Art Wank

Lustre is a new temporary exhibition that explores the Allied campaigns in Greece and Crete in 1941 through the works of contemporary artists who walked in their footsteps in 2025.Lustre Force was the code name for the combined Australian, New Zealand and British army units deployed to protect Greece from Nazi attack in 1941. The Allied defence of Greece was overwhelmed in three and a half weeks in April 1941 and in May, Crete fell to a Nazi airborne invasion in just ten days.To record those heroic but doomed campaigns, Australia and New Zealand sent war artists and a photographer. Eighty-five years later, artists from Australia and New Zealand retraced their footsteps, walking the battlefields and visiting the cemeteries where the men and women of Lustre Force and their German foe lie.Lustre showcases the impressions they made of the impact of that journey. Some of the images show that the land and its people have recovered over time; others reveal that some scars take longer to fade.The exhibition opens on 15 May 2026 and is in the Memorial’s Auditorium on the Lower Floor. The Memorial is open every day, 9am to 5pm. Please note that access to the exhibition is dependent on the Auditorium’s use for education and other programs, so we encourage you to call the Memorial in advance on (02) 8262 2900.Entry is freeArtists: Amanda Penrose Hart, Euan Mcleoud, Joanna Logue, Alan Daniel Jones, Deirdre Bean, Riste Andrievski, Angelika Androutsopolous, Michael Bradfield, Michelle Hiscock, Steve Lopes, Natalie OConnor and Rodney PopleHistorian: Brad Manera, the Senior Historian and Curator of the Anzac Memorial in Hyde Park, Sydney Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Brett McMahon is a Newcastle-based painter whose work explores the structures and rhythms of the natural and built environment. Represented by Nanda Hobbs, McMahon has built a significant practice spanning painting, drawing and installation.His work is known for its distilled, abstract language, bold lines, shifting geometries and a strong sense of spatial tension. Drawing from the coastal bush, industrial architecture and lived experience of place, his paintings sit somewhere between observation and reconstruction, where landscape becomes structure.Over a career spanning more than three decades, McMahon has held over 30 solo exhibitions and exhibited widely across Australia and internationally. His work is held in public, corporate and private collections across Australia, Europe, Asia and the United States. In this conversation, we talk about painting as a way of thinking, the role of environment in shaping visual language, and how a practice evolves over time without losing its core concerns. We also get into scale, material and the push and pull between control and intuition in the studio.Brett is represented by Nanda Hobbs in SydneyBrett's show at Gosford Art Gallery Understory, opens 16th May 2026 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Send us Fan MailIn this episode of Artwank, we visit Bundanon to discuss the current exhibition, 'The Hidden Line The Art of the Boyd Women', with curator Sophie O’Brien. The exhibition brings attention to the women of the Boyd family (Arthur Boyd was a celebrated Australian artist, leaving his home, the Bundanon estate, to support the arts) and their role in Australian art and cultural life. While the Boyd name is often associated with male artists, this show focuses on the work, lives and influence of the women who shaped the legacy in ways that have often been overlooked.Sophie O’Brien joins us to talk through the curatorial process behind the exhibition. She reflects on how the project developed, how works and archival materials were selected, and the challenges of representing multiple generations of women across different creative practices. The conversation explores what it means to reframe established art histories and how institutions like Bundanon can open space for stories that have not always been centred.Sophie O’Brien is a curator at Bundanon where she works across exhibitions, collections and research. She has held roles at major public institutions and has worked on a wide range of projects spanning historical and contemporary art. Her practice is grounded in close engagement with artists, archives and place, with a focus on bringing new perspectives to existing collections.This episode looks at the labour of curating, the gaps that still exist in art history and how exhibitions like The Boyd Women can shift public understanding of legacy, authorship and recognition. It is a conversation about process, responsibility and the ongoing work of making space for women within cultural narratives.Thanks for chatting to us SophieRecorded November 2025Exhibition on until 15th February 2026'The Hidden Line: Art of the Boyd Women repositions the creative practices of five generations of women from one of Australia’s most prominent artistic dynasties. Showcasing more than 300 powerful and diverse works, this timely exhibition brings into focus the women of the Boyd family – artists, designers, writers, and creative collaborators – whose contributions have long been influential yet overshadowed by their celebrated male counterparts.Revealing a remarkable matrilineal line of artistic practices, the exhibition will present works by Emma Minnie a’Beckett Boyd, Lady Mary Nolan, Yvonne Boyd, Lucy Boyd Beck, Hermia Boyd and their descendents still practicing today including Lucy Boyd, Polly Boyd, Florence Boyd Williams and Ellen Boyd Green. Drawn largely from the Bundanon Collection, with key loans from the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, the National Library, and Heide Museum of Modern Art, the exhibition spans pain Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Send