Having refined his technique of painting on the reverse side of glass, David Jolly has achieved critical acclaim as an articulate drawer and painter. His work ruminates on the role of the artist as witness and reporter. He pairs rich colour and extraordinary detail with the glossy seductiveness of the glass surface. It presents a compelling encounter between the luminous dimensionality of glass and the textureless, mirror-like surfaces of screen culture. The series Artist’s Proof #1 illustrates before and after scenes of the Formula 1 Grand Prix at Albert Park Lake. Characteristic of Jolly, the works focus not on the spectacle of the race but the casual imagery of its inconsequential incidents, scenes and moments. Props III and Lakehouse exemplify of this approach. While able to be read as singularly abstract compositions, Meatball and Surface are in fact transcriptions of motor racing flags that signal hazards or the need for an immediate pit-stop.Against a big clouded blue sky and a backdrop of trees and a field (perhaps a sports field), the foreground shows stacks of tyres, metal poles, tall metal barricades, square storage bins and pipes. Titled, signed and dated by the artist: top left, back, in blue ink.stonnington contemporary art collection, painting, david jolly, albert park lake, formula 1, grand prix, motor racing

Having refined his technique of painting on the reverse side of glass, David Jolly has achieved critical acclaim as an articulate drawer and painter. His work ruminates on the role of the artist as witness and reporter. He pairs rich colour and extraordinary detail with the glossy seductiveness of the glass surface. It presents a compelling encounter between the luminous dimensionality of glass and the textureless, mirror-like surfaces of screen culture. The series Artist’s Proof #1 illustrates before and after scenes of the Formula 1 Grand Prix at Albert Park Lake. Characteristic of Jolly, the works focus not on the spectacle of the race but the casual imagery of its inconsequential incidents, scenes and moments. Props III and Lakehouse exemplify of this approach. While able to be read as singularly abstract compositions, Meatball and Surface are in fact transcriptions of motor racing flags that signal hazards or the need for an immediate pit-stop. stonnington contemporary art collection, painting, david jolly, albert park lake, formula 1, grand prix, motor racing

Having refined his technique of painting on the reverse side of glass, David Jolly has achieved critical acclaim as an articulate drawer and painter. His work ruminates on the role of the artist as witness and reporter. He pairs rich colour and extraordinary detail with the glossy seductiveness of the glass surface. It presents a compelling encounter between the luminous dimensionality of glass and the textureless, mirror-like surfaces of screen culture. The series Artist’s Proof #1 illustrates before and after scenes of the Formula 1 Grand Prix at Albert Park Lake. Characteristic of Jolly, the works focus not on the spectacle of the race but the casual imagery of its inconsequential incidents, scenes and moments. Props III and Lakehouse exemplify of this approach. While able to be read as singularly abstract compositions, Meatball and Surface are in fact transcriptions of motor racing flags that signal hazards or the need for an immediate pit-stop.stonnington contemporary art collection, painting, david jolly, albert park lake, formula 1, grand prix, motor racing

Having refined his technique of painting on the reverse side of glass, David Jolly has achieved critical acclaim as an articulate drawer and painter. His work ruminates on the role of the artist as witness and reporter. He pairs rich colour and extraordinary detail with the glossy seductiveness of the glass surface. It presents a compelling encounter between the luminous dimensionality of glass and the textureless, mirror-like surfaces of screen culture. The series Artist’s Proof #1 illustrates before and after scenes of the Formula 1 Grand Prix at Albert Park Lake. Characteristic of Jolly, the works focus not on the spectacle of the race but the casual imagery of its inconsequential incidents, scenes and moments. Props III and Lakehouse exemplify of this approach. While able to be read as singularly abstract compositions, Meatball and Surface are in fact transcriptions of motor racing flags that signal hazards or the need for an immediate pit-stop.stonnington contemporary art collection, painting, david jolly, albert park lake, formula 1, grand prix, motor racing

