Speaker Biographies
The Perth Sculpture Conference is pleased to announce our impressive line up of keynote speakers and panellists. Please see below for individual biographies in order of appearance.
Mikaela Castledine
Conference MC and Artist, Perth, Australia
Mikaela Castledine is an award-winning artist and published writer, with a BSc in Applied Science and an MA in Writing and Literature. A professional artist since 1991, she was born in the WA wheat-belt, and grew up in the Perth hills where she now lives and works. She is best known for her crochet sculptures exploring our connections to animals, religious architecture across cultures and family storytelling. In her career Mikaela has won many art awards including the Sculpture by the Sea Scholarship, the Sculpture Inside Award and shared the People’s Choice at Sculpture by the Sea in Cottesloe. In 2018 she won the very prestigious Mandorla Art Prize and People’s Choice Award and in 2021 took out the Mid West Art Prize. She is represented in public and private collections in Australia and internationally. As well as being a full-time practitioner her arts practice includes, mentoring, leading workshops, arts management, public art, public speaking, curation and judging.
Dr Richard Walley OAM
Nyoongar man of the South-West region
Dr Richard Walley OAM is a Nyoongar man of the South-West region. Richard has been awarded an Order of Australia Medal and two honorary doctorates for his contribution to the promotion of Nyoongar Culture and the Arts. In 2010, Richard received the ‘Citizen of the Year Award ’in the ‘Indigenous Leadership’ category of the Celebrate WA Awards. In 2021 Richard was awarded the Senior West Australian of the Year for Western Australia Award. A fluent speaker of the Nyoongar language. Richard continues to push boundaries, whilst always focussing on the bigger ‘community’ picture of Culture, Education, Arts and Environment.
John P. Stern
President, Storm King Art Center, New York, USA
John P. Stern is President of Storm King Art Center, a 500-acre outdoor museum in New York’s Hudson Valley that nurtures a vibrant bond between art, nature, and people. Stern assumed his presidency in 2010 following the legacy of his grandfather, Ralph E. Ogden, and father, H. Peter Stern, who together created the Art Center. In 2020 Storm King marks its 60th anniversary and celebrates its unprecedented attendance during the last decade. Stern has prioritized expanded programming and amenities for a more diverse audience, acquisitions of new significant works of sculpture, and the development of its extraordinary landscape for art and environmental stewardship. Under Stern’s leadership, the Art Center is committed to offering a superlative visitor experience; protecting its art, landscape, and people; and advancing its leadership in the field of art in nature. John is a trustee of the Ralph E. Ogden Foundation. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School.
Nora Lawrence
Artistic Director & Chief Curator, Storm King Art Center, New York, USA
Nora Lawrence (she/her) is the Artistic Director and Chief Curator of Storm King Art Center, leading its curatorial program and providing vision and guidance for the artistic functions of the institution. Lawrence has played an integral role in raising the museum’s profile—seeing its audience grow four-fold and working with artists to realize ambitious works while also bringing in a new generation of artists. Lawrence is currently co-curating a 2023 site-specific commission with Martin Puryear and recently led Storm King’s commission of Sarah Sze’s permanent site-specific sculpture, which opened in 2021. Lawrence has developed nearly 20 exhibitions, working with artists including Lynda Benglis, Mark Dion, Rashid Johnson, and Wangechi Mutu. She established Storm King’s annual Outlooks program, which invites one artist to realize a temporary site-specific work. Artists include Brandon Ndife, Virginia Overton, Heather Hart, and Elaine Cameron-Weir, among others. Lawrence also co-founded the Shandaken: Storm King residency at Storm King.
