COMA

Currently on view at Hazlehurst Art Centre as part of the exhibition ‘New South: Recent Painting from Southern Australia’ is Justin Williams’ painting ‘Captive Audience’, 2022.

The figures in ‘Captive Audience’ are conjured from Williams’ imagination - a fiction of male inmates, gathered in a prison yard dressed in their everyday clothing. They throw crumbs to a group of birds beneath them, in a personal and intimate act that can only be completely comprehended by the author himself. Depictions of figures, locations, clothing and actions are changed, combined or deleted. Through this the geographically and chronologically indistinct final result rears as something entirely new, eliciting both empathy and understanding yet retaining its individuality.

Justin Williams, Captive Audience, 2022, oil on canvas, 193 x 208 cm / 76 x 81 7/8 inches. Photograph by Silversalt Photography. Courtesy of Hazlehurst Art Centre.

Currently on view at The Arts Club of Chicago is Teresa Baker’s solo exhibition titled ‘Shift in the Clouds.’

On the exhibition Zara Yost writes, “ The use of turf as land or territory signifies America’s colonial history and what the country has claimed is as its own—which is as false as the polyethylene used in the fibers of artificial grass—along with Baker’s own interpretations of America, like the waste or scraps of land that American lawmakers have permitted Native Americans to occupy, and the way the United States has treated those lands and indigenous peoples as a result of colonialism and systemic racism.”

Visit the link in the bio to read the full review.

Teresa Baker, Capturing Space (detail), 2021, willow, yarn and artificial sinew on astroturf. Teresa Baker, Field Notes (detail), 2022, willow, spray paint and yarn on artificial turf. Photos by Jacob Phillip. Image Courtesy of The Arts Club of Chicago and the Artist.

Currently on view at Fondation Louis Vuitton, Open Space #14, is Lu Yang’s new film ‘DOKU-The Flow’, the second chapter of their ongoing work ‘DOKU’. This presentation is on view through 9 September.

Curated by Claudia Buizza and Ludovic Delalande, this presentation looks at new adventures of DOKU, a character whose name is inspired by the phrase ‘’Dokusho Dokushi’’ meaning in Japanese “We are born alone, and we die alone”.

Installation View, Lu Yang, DOKU The Flow, Louis Vuitton Foundation, Paris, France, 2024. Photo by Jules Hidrot. Image Courtesy of Louis Vuitton Foundation and the Artist.

COMA is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Chinese artist Yimiao Liu (b.1993, Hunan, China), titled, ‘Persistence of Vision’, opening Friday 2 August 6-8pm. This is the artist’s first solo presentation with the gallery and taking place at 2/27-39 Abercrombie Street, NSW, 2008.

Often creating otherworldly metaphors for real-world situations, Liu’s soft, sensitive and pastel-hued paintings explore the connection between forms of organic life and the human experience. Focusing in particular on the female body in all its states - sublime, grotesque, beautiful, soft and hard, she depicts subtle moments of destruction that eventually blossom and prosper.

Yimiao Liu currently lives and works in New York City.

Yimiao Liu, ‘The Irresistible Blue’ 2024, (detail), oil and graphite on linen, 81 x 203 cm, 32 x 80 inches. Courtesy of the Artist and COMA.

Currently on view is Brooklyn based artist Renée Estée’s online presentation titled ‘Sad Waters, Different Oceans, Secret Fires.’

Created during her time in Cornwall earlier this year for an artist residency at The Porthmeor Studios, St Ives, these paintings began at the sea. Nestled in the old town of St Ives, a seaside suburb in Cornwall, Estée spent every day looking out onto the ocean, at the confluence of depths and shallows, a site of drama and chaos, nature and sublime - her studio window, a porthole through which she watched herself set sail.

Renée Estée, ‘Sad Waters, Different Oceans, Secret Fires’ no. 13, 18, 2, 25, 29, 4, 41, 48, 5 & 7, oil paint, oil bar, wax, charcoal on paper, 35.5 x 28 cm, 14 x 11 in.

Kansas Smeaton and Justin Williams are currently included in Hazlehurst Art Centre’s exhibition ‘New South: Recent Painting from Southern Australia’, on view from 6 July through 8 September, 2024.

This group presentation showcases the work and stories of twenty eight diverse painters from Southern Australia.