Maree Clarke is a multi-disciplinary artist from Mildura in northwest Victoria, living and working in Melbourne. Her continuing desire to affirm and reconnect with her cultural heritage makes her a pivotal figure in the reclamation of southeast Australian Aboriginal art practices, reviving elements of Aboriginal culture that were lost over the period of colonisation. The 'Men and Women in Mourning' series explores the traditional ceremonies of grief and mourning practices from Calrke's Country. It originates from her fascination with Kopi, a gypsum cap worn to express an individual’s mourning of a loved one or significant member of the clan. A Kopi can weigh up to 7kg and the length of time they are worn depends on the person’s closeness to the deceased. When the mourning period was over the Kopi would be placed on the person’s grave.stonnington contemporary art collection, first peoples, first nations, indigenous, aboriginal torres strait islander, mourning ceremony, maree clarke, cultural heritage

Maree Clarke is a multi-disciplinary artist from Mildura in northwest Victoria, living and working in Melbourne. Her continuing desire to affirm and reconnect with her cultural heritage makes her a pivotal figure in the reclamation of southeast Australian Aboriginal art practices, reviving elements of Aboriginal culture that were lost over the period of colonisation. The 'Men and Women in Mourning' series explores the traditional ceremonies of grief and mourning practices from Calrke's Country. It originates from her fascination with Kopi, a gypsum cap worn to express an individual’s mourning of a loved one or significant member of the clan. A Kopi can weigh up to 7kg and the length of time they are worn depends on the person’s closeness to the deceased. When the mourning period was over the Kopi would be placed on the person’s grave.stonnington contemporary art collection, first peoples, first nations, indigenous, aboriginal torres strait islander, mourning ceremony, maree clarke, cultural heritage

Maree Clarke is a multi-disciplinary artist from Mildura in northwest Victoria, living and working in Melbourne. Her continuing desire to affirm and reconnect with her cultural heritage makes her a pivotal figure in the reclamation of southeast Australian Aboriginal art practices, reviving elements of Aboriginal culture that were lost over the period of colonisation. The 'Men and Women in Mourning' series explores the traditional ceremonies of grief and mourning practices from Calrke's Country. It originates from her fascination with Kopi, a gypsum cap worn to express an individual’s mourning of a loved one or significant member of the clan. A Kopi can weigh up to 7kg and the length of time they are worn depends on the person’s closeness to the deceased. When the mourning period was over the Kopi would be placed on the person’s grave.stonnington contemporary art collection, first peoples, first nations, indigenous, aboriginal torres strait islander, mourning ceremony, maree clarke, cultural heritage

Maree Clarke is a multi-disciplinary artist from Mildura in northwest Victoria, living and working in Melbourne. Her continuing desire to affirm and reconnect with her cultural heritage makes her a pivotal figure in the reclamation of southeast Australian Aboriginal art practices, reviving elements of Aboriginal culture that were lost over the period of colonisation. The 'Men and Women in Mourning' series explores the traditional ceremonies of grief and mourning practices from Calrke's Country. It originates from her fascination with Kopi, a gypsum cap worn to express an individual’s mourning of a loved one or significant member of the clan. A Kopi can weigh up to 7kg and the length of time they are worn depends on the person’s closeness to the deceased. When the mourning period was over the Kopi would be placed on the person’s grave. stonnington contemporary art collection, first peoples, first nations, indigenous, aboriginal torres strait islander, mourning ceremony, maree clarke, cultural heritage

Daniel Boyd’s practice often investigates complex or contrasting forces, such as the primitive and the modern, this world and the next, and traditional techniques fused with contemporary methods. He completed a Bachelor of Arts at the Australian National University School of Art and in 2012 he was artist-in-residence at the Natural History Museum in London. There he reflected on the Museums collection’s historic images concerning the First Fleet’s arrival in Australia and their tendency to obscure the original identity of any indigenous subjects. It was during this residency he researched and made the Up In Smoke Tour series of work that concerns this omission and the lives of Indigenous Australians following the bleak realities of colonialism. Using archival resin glue and watercolour on photocopied images to recast and reimagine dot-paintings, Boyd masks attempts to identify the image or narrative of his works. He reinterprets Aboriginal and Australian-European history through recasting artworks and icons and altering the familiar interpretation of materials, here using Museum specimen boxes that previously contained the bones of Aboriginal people.stonnington contemporary art collection, first peoples, first nations, indigenous, aboriginal torres strait islander, cultural identity, daniel boyd, painting, assemblage

