Tony Albert’s 2022 solo exhibition at Sullivan+Strumpf, Remark, continues the artist’s investigation into the imagery and identification of appropriated Indigenous Australian iconography in domestic decoration and design. Incorporating fabric from his extensive collection of ‘Aboriginalia’, Remark sees Albert expand on his acclaimed Conversations with Margaret Preston series dimensionality, critically engaging with the fabric in his own right. Like the fabric of Australian society, the appropriated Indigenous imagery printed on souvenir tea towels intertwines in a complicated web of national identity. These are not images by Aboriginal people and our voices and autonomy continued to be silenced through the object’s inauthenticity. As a country we must reconcile with these objects’ very existence. They are painful reiterations of a violent and oppressive history, but we also cannot hide or destroy them because they are an important societal record that should not be forgotten. As an artist this juxtaposition and tension fascinates me. Tony Albert’s multidisciplinary practice investigates contemporary legacies of colonialism, prompting audiences to contemplate the human condition. Drawing on both personal and collective histories, Albert explores the ways in which optimism can be utilised to overcome adversity. His work poses important questions such as how do we remember, give justice to, and rewrite complex and traumatic histories. Albert’s technique and imagery are distinctly contemporary, displacing traditional Australian Aboriginal aesthetics with an urban conceptuality. Appropriating textual references from sources as diverse as popular music, film, fiction, and art history, Albert plays with the tension arising from the visibility, and in-turn, the invisibility of Aboriginal People across the news media, literature, and the visual world. australian first nations art, colonialisation

Tony Albert’s 2022 solo exhibition at Sullivan+Strumpf, Remark, continues the artist’s investigation into the imagery and identification of appropriated Indigenous Australian iconography in domestic decoration and design. Incorporating fabric from his extensive collection of ‘Aboriginalia’, Remark sees Albert expand on his acclaimed Conversations with Margaret Preston series dimensionality, critically engaging with the fabric in his own right. Like the fabric of Australian society, the appropriated Indigenous imagery printed on souvenir tea towels intertwines in a complicated web of national identity. These are not images by Aboriginal people and our voices and autonomy continued to be silenced through the object’s inauthenticity. As a country we must reconcile with these objects’ very existence. They are painful reiterations of a violent and oppressive history, but we also cannot hide or destroy them because they are an important societal record that should not be forgotten. As an artist this juxtaposition and tension fascinates me. Tony Albert’s multidisciplinary practice investigates contemporary legacies of colonialism, prompting audiences to contemplate the human condition. Drawing on both personal and collective histories, Albert explores the ways in which optimism can be utilised to overcome adversity. His work poses important questions such as how do we remember, give justice to, and rewrite complex and traumatic histories. Albert’s technique and imagery are distinctly contemporary, displacing traditional Australian Aboriginal aesthetics with an urban conceptuality. Appropriating textual references from sources as diverse as popular music, film, fiction, and art history, Albert plays with the tension arising from the visibility, and in-turn, the invisibility of Aboriginal People across the news media, literature, and the visual world. australian first nations art, colonialisation

Tony Albert’s 2022 solo exhibition at Sullivan+Strumpf, Remark, continues the artist’s investigation into the imagery and identification of appropriated Indigenous Australian iconography in domestic decoration and design. Incorporating fabric from his extensive collection of ‘Aboriginalia’, Remark sees Albert expand on his acclaimed Conversations with Margaret Preston series dimensionality, critically engaging with the fabric in his own right. Like the fabric of Australian society, the appropriated Indigenous imagery printed on souvenir tea towels intertwines in a complicated web of national identity. These are not images by Aboriginal people and our voices and autonomy continued to be silenced through the object’s inauthenticity. As a country we must reconcile with these objects’ very existence. They are painful reiterations of a violent and oppressive history, but we also cannot hide or destroy them because they are an important societal record that should not be forgotten. As an artist this juxtaposition and tension fascinates me. Tony Albert’s multidisciplinary practice investigates contemporary legacies of colonialism, prompting audiences to contemplate the human condition. Drawing on both personal and collective histories, Albert explores the ways in which optimism can be utilised to overcome adversity. His work poses important questions such as how do we remember, give justice to, and rewrite complex and traumatic histories. Albert’s technique and imagery are distinctly contemporary, displacing traditional Australian Aboriginal aesthetics with an urban conceptuality. Appropriating textual references from sources as diverse as popular music, film, fiction, and art history, Albert plays with the tension arising from the visibility, and in-turn, the invisibility of Aboriginal People across the news media, literature, and the visual world. australian first nations art, colonialisation

