DIRECTORS Robert and Melissa Bergin ART DIRECTOR Sarah Walters EDITOR Nicole Tattersall EVENT MANAGER Emma Carey LOGO DESIGN Melina Kok WEBSITE DESIGN Bland Consulting WEB EDITORS & CURVY SOCIAL MEDIA Nicole Tattersall Rhiannon Bulley Maria Finna Carmen Hui Megan Dell CURVY 8 first published in 2012 by SUBDVSN Level 6/69 Reservoir Street Surry Hills NSW 2010 AUSTRALIA P.612 8218 2154 E. hello@curvy-world.com WWW.CURVY-WORLD.COM // FACEBOOK.COM/CURVY CURVY is sold internationally through selected stockists including newsagents, fashion retailers and bookstores. For all distribution enquiries including opportunities to stock CURVY in your store, please contact distribution@curvy-world.com. CURVY is published once a year by SUBDVSN. SUBDVSN accepts no responsibility for material submitted for publication. Please keep duplicates of any submissions. CURVY may not be produced in whole or in part without written permission of the publishers. Views expressed in CURVY do not necessarily represent the opinions of the editors or publishers. No responsibility is accepted by SUBDVSN for the accuracy of the information within the publication. For information about this or any other CURVY publications, please visit CURVY-WORLD.COM The rights of all artists herein have been asserted. THANK YOU Andrew, Murray and Simon at Semi-Permanent, James and the team at Bland Consulting, Lena Frew, Marnie Dibden Cate at Pages digital, Andrew and Alex at Acclaim, Fafi, Nadia Saccardo at the Thousands, Miss Van, Vali at Magnation, Derek at Speed Impex, Glenn at Gordon Harris and all the artists and their representatives mentioned herein. Š SUBDVSN PTY LTD WWW.SUBDVSN.COM // FACEBOOK.COM/SUBDVSN // TWITTER.COM/SUBDVSN
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Over the eight years that CURVY has been hitting studios and bookshelves around the world, its philosophy to support and inspire young female artists has never let up. CURVY continues to be a fresh feast of more than seventy young female artists from 40 different countries worldwide. Women from major design capitals are represented, including Paris, London, LA, NYC, Melbourne, Toronto and Tokyo – and from countries as far afield as Ecuador, Mexico, Moscow, Serbia, Brazil, Indonesia, Norway, Malta and Israel among many others. CURVY is a platform where the latest generation of female creative talent can shine.
Some artists within these pages are very established, while others are just breaking through and registering a resounding blip on the creative radar. Each piece of work reminds us of the strength that women have in the arts sector worldwide. Ultimately, by bringing the book out each year, we strive to bring creative communities closer together across the world. Supporting female artists lifts the confidence of individuals and collectives to push creative boundaries even further. After a two year break from the line-up, CURVY is pleased to be back on board with our friends at Semi-Permanent, and will be touring
nationally, hitting cities and regions all over Australia and collaborating with female collectives who produce original art installations for each exhibition. These women demonstrate why there are so many exciting reasons to continue to champion them. We hope you enjoy this book as much as we enjoyed putting it together! The CURVY Team.
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CREDITS WELCOME FOREWARD MISS VAN BRIDGE STEHLI DEB MIMI LEUNG NOM KINNEAR KING LILY MAE MARTIN MELISSA CONTRERAS SONYA FU CARLI HYLAND FAITH 47 CANDY YAN YAN NG JANA BRIKE GALLERY ARTIST INDEX 004
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Pip Jamieson – the loop I remember the first magic moment I flicked through the pages of CURVY back in 2008. The sweet sensation of being enveloped in a world that was so beautifully creative, so ripe with new talent and totally feminine. I smiled from front to back, all 144 pages. A year or so later, shortly after we launched our creative community The Loop, one of the illustrators whose work captured me in that same copy of CURVY, Bec Winnel, appeared as a new profile on our fledgling site. It was one of the early highlights. Knowing not only that we’d finally got the site we’d dreamed of off the ground, but that it was being used and appreciated by a female artist I was in awe of — it still gives me goose bumps.
It’s such an exciting time to be a female creative. The boys’ club days are fading fast. Promotional vehicles offline (such as the CURVY book) and those afforded online (including blogs, twitter and The Loop) are opening up a wealth of new creative opportunities. Not only job opportunities, but opportunities for self-promotion, networking, collaboration and skills development. All of which are levelling the playing field, giving talented female creatives their time to shine. As I type this, that same smile, drawing wide and high just as it did when I pawed at my first copy of CURVY, is rising.
