VISUAL & PERFORMING ARTISTS, 2015-2016

 Lyndall Adams

  Anna-Kat

 Frances Barbe

Since hitting the west coast to undertake a Bachelor of Jazz Vocals in 2011 at WAAPA (Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts) Anna-Katerina Hicks has drenched herself in Perth’s vibrant scene. Anna-Kat has headed her own six piece originals band WonderChild; headlining at venues such as the Rosemount, X-wray, The Ellington Jazz Club and local festivals.  In 2014 she toured the Pilbara with Tura Music performing alongside William Barton, Mark Atkins, Stephen Magnussen and Sam Anning.  Recently she was the featured vocalist with The Moon’s hip-hop night “Co-lab” and front woman for the 2015 WAAPA Big Band.  Anna-Kat is one of Perth’s most uniquely diverse upcoming new talents, and will release her debut EP in 2016.

* Photography of Anna-Kat by Steven Heath, reprinted with permission.

Frances is a Director- Choreographer, known for choreographic work that integrates western dance and Japanese butoh. Her works have been performed in London and around the UK as well as in Italy, Spain, the US, Japan and Singapore. She also has a background in theatre and extensive training in Tadashi Suzuki’s actor training method. She performed in Tadashi Endo’s Mamu Dance Theatre, (Germany) from 1997 – 2009 and was artistic director of two international butoh dance festivals in London (2005; 2009). Frances was co-founder and director of Theatre Training Initiative in London from 2000 to 2010. She is currently running WAAPA’s new Bachelor of Performing Arts focused on devised and experimental performance.  

* Photography of Frances Barbe by Steven Heath, reprinted with permission.

Kirsten Biven

Jo Darvall (Jo Helleren)

Alix Hamilton

Kirsten Biven is a Danish-born contemporary artist who shares her art practice between Esperance and Perth, Western Australia. After her graduation from Curtin University in 2011 with a BA(Art), Kirsten was selected for the 2013 Inaugural Capricorn Yanchep Residency, Artsource Artist Residency Program, where she engaged local artists with found remnants of life – human and environmental. These inspired responsive artworks, exhibited to the wider community at the end of her residency. In her solo exhibition in Esperance ('On Thin Ice' 2013) Kirsten explored the littoral southern Australian landscape in abstract representations of coastal life in oil, acrylic, mixed media and found objects. The marginal landscapes of isolated coastlines also informed her Artist- Residency in Tranum on the windswept west coast of Jutland, Denmark (2014). Currently Kirsten is working in her Artsource studio preparing for an upcoming group exhibition.

* Photography of Kirsten Biven by Laura Biven, reprinted with permission.

Australian artist Jo Darvall creates work that reconnects people with their sensual nature, from her delicate water colours, to her kinetic installations and 2D paintings. Originally from Melbourne, Jo studied at the Victorian College of the Arts, receiving a BA in Fine Art in 1998. She established an arts charity AKC with fellow Roar Artists in the 90s: the Charity continues to this very day. Jo worked with Master printer Kim Westcott and had a studio at the Australian Print Workshop in Melbourne. Since moving to Perth Jo has continued to build on her successful artistic practice, and was recently awarded the Mandjar Corporate Art award, City of Belmont Open Art Award. In addition to working from her PSAS studio in Fremantle, she is an arts educator at Fremantle Arts Centre. Her artwork has begun to draw attention globally as it makes its way into major collections including the Holmes a Court, WA Water Corporation, WA Children’s Hospital and Credit Suisse collection in Australia and private collections in New York, South Africa, One Farrer Hotel Singapore, and private collections in Hong Kong.

Since graduating with a Bachelor of Music on violin from the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Alix Hamilton has focused her energies on viola and become a leading violist in the freelance scene in Perth. As well as a teacher, Alix regularly performs as both a chamber and orchestral musician. She is currently a member of the Mill Point Quartet, Cut Common Duo, WAAPA String Quartet and a regular musician with the Perth Symphony Orchestra, West Australian Philharmonic and the Perth Chamber Orchestra.  Alix regularly spends time working alongside the highest caliber of musicians through various festivals and summer schools across Europe. In recent years this has included Lake Garda Music Master (Italy), Aldeburgh Festival (England), and this year will take a week’s residency at the prestigious Orford Summer Academy in Canada. Currently, Alix is undertaking her Masters Degree in performance under international soloist Alexandre Da Costa at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts.