Kansas Smeaton, Julia with pearls, 2022, oil on canvas, 122 x 102 cm / 48 x 40 1/8 inches. Justin Williams, Captive Audience, 2022, oil on canvas, 193 x 208 cm / 76 x 81 7/8 inches. .0

Berlin-based artist Young-jun Tak has recently been featured in Art Asia Pacific’s ‘Inside Burger Collection: Young-jun Tak: The Sacred and Profane’ by Jeppe Ugelvig .

Ugelvig writes “The Korean artist’s practice
in sculpture and film examines the culturally symbolic, and continuously points to how social life structures itself, still, so stubbornly, around history-laden artifacts and fantastical images, which in turn become the best carriers of human history.”

Visit the link in the bio to read the full article.

Young-jun Tak, ‘Of All Seasons’, 2023, painted bronze, rusty metal, oil, version 2 of 5, 24.5 x 11.5 x 10 cm, 9 5/8 x 4 1/2 x 4 inches. Photo by Elmar Venter. .tak

‘Sleep Stage’, 2024 continues Los Angeles based artist Nick Modrzewski’s foray into the markings of social interactions; from a simple verbal exchange to a formal negotiation, interpersonal relations, like Modrzewski’s paintings, are densely complex scenarios.

The confluence of painting techniques becomes a labyrinth of visual references and cues, replicating the experience of being born into language for the first time, primordial and unruly.

Modrzewski will be presenting new paintings with COMA at Sydney Contemporary later this year.

Nick Modrzewski, ‘Sleep Stage’, 2024, acrylic on canvas, 178 x 157.5 cm, 70 x 62 inches.

The ghost-like figures that sway and float between murky washes of oil paint seem to be caught between two moments – night and day, then and now, land and sea, real and imagined. They meander through uncharted waters exploring the oceans’ dark folds, where mythical creatures sleep and shipwreck lay. Estée encourages us to connect to these mythological sentients and lead us toward other spaces beyond our immediate reality - like a siren she calls out to the corners of ourselves and our world yet to be discovered.

Renée Estée new body of work on paper, titled, ‘Sad Waters, Different Oceans, Secret Fires’ will be available to view online at the end of this month.

Renée Estée, ‘Sad Waters, Different Oceans, Secret Fires - no. 29, 7, 43, 22, 44 & 19’ (detail), oil paint, oil bar, wax, charcoal on paper.

New York-based artist Yimia Liu (b.1993, Hunan, China) is currently undertaking a residency at Palazzo Monti, Brescia, Italy, in preparation for her upcoming debut solo exhibition with COMA in August.

Liu’s recent works incorporate motifs of Classical Chinese poetry, personal interpretations of films, and reflections on everyday reality. Often creating otherworldly metaphors for real-world situations, Liu’s paintings and drawings are beautiful and esoteric.

Yimia Liu, Palazzo Monti, 2024, Brescia, Italy. Image Courtesy of Palazzo Monti and the Artist.

Continuing in the gallery is Lebanese-American artist Tala Worrell’s solo exhibition titled ‘Down the Line’, on through 22 June.

Coinciding with the making of a painting, Worrell often seeks out physical activities outside of the studio that challenge her understanding of movement. In New York it was salsa dancing, most recently it has been horse riding and currently she has taken up surfing, each new activity anchoring the artist to a physical place and experience, and more importantly balancing the idea of structure, through routine and repetition, and letting go.

Installation View, Tala Worrell, ‘Down the Line’, 2024, COMA, Chippendale, Sydney, Australia.

Lu Yang has been featured as the cover story for ’s latest summer issue, with words by Emily McDermott .

The image featured on the cover is a still from Lu Yang’s films ‘DOKU the Self’ and ‘DOKU the Flow’, which depicts DOKU, Lu Yang’s digital avatar, forming tears from the pain experienced through countless reincarnations.

If you are in Basel, make sure you view ‘DOKU the Flow’, which is currently on view in the Unlimited section at .

Images: Lu Yang, Doku The Flow, 2023, film still. Cover 5/5, Lu Yang, DOKU The Self, 2022, Video Still, 36 inches, edition of 6 + 2 AP. Courtesy of , the Artist and Société Berlin.

COMA is pleased to announce the representation of Mikey Yates (b. 1992). Born in Sulzbach-Rosenberg, Yates’ lives and works in Kansas City, MO, and has a BFA from Missouri State University and an MFA at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Yates’ deeply emotional and resonant figurative paintings are love songs to small moments of hope or peacefulness that encourage optimistic living. His artworks capture points in time imbued with feelings of wonderment, awe and most importantly significant and wholehearted connection.