Pip Jamieson is co-founder of creative community The Loop (www.theloop.com.au), Australia’s leading networking site for creative professionals. A Sydney based Londoner with a distinctive marmite laugh (you either love it or hate it) Pip started her career working on the BRIT Awards before moving to MTV where she spent six glorious years working in a number of roles around the world. In 2009 she launched The Loop with her great friend Matt Fayle. The rest, as they say, is history! Theloop.com.au
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MISS France
WHO HAVE BEEN SOME OF THE BIGGEST INSPIRATIONS AND INFLUENCES IN REGARDS TO YOUR WORK? If I have to give just one name, it would be Mark Ryden. And Os Gemeos for the graffiti scene. Then, what inspires me in life and art is travelling, discovering cities and nature, meeting some passionate creative, special and crazy people, books, movies, visiting exhibitions, studios, being around my friends, sharing.... HAVE YOU DONE ANY COLLABORATIONS WITH OTHER ARTISTS? IF SO, WHAT MADE THEM SPECIAL? I usually don’t really do any collaborations, but I’ve done one recently with Olek, and it was quite interesting and fun. I like it improvised and random better. I also have a personal project that I want to experiment with tattoo artists. We’ll see.... HOW DID YOU DEVELOP YOUR CREATIVE STYLE, HOW DID YOUR CAREER AND LIFE IN ART BEGIN FOR YOU? There is a 20 year close relationship between
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me and my paintings. We evolved together, influencing each other mutually - growing up and giving life to hundreds of characters reflecting my emotions, feelings, sensitivity, moods, sensuality, erotism, fetishism etc... DO YOU HAVE A RUNNING THEME IN YOUR WORK? I realise now that I may be obsessed with Feminity. Painting female characters on and on, searching and experimenting ways and forms. It’s a universal endless theme, the favourite of most classic painters. It’s all about mystery and beauty. WHAT IMPACT HAS THE PLACE YOU GREW UP IN HAD ON YOUR WORK? I grew up in Toulouse (France) for 30 years, then I moved to Barcelona in 2003 and it has changed my mind and heart. The city itself, the language, the light, the people, the graffiti – it was a kind of “renaissance” for me at this moment. I’m still living there but I lost some magic though - (or maybe Barcelona has as well)!
WHAT MOTIVATES AND DRIVES YOU TO BE CREATIVE? Being creative is feeling alive and feeling that I do something concrete, something that I can touch and see, leaving some pieces of me that will last forever when I will be gone. It’s also a way of leaving traces of my personal life, like writing a journal over time. It’s a need, my only way to express myself and to give something to people. Sharing what I have is the best feeling. That’s why I miss painting in the streets so much. Opening up and giving away. Oh, also being in love or heartbroken helps to be creative!
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Australia HOW HAS YOUR APPROACH TO YOUR WORK CHANGED OVER TIME? It’s become much more detailed, definitely. I started out painting these grotesque but cute characters of animals with missing limbs or infected eyes or meat cleavers stuck in them. They were in big bold outlines and bright colours. When I painted in the studio I used the same process as when I painted a wall or a graffiti piece. I was very tidy and precise with my line work. Sometimes I would spend hours labouring over a simple sketch. Now, I rarely even bother with sketching. I don’t really have the patience and usually am anxious to get straight to the painting and see how it develops. This method makes me happy, it’s much freer. HOW DO YOU COME UP WITH THE CONCEPTS FOR YOUR WORK? A lot of my paintings are animal portrayals of people I already know. Sometimes I tell my subjects, sometimes I don’t. Some people I paint pictures of constantly and they turn up in several paintings. I’m always watching – I obsess over people’s personal traits and behaviour. Dudes inspire me especially, I suppose because they are so strange. I’ve spent so much of my life hanging out with boys, studying them, mimicking their behaviour, and so they naturally end up in my paintings. A lot of what I’m working on now is literally portraits of dudes I know, with all their personal possessions, only they are animals and to me this is really funny. They do things I see people doing all the time – drinking, smoking, skateboarding. They fight, swear and
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shoot each other. They get tattoos, start gangs and paint graffiti. They get arrested, they steal and fall over, and so I’m in my studio late at night, painting this and cracking up. Sometimes I will be inspired by a current affair. Arriving in London amidst rioting I was inspired to paint a rat caught robbing a footlocker by a riot squad of baby chickens in police hats. DO YOU HAVE A RUNNING THEME IN YOUR WORK? My work is basically drawing parallels between human and animal behaviour. I think the two are much more similar than a lot of us would like to think. I don’t feel that humans are more intelligent than animals, I think that the intelligence of two species are not really comparable being that we exist under such different circumstances and have adapted specially to do just that. By our own human logic we are less intelligent than ants because we can’t communicate efficiently through pheromones the way that they do, or lift 20 times our own body weight. They are practically telepathic! I don’t so much humanize animals as I do animalize humans. They are the good guys here, the under-dogs, we should learn from them. I’ve always felt it’s important to be sympathetic and sensitive towards the other things that inhabit this planet and It’s something I hope comes across in my work. WHAT KEEPS YOU BUSY BESIDES YOUR CREATIVE WORK? I work in a great bar in Dalston, it’s fantastic. I always prefer to keep a separate job a couple
of days a week rather than rely solely on my paintings for survival. It gives me a break and a chance to get out of the studio and socialize with other human beings. I would not know anyone in London if it were not for that bar. I can get a bit reclusive sometimes but going to work means I get to do things like dance and chat-up boys and get drunk two nights a week. Other than that, I travel quite a bit; I’m off to Texas in a week! I try to explore my new city too but painting usually keeps me pretty busy. YOU’RE CURRENTLY BASED IN LONDON? WHAT IS IT THAT YOU LIKE MOST ABOUT IT? Six months ago, I moved to London. It’s been exciting to start from scratch in a new place. It’s been tough too. London is very different from Sydney, for a start, it’s much more densely populated. I find myself not wanting to venture out on to the street, let alone go anywhere near the tube station at peak hours of the day. It’s an incredibly exciting city to live in though, there is always something happening. I have had plenty of crazy nights here and the opportunities to exhibit, paint walls and collaborate are constant. There are foxes and squirrels everywhere! It’s fantastic!
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Australia WHO HAVE BEEN SOME OF THE BIGGEST INSPIRATIONS AND INFLUENCES IN REGARDS TO YOUR WORK? Bill Ward, Hajimi Sorayama, Lady Pink, Don Ed Hardy, to name a few favourites. WHAT IS ONE PIECE OF ADVICE YOU WISH YOU GIVEN? Don’t listen to being told as a teenager that you can’t do things as good as boys. But then again, this is something that really pushed me harder. WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF CREATIVELY IN THE NEXT 5 YEARS? WHAT SORT OF PROJECTS WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE WORKING ON? Hopefully living and working in another country, still living off my art, but having achieved a few more things on my tick list, such as the book I’ve been working on. Travelling around to visit and do art in more countries, more collaborations with amazing artists, perhaps learn Spanish, have a family. Or alternatively, buy a kitten or a piglet. WHAT MEDIUMS DO YOU TEND TO USE IN YOUR WORK? ARE THERE ANY OTHERS YOU’D LIKE TO TRY? I work in Aerosol on the streets – and in my studio I work mainly on wood or card in acrylics and guache. But every couple years I get into
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new mediums. I love drawing in all kinds of pencils. The first paint I learned how to use properly in school was oil, so every now and then I do a little oil painting and hope to start getting back into it again soon as I find it has the longest life span and the colour and textures are way more intense than any other paint I’ve used. This year I have some sculpture plans too. WHAT MOTIVATES AND DRIVES YOU TO BE CREATIVE? All sorts of different things. I am really driven and have wanted to work as an artist for as long as I can remember. Now that’s what I am doing I feel like I have to constantly evolve, improve and challenge myself – which can sometimes get out of hand. The best thing I like about what I do is every week it is something different. Different projects, different locations, different people to meet and work with - another State another Country. I think these are some of the things that keep me interested and keep me motivated. I am left handed and right brained, so my creative side is so dominating that I would go loopy working a 9-5 office job, it just doesn’t suit me at all. Another thing I have found is my art can be used as a type of therapy when things are difficult in my life or I am struggling emotionally due to life circumstances. Often this is when some of my best art comes out. I do think as an artist of any kind it’s really important to always believe you can keep getting better at what you
do, I am 33 now, my work is so different now to how it was a decade ago. I am really interested to see where I will be at 44, 55 and 66.. I think and hope to improve and push myself as far as I can in my life span as an artist. WHAT KEEPS YOU BUSY BESIDES YOUR CREATIVE WORK? The last few years I have been working 7 days a week. It’s terrible I know, I feel so strange when I take days off, I get a little anxious. When you work for yourself it’s hard to know when to stop as you can only estimate how long things will take, which I am usually terrible at. And if I do take a day off I usually end up going off to paint a wall somewhere.. Hmm you have just brought to my attention that I actually have no life. Oh no...I do however like to go out and have some drinks with friends and check out art shows when I can. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU LEARNT THAT’S COME IN USEFUL? Less is more, love isn’t always enough, and do not settle for anything less than what you want.
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MIMI Uk
WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF CREATIVELY IN THE NEXT 5 YEARS? WHAT SORT OF PROJECTS WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE WORKING ON? I’d like to have a more integrated body of work where I’m not constantly switching between thinking of it as ‘illustration’ or as ‘art’, where all the different types of work I do fit seamlessly and make sense together. At the moment everything’s slowly converging and if I can reach some kind of artistic epiphany this year and start seeing how all my creative output is related, I’d be really happy. After that I really want to make more involving work – like installation or sculpture. I’ve had ideas for these which I’ve been really wanting to execute for a long time now – where you can capture someone’s brain and body for a little bit and take them over with your ideas, insert them into your world. Maybe I’ll try hypnotism. I want to change the way people see things in their daily lives. HOW HAS YOUR APPROACH TO YOUR WORK CHANGED OVER TIME? I think I understand myself more and know how to manage the motions I go through when I’m working or when things are going slow. I’ve got more experience in how to ignore gratuitous advice/non-constructive criticism, which is really really helpful. It’s like there’s a crazy madman in my head running around, causing havoc
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and doing random disgusting things and I have to herd it around and trick it into doing what I want it to do. Like a video game, and I’ve been getting better at playing.
convinced when people said stuff like ‘I need to create’ or ‘it’s who I am’, but now I really understand that and I need to draw… or I’ll actually go nuts.
DO YOU HAVE A RUNNING THEME IN YOUR WORK? I’ve always been interested in people and the divide between the internal and external. What’s beneath the surface? What do people keep inside that others can’t see? This interest started off with emotions like sadness, grief, anger, depression and I made some quite black work about these things when I was at uni. Then I started looking at external, physical signs of internal distress when I was in my vomit, turd and disease phase. Now I’m looking at human anatomy and viscera.
WHAT ARE THE ROOTS TO YOUR CREATIVE STYLE, HOW IT ALL BEGAN? My current style developed in Hong Kong where I moved to in 2007 after graduating from the Royal College of Art. I loved the city’s mad haphazard-ness – everything was just thoughtlessly clumped together, thrown side by side. For me Hong Kong represented the struggle of individuals to survive in a place swamped by shiny corporations, visualised as a large patchwork of lives that meshed the extremely rich and awfully poor together in one hot, stinking, vibrant city. I used to ride the bus from the country to the city and could see how things changed from ancient hills and rundown huts to glossy new shopping centres and headquarters of international banks. Things kind of clicked on those bus journeys, I began to see how things fit together in a bigger picture and that thought inspired me.