* Photography of Alix Hamilton by Dave Neil, reprinted with permission.

Digby Hill

Hyphen

Amanda Humphries

Amanda Studied at CoFA UNSW, Sydney and the University of California San Diego graduating with a BA in Fine Arts in 2003. Previously Amanda has been involved in a number of group and solo shows in ARI’s regional and commercial galleries both in Australia and Overseas, including a residency in India in 2008, and a scholarship to study and exhibit in the USA in 2002. Amanda is currently based in Perth and has been collaborating with Remnant Dance since late 2013, and joining the collective in 2015. She has a studio practice at the PSAS art space in Fremantle where she continues to develop works and creative projects.

www.amandahumphries.com (portfolio)

 http://www.redartshed.com (print store) 

Kate Leslie

Johannes Luebbers

Jacqui Otago

Kate Leslie is a Perth based artist. Leslie graduated with a BA (Fine Art) from Curtin University in 2004. She moved into Gotham studios in 2011 to focus more on her art practise. Leslie has been involved in multiple group shows around Perth and recently had a dual exhibition at The Moore’s Building. Leslie's work represents the transience of her imagination. They examine familiar yet imagined landscapes from an outer perspective, unravelling as surreal mindscapes, they invite the viewer to re-see what is known or dreamt. Leslie has a love of painting but combines drawing, printmaking and collage into her pieces. The process of her work involves many layers with the outcome being a blending and crossing over of these styles and techniques. Her work is executed with a bold, vibrant use of colour. Currently Leslie is working on a number of upcoming projects from her studio by the river in Garvey Park.

* Photography of Kate Leslie by Michael J. Caves, reprinted with permission.

Winner of the 2011 ‘Young Australian Jazz Artist of the Year’ (Australian Jazz ‘Bell’ Awards) and the 2011 ‘Jazz Work of the Year’ (APRA/AMC Art Music Awards), Johannes Luebbers has emerged as one of Australia’s next generation of young composers. Graduating from the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) in 2006, Johannes was awarded the ‘Bob Wylie Scholarship’ for the most outstanding graduate and throughout his short career has been the recipient of numerous other awards including the 2009 ‘Youth Arts WA Citizen of the Year’, 2009 ‘Best Australian Jazz Composition of the Year’ (Bell Awards), 2008 ‘Jazz Song of the Year’ (WA Music Industry Awards) and the 2006 ‘APRA Professional Development Award’ for jazz. He has released two albums with his own award winning ensemble, the Johannes Luebbers Dectet (JLD). Johannes is currently a PhD candidate at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts. He is currently part of the faculty at the ANU School of Music in Canberra.

* Photography of Johannes Luebbers by Sean Sweeney, reprinted with permission.

Jacqui is a dance artist and producer.  She is a contemporary trained dancer and performer, whose passion is improvised movement and choreography, with a particular interest in site specific performance.  Recent works include:  Performer in 2014 MoveMe Improvisation Festival The Bluest Room improvised, site specific performance being the culmination of a 2 week master class with Michael Schumacher;  Square of Earth, a site specific performance across seven city sites in collaboration with dance artist and designer Marnie Orr; produced a choreographic work Love Letter by Adolf De Meyer for Chrissie Parrott Arts 12x12 Festival; performed in GM Free, G Nome, and While We Wait choreographed by Phillippa Clarke.  Jacqui graduated at QUT with a BA in dance and has taught dance and musical theatre at various primary and secondary schools in Perth.  Jacqui maintains an ongoing practice of Body Mind Centering® and improvisation practice with Melbourne based artist Alice Cummins.

* Photography of Jacqui Otago by Johannes Reinhart, reprinted with permission.