For more than a quarter of a century, Tony Clark has been working on one of Australian art's most enduring, significant yet elusive projects, Myriorama. Yet he refuses to discuss it in resolved or unambiguous terms. ''I've never known where this was going to lead,'' he says almost guiltily of the theoretically endless project, sections of which are now part of nearly every large public collection in Australia. The series is modular and interchangeable - the point at which the horizon concludes on both sides of each panel is consistent, making every panel interchangeable. It concerns same rambling, meandering, romantic landscape, ostensibly Australian, chiefly painted on compact canvas boards, and, since 2002, rendered in a restricted palette of black, light pink, light blue and raw sienna. Self-imposed constraints and tenets are not only Myriorama's defining cues but its great strength.stonnington contemporary art collection, landscape, painting, tony clark

Rob McHaffie is known for his skilful depictions of fleeting moments from everyday life, which often evoke humour, pathos and camaraderie. His drawings and paintings involve ‘collaging’ of images and ideas, juxtaposing high and low culture, and emotions. Casual Guy came from an exhibition of a body of bright, bold and quirky portraits titled 'I can still remember how to speak'. The works are light-hearted with tropical colours, transporting the viewer to an idyllic, utopian place. Influences from his travels in Malaysia and Thailand are clear in these works. McHaffie’s paintings carry a personal and diaristic element, recording the world around him. Trust, love and spirituality are key recurring themes in his works. In 2025, McHaffie was commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery to paint a portrait of gardening guru Costa Georgiadis titled 'Costa (it's not ours, it's us). stonnington contemporary art collection, painting, rob mchaffie

Christian Thompson’s work reflects on issues of identity, cultural hybridity, kinship, memory and history. In 2010 he became the Inaugural Charlie Perkins Scholar and the first Aboriginal Australian artist to be admitted to Oxford University where he completed a Doctorate of Philosophy (Fine Art) at Trinity College. Thompson uses humour and playful subterfuge to subvert and critique throughout his multidisciplinary practice including sculpture, photography, video, performance and sound. These arresting and carefully orchestrated images are of the artist dressed in stylised clothing and handmade headdresses of Australian flora. While resonating with poetic and timeless beauty, the series Australian Graffiti contrasts Australia’s fascination with native flora with ideologies that correlate Aboriginal people with flora and fauna, not humanity.stonnington contemporary art collection, first peoples, first nations, indigenous, aboriginal torres strait islander, cultural identity, photography, memory, history, kinship, christian thompson

Christian Thompson’s work reflects on issues of identity, cultural hybridity, kinship, memory and history. In 2010 he became the Inaugural Charlie Perkins Scholar and the first Aboriginal Australian artist to be admitted to Oxford University where he completed a Doctorate of Philosophy (Fine Art) at Trinity College. Thompson uses humour and playful subterfuge to subvert and critique throughout his multidisciplinary practice including sculpture, photography, video, performance and sound. These arresting and carefully orchestrated images are of the artist dressed in stylised clothing and handmade headdresses of Australian flora. While resonating with poetic and timeless beauty, the series Australian Graffiti contrasts Australia’s fascination with native flora with ideologies that correlate Aboriginal people with flora and fauna, not humanity. stonnington contemporary art collection, first peoples, first nations, indigenous, aboriginal torres strait islander, cultural identity, photography, memory, history, kinship, christian thompson

James Tylor’s practice examines racial and cultural identity in Australian contemporary society and social history. He explores Australian cultural representation through his multi-racial heritage comprising Aboriginal, English, and Maori Australian ancestry. This interest is informed using these media in that era to document Indigenous Australian and Maori culture. Tylor reminds us of what has been removed from the view of the Australian landscape, and reflects on the limitations of the romantic landscape tradition itself - the tensions between Australian and Indigenous histories.Digital print on Hahnemühle paperstonnington contemporary art collection, landscape, cultural identity, first peoples, post colonialism, first nations, indigenous, aboriginal torres strait islander, mixed media, photography, james tylor

