Artspace Announces First Ten of 350 One Year Studio Program Artists

Artspace is pleased to announce the first ten artists of its One Year Studio Program, who will move into brand new dedicated spaces in Woolloomooloo’s The Gunnery when it reopens from Friday 15 December 2023. The move follows a stunning $19.2 million transformation of the state-of-the-art facility and a new 35-year lease granted by the NSW Government through Create NSW.

With the redevelopment of their home in Woolloomooloo, Artspace’s industry-leading studio program has expanded for 2024, and now offers ten artists the opportunity to practice their work in year-long, rent-free studios with plans to support 350 artists over 35 years with research, production and curatorial advocacy. In 2024, The Gunnery will be home to a diverse mix of both established and emerging artists, each working across a variety of mediums, from photography and sculpture to improvisational performance.

2024 One Year Studio Artists:

• Jack Ball is a Western Australian photographer who holds a Master of Fine Arts (RMIT University). Their work explores messy materiality and trans intimacy through photography and collage.
• Born in Wellington, New Zealand, Brian Fuata is a Samoan-Australian artist working across improvisational visual and performance art. Fuata’s work explores the reciprocal action between artist and audience.
• Julia Gutman is a Sydney-based visual artist that draws on the language and histories of painting. Her work Head in the sky, feet on the ground was awarded the 2023 Archibald Prize.
• Tina Havelock Stevens’ is an Australian multi-disciplinary artist whose work encompasses still and moving image, improvisational performance, and sound.
• Artist, poet, and filmmaker of Wiradjuri and Irish heritage, Jazz Money’s work speaks to language, narrative, and First Nation’s legacies of place.
• Thea Anamara Perkins is an Arrernte (Central Australia) and Kalkadoon (Mount Isa) artist whose practice incorporates portraiture and landscape to question representations of First Nations peoples.
• Gemma Smith is an Australian painter and sculptor known for her continuous experimentations with colour and abstraction.
• Leyla Stevens is an Australian-Balinese artist and researcher whose work explores the reparative potential of artmaking, framed within political and social justice issues.
• Punake, body-centred performance artist Latai Taumoepeau’s works address issues of race, class, and the female body. Her recent practice draws attention to the effects of climate change in the Pacific.
• David M Thomas is an artist and educator, whose 30-year practice encompasses multiple modes of research, performance and exhibition-making. Thomas’ installations have been shown throughout Australia from the National Portrait Gallery (Canberra) to Monash Gallery of Art (Melbourne).

Executive Director Alexie Glass-Kantor said Artspace is excited to offer increased opportunities for artistic exchange and dialogue over the next three-and-a-half decades.

“Continuing our commitment to experimentation and collaboration, Artspace will offer free studios for 35 years to artists across generations from emerging to established,” said Alexie.

“Artists will have 24/7 access to the space, 365 days a year, as well as curatorial advocacy. The studios provide substantial space for artists to just experiment to take risks to create ambitious new work. To examine ideas or directions in their practice that they might not otherwise have the space or capacity to achieve.”

“Plus, the calibre of visitors who come to our space throughout the year range from international museum directors, Biennial and festival curators, artistic directors for institutions across Australia and internationally, gives these artists access to a network of peers, advocates and networks that could help to advance and progress their practice into new and exciting opportunities and leverage real ambition and opportunity for them.”