Distinguished Professor Paul S.C. Taçon
Chair in Rock Art Research and Professor of Anthropology and Archaeology at Griffith University, Queensland
Distinguished Professor Paul S.C. Taçon FAHA FSA FQA is a former ARC Australian Laureate Fellow (2016-2021), Chair in Rock Art Research and Professor of Anthropology and Archaeology at Griffith University, Queensland, Australia. Prof Taçon also directs Griffith University’s Place, Evolution and Rock Art Heritage Unit (PERAHU) and leads research in the Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research and Griffith’s Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution. Prof Taçon has conducted archaeological and ethnographic fieldwork since 1980 and has over 94 months field experience in remote parts of Australia, Cambodia, Canada, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, southern Africa, Thailand, The Philippines and the USA. Prof Taçon co-edited The Archaeology of Rock-art with Dr Christopher Chippindale and has published over 310 academic and popular papers on rock art, material culture, colour, cultural evolution and identity. In 2015, he co-authored a book that outlines a new strategy for the conservation of world rock art and between 2016–2022 co-edited five major volumes on rock art. In December 2016 Prof Taçon was awarded the top award at the annual Australian Archaeological Association conference, the Rhys Jones Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Australian Archaeology. He also received the 2016 Griffith University Vice-Chancellor’s Research Excellence Award for Research Leadership.
Ron Robertson-Swann OAM
Sculptor, Painter and Teacher, Sydney, Australia
For over 50 years, Robertson-Swann has been actively involved in the arts in Australia as a sculptor, teacher, mentor and advocate. He studied sculpture with Lyndon Dadswell at the National Art School, Sydney and with Sir Anthony Caro OM CBE and Phillip King CBE at St. Martin’s School of Art in London in 1962, and later was an assistant to Henry Moore for several years. Returning to Australia, Robertson-Swann appeared in ‘The Field’ exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1968, a herald of international art in Australia. His achievements include: exhibiting at the inaugural Sydney Biennale in 1973; a founding member of the Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council; recipient of a Australia Council, Visual Arts Board Grant in 1976; Head of Sculpture Department at the Canberra School of Art 1978-1989; artistic advisor to David Handley from the outset of Sculpture by the Sea in 1997; Board member of Sculpture by the Sea 2003-2016; and Head of Sculpture at the National Art School in Sydney from 2009, a position he recently retired from. In 2002 the artist was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for services to the arts as a sculptor, teacher, mentor and advocate for sculpture, and to art education in Australia. Robertson-Swann’s works are included in all major public Australian collections including: Art Gallery of New South Wales; Art Gallery of South Australia; Art Gallery of Western Australia; Art Bank; Australian National Gallery; Australian National University; Canberra School of Art; Deakin University; Devonport Regional Art Gallery; Macquarie University; McClelland Gallery; Mildura Arts Centre; Monash University; National Gallery of Victoria; Newcastle Regional Art Gallery; Parliament House, Canberra; Queensland Art Gallery; Queensland Cultural Centre; Transfield Collection; and University of New South Wales. His works are held in international collections including: Amstar Corporation, USA; Collection of Sir Anthony Caro OM CBE, UK; Leicester Education Authority, UK, and the Duncan Collection, New Zealand. He has had solo exhibitions nationally including: Crossley Gallery; Gallery A; Irving Sculpture Gallery; Janet Clayton Galleries; Meridian Gallery; Michael Carr Gallery; Michael Milbrun Gallery; Newcastle City Art Gallery; Olsen Carr Gallery; Orange Festival of Arts; Painters Gallery; Powell Street Gallery; Rudy Kormon Gallery; Solander Gallery; Sydney Festival; and Wollongong City Gallery. Further, Robertson-Swann has had numerous solo shows with his representing galleries: Australian Galleries; and Charles Nodrum Gallery. In 1970, he had an international solo exhibition with Bertha Schaefer Gallery in New York. Robertson-Swann has exhibited in important group shows nationally and internationally including: ‘Hard Edge’, National Gallery of Victoria, 2017; Sculpture at Barangaroo, 2016; ‘Mildura Revisited: Sculptures Exhibited 1961-1978’, Mildura Arts Centre, 2014; ‘Controversy: The Power of Art’, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, 2012; ‘Cubism and Australian Art’, Heide Museum, 2009; ‘Tracking the Field’, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2009; ‘Every Artist Remembered’, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, 2009; ‘Hyogo & Australia State Exchange International Sculpture Exhibition’, Asago Art Village, Japan; and ‘Federation, Australian Art Society 1901-2001’, National Gallery of Australia, 2001. Major commissions include: Devonport Jaycees, Tasmania; Prows on Swanston Street, Melbourne; Queensland Cultural Centre; Sydney Festival and Sydney Opera House; and ‘Vault’ for City of Melbourne, for which he is held to critical acclaim. Robertson-Swann has been a regular exhibitor at Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi in 2000, 2001, 2006, 2011-2014, 2016-2019, Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe in 2005, 2009, 2012 – 2015 and Sculpture by the Sea, Aarhus in 2009 and 2015. He was the recipient of the 2017 Helen Lempriere Scholarship.