Carol Porter’s artwork Don’t get mad, get elected! features a woman towering over Parliament House in Canberra. Below her, tiny suit-clad politicians run screaming as she holds one of their colleagues upside-down, and another tumbles from her grasp. The look on her face is cool and determined; it is a reversal of the more common horror poster trope of ‘damsel in distress’. Porter says of the work: ‘It was tapping into the fact that women should get into power and make a difference’. Porter is a contemporary political cartoonist and poster artist who has worked out of Melbourne since the 1970s. She uses humour in her social commentary on various Australian issues and is well known for the prints she produced at RedPlanet – the alternative poster press inspired by an anti-elitist mission to reconnect art with communities. The poster was commissioned by the Victorian Women’s Trust. It first appeared on Melbourne billboards in 1997, a year after the federal election that swept John Howard to power.Donated by the artist

Peta Clancy is a descendent of the Bangerang people from South-Eastern Australia. She explores hidden histories of colonisation in Australia. Through manipulating photographic prints, she reconstructs these hidden histories in a contemporary setting. In 2018, Clancy was awarded the inaugural Fostering Koorie Art and Culture grant from the Koorie Heritage Trust. The grant enabled her to collaborate with the Dja Dja Wurrung community to create a body of work investigating massacre sites on Dja Dja Wurrung country. The exhibition Undercurrent at the Koorie Heritage Trust focussed on a massacre site submerged under water. Clancy says of the exhibition and this work: ‘I explored this site as a metaphor for the hidden history of many massacres throughout Australia and the denial of this aspect of our history and the trauma these sites evoke’.

Jenna Lee dissects and reconstructs colonial 'Indigenous dictionaries' and embeds the works with new cultural meaning. Long obsessed with the duality of the destructive and healing properties that fire can yield, this element has been applied to the paper in the forms of burning and mark-making. In Without Us, Lee uses charcoal to conceal the text on the page, viewing this process as a ritualistic act of reclaiming and honouring Indigenous heritage while challenging the oppressive legacies of colonialism. Lee explains in Art Guide (2022), ‘These books in particular [used to create the proposed works] are Aboriginal language dictionaries—but there’s no such thing as “Aboriginal language”. There are hundreds of languages. The dictionary just presents words, with no reference to where they came from. It was specifically published by collating compendiums from the 1920s, 30s and 40s, with the purpose to give [non-Indigenous] people pleasant sounding Aboriginal words to name children, houses and boats. And yet the first things that were taken from us was our language, children, land and water. And the reason our words were so widely written down was because [white Australians] were trying to eradicate us. They thought we were going extinct. The deeper you get into it, the darker it gets. But the purpose of my work is to take those horrible things and cast them as something beautiful.’Framed artwork

Maree Clarke is a pivotal figure in the reclamation of south-east Australian Aboriginal art and cultural practices and has a passion for reviving and sharing elements of Aboriginal culture that were lost – or lying dormant – as a consequence of colonisation. She a leader in nurturing and promoting the diversity of contemporary Koorie artists through her revival of traditional possum skin cloaks, together with contemporary designs of kangaroo teeth necklaces, river reed necklaces and string headbands adorned with kangaroo teeth and echidna quills. River Reed Necklace forms a key element of the artist’s practice regenerating cultural practices and strengthening cultural identity and knowledge. Maree Clarke has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally, and in 2021 she was the subject of a major survey exhibition Maree Clarke – Ancestral Memories at the National Gallery of Victoria. Other recent exhibitions include Tarnanthi, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide (2021), The National, Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney (2021), Reversible Destiny, Tokyo Photographic Museum, Tokyo Japan (2021) and the King Wood Mallesons Contemporary Art Prize, for which she was awarded the Victorian Artist award. In 2020 she was awarded the Linewide Commission for the Metro Tunnel project and was the recipient of the Australia Council Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Fellowship.

‘Adeney Avenue’ was the title given to this painting following its donation to the Kew Historical Society, yet the work’s origins predate the naming of Adeney Avenue in 1907 [originally gazetted as ‘Park Street’ (1865) and ‘Park Street South’ (1875).] Park Street ran between High Street and Parkhill Road beside what was later to become ‘Victoria Park’. This area was described in 1851 as “…a dense forest of gums and wattles which were to be largely cleared by 1888 after the naming of a recreation reserve”. The Reserve was still bisected by an unnamed creek in 1896, when the area was surveyed by the MMBW. The panoramic vista selected by the artist would appear to include ‘Eborensis’ (c.1895) on the corner of Parkhill Road and what was then Park Street, with views across cleared land towards the distant ranges. In the 19th century, north Kew was largely undeveloped farms stretching down to the Yarra. Oil on canvas by an unidentified artist of a panoramic view depicting what is now known as East Kew with mountains on the horizon. In the foreground is a two storey brick residence - Eborensis - located on the northeast corner of Parkhill Road and what is now Adeney Avenue. The view of the landscape and its rolling hills resulted from farming practices adopted following colonisation and settlement. Trees in the foreground and in the distance include remnant Eucalypts and introduced exotics.Label on rear of frame states "House on corner of Adeney Ave & Parkhill. [Regd. 254"]. Otherwise unsigned and undatedadeney avenue (kew), eborensis, park street (kew)

