Emily Valentine Bullock: upcoming artist-in-residence

Emily Valentine Bullock is a Sydney based artist, she studied jewelry and object design at Sydney College of the Arts. She has exhibited extensively around Australia and New Zealand as well as in touring group exhibitions overseas. Her work has been collected by the National Library of Australia; Northern Territory Art Gallery; World-of-wearable-art Museum, Nelson NZ; Sarjeant Gallery, Whanganui NZ;  and various private collections. 

Emily Valentine Bullock, Kitty Keet, 2011,
feathers and mixed media

Feathers are my paint. Over the last twelve years I have developed my own technique and style using feathers. The source of the feathers is vital to my work and utilises what is available locally. My work shows sympathy with the bird’s previous life and creates a new life form. My ‘Dog Flu’ series continues to develop and I am also making feathered aeroplanes exploring how humans now colonise the skies. 

Emily Valentine Bullock, Pupella i & ii, 2010,
feathers and mixed media

Attitudes to wearing and owning animals and birds parts have changed. Is this just because of fashion, or has society become more caring of animals? I wish to stimulate the viewer with the uncomfortable nature of the feather, to question our callous treatment of animals and birds, and ask how we sub-consciously classify animals – pet or pest, valued or worthless, beautiful or plain - and why.

For more information and images of Emily Valentine Bullock's artwork please visit www.emilyvalentine.com.au

Emily Valentine Bullock, Kingfisher Squadron, 2010,
feathers and mixed media, 13x13x5cm each

Emma Medwell and Vanessa White: upcoming artists-in-residence

Vanessa White, On the other side of Murray's, 2011, animation still

Emma Medwell and Vanessa White have been friends for many years and began exhibiting together six years ago. They enjoy working as mutual sounding boards for each other's practices, sharing knowledge, skills and ideas. During their residency at Gunyah, Medwell and White will be developing individual new projects for their upcoming exhibitions in Wollongong.

Emma Medwell, Nippers Sea Thrones, 2011, Thirroul

Medwell was born in the UK and is now based in the South Coast of NSW. She has studied at UNSW and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Art from National Art School NSW. Medwell has had numerous exhibitions in the Illawarra and Sydney, including collaborative projects with Pamela Lee Brenner for Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi and Cottesloe, and Sculpture in the Vineyards Hunter Valley. She is currently working with found natural products including wood, feathers and slate to engage with the interconnection of nature and humanity, exploring the condition of being human, human-nature and how we connection with our natural environment. Medwell implements humor to communicate these ideas by situating human manufactured elements and smothering them in natural products, placing them into the natural environment.

Emma Medwell, Nippers Sea Thrones, 2011,  Thirroul

Vanessa White’s art practice is multidisciplinary, investigative and experimental. She completed under-graduate studies at Victoria College of the Arts, Melbourne and graduated with a Masters in Visual Art from Sydney University in 2010. White has exhibited in Sydney and Melbourne, most recently at Firstdraft Depot Project Space, Woolloomooloo NSW and Firstdraft Gallery, Surry Hills NSW.  White was a 2010 artist-in-residence at Hill End. Through drawing, painting, animation and performance White creates life size animations, exploring physical interactions with a two-dimensional world drawn from life and her physical play and reciprocal action with it. The result is a new visual language that connects with the viewers’ own expression and experience of the body, giving voice to and acknowledging the importance of bodily experience.

For more information and images of Vanessa White's artwork please visit www.vanessawhite.me

Vanessa White, An action the precise nature of which is often unspecified, 2011
Video one of two channel video installation

Britta Stenmanns: upcoming artist-in-residence

Britta Stenmanns was born in Germany and now lives in the Southern Highlands, New South Wales. She studied graphic-design in Duesseldorf, woodcarving in Bavaria and painting at the School of Fine Arts in Bremen. Stenmanns’ artistic practice has taken her to London, Madrid, Deya Spain and Mexico City where she completed postgraduate studies at the Academia San Carlos. Stenmanns has held eight solo exhibitions and participated in numerous group exhibitions in Germany, Spain, Mexico, France, Poland, Belgium and Australia. Her work is represented in various private and public collections in Spain (George Sheridan Collection and La Resedencia), Poland (City of Glogow), Germany (City of Bremen), Australia (ANU) and USA.

Derived from sketches painted on site, my present body of work, ‘In between’, is based on a set of dynamic gestures using strong, emotive, contrasting colours and abstracted shapes to produce spaces suggestive of a garden.  My woodcarvings have their own integral narratives that I sometimes collage into my paintings. There is a dialogue between my works that aims to open a space of emotional reflection.

For more information about Britta Stenmanns' practice please visit www.brittastenmanns.com.au

Britta Stenmanns, FOBITU, 2007, installation, Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi