Conversations

26 July - 20 August 2023

Fiona Verity, You can’t be what you can’t see, 2023

Julie Nicholson is an emerging artist living and working in Avalon on Sydney's Northern Beaches. Mainly working in acrylics and oil pastels, Nicholson uses thin glazes and mark-making to create multiple textures and depth. Recently, she has been exploring the quality of water: its movement and variable surface qualities. Nicholson won first prize in painting at the 2021 Ewart Art Prize, was a finalist in the Northern Beaches Environmental Art Award (2021, 2022, 2023) and The Fishers Ghost Award (2022), and a semi-finalist in the KAAF Art Award (2021).

Fiona Verity is based in Sydney's Northern Beaches working from a studio attached to her home. She draws inspiration from her surroundings, indoors and out. Verity is a keen collector; often returning from a walk with a pocket full of treasures that will be drawn or repurposed into a creative project. Verity is currently completing a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the National Art School. She has been showing her artwork since 2013 and has exhibited at galleries including Eramboo Environmental Arts Centre, Gallery 4, Sydney Road Gallery and Manly Art Gallery & Museum.

Together, Verity and Nicholson co-host the Art W**k podcast. Conversations at the Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf was born out of an enduring friendship and creative partnership. Embedded within the works on display are the influences of conversations held with over 150 artists, gallerists and curators since the podcast’s inception in 2020.

For Conversations, Nicholson continues in her exploration of the structure of water through linear mark-making—repeating, refining, and layering her application of paint to capture its moods and mutability. Meanwhile, Verity contemplates the experience of womanhood today by recasting art historical representations of the female figure within the contemporary domestic sphere.