Josh MUIR (1991- 2022) Yorta Yorta/Gunditjmara/Barkinjl Muir's art draws on hip-hop and street art culture and often depicts the history of indigenous people and European settlers. He spent a lot of time in his teens researching and enjoying public art, especially graffiti. Inspired by the commitment of graffers he was inspired by the concepts they illustrate. He started expressing his own ideas with pen and pad and once the basic concept down and it was tangible and could be converted that to canvas or walls. Muir experimented with spray and stencil work a lot in his teens and later branched out into acrylic paints, paint pens, and digital forms of Art. In 2016 Josh Muir's work 'Still Here', projected onto the front wall of the National Gallery of Victoria was critically acclaimed. At that time he stated: "‘I am a proud Yorta Yorta/ Gunditjmara man, born and living in Ballarat, Victoria. I hold my culture strong to my heart – it gives me a voice and a great sense of my identity. When I look around, I see empires built on aboriginal land. I cannot physically change or shift this, though I can make the most of my culture in a contemporary setting and use my art projects to address current issues of reconciliation." In 2016 Josh Muir was awarded the second recipient of HMS Trust’s Hutchinson Indigenous Fellowship at University of Melbourne, based at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA). The Fellowship was created to enable Indigenous artists to undertake significant projects of their choice. Computer generated image on canvas.josh muir, aboriginal, artwork, artist, hutchinson indigenous fellowship

merri-bek public art collection

Ramon (Ray) Francis Honisett (11.04.1931 - 30.08.2019), Fellow RMIT and medallist specialised in philatelic design, marine and military aircraft painting art and was active in the 1960s - 1990s. Ray Honisett used to live in Rye, in the Mornington Peninsula. According to Gavin Fry's book: The painting likely depicts the Lysaght Endeavour loading at Hastings. "The Lysaght Endeavour and its sister ship Lysaght Entreprise were built in Newcastle in 1973 specifically to serve the regional steel industry on the route Port Kembla - Westernport - Adelaide. Even after being lengthened by 17 metres, the two ships had remarkably short working lines, with both being broken up by 1988."Maritime artLarge framed unglazed landscape format painting predominantly green depicting in foreground a merchant vessel, a roll-on roll-off cargo ship moored at a single quayside on a river or river mouth. The middle ground shows a moderate solid jetty leading to large storage sheds at right. The background appears primarily rural with fields and hills in the distance. The location is probably Hastings Western Port in Victoria - notice the forklifts loading rolls of steel produced at the nearby steel rolling mill - the buildings in the distance. You can see the rolls of steel lined up on the hard stand to the right of the ship. The funnel colours suggest the Australian National Line. The frame incorporates a beige fabric slip with gilt edge the actual dark wood frame also with inset banded gilt edge. The back of the painting is covered with brown paper in places damaged. Hangs on a cotton cord threaded between two screw in eyelet hooks.at lower right corner single uc word in black paint : "HONISETT"tankers, marine painting, maritime art, ramon honisett, ray honisett, anl maritime art prize, acta maritime art prize, hastings, western port, victoria, steel, roll on roll off, forklift, mornington peninsula, artwork-paintings

Robert Thomas Miller Born in Melbourne in 1916 Studied commercial art at RMIT and for many years worked as graphic designer and design director at ACI Ltd. Member of the Victorian Artists's Society (Council member since 1965), Australian Guild of Realist Artists, Old Water Colour Society Club (past president), Australian Watercolour Institute, Hughesdale Arts Group (past president), Burnie (Tas.) Coastal Art Group. His watercolours have won over 40 major awards, including Victorian Artists' Society, 1973 Artist of the Year Award, and the Rotary Club of Camberwell Watercolour Prize (twice). Represented in many Australian collections both public and private.Maritime artRobert T. Miller, Mission to Seafarers Victoria CollectionA framed and glazed mat mounted watercolour painting by award winning artist Robert T Miller in ''landscape" format showing moored, masted ships; The modern frame is of moulded or carved wood with appearance of brushed gilt type gilding; image is mounted with pale grey window mount; Backing sealed with paper wire strand hanging system;Artist signed front lower right corner of painting in black ink; no date; sepia label adhered on top centre Verso with artist bio and brief CV ; Other exhibition labels adhered ; inscription describing acquisition and title of work; ( details TBA) M3 in black markerharbour, dockside, artwork, marine art, robert thomas miller, robert t. miller, watercolour, artwork-paintings

