Art Wank

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James Erskine is the Founder and Director of Liverpool St Gallery in Sydney, bringing to the role a distinguished career that spans sports management and global entertainment.
Before establishing the gallery, Erskine founded SEL Sports & Entertainment, building one of the most respected management companies in the international sporting and media landscape. Through SEL, he managed and advised an extraordinary roster of talent, including legendary Australian cricketer Shane Warne, celebrated British broadcaster Michael Parkinson, and world heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali, among many others.
As Director of Liverpool St Gallery, Erskine channels this unique background into a dynamic exhibition program that reflects excellence, character and cultural relevance. His leadership is shaped by first-hand experience at the highest levels of international sport and media — a perspective that distinguishes the gallery within Sydney’s contemporary art landscape.
Through Liverpool St Gallery, James Erskine continues to merge worlds, art, sport and storytelling, creating a space defined by authenticity, legacy and vision.
Recorded in Sydney end of 2025

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In this episode, we explore the life and work of Tim Johnson, one of Australia’s most distinctive contemporary artists. Known for blending Western art history, Indigenous knowledge systems, and spiritual iconography, Johnson’s practice spans decades of experimentation, collaboration, and cultural exchange.
We discuss Johnson’s role in co-founding Inhibodress in the early 1970s, widely recognised as Australia’s first artist-run initiative. Established in Sydney, Inhibodress became a catalyst for experimental contemporary art, giving artists control over how and where their work was shown. It marked a turning point in Australia’s independent art scene and set the stage for Johnson’s boundary-pushing career.
Johnson’s spiritual curiosity led him to engage deeply with Tibetan Buddhism, including meeting Dalai Lama. This encounter reinforced themes already present in his work, compassion, interconnectedness, cosmology, and sacred symbolism—which continue to appear in his layered, richly referential paintings.
Johnson’s international reach saw him exhibit alongside renowned German painter Gerhard Richter, positioning his work within a global contemporary art dialogue. These exhibitions highlighted the intellectual and aesthetic strength of Johnson’s cross-cultural visual language.
A pivotal moment in Johnson’s life was his close friendship and collaboration with Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, a leading figure of the Western Desert art movement. Johnson was given a skin name, a profound cultural gesture reflecting kinship and responsibility, signifying trust, respect, and long-term collaboration between the two artists. This relationship deeply informed Johnson’s engagement with Indigenous knowledge systems and Country.
Thanks Tim. We hope you enjoy this episode.

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With a practice that integrates sculpture, moving image, performance and painting, Sydney based artist Todd Fuller is, at his core, a draughtsman. Underpinning all aspects of his practice is a love of drawing and a belief in its power as a democratic medium to connect, engage and delight audiences. 
For ten years, Fuller has been crafting hand-drawn animations that grapple with love and loss, as well as ideas of place, identity and community. Often narrative in form, these award winning works are derived from Fuller’s experiences with different communities, sites and histories. He has been awarded a number of residencies that have informed and developed his practice, including time spent at Bundanon Trust, Hill End, Grafton Regional Art Gallery, as well as international stints at the Cite Internationale des Arts in Paris, the British School of Rome, and recently the NG Creative Residency in Provence.
A graduate of Sydney’s National Art School, Fuller has exhibited widely across Australia over the last ten years. He was a finalist in the 2019 Sir John Sulman Prize, won the prestigious Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award in 2018, and his work is present in various public and private Australian collections, including the Parliament House Art Collection, Artbank, Sydney Harbour Trust, and numerous regional art galleries. Alongside his national success, Fuller has gained international attention, with his works in exhibitions in the United States, Italy, France, South Korea, Bangladesh, England, Singapore and Malta.
Fuller’s practice extends into curatorship and arts production, having held roles with Waverley Council, Biennale of Sydney, Sculpture in the Vineyards and d/Lux Media Arts. The areas under investigation within his curatorial practice overlap with his artistic output. Just Draw, the 2016 exhibition Fuller curated with Lisa Woolfe, which toured regional galleries, showcased artworks that exemplified the varied nature of contemporary drawing practices, a subject close to Fuller’s heart. He is one half of interdisciplinary performance collective Flatline, and one third of the Hardenvale - our home in Absurdia touring initiative.
Find out more from his website 
https://www.toddfuller.com.au

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Sanne Mestrom’s sculptural practice explores the politics of the body and the shifting nature of value in the art world. Drawing on the female form, her work questions how art history and culture assign meaning and worth—values that are never fixed, but constantly evolving.
By taking these ideas out of the gallery and into public space, Mestrom uses play and participation to challenge how we experience art and urban environments. Her large-scale, playable sculptures invite hands-on engagement, blurring the line between art and everyday life while activating public spaces intellectually, physically, and imaginatively across generations.
Thanks Sanne, it was a pleasure to talk to you. 
Sanné Mestrom
Represented by Sullivan + Strumpf, Sydney
Lectures at Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney
Australian Research Council Fellow ART/PLAY/RISK

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Join Australian abstract artist Gene A’Hern, winner of the 2025 Sir John Sulman Prize, for a laid-back conversation about colour, atmosphere and the feeling of landscape. Gene talks openly about his process, working on instinct, and what it’s like to be recognised on one of Australia’s biggest art stages. It’s an easy, thoughtful chat about memory, place and how those ideas turn into bold, expressive abstract paintings. 
We recorded the epiosde at the end of 2025 in his studio in Emu Plains. 
Thanks Gene, we loved talking to you and seeing your work in the studio! 
Gene is represented by Cassandra Bird in Sydney
and Simchowitz Gallery, LA, USA