WHAT MOTIVATES AND DRIVES YOU TO BE CREATIVE? Last year I ended up in a full-time job that had nothing to do with art. It was a really intense job that involved a lot of travel. It was a great experience but because I didn’t have the time or physical/emotional energy to put into my artwork I kind of lost my mind. I could feel myself slipping into a complacent slumber, just drifting through life, and I can’t stand the idea of being like that - just content with a steady income and an ok job. I don’t want that. I never used to be
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WHO HAVE BEEN SOME OF THE BIGGEST INSPIRATIONS AND INFLUENCES IN REGARDS TO YOUR WORK? Many artists, writers and musicians have inspired me over the years. Tom Waits, Frida Kahlo, Gustav Klimt and all the books I have read and loved feeding in their little inspirations. The main influencer would have to be my partner Adam. He is also an artist and we have worked in the same room for over six years now, his style and medium are different to mine, but chatting about what we are up to, ideas, projects and the like is part of our everyday. We definitely motivate each other if one gets back to work the other soon follows. WHAT IMPACT HAS THE PLACE YOU GREW UP IN HAD ON YOUR WORK? I grew up in the Norfolk countryside in a small village with lots of flat fields to wander round. I used to do so thinking of details of the lives of my characters that I had filled my sketchbooks with. I definitely had a lot of space to play with my imagination, we had lots of animals when I was younger – goats, pigs, cows, sheep and chickens. I love painting animals. I think growing up with so many around has played a part there. I went back to live there again for a year and a half not so long ago and enjoyed the nostalgia it brought, having a pheasant in the garden named Barry, collecting feathers on walks and painting them, rummaging through my parents things and incorporating many of these finds as imagery in paintings.
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HOW DO YOU COME UP WITH THE CONCEPTS FOR YOUR WORK? I doodle ideas first very loosely, playing about with lines and seeing what pops into my head. Sometimes an idea comes from an object I have found and the piece evolves around it. Other times it is something I wish to make. I keep these props I have made hanging around the studio, I like having something from the paintings brought in to my world. At the moment I’m making little paper boats out of old letters. I try to keep a magpie eye out for all things that could be possible elements to painting – curiosity shops are a gold mine, but most of the time ideas come from my head drifting off somewhere, often when I should be paying attention. HAVE YOU DONE ANY COLLABORATIONS WITH OTHER ARTISTS? IF SO, WHAT MADE THEM SPECIAL? I am working on a collaboration with Kaspian Shore and will be doing another with Kelly Vivanco, both of these are for the Prisma collective, all artists involved are working on collaborative pieces for an exhibition in 2013. I’ve been chatting back and forth with Kaspian for a while about art and the projects happening with Prisma. It’s fun to be working on something with him – our styles suit each other and he draws boys so it’s interesting to paint a male character. It’s good to do this sort of thing, it pulls you out of your element a bit. On occasion you get a brief for a group show that’s very different to your usual themes – it can be difficult
to approach but you can learn a little from doing something a bit different. WHAT KEEPS YOU BUSY BESIDES YOUR CREATIVE WORK? Reading is what I like to do when I’m not painting, I just finished ‘Diary of a Supertramp’ which was like a version of ‘On the Road’ and I’ve just started ‘Dead Soul’s’ – which is a comedy but you wouldn’t know to look at it. Many books have influenced my paintings over the years. I have done two exhibitions where girls were directly inspired by characters from novels; the first was Rosa from ‘House of Spirits’ by Isabel Allende and the other ‘Cassandra’ from ‘I capture the Castle’ by Dodie Smith. I enjoy writing but it’s usually just notes and ideas, starts without finishing and I plan to get back to it when I have the time but usually I am just painting, eating, sleeping and doing a bit of dancing round the room in between.
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Australia WHAT MEDIUMS DO YOU TEND TO USE IN YOUR WORK? ARE THERE ANY OTHERS YOU’D LIKE TO TRY? When I draw I use felt tip pens on water colour paper; a technique developed to mirror the line work of etchings that I enjoy so much. When I paint I use oils on canvas (if I had more money I’d use linen). I really prefer oils to acrylic and I love the texture of the paint, the way it feels pushing it around with a brush. The drying time can annoy me a bit so it forces me to have three or four paintings going at a time, so I always have something to work on. Printmaking is something I’d like to explore more, but I have no access to the necessary equipment.
self portraiture but my focus has recently switched to painting the people around me. I think this is due to me getting a little bored of my own face, but also because I have gained the confidence to allow other people to see themselves through my eyes.
DO YOU HAVE A RUNNING THEME IN YOUR WORK? People, anatomy and emotion. During my study at university I drew body parts at the anatomy museum and I have done a lot of life drawing. I think these sorts of study are so important for people who work figuratively. Our bodies are amazing. When I was younger I did a lot of
WHERE ARE YOU CURRENTLY BASED? WHAT IS IT THAT YOU LIKE MOST ABOUT IT? I’m in Berlin, Germany. What I like the most about it is the inspiring people I meet here. I also feel free in so many ways; free to create, to explore and to share ideas. There’s so much art and music here, so many things to do and not do. The other day I walked past a
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WHAT KEEPS YOU BUSY BESIDES YOUR CREATIVE WORK? My daughter, she keeps me very busy and we often draw and sing together. When I am not ‘mumming’ I am creating, and sometimes I have to remind myself to go out and interact with the world. I worked out the other night that I hadn’t actually been out for two months. Eep!
supermarket and some men with fancy hats had wheeled an upright piano to the entrance and were playing music to everyone – you just don’t get that in any other city! WHAT ARE THE ROOTS TO YOUR CREATIVE STYLE, HOW IT ALL BEGAN? Television, comic books, my Mother’s big art books on William Hogarth and Louis Wain, and the strange little postcards she collected. I was very attracted to strong line work, and the contrast in black and white photography from a very young age. I also used it as a way to escape, I wasn’t the happiest person for a long time and I used to just hide away by making art and writing stories.