Dr Michael Hill
Head of Art History, National Art School, Sydney
Dr Michael Hill is head of Art History at the National Art School in Sydney. His main research focus is the Italian Baroque, particularly the architect Francesco Borromini. Michael’s work on Borromini led him to study Leo Steinberg’s critique of modernist art criticism. With Peter Kohane, Michael has written on the theory of decorum and how decoration contributes to the making of public space. More recently, Michael has published on the history of Australian sculpture and the culture and ecology of Sydney. Outside of scholarship, Dr Hill is an artistic advisor to Sculpture by the Sea.
Jennifer Cochrane
Artist, Perth, Australia
Jennifer Cochrane completed a BFA at Curtin University in 1988 and has exhibited her work nationally and internationally over the last 25 years. Cochrane’s works are represented in public and private collections. Her commissions are numerous and include: Wallcliffe House, Margaret River; Harvest Lakes Estate, Perth; the City of Mandurah Council Chambers; Parliament House, Western Australia; Anzac Park, Mount Hawthorn; and the Pilbara Police and Community Justice Services Complex, Karratha. Cochrane exhibited at Sculpture by the Sea, Albany in 1998 and Aarhus in 2013. She has shown at Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi 7 times since 2005. This year will be her 13th time participating in the Cottesloe exhibition. Jennifer is represented by Art Collective WA.
Cr James Hayes
Councillor, Snowy Valleys Council
James Hayes is a 5th generation grazier raising prime lambs and Angus cattle in beautiful Adelong, a retired special needs educator, former cricket coach, long term shire councillor and former Mayor of the Snowy Valleys Council in the Riverina Highlands of NSW. James is passionate about providing opportunities for young people to showcase their talents and build their skills and knowledge. He has a strong commitment to the natural and built environment and has implemented many sustainable farming and land conservation solutions on his own property and in the community. He is a former chairman of a local Landcare Group and was instrumental in initiating the “Connected Communities and Creek program” in Adelong which now forms the start of the Snowy Valleys Sculpture Trail. Following the devastating Black Summer bushfires, which burnt just under half of the shire area, and included 50 000 hectares of softwood plantations, James worked closely with Government and Non-Government Organisations to deliver better amenities, facilities, and opportunities in the Snowy Valleys.
