Art Wank

• Episode 238 - Art and the Unscripted World of Zoe Young

  Send us a textZoe Young is an Australian painter whose work spans still life, portraiture and abstraction. She studied at the National Art School in Sydney and earned her BFA in 2012. Zoe currently has a show on at Sophie Gannon Gallery in Melbourne until 13th Dec 2025.In our conversation with Zoe, she spoke openly about the unusual path she took into the art world and how that path shaped the way she works today. She described leaving the National Art School twice, once as a young student who felt unready for the demands of formal training and again when life pulled her toward the buzz of the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Young grew up between Sydney, rural New South Wales and alpine-region settings, spending part of her childhood in a ski lodge on the edge of the Kosciuszko National Park. In her paintings Young often applies sculptural thinking (she studied sculpture at NAS), she sees canvas as form, composing her subjects with an awareness of planes, space, and structural balance. Her still lifes might show commonplace items, her portraits draw out character and story, and her abstractions explore shape, light, and composition.Her work has earned recognition: she won the Portia Geach Memorial Award in 2018 for a portrait titled Drawing Storyboards (of film director Bruce Beresford), chosen from hundreds of entries across the nation. More broadly she has exhibited in solo and group shows throughout Australia and had a solo exhibition titled “STILL.LIFE.” in Los Angeles. Zoe is represented by Sophie Gannon Gallery in Melbourne and Phillip Bacon in Brisbane. 

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• Episode 237 - Harrie Fasher - Bending metal and breaking rules

  Send us a textWe interviewed Harrie Fasher, sculptor and artist, at her large studio in Portland NSW in November 2025. She is a permanent artist in residence at The Foundations in Portland and has built a bronze foundry and sculpture studio over many years. She has a deep interest in animals, especially horses, and her work shows a strong understanding of their bodies and movement.Harrie spoke about her daily practice and the way she shapes each piece through drawing and metal work. Her studio holds many works in progress and shows the many stages of her process, from first sketches to full metal forms.Her role at The Foundations supports the growth of the arts site and also gives her space to pursue long term projects. The foundry allows her to cast works on site and gives her full control of each stage. She works with a small team and often teaches others about casting and metal work.Harrie described her bond with horses as central to her thinking. Her works show the frame and gesture of the animal and invite viewers to see how bodies move through space.Thanks Harrie, it was wonderful meeting you and seeing your work in the studio.Harrie is represented by King Street Gallery in Sydney and Australian Galleries in Melbourne.29 November 2025 – 22 February 2026 Orange Regional Gallery'Harrie Fasher: Before Dawn is a major solo exhibition featuring monumental bronze and concrete sculptures. This exhibition represents a pivotal moment in Fasher’s career, consolidating a decade of artistic and technical research at an ambitious scale. ‘Before Dawn’ explores resilience and transformation through material contrasts – weight against fragility, rawness against refinement.Harrie Fasher is assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.'

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• Episode 236 - Decoding ‘Australian Abstraction’ with Rhonda Davis and Kon Gouriotis — Macquarie University Gallery

  Send us a textThis week Art Wank met Rhonda Davis, Curator of Macquarie University Gallery, and Kon Gouriotis, curator and editor of Artist Profile magazine. They recently curated an exhibition at Macquarie Gallery titled Australian Abstraction. We spoke with them about their thinking behind the exhibition, how they chose the artists involved, and the Macqaurie university Art Collection. 'The Australian Abstraction exhibition series continues its exploration of the evolving nature of abstraction within the Australian context. This second stage retraces the diversity, episodic developments, and layered narratives that have shaped abstraction as an enduring force in Australian art.What began as an international movement has been reconfigured and transformed by artists working within the unique socio-political, cultural, and environmental conditions of this country.Sophie Cape, Julia Davis & Lisa Jones in collaboration, Helen Eager, Louise Forthun, Dale Frank, Michael Goss, Gary Gregg, Sean Hogan, Michael Johnson, Kirtika Kain, Donald Laycock, Ian Milliss, Kyle Murrell, NOT, Louise Olsen, Ana Pollak, Jeannette Siebols, Aida Tomescu, Savanhdary Vongpoothorn and Chris WiseCurated by Rhonda Davis and Kon Gouriotis'About the collection at Macquarie University - 'Our collection adorns the entire campus with artwork on display in the library, the faculties, the hospital, the clinics, and the administration buildings, where staff, students and visitors collectively encounter art as part of the everyday life of Macquarie’s expansive campus.The paintings and sculptures add robust vitality, freshness and bursts of colour to the physical environment of the campus − its visual presence is certainly much felt, discussed and enjoyed.'

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• Episode 235 - Aida Tomescu - Patience over time

  Send us a textIn this episode, we chat with the extraordinary Aida Tomescu, one of Australia’s most respected abstract painters. Born in Romania and based in Sydney, Aida has spent her career exploring the emotional and structural possibilities of paint, building a language that’s as physical as it is poetic.We talk about her process: the scraping, layering, and reworking that give her paintings their dense, luminous surfaces. She describes painting as a living conversation, one that demands patience, trust, and deep attention.A major theme in our discussion is the importance of form and the relationships between all the elements within a painting. For Aida, nothing sits in isolation; every shape, colour, and mark holds a relationship to the next. It’s this internal rhythm, this careful balancing of tensions, that gives her work its remarkable sense of harmony and presence. We also spoke with Aida about her teaching career, she taught at National Art School for twenty years, and several of our previous guests have told us what an amazing teacher she was. This conversation is a deep dive into the craft and philosophy of painting — into what it means to spend a lifetime painting. Thanks so much Aida, we loved talking to you. Aida's show opens at Fox Jensen Gallery on 15th November 2025. Aida is represented by Fox Jensen Gallery in Australia , Fox Jensen McCrory in NZ, and Flowers Gallery London and Hong Kong.  

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• Episode 234 - Meditation and beauty with Aaron Aryadharma Matheson

  Send us a textAaron Aryadharma Matheson is an artist living and working at Lennox St Studios, Sydney. He’s been a finalist in the Mosman, Waverley and Waterhouse prizes, and picked up the Richard Ford Travel Award along the way. He studied drawing at the Prince’s Drawing School in London, and later completed a Master of Fine Art at the National Art School in Sydney.This podcast is about art, Buddhism, and living with a chronic illness,multiple sclerosis, and how all those things come together in everyday life. Aaron talks about painting as a way of making sense of things, of finding stillness and meaning through colour, mark and form.  We had such a great chat with Aaron — thanks so much to him for taking the time. Aaron is represented by Liverpool St Gallery. 

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