Located in a northern coastal suburb of Perth, Play House by State of Kin emphasises the use of colour as a key element in the design. Meanwhile, the clients wanted to pay homage to its environment – a neighbourhood growing in popularity for young families, with its proximity to the beach and relaxed atmosphere.

Art can make a home, especially original pieces with stories to tell. But even for the most avid art-lover, starting or adding to a collection can come with accessibility and affordability woes. Until now. A new type of contemporary art market has emerged over the past couple of years – one that grants easy access to the artworks, whether by reducing costs or breaking down the barriers between artist and buyer. Here are some galleries enabling ownership and supporting artists at a grassroots level.

Taking place between September 7th and 10th, the art fair Sydney Contemporary marks a key moment in the Australian art world calendar.

“The seen and the unseen.” The “after hours” as a metaphor is explored in nightshifts at Buxton Contemporary, Melbourne, with the exhibition focusing on the wholistic concept of retreat – an invitation to temporary seclusion, rest, and quietness from others.

Appearing to be plucked from nature, Samantha Dennis’s practice occupies both science and art. Crafted from metal and ceramics, spiders crawl over the wearer, or beetles shimmer pinned to clothing.

Bold and untethered by contemporary discourse, Shiplap House by Chenchow Little juts from Sydney’s eastern suburbs landscape, a sharp contrast to the nondescript houses that dominate this headland ridge. Chenchow Little has looked to the architectural vernaculars that used to cover this exposed coastline, the ocean nearby offering its powerful swell and seabreezes.

“Strange Quiet is a meditation on time, an intimate interaction with the ecosystem of the reef, its mystery, its beauty, and its quiet fragility.”

Perched upon the suburban landscape, undulating across a steep site, Blok Stafford Heights by Blok Modular and Vokes and Peters is a lightweight modular building grounded through masonry elements and a purist Miesian floor plan. The prefabricated design employs a simple, modernist language, in a home centred on living.

“. . . it’s the vulnerable parts of myself and others that I want to engage with.” Art Almanac sat down with recent La Prairie Art Award winner Thea Anamara Perkins who uses personal narratives in her highly detailed paintings that challenge misconceptions. The Sydney-based artist has just moved from her studio at Carriageworks Clothing Store into a home/portable studio in anticipation of a year of travelling, seeing art, and developing her technical skills.

The Australian Interior Design Awards’ Sustainability Advancement Award divulges how we can push past the simple fabric of a building for a sustainable future and, instead, transform history for a new generation while reinventing communal living and social housing.

ua usiusi faʻavaʻasavili is a Gagana Sāmoan proverb translating to “the canoe obeys the wind,” and is the curatorial theme of the current TarraWarra Biennial as it moves across the waters to reframe the relationships between Australia and archipelagos in south/southeast Asia and south/southwest Great Ocean.

Abstract artist Kathryn Dolby crafts colourful scenes inspired by nature, the beautiful landscape of the Northern Rivers, NSW on Bundjalung Country feeding into her practice, where she lives with her partner Steve, and daughters Freda, five, and Leni-Jean, one.

Working from his studio in rural Western Australia, Perth-born artist Abdul-Rahman Abdullah explores life through his ‘magic realism’ style. Animals, mythology, and family history translate into artworks set in otherworldly installations that immerse the viewer. Abdullah offers a refreshing and honest take on his life as an artist, plus raising his three children in the bush.

After the horrific bushfire season of 2019-20, conceptual artist Tony Albert invited audiences to rejuvenate the landscape differently. One that considered the effects of colonisation in both the environment and for those who had lived here for thousands of years. Titled ‘Healing Land, Remembering Country’, it was commissioned for the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, inside a greenhouse on Cockatoo Island (a former prison). Albert asked audiences to write an alternative narrative for children and young people who are incarcerated in Australia onto paper filled with Kangaroo grass seeds, before being planted back into the earth as a healing, holistic rejuvenation project.

With their fluttering and textile-like quality, Jess Sellinger’s ceramics are full of enveloping folds. Evocative of life, they are transient, fragile at heart, imperfect yet deliciously smooth.

“. . . what it means to breathe . . .” Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art’s (QAGOMA) summer blockbuster exhibition, Air, brings together an expansive collection of works by over thirty international and Australian artists, each who resist, disturb, and challenge notions of ecological harmony.

Located in the bayside Melbourne suburb of Elwood, The White House is a modernist makeover of a Californian bungalow.

Working predominantly with oil on canvas, but often exploring the expanse of different mediums such as alkyds, wax medium, marble dust and acrylics, Canberra-based artist Joel Arthur creates bodies of work in dialogue with one another – setting anchor points within each painting that oscillate between abstraction and landscapes.

Summery pieces for the home

For Sydney-based Other Architects directors David Neustein and Grace Mortlock, every project offers the chance for deeper thinking, exploring angles away from the default. They apply this everywhere, from residential homes and apartment blocks to cemeteries, gardens and art installations.