Simon Roots is an emerging Queensland artist working and residing in Brisbane.  He completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2006.  As part of his degree, he was awarded a scholarship to study at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia during 2004.  As well as devoting much of his time to his art practice, Roots has since gone on to teach art at the Brisbane North Institute of TAFE.  He has been selected as a finalist in several national art awards including 2008 LAUNCH Clayton Utz Travelling Art Scholarship, the 2008 Heysen Prize for Interpretation of Place, and has four times been a selected finalist in the Churchie Emerging Art Exhibition.  In 2006 he won first prize in the St Joseph’s Nudgee College Art Festival.

Roots’ recent works focus on the exploration of the figure in the urban landscape, and the relationships people have with their physical and psychological environment.  Roots says “I like to explore the themes that help us construct our version of reality and how varied these ideas can be.  The viewer has an opportunity to interpret and apply their own narratives to the subject of the artworks”.

See his artist profile here...

Zom Osborne grew up in the United States and immigrated to Australia in her early 20’s. She tried various jobs such as signwriter, courier, graphic artist and artists’ model until she finally returned to her childhood dream of being an artist. She worked alone perfecting her skills for many years before she decided to take her art into the wider world. Now she lives in Goonengerry and has shown in Sydney, Brisbane and throughout the Northern Rivers. The beauty in Zom’s work lies in what is unspoken. She has always been interested in art as a way to access an invisible world. 

View Zom's profile here...

See her work in our upcoming show The Magic Faraway Tree...

John Smith was born in Sydney. He has undergraduate and postgraduate degrees from University of Sydney and has a national reputation as a practicing artist. He has had more than thirty solo exhibitions and has work in many major public and private collections, including the National Gallery of Australia, Queensland Art Gallery and Artbank. John Smith is the Course Coordinator of the Visual Arts at Southern Cross University.

See his artist profile here..

John is part of our upcoming exhibition The Magic Faraway Tree...

Shaun Tan was born in 1974 and grew up in the northern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia. In school he became known as the 'good drawer' which partly compensated for always being the shortest kid in every class. He graduated from the University of WA in 1995 with joint honours in Fine Arts and English Literature, and currently works full time as a freelance artist and author in Melbourne.

Shaun began creating images for science fiction and horror stories in small-press magazines as a teenager, and has since become best known for illustrated books that deal with social, political and historical subjects through surreal, dream-like imagery. Books such as The Rabbits, The Red Tree, The Lost Thing and the acclaimed wordless novel The Arrival have been widely translated throughout the world and enjoyed by readers of all ages. His most recently published book is Tales from Outer Suburbia.

Shaun has also worked as a theatre designer, and a concept artist for animated films, including Pixar's WALL-E, and directed the short film adaptation of The Lost Thing in association with Passion Pictures and Screen Australia.

See his artist profile here...

View his limited edition prints here...

Jenny grew up in and also lives and works in Mumbai, India. Jenny was always a Pop culture, animation and technology buff. Over the years her work has derived varied influences from trance and rave music, meditation, comic books, graphic, digital and interactive art.

See her artist profile here..

Vexta is an artist from Australia. She grew up in Sydney but now lives and works in Melbourne.She has been creating street art since the mid 2000s and is most famously known for her stencils and paste ups which draw from cultural visual debris, her self taught aesthetic and an ongoing exploration of painting, printmaking and photography.Her neon drenched images are influenced by a personal symbolism and a greater urban mythology which connect the dots between street rallies and galleries, between acute social commentary and aching beauty.

See her profile here...

Read her Artist of the month interview here...

Karlee-anne Louise Mackie (k.a.lm.) 18.07.83 is a sponsored surfer and a brilliant artist, who has an endless source of inspiration to draw from. Her art is inspired by the ocean and her mixed media canvases combine flowing feminine forms with empowering words to create uplifting, colourful artworks full of life and soul.

See her artist profile here...

Nate Holmes Trapnell is a Melbourne based artist, known for his cross pollinated style of comic book, tattoo, graffiti and hot rod influenced ink art. A perpetual student of all things illustrated and a constant work in progress, Nate strives to build unique conceptual worlds of imagery.

See his artist profile here..

Nathaniel Kiwi is an emerging artist whose career interweaves several artistic disciplines. He is a painter, writer and director.  In 2009 Nathaniel’s artworks were selected to hang in the Blake Prize, The Black Swan Portraiture Prize, and the Mortimore Prize.

See his artist profile here...