us Fan MailZoe Young is an Australian painter whose work spans still life, portraiture and abstraction. She studied at the National Art School in Sydney and earned her BFA in 2012. Zoe currently has a show on at Sophie Gannon Gallery in Melbourne until 13th Dec 2025.In our conversation with Zoe, she spoke openly about the unusual path she took into the art world and how that path shaped the way she works today. She described leaving the National Art School twice, once as a young student who felt unready for the demands of formal training and again when life pulled her toward the buzz of the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Young grew up between Sydney, rural New South Wales and alpine-region settings, spending part of her childhood in a ski lodge on the edge of the Kosciuszko National Park. In her paintings Young often applies sculptural thinking (she studied sculpture at NAS), she sees canvas as form, composing her subjects with an awareness of planes, space, and structural balance. Her still lifes might show commonplace items, her portraits draw out character and story, and her abstractions explore shape, light, and composition.Her work has earned recognition: she won the Portia Geach Memorial Award in 2018 for a portrait titled Drawing Storyboards (of film director Bruce Beresford), chosen from hundreds of entries across the nation. More broadly she has exhibited in solo and group shows throughout Australia and had a solo exhibition titled “STILL.LIFE.” in Los Angeles. Zoe is represented by Sophie Gannon Gallery in Melbourne and Phillip Bacon in Brisbane. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Send us Fan MailThis week Art Wank met Rhonda Davis, Curator of Macquarie University Gallery, and Kon Gouriotis, curator and editor of Artist Profile magazine. They recently curated an exhibition at Macquarie Gallery titled Australian Abstraction. We spoke with them about their thinking behind the exhibition, how they chose the artists involved, and the Macqaurie university Art Collection. 'The Australian Abstraction exhibition series continues its exploration of the evolving nature of abstraction within the Australian context. This second stage retraces the diversity, episodic developments, and layered narratives that have shaped abstraction as an enduring force in Australian art.What began as an international movement has been reconfigured and transformed by artists working within the unique socio-political, cultural, and environmental conditions of this country.Sophie Cape, Julia Davis & Lisa Jones in collaboration, Helen Eager, Louise Forthun, Dale Frank, Michael Goss, Gary Gregg, Sean Hogan, Michael Johnson, Kirtika Kain, Donald Laycock, Ian Milliss, Kyle Murrell, NOT, Louise Olsen, Ana Pollak, Jeannette Siebols, Aida Tomescu, Savanhdary Vongpoothorn and Chris WiseCurated by Rhonda Davis and Kon Gouriotis'About the collection at Macquarie University - 'Our collection adorns the entire campus with artwork on display in the library, the faculties, the hospital, the clinics, and the administration buildings, where staff, students and visitors collectively encounter art as part of the everyday life of Macquarie’s expansive campus.The paintings and sculptures add robust vitality, freshness and bursts of colour to the physical environment of the campus − its visual presence is certainly much felt, discussed and enjoyed.' Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Send us Fan MailAaron Aryadharma Matheson is an artist living and working at Lennox St Studios, Sydney. He’s been a finalist in the Mosman, Waverley and Waterhouse prizes, and picked up the Richard Ford Travel Award along the way. He studied drawing at the Prince’s Drawing School in London, and later completed a Master of Fine Art at the National Art School in Sydney.This podcast is about art, Buddhism, and living with a chronic illness,multiple sclerosis, and how all those things come together in everyday life. Aaron talks about painting as a way of making sense of things, of finding stillness and meaning through colour, mark and form. We had such a great chat with Aaron — thanks so much to him for taking the time. Aaron is represented by Liverpool St Gallery. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Send us Fan MailIn this episode we explore the work and world of Australian artist John R Walker, a painter who invites us to experience the land as a living and layered presence rather than just a view. Born in Sydney in 1957 and now based in Braidwood, New South Wales, Walker’s journey has taken him from city life to a deep engagement with rural environments. His art connects ecology, geology, and memory, revealing what he calls “the experience of being in country.”Walker is known for his large and immersive paintings that map the rhythms and histories of the Australian landscape. His brushwork traces erosion, fire, and growth, capturing both the slow movement of geological time and the immediate sensations of walking through a place. In his Fireground series he responded to the devastation and regeneration of bushfires, showing both the destruction and renewal that shape the land.Over more than thirty years, Walker has exhibited widely in Australia and overseas. His paintings are held in major collections including the National Gallery of Australia. His exhibition Journeys and Return at the Orange Regional Gallery in 2023 and 2024 confirmed his reputation as one of the leading painters of country in Australia.In our conversation we discuss how Walker balances materials and philosophy, how walking shapes his art, and why he believes landscape painting today must also tell ecological stories.John is represented by Utopia Art in Sydney Thanks John Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.