Robert Jacks is widely acknowledged as one of Australia’s most important and accomplished abstract artists. Jacks studied sculpture at Prahran Technical College from 1958–60 and painting at RMIT in 1961–62. In 1968 his work was included in the landmark exhibition, The Field, at the National Gallery of Victoria. Jacks often worked across various mediums simultaneously producing sculpture, painting and works on paper which directly informed one another. Bookending his career, in 2014, the year he died, Jacks’ practice received renewed attention when the National Gallery of Victoria mounted the major retrospective exhibition Robert Jacks: Order and Variation, in which he played a pivotal role. This work is from the Metropolis series that drew on his experience living in Manhattan, as well as the view from his balcony in Lavender Bay, Sydney. From the balcony he could see the Sydney Harbour Bridge, with cars, buses and trains, as well as ships on the harbour and planes in the sky, all coming from different directions, reminding him of the futuristic images in Fritz Lang’s 1927 silent film of the same name. A rhythm charting the ebb and flow of activity throughout each day is discernible within the series and the long triangular forms, like arrow heads, that represent the modern freeway are a constant throughout. stonnington contemporary art collection, abstract, painting, robert jacks

Robert Jacks is widely acknowledged as one of Australia’s most important and accomplished abstract artists. Jacks studied sculpture at Prahran Technical College from 1958–60 and painting at RMIT in 1961–62. In 1968 his work was included in the landmark exhibition, The Field, at the National Gallery of Victoria. Jacks often worked across various mediums simultaneously producing sculpture, painting and works on paper which directly informed one another. Bookending his career, in 2014, the year he died, Jacks’ practice received renewed attention when the National Gallery of Victoria mounted the major retrospective exhibition Robert Jacks: Order and Variation, in which he played a pivotal role. This work is from the Metropolis series that drew on his experience living in Manhattan, as well as the view from his Lavender Bay balcony, in Sydney. From the balcony he could see the Sydney Harbour Bridge, with cars, buses and trains, as well as ships on the harbour and planes in the sky, all coming from different directions, reminding him of the futuristic images in Fritz Lang’s 1927 silent film of the same name. A rhythm charting the ebb and flow of activity throughout each day is discernible within the series and the long triangular forms, like arrow heads, that represent the modern freeway are a constant throughout. stonnington contemporary art collection, painting, robert jacks

For over 20 years Judith Van Heeren has been making images from nature, and exploring the delicate relationship between humans and the natural environment. Van Heeren's work reflects her interest in the natural world and how we respond to it in both its original state and as mediated through museums and zoological collections. In 2010 she completed a residency in Paris and was engaged by the Menagerie du Jardin des Plantes, the world’s oldest civic zoo and the apparent shift in purpose of holding animals in captivity. Many of Van Heeren's compositions are based on museum tableaux and are presented as deliberately artificial arrangements; perhaps in homage to zoos’ living inhabitants. These tableaux are derived from 17th and 18th century natural illustration and the original display context of the artist's subjects, often painted from actual taxidermy specimens in museum and scientific collections.stonnington contemporary art collection, natural environment, zoo, museums, monkeys, judith van heeran, painting

David Noonan is a London-based Australian artist with a growing international reputation. He studied art in Ballarat before moving to Melbourne in 1992 to complete his education at the Victorian College of the Arts. Noonan art is known for its complex layers of historical, theatrical and cultural references. Animals, actors and masked figures are recurring motifs that imbue his art with a magical atmosphere that is suggestive of childhood memories or half-forgotten dreams. Noonan has begun to treat his imagery - found and created - as a sculptural material. Drawing from an interest in historical Japanese ‘boro’ textiles, in which indigo-dyed, cotton fabrics are reused and recycled, Noonan collages the fabric beneath the image, and in so doing, manipulates the image itself. Here, his muse’s face bears a painted mask, a device traditionally used to reveal as much it disguises, a play on the nature of truth. stonnington contemporary art collection, silkscreen, collage, david noonan, theatre, textiles, mask

Michelle Ussher works across paper, painting and ceramic forms. She studied industrial design at the University of Newcastle before relocating to Melbourne to study painting at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and drawing at the Victorian College of the Arts. Ussher places an emphasis on the hand-made and creates gesture through use of colour, subtle and luminous. Her vocabulary comprises the vernacular of figurative, abstracted and symbolist expression, forms she layers in a way that make them feel outside of exact comprehension, a glance or glimpsed detail yet to be rendered whole in the mind. She states ‘I’m attracted to the intangible, to the possibility of multiple ideas existing together that are open in their curiosity, rather than offering a closed definition.’stonnington contemporary art collection, painting, abstract, michelle ussher

