Artists

Lives: Milikapiti, Melville Island, Australia Skin: Takaringuiw (Scaly Mullet) Country: Andranangoo (Goose Greek) Dance: Tartuwali (Shark) Johnathon World Peace Bush is attracting a strong institutional and collector following for his unique painting style, political engagement and bold lyrics. Painted in traditional natural ochres of the Tiwi Islands, Bush combines Tiwi visual language predating the Renaissance with Western imagery to explore Indigenous identity. Painted in natural pigments sourced from Melville Island, Bush’s paintings are in the three colours of Tiwi land – kurrujupuni, arrikininga, yarringa (white, yellow, red). Combining figuration, traditional Tiwi lines, circles, and cross-hatching, his compositions collapse religious and Tiwi iconography thereby reimagining anthropological images and art historical iconography. Religious figures, political leaders, and Wulimawi (Tiwi elders) are equally depicted, covered in Jilamara (Tiwi body paint design), and wearing ceremonial ornaments. In 2025, Bush had his international debut at Frieze No.9 Cork Street in London, with his solo exhibition ‘Walking Between Two Worlds’. In 2024, he was awarded the NGV x Country Road First Nations Commission, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne 2024, and in 2023 was honoured with a solo institutional exhibition at Linden New Art, Melbourne in 2023, curated by its Director, Dr Vincent Alessi, and showcased new work at The Armory Show, New York. Other recent exhibitions include ‘65,000 Years – A Short History of Australian Art’, Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne; ‘Parlingarri Amintiya Ningani Awungarra’, University of New South Wales Gallery; ‘UNLEARNING AUSTRALIA’, Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA), South Korea 2022; Sydney Contemporary 2022; Melbourne Art Fair 2022; ‘Tiwi Exhibition’, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne 2021; ‘52 Artists, 52 Actions’, Artspace, Sydney 2021; ‘Groundswell’, Northern Centre for Contemporary Art, Darwin, 2020; ‘Yalininga Ngaritpantingija Ngirramini’, Aboriginal Signature Gallery, Brussels, Belgium 2020; ‘Tarnanthi’, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide 2019 In 2025 Bush was a finalist in the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Awards (NATSIAA), the Fremantle Print Award, and the Girra: Fraser Coast Art Award. In 2024, Bush was a finalist in the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Awards (NATSIAA), the 68th Blake Prize, Geelong Contemporary Art Prize, Mosman Art Prize, and Fisher’s Ghost Art Award. In 2023 Bush was a finalist in the Sir John Sulman Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the King & Wood Mallesons First Nations Art Award, and the Nillumbik Prize for Contemporary Art 2023. In 2022 Bush was a finalist in 15 Artists at Redcliffe Gallery, Queensland and the Mosman Art Prize, Sydney. Bush’s work is held in collections including Kluge-Ruhe Art Museum, Virginia, USA; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Art Gallery of South Australia; and private collections in Australia and Europe.

Ellen Dahl’s artistic practice is largely rooted in working with or around the landscape. The concept of photography’s intrinsic involvement in how we see and feel about the world around us underpins her projects. She continually explores the expanded field of the photographic medium and its potential to engage new critical, poetic, and aesthetic ways of assembling ecological meaning and geological imagination. She is also interested in the medium’s relationship to time and often explores this working across photography, video and still-motion, sound, and installation. Dahl has an ongoing attraction to the concept of the island and places at the end of the world, often returning to the north / south peripheries of northern Norway and Tasmania. Seeking to capture the heightened sense of liminality and edge-ness often felt at these sites, her work is conceptually underpinned by trepidation around the Anthropogenic condition and the consequent ambiguousness of overlapping human and geological time scales. Encounters with the landscape often oppose clear articulation, words can only hint at the profound engagement between a person and the natural environment. Dahl’s works allude to instances that provoke an uncanny sense of place, a shared history, and deep connection– permeating across geographical distance and time. Ellen Dahl is originally from Arctic Norway and moved to Australia as an adult. She now lives and works on Gadigal Country (Sydney) NSW. She has exhibited extensively throughout Australia, including Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney; National Portrait Gallery, Canberra; Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne; ANU Gallery, Canberra; Hazelhurst Regional Gallery, and Verge Gallery, Sydney. Most recently she was the winner of MAMA National Photography Prize (2024), and has been a finalist in The Fauvette Loureiro Memorial Scholarship (2021), HIDDEN Sculpture Award (2022), The Josephine Ulrick & Winn Schubert Photographic Award (2022), Hazelhurst Works on Paper (2021), and won the judges Commendation prize in the Contemporary Landscapes in Photography award (CLIP) in 2017. In 2024, she exhibited a solo exhibition ‘Four Days Before Winter’ at Unseen Photo Fair in Amsterdam. In August 2019, she co-coordinated/curated the Light Matter project – a symposium on the expanded field of photography held at the University of Technology Sydney, in conjunction with an exhibition at the Australian Centre for Photography in Sydney. Between 2017 and 2019, she organised three iterations across three (Australian) states of the artist-led project Vanishing Point, presenting five very diverse female lens-based artistic practices linked through the concept of the island. Ellen received a Master of Fine Arts from Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney (2015), and a PhD from School of Creative Arts and Media, University of Tasmania (2024).