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USA WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF CREATIVELY IN THE NEXT 5 YEARS, WHAT SORT OF PROJECTS WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE WORKING ON? I have been working on my jewellery line for a few years and it is starting to blossom. I’m excited to see where that goes and imagine most of my focus will be there. I would love to eventually expand into clothing & other accessories – through collaborations, licensing and on my own. My overall goal is to continue to merge my art with my love of fashion and strengthen my aesthetic & grow my brand, Axelhoney. WHAT MEDIUMS DO YOU TEND TO USE IN YOUR WORK? ARE THERE ANY OTHERS YOU’D LIKE TO TRY? I work mainly in gouache on watercolour paper and sometimes wood. Every once in a while I create little sculpey characters that I hand paint with acrylic. I also work in wax a lot. My jewellery creating process starts with hand carving the initial pieces out of a hard wax. I do enjoy ceramics and would love to try working in oils again.
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DO YOU HAVE A RUNNING THEME IN YOUR WORK? There is an undercurrent theme of feminism in a lot of my work, about being a woman. Being soft, caring, vulnerable, strong, mischievous and capable – all at the same time. It’s also about celebrating imagination. The power to believe that anything is possible as long as you can dream it. That is what is so fun about drawing. You can draw anything, ANYTHING. There are no limits. I have been told that it seems I have created a different world where all these characters and places I have imagined and painted live amongst one another. And it’s true; there is this little world in my head where all these things exist. DESCRIBE YOUR WORK AND CREATIVE STYLE I start all my pieces by drawing in my sketchbook. Sometimes they are random subconscious expressive lines that usually spur into a character or situation. Other times, I’ll have a general theme or subject matter in my head that I work out up there first and then try and translate on the paper. My favorite tool is a 0.5 2B lead mechanical pencil and a gum
eraser. I then enlarge the sketch to the size I want the finished piece to be, mostly freehand but sometimes I’ll use an enlarger to get the balance and composition of my initial sketch. After it is pencilled, I usually work in gouache to add colour and shading. WHAT MOTIVATES AND DRIVES YOU TO BE CREATIVE? I do my best to live my life in the moment. Enjoy the act of simply breathing. In trying to figure out my reason for being, I’ve decided I’ll probably never find out – but it is probably a good idea to just make the most of the time I have here in this world. I feel the best gift I have to give is my art. To create things that are pleasant to the eye and nice to look at. That gives someone a sense of pleasure, be it through the act of pleasing shapes and colours coming together or a remembrance of a sweet memory, a thrilling dream or an inspiring thought.
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Hong Kong WHAT IMPACT HAS THE PLACE YOU GREW UP IN HAD ON YOUR WORK? I wasn’t born rich and I grew up in one of those public housing estates in Hong Kong which has a pretty high suicide rate and a lot of domestic problems (it was common to see people jump off and die, I saw my first dead body at the age of 8, that image is still stamped in my mind). Even though I no longer live there I still dream of that place frequently. For some reason, the place is always so gloomy and creepy in my dreams, not like I had an unhappy childhood there. People are curious about the obscure atmosphere in my work, sometimes it’s the subject matter that I don’t want to illustrate with a happy and colorful palette. Other times, I think I project this atmosphere in my paintings unconsciously. I’m glad that I grew up in such a place though, where I was raised to be sensitive to my surroundings. WHAT MEDIUMS DO YOU TEND TO USE IN YOUR WORK? ARE THERE ANY OTHERS YOU’D LIKE TO TRY? The majority of my work is painted digitally. Regardless of its flexibility, I still prefer to paint brush stroke by brush stroke using a drawing tablet. I work with layers and self-made brushes but I don’t use built-in filters and effects. I also
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work with traditional media every now and then. I am especially interested in sculpture; I think this is something that I would like to explore one day. HOW DO YOU COME UP WITH THE CONCEPTS FOR YOUR WORK? I like to combine realistic subject matter with surreal elements which are greatly inspired by my dreams. I like to touch people’s emotion and let them come up with their own interpretation when they study my work. I am always hit by a strong vibe of emotion when I paint, it’s crazy, sometimes I think my work has a mind of its own and it feeds off my emotion. When I don’t have a solid concept, I would just let my mind wander and pick up random thought fragments while I doodle. A great idea is born this way sometimes. If I play around with it more, it could turn out to be a complete different concept. I guess it’s good since I don’t want to limit myself to just one single idea. WHAT IS IT THAT INSPIRES YOU? Sometimes from dreams, sometimes from the vision I see before I fall asleep, sometimes from an instantaneous idea that sparks in my head. They hit me at random times and they always turn out to be really interesting elements which I
could use in my work. Especially dreams. I have very crazy, vivid, tangible and symbolic dreams and I remember them in precise detail. Other than that, I am also inspired by music, especially music without lyrics, social injustice, the human condition, shades of colors and things that happen around us. WHAT MOTIVATES AND DRIVES YOU TO BE CREATIVE? Honest and constructive feedback from people, it helps me to grow and improve. Beautiful works by other artists or a really good piece of music can also lure me into a creative mood. I also like to look at my old work and find out things that I could have approached better. Art to me is not just a hobby but also my passion and career. I’m thankful that I get to chase my dream and do what I enjoy doing, I think the passion for it is the biggest motivation of all.