Melbourne looking east from the Rialto Tower 2009 is a sprawling, cinematic view of Melbourne’s CBD. In his Light Cities series, Stephenson explores notions of human and technological achievement against environmental sustainability. The glowing city in Melbourne looking east from the Rialto Tower seems the perfect emblem of our industrialized culture: an extraordinary example of a monumental technological sublime, where awe, beauty, and human aspiration are tinged with potential environmental catastrophe ¬– our engine of modernity seemingly running on empty. Melbourne, in particular, with its bay surrounding the city, makes it highly vulnerable to rising sea levels. Stephenson’s work, therefore, gives further urgency to a close scrutiny of the evolving modern city. Stephenson moved to Australia in 1982 to teach photography at the University of Tasmania School of Art, where he completed his PhD in Fine Art in 2001. He lives and works in Hobart.For more than 30 years, David Stephenson has travelled the globe, producing startlingly beautiful landscapes and cityscapes that illuminate or allude to that which cannot normally be seen. A fascination for the vast in space and time has led him to Europe, the Himalayas, and both the Arctic and Antarctic. He is one of Australia’s most well known and celebrated contemporary photographers with a practice that focuses on the sublime in architecture and in nature.stonnington contemporary art collection, photography, urban, city, industrialisation, modernity, cinematic, environmental, david stephenson, melbourne

Melbourne looking east from the Rialto Tower 2009 is a sprawling, cinematic view of Melbourne’s CBD. In his Light Cities series, Stephenson explores notions of human and technological achievement against environmental sustainability. The glowing city in Melbourne looking east from the Rialto Tower seems the perfect emblem of our industrialized culture: an extraordinary example of a monumental technological sublime, where awe, beauty, and human aspiration are tinged with potential environmental catastrophe ¬– our engine of modernity seemingly running on empty. Melbourne, in particular, with its bay surrounding the city, makes it highly vulnerable to rising sea levels. Stephenson’s work, therefore, gives further urgency to a close scrutiny of the evolving modern city. Stephenson moved to Australia in 1982 to teach photography at the University of Tasmania School of Art, where he completed his PhD in Fine Art in 2001. He lives and works in Hobart.For more than 30 years, David Stephenson has travelled the globe, producing startlingly beautiful landscapes and cityscapes that illuminate or allude to that which cannot normally be seen. A fascination for the vast in space and time has led him to Europe, the Himalayas, and both the Arctic and Antarctic. He is one of Australia’s most well known and celebrated contemporary photographers with a practice that focuses on the sublime in architecture and in nature.stonnington contemporary art collection, photography, urban, city, industrialisation, modernity, cinematic, environmental, melbourne, david stephenson

Melbourne looking east from the Rialto Tower 2009 is a sprawling, cinematic view of Melbourne’s CBD. In his Light Cities series, Stephenson explores notions of human and technological achievement against environmental sustainability. The glowing city in Melbourne looking east from the Rialto Tower seems the perfect emblem of our industrialized culture: an extraordinary example of a monumental technological sublime, where awe, beauty, and human aspiration are tinged with potential environmental catastrophe ¬– our engine of modernity seemingly running on empty. Melbourne, in particular, with its bay surrounding the city, makes it highly vulnerable to rising sea levels. Stephenson’s work, therefore, gives further urgency to a close scrutiny of the evolving modern city. Stephenson moved to Australia in 1982 to teach photography at the University of Tasmania School of Art, where he completed his PhD in Fine Art in 2001. He lives and works in Hobart.For more than 30 years, David Stephenson has travelled the globe, producing startlingly beautiful landscapes and cityscapes that illuminate or allude to that which cannot normally be seen. A fascination for the vast in space and time has led him to Europe, the Himalayas, and both the Arctic and Antarctic. He is one of Australia’s most well known and celebrated contemporary photographers with a practice that focuses on the sublime in architecture and in nature.stonnington contemporary art collection, urban, city, industrialisation, modernity, cinematic, environmental, melbourne, david stephenson

