Artist Profile 31

THE AP TEAM EDITOR Owen Craven ocraven@nextmedia.com.au ART DIRECTOR Vincent Rommelaere vrommelaere@nextmedia.com.au EDITORIAL COORDINATOR Lucy Stranger artistprofi le@nextmedia.com.au SUB-EDITOR Jamie McIlwraith CONTRIBUTORS KATY PRESTON is an arts writer and curator. She holds a Bachelor of Art Theory and a Bachelor of Arts (Anthropology) from the University of New South Wales, and a Master of Arts (Research) in Art History from the University of Sydney. She currently teaches at the University of Sydney and previously held the role of assistant curator at the National Trust S.H. Ervin Gallery. ELIZABETH FORTESCUE is a visual arts writer for the Daily Telegraph, Australian correspondent for The Art Newspaper; and founder and author of www.artwriter.com.au LUCY STRANGER is an arts writer and Art History Honours student at the University of Sydney. She is Editorial Coordinator…

OUR COVER STORY this issue breaks from convention as we feature two artists – Guy Maestri and Luke Sciberras. These two artists are not collaborators, but the very best of mates and the pair has a unique and deeply trusting kinship that is pivotal to their art practice. We travelled to Hill End, where they both often work alongside one another, spending a couple of days observing the brotherly dynamic. Elizabeth Fortescue speaks to them about how their friendship has grown over the years, how they serve as one another’s most potent critic and at the same time, guiding mentor – helping each other through the ups and downs of making their work. Also in the issue, Bridget Macleod speaks with South African photographer, Roger Ballen who is arguably one…

THE BULGARI ART Award is a major, $80,000 annual award to support contemporary Australian painting, and for 2015 it has been won by Ildiko Kovacs for her work, ‘Onda’. Each year, the Art Gallery of NSW identifies a significant painting by a mid-career Australian artist to be acquired for the collection. The award, sponsored by Bulgari, consists of $50,000 for acquisition of the painting and a residency for the artist in Italy valued at $30,000. The total award of $80,000 makes it one of the most valuable art awards in Australia. Discussing ‘Onda’, her winning work for 2015, Ildiko Kovacs highlighted the source inspiration, saying “Onda means ‘wave’ in Italian. My studio is close to the ocean and the sound of the waves is ever present.” Head Curator of Australian…

WITH THE AIM of creating an accessible online collection of art and other cultural archives worldwide, the Google Cultural Institute is already well established across the globe. Earlier this year, in March, the initiative gained momentum as 14 leading Australian museums and cultural organisations joined the Institute, an important step in the digitisation of arts and culture in Australia. The Institute already includes the likes of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and London’s Tate Modern, and now the National Museum of Australia, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, and the National Portrait Gallery, among others, are starting to digitise their collections. These organisations recognised the opportunity for Australian collections to be preserved as part of the greater global cultural community. So far more than 2000 items,…

A RECENT DOCUMENTARY opens up a personal history about the actor Robert De Niro and his father that not many have been privy to. Robert De Niro discussed his father, Robert De Niro Sr (1922-1993), whose artistic coming of age, sadly, was not realised while he was alive. The HBO documentary Remembering the Artist: Robert De Niro Sr explores the relationship between father and son, and the wealth of artistic talent that the De Niro name carries. A great artist, father of actor Robert De Niro, Robert De Niro Sr’s story is one of an artist who falls victim to the familiar syndrome of those only receiving true recognition after their passing. Led by his son Robert De Niro, the documentary is an insightful account of his father’s struggles to…

YOUR WORKS SPEAK of a menagerie of influences; what feeds into your work? I have really eclectic tastes when it comes to my influences and I think over time my work has come to reflect those eclectic tastes and has become some kind of conglomerate mass of smashed-up layers. Art-making in a way deals with “a process of realisation”, allowing me to unearth themes recycled throughout art history alongside more personal and deeper psychological and emotional responses to experiences lived. I have always loved the work of the German Expressionists. ‘Finger painting – Eagle’ (1972) by Georg Baselitz was a true turning point for me, and presents itself as a metaphor for my whole metamorphosis as an artist and how I approach my practice. I also think my interest in…