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CARLI Australia
WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF CREATIVELY IN THE NEXT 5 YEARS, WHAT SORT OF PROJECTS WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE WORKING ON? At the moment I am diligently working away at my new business – The Grim Press. I do graphic design with a focus on unconventional design applications and niche printing processes. My aim in five years is, other than to be established in Copenhagen, to be working with big clients who unequivocally trust my creative decisions. I’ll be working on custom design wallpapers for private clients as well as in bars, cafes and retail outlets. I hope to be working on a number of publication designs for artists and clients. I love to design in other languages and I hope to develop a client base that spans internationally. In Copenhagen I will have a Riso printer, a Heidelberg Letterpress, maybe a Lin-o-type and probably some young sassy Danish staff to help me out with the workload and make every day just wonderful to be part of. WHAT IMPACT HAS THE PLACE YOU GREW UP IN HAD ON YOUR WORK? I grew up on a medium sized property in the heart of central western New South Wales. Honestly there was minimal art and culture on offer so once the internet came around I sourced most of my artistic inspiration from the ‘outside world’. Being a stranded teenager on a farm provided me with a lot of time. I used to work on huge charcoal sketches which took me
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weeks to finish and experiment with – taking and manipulating photos. A lot of photos. I was selected to be part of this photography course in Sydney when I was 16 years old; I think this really opened my eyes to the possibility of becoming a professional artist. That feeling of peace and calm has really stuck with me. Generally there are these common threads of stillness and silence that weave through my work, and also through my method of working. WHAT MEDIUMS DO YOU TEND TO USE IN YOUR WORK? ARE THERE ANY OTHERS YOU’D LIKE TO TRY? I have consistently worked in illustration and photography since I can remember. I generally use pacer pencils because they are so fine and subtle. I have always shot on film, at the moment I’m in love with Fuji 160S which I shoot on my Yashica TLR. My new business is really focused on using unconventional, hands on mediums for commercial print output. I work mostly in Risograph (which is a kind of automatic screen printing machine), Letterpress, Hand Press and Screen Printing. HAVE YOU DONE ANY COLLABORATIONS WITH OTHER ARTISTS? IF SO, WHAT MADE THEM SPECIAL? I recently completed a project at a Riso stencil printing studio called Knust, in Nijmegen. I invited eight artists from across the world to respond with an illustration to eight topics, such
as: ‘Eight Rubbish Bins’, ‘Eight Park Benches and ‘Eight Public Toilets’ etc. In total eight booklets were published using the Riso printers. An artist from Belgium created a wallpaper in response to the theme and I had these two amazing sound/ projection artists perform during the book launch. The dedication and consideration that went in to all these different aspects was inspiring and humbling, especially considering I knew none of the artists personally. On the horizon I will be directing a collaborative poster project where artists in Asia team up with Australian artists to create something that’ll blow your mind. Enough said. HOW HAS YOUR APPROACH TO YOUR WORK CHANGED OVER TIME? I have an open mind to how something can be created; I’ve tried out a bunch of different techniques and mediums and like to push them to their limits. I have a make-do approach to the tools and processes I use to create my work. I generally run things with a DIY or recyclable attitude and I’ve built a lot of systems out of found or cheap materials. In my opinion, if it gets the job done, and done convincingly, then it is not necessary to contribute to the demand for mass production.
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Africa DESCRIBE YOUR BIGGEST CREATIVE ACHIEVEMENT. Having my son Keya. WHAT IMPACT HAS THE PLACE YOU GREW UP IN HAD ON YOUR WORK? Its textures and scratchings have worked their way into the fabric of my images and mind. I’ve been knocked over by the harshness of this country, and also its kindness. The contrast and contradictions that exist here are pivotal to my understanding of the world. My trust and belief in the human race is fundamentally broken, yet I see such beauty in its weakness. A profound strength in fact that keeps rising from the ashes. My works are little stories, glimpses of memory or unraveling sentences, I am sure many of the original impulses stir from some corner of experience in this wild place. My mother brought us up with a strong connection to the nature elements. So I also feel the wind and the earth speaking here. African dust has a certain deep redness to it, the sunlight is somewhat magnificently golden. The Johannesburg storms break you open.
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HOW HAS YOUR APPROACH TO YOUR WORK CHANGED OVER TIME? The work I’m creating has changed a lot, but my root philosophy still remains. DESCRIBE THE SPACE YOU CREATE YOUR WORK IN. I share it with my lovely husband so it’s kind of like a second home... A cave to hide in, away from the world and its noise... WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU LEARNT THAT’S COME IN USEFUL? To not take things so seriously. Breathe, relax and be calm.