Peter Lundberg
Artist, USA
Peter Lundberg is an internationally renowned American abstract sculptor who lives and works between Vermont, Beijing and Sydney. He has a Bachelor of Science in Physics and Mathematics at Skidmore College in New York, and was later awarded his Masters in Fine Arts in Sculpture at Bennington College, New York. Working between cast concrete and bronze, Lundberg’s practice is motivated by simple forms and patterns that come from nature. For many of his large-scale concrete works, Lundberg experiments with new methods of casting by using the earth as an organic mold to create unpredictable raw forms, textures and edges. Through this process, his sculptures become intrinsically connected to place, as they are both inspired by and physically built from the natural elements of the landscape they occupy. Monumental in both size and weight, Lundberg’s sculptures rise out of the earth with an arresting presence and enter into the consciousness of the landscape. His public sculptures are included in many important collections and Sculpture Parks around the world, featured in over 16 major cities such as New York, Quebec, Frankfurt, Berlin, Beijing, Shanghai, Sydney and Perth, as well as over 34 small town and regional public spaces. Since 2011, Lundberg’s work has been exhibited each year in Sculpture by the Sea in both Bondi, Sydney and Cottesloe, Perth, and was the recipient of the major Sculpture by the Sea Prize in 2012 for his work ‘Barrel Roll’ and in 2014 for ‘Ring’. In his most recent commission, Lundberg created a 40 foot-tall and 57 tonne concrete sculpture called ‘Standing man’ at the Australian Galleries Sculpture Park in Porcupine Ridge, Victoria. Lundberg has had recent major commissions in San Francisco; Portland, Maine and a preeminent private collection recently developed in Brisbane with over one hundred bronze sculptures.
Sandra Nyberg
Artist, Finland
Sandra Nyberg works with various mediums ranging from site-specific structures and installations to fragile drawings and conceptual ideas. She is specifically interested in the idea of site-specific and public intervention; creating works that are integrated with their surroundings while exploring local cultural, political, sociological and/or historical contexts. She is one part of the artist collaboration Elin&Keino along with Heini Nieminen. Elin&Keino was founded in 2009 and the duo has since actively participated in outdoor exhibitions, art events and projects around the world with their ecologically charged installations. After studying Fine Arts in The Netherlands (HKU) and in Australia (UNSW, Cofa), she has exhibited actively also as a solo artist, including Finland, Indonesia, The Netherlands, and Norway. In Australia she has exhibited at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, Sculpture at Scenic World (Highly commended) and as part of Elin&Keino in SxS Cottesloe four times since 2012. Recipient of the Kid’s Choice Prize SxS Cottesloe 2012. SxS Aarhus 2011, 2013. Artist residencies include FCINY, Triangle Studios in New York, SIM in Reykjavik, Iceland and Hill End, NSW. She is the founder of the The Barefoot Path Environmental Art Exhibition in the Finnish archipelago and has also curated other art exhibitions in Finland.
Takeshi Tanabe
Artist, Japan
Takeshi Tanabe holds a BFA (Sculpture) from Aichi Prefecture University of Fine Arts. He has exhibited in many solo and group exhibitions including Tokyo Biennale, NordArt and Ube International Sculpture Biennale, receiving the Ube Open-Air Museum Award in 2001. Tanabe is represented in significant collections in Australia, Europe, Japan and New Zealand. He has exhibited at Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi eight times since 2012, Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe five times since 2014 and Sculpture by the Sea’s standalone exhibition of Japanese works ‘Sculpture Rocks’ in Sydney 2021.
David Handley
Founding CEO & Artistic Director, Sculpture by the Sea and
the Snowy Valleys Sculpture Trail
In 1997 at the age of 31, David Handley founded Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi (Sydney, Australia) which began as a one-day exhibition of 64 sculptures staffed by volunteers working from his lounge room. 25,000 people attended the first exhibition. Within three years the exhibition had grown to be the largest annual sculpture exhibition in the world featuring over 100 sculptures by artists from around the world. In 1998, Handley was commissioned to produce a series of five Sculpture by the Sea exhibitions around Australia for the Sydney Olympic Arts Festival ‘A Sea Change’. In 2005 Handley and his team launched the annual Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe in Perth on the west Australian coast which attracts 240,000 visitors to view 70 sculptures by artists from across the world. In 2009, the first international edition of Sculpture by the Sea was staged in the City of Aarhus, Denmark under the Patronage of TRH Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary of Denmark. The Denmark exhibition was held every two years until 2015 attracting an estimated 400,000 visitors to each exhibition. In 2003, Handley oversaw the establishment of Sculpture by the Sea Incorporated as a not for profit entity to manage the Australian Sculpture by the Sea exhibitions. He has served on a number of boards including as a Trustee of the Australian Museum (2002 – 2010) and the USA based International Sculpture Centre (2008 - 2011). In 2016, David Handley received Member of the Order of Australia in the Australia Day Honours.
