Matthew’s 45-year career has largely embraced creative design and production in: performing arts; international arts and cultural expositions; public domain art and architecture; exhibitions, museums and art galleries; Olympic, Paralympic, Asian, Arab and Commonwealth Games and opening and closing ceremonies. A graduate of the National Art School, this varied background informs Matthew’s current artmaking using diverse forms and media.

2013 to 2021 – PERFORMING ARTS, EDUCATION AND PUBLIC DOMAIN INFRASTRUCTURE

Matthew was the design manager for the Sydney Opera House Renewal Program for the Centre for Creative Learning, Yallamundi Rooms, Box Office Foyer, patron access to lifts and the Vehicle Concourse returned to pedestrians. He managed design and construction projects for Placemaking NSW, Schools Infrastructure NSW and Netball NSW.

1992 to 2012 – MAJOR EVENTS, EXPOSITIONS AND ARCHITECTURE

2010 – 2012, Matthew was based at the Turkish National Olympic Committee where he managed the bid team of international consultants for Istanbul’s candidacy for the 2020 Olympic Games.

2005 – 2010, in Qatar, Matthew was David Atkin’s General Manager for the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2006 Asian Games and the 2010 Arab Games.  He led the venue overlay design team in New Delhi for the 2010 Commonwealth Games

2001 – 2005, Matthew managed architectural projects including the Australian/Greek engineering team for the overlay contract at Athens 2004 Olympic Games and co-managed the Australian/Chinese team for the National Swimming Centre for Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. The Water Cube has been recognised as an icon of C21 architecture.

1996 – 2000, working for SOCOG on the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, Matthew was Development Manager for the Darling Harbour venues, then Common Domain Venue Manager at Sydney Olympic Park.

1992 – 1996, Matthew managed international arts and cultural expositions in Indonesia and India for the Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade.

1981 to 1992 – THEATRE, EXHIBITIONS AND TELEVISION

As partner in entertainment design consultants D’Arcy Emerson + Lorrimer, Matthew designed sets and costumes for many theatre companies including Adelaide Festival, Marionette Theatre of Australia, Sydney Theatre Company, Melbourne Theatre Company, Theatre Workshop (Seymour Centre), Toe Truck Theatre, Kinetic Energy Dance Company and Marian Street Theatre.

The company designed exhibitions and environments for World Expo 88, Art Gallery of NSW, Opera Australia, Powerhouse Museum, Wedgwood Australia, Royal Doulton, Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences, Australian Museum and the Brewarrina Aboriginal Cultural Centre, as well as music video clips for the Lyme Spiders and the Dynamic Hepnotics.

After completing his theatre studies in 1981 Matthew designed sets for Dr Who and Top of the Pops for BBC-Television and productions in London and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

EDUCATION

• 2024 – BFA National Art School (Printmaking)
• 1981 – BA 3D Design CSAD (Theatre & Costume Design)
• 1981 – Dip CSAD (Theatre)
• 1977 – BSc (Architecture) University of Sydney

GROUP SHOWS

• 2025 – Harvey Galleries, Sydney
• 2024 – Place Management NSW Second Life
• 2024 & 2023 – National Art School Gallery
• 1985 – Art Gallery of NSW, “Those Final Moments”, Australian Perspecta 85

COLLECTIONS

• Art Gallery of NSW
• Private collections in Brisbane, Canberra, Sydney and Tathra

MEMBERSHIPS

• National Association for the Visual Arts
• Print Council of Australia
• Art Gallery of NSW
• Museum of Contemporary Art

PERFORMING ARTS SPONSORSHIPS

• Marrugeku, Indigenous Intercultural Dance Theatre, Broome
• Dance Rites, First Nations Dance Festival, Sydney Opera House 

PUBLICATIONS

• 2011 – Events Feasibility and Development from Strategy to Operations, “Doha Asian Games 2006″, Elsevier, pp 297- 330
• 1989 – Canberra Times After Hours “Glebe Park à la Carte”
• 1989 – Design World, “Futurescan”
• 1988 – Sydney Morning Herald, “Futurescan”
• 1988 – Sydney Morning Herald Weekend Magazine, “Art Dekko”
• 1985 – Sydney Morning Herald, “Those Final Moments”
• 1985 – Art and Australia, Vol 23 No 1 “Those Final Moments”
• 1982 – Blitz Magazine, “Stage Design”