Alex Pittendrigh completed a degree in painting at the Victorian College of the Arts in 1994, was awarded an Australia Council residency at The British School in Rome and was a resident artist at Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces. In his series of three artworks, 'Worlds through worlds III', 'Worlds through worlds IV' and 'Phenomenon', the scenes appear as if extricated through a kind of portal or void. They are landscapes as imagined or perhaps remembered, ‘pictured’ in the mind’s eye. Seen as an exercise in rococo excess and ornamentation, these artworks suggest a tension between the ornamental and pictorial. The decorative filigree within the painted surface set these scenes further away from the real world. They are ideal, and idealised, places that remain at a distance.In this dark landscape-like image, pale pink and yellow feather forms float around a shadowy central volcano-like shape. The image is reminiscent of a 18th century textile design. Acrylic and ink on linen.stonnington contemporary art collection, painting, alex pittendrigh, memory, landscape

James Tylor’s practice examines racial and cultural identity in Australian contemporary society and social history. He explores Australian cultural representation through his multi-racial heritage comprising Aboriginal, English, and Maori Australian ancestry. This interest is informed using these media in that era to document Indigenous Australian and Maori culture. Tylor reminds us of what has been removed from the view of the Australian landscape, and reflects on the limitations of the romantic landscape tradition itself - the tensions between Australian and Indigenous histories.Digital print on Hahnemühle paperstonnington contemporary art collection, landscape, cultural identity, first peoples, post colonialism, first nations, indigenous, aboriginal torres strait islander, james tylor, mixed media, photography

James Tylor’s practice examines racial and cultural identity in Australian contemporary society and social history. He explores Australian cultural representation through his multi-racial heritage comprising Aboriginal, English, and Maori Australian ancestry. This interest is informed using these media in that era to document Indigenous Australian and Maori culture. Tylor reminds us of what has been removed from the view of the Australian landscape, and reflects on the limitations of the romantic landscape tradition itself - the tensions between Australian and Indigenous histories. Digital print on Hahnemühle paperstonnington contemporary art collection, landscape, cultural identity, first peoples, post colonialism, first nations, indigenous, aboriginal torres strait islander, mixed media, photography, james tylor

James Tylor’s practice examines racial and cultural identity in Australian contemporary society and social history. He explores Australian cultural representation through his multi-racial heritage comprising Aboriginal, English, and Maori Australian ancestry. This interest is informed using these media in that era to document Indigenous Australian and Maori culture. Tylor reminds us of what has been removed from the view of the Australian landscape, and reflects on the limitations of the romantic landscape tradition itself - the tensions between Australian and Indigenous histories.Digital print on Hahnemühle paperstonnington contemporary art collection, landscape, cultural identity, first peoples, post colonialism, first nations, indigenous, aboriginal torres strait islander, mixed media, photography, james tylor

James Tylor’s practice examines racial and cultural identity in Australian contemporary society and social history. He explores Australian cultural representation through his multi-racial heritage comprising Aboriginal, English, and Maori Australian ancestry. This interest is informed using these media in that era to document Indigenous Australian and Maori culture. Tylor reminds us of what has been removed from the view of the Australian landscape, and reflects on the limitations of the romantic landscape tradition itself - the tensions between Australian and Indigenous histories.Digital print on Hahnemühle paperstonnington contemporary art collection, landscape, cultural identity, first peoples, post colonialism, first nations, indigenous, aboriginal torres strait islander, james tylor, mixed media, photography

James Tylor’s practice examines racial and cultural identity in Australian contemporary society and social history. He explores Australian cultural representation through his multi-racial heritage comprising Aboriginal, English, and Maori Australian ancestry. This interest is informed using these media in that era to document Indigenous Australian and Maori culture. Tylor reminds us of what has been removed from the view of the Australian landscape, and reflects on the limitations of the romantic landscape tradition itself - the tensions between Australian and Indigenous histories. Digital print on Hahnemühle paperstonnington contemporary art collection, landscape, cultural identity, first peoples, post colonialism, first nations, indigenous, aboriginal torres strait islander, mixed media, photography, james tylor