David Doyle
Executive Director DADAA, Perth, Australia
David Doyle is the Executive Director of DADAA. Over the past 30 years, David has produced large-scale Community Arts and Cultural Development (CACD) and arts and health projects internationally and across Western Australia and is dedicated to furthering access to arts and culture for all people. In tandem with his project roles, David has built DADAA to be an internationally significant art and disability organisation. Communities and people are central to his practice, as he focuses on the well-being of the arts and health sectors and the WA community as a whole, bringing disparate structures together to respond to complex population and place-based social issues.
Jacqueline Homer
Access Program Producer, DADAA, Perth, Australia
Jacqueline Homer has been working with DADAA since 2005. Jacqueline has a BA in Theatre and Communications and a diploma in OSH. Previously she has worked as a theatre Production Manager and Producer in both Singapore and Australia touring theatre performances and commissioned works. At DADAA, she manages CACD projects across the state. Since, 2015, she has been DADAA’s Access Program Producer and has been implementing access provisions using new technologies across metropolitan and regional WA, partnering local governments and arts and cultural institutions. Jacqueline has also in the past decade been providing Disability and Vision Awareness Training to artists, museums and galleries allowing them to enhance accessibility for people with disability. This has provided people with disability increased opportunities to fully participate in arts and cultural activities.
Peter Hodgson
Disability Consultant and Trainer, DADAA, Perth, Australia
Peter started work as a Trainee Social Trainer at the Pyrton Training Centre in 1982. He worked as a hands on support for people with an intellectual disability and other disabilities for ten years before taking on Supervisory positions. He worked in a variety of settings including accommodation, workshops, schools and supported people with disabilities living independently in the community. Peter progressed to Area Manager responsibilities and undertook many Projects and Re-Developments. He ended his 33 year career within the Disability Sector as the Manager of the Disability Justice Centre in Caversham. Peter started delivering Disability Awareness Training while still employed by the Disability Services Commission. When he left the Commission he developed a Training Package built on his own experience and experiences he encountered during the 33 year involvement in the Sector. His objective was to raise an awareness in, what Peter calls, the invisible disabilities, Intellectual, cognitive and Autism. Peter’s introduction to participation in arts by people with disabilities was more of an epiphany that an introduction. Peter had never seen arts as a self expression or communication, rather something just to look at. Watching people who had limited communication abilities express themselves through art gave him a totally new appreciation of what “Art” meant.
Grace King
Artist and Disability Advocate, Perth, Australia
Grace King is a performer and singer who has co-starred for the WA Opera and Sunday Afternoon Collective amongst many other performances both in Australia and internationally. She is also one of DADAA’s key consultants for digital access. Since the beginning of DADAA’s Access Program, Grace has been on the advisory panel. Her input in the access program, tactile tours, audio described shows has been crucial in the development of the program and the increase in inclusive participation in the arts by people with disability.
Andrea Tenger
Manager of Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe Aged Care Tactile Tours, Perth, Australia
Andrea is a transdisciplinary artist, educator and creative producer with a background in creative learning, visual literacy and community arts and cultural development. In addition to her practice as a visual artist, she has over thirty years' experience managing arts, learning and social impact projects in Australia, England and the United States. She works at DADAA delivering a number of programs that promote cultural participation for artists and audience members with disability or mental health. Since 2008 she has collaborated with both DADAA and Sculpture by the Sea to deliver Tactile Tours. In her current role as program manager, she aims to improve the wellbeing of aged care residents, marginalised young people and community groups in safe, kind and graceful ways. The program’s tours and workshops provide opportunities for increased physical and mental activity, reduced feelings of isolation, connection making with community and a sense of belonging.
Viktoria Kulikova
Curator, Kyiv, Ukraine
Viktoria Kulikova is an art advisor, curator and cultural manager. She is an Art director at Abramovych Art Agency and is the Ukrainian Curatorial Advisor at Sculpture by the Sea. Viktoria graduated with a Masters in Cultural Studies from National Pedagogical Drahomanov University in 2019. Viktoria is an asylum seeker from Kyiv, Ukraine, now living in France.
Olga Cironis
Artist, Perth, Australia
Olga Cironis is an award-winning artist living in Fremantle WA, with a multidisciplinary art practice spanning over 30 years. Since graduating with a Master of Visual Arts from SCA/University of Sydney 1996, Cironis has exhibited nationally and internationally. Her solo exhibitions include Hammer and Honey Albany Town Hall WA 2022, This Space Between Us Art Collective WA 2021, Forest of Voices PICA 2020, Dislocation Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, Perth Festival 2021 and Listening Under Water Thessaloniki Art Gallery Greece 2014. Her group exhibitions include Bunbury Biennale 2021, Taipei Fine Arts Museum Taiwan 2019, Dead Centre Regional Galleries WA 2016 - 2017, Sappers and Shrapnel Art Gallery of SA 2016, The Greek Dimension ANZAC Centenary Greek Embassy Canberra 2015, Biennale of Sydney 1996, Artspace Sydney 1995, and If You Can’t Cut It Don’t Come Australian Embassy, Singapore 1995. Cironis has undertaken local and international art residencies and projects, including Fremantle Art Centre, Indigenous communities WA, Bunbury Art Gallery, Northcliff Art Centre, Thessaloniki and University of Thessaly Volos Greece, Singapore, PNG and East Timor. Her work is featured in numerous public, corporate, and private collections globally, including the Art Gallery of WA, Taipei Fine Arts Museum Taiwan, JHM Art Collection, Murdoch University WA, Volos University Greece, Thessaloniki Municipality Art Gallery Greece, John Curtin Art Gallery WA, City if Fremantle, Bunbury Regional Art Gallery and Geraldton Regional Art Gallery WA. In 2021 Art Collective WA published a monograph featuring much of Olga’s art practise over the past 30 years, with curator Lisa Slade (AGSA), curator/writer Paola Anselmi (WA) and writer Jacqueline Millner (Vic) contributing essays. In her art practice Cironis explores personal and collective identity within today’s cultural globalisation. From a strong migrant feminist foundation Olga scrutinises ideas around belonging and place by researching and exploring counter histories. Often inviting public participation and story sharing. Olga succeeds to seduce the public to further delve, reflect and question our place in the world. Olga Cironis is a member of Art Collective WA and has exhibited at both Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi and Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe a total of 8 times. She was awarded the WA Sculptor Scholarship in 2019 at Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe and has been on the award judging panel multiple times. In 2023 Olga joined the National Artistic Advisory Committee for Sculpture by the Sea.
Prof. Leonardo Cumbo
Artist & Professor of Sculpture Techniques & Coordinator of the Sculpture Course, Academy of Fine Arts, Catania, Italy
Leonardo Cumbo was born in 1967 in Sicily. He studied Medicine, Biology and Art in Perugia, Carrara, New York and Palermo where he graduated in Sculpture. He now teaches Sculpture Techniques at the Academy of Fine Arts in Catania where he is also the Coordinator of the Sculpture course. Cumbo has participated in numerous international exhibitions, winning prestigious prizes all over the world. His work continues to obtain flattering recognition from critics, the public and the art market. He has organized Symposia and International Exhibitions of Contemporary Art and Sculpture in Italy and his monumental sculptures can be found in public and private spaces in numerous cities in Europe, the United States, Japan and Australia. Cumbo loves using different types of materials and mixing traditional techniques with more contemporary ones. He is a versatile artist, with his art practice ranging from sculpture to photography, from painting to engraving, from graphics to video sculpture. Irony and paradox often characterize his artistic production as well as the interaction, sometimes violent, other times harmonious, opposing tangible or invisible forces.