Sue Peacock

Scott Putman

Sue Starcken

Sue danced with the Australian Dance Theatre for 8 years, followed by work with Limbs (NZ), 2 Dance, (now BUZZ) Helen Herbertson, One Extra Dance Co., Fieldworks Performance Group, Chrissie Parrott, Co.Loaded and ID339 Dancegroup. Sue has made commissioned works for Australian dance companies and tertiary training institutions. She is a founding member and was the Artistic Program Manager of STRUT for 10 years. Sue was a 2002 Churchill Fellow and received an ArtsWA Creative Development Fellowship in 2004. Sue has received Ausdance WA awards for Best Female Dancer, Services to Dance and Outstanding Achievement in Choreography. In 2010 she received the Ausdance National Award for Outstanding Achievement in Independent Dance for Questions Without Notice. In 2011 her work SPRUNG received awards for both choreography and design. Her most recent work REFLECT was performed in Perth 2013 and subsequently toured to the Riverside Theatre Parramatta in 2014. Sue is currently a lecturer at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts and also a Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner.

* Photography of Sue Peacock by Christophe Canato, reprinted with permission.

Scott Putman holds a B.A. from Columbia College, Chicago, and M.F.A. from the University of California at Irvine and is an Associate Professor in dance and choreography at Virginia Commonwealth University. He is founder and Artistic Director of Amaranth Contemporary Dance and creator of the Elemental Body Alignment System© (EBAS). EBAS has over 35 certified teachers sharing the work in the US, Italy and Romania in addition to it being a foundational practice inside the curriculum at Victoria School for the Arts in Edmonton, Canada. In the fall of 2013 Scott was honored by the U.S. State Department and Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing allowing travel to China where he taught masterclasses in EBAS and Contemporary Modern Technique at Beijing Normal University, Daqing University as well as for the Beijing's premier modern company, LDTX.   Scott’s newest project, "Land Series", is a collection of works investigating landscape as metaphor for physical and emotional states of being culminating in a world premier event in 2016. Scott’s work continues to be presented internationally in Italy, Mexico and Scotland as well as throughout the USA. He has danced for Mordine and Company Dance Theatre, Dimitrius Klein Dance Company, Minnesota Ballet, Ballet Theatre of Chicago, Donald McKayle, David Alan, Douglas Becker, and Geri Houlihan.

* Photography of Scott Putman by Keith Weng, reprinted with permission.

Sue Starcken is an artist, writer, curator and lecturer based in Perth, Western Australia. Her work is held in numerous public and private collections locally and internationally and she has been published in a number of contexts. Sue holds a Masters Degree in Medieval and Early Modern Studies, (the UWA), and a Bachelor of Arts with Honours, (ECU, WAAPA and SOCA) and is now working on her PhD candidacy. She is currently the Art Collection Curator at Edith Cowan University as well as a Unit Coordinator and Lecturer for Cultural Theory. She has exhibited and curated work in numerous exhibitions at varying venues, including Shanghai, and held a solo show at the Turner Gallery, Northbridge. She is an active board member and representative for Artsource and the Mundaring Arts Centre in Western Australia.

* Photography of Sue Starcken by Stuart Elliott, reprinted with permission.

 Caroline Stevenson

 Joanna Tan

Caroline Stevenson is a professional dancer and teacher with over 30 years’ experience.  Caroline was trained at the Australian Ballet School, performing with The Dancers Company, The Australian Ballet Company and Beldere Dance Theatre. She has performed a variety of roles over these years including Spartacus, Swan Lake, Don Quioxte, Les Sylphides, Symphony in D, the Nutcracker and more.  Caroline has also taught masterclasses and workshops nationally whilst touring internationally with Remnant Dance. Caroline was a core member of Remnant Dance from early 2011-May 2014 and continues to collaborate as a dancer on a project-by-project basis. Currently, Caroline is working towards her Bachelor of Performing Arts (Practice Transition) at Edith Cowan University, Western Australia.

* Photography of Caroline Stevenson by Philip Stevenson, reprinted with permission.

* Photography of Joanna Tan by Ariff Aris, reprinted with permission.