Apeseven's  works currently focuses on elements of alchemy. A process of transmutation depicted by a fusion of childhood creatures and science, complex symbolism akin to early scientists and an aesthetic drawn from an observation of the potential, imagined and observed worlds.

Check out his artist profile here..

Freya Tripp's heavily glossed canvass’s can best be described as pop realism. By combining recognizable imagery from pop culture with oil paint and collage, she makes comment on mass consumerism, materialism, media saturation, sexuality and identity.

Check out her artist profile here..

Julien's first passion was cinema. He studied at Louis Lumiere School in Paris from 1993 to 1996, to learn cinematography. There, he met Jean-Christophe Sanchez, with whom he created the "Institut Drahomira", a two-headed artistic entity within the frame of which they experiment in various domains like music, cinema, arts, literature.. 

Check out his Artist Profile here....

Mario Wagner, born in 1974, works as an artist and illustrator in San Francisco, USA. His unique illustrations and artworks are commissioned by the most popular magazines like Playboy and the New York Times Magazine. Wagners work is made analog, he uses old magazines, scissors, glue and acrylic, even for his about 6,5 feet large artworks. His work has been shown in numerous German and international exhibitions including the SCOPE.

Check out his Artist Profile here...

Misa was born in Vancouver Canada where she attended Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design majoring in graphic design. After her third year she decided to travel abroad during the summer break with the notion of returning for her final year. But she fell in love with Australia and has been here ever since. Now settled in Byron, she creates porcelain vessels, paintings and illustrating.

Check out her Artist profile here...

Robert Mars work is an evolving chronicle of Americana. He is determined to capture the independent aesthetic of the not-so-distant past that has been replaced by homogenized corporate culture and standardized cityscapes. Industrial design, found objects, graphic design, architecture, color, collage, and vintage neon all render important roles in his work.

View his artist profile here...

Eduardo Recife brings a humane and emotionally sophisticated sensibility to his designs, drawings, collages, photos, websites, and remarkable typefaces. He crafts his art mostly by hand and employs the computer to enhance the personal touch and not to obscure it.

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HANDIEDAN (Hanneke Treffers, 1981) is an Amsterdam based artist and designer. Her mixed media artworks are a delicate cut and paste mixture wrapped in contemporary antiquity. She meticulously combines classic pin-ups and movie images with paint, ink, yellowed sheet music, old fashioned playing cards, money, stamps, Chinese papers, old wood, rusty metal and doodles as a playful mixture of filigree and a newfangled amalgamation of imagery.

View her artist profile here...

Our recent show, El Mar Mi Alma (The Sea My Soul) introduced us to a host of exciting new talent.  Retrospect is thrilled to welcome former Mambo artist Jeff Raglus,

founding Quicksilver artist Peter Webb,

the legendary Witzig brothers – John and Paul,

and upcoming photographer Ryan Heywood, to our family.

Gold Coast based artists Christie and Kelly Turner are identical twin sisters with a unique collaborative technique, involving working together simultaneously on every piece that they create. Not yet turned 20, they are by far the Gallery’s youngest talent, but we couldn’t resist bringing them on board when we saw their amazing work…

We have three fantastic prints, pictured above, that we will be releasing as part of our Retrospect Editions. They will also be part of our upcoming show Hairjacked opening on Friday the 17th September 2010. We look forward to seeing what they will produce in this coming year!

Check out their profile here.

Luke is an artist based in Victoria. He graduated with a Bachelor in Visual Arts in 1996. He has worked professionally as a Graphic, Motion and Web Designer for the past 13 years.

Luke creates work that contrasts abstract landscapes, with photorealistic figures. Incorporating loose brushwork, light washes, gravity induced runs and drips, with freehand airbrush techniques.

View Luke Hallam's profile

Andrew Hmelnitsky is the third generation of Russian artists and musicians who immigrated to Australia in the early 1940's. Hmelnitsky has exhibited extensively, around Australia and Asia, and has been involved in over 80 exhibitions. We are very excited to introduce him to the Retrospect Fold of artists.

View more of Andrew's work online

Simons works are rich in meaning and contain an outsider art quality of childlike drawing alongside elements of urban culture and graffiti. His illustrative works contain semiotic elements and communicate his thoughts and ideas. Images that dance on the canvas are like coded hieroglyphs with meanings that are only revealed after understanding the position of the artist.

His weaving of immediate childlike elements in adult themes of death and the uncanny create definite feelings of tension in the artwork. These struggles and tensions are what make Simons work interesting and always challenging.

