Database

Grace Crowley (1890-1979) was a key Sydney Modernist painter in the inter-war period who studied in Paris under the cubist artists André Lhôte and Albert Gleizes. Her paintings have been categorised as modified academic cubism based on planar geometry and dynamic symmetry. Together with her collaborator and close friend Ralph Balson, she is often credited with introducing abstract painting to Australia. In 1907 Crowley moved to Sydney to study painting part-time at the Julian Ashton Art School, where from 1915 she studied and taught alongside Anne Dangar. In their many letters, Dangar referred to Crowley affectionately as her "dear Smudge", and the pair were believed to have been in a relationship between 1915 and 1929. They spend several years together in France from 1926 and 1929, where they both studied painting. Peter DiScascio notes that "Dangar’s niece, Norah Singleton, recalled their parodies of conventional gender roles both in private conversation and public appearances.” In 1930 Crowley returned to Sydney and held her first solo exhibition at Dorrit Black’s Modern Art Centre in 1932. Crowley exhibited her first fully abstract painting in 1942, later becoming an internationally recognised abstract painter with her work being included in *Dictionary of Abstract Painting* by the Belgian art historian Michel Seuphor in 1957. In 1971 Crowley was forced to vacate her George Street studio in Sydney, consequently, only a small body of her work exists, many of which are held in public collections. Crowley’s paintings have been recognised in retrospectives at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney in 1975 and in 2006 at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Crowley died on 21 April 1979 in Sydney.

Hannah Brontë (b.1991) is an artist living and working on Yugambeh country, whose body of work explores the feminine experience, and its intersections with queerness, spirituality and motherhood journeys. She makes video, textiles, texts and soundscapes that present speculative dreamscapes and alternate universes through her own distinctive kaleidoscopic lens. Brontë has collaborated with spiritual and physical healers and is interested in appplying these practices within art-making to expand connection and community.

Hiram To (杜子卿) (1964-2017) was an artist who worked in conceptual-based installations. He was also a writer in the visual arts, popular culture, film and fashion. Born in Hong Kong to Chinese parents, Hiram To lived in Scotland and Australia. He has widely exhibited in Australian public galleries and internationally, with works acquired by institutions such as the National Gallery of Australia, Powerhouse Museum and the Queensland Art Gallery. Hiram was invited by London’s Camden Arts Centre to exhibit a one-person exhibition in 1994. The invitation was the first Chinese artist solo show at a British contemporary art museum. The Winnipeg Art Gallery, the State Gallery of Manitoba in Canada also presented a selected projects survey of the artist in 2002. He was one of three artists representing Hong Kong at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007. As a curator, he has collaborated with Institute of Modern Art Brisbane, Artspace Sydney, Ipswich Regional Art Gallery and Next Wave Festival in Australia, and Hong Kong’s Goethe-Institut. Since 1995, he resided in Hong Kong and worked in communications and journalism. His writings have appeared in South China Morning Post, Harpers Bazaar Hong Kong, C for Culture, City Magazine, The Standard and many other English and Chinese language publications. Hiram To’s work tackles the nature of changing identity and its relationships with the mass media and personal / public interface. Taking reference from a wide variety of sources such as literature, film, art and popular culture, he creates multi-layered installations that embrace and challenge the way that identity is constructed or fragmented. http://www.randian-online.com/np_news/hiram-to1964-2017-dont-let-me-be-misunderstood/

Holly Bates is a Naarm/Melbourne-based emerging filmmaker and visual artist. Bates recently completed a Masters of Film and Television at the Victorian College of the Arts, graduating with first class. Her graduate film and directorial debut House of Whoreship premiered online on MIFF Play in 2022, with international premieres to be announced in 2023. Bates previously completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) degree at QUT in 2015, graduating with first class and two academic prizes. Holly has exhibited her solo work nationally at spaces such as BLINDSIDE Art Space, Boxcopy contemporary art space and Metro Arts Brisbane. Furthermore she has showcased in her collaborative practice Parallel Park at spaces such as Airspace Projects, UNSW Galleries, BUS projects, La Trobe Art Institute, Carriageworks and the 2021 Rising Festival. Bates has appeared in publications such as UN Magazine, Eyeline Magazine and recently was interviewed by VICE. Holly Bates’s creative practice aims to dismantle and challenge the toxic film tropes historically used to depict sex workers on screen. Utilising filmic methods that abandon the male gaze, Bates seeks to empower workers; honing in on the complexities and subtleties of interpersonal relationships and the day-to-day of the sex industry. Artist as well as filmmaker, Bates is driven to create conceptually rich worlds and stories, layered for both sex worker and mainstream audiences. Using humor and intersectional approaches to film-making, the practice explores personal narratives that are informed by Bates’ position as a queer feminist.

Jack Ball (b. 1986) is a Boorloo (Perth) born artist who completed a PhD at Curtin University in 2021 and is currently living on Gadigal and Wangal Country (Sydney). Ball’s artistic practice critically engages with the politics and aesthetics of mess and collage as a framework for exploring trans and queer photographic representation. Ball’s recent solo exhibitions include Tight Crop at Sydenham International (2023) and Wind Chill at the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth (2021), as well group exhibitions the pleasurable, the illegible, the multiple, the mundane at Artspace, Sydney (2021) and Love in Bright Landscapes at PICA (2021). They have participated in studio residencies at PICA, SIM in Iceland and the Sillanpää Art Residency in Finland. Jack Ball is represented by sweet pea gallery, Boorloo, Perth.

Jacqui Stockdale (b. 1968) lives and works in Naarm, Melbourne, Australia. Having grown up in the rural town of Benalla, Victoria, Stockdale has established herself as an artist of international significance. Her multilayered art practice explores her fascination with the representation of the body, ritual, Australian history and constructed identity. Her work was celebrated through the 2016 exhibition Familija, surveying 15 years of her drawing, painting, collage and photography. Her survey show 'The Offering' was presented by the Tweed Regional Gallery in 2023. Jacqui has exhibited extensively throughout Australia and internationally and has been included in exhibitions such as Beating About the Bush, Art Gallery of Ballarat; 20/20, the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra; Magic Object, Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, AGSA; Theatre of the World, MONA; Alles Masquerade, Museum Rot, Germany; Todays/Tomorrow, Cape Town, South Africa, Living Rooms, curated by Robert Wilson, Louvre Museum, Paris; Outlands, Volta, Switzerland; and Wonderworks, Hong Kong.