Opening: 5.30 – 7.30pm Friday 31 May
Recognise is an exhibition featuring works by local artists Carla Davey, Mathew Daymond, Lydian Dunbar, Shirley Gibson, Nathaniel Harvey, Rebecca King, Willie Mutton, Quinlyn Seikot, Zion Levy Stewart, Gill Williams & Lucas Wright.
Recognise showcases the diverse perspectives, subject matter and material processes of these 11 Northern Rivers based artists, providing an accessible and inclusive opportunity for artists with disability to share their stories and observations of life, expressed through their unique art practices.
The exhibition is curated by Claudie Frock and Lone Goat Gallery and is kindly supported by REDinc., Real Artworks, The Paddock Project, members of Council’s Access Consultative Working Group (ACWG), and features in our Disability Inclusion Action Plan (DIAP).
ARTIST BIOS
CARLA DAVEY BIO
Carla Davey is an emerging visual and movement artist, a poet and most recently a sound noise artist.
She has performed in multi arts performances with RealArtWorks Inc for ARTSTATE Lismore and Wagga Wagga, The (un)Usual Festival 2019, Love Level 2023 and 2024. Carla is part of a cohort of RealArtWorks.Inc artists undertaking a creative residency for Cementa in 2024
Carla works from her studio at the RealArtWorks.Inc’s SeeSpace and finds inspiration repurposing prints she finds at the Lismore Revolve Centre.
Her most recent works celebrate her love for the visual arts, poetry and women.
“I make art because I am an artist. It is delightful. This time I made art about women because women are talented and smart and because they have feelings”.
MATHEW DAYMOND BIO
Mathew is an experimental artist pushing his boundaries as an artist, painter, songwriter, collage-maker, poet and instrument-player. He makes art his way, exploring his opinions and facts through art. He is interested in mystery, stories, and old world images. Daymond expresses himself, his dreams, and madness as it comes out.
Mathew is a member of ‘Tralala Blip’, ‘The Useless Assembly’ and an emerging visual artist. He co-presented with fellow artist Mike Smith (blind from birth) at ‘ARTSTATE’ in 2018 and 2019 on the role of creatives in community led recovery.
He had a solo exhibition, ‘The Complacency of Man And Machine’ at Lismore Regional Gallery (Lismore) in 2022 and is keen to share and explore with his peers, ways of making inclusive innovative art that flips switches.
LYDIAN DUNBAR BIO
Hailing from Northern New South Wales, Lydian Dunbar cut his teeth playing in experimental synth-pop outfit ‘Tralala Blip’ – a ragtag unit of neurodiverse musicians whose creativity was put into sharp focus on 2019’s Room40-released ‘Eat My Codes If Your Light Falls’.
Dunbar’s debut solo album ‘Blue Sleep’was recorded with Lawrence English’s label and is a set of cool-hued ambient music that was inspired after a day of surfing in Byron Bay and a restful sleep on the beach in a shelter made of sticks. Dunbar, in collaboration with Randolf Reimann (also of ‘Tralala Blip’) went back to that beach later on to collect sounds using a Zoom recorder and an EMF field recorder. His soundscapes are assembled on top of this backdrop (playing harmonica, melodica and modular synths) and the result is peaceful, meditative music that captures the ocean’s calm as well as its endless mystery.
After the release of ‘Blue Sleep’, Dunbar was invited to perform at ‘On Location Festival’ at the Ainslie & Gorman Art Centre (Canberra) and ‘Unsound Festival’ (Krakow, Poland). In late 2022, he was invited to speak at ECM #10 at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney about the lack of inclusion and support from the mainstream music industry in Australia. In 2023 Dunbar was invited to perform at both ‘Dark MOFO’ (Tasmania) and ‘Soft Centre Festival’ (Sydney).
Currently Dunbar and Reimann are steadily working on a follow up album to be released by Room40 in June 2024 with more performances at ‘Big City Lights Festival’ (Gold Coast) and ‘Volume’ at The Art Gallery of NSW (Sydney).
Lydian also plays harmonica with ‘Blue Cheese’ and the ‘Middle of the road’ and has been a professional artist on many RealArtWorks projects since for well over a decade. Lydian has been making screen prints that reflect is love of music, the environment and life since 2013.
SHIRLEY GIBSON BIO
Shirley Gibson is a Northern Rivers based artist who creates work from the REDinc. Supported Art Studio in Lismore. Shirley’s art practice reflects moments in her life, using her experiences and observations as creative inspiration and capturing these moments as images, rendered in paint, sculpture, print, and embroidery.
She was a finalist in the ‘Hurford Hardwood Portrait Prize’ in 2021.
Shirley isn’t afraid to use colour and texture as a way of expression, that is joyful and vibrant.
NATHANIEL HARVEY BIO
“I needed to make something that was positive out of my own struggles. I need to be creative to make myself happy. Making art makes me feel really happy.”
Nathaniel’s creative practice seeks to pursue happiness; despite the challenges and obstacles one can face in everyday life. His rich collection of works celebrates the cracks in the surface where light escapes and illuminates the pathways of an individual seeking meaningful engagement with the world.
Nathaniel identifies as a young Northern Rivers man on the Autism Spectrum, based in Kyogle. His work utilises varying mediums (painting, film, sound, photography, sculpture and installation) to capture his creative vision. Drawing influence from film, Pop culture and a plethora of artists such as Jackson Pollock, Quentin Tarantino, Wassily Kandinsky, Stanley Kubrick, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Alfred Hitchcock, Alberto Giacometti and Ed Wood.