Robert Thomas Miller Born in Melbourne in 1916 Studied commercial art at RMIT and for many years worked as graphic designer and design director at ACI Ltd. Member of the Victorian Artists's Society (Council member since 1965), Australian Guild of Realist Artists, Old Water Colour Society Club (past president), Australian Watercolour Institute, Hughesdale Arts Group (past president), Burnie (Tas.) Coastal Art Group. His watercolours have won over 40 major awards, including Victorian Artists' Society, 1973 Artist of the Year Award, and the Rotary Club of Camberwell Watercolour Prize (twice). Represented in many Australian collections both public and private.Maritime ArtRobert T. Miller, Mission to Seafarers Victoria CollectionContemporary framed in limed wood, mounted and glazed watercolour painting by R.T. MILLER in portrait format. Mat mount is white. Image features freighter with black hull at mooring in dockland setting; wire hanging systemInterpretation label adhered to back, includes photographic portrait of the artist Value on label Signature M4 in black markermarine painting, port melbourne, artwork, docklands, tug boat, robert thomas miller, robert t. miller, r.t. miller, artwork-paintings, tugboat

Rodney SCHERER (24/02/1951 - ) Born Campbelltown, NSW Rodney Scherer studied at the National Art School, East Sydney Technical College (1968 -1972); the Canberra School of Art (1973-75) Dip, Art Gippsland Institute of Advanced Education (1978); and a Grad, Dip, Art (Painting) at Gippsland Institute of Advanced Educaton (1985). He curated a number of significant exhibitions for the Gippsland region of Victoria, including the first national travelling exhibition of regional artist "Contemporary Gippsland Artists 1990-92". Rodney Scherer is a painter, printmaker, sculptor, Curator, retired Public Gallery Director, and fine art consultant. He was the founding chair of the Art Resource Colelction, arcYinnar. He was an Artist in Residence at teh Gippsland TRades and Labour Council, Yallourn Power Startion in 1991, and site manager of the Fifth Sculpture Triennial at the 1992 Melbourne International Arts Festival. In 2021 he curated "The Happy Wanderer. Victoria Cobb 1876-1945" at the Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale, Victoria.This work was purchased by the donor from Rodney Scherer's solo exhibition 'Ubiquitous Orange' at Sparc Gallery, Yinnar.rodney scherer, alumni, sculpture, available

These captivating pieces are part of a series called "FOOD / FLESH / FAME," a collaborative effort between Melbourne-based Thai artists Bundit Puangthong and Vipoo Srivilasa. Drawing from Buddhist teachings, the series explores the three elements of attachment: Food (consumption), Flesh (sex), and Fame (power). Although these elements are known to cause suffering, they remain persistently alluring, a paradox that the artists intend to explore further in the future. In creating these pieces, Vipoo Srivilasa initiated the process by sculpting three figures with bare surfaces. Bundit Puangthong then added his artistic touch by painting each sculpture. The artists' conceptual visions harmonized perfectly, especially considering their shared commitment to Buddhist principles, which frequently inspire their respective artistic practices. After Bundit completed his painting, Vipoo enlivened the pieces by adding eyes to the figures. He also embellished the works with pom-poms, lending them a softness that makes them appear both approachable and innocent, despite the weightiness of their themes. Each sculpture embodies a specific teaching from Buddhism: "FOOD" depicts a durian, the king of fruits, painted by Bundit Puangthong. He notes, "Despite its pungent aroma, many people still love to eat it."Donated the by the artists

In creating these pieces, Vipoo Srivilasa initiated the process by sculpting three figures with bare surfaces. Bundit Puangthong then added his artistic touch by painting each sculpture. The artists' conceptual visions harmonized perfectly, especially considering their shared commitment to Buddhist principles, which frequently inspire their respective artistic practices. After Bundit completed his painting, Vipoo enlivened the pieces by adding eyes to the figures. He also embellished the works with pom-poms, lending them a softness that makes them appear both approachable and innocent, despite the weightiness of their themes. Each sculpture embodies a specific teaching from Buddhism: "FLESH" features a golden umbrella, serving as a metaphor for sex.