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Hong Kong WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF CREATIVELY IN THE NEXT 5 YEARS, WHAT SORT OF PROJECTS WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE WORKING ON? Besides working professionally as a communication designer, I would like to spend more time to draw, paint and explore different illustration styles, mediums and formats. I hope to exhibit on a more regular basis, hold my first solo exhibition and undertake a wall painting project. Meanwhile collaborate with creative agencies and directors for commercial and editorial work, such as illustrations for packaging, fashion, cook books, magazines and children’s books. HOW HAS YOUR APPROACH TO YOUR WORK CHANGED OVER TIME? The introduction of graphic design in University and my day time profession have definitely made an impact on my decision making; growing an obsession with neatness, grids, shapes, lines, colours and patterns. Nowadays, I do more of my research on computers than books; observe more of my surroundings, being more aware on the process and outcome. The only thing that hasn’t changed since then is illustrating on paper, it helps me think more than on a monitor; something more substantial and tactile. A computer is only to be used for visual
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research, retouching and finished art in my illustration process. In terms of illustration style, I trust there can be a crossover between fine art, graphic design and illustration. My approach is to keep finding good briefs and keep illustrating. The more I draw, the more I explore and the more possibilities I can find. The joy of illustrating is to be able to find a sense of self expression. WHAT MEDIUMS DO YOU TEND TO USE IN YOUR WORK? ARE THERE ANY OTHERS YOU’D LIKE TO TRY? I usually draw with pen and ink, pencil, brush and colour with actual paint or digitally. I definitely would like to reduce my reliance on the computer as much as possible. I would love to use a lot more ink, watercolor and acrylic, to draw and paint on heavy paper stocks, cards, canvas and wood. Screen printing and laser cutting are also on my to-do list too. DESCRIBE THE SPACE YOU CREATE YOUR WORK IN. I create illustrations in my own bedroom where I dedicated a corner to call my “studio” – it is in constant flux of tidy and messy. I have stacks of books and magazines I rarely read, boxes of paper samples, a medium sized desk space, iMac Graphic Tablet. Ther are various prints and
frames surrounding my room and on the wall. It is important to have a nice settled space to work from – plenty of lights, snacks, water, music and a good brief – all neccessary elements which I need to have before I start to work. WHERE ARE YOU CURRENTLY BASED? WHAT IS IT THAT YOU LIKE MOST ABOUT IT? I’m currently living and working in Melbourne. Melbourne has a good community feel and a better working culture for creatives. It has the space for young artists and designers to explore and express their own voice; I often find myself overwhelmed by meeting other talented creatives, attending design events and exhibitions. My all-time favourite things in Melbourne are: it’s greenery, cycling culture, great brunch places and last but not least, great friends I have met.
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Latvia WHAT IMPACT HAS THE PLACE YOU GREW UP IN HAD ON YOUR WORK? I was born in Latvia, a small country in the North of Europe. In geopolitical terms – Eastern Europe. I am of Latvian nationality, and among just a million and a half of people speaking Latvian as their first native language. It does leave some kind of imprint of uniqueness. The country is green, clean, sparsely populated. I grew up playing in meadows and uncultivated woods, learning to gather herbs, mushrooms and berries, in close connection to cyclic tides of time. For the most part of my sunny childhood my country was occupied by the Soviets. It was a very different world, very different concepts about basic values in life. And in addition I was exceptionally sensitive to any ethical notion which I was given as a child. Wealth or prosperous individual life had no real meaning in that world, as well as beauty. I was petrified and scared to death by the first sights of the synthetically beautiful, creepy-joyful imagery from the West in 90’s. All these different implications have shaped me, as a person and as an artist. HOW DO YOU COME UP WITH THE CONCEPTS FOR YOUR WORK? It is mostly an organic half-conscious process. I build my bodies of work for showing in cycles, and each cycle has a backbone of a common feeling and idea, which is often not
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even feasible for verbalization. My work is not an illustration for my conscious thoughts. The primal inducements come in different and often unbelievably pedestrian ways – as a few words I overhear in a random conversation, or a silly movie, a story I read in a newspaper, an indistinct scene I observe from the window of a car – anything that unleashes the imagination and suddenly appears significant, even without real reason. There are some subjects or images which keep haunting me, coming back to appear in my work again and again. These are either archetypes or most comprehensive common symbols, like the child, forest, blood, insects, etc. Or some private symbolism which is hard even for me to decrypt. WHAT IS IT THAT INSPIRES YOU? Human nature as such. Dreams, isolation, desires, pain, courage, love. Existential loneliness. Death, fear, shame, guilt, warmth of human closeness. Hope beyond hope. Abreaction. Life. WHAT MOTIVATES AND DRIVES YOU TO BE CREATIVE? It is the other way around – the property of being creative is the motivation to do anything at all in this odd bizarre world we inhabit. The ability to create is the driving force. The activity we call ‘thinking’ is often just restructuring our
past presumptions and prejudices. To be creative means to walk half a step beyond these walls, wander off the narrow path of ‘common sense’ and conventions. Thus it is always a path questionable, inconsistent, dubious, unsteady and risky. But definitely it is the most beautiful one, path of the heart – whatever is your occupation. WHAT DO THE WORDS ‘FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION’ MEAN TO YOU? It means an impossible ideal world for an artist, utopia which we think we want to attain, as close as possible. On an outer level it is understood socially and politically. But I’m interested in deeper levels – to be free from my own preconceptions and mental constructions, free from ego or ‘self’, while creating art. In the physical world of gravitation, our most comfortable position is lying down, and we overpower the gravitation every day by getting out of bed. Maybe flying has been the symbol of physical freedom for us humans. ‘Freedom of expression’ is a mental flying, expressed in a way perceptible for others.
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Each year the CURVY team opens the flood gates to invite artists to submit their work for consideration in the CURVY book. It’s a process that keeps the publication fresh and helps us to look a little further beyond our backyard for breaking female artists that might not normally get the exposure they deserve. With this, the eighth book in the CURVY series – that backyard now includes over 47 countries around the world! This year we limited the submission window to two weeks only – which in truth was an attempt to try and limit the number of submissions - as each year it has become more difficult
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to handle the growing volume. It was also designed to reward artists that have stayed in constant contact with CURVY over the last year and kept on top of CURVY happenings via the curvy-world.com website and other initiatives we are involved with. We consider every entry thoroughly and although somewhat overwhelmed – the process always leaves us totally inspired. Even with the micro timing of two weeks, we still received over 1,100 submissions this year – which is an amazing result. Thanks to everyone who took the time to submit! We only had space for 60 artists in the book this year via submissions – so that means there
were more than one thousand artists that we couldn’t include. We can’t begin to tell you how difficult that process is. We could have easily put out three or four more CURVY books based on the amazing talent and work we witnessed. The next 60 pages highlight some of the most exciting artists that have graced the CURVY inbox via submissions this year. If you’re a female artist and would like to be considered for future CURVY books please stay in touch via curvy – world.com – we thrive on seeing new faces and new work and would love to hear from you. We hope you love the following artists as much as we do.
