5 Australian artists we are crushing on right now
Here at Concept DCF, we live and breathe all things creative. And with Melbourne Design Week currently on until 5 April, we’re celebrating with a spotlight of our five favourite Aussie creatives right now.
In case you’ve never heard of it, Melbourne Design Week is Australia’s premier event showcasing local and international design. This year, it explores the theme ‘Design the world you want’ – a theme which allows the design community to consider how we can work together to create a better, healthier future for the planet and its inhabitants.
While lockdown for some of us meant a complete lack of motivation to do anything remotely creative, for Belarusian-born Tatsiana Shevarenkova it was a chance to practice feverishly, work with various materials and perfect her technique. All this self-teaching even led her to launch her own full-time practice – Cosset Ceramics!
Drawing on her background in fashion design, Tatsiana explores the female body through her sculptural pieces. Moved by the biomorphic sculptors of the mid 20th century, she creates dramatic but utilitarian objects, using coil-building techniques to create beautiful organic forms in raw, unglazed form.
If you’re on the ‘gram and haven’t heard of Dina Broadhurst, where have you been? Artist and collector, Dina Broadhurst's work has been described as an orgy of simplicity. With a focus on femineity, sexuality, escapism, transformation, fantasy, desire, luxury, and the perfect face that we like to represent to the world, Dina has had a lifelong obsession and influence from the colliding worlds of fashion and art.
We recently used one of her most well-known works, ‘Ladies in Waiting’, in our West Footscray project. Featuring a seductive photomontage of gorgeous, lithe women adorned with flowers and glitter, it portrays a deeper layer of messages on sexuality, glamour and consumerism.
Although creative from a young age, it wasn’t until Sydney-based artist Emma Dillion Hill studied at the National Art School (NAS) that she realised she could make a career from what she considers her true calling. Her work focuses on the materiality of chosen mediums and the direct relationship between them. Being heavily influenced by the Australian landscape, her use of colour and shape have been chosen to create a sense of place.
Emma Dillon Hill applies soft pastels onto paper to create forms, lines and shapes with a dream-like quality – it’s abstract art filled with emotion.
Organic shapes, raw textures and soft colours all appear within Yarra Valley-based Emily Brookfield’s sensory and playful ceramics. Her works connect the vessel with its maker, each gesture is documented on the surface, and the structures take shape as ethereal objects that could have been found in an ancient city or forgotten shipwreck.
In her latest collection ‘Keepsake’, Emily imbues 12 hand-built ceramic pieces with shell forms glistening with a glossy glaze. The collection reflects on the vessel as a form of art, rather than a design object.
Hailing from the sunny Central Coast (in NSW), Bonnie Gray is affectionately known as a scientist of colour – and once you see her work, you’ll know why. Every artwork has a unique touch. Words, poems, songs and stories are hidden amongst vintage tropical colours and layers upon layers of abstract shapes and textures.
Bonnie weaves sentiment, sunlight and a touch of song writing melodies to each brushstroke. Each artwork is inspired by birthday parties, streamers, oceans, skies and 90’s tee shirts. If you don’t know her name yet, you surely won’t forget it once you’ve seen her work.