5 Up-And-Coming Artists You Probably Don’t Know About But Definitely Should
These are the names to know.
Curtin University can help you develop your passion into a meaningful future.
The new guard of the Australian arts is stretching the art world into new and thoroughly individual moulds – right beneath our noses. And even if you haven’t heard their names, chances are you’ve come in contact with their work.
What unites these young creatives? Each is charting a thrillingly individual course in order to engage with the world today, whether in the field of entertainment, fashion, design, or the visual arts – and fast gaining local and international recognition.
Here are the up-and-coming artists worth watching.
Raoul Marks, Digital Animator
If you’ve seen any number of critically acclaimed TV series made over the past few years, you’ve almost certainly experienced Raoul Marks’ captivating productions. Along with collaborators, including LA-based production company Elastic, he’s part of the visionary force behind the title credits for series such as Halt and Catch Fire, American Gods and Westworld.
After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts from Curtin University, a slow-burning fascination with the entertainment industry prompted Marks to make the leap from his job in film advertising to motion design. He began experimenting with new tools and techniques and posting his work on Vimeo. Eventually, his work caught the eye of Sydney-based creative director Patrick Clair and they received a chance to pitch for a new HBO series called True Detective. “Amazingly we won the pitch,” Marks says. They also won an Emmy – for Outstanding Main Title Design in 2014.
His work is defined by intricate, multi-layered imagery, assembled to create a complex visual allegory. It’s a standout example of the Golden Age of television, elevating the opening credit to a true art form. “Good titles don’t just reiterate the plot points or themes of a show,” he says. “They find a way to connect the real world to the make believe.”
“They have feet on both sides of that divide and help you come across.”
Milly Dent, Ceramicist
The best art is art you can use. Even better if you can eat from it. Few can appreciate the hunger for refreshingly accessible art more than Milly Dent, whose distinctive handcrafted vessels have gained her international stockists and a healthy Instagram fan base – in only a few short years.
Brisbane-raised Dent, who graduated with a Bachelor of Design in 2013, is fiercely independent, and has been creating and selling ceramics for her brand, Milly Dent Design, in her own studio in Marrickville since 2014.
Dent’s most recent exhibition, VITRIFIED, at Saint Cloche gallery in Sydney, shows her ability to use the medium of ceramics to create both commercial and artistic work using traditional and experimental techniques. It was created during a three month artist residency at Arita, Japan, using cast-off moulds she foraged from nearby porcelain factory Kouraku Gama that had been weathered over many seasons by rain, snow and wind.
“I was inspired to create a series of resurrections from Arita, a sense of revival or reincarnation of the forms,” she says.
“Using the process of slip casting to the discarded mould, I paused this formative decay…turning it into something static and beautiful.”
Thomas Puttick, Fashion Designer
Emerging designer Thomas Puttick’s showed his resort 2018 collection at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in Sydney this past May and made waves by sending a group of non-professional models – many over the age of 50 – down the runway.
“I’m not really interested in exclusivity,” he explains. “And I want to make sure that we highlight the beauty of women at different ages.” During a year where the chatter about diversity in fashion finally seemed to break through to reality, it was refreshingly in-step with the global mood. The fashion world took notice.
It’s a breakout moment Puttick was assiduously prepared for. After “knocking on doors,” he started his career at age 18 at a coveted traineeship at Alexander McQueen in London. But after working at several major labels, including Alexander Wang, Helmut Lang, and Christopher Esber, he decided to create his own brand to influence a more positive dialogue in fashion.
“The experiences and learning were incredible and amazing,” he says, “but…I eventually got sick of all the fashion bullshit and realised I had to either change careers or change the industry.” Luckily, he chose the latter.
Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran, Sculptor And Painter
Sri Lankan-born, Sydney-raised artist Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran has been getting attention ever since he was awarded the NSW Visual Arts Fellowship in 2014. Only three years out of his fine arts degree at UNSW, he’s already shown his work at eight exhibitions, including internationally at the 2016 Kuandu Biennale in Taipei. And he’s fast gaining notoriety as Australian art’s badass. “Working with monumental sculpture is something I’m really interested in,” he says.
Working within a Western art tradition obsessed with the female form, his paintings, sculpture and installations cast a playful and subversive gaze on male anatomy and sexuality. His clay sculptures, ranging from gremlin-like monster men, to mountainous totems, are exuberant, unrefined and practicality humming with reckless energy. Translation: his art is the stuff at the gallery that you really, really want to touch.
As for his upcoming solo project at Sullivan+Strumpf? “It’s about self portraiture and self representation. Thinking about ancient sculptures and self portraiture on the internet.”
Stanislava Pinchuk (AKA Miso), Tattoo And Visual Artist
Having recently drawn the attention of the fashion world – she’s created work for Chanel, Nike and La Chambre Graphique – and coveted by international art collectors and tattoo aficionados alike, Stanislava Pinchuk, also known by the moniker, Miso, defies easy definition. A self-taught artist born in Kharkov, Ukraine and raised in Sydney from the age of 10, she started out as a self-taught street artist in Tokyo before moving to Melbourne, where she is now based.
Personal narratives weave into her artistic practice, which includes remarkable works on paper comprised of millions of pricks made with a pin, and handmade tattoos that she gives to friends as gifts in exchange for photographs, art, or even dinner.
“Every medium or way of working is a different curiosity for me,” says Pinchuk. “I love tattooing, because it’s such an incredible medium to translate your artwork into. To make drawings that people carry with them forever…it really changes how you think about images.”
“I can’t believe more artists aren’t completely obsessed with it.”
—
Feature image: Milly Dent/Facebook
—
Curtin University offers design and the arts degrees in disciplines including fine art, animation and game design, fashion and photography, perfect for budding artists. Find out more here.