If you’ve read Death in Venice by Thomas Mann, you’ll know the protagonist Gustav von Aschenbach dies a self-indulgent painted-fool...

Art is emotional. Art is worthless unless it gets a reaction. Fuck pretty pictures and lovely things to hang on your walls. Art needs to...

I’m going to say it straight out. There’s a lot of shit at the Venice Biennale. Two planks nailed to a wall? Shit. Self-indulgent video...

If you haven’t seen Hunger of the Pines by Alt J, take a look at their video, there’s a strange surging melancholy to it; an anxious...

Wreck 71cm x 81cm oil on linen, Guy Maestri You see it on Instagram all the time, artist’s posting their latest work, getting thumbs up...

Many artists are poor. The idea of the starving, struggling artist is as true today as it was for generations of artists before us,...

This morning, Myuran Sukumaran was shot to death by firing squad on the island of Nusakambangan in Indonesia. Myuran was a convicted drug...

Every year we try and head down to Adelaide to get amongst the crazy hubbub of festivals. We were lucky enough to snag an invitation to...

Often when I’m creating work it’s in an absolute frenzy. I’m slapping on glue and paper, getting bits stuck to my face, the hairs on my...

Wheel, Mixed media on Board, Shannon Johnson Artist’s need to relax more. Artist’s need to forget more. And they need to try less hard....

Troy Park, after Afghanistan, oil on linen 2012. Ben Quilty, born 1973 When I lived in New York, I worked in an ad agency on Madison...

When I heard that the Chuck Close exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia was just prints I was really put off. I mean,...

You can’t control what goes on in your head. You don’t know where inspiration comes from – or when it will come. If you try to...

As a kid our cat Sally would mate with a feral Tomcat who lived in the wild. Two months later she’d pop out a litter of kitties, often in...

Black spot on Bombay Road, Mixed Media, 2013 Just before Christmas, Saatchi Art let me know I had sold one my my landscapes to a...

This was the first year I entered the Belle Arti Prize, it’s a great award run by Chapman & Bailey. Essentially, they send out hundreds...

I love talking to artists about their work, it gives you so much more depth and understanding for their work. And that’s why I’ve decided...

What’s next?  What are you working on now? These are the questions that make my skin prickle and my underarms stream. After a successful...

I drank too much. Like many people, when I’m nervous, I drink. Just like on opening night of Dry Your Tears at Stur Gallery. If you...

Last night my kitchen was a frenzied mess, I had the fire blazing as I glazed the collage and feverishly blackened the sides of the...