Following on from the artist’s debut solo presentation with the gallery, Yates will be presenting new works at Sydney Contemporary later this year.

Mikey Yates, 2023. Image courtesy of the Artist and COMA, Sydney.

Continuing in the gallery is Tala Worrell’s solo presentation, ‘Down the Line’, on view through 22 June.

‘Down the Line’ navigates Worrell’s multiple emotional realities; making a new home in Los Angeles, conflict in the middle east, and her memories of New York, Providence, Beirut and Abu Dhabi. Worrell acknowledges painting as an innately introspective experience, a process through which an individual can come to terms with the complexities of themselves and a diverse set of values or opposing ideals. Through her abstract and gestural practice, Worrell negotiates the relationships between various parts of herself. East and West, religious and secular, psychological and somatic – every aesthetic decision attempting to locate equilibrium.

Tala Worrell, Flowers, Olives, Dates, 2024, oil and nigella seed on canvas, 101.6 x 101.6 cm, 40 x 40 in.

Having recently relocated to Los Angeles, Nick Modrzewski is continuing his investigation of law and social ritual through a theatrical and historical lens.

Working across painting and sculpture, Modrzewski’s figures and characters continually undergo drastic changes; they take on mythical or fantastical dimensions, seemingly both of this world and apart from it – spectres, historical characters and unidentifiable beings, to suggest that to exist within contemporary society, individuals must adorn one or many masks.

Nick Modrzewski, ‘Face Covering for Assembly (Lawspeaker), 2024, mouldable plastic, acrylic paint, wood, 18 x 15 x 15 cm /7 x 5 x 6 inches. Nick Modrzewski, ‘Face Cover for Assembly,’ 2024, mouldable plastic, epoxy modelling compound, wood stain, 23 x 20 x 20 cm / 9 x 8 x 8 inches.

We would like to remind you of our upcoming solo exhibition by Tala Worrell, titled, ‘Down the Line’, open tonight from 6-8pm. This is the artist’s first presentation with the gallery and taking place at 2/27-39 Abercrombie Street, Chippendale, NSW,2008
Australia.

The grids draw inspiration from Tatreez, traditional Palestinian cross-stitch. Worrell grew up surrounded by tatreez, on pillows, tablecloths, throws and robes, items she has carefully carried with her each time she has relocated – “In a strange way, the ongoing war in Gaza combined with being in a new city and trying to find my way pushed me to find a way to incorporate tatreez in my work. It helped relieve my existential anxiety, anxieties about preserving language, culture, and food.”

Installation View, Tala Worrell, ‘Down the Line’, 2024, COMA, Chippendale, Sydney, Australia.

Following on from his recent solo exhibition at Castor Gallery, London and a residency at The Cabin, Los Angeles, Fabian Ramírez continues his exploration of the mystical and the material in his new studio, in preparation for his second solo presentation with COMA, on view later this year.

Drawing on traditional encaustic processes, combining beeswax, copal, pigments and heat, Raímrez explores the convergence of Indigenous and Spanish cultures in Mexico’s religious history.

Fabian Ramirez, (detail) Studio Image, Vienna, Austria, 2024.

Opening tomorrow night, Friday 24 May, from 6-8pm, at our Chippendale location, is Tala Worrell’s solo exhibition, titled, ‘Down the Line.’ This is the artists first presentation with the gallery.

Coinciding with the making of a painting, Worrell often seeks out physical activities outside of the studio that challenge her understanding of movement. In New York it was salsa dancing, most recently it has been horse riding and currently she has taken up surfing, each new activity anchoring the artist to a physical place and experience, and more importantly balancing the idea of structure, through routine and repetition, and letting go.

Tala Worrell, ‘Pashas Tent, Words From Lebanon, Gaza Surf Club, Surfing’, 2024, oil, Flashe, pencil, and rice flour on canvas, 162.5 x 213.5 cm, 64 x 84 in Photo by Norris Guncheon.

Luitja artist Puuni Brown Nungarrayi has been featured as Vault Magazine’s Forecast, for their current May to July issue.

Alexia Petsinis writes “Artist Puuni Brown Nungarrayi is redefining Papunya art according to her own visual language, forging a career that continues the legacy of Indigenous female artists from her community, who have been integral to the movement’s evolution.”