Nathaniel’s art reflects genuine, emotionally energetic, action-based responses to the world. His work embodies rich narratives that are complex, abstracted and uncompromisingly unique. When assembled en masse, his body of work provides nothing less than an experiential journey that honours the paradoxical shades of life in a manner that is explorative, accessible, performative and fun.
Instagram @nathaniel4arts @liswoodfilmproductions
REBECCA KING BIO
Rebecca King is a proud Widjabul, Gumbaynggirr, Dunghutti and Yuin woman, based in Lismore, where she makes work at the REDinc. Supported Art Studio.
Rebecca is an emerging artist with a strong connection to her Aboriginal culture, family networks and spiritual beliefs. Her artworks communicate her personal and shared cultural symbols and her unique way of seeing the world. Her mediums include, painting, drawing, soft-form sculpture, assemblage and wearable art, highlighting her love of colour, shape and texture.
Rebecca had her first solo show ‘Superpower’ in 2021 at Arch Studio Gallery previously located in the Lismore Quad. She has also exhibited in numerous group exhibitions in galleries across the Northern Rivers region: ‘Frequency RED’ at Lismore Regional Gallery (Lismore); ’Culture Vultures’ at Northern Rivers Community Gallery (Ballina); ‘Collab Collective’ at Lone Goat Gallery (Byron Bay); and ‘Women’s Work’ at The Levee (Lismore).
In 2020 she was awarded the Emerging Artist of the Year Prize, at 'Art from the Margins' in Brisbane. Rebecca’s artwork was featured in a birthing suite in Lismore Base Hospital, Aboriginal Maternal Infant Health Service, as part of the ‘My Place is your Place’, Indigenous led Art Project.
WILLIE MUTTON BIO
Willie Mutton is a Northern Rivers based artist who creates work at the REDinc. Supported Art Studio in Lismore. Willie Mutton is a painter with a strong sense of line and texture. He creates beautiful abstract paintings with vibrant colours and strong decisive marking making techniques. Willie loves painting, creating a sense of rhythm when making his works, almost like a dance that produces truly dynamic paintings.
Willie has exhibited in a number of group exhibitions including, ‘Face Me: Art of Deafhood’ and ‘Frequency RED’ at Lismore Regional Gallery (Lismore) and ‘Collab Collective’ and ‘Redymade’ at Lone Goat Gallery (Byron Bay).
QUINLYN SEIKOT BIO
Quinlyn Seikot is an emerging artist based in the Northern Rivers Region. His practice is focused on drawing with influences ranging from art of the Renaissance period, to popular cultural imagery such as, cartoons and animated movies.
Quinlyn has a distinctively unique style of art-making, which has been fostered through art mentoring with local artist and art teacher Rene Bolten for the last few years. His series of works for Recognise are inspired by works of art from the Dutch Golden Age of painting.
He has exhibited as part of ‘Frequency RED’ at Lismore Regional Gallery (Lismore); ‘Collab Collective’ at Lone Goat Gallery (Byron Bay) and ‘Culture Vultures’ at Northern Rivers Community Gallery (Ballina).
ZION LEVY STEWART BIO
Zion has been drawing and painting almost every day for around 25 years, His distinctive naïve style captures the people, animals and magic that surround him in joyful visions of local scenes and unique, quirky portraits that often depict his character’s body and gender under their clothes.
He has regularly exhibited in group shows with RED Inc. artists with disabilities and had four solo exhibitions. He has entered the Archibald Prize twice already and again this year and has an exhibition scheduled at Tweed Regional Gallery and Margaret Olley Art Centre early next year.
His work is in private art collections in the US, UK and Australia. An award-winning short film ‘The Fine Art of Being Zion’ was featured on the ABC iView series, ‘Creatability’.
www.zionart.com.au Instagram @zionlevystewart Facebook @zionstewartartist
GILL WILLIAMS BIO
Gill Williams is an artist living in Ocean Shores, Northern NSW, Australia. His elected prowess brings him always into focus, he gives as generously to the canvas as he does to those around him.
Gill is full of energy, spontaneous, and wholehearted in his approach. His style is colourful, vibrant and powerful, he paints with abandon and asks only for you to celebrate life with him.
Instagram @gillwilliamsart
LUCAS WRIGHT BIO
Lucas Wright is an emerging artist based in Lismore, NSW, he creates his work at both REDinc. Supported Art Studio and with his art mentor René Bolten at Outpost Studio ARI in Lismore.
Lucas draws inspiration from the history of Western painting, popular culture and the places and people around him. He works with various media, painting, drawing and ceramics and embraces a broad range of influences from Rembrandt through to Van Gogh, as well as popular cultural television programs such as The Simpsons and Midsommer Murders.
In 2018 Lucas was awarded a prestigious Bundanon Art Residency from Accessible Arts, which culminated in developing work for his solo exhibition In My Town at Lismore in 2019. Lucas has also exhibited in a number of group exhibitions locally and nationally at Lismore Regional Gallery (Lismore), Lone Goat Gallery (Byron Bay), Serpentine Gallery (Lismore), Art From The Margins (Brisbane).
Lucas’ latest series of works exhibited as part of Recognise are based on the characters and buildings that exist within the story world of Midsommer Murders, starting with episode 1, Season 1, ‘The Killings at Badger’s Drift’.