SA’s latest emerging art stars showcase their creativity
Toys, broken canvases, old crockery and discarded Christmas decorations are among the scavenged materials given new life in Adelaide Central School of Art’s Graduate Exhibition as the emerging artists address issues ranging from environmental impact to the quest for identity.
2024 Graduate Exhibition
Adelaide Central School of Art
Every year, the graduate exhibition at the Adelaide Central School of Art (ACSA) provides audiences with a glimpse of the potential art stars of the future. This year was no exception, with a high standard of work on display.
The exhibition features a broad range of works, from traditional media such as painting and printmaking to more contemporary methods such as interactive digital animation. There is also a notable emphasis on found and repurposed materials, both natural and human-made.
“We are very proud of our graduates and the outcomes shared in the 2024 Graduate Exhibition,” says Penny Griggs, CEO, Adelaide Central School of Art.
“The work in this exhibition comes from dedicated practice-led research, developed over the year through a rigorous process of making, reflection and refinement. Each student has delved into themes of personal and collective experience.”
Honours student Inès Cook’s paintings particularly stand out. Cook compares painting to playing a video game and this is what inspires her work. She creates her pieces by arranging toys and sculptures, which become the basis of her paintings.
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Cook is interested in the interplay between the real and virtual worlds. By using the concept that creating a painting is like controlling a computer game, she suggests that the physical and virtual realms are interchangeable. Her talents have been recognised, with the artist receiving the Hill Smith Art Advisory Award and the Praxis Artspace 12-month studio residency.
Other artists push the boundaries of the medium of painting by presenting mixed-media works. For example, Natalie Williams creates stunning works using oil paint on photoprint aluminium. Focussing on the coastline of the Gulf of St Vincent, Williams photographs the natural and human-made imprints left behind. She transforms these photographs into greyscale images printed on aluminium, which she then paints over to create an imagined landscape.
Natalie Williams, The Arrival, oil paint on photoprint aluminium, 50 x 75cm. Photo: James Field
Isabelle Szczotka also combines painting with other artistic methods. Her work in both sculpture and painting effectively challenges traditional categories and pre-conceived notions.
Szczotka’s presentation comments on the medium of painting itself, featuring a broken canvas laid on the floor and another canvas wrapped around the corner of the wall, with broken plaster protruding through it. Through these experiments with materials, she seeks to understand the nature of existence through themes of fragility, collapse, and forgetfulness.
Another highlight is Nicolas Ottavio Saccardo’s installation, Amongst a Moving Quiet. The artist collects discarded objects and draws on them, giving them purpose and meaning. By breathing new life into these scavenged items, Saccardo explores his connection to materials and objects, and the non-human forces in the world. These objects, rich in history, are transformed through his drawings and scribblings, contributing to a new narrative that reflects the various forces at play.
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Saccardo’s immersive installation invites viewers to contemplate their relationship with objects and the environment. Saccardo received the Adelaide Central School of Art and Artlink Art History Award for a high-achieving student in Art History & Theory.
Nicolas Ottavio Saccardo, Amongst a moving quiet [installation view], crayons, coloured pencils, paint pens, ink, and graphite on various scavenged
and found objects, notepad paper, string, and fixings, dimensions variable. Photo: James Field
Elizabeth Ports is another artist who uses recycled materials in her practice. She creates mosaics, assemblages and installations from discarded tiles, crockery, jewellery, Christmas decorations, glass and other everyday materials.
For Ports, the process of collecting these materials is just as important as their reassembly. Like the other artists working with discarded items, she reflects on the history and stories imbued in these objects and materials, and repurposes them meaningfully.
Elizabeth Ports, Tears, hand-cut ceramic tesserae from discarded crockery, costume jewellery fragments, expanded polystyrene, Christmas baubles, found stand, 74 x 33cm. Photo: James Field
The ACSA 2024 Graduate Exhibition addresses several significant issues affecting society, including environmental impact, consumerism, the influence of technology, and the quest for culture and identity. The artists approach these themes in various ways, using diverse materials that create strong connections and convey a sense of potential and possibility.
The Adelaide Central School of Art 2024 Graduate Exhibition is showing until January 9, 2025.