Nungarrayi’s current solo presentation, titled, ‘Kapi Tjukurrpa’, is on view through this Saturday, 18 May, at our Chippendale location.

Read the full article at the link in bio.

Puuni Brown Nungarrayi with Kapi Tjukurrpa 10, 2023, acrylic on canvas, 122 x 152 cm, 48 x 59 7/8 in, Papunya Tjupi, Alice Springs, 2023. Image courtesy of the Artist and Papunya Tjupi Arts, Alice Springs, Australia.

COMA is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Lebanese-American artist Tala Worrell (b. 1991), titled, ‘Down the Line’, opening Friday 24 May 6-8pm. This is the artist’s first solo presentation with COMA and taking place at our Chippendale location, 2/27-39 Abercrombie Street, NSW, 2008.

Through her abstract and gestural practice, Worrell negotiates the relationships between various parts of herself; East and West, religious and secular, familiar and individual, psychological and somatic. Worrell’s paintings feel bilingual or multi-lingual where the graphic and gestural are woven together to depict a dynamic and complex reality where every emotion and feeling has a place, resolute and uniformed within a guided structure, confined within the boundaries of form and line – every aesthetic decision finding equilibrium.

Tala Worrell, Dust From Providence, oil and household gloss paint on canvas, 2023, 198 x 168 cm, 78 x 66 inches. Image courtesy of the Artist.

In Taipei for the 2024 edition of Taipei Dangdai? Be sure to visit COMA’s presentation at booth DG04. The gallery’s solo exhibition will feature a new body of work by Santa Fe-based artist Justin Williams.

After exploring familial and ancestral connections to Egypt and the Mediterranean, ideas of Americana prior to 1984, and representations of domesticity in rural communities, Williams has found a point of amalgamation that draws in all of these thoughts. Presented as both historical accounts and proposed realities these paintings act as odes to small moments, to loved ones and to the nourishment community provides.

Installation view, Justin Williams, Taipei Dangdai 2024, Taipei, Taiwan.

Currently on view at the Chippendale venue is Puuni Brown Nungarrayi’s debut solo exhibition titled, ‘Kapi Tjukurrpa’, through 18 May.

Kapi Tjukurrpa (Water Dreaming) is a knowledge form passed down through generations, telling stories of water sources; a billabong, watering hole, stream or river – how to find them, replenish them and sustain them. Circular forms and motifs to represent these different forms of water have become a constant within Papunya painting, reoccurring again and again to emphasise the necessity and importance of water to sustain and nurture life amongst the dry red desert. In a broader sense the concentric circles allude, both directly and indirectly, to an all encompassing life cycle – everything is eternal.

Puuni Brown Nungarrayi, ‘Kapi Tjukurrp 8’, 2023, acrylic on canvas, 91 x 122 cm 35 7/8 x 48 in.

Currently on view at the gallery is Puuni Brown Nungarrayi’s debut solo exhibition titled, ‘Kapi Tjukurrpa’, through 18 May.

Kapi Tjukurrpa (Water Dreaming) is a knowledge form passed down through generations, telling stories of water sources; a billabong, watering hole, stream or river – how to find them, replenish them and sustain them. Circular forms and motifs to represent these different forms of water have become a constant within Papunya painting, reoccurring again and again to emphasise the necessity and importance of water to sustain and nurture life amongst the dry red desert. In a broader sense the concentric circles allude, both directly and indirectly, to an all encompassing life cycle – everything is eternal.

Installation view, Puuni Brown Nungarrayi, Kapi Tjukurrpa, 2024, COMA, Chippendale, Sydney, Australia. Photos by Dean Qiulin Li.

Justin Williams’ new painting ‘It’s me really doing that to someone else’ has been include in Ocula Advisory’s ‘5 Must-See Artworks at Taipei Dangdai 2024.’

Phoebe Bradford writes “It’s me really doing that to someone else (2024) shows a serene scene: a man savours a hot drink, steam rising gently from his mug. In the background, another man strums a guitar. Orange flowers bloom in the foreground, while the lake and hilly landscape in the distance recall Williams’ hometown in the foothills of the Dandenong Ranges in Victoria, Australia.”

COMA is looking forward to introducing a new suite of paintings by Williams’ at Taipei Dangdai, from 9-12 May. The gallery can be found at booth DG04.