AWARDS

• 2024 – National Art School Exhibition Prize, Harvey Galleries
• 2023 – National Art School Gallery, Book Exhibition Highly Recommended
• 1988 – Westpac Museum of the Year National Awards, “Futurescan”
• 1988 – Annual Golden Target Public Relations Award, Public Relations Institute of Australia
• 1986 – RAIA Exhibition Design, Brewarrina Aboriginal Cultural Centre
• 1984 – Design Institute of Australia Designer Awards, “Those Final Moments”

Fahn (James Gardiner)

1973, Sydney, Australia (Resides and works in Sydney (Gadigal), Australia)

Artist Biography

Fahn (James Bruce Gardiner) 1973, is a Sydney based artist, with a strong focus in ambiguity, perception and digital fabrication. Formerly an award-winning Architect and inventor (13 patents), his achievements include the world’s first 3D printed reef (2011-14) and the development of the FreeFAB Wax system – a 3D print and CNC system for fabrication of sustainable complex moulds for the construction industry (2012-2017) used for the Elizabeth line, London Underground project. James former careers have been recognised with numerous awards, scholarships, a Guinness world record and press coverage including National Geographic, New Scientist and the Economist.

James dedicated himself full time to his art practice in 2018, after many years of exploration. James continues to engage with technologies in novel ways. Gardiner completed an artist residency at UNSW Art & Design, where he pursued the design and fabrication of a large 3D printed ‘Shard’ sculpture for Sculpture by the Sea in 2018. James has since pioneered new methods of integrating digital machine cutting with traditional drawing and painting techniques within the postgraduate Master of Fine Arts program at the National Art School, Sydney in 2024. In line with James former career as an inventor, James works across multiple mediums and materials and is constantly experimenting and pushing his work into new territory on the world stage.

Artist statement

The vision for my art is to create conscious presence through multi-perspectival ambiguity. My background as an architect and inventor trained my brain in abstractions – flipping from plan, section, to detail – often within the same drawing. Our collective perception is equally being re-trained by the plethora of images that we consume through social media and other channels – from first person drone view, to the microscopic, portrait, and celestial images from satellites. This rapid shift in viewpoints I call the ‘perspectival flip’, our cognitive ability to quickly switch perception and understanding as new images present.

Humans are uncannily good at pattern recognition, but we often get this wrong as we try to understand the world. This is called Pareidolia – seeing patterns where they don’t exist, such as a rabbit in the clouds. My art pushes into this realm, exploring ambiguity and unknowing, a uniquely human quandary explored by philosophers for millennia. I play with misperception, each viewer brings different readings to an artwork, adding to something of themselves in engagement with the artwork.

My art begins with gestural abstraction as floor drawing, creating consciously but without intention, making space for what arises. For me, each drawing contains ‘perspectival flips’, a reading that shifts from topographic, to elevational, to portrait, etcetera. I then lean into these ambiguities in my collaboration with a 3D digital cutting machine, abstracting the original floor drawings into mixed media artworks. By working with the machine as an extension of myself and working consciously, I allow for a new artwork to arise. This is often a compounding of ‘flips’, creating ambiguity and conscious moments of contemplation.

In this conscious engagement with ambiguity, and the digital and analogue tools that I use, I find presence. Moments of contemplation in engagement with the artworks. It is this presence that I seek to share in my ambiguous ‘perspectival flip’ artworks. An engagement with the moment, a recognition of unknowing, a connection to our human condition.

