so close—a podcast dedicated to considering the anxieties and opportunities emerging in the arts in our new COVID-19 world—we’re considering what parenting and creating looks like during isolation with artists Tai Snaith and Ross Coulter. While schools have gradually started reopening this week, the pair talk through how they make life work at a day-to-day level, looking after young children while working, the stress they’re feeling right now and how they’re coping, and the ways in which, rather than keeping a strict divide between art and family, they’re bringing art into their family life, and expanding the idea of art altogether. As Snaith says, “... it sort of made me think, ‘Maybe what I do is something I can share with the kids and we can make that part of the school thing’. So I was starting to feel a bit like, how do I juggle all of these things and have my practice and have the kids at home. And I think I just went through a phase of thinking, ‘Okay, I’ve got to try and combine them somehow’”. Produced and presented by Tiarney Miekus. Music and engineering by Mino Peric.