Justin Williams, It’s me really doing that to someone else, 2024, oil, acrylic and pigment on canvas, 176.5 x 169.7 cm/ 69 1/2 x 66 3/4 in. .art

In each painting the circular ripple is repeated three times, a small flower delicately placed at the core, referencing a different site in Nungarrayi’s ancestral lineage – Watulpuny, her grandmother and great grandmother’s country, Karringarra, her grandfather’s country, and Nullatju, her father’s country. Like viewing the cross section of a tree trunk, the intertwining, travelling and continuous rings are reflective of time passed and a multitude of histories.

Puuni Brown Nungarrayi’s first solo exhibition, ‘Kapi Tjukurrpa’ is on view at our Chippendale venue through 18 May.

Installation View, Puuni Brown Nungarrayi, Kapi Tjukurrpa, COMA, Chippendale, 2024, Sydney, Australia.

Lisbon-based artist Mia Middleton has recently been listed by 1883 Magazine as one of “The five top British emerging artists you should know.”

1883 writes “Mia invites us to be privy to the intimate moments she portrays. At first, we might feel like we’re overstepping some kind of threshold, but then we remember she wants us here.”

Middleton will be presenting a new suite of artwork with COMA at Sydney Contemporary later this year.

Mia Middleton, Installation View, ‘A Green Glass Eye’, COMA, 2024, Chippendale, Sydney, Australia. Mia Middleton, ‘Claude Mirror’, 2024, oil on linen, 20 x 20 cm, 7 7/8 x 7 7/8 in. Mia Middleton, ‘Wings’, 2024, oil on linen, 20 x 20 cm, 7 7/8 x 7 7/8 in. Mia Middleton, ‘Precession’, 2024, oil on linen, 20 x 20 cm, 7 7/8 x 7 7/8 in. Mia Middleton, ‘Witness’, 2024, oil on linen, 20 x 20 cm, 7 7/8 x 7 7/8 in. ‘Time is a Trick’, 2024, oil on linen, 20 x 20 cm, 7 7/8 x 7 7/8 in.

Lisbon based artist Mia Middleton has recently been listed by 1883 Magazine as one of “The five top British emerging artists you should know.”

1883 writes “Mia invites us to be privy to the intimate moments she portrays. At first, we might feel like we’re overstepping some kind of threshold, but then we remember she wants us here.”

Middleton will be presenting a new suite of artwork with COMA at Sydney Contemporary later this year.

Mia Middleton, Installation View, ‘A Green Glass Eye’, COMA, 2024, Chippendale, Sydney, Australia. Mia Middleton, ‘Claude Mirror’, 2024, oil on linen, 20 x 20 cm, 7 7/8 x 7 7/8 in. Mia Middleton, ‘Wings’, 2024, oil on linen, 20 x 20 cm, 7 7/8 x 7 7/8 in. Mia Middleton, ‘Precession’, 2024, oil on linen, 20 x 20 cm, 7 7/8 x 7 7/8 in. Mia Middleton, ‘Witness’, 2024, oil on linen, 20 x 20 cm, 7 7/8 x 7 7/8 in. ‘Time is a Trick’, 2024, oil on linen, 20 x 20 cm, 7 7/8 x 7 7/8 in.

We are pleased to announce the acquisition of a number of Kansas Smeaton’s paintings, by The Christian Levett Collection from her recent solo exhibition ‘Heavy Lightness and Sweet Sorrow’.

Among the acquired pieces, ‘Much love, many loves’, will be included in the debut opening exhibition at Femmes Artistes du Musee de Mougins , a private museum dedicated exclusively to female artists from The Christian Levett Collection.

Kansas Smeaton, Much love, many loves, 2023, oil on canvas, 101.5 x 91.5 cm / 40 x 36 inches. .0

COMA would like to congratulate Berlin-based artist Young-jun Tak who has been selected as a finalist for the 24th SongEun Art Award, one of the most prestigious art awards in Korea.

The Songeun Art Award is an annual award that was launched in 2001 for the purpose of discovering and providing support to contemporary Korean artists. Tak is among the twenty finalists selected this year to present a new artwork for an exhibition at SongEun Art Gallery, Seoul, in December, 2024.

Young-jun Tak, They are like looking at you from afar, 2024, digital pigment print, dibond, framed, edition 2 of 5, 158 x 209.6 x 4 cm, 62 1/4 x 82 1/2 x 1 9/16 inches. .tak