News

Students undertaking the Nexus Studio have engaged with local businesses along Oxford St to organise exhibitions in their spaces.

The first exhibition has been installed at the Three Saints Café (251 Oxford St, Sydney) and features work by Martina Rossi, William Nghiem, Ayusha Dallakoti, Katherine Hsia, Charlotte Bradshaw, Lucinda Rose, Madeline Chew Lee and Rohan Anderson.

The café is currently offering a 10% discount on food and drinks for COFA students.

If you are interested in being involved in future exhibitions, email Leonie Robison with 2-3 jpegs of your 2D work.

If you have a body of work (approx 9 pieces), email Elizabeth Gervay who curates the café space in the Arts Hotel.

Gemma Messih, 'I wonder how close I can get to you without being near you (detail)', 2013

Thirty six COFA students, graduates and staff are finalists in the 2013 Hazelhurst Art on Paper Award.

The artists will compete for the $15,000 major award, the $5,000 Emerging Artist’s Award and Friends of Hazelhurst local artist award plus the $1,000 People’s Choice Award.

Congratulations to:

Tully Arnot
Svetlana Bailey
Kylie Banyard
Lee Bethel
Graham Blondel
Marinka Bozzec
David Capra
Laura Carey
Gary Carsley
Michelle Cawthorn
Alison Clouston
Sarah Contos
Justin Cooper
Leo Coyte
Shoufay Derz
Beth Dillon
Cherine Fahd
Michaela Gleave
Rochelle Haley
Paul Higgs
Mark Hislop
Leahlani Johnson
Alun Rhys Jones
Helena Leslie
Michael Lindeman
Gemma Messih
Clare Milledge
Miguel Olmo
Brendan Penzer
Izabela Pluta
Tom Polo
Ben Rak
Lynne Roberts-Goodwin
Jessica Ticchio
Peter Sharp
Nicole Welch

The interactive mural made by COFA students

Five COFA Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) students were invited to create a mural for the Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick.

Tamara Muzikants, Kyle Morgan, Jaqui Mills, Madeline Beckett and James Gatt created an interactive mural that allows children to change and reconfigure the felt shapes.

John Olsen, 'Evolution', etching, 35 x 49.5cm, 2013 (edition of 200).

Well known Australian artist, John Olsen has donated a limited edition of 200 etchings to help raise money for COFA.

The etching, titled Evolution, was printed at COFA by master print maker Michael Kempson.

John Olsen has been a respected artist in Australia from more than six decades. In 2005, he won the Archibald Prize for his painting, Self portrait Janus Faced. He has both an AO and an OBE for services to the arts.

Olsen describes what is going on in his etching:

“On the far left you can see the artist with brush in hand, his wife advising him as to an approach. A female water colourist who formerly painted in oils is at front, above her is a contemplative student readying to make a mark. Behind him is an art dealer flush with cash and a muse/painter sizes up the three ‘fallen from grace’ Graces. Completing the print is a conceptual artist who stares at us as he ruminates over his future realisations.”

Click here for more info or to purchase John Olsen’s print.

Still from the winning game created by Nicholas Cellini, Rhys Davis, Chris Lam and Esther Mosad

Bachelor of Computer Science/Digital Media student Nicholas Cellini completed Game Design Workshop, a course open to students from Digital Media, Media and Communications and Computer Science.

The course encourages students to work in teams to invent, prototype and workshop games.

Cellini’s group won the MicroForte prize for best game, which was completed as part of the final assessment group project with fellow students Rhys Davis, Chris Lam and Esther Mosad.

Reflecting on his experience, Cellini said, “I would definitely recommend any COFA student who is interested in gaming do this course… Game programmers are always on the lookout for artists, and this course provides an opportunity to bridge the gap for artists and programmers by putting them in the same space for one semester.”

Hayden Youlley, 'The Paper Series', porcelain. Photo: Amanda Prior

Ten COFA graduates have received the Australia Council for the Arts ArtStart grant.

ArtStart is open to recent creative arts graduates. The chosen artists will receive $10,000 each to support a career or business development strategy for their arts practice.

COFA graduates represent 19% of all artists selected in the Visual Arts category.

Congratulations to:

Lauren Austin
Ben Elbourne
Thea Fortman
Victoria Garcia
Ashley-Fiona McHutchison
Lisa Sammut
Naomi Taplin
Katherine Turnbull
Harriet Watts
Hayden Youlley

Tega Brain, 'Coin Operated Wetland', 2011

Congratulations to Tega Brain, COFA graduate and staff in the School of Design Studies. Tega has been announced as a successful applicant of the Creative Australia Early Career Artist Fellowship.

The new Creative Australia Fellowships aim to support the professional development of outstanding artists working across the sector and Australia.

Tega will receive $60,000 over two years, allowing her to develop her artist profile and to pursue new exhibition and project opportunities in Australia and overseas.

Cigdem Aydemir, 'Bombshell', single channel HD video, sound, videography by Kenneth Simpson, 10:42 min.

COFA graduate Cigdem Aydemir (Bachelor of Design/Art Education) has been awarded the Emerging Artist Redlands Konica Minolta Art Prize.

Her work Bombshell explores the idea of the burqa as a possible terrorist threat while referencing Marylin Monroe’s iconic dress scene in the film Seven Year Itch.

Cigdem has won $10,000 and her work will be acquired into the Redlands permanent collection.

The prize encourages mentoring between younger and older generations by selecting pairs of established and emerging artists to exhibit together.

The finalists exhibition is on at NAS Gallery until June 1, 2013.

Angela Welyczko, 'Storage Space: Inside the Archive', Installation view at Archive Space

COFA students and graduates David Greenhalgh, Lisa Sammut, Patrick Cremin, Lauren Carroll Harris, Sarah Kukathas, Jack Stahel and Daniel Connell have established Archive, a new contemporary art space in Newtown.

Archive aims to showcase emerging talent in both artistic and curatorial fields. The art, artist and ideas presented will be documented with the intention of creating a digital archive, serving as an extension of the physical space.

They will launch the space with We live, as we dream, alone. The exhibition features work from COFA students and runs from May 1-10, 2013.

Congratulations to Arc@COFA staff members Penelope Benton and Alexandra Clapham for being selected to be in the 2013 Underbelly Arts festival on Cockatoo Island in July 2013.

The collabortive artists will present Tableau Vivant, a spectacular combination of performance, cosutume and food.