Art Wank

We interview the winners of the 2026 Northern Beaches Environmental Art & Design Prize, presented at Manly Art Gallery & Museum in August 2026.Ceramicist Scott Duncan took out the Art category with his work Choice Quality, a ceramic piece inspired by everyday packaging materials such as fruit box cardboard. Drawing on his experience as a chef, Duncan explores cycles of consumption, waste and renewal through his practice. The work incorporates handmade beads created from recycled waste clay, transforming discarded material into something valuable and enduring.In this episode, Scott discusses what winning the prize means to him, his connection to Manly, and his creative practice at Kil.n.it Studio in Glebe. We also talk about the ideas behind Choice Quality and how his work encourages us to reconsider the materials we use, discard and overlook in everyday life.Scott is represented by Arthouse Gallery in SydneyWe speak with Nahum McLean, Ben Styles and Stefan Lie, winners of the Design category at the 2026 Northern Beaches Environmental Art & Design Prize, about their project Motherboard.Designers, researchers and surfers, the trio work at the Material Ecologies Design Lab at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), where they develop innovative materials from diverse waste streams. Their work explores how design can help address environmental challenges by rethinking the materials and systems that shape everyday products.Motherboard responds to a long-standing tension within surfing: the sport's deep dependence on healthy coastal ecosystems alongside the environmental impacts of the petrochemical materials traditionally used to manufacture surfboards. The project reimagines the surfboard by replacing its conventional foam core with a material grown from kombucha SCOBY, offering a glimpse of a more sustainable future for board design.In this episode, Nahum, Ben and Stefan discuss the research and experimentation behind Motherboard, the potential of bio-based materials, and the role of design in creating alternatives to resource-intensive manufacturing. We also explore how their shared passions for surfing, environmental stewardship and material innovation have shaped this award-winning work.

In this episode of Art Wank, we chat with artist Sophie Cape about the winding path that led her from elite sport to a life in contemporary art. Before establishing herself as an artist, Sophie competed at a high level in both skiing and cycling, dedicating years to training, competition, and the pursuit of performance. She reflects on the mindset required to succeed in sport and how those experiences continue to shape the way she approaches her work today.Sophie also shares what it was like growing up with artist Ann Cape as her mother. Surrounded by creativity from an early age, art was always present in her life, although it would take many years and several career changes before she fully embraced it as her own path. We discuss the influence of family, the balance between inspiration and independence, and how her creative identity developed over time.A major turning point came with a series of injuries that ultimately brought her sporting career to an end.Sophie speaks candidly about the emotional impact of stepping away from elite competition and the challenge of rebuilding a sense of purpose after sport. What followed was a gradual shift towards art making, where she found a new outlet for curiosity, experimentation, and ambition.We delve into Sophie's distinctive creative process, which often invites chance and the natural environment into the making of the work. Rather than treating the canvas as a static surface, she subjects it to weather, landscape, and time. Canvases are dragged across the ground, exposed to wind and rain, or left outdoors for weeks at a time, allowing the elements to leave their own marks. The resulting works become collaborations between artist and environment, capturing traces of movement, place, and duration.We also celebrate Sophie's success as winner of the Hadley's Art Prize, a significant milestone that brought wider recognition to her practice. She reflects on what the award meant for her career and the opportunities that followed, alongside the realities of sustaining a creative life.Sophie is represented by Liverpool St Gallery in Sydney

In this episode, artist Sandi Hester discusses her career as a painter, teacher, and YouTube creator. She shares the story behind her move from the United States to Exeter, England, and reflects on the practical and creative changes that came with relocating to a new country. Sandi talks about setting up a new studio, adjusting to life in Devon, and finding inspiration in her new surroundings. The conversation also explores her approach to making art, developing a consistent practice, and balancing painting with creating online content. Sandi reflects on the lessons she has learned from building an audience, growing as an artist, and staying focused through periods of change. The episode offers insight into the realities of a creative career and how a major life move can open the door to new ideas, experiences, and directions in an artist’s work. Sandi's work was in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibiton 2026 You can look at Sandi's work, art classes and youtube trhough her website sandihester.com

John Peart (1945–2013) was one of Australia's most respected abstract painters. Across a career spanning almost five decades, he developed a deeply personal visual language shaped by observation, intuition and a lifelong commitment to painting. From his early years in Brisbane to his long association with Watters Gallery and the artists' community at Wedderburn, Peart continually pushed his work in new directions while remaining true to the act of looking, questioning and making. His achievements included winning the Wynne Prize in 1997 and the Sulman Prize in 2000, and his work is held in every major Australian public collection.In this episode, Julie Nicholson and Gary Seller are joined by artists Euan Macleod and Joe Frost to celebrate Peart's life, work and enduring influence. Rather than a formal biography, this is a conversation between artists who knew him personally and whose own practices have been shaped by his generosity, intelligence and remarkable paintings.Together they discuss Peart's relentless curiosity, his openness to experimentation, his connection to landscape and abstraction, and the way his work balanced structure with freedom. They reflect on his role within the Wedderburn community, his years teaching at the National Art School, and the impact he had on generations of Australian painters. They also consider why his work continues to resonate and what today's artists can learn from his approach to painting as an ongoing process of discovery. About Euan MacleodEuan Macleod is one of Australia's leading contemporary painters. Born in Christchurch, New Zealand, he moved to Sydney in 1981 and has built an internationally recognised career exploring the relationship between the human figure and the landscape. Known for his expressive surfaces and psychologically charged paintings, Macleod has received numerous major awards and has taught painting at the National Art School. He knew John Peart for many years and contributed to the 2004 John Peart: Paintings 1964–2004 retrospective publication. About Joe FrostJoe Frost is a Sydney-based painter whose practice moves between observation and abstraction, drawing on memory, place and the experience of everyday life. Exhibiting since 1999, he has developed a distinctive body of work through an improvisational and layered approach to painting. Frost knew John Peart personally, has written extensively about his work, contributed essays to both the 2004 retrospective and the recently published John Peart monograph, and brings unique insight into Peart's practice and legacy. This episode is a thoughtful tribute to one of Australia's most significant painters and a rare opportunity to hear two artists reflect on the life, ideas and lasting influence of a friend, mentor and extraordinary painter.