Education and Training

2024: Master of Fine Art, National Art School, Sydney, Australia

2022: Bachelor of Arts (1^st year), National Art School, Sydney

2010: Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) Architecture. SIAL, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology

2004: Bachelor of Architecture (1st class Honors), University of Technology Sydney

2002: Bachelor of Arts (Architecture), University of Technology Sydney

1997: Diploma Arts (Interior Design), Enmore Design Centre, Sydney Institute of Technology

Solo Exhibitions

2024: Presence, Fourth Wall, Sydney

2024: Floor Drawing (Live performance), DRAW Space, Sydney

2019: Scape exhibition, Arthouse Gallery, Rushcutters Bay, NSW

Group Exhibitions (selected)

2024: Summer Sojourn, Art Artium, Botany, Sydney

2024: Masters Post Grad show, National Art School, Darlinghurst, Sydney

2024: In Parallel, DRAW Space, Newtown, Sydney

2024: 23^rd Japan International Art Exchange Exhibition, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tokyo

2024: Terrain, Art Garage gallery, Edgecliff, Sydney

2024: Fabrication, DRAW space, Newtown, Sydney

2024: Drawn Together, DRAW space, Sydney

2023: Home, Saywell Gallery, Marrickville, Sydney

2023: The Biggest Little Thing in Town, Defiance Gallery, Paddington, Sydney

2023: Olive Cotton Award, finalist, Tweed Regional Gallery, NSW

2023: Omnia Art Prize, finalist, Toorak, VIC

2023: Dominik Mersch Gallery, Rushcutters Bay, NSW

2022: Baker Miller Pink, St Peters, NSW

2022: Cessnock Contemporary, Cessnock, NSW

2020: Bushfire Appeal, Arthouse Gallery, online, Rushcutters Bay, Sydney

2019: Sydney Contemporary (Arthouse Gallery booth) Eveleigh, NSW

2018: Summer Salon, Arthouse Gallery, Rushcutters Bay, Sydney

2018: Sculpture by the Sea Bondi, Tamarama, NSW

2016-2018: Shapeshifters (travelling exhibition), Australian Design Centre, East Sydney NSW

2018: The Sculptors society, Darling Park, Sydney, NSW

2018: Stanthorpe Art Gallery, Stanthorpe Art Prize Exhibition

2018: Sydney Road Gallery, (exhibition Jan, Feb, March, April), Seaforth, NSW

2018: Contemporary Art Awards. (online)

2018: Port Lincoln Art Prize finalist, Nautilus Art Centre, SA

2016-17: Museum of Arts & Sciences, Out of Hand – Materialising the Digital, Ultimo, NSW

2013: Museum of Design, (3D-Print 3 dimensional things), Zürich, Switzerland

2010-11: Musee Del Disseny, (Full Print 3D. Printing Objects), Barcelona, Spain

2010: Open Agenda, Customs House, Sydney, NSW

2009: Nascent Present Exhibition, State of Design Festival, Melbourne, VIC

Collections

Museum of Arts and Sciences, Sydney, Australia

City of Sydney, Australia

Multiple private collections

Awards, Residencies & Grants

2024: Harvey Galleries Prize

2018: Finalist, NSW Creative Achievement Laureate (Create NSW)

2018: Artist in Residence UNSW Art and Design, Sydney

2014: BRW Most Innovative Companies 2014: 8 Laing O’Rourke (Freefab Wax invented by James Gardiner)

2010: Sustainable Ocean Innovation Award (inaugural), Sustainable Oceans International, Melbourne Victoria

2010: Open Agenda Award, University of Technology Sydney (UTS)

2005: Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarship. NSW Architects Registration Board, Sydney

2004: Jack Greenland Travelling Scholarship, University of Technology Sydney

1997: Commendation of Excellence, Sydney Institute of Technology, Enmore, Sydney

Artist Statement

Mark Friezer’s art making practice reflects a process of letting go and discovery. He explores the uncertainty that comes with no longer leading a structured way of life. The result is an explosion of light, shape and colour. He deconstructs filmic images he has made of prosaic objects such as clothing and garbage. In his most recent paintings these objects float across the surface signifying a release of joy and colour. Influences from Baroque and Rococo can be seen in his work as his painting takes on a flamboyant quality – similar to religious ceiling frescoes where the viewer is immersed in a 360° spatial environment. These works focus upward – objects defying gravitational pull. He explores the often nebulous relationship of objects to the space they inhabit.

His extensive use of layering and masking creates a kind of hybrid – in effect part painting, part painted collage and part print. The result is layered paintings which contrast gestural elements against sharp edged linearity and figuration against abstraction. The paintings become uncertain and beg questions of the viewer – is it reality that is depicted or is it a contrivance?

