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Wendy Stavrianos’s ‘Gathering’ series fills the exhibition space at Nicholas Thompson Gallery over in Collingwood. In recent years this gallery has been dipping into old canvases stored in her studio, then presenting shows which review aspects of this senior artist’s career. Stavrianos is known as a project based artist, each of her many shows amounting to an integrated body of visual work on a specified theme. There are 15 interlinking paintings in oil executed between 2003 and 2025 in the present exhibition, including one piece which was a chosen finalist for the AGNSW’s Sulman Prize in 2007. The ‘Gathering’ series was prompted by an…
Heidi Yardley is exhibited in ‘New Old School’ at Maitland Regional Art Gallery until 28 June. Curated by Chelsea Lehmann and Luke Thurgate, ‘New Old School’ brings together seven contemporary painters – Rob Cleworth, Nicholas Ives, Kate Kurucz, Chelsea Lehmann, Jordan Richardson, Luke Thurgate & Heidi Yardley – who treat art history as a living companion rather than a distant legacy. Engaging in a “conversation across time”, the artists reimagine historical forms, materials, and figures to explore how the past persists within the present. Balancing reverence and reinvention, the exhibition celebrates painting’s enduring vitality and complex history. Image:…
Schoolhouse Studios is proud to present ‘Comet Logic: Pedagogical Trails’, a new body of work by Antonia Sellbach. The artworks in the exhibition ‘Comet Logic: Pedagogical Trails’ were developed during a three-month residency at Schoolhouse Studios, Coburg (January–March 2026). As I worked, emergent and recurring forms persisted: circular, globular shapes initially resembling rocks, stars, planets, eyes, eggs, or cells. Through the repeated depiction of these forms, further observations began to surface. Many shared a similar internal structure: a dense nucleus surrounded by halos, or comas. I began to consider how the inner mechanics of a comet might echo the forms…
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Heidi Yardley’s brief, if attention catching show at the Melbourne Art Fair continues to run for an additional fortnight over in Nicholas Thompson Gallery. Yardley has produced twelve large erotic paintings of female nudes which, in a flamboyant application of visual references, allude to the high Surrealism of Paul Delvaux, Meret Oppenheim and Man Ray. Each piece is weighted with suitably Surreal symbolism. A nude may have musical sound holes along her limbs, as if she can be played like an instrument (vulnerable personality?); or the eye sockets in a figure’s face are quite empty, revealing a shadowy hollowness inside…
Heidi Yardley in current issue 115 of Art Collector – Melbourne Art Fair special edition ‘If I could have’ ‘Naarm/Melbourne-based Heidi Yardley has established herself as one of Australia’s most compelling figurative painters, mining imagery from vintage media, psychological archives and esoteric traditions to create evocative paintings that explore porous boundaries between memory, identity and the unconscious. Drawing upon visual languages of film noir, surrealism and the occult, Yardley reconstructs and dissolves familiar forms into haunting, fragmented compositions that linger in states of tension-between presence and erasure, intimacy and estrangement, clarity and disquiet. Her layered approach blurs narrative and invites…
The Most Exciting Australian Artists Right Now, According to Top Gallerists Every February, the city’s art scene goes up a gear. For close to 40 years, the Melbourne Art Fair has brought together the most exciting and sought-after artists across Australasia. This year, 60 of the country’s leading galleries, Indigenous-owned art centres and design studios join under one roof, offering a snapshot of who to watch right now. There are at least 200 artists on show, so even the most seasoned visitors may struggle with where to start or focus their energy. We asked 11 gallerists, along with fair director Melissa…
“Each piece of Heidi’s work could be a snapshot from a film or a hazy memory. There’s so much beauty and mystery in every painting which invites us as viewers to imagine the narrative behind the work rather than read it explicitly.” Rebecca Harding
Wendy Stavrianos’ ‘Celebration of the Palms, Darwin’ 1976-78 is exhibited in ‘Super Nature’ at the Art Gallery of New South Wales until February 2027. The painting was acquired through Nicholas Thompson Gallery in 2022. The exhibition from the Art Gallery’s collection charts the adventure of human immersion in nature. Across four spaces, it explores places where humans and nature interact and intertwine, the role of gardens as memorials, the wild nature that lives alongside (and sometimes within) us, and the cultivation of nature for survival and sustenance. Several new acquisitions will also be shown for the first time, including…
Martin George is a recipient of Bayside’s 2026 Billilla Artists Studio Program residency, housed in the former servants’ quarters of the Billilla Mansion. The Program provides complimentary studio space, supporting artists from diverse practices and across career stages, and fosters community engagement through public programs. Martin George has held solo exhibitions since 2016 and has been included in group exhibitions in Melbourne, Sydney, Baltimore, Newburgh, Lisbon and Rotterdam since 2015. He has a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from RMIT (2016) and was awarded a Summer Residency at the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles (2017). Martin has…
Antonia Sellbach’s ‘Unstable object 11’ has been acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria. Antonia Sellbach has held exhibitions in Victoria and Tasmania since 2010, including solo exhibitions at Heide Museum of Modern Art (2016-17), Schoolhouse Gallery (2022), BUS Projects (2015), C3 Contemporary Art Space (2014) and Faculty Gallery, RMIT (2011). Her work has been included in group exhibitions at the National Gallery of Victoria; RMIT Gallery, Melbourne; La Trobe Art Institute, Bendigo; SVPA Gallery, University of Tasmania, Launceston; M16 Artspace, Canberra; Counihan Gallery, Melbourne and Bundoora Homestead Art Gallery, Bundoora. Sellbach’s work is held in prominent private and…
Tai Snaith is exhibited as a finalist in the Maquette: Sculpture Award at McClelland Gallery with her sculpture Black dog slippery dip until 22 February. The inaugural Maquette: Sculpture Award brings together 61 sculptures by contemporary Australian artists. One entry will be awarded $20,000 and will become part of McClelland’s renowned permanent collection, which is focused on modern and contemporary Australian sculpture. The title of this new sculpture prize refers to the scale of the entries—no more than 50 centimetres in any dimension. Finalists were selected by artist Lisa Roet and McClelland’s Artistic and Executive Director Lisa Byrne, with the winning work…
Heidi Yardley’s ‘Femme en fourrure’ is exhibited in ‘Synchron City’ at Gippsland Art Gallery from 6 December to 22 February. Curated by special guest Cassie May, Synchron City leads visitors on a strange and immersive journey through contemporary art where artworks disrupt and question everyday life. The concept of ‘synchronicity’, according to Carl Jung (1875–1961), suggested that coincidences could be related to unconscious processes, mirroring internal states and potentially offering guidance or insights. Through our collective unconscious, memories, dreams and reflections bubble beneath the surface. In this world of inner and outer space, our relationship to the environment is…