Kirsten Coelho — the Odyssey

Sanné Mestrom’s art practice has always worked to complicate understandings of sculpture, but has recently focused more intently on exploring the agency of sculpture and its accountability to public and private space and the people that inhabit it. 

In the fascinating discussion recorded during the installation of her latest exhibition, Body as Verb, Sanné and Gallery Director Ursula Sullivan discuss how Hannah Höch, motherhood and moving to the Blue Mountains has changed her and her practice. 

Sullivan + Strumpf website www.sullivanstrumpf.com
Instagram www.instagram.com/sullivanstrumpf/
Facebook www.facebook.com/sullivanstrumpf/
Twitter www.twitter.com/sullivanstrumpf

In this delightful, meandering conversation, multimedia artist Angela Tiatia chats with Genevieve Smart, co-founder of the iconic Australian fashion label, Ginger & Smart about the climate crisis, art and fashion. 

It’s a fascinating discussion between two creative kindred spirits who met in 2017 at a climate crisis workshop on Heron Island organised by renowned Australian environmentalist, Tim Flannery.

Angela was also featured in Ginger & Smart’s recent Changemakers Series with six other influential women. She chats with Genievieve about creativity and their shared passion for the environment.

www.sullivanstrumpf.com

www.instagram.com/sullivanstrumpf/

www.facebook.com/sullivanstrumpf/

www.twitter.com/sullivanstrumpf

There is an intrinsic link between place and identity - who we are, is to a large extent determined by our environment.

Alex Seton’s unusual upbringing around a marble quarry not far from the Wombeyan Caves in New South Wales, Australia has shaped him at least as much as he has shaped the limestone that comes from it.

Seton’s award winning sculptural works, hewn from solid marble are a love letter to this upbringing and the material he has worked with his whole life. His sculptures are a paradox, rendering an inherently hard material soft, and can also be viewed as an allegory to Australia’s mineral resource wealth and exploitation.

In this podcast, recorded in the lead-up to his latest exhibition at Sullivan+Strumpf gallery, Meet Me Under the Dome, Seton chats about his work and his upbringing with 2022 Adelaide Biennial Curator, Sebastian Goldspink. As Seton says, “there are things that form you and shape you...”

Sullivan + Strumpf website www.sullivanstrumpf.com
Instagram www.instagram.com/sullivanstrumpf
Facebook www.facebook.com/sullivanstrumpf
Twitter www.twitter.com/sullivanstrumpf

Artist Lindy Lee draws on her Australian and Chinese heritage to develop Contemporary works that engage with the history of art, Daoism, Ch’an (Zen) Buddhism and the cosmos including the connections between humanity and nature.

Join Lindy and Sullivan+Strumpf gallery Director Joanna Strumpf for this delightful conversation recorded in the lead-up to her forthcoming survey show Moon in a Dew Drop opening in October at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (MCA).

Several new works have been commissioned especially for this major exhibition, including her largest ever installation, Moonlight Deities which will be a fully immersive experience for visitors. Lindy has also created a series of epic new scroll works for the show from her Byron Bay rainforest studio, working with her latest collaborator, the rain.

Enjoy.

Sullivan + Strumpf website www.sullivanstrumpf.com
Instagram www.instagram.com/sullivanstrumpf/
Facebook www.facebook.com/sullivanstrumpf/
Twitter www.twitter.com/sullivanstrumpf

Throughout history, artists have always quoted and appropriated, synthesising the past and (hopefully) creating something new all their own. It is the modus operandi of award winning painter Sam Leach and is exemplified in his controversial Wynne Prize winning work based on a 17th century Dutch painting of an Italianette landscape.

No stranger to controversy, Sam Leach is now using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to generate new imagery based on his own catalogue of work, which he then painstakingly paints. It’s a kind of feedback loop, blending the mystical qualities of paint with digital technology.

The process raises serious questions about the future of art, culture and humanity — or what Sam calls the cultural singularity. Is this a new kind of collaboration between man and machine, giving us a new aesthetic beyond ourselves, or has the artist been subjugated as the machine’s apprentice?

