Featured Artists
Central Victoria is home to many amazing creatives, and we are keen to showcase as many as we can! If you are a creative with something extraordinary to share, please click the button below to submit your work for consideration as one of our featured artists. Works will appear on the screens in our windows and on this webpage.
NAIDOC 2024 Installation
Artwork designed by Michellie Jade Charvat Creations
This artwork 'Keep the Fire Burning' was inspired by this year's NAIDOC theme 'Keep the fire burning, Black, Loud and Proud' as well as the theme for National Reconciliation Week which is 'Now more than Ever'. I have used really bold, warm colours to honour and represent Fire and the warmth and heat that fire carries. The background is a deep charcoal colour to represent the coals of a fire but also to really empower the warm colours used in the artwork. The focal point of this piece is the centre, the centre draws you in with that vibrant yellow where we can see people sitting around a meeting place. Meeting places are incredibly significant within our culture and communities, but also within our ongoing journey towards reconciliation as a nation.
As I reflected deeply on the themes of this year's National Reconciliation week and NAIDOC week, I felt an emphasis on the importance of Community, Storytelling, Truth telling and the small but impactful steps that lead to big change. I really wanted to capture that through this artwork and through the centre meeting place expanding outwards to include more people joining that together space and continuing their journeys in listening and learning.
In the foreground of this artwork I have included some Australian Native plants/leaves to act as a reminder that there is so much to learn from our Australian bush and native plants, connecting to country is observing country and learning from country. As we deepen our connection to country and the place we call home, we connect with a responsibility to care and preserve this land for our children and future generations. Keep the fire burning to me means keep learning, continue forward with hope and to keep inspiring others to do so too.
ARTIST:
Angus Eadie
Animation for Emproium Creative Hub (2022)
Angus Eadie is an emerging artist and student at Catherine McAuley College who undertook a work experience placement with us in December 2022. We were all blown away by this fun animation that Angus produced for our social media.
ARTIST:
Boben Mammem
Emotional Beast (2022)
Speaking of his latest collection, artist Boben Mammem says ‘It reflects on my maturity, which is an outcome of various factors such as my upbringing, spiritual evolution, financial constraints and social struggles. As I look back, I realize how these problematic situations overwhelmed me emotionally and brought about a change in how I thought and perceived life at the time. With time I have reached a space where I can essentially observe my past from an outsider's perspective, helping me gauge the shifts in my beliefs and emotional evolution more objectively. In addition, I have been able to grasp how the ups and downs of lives define our personality, as my view of my life turned more subtle and accepting. As I travel deeper into these planes of human behaviour and perceive the meaning of my battles, I reach for my brush voluntarily, as words can express only so much!’
ARTISTS:
Rachel Doller, Jimmi Buscombe, Chloe Jones, Wes Franklin
PROJECT MANAGEMENT: Nacho Station
‘Visualising a Conflux’
Conflux Bendigo took place in September 2022. Visualising a Conflux was an experimental collaboration between four regional artists and the Conflux Bendigo audience who were invited to submit a one word response to the prompt: how will you approach a brave new world?
ARTIST:
Catherine Dorer
Firefly Forest (2022)
We were lucky enough to have Catherine Dorer a Year 10 work experience student from Bendigo South East College join us for a week in August 2022. The budding animator completed some excellent work during her stay including this wonderful piece ‘Firefly Forest’.
ARTIST:
Julia Onufreichuk
Chaos in Motion (2019)
This work is the centre piece of a photographic series aiming to capture and explore various ambiguous stories and landscapes. The work primarily focuses on light, the psyche and the internal becoming external. A physical representation and manifestation of something that is unseen. Drawing its inspiration heavily from cinematic techniques this series acts as a window into an unknown yet familiar world.
ARTIST:
Mark White
Select Works
Growing up in Central Australia, a lot of my earlier art was inspired by the works of Indigenous locals in the community. Recently though I have taken more inspiration from my inner self and painted with how I have felt at the time. I use mainly acrylics. Each idea manifests in its own individual style. I started to get a love of art when I was in school. For many years I did not pick up a pencil or paint, until something inside me sparked the love again. Self Taught - I would love for you to come along and enjoy my art.