View Simon's online work

Nicole Tattersall is based in Melbourne, Australia and is a self taught painter and illustrator who has been enchanted and inspired by a mixture containing 3 cups of coastal lifestyle, 1 cup of hustle and bustle of urban life and a generous dash of concern for mother earth.

Nicole's style has change several times throughout the years from the simple outlines to the urban inspired stencil works and now taking on more design focused characters. Using a selection of mediums, however favoring towards acrylics, pens, markers and spray cans. Whilst not only producing works on canvas and paper, she also works with installations, which have been well received.

View Nicole's work online

Lisa Lee is an emerging Queensland artist working and residing on the Sunshine Coast. Lee completed her Diploma in Fine Arts in 2003 and has since gone on to complete an intensive large-scale figurative drawing course at the National School of Art Sydney and continues to dedicate much of her time to her arts practice. She has been selected as a finalist in several major national art awards including 09 & 08 Sunshine Coast Art Prize, 09 Prometheus Art Award, 09 LAUNCH Clayton Utz Travelling Art Scholarship, 08 Stan and Maureen Duke Art Prize.

View Lisa's Profile here

This month we are introducing to the Retrospect fold local artist Emma Gale.

Her work is a rich tapestry of text, colour, pattern and forms.  Her inspiration comes from everywhere; and she uses a particular subject not simply to show its beauty but to tell of its existence. She also uses the surrounding rural landscape to ignite her imagination and creativity daily.

Emma currently has work in the Art Sydney Fair.

 View more of Emma's work

PREMO is a collaboration between north coast artists Karen Preston and Christian Morrow.  Karen is a visual arts teacher who was a finalist in the 2007 Country Energy Art prize. Christian studied at Sydney College of the Arts and returned to art making after 15 years in the music industry. He is known for his powerful renditions of jet fighters and planes and won the 2008 FEHVA Art Prize. We are excited to introduce PREMO just in time for One + One our collaborative show in galleries one and two at the same time as the Doug Bartlett Solo, Global Boom.

"The artworks are inspired by the drawings we did in the back of our school books when we should have been paying attention but were learning to draw instead.  Inspiration came from hot rod comics, afternoon cartoon shows, 60's National Geographics, and true romance magazines. These were the things we drew without inhibition and with a sense of discovery, this is how we learnt who we were."

Another exciting collaboration between two of North Coast's favorite local artists. We were waiting in anticipation to see the final outcome of this duo. Both their styles are so different, Hilary drawing on mood with deep layers of brushwork and slightly abstract dreamscapes whilst Michelle's technically brilliant draftsmanship would be an interesting combination of styles.

"Although we work very different stylistically, we have a tendency to mine similar territory thematically, strange beasts and spooky girls spring to mind. So we talked  alot over the last twelve months about the possibility of experimenting with a collaborative painting, intrigued by the notion of seeing what would happen if we put the two stylistic sensibilities together. We have a mutual respect and admiration for each others' work and a similarly evil sense of humour, all of which seemed to bode well for the outset of our endeavour. It was important for both of us was that it be fun, that it be an extension of our close friendship. Having said that, there was an initial sense of terror! The notion of working into someone else's art work is such a no-go-zone. But without doubt it has been an exciting, playful and provoking experience, something we both wish to pursue through more work. There is a sense that once that paint line has been crossed, there is an enormous rush of freedom, that creatively there is a bright new world of possibility, both individually and collaboratively, because this process has also, unequivocally, informed our individual art practices."

Rone is one of Melbournes prolific street artists. His notorious paste-ups have been spread far and wide across high traffic areas of inner city Melbourne, often dominating the environment with their crude graphic approach. The monotone, larger than life female faces bare down upon passers by.

Check out his profile...

Timba Smits is an award winning art director, designer & artist from Melbourne, Australia and is mostly known for creating and producing one of the worlds art communities best kept secrets, wooden toy quarterly. This man just doesnt stop. If he had any spare time, which is rare, it ought to be spent sleeping, however you are most likely to find him hunched over his drawing table, headphones on, putting his 2b pencil to good use!

Check out his profile...

Amos Duggan is an Australian contemporary painter created in Queensland. Raised in Kenilworth, Amos completed a Diploma of Fine Arts at the Sunshine Coast Institute of TAFE, Noosaville. The human race is his inspiration. He uses vivid colours and strokes to explore future technologies and ideas and their impact on the mind, body and soul of man. Amos is currently based in Melbourne as a resident artist at the Medium Arts Collective in East Brunswick.