Join Sam and art critic, lecturer and broadcaster Andrew Frost in this very timely, thought-provoking conversation.


Sullivan + Strumpf website www.sullivanstrumpf.com
Instagram www.instagram.com/sullivanstrumpf/
Facebook www.facebook.com/sullivanstrumpf/
Twitter www.twitter.com/sullivanstrumpf

A road trip through the Australian outback listening to an audio book of Homer’s The Odyssey was the beginning of a transformative journey for contemporary ceramicist Kirsten Coelho — a journey which would eventually take her to Europe and inspire her upcoming exhibition, Ithaca at the Samstag Museum of Art.

Join Kirsten and Samstag Museum of Art Associate Curator Joanna Kitto for an enlightening odyssey through the work of one of Australia’s leading ceramicists.


Sullivan + Strumpf website www.sullivanstrumpf.com
Instagram www.instagram.com/sullivanstrumpf/
Facebook www.facebook.com/sullivanstrumpf/
Twitter www.twitter.com/sullivanstrumpf

Tony Albert is one of the most important indigenous artists working in Australia today. In light of recent world events, he reflects with long-time friend and National Gallery of Australia Program Manager Sally Brand on his latest exhibition, Duty of Care.

Albert’s work has always been in protest, seeking positivity in the face of adversity ⁠— but in late 2019, during his six week residency at Canberra Glassworks there is no way he could have known how the death of George Floyd would set America ablaze and ignite a call for change around the world. Albert doesn’t believe in chance - things "happen because they’re meant to happen" he says. Glass is neither solid or liquid, and these works are amorphous too — a powerful lens that brings this issue painfully into focus. A not-to-be-missed episode.


Sullivan + Strumpf website www.sullivanstrumpf.com
Instagram www.instagram.com/sullivanstrumpf/
Facebook www.facebook.com/sullivanstrumpf/
Twitter www.twitter.com/sullivanstrumpf

Natalya Hughes and Grant Stevens have been close friends and colleagues for 20 years. Both use digital technology in the creation of their art work, but in very different ways. Join Natalya and Grant for a walk through The Forest, Grant’s latest work which brings digital technology and the natural environment together in an endless series of speculative moments, uneasy contemplation, instant gratification and perpetual fatigue.

On now at Sullivan + Strumpf Gallery, Sydney and online.


Sullivan + Strumpf website www.sullivanstrumpf.com
Instagram www.instagram.com/sullivanstrumpf/
Facebook www.facebook.com/sullivanstrumpf/
Twitter www.twitter.com/sullivanstrumpf

Curator Louis Ho chats with Jeremy Sharma about his art and his music in the lead-up to Flat ⁠— a virtual exhibition supported by the National Arts Council featuring works by Alfonse Chiu, Daniel Chong, Mark Chua and Lam Li Shuen, Fazleen Karlan, Genevieve Leong, Justin Lin, Nicholas Ong, Fiona Seow, Mangkhut (Jeremy Sharma), Moses Tan and Terry Wee.


Sullivan + Strumpf website www.sullivanstrumpf.com
Instagram www.instagram.com/sullivanstrumpf/
Facebook www.facebook.com/sullivanstrumpf/
Twitter www.twitter.com/sullivanstrumpf

What does vampire folklore and aggravated burglary have in common? Join photographer, sculptor, video artist and musician Darren Sylvester and Sullivan + Strumpf Gallery Director Ursula Sullivan in this revealing conversation about vampiric mythology, pop culture, desirability, mortality and a recent home invasion.

Fresh off an NGV career retrospective, Darren’s new exhibition Balustrade Stake opens June 4, 2020 at Sullivan + Strumpf Gallery, Sydney.


Sullivan + Strumpf website www.sullivanstrumpf.com
Instagram www.instagram.com/sullivanstrumpf/
Facebook www.facebook.com/sullivanstrumpf/
Twitter www.twitter.com/sullivanstrumpf