ARTIST TALKS: Mandorla Art Award 2024

Sat, 1 June 2024 | 1:30-3pm : Olga Cironis, Sam Bloor, Tessa MacKay, Sarah Elson

Sat, 15 June 2024 | 1:30-3pm : Ross Potter, Camilla Loveridge, Sohan Ariel Hayes, Serena Parker

Tea & coffee provided. Please arrive at 1:15pm for a 1:30pm start.

Olga Cironis is a multidisciplinary artist who explores the murky undertones and impact that history and memory have on personal and shared identity. Her work is described as psychologically loaded with meaning, provoking and seducing the viewer to question our social and environmental connections. Olga’s artistic investigations are founded upon her Greek, Czech and Australian heritage. These aspects are used to engage people beyond the familiar.

Sam Bloor’s background as a traditional signwriter informs his use of text provocations and large-scale public artworks. Blurring the line between his trade and artistic careers he intends to play with existing perceived notions of value and labour. Sam has exhibited in group and solo shows both nationally and internationally including, Totem In Tribute (2016) in Edinburgh, UK, the Fremantle Print Award (2016/18), Rotterdam Photo Festival (2019), NL, and was commissioned to produce a major public work as part of the 2022 Perth Festival program.

Sarah Elson’s interest in traditional metalsmithing and its use in contemporary visual arts practice spans 30 + years. She has exhibited locally and internationally including solo exhibitions Anigozanthos (eudaimonia hybrid) at Galerie Düsseldorf 2007, phloem poetica at Perth Institute of Contemporary Art 2010 and Fasciation – expectations of growth, Art Collective, 2020. Her work is held in numerous collections including AGWA and the Janet Holmes à Court Collection. Sarah is a member of Art Collective WA.

Sohan Ariel Hayes has achieved international acclaim for his large-scale multimedia installations, public projects and performance collaborations. His site-responsive process works with drawing, projection and archival materials to invoke particular places, collective voices and communities of labour. Sohan was one of the key artists involved in the spectacular Boorna Waanginy – The Trees Speak, shown as a part of Perth Festival in Kings Park over several seasons.

Ross Potter is a Kamilaroi man living and working full time as an artist on Wudjuk Noongar Boodjar, Fremantle. He works with pencil and paper to produce highly detailed representations of his subjects. Through magnifying microscopic features, Ross brings the abstractions of reality to our attention, while telling compelling stories of everyday life. Well-known works include the life-size WHALE at High Tide 17 Fremantle Biennale on display at Boola Bardip WA Museum. Ross recently undertook an artist residency in Siglufjörður, Iceland.

Camilla Loveridge is a printmaker and has a particular passion for drawing. She has exhibited around Australia and overseas, has received awards for her work, and is represented in public and private collections. She was curator of the Mandorla Art Prize (2009-2012) and worked for the Art for Change Foundation in New Delhi (2016) as an international artist in residence. Camilla also studies part time as a PhD candidate in Creative Practice Research at Notre Dame University in Fremantle.

Based in Walyalup Fremantle, Tessa MacKay’s paintings speak to the discipline of Hyperrealism. The works simultaneously embrace the medium of paint, and subtle but intentional instances of less-refined brushwork provides relief and reminds the viewer they are before an artwork made by human hands; an interpretation, not a reproduction. At a time when high resolution images are more ubiquitous and disposable than ever before, it is through the apparent labour and time involved that Tessa strives to facilitate the viewer’s connection with the subject matter embedded in her paint.

Serena Parker holds degrees in Fine Arts and Education, and merges her passion for art and teaching in her professional practices. Notable for her poesis-inspired miniature pieces exhibited at Heathcoate Gallery in 2011, she explores the nexus of time, place, and representation. Majoring in painting, she delves into material culture, fascinated by the history and language of materials. Serena’s work reflects a profound interplay between past and present, inviting viewers to ponder human complexities.

General enquiries: [email protected] | Phone: +61 407 089 224

Holmes à Court Gallery @ no.10
Douglas Street, Gooyaman | West Perth
Exhibition: 25 May – 15 June
Open: Tues – Sat, 11am – 5pm

Image: Ross Potter, Cold Water, pencil on paper, 130 x 110 cm