Jackson Farley is a multidisciplinary artist and curator based in Sydney, Australia. His practice intertwines narrative and humour to highlight the absurdities of archaic power structures and hierarchies, be they colonial, religious, or gendered. Using digital media, photography, collage, drawing, AI and 3D methodologies, Farley’s work is as sentimental as it is parody – pondering art, history, religion, sociology, and everything in between. Accepted forms are fragmented, repurposed, and reconstructed. With the irony of the now, they are deeply sentimental, heartfelt, and self-reflective. Most recently, his work has taken the shape of intricate Jacquard woven textiles and 3D-printed sculptures featuring a mash-up of classical and contemporary imagery. Farley made his international Art Fair debut at Paris Photo in 2025 with THIS IS NO FANTASY, with the booth being selected in the Top 10 by BeauxArts Magazine. In 2026, he undertakes a residency with the Australian Tapestry Workshop in Melbourne, has been curated into the 6th Tamworth Textile Triennial, and was selected as a finalist for the MA Prize at Sydney Contemporary. Farley completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts (First Class Honours) at Sydney College of the Arts in 2017 and was awarded the University Awards for both Drawing and Print Media. He has also studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, USA, and was awarded the China Cultural Centre residency in Chengdu, China in 2017. In 2024, Farley was a finalist in the Sydney Contemporary Art Fair MA Art Prize; in 2019, a selected finalist in the Fauvette Loureiro Memorial Artists Travel Scholarship Exhibition; and in 2018, in the Blake Prize, The Churchie Emerging Art Award, and Hatched, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art. In 2020, Farley was awarded a year-long City of Sydney creative live/work tenancy in Darlinghurst.

Yhonnie Scarce was born in Woomera, South Australia, and belongs to the Kokatha and Nukunu peoples. Scarce’s interdisciplinary practice explores the political nature and aesthetic qualities of glass and photography. Her work often references the ongoing effects of colonisation on Aboriginal people; in particular, her research has explored the impact of the removal and relocation of Aboriginal people from their homelands and the forcible removal of Aboriginal children from their families. Family history is central to Scarce’s work; drawing on the strength of her ancestors, she offers herself as a conduit, sharing their significant stories from the past. Scarce’s professional profile continues to rise exponentially, with participation in the 2025 Sharjah Biennial and a group presentation at Kunsthaus Graz, Austria. In 2024 she opened a survey exhibition ‘The Light of Day’ at the Art Gallery of Western Australia, and ‘Night Blindness’ at The Dowse Art Museum, New Zealand. In 2023 she exhibited at The Armory Show New York, and in 2022 her work ‘The Near Breeder’ was commissioned and exhibited at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham UK before being acquired by the Art Gallery of Western Australia. Simultaneously, ‘Shadow Creeper’, another major installation, was shown at Palais De Tokyo, Paris, and acquired by the Foundation Opale, a museum dedicated to contemporary Australian Indigenous art, in Lens, Switzerland. Also in 2022, Scarce’s work ‘Orford Ness’ was created for and exhibited in the Aichi Triennale, Japan, before being acquired by the Mecca Collection, and she exhibited her installation ‘Missile Park’ at Gropius Bau, Berlin. This major commission was created for her survey exhibition at Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne (ACCA) and Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane (IMA), which showcased works spanning the previous fifteen years of her career. Scarce won the prestigious Yalingwa Fellowship 2020 and was also selected with Edition Office for the National Gallery of Victoria’s Architecture Commission 2019, which was awarded the Small Building of the Year award at the Dezeen Awards, and the Award for Small Project Architecture 2020 at the National Architecture Awards. In 2018, Scarce was the recipient of the Kate Challis RAKA Award for her contribution to the visual arts in Australia, as well as the Indigenous Ceramic Award from the Shepparton Art Museum. In 2024 she was the recipient of the 68th Blake Prize Established Artist Award at the Casula Powerhouse, and has been selected as a finalist and awarded numerous prizes nationally. Other recent international exhibitions include Artizon Museum, Tokyo 2025, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea 2021, IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Sante Fe, USA 2021, Paris Photo, Paris France 2020, Pavilion of Contemporary Art, Milan Italy, Museum of London, Ontario Canada 2020. Previous international shows include the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi India 2018, 55th Venice Biennale collateral exhibition Personal Structures 2013, Galway Art Centre, Ireland 2016, Harvard Art Museum, Massachusetts 2016, Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Museum, Virginia USA 2012. Scarce has been curated into major shows and public commissions throughout Australia, including 65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art at the Potter Musuem of Art, the inaugural Melbourne Sculpture Biennial 2024, 2020 Adelaide Biennial at the Art Gallery of South Australia, the Biennale of Australian Art Ballarat, Installation Contemporary Sydney, the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art Melbourne, National Gallery of Australia Canberra, National Gallery of Victoria Melbourne, and the Newcastle Art Gallery. Previous major shows include The National, Art Gallery of NSW 2017, The 3rd National Indigenous Art Triennial 2017, 19th Biennale of Sydney, 2014, and a site-specific installation at the Art Gallery of South Australia as part of Tarnanthi Festival of Contemporary and Torres Strait Islander Art 2016. In 2012, Scarce held a residency and exhibited at the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Museum, University of Virginia, USA, and participated in Aboriginal art symposiums at Seattle Art Museum and the Hood Museum, New Hampshire. She also co-curated Violent Salt at Artspace Mackay, which toured Australia. Scarce’s work can be found in the collections of Tate Gallery London, National Gallery of Victoria, Foundation Opale Switzerland, Artizon Museum Tokyo, Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney, Art Gallery of South Australia, National Gallery Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Flinders University Art Museum, Australian War Memorial, Mecca Collection, The Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Shepparton Art Museum, and the University of South Australia, among others. Scarce has also been commissioned to create numerous large-scale permanent public and private artworks, including at Bendigo Law Courts and Corrs Lawyers Sydney, among others.

Ali Tahayori’s interdisciplinary practice ranges from conceptual photography to the moving image, and installation. Tahayori uses archival materials, narrative fragments and performative modalities to explore themes of identity, home, and belonging. Combining fractured mirrors with text and imagery, his works draw on ancient Iranian philosophies about light and mirrors to create kaleidoscopic experiences; moments of both revelation and concealment hint at the conflicted nature of his identity. Translating the traditional Iranian craft of Aine-Kari (mirror-works) into a contemporary visual vocabulary, his practice combines a discourse about diaspora and displacement with an exploration of queerness – in both cases, poignantly testifying to his experience of being othered. Born in Shiraz, Iran, Tahayori currently lives and works in Sydney, Australia (Gadigal country). Raised in the oppressively homophobic climate of 1980s Iran, Tahayori assumed the identity of an outsider, further compounded by his migration to Australia in 2007. He holds a Doctorate in Medicine and MFA in Photomedia from National Art School. Since graduating Tahayori has exhibited extensively nationally and internationally. Recent exhibitions include ‘Five Acts of Love’, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) Melbourne 2025; ‘ruh al-ruh – jan-e janan’, West Space, Melbourne 2025; ‘Queer Contemporary: Chaosophy’, National Art School, Sydney 2025; ‘To look each other in the eye,’ Ideas Platform, Artspace, Sydney 2024; ‘Kill Me Softly’, Counihan Gallery, Melbourne 2024; After Everything Has Been Said’, Linden New Art Project Space, Melbourne 2024;‘i will meet you there’, First Draft, Sydney NSW 2024; ‘From Fire’: Casula Powerhouse, Sydney 2023; ‘ ‘The Sky Is The Same’, Gosford Regional Gallery, NSW 2023; ‘Braving Time: Contemporary Art in Queer Australia’, National Art School Sydney 2023, and ‘Vantage Point 10’, Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE 2022. He was awarded the Onslow Storrier National Art School Paris Studio Residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris 2026, and was Artist in Residence at Parramatta Artist Studios in 2024. Tahayori has exhibited at international art fairs including MIA Photo Fair, Milan, Italy 2024, Unseen Amsterdam 2023, Photo London 2023, as well as Melbourne Art Fair, 2024 and Spring 1883, 2025. He was the 2025 recipient of NSW Visual Arts Fellowship (Emerging), Artspace and Create NSW; was awarded Winner Burwood Art Prize, 2024 and Prix Yves Hernot Photography Award, National Art School Sydney 2022; and was awarded Highly Commended Honourable Mention, Bowness Photography Prize 2021. Tahayori has been a finalist in numerous awards including Olive Cotton Award; Mullins Conceptual Photography Prize; William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize; Nikon Emerging Photographer Award, Photo London; National Photography Prize, MAMA Albury; PhMuseum Photography Grant, Bologna, Italy; National Photographic Portrait Prize; National Portrait Gallery; Fishers Ghost Art Award; and Waverley Art Prize, Sydney.