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SORINA WILLIAMS
ALYSON PEARSON 083
084 ANDREA MCCREADY
ANDREA OFFERMANN 085
086 LUCY MCLEOD
SUSAN PURNELL 087
088 TIFFANY RYSDALE
ANNE NUMONT 089
090 MARIA FINNA
REBECCA TER BORG 091
092 EVE YOUNG
SAMANTHA DECARLO 093
094 SUPERSONIC
PHOEBE JOHNSON 095
096 ﾃ記ODIE
LARA MARSHALL 097
098 HAYLEY O’CONNOR
KAFF EINE 099
100 MARCELA BOLIVAR
DANIELLE BOLTON 101
102 AMY BLUE
JESSICA NG 103
104 LADY POISE
NAT CARROLL105
106 JESSICA PAGE
LILY MAY 107
108 CHERYL ORSINI
NADEESHA GODAMUNNE 109
110 VENETIA CUSSEN
ROSALIND CLARK 111
112 RENA LITTLESON
CATHERINE ESTERS 113
114 JULIANNE TREW
CAROL FARRELL 115
116 FELICITY GARDNER
MOIE PREISENBERGER 117
118 JO LEY
ERICA WILLIAMS 119
120 DOMINIQUE MERVEN
CARMEN HUI121
122 BRETT MANNING
KATHRYN RENOWDEN GALLERY 123
124 KELLY MCKERNAN
TABITHA SHAFRAN 125
126 SALLY ZOU
BASAK SAVCIGIL 127
128 ALICE AMSEL
KELLY SMITH 129
130 ZAN VON ZED
BETH EMILY 131
132 ANNE DAVIDSON
ORLAGH MURPHY 133
134 ERIN FLANNERY
LILIAN DARMONO 135
136 LILLY PIRI
MARIA MOSQUERA 137
138 ELISE LAMPE
MAUDE GUESNE 139
140 LUCY HARDIE
ANNE COBAI 141
ALICE AMSEL ALYSON PEARSON AMY BLUE ANDREA OFFERMANN ANDY MCCREADY ANNE COBAI ANNE NUMONT ANNIE DAVIDSON BASAK SAVCIGIL BEC WINNEL BETH EMILY BRIDGE STEHLI BRETT MANNING CANDY YAN YAN NG CARLI HYLAND CARMEN HUI CAROL FARRELL CATHERINE ESTERS CHERYL ORSINI DANIELLE BOLTON
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128 083 102 085 084 141 089 132 127 081 131 014 122 068 056 121 115 113 108 101
DEB DOMINIQUE MERVEN ELISE LAMPE ËLODIE ERICA WILLIAMS ERIN FLANNERY EVE YOUNG FAITH 47 FELICITY GARDNER HAYLEY O’CONNOR JANA BRIKE JESSICA NG JESSICA PAGE JO LEY JULIANNE TREW KAFF EINE KATHRYN RENOWDEN KELLY MCKERNAN KELLY SMITH LADY POISE
020 120 138 096 119 134 092 062 116 098 074 103 106 118 114 099 123 124 129 104
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097 LILIAN DARMONO 135 LILLY PIRI 136 LILY MAE MARTIN 038 LILY MAY 107 LUCY HARDIE 140 LUCY MACLEOD 086 MARCELA BOLIVAR 100 MARIA FINNA 090 MARIA MOSQUERA 137 MAUDE GUESNE 139 MELISSA CONTRERAS 044 MIMI LEUNG 026 MISS VAN 006 MOIE PREISENBERGER 117 NADEESHA GODAMUNNE 109 NAT CARROLL 105 NOM KINNEAR KING 032 ORLAGH MURPHY 133 PHOEBE JOHNSON 095
REBECCA TERBORG RENA LITTLESON Rosalind clark SALLY ZOU SAMANTHA DECARLO SONYA FU SORINA WILLIAMS SUPERSONIC SUSAN PURNELL TABITHA SHAFRAN TIFFANY RYSDALE VENETIA CUSSEN ZAN VON ZED
091 112 111 126 093 050 082 094 087 125 088 110 130
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CURVY connects the female creative community. What started in 2003 as an annual book and exhibition series in Sydney Australia has now grown to become quite a hit around the globe indeed. Collaborating with women from design capitals including Paris, London, LA, NYC, Melbourne, Toronto and Tokyo – and from countries as far afield as Ecuador, Mexico, Moscow, Serbia, Latvia, Indonesia, Norway, Malta and Israel among many others, CURVY is a platform where the next generation of female creative talent can shine. This edition, the eighth in the series, introduces the latest wave of exciting female visual artists in a new hard copy format and builds on the momentum of previous years with a new batch of boundary breakers. The CURVY mission is to inspire and celebrate the most creative women in the world through our books, events, online community and initiatives. Head to the official CURVY website to find out more and get involved. www.curvy-world.com