ARTIST:
Paul Fletcher
Random Thoughts
This is an experiment in real time drawing of strokes, dashes and dots to form little loops of movements- a metaphor for free-form random thoughts swirling around continuously and demanding our attention or distraction!
ARTIST:
Beatriz Dominguez Aleman
Heritage (2022)
This is a series of 4 photographs that is part of a photographic project that illustrates different women’s approach to self-love and self-esteem. Daniela, the subject of the photographs is part of a lineage of women who had issues regarding their image. Therefore, Daniela, inherited their insecurities yet today she is finding a way to eradicate these feelings through her self-appreciation.
ARTIST:
Michael J. Leach
‘The Australian Anthropo-seen’
A visual poem describing the adverse impacts of climate change on a threatened Australian animal: the koala. This poem contains details sourced from a scientific report by Chris Johnson, Jane DeGabriel, and Ben Moore (https://www.iucn.org/sites/dev/files/import/downloads/factsheetredlistkoala_v2.pdf). The piece’s koalashaped appearance gives rise to a visual effect outlined by French philosopher Michel Foucalt in his book 'This is Not a Pipe' (University of
California Press, 1983, pages 24-25): words of poetry disappear when one views a visual poem’s whole shape, while a visual poem’s whole shape disappears when one reads the words. So, when one reads this poem and sees the adverse impacts of climate change on the koala, the koala disappears. Australia needs to take meaningful climate action before it’s too late. This visual poem first appeared in the 'What I Did Last Week: Online Exhibition Week 26' (Creative Communities, City of Greater Bendigo, 2020). It was later published in the print and digital book 'Poetry for the Planet: An Anthology of Imagined Futures' (Litoria Press, 2021).
Explore Michael’s work here.
ARTIST:
Paul Fletcher
‘Ocean Dive’
Take a short journey through a fantastical imagined underwater world in this work from multi-disciplined artist Paul Fletcher whose work takes shape in forms such as soundscape, music, animated image, films, installations and timber Jewellery.
See more of Paul’s work here.
ARTIST:
Lyn Raymer
Selections from ‘Worry Beads’
Lyn says of this work ‘I have recently begun a series of drawings called 'Worry Beads', and they have led the way out of a far darker series. The drawing of beads served to sooth, as worry beads should, and whilst the disquiet may still be there, the practice of drawing small, repetitive shapes worked well as a worry bead. Charcoal and conte are my chosen medium, and erasers reveal the hard place.’
See more of Lyn’s work here.
ARTIST:
Wes Franklin
‘THANKFUL- Lettering Process’ 2021
Through this timelapse video we gain insight into the process of creating a personal lettering piece in Procreate.
See more of Wes’s work here.
ARTIST:
Julie Andrews
PROJECT MANAGEMENT/CREATIVE DIRECTION:
Hebron Films- Caleb Maxwell & Bailey Cook.
‘Beyond the Horizon: The lure of the liminal journey.’ 2018
A walking event and subsequent video, share the simple human experience of walking as a metaphor for life’s journeys, departures and arrivals.
Explore more of Julie Andrew’s Work
ARTIST: Troy Firebrace
‘Extension’, Acrylic on Linen
In 2020, Troy Firebrace was commissioned to create a piece of art for the Emporium Creative Hub. Troy’s incredible work ‘Extension’ now welcomes creatives in our large meeting room.
The artwork is a representation of the work and ambition of the Emporium. The community in which the Emporium is now a part of in Bendigo is diverse and rich in many cultures, and this is reflective in the many different organisations, companies and businesses. The artwork is the network in which the Emporium thrives to be in, creating opportunity and support for all. At the centre of the work is the Emporium with its many layers of professional teams, programs and supports. From there, the connection of energy and relationships is stretched out like branches to other external professionals and emerging strength in the community. This creates a chain reaction with the path never stopping at one person but continues on to the next group and so on and so forth.
The work is a goal of what a true community is, a snap shot of understanding, learning, communication and support for one another. No matter how big or small your organisation is or ambition. A supported community can become an extension of one’s self.
Emporium Creative Hub Mural
ARTIST:
Louise Fisher and Reece Hendy
Emporium Creative Hub Mural
A collaboration between local graphic designer Louise Fisher (Design Pond) and Reece Hendy (Nacho Station) to visually reflect the purpose of the Emporium Creative Hub.