Born in Melbourne in 1913, Noel Counihan was a social realist painter, printmaker and cartoonist, and a passionate social campaigner. The namesake of Merri-bek City Council’s Counihan Gallery, his experiences of unemployment and poverty during the 1930s, and his lifelong involvement in protest movements, inspired his powerful and prolific images of the working class. Donated by the De Fazio family

Turbo is a portrait of beloved local artist Trevor ‘Turbo’ Brown by Brunswick-based artist Amaya Iturri. Brown was a Latje Latje artist known for his bright paintings of dogs, birds and other Australian animals. Iturri worked with Brown in 2013 for the One of a Kind mural commission, supported by Merri-bek City Council, which can still be seen at Sparta Place, Brunswick. The two artists complement each other’s work, as they both use bright, figurative methods of painting to explore their subject matter. Iturri uses vivid blocks of colour to bring together a candid image of Brown drinking a coffee, which he often carried when out and about in Brunswick. The flecks of colour in the portrait blurs what is light and shade, and what is paint on Brown’s hands and face. True to Iturri’s painting practice, this portrait depicts Trevor ‘Turbo’ Brown as a local icon inseparable from his artworks – the perfect meeting place between life and art.

Marshall White is a former Merri-bek resident and artist. He completed a Fine Art diploma at the National Gallery Art School in 1973. After a severe motorcycle accident left him with quadriplegia in 1977, he returned to university, earning a Master in Painting from what is now the Victorian College of the Arts. White is considered a pioneer of digital art in Victoria. He taught art to inmates at Pentridge Prison, which provided him with access to early computers. Using a Commodore Amiga, Marshall pushed the boundaries of digital art. Strip 1 represents an early contribution to what was, at the time, an emergent art form. Inspired by William Blake and Arthur Boyd, White’s work delves into psychological spaces, addressing themes such as the apocalypse and White’s distain of religion. White's work exemplifies resilience and the transformative power of creativity in the face of challenges.Purchased

Local artist Graeme Drendel often depicts isolated individuals against stark Australian landscapes. Even when portrayed in group settings, Drendel’s figures exude solitude and introspection. Their expressions and attire hint at larger, obscured narratives, which the viewer is left to unravel or imagine. His paintings seamlessly blend the ordinary with the surreal, which creates a sense of uneasiness or forboding. Viewers grapple with the challenge of deciphering these compositions.

Uncle Brian McKinnon (b. 1957 – d. 2023) was a Geelong-based artist and descendent of the Amangu and Wongai people of Western Australia. He created powerful mixed media works that explore his campaign for Aboriginal rights and his childhood experiences growing up in Western Australia. Scars is a deeply personal and political work that reflects on some of the ways in which Aboriginal people have historically been discriminated against and marginalised because of the colour of their skin and cultural practices. Originally exhibited with two other paintings, it was also made in honour of the artist’s children and their struggle to maintain positive self-esteem. Uncle Brian McKinnon said his children inherited keloids from their ancestors: ‘These keloids look like body scars. In this work, I have placed them in the past and the presence of their ancestors through the act of beautifying the marks, which reflect the landscape and the identity of the person wearing the beautification marks. Although the marks on my children are not so beautiful and they are ostracised because of them, this made me think of racist policies and of course the referendum and when my people were seen for the first time as being human.’

Primarily a painter, Mandy Nicholson also produces ceramics, carvings, murals, prints, designs and children’s clothing. Born in 1975, Nicholson was raised in Healesville and belongs to the Wurundjeri-willam (Woiwurrung language) clan of the Kulin Nation. Mandy’s paintings often represent important cultural rituals and are executed in her distinct graphic style using the traditional motifs of her people blended with contemporary interpretation. Cultural Map of Melbourne shows significant sites across Melbourne. These include scar trees, corroboree trees, stone quarries, bush tucker sites, significant rivers, fresh water wells and traditional campsites.

Primarily a painter, Mandy Nicholson also produces ceramics, carvings, murals, prints, designs and children’s clothing. Born in 1975, Nicholson was raised in Healesville and belongs to the Wurundjeri-willam (Woiwurrung language) clan of the Kulin Nation. Mandy’s paintings often represent important cultural rituals and are executed in her distinct graphic style. She uses the traditional motifs of her people blended with contemporary interpretation.

Donated by Elizabeth Batt

Donated by Elizabeth Batt

Emily Floyd is a Melbourne-based artist who works across sculpture, printmaking and public installation. In It’s Time (Again), Floyd graphically presents Gough Whitlam’s election speech, delivered before he became Prime Minster in 1972. Floyd’s training as a graphic designer is evident in the way in which the text’s presentation ties form to meaning. For example, the circular arrangement of the words resembles a vinyl record to be played again and again, implying the speech is worth revisiting. The circular arrangement also references other forms of timekeeping, such as the growth rings of a tree; the face of a clock; the cyclical nature of time, with its diurnal, lunar, seasonal and annual cycles. Floyd's work implies that social and political issues are cyclical in nature. It emphasises the necessity, once again, for proactive measures to ensure a quality, human-centered existence for everyone.

British born artist John Wolseley relocated to Australia in 1976, where he travelled extensively through the outback mainly recording the natural history of remote north Australia in large, minutely detailed paintings. Since 2009, he has travelled to Darwin annually to continue his exploration of the Top End, visiting Arnhem Land and Daly River to work with Indigenous artists to research and capture the detail and essence of particular landscapes. His works reflect how landscape can be thought of as fields of energy in which plant forms move or dance with rhythmic life. After The Fire - Leaf Surge represents the vibrant regrowth of new foliage emerging from a landscape recently ravaged by fire.

Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program by Diana de Kessler in memory of Thomas de Kessler

Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program by Diana de Kessler in memory of Thomas de Kessler

Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program by Diana de Kessler in memory of Thomas de Kessler

Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program by Diana de Kessler in memory of Thomas de Kessler