This inspiring free exhibition celebrates the work of 61 contemporary Australian artists through photographic portraits of the artists in their studios. The large-scale colour photographs and accompanying texts explore the nature of the creative process and particularly the importance of the studio as the artist's working space.
The exhibition and accompanying book and DVD are the result of a five-year collaboration between photographer R Ian Lloyd and writer John McDonald. Together they travelled 50,000 kilometres around Australia to meet, interview, photograph and film the artists in their working environments – from inner-city Melbourne and Sydney to remote outback settlements and bush retreats.
Canadian-born Lloyd is an award-winning photographer and publisher whose images have appeared in National Geographic, Time and Newsweek. McDonald is the art critic for the Sydney Morning Herald and former Head of Australian Art at the National Gallery of Australia.
Celebrated painters such as Rick Amor, Gareth Samson, indigenous artist Gloria Petyarre, surrealist James Gleeson and veterans Margaret Olley and John Olsen are featured in the exhibition. Many of the others included are noted and award-winning mid-career artists, while a few are relative newcomers.
Together, their work reflects the full spectrum of contemporary painting in Australia. Abstract, figurative and indigenous art are represented, and genres range from the monumental history paintings of Shen Jiawei to Cressida Campbell's exquisite still-lifes and William Robinson's lyrical landscapes.
The exhibition offers intriguing insights into the creative process: how artists think and work, what inspires them and how paintings are made. The studio photographs reveal each individual artist's working methods, materials and routines, and how their studio space affects and stimulates their creativity – whether it's a converted city warehouse, a cluttered shed, a spare room or a patch of earth.
Overall, Lloyd's images and McDonald's text evoke a sense of the intensely personal, challenging and sometimes mysterious process of making art.
Find out more about the Studio project and R Ian Lloyd.
Program of events
The exhibition is complemented by a program of talks and tours. A number of the talks and lectures have been recorded. Browse the events page to listen to a lecture online.
Illustration
Robert Jacks, photographed by R Ian Lloyd | 