Osvaldo Budet: Upriver DownriverMaitland Regional Art Gallery opens July 11th 2026, opening night 24th July and 25th July a talk and Q & A with Dr Nancy Cushing from University of Newcastle.Puerto Rican Australian artist Osvaldo Budet joins Art Wank to discuss Upriver Downriver, his exhibition at Maitland Regional Art Gallery exploring one of the Hunter region's most debated public monuments: Maitland's Black Boy statue, now more commonly referred to as Jocko Graves.For more than a century, the cast iron figure has stood in the centre of Maitland's civic life. Celebrated by some as a beloved local landmark and questioned by others for its racial imagery and colonial associations, the statue has become a focal point for conversations about history, memory, race, and heritage.Budet's work is informed by his experience growing up in Borikén, Puerto Rico, a place still shaped by colonial structures and histories. In Upriver Downriver, he considers how inherited images and public monuments continue to shape contemporary understandings of identity, authority, and belonging. Rather than offering simple answers, the exhibition asks how communities engage with historical objects whose meanings shift over time.This conversation explores the power of monuments, the persistence of colonial narratives in public space, and the ways artists can help us reimagine our relationships with difficult histories.Osvaldo Budet (b. 1979) is a Puerto Rican artist whose multidisciplinary practice spans painting, drawing, photography, video, and research based projects. His work examines the physical, historical, and political dimensions of colonisation and post colonisation, exploring how systems of power shape culture, identity, and memory.Budet received a Master of Fine Arts in Painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art, where he studied under Grace Hartigan. Since 2008, he has lived and worked across Puerto Rico, Germany, the United States, and Australia. His work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico, Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, me Collectors Room Berlin, the Museum of Latin American Art, and numerous galleries and institutions throughout Europe, the Americas, and Australia.Through Upriver Downriver, Budet brings a global perspective on colonialism, representation, and historical memory to a distinctly local Australian story, inviting audiences to consider how we preserve, reinterpret, and reckon with the complex objects of our past.

Inga Dalrymple is a visual artist whose practice explores painting and drawing as a dialogue between material, gesture and perception. Working between abstraction and observation, she is interested in how paint can hold traces of movement, memory and experience.Inspired by nature and the feelings it can evoke, Inga works through processes of layering, erasing and reworking. These actions become a record of time and thought, revealing decisions and changes made during the making of a work.Gesture sits at the centre of her practice. For Inga, each mark carries memory, emotion and a sense of place, while also acting as a way of thinking through painting. Forms appear and disappear, allowing the surface to guide the work as it develops.In this episode of Art Wank, Inga talks about painting as a process of thinking, the role of gesture and memory, and how abstraction can give form to experiences that are difficult to define.Inga is represented by Otomys.

Australian artist Chris Horder joins Art Wank to discuss a painting practice shaped by intuition, chance and decades of experimentation.Known for his atmospheric stain paintings, Horder draws on influences ranging from Eastern ink traditions to Abstract Expressionism, creating works that embrace unpredictability and the unexpected. In this episode, he reflects on leaving school early to pursue art, the influence of travel and literature on his thinking, and the ongoing search for meaning through painting.Chris shares insights into his studio process, the balance between control and accident, and the importance of remaining open to discovery. The conversation ranges from art history and bohemian life to the realities of sustaining a creative career.Horder is a finalist of multiple major art prizes and scholarships including the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship and Dobell Prize. His paintings are in major public and private collection in Australia and around the world.Chris is represented by Nanda Hobbs in Sydney.

In this episode of Art Wank, we sit down with acclaimed Australian artist Joe Furlonger, @joefurlonger one of the country’s most respected and enduring painters of landscape and place.For more than four decades, Furlonger has built a remarkable career through an unwavering commitment to drawing, observation and the lived experience of the Australian environment. Known for his expressive mark-making and dynamic compositions, his work moves between figuration and abstraction, capturing the vastness, volatility and poetry of the Australian landscape. From floodplains and drought-stricken country to coastal waters and working harbours, Furlonger’s paintings reveal a deep engagement with the rhythms of the natural world. Born in Cairns and now based in Samford, Queensland, Furlonger has been a finalist in the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes on multiple occasions, and his work is held in major public collections including the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, the Art Gallery of New South Wales and QAGOMA. His celebrated survey exhibition Horizons continues to tour regional Queensland, introducing new audiences to the breadth of his practice.We discuss the central role drawing plays in his daily life, the challenges and rewards of maintaining a long artistic career, and the ways landscape painting can become a vehicle for contemplation, memory and human connection. Joe reflects on his relationship with the Australian sublime, his years spent travelling and working in remote regions, and the enduring importance of looking closely at the world around us.The conversation coincides with Furlonger’s current exhibition, Into the Blue, showing at @defiancegallery from 6–27 June 2026. The exhibition presents powerful new works inspired by coastal Australia, continuing his exploration of landscape as both physical reality and emotional terrain.This episode offers a rare opportunity to hear from a painter whose work has shaped contemporary Australian landscape painting for generations.#joefurlonger #art #artpodcast #artist