Check out his profile...

Nikky Morgan-Smith reflects on  water in her series ‘5 baths a day in shades of paynes grey’.
This body of work explores water metaphors in an agonising beautiful and satirical look at domestic monotony. With a combination of raw and worked surfaces, colour as a visual language and gestural mark making she describes the ritual of bath time and the solidarity of the bathroom. 

Check out her profile..

Kareena Zerefos work evokes a delicate balance between isolation and companionship, as well as yearning and delight in long lost moments of escape to the whimsical world of make believe. Unique and refreshing in its simplicity, her work often captures young children in moments of endearing expression as they discover their imaginary worlds. Mysterious giants and fragile creatures populate these shadowy worlds; like the curious owl, who simply says hello, or the deer alone in the silent woods.

Check out her profile...

Trent Whitehead is known as a painter / sculptor. He was born in 1980 in a small surf town north of Sydney, Australia. He now works out of his studio in Sydney where he works predominantly in ink and acrylic on wood. Trent Whiteheads latest body of work centers around a series of hand crafted 3d wooden masks. Each character seems about to burst with some intense expression of anger, frustration or joie de vivre. The intensity of the masks captures the effervescence of the artist himself, pooling the experiences of his existence to breathe life into inanimate wood, like a vagabond Giuseppi to a badass Pinocchio. Trents exquisitely patterned and narrative works explore the effects of extinction in a fantastical world of horned creatures and bearded villains.

Check out his profile..

Kevin Tran is a 23 year old, Sydney-born artist/ illustrator/ graphic designer. Kevin's artwork straddles two distinct aesthetics. On one end, Kevin gives life to hybrid animal collages by embedding found objects and ephemeral textures and then adding layers of acrylic, ink and gauche. On the other, Kevin depicts a cast of often unsettling characters by combining delicate pencil line-work and intricate repetition of patterns with subdued, muted tones.

We have some fantastic limited edition prints of Kevin's coming to our next group show Revolution of Art.

Check out his profile here..

As one of Melbourne's most renowned contemporary pop-artists, Dennis has, for the past decade, pushed and blurred boundaries to the extreme. His extraordinary range of imagery, borrowed primarily from American advertising icons, classic pop- art, Varga girls, cartoon heroes and wild west archetypes, rococo romps, war and religious iconographies; blends and morphs into an eclectic, manic melding of images evolving into the unique signature style that is ROPAR. With his persistent investigation into both the internal and external edifices of the self and of society, Ropars' works continue to compel us to contemplate our own existence within current culture and society.

Dennis has three amazing paintings on their way for our fantastic Urban art show Revolution of Art. You can also check out his artist profile.

Craig has seen himself as a high flying trapeze artist and coach, a guide on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, a social director on cruise ships, a bit of an actor and dancer, an international flight attendant and an illustrator and still has no idea what he wants to be. Although having received no formal art training Craig is still rarely seen more than an arms reach from his creative tools and has been fortunate enough to find the right person at the right time to help take his craft that little bit further. The official beginning to his illustrating career unexpectedly began in Dubai 2006 when his work caught the eye of an art director for a United Arab Emirates magazine. Since then he has enjoyed the development of a career that seems to guide him more than he guides it.

See Craig's artist profile

Rachel Bartram was born and raised on the Gold Coast and has been practising art since finishing high school. In 2008 she completed a degree in Bachelor of Visual Media (major in Fine Art) at Q.C.A on the Gold Coast, in 2008. She went on to enrol in a B.V.A Honours program, investigating ideas relating to visual narrative, the silhouette image, drawing/mark making, family history and the dream state.

Check out her artist profile..

Kareem Rizk is a Melbourne based Australian artist who graduated from Monash University (Caulfield) in 2004 with a Bachelor in Graphic Design. Exhibitions include solo shows and group shows in Melbourne, Sydney, Los Angeles, Washington DC, London, Barcelona and Milan. Rizk's work has been published in numerous magazines and books including Art Review, Empty magazine, Day In The Lyfe, Idea Fixa ‘Greatest Hits‘, Advanced Photoshop, ROJO magazine, Trip magazine, Design Graphics, Semi-Permanent Book 2007 & 2009, Computer Arts, Don’t Panic magazine and Desktop magazine.

We're exited to get a selection of orginals and prints from Kareem for our upcoming show Revolution of Art

Check out his artist profile