Jina Lee
Artist, Fremantle, Australia
Jina was born in 1984, in South Korea and immigrated to Australia in 2013. Lee began her journey as a sculptor in 1999 after being accepted into the Kaywon School of Arts in South Korea. This sparked a flame that led her to complete a Master of Fine Art majoring in Sculpture at Kookmin University, South Korea. Jina specializes in stone sculptures inspired by organic forms. Lee uses traditional techniques of chiselling and polishing to present a tactile and timeless finish. She works with all types of stones as well as working with bronze, incorporating this medium into her sculptures to complement the stone. Lee is hands-on from the very first steps of designing the concept, sourcing materials for sculptures and physically creating the artwork herself at her studio at J Shed in Fremantle, WA, Australia. Her stone sculptures are installed in public collections both interstate and internationally. Jina Lee is a director at STONE TO ART –The first International Stone Sculpture Symposium in WA.
Sharyn Egan
Artist, Nyoongar woman, Perth, Australia
Sharyn Egan is a Nyoongar woman who began creating art at the age of 37, which lead to her enrolling in a Diploma of Fine Arts at the Claremont School of Art in Perth. She completed this course in 1998 and enrolled in the Associate Degree in Contemporary Aboriginal Art course at Curtin University which she completed in 2000. In 2001 she was awarded a Bachelor of Arts (Arts) from Curtin University. She has also been awarded a Certificate VI in Training and Education in 2011. The themes of Sharyn’s work are informed by the experiences of her life as a Nyoongar woman. Sharyn works in a variety of mediums including painting, sculpture and woven forms using traditional and contemporary fibres. Her woven works include traditionally styled contemporary forms and baskets, as well as sculptural forms often based on flora and fauna that has totemic significance for the Nyoongar people. Sharyn Egan’s works explore her personal and cultural relationships to Country, to Nyoongar Boodja. They document the relationships between places, people, plants and animals while also reminding us of our role as custodians, to care for the natural world. In her most recent works Sharyn uses natural materials such as the resin from the grass tree, known in Nyoongar as the balga (Xanthorrhoea preissii), embedding Country into each of her paintings. ‘In considering different points of view of the earth, the cosmos and the oceans, we need to recognise our obligation to nurture an awareness of our impact on the earth. In Aboriginal culture, everything is connected and equal – all life comes from the same atoms. Humans are not above nature. We live alongside simultaneous beauty and devastation’. Sharyn Egan, 2020
Phil Spelman
Artist, Queanbeyan, Australia
Philip Spelman graduated from the Applied Arts Department at the Queensland College of Arts and continued with further study at the School of Art, Australian National University completing a BVA in Sculpture. As a practising sculptor for the past 35 years, Spelman works in painted steel, and he maintains a broad professional arts practice. He is actively engaged in regional, national and international exhibitions, commissions and conference programmes as well as technical management and exhibition consultation. His works are abstract constructions where elements balance, tumble and float creating positive and negative compositions of space, light and shade. The sculptures are memorable for their vibrant colours which give luminosity and depth, creating stunning silhouettes within their environment. Spelman’s sculptures are held in many public, private and corporate collections, nationally and International. Major works are featured in numerous public collections including the Snowy Valley Sculpture Trail, multiple works, with artsACT, , Canberra Museum & Art Gallery, Australian National University Point Leo estate sculpture park, Denman Prospect, Gomboc Sculpture Gallery, Price Waterhouse, and the Bathurst Regional Gallery. In 2012 he was awarded a Helen Lempriere scholarship for research and travel. In 2013 he received the NSW government regional acquisition award, and his work was acquired by Bathurst Regional Gallery His commissions include the Cultural facilities corporation, Civil & Civic / Lend Lease, South Sydney City Council, Denman prospect, and Arrow International.