Mark has works in private collections, including Clayton Utz, Sydney and the Australian Taxation Office, Canberra. He was hung as a finalist in the Dobell Prize for Drawing in 2006 at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Biography

Mark Friezer is completing a BFA in painting at the National Art School. He was born in 1961 and lives and works in Sydney (Gadigal).

Prior to beginning study in 2022 Mark was a leading tax lawyer, being a partner for over 20 years in Clayton Utz, a top tier national law firm. He holds the degrees of Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Laws from the University of New South Wales and a Master of Laws from Sydney University.

For many years Mark combined art practice and education with his legal work.

He has regularly taken part in group shows and art competitions. In 2006 he was a finalist in the prestigious Dobell Drawing Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales with his work Weatherstorm. He has been highly commended at the Waverley Art Prize (2000) and was awarded the Sydney Long Prize for etching at the Julian Ashton Art School in 1998 and 1999.

Mark has pursued art educational opportunities in Australia and overseas. He has attended many short courses at both Julian Ashton Art School and at the National Art School as well as several independently run workshops. He has also studied overseas, including at the New York Studio School (Drawing Marathon (2000 and 2025) and Painting Marathon (2002)) and he has attended the Slade Summer School Painting Program in London (2007).

His works are in several private collections. Notably his large-scale drawing Weatherstorm is in the collection of Clayton Utz, Sydney. His portrait of former Commissioner of Taxation, Mr. Michael D’Ascenzo, hangs in the Australian Taxation Office headquarters building in Canberra.

Curriculum Vitae

Born 1961

Lives and works in Sydney (Gadigal)                                                                    

 PRIZES AND AWARDS

• Finalist Dobell Prize for Drawing, 2006 https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/prizes/dobell/2006/28421/
• Waverley Art Prize (highly commended), 2000
• Sydney Long Prize for Etching (Julian Ashton), 1999
• Sydney Long Prize for Etching (Julian Ashton), 1998

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

• “Second Life”, Atherton Street Gallery, 2024
• “Hard Currency”, NAS exhibition, 2024
• “Love”, Goodspace Gallery, 2024
• “Body”, Little Yellow Studio, 2023
• “Tenements”, Goodspace Gallery, 2023
• Dobell Prize for Drawing, AGNSW, 2006
• Real Refuses, 2002
• Mosman Art Prize, 2002
• Julian Ashton Students and Teachers Exhibition, 1998-2002
• Waverley Art Prize, 2001
• Waverley Art Prize, 2000
• Images of the Cross Art Prize, 2000

COLLECTIONS

Clayton Utz, Sydney

Australian Taxation Office, Canberra

Various private collections

Artist Statement

Hidden within painterly gestures and kaleidoscopic folds are allegorical references to my lived experience with complex mental illness. My works play with illusion and perceptions trickery. A play on space, surface, sound, and light to mobilise the scaffolding that supports our sense of reality. The works act as simulations of my experiences, attempting to enter the physicality of one’s affective state. Inviting the viewer to engage both physically and emotionally. Their bodies, not passive observers, but active participants. Contributing to the evolving simulacra of the work’s subject.

Bio

Sophie Victoria has had a strong introduction into the international and national spheres prior to finishing her Master of Fine Arts at the National Art School in 2024. She is currently represented by Galerie Robertson Arés in Canada and The House of Fine Art HOFA in London, where she has been featured in various international art fairs including Contemporary Istanbul, Art Miami, Art Toronto, Kiaf Seoul, and Expo Chicago from 2022 to 2024. She has been a finalist in the Sir John Sulman Prize for 2022 at the AGNSW. She has recently had her solod debut on the international scene with QUALIA in Montreal in June 2024, as well as other group exhibitions such as ‘Her Alchemy’ in London 2024, and DARING in Sydney 2024.

CV

b. 1991

Residing and working in Eora/Sydney AUS

Education
2022 – 2024 – Master of Fine Arts at National Art School
2018 – 2021- Bachelor of Fine Arts at National Art School
2014 – Award School
2009 – 2011- B. Visual Communications Design at Billie Blue College of Design (now Torrens University)

Solo Exhibition

June 2024 – ‘QUALIA’ – Galerie Robertson Ares – Montréal

Group Exhibitions

2025 – Colour Rush – Ten Days on