“Sincerely Yours”
Sophia Cai, Raquel Caballero, Nick Capaldo, Mel Dixon, Dylan Goh, Miles Howard-Wilks, Danny Lyons, Amy Meng, Jenny Ngo, Daniel Pace, Carly Snoswell, Ari Tampubolon and Alanna Dodd
22 Jan → 6 Mar 2022

Sophia Cai is an curator, arts writer, part-time academic, and full-time ARMY based in Narrm/Melbourne, Australia. She currently teaches as a sessional lecturer in Critical and Theoretical Studies, Victorian College of Arts at the University of Melbourne, while also maintaining an independent curating and writing practice. Sophia is particularly interested in Asian art histories, the intersections between contemporary art and craft, and feminist curatorial methodologies and community-building as forms of political resistance.

Raquel Caballero is an art school drop-out, reformed librarian, and literary obsessive, based in Sydney, Australia. Her work occupies a peculiar space between homespun craft and pop culture, merging outsider influences with celebrity fascination in unpredictable, engaging ways.

Nick Capaldo is an emerging artist whose work shifts between illustrative drawings and loose, painterly skyscapes. His illustrations often feature the character ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’, which he draws repeatedly in homage to the digital icon. In contrast, his paintings explore space travel, as well as planets and the limitless, expanding universe. Capaldo has been included in numerous group exhibitions and his work is held in the National Gallery of Victoria as well as private collections throughout Australia.

Mel Dixon's work navigates and examines the relationship between the unconscious self, autobiographical memory, and the tactility of experience. She examines the role of psychosocial emotive culture and the self through photographic and sculptural installations, to challenge materiality and experience within feminist constructs. She embraces the written word in her work as an influence, and mode of research and making, creating texts that engage with literary traditions and the autotheorical turn.

Dylan Goh is an artist-curator on unceded Bidjigal and Gadigal lands. His practice is grounded in holding agency over how cultural narratives are represented. Speaking to experiences as a 2nd generation Asian Australian caught between two worlds, Dylan leverages storytelling and participation to disarm audiences, engender empathy and transfer knowledge.

Miles Howard-Wilks is primarily a painter, he works across a range of mediums including ceramics, photography and animation. He is dedicated to exploring themes such as Australian landscapes, seascapes, football and, more specifically, sharks, magpies and trains. He often combines several of these themes into one, complex painting. The inclusion of such eclectic subject matters within his works gives his artworks an otherworldly quality. Howard-Wilks has worked in the studio and exhibited with Arts Project Australia since 2000.

Danny Lyons is an emerging artist working in photography, video, and drawing, often incorporating personal experiences in his work. Since 2018, he has made a series of photographic works involving placing himself dressed as different celebrities in the centre of photoshopped scenes. Lyons has been working in the studio at Arts Project Australia since 2017 and has exhibited in group exhibitions in Melbourne.

Amy Meng is a fiber-based interdisciplinary artist currently based in Sydney, Australia. Her practice stems from a fascination with kawaii culture and psychoanalysis. Drawing influences from manga and anime, she employs textile techniques to investigate the ambivalent nature of issues concerning infantilisation, fetish, domesticity and more.

Jenny Ngo is an emerging painter, digital artist and animator. Her work shifts between graphic cartoon-like images, painterly landscapes and figurative work, drawing inspiration from Japanese animé and animals. Her artworks often push our expectations regarding portraiture by eschewing the human figure and focusing instead on animals. Jenny Ngo (born 1992) is an emerging artist who has been a regular studio artist at Arts Project Australia since 2010.

Daniel Pace’s small works on paper are executed in pencil with blocks of solid colour and strong outlines, often on coloured surfaces. He is also a skilled ceramicist and digital artist. To view his work is to connect with a range of fantastical characters portrayed in much the same style as they were originally created, yet lovingly re-interpreted to reflect Pace’s unique perspective.

Carly Snoswell is an artist working and living on Kaurna Land. Her work has recently examined fandom and the creation of craft objects as an ode to particular pop-cultural phenomenon through gendered and labourious forms of craft-making. Through this she attempts to validate these repetitive and obsessive tendencies that develop through involvement in fandom and hobby crafts, working to challenge notions of superficiality and inferiority to present the deep emotional connection that is felt through this engagement.

Ari Tampubolon is a performer, filmmaker, and writer. Ari’s practice is interested in the endlessly repetitive formal mutations of pop culture. Ari has shown recent works at Seventh Gallery, BLINDSIDE, and KINGS Artist-Run, and is one of the recipients of the 2021 Multicultural Arts Victoria Diasporas Commissions. As an independent producer, Ari has worked for RISING Festival, Hyphenated Projects and Jenn Ma Collaborators.

Alanna Dodd is an emerging artist working in a range of mediums. While early work focused thematically on depicting football heroes, recently her practice has shifted to semi-abstract imagery reflecting personal interests and passions. These involve layers of colour and brush marks, constantly reworked and developed until fully resolved, which give the works an accomplished depth and complexity. Dodd's works possess an endearing simplicity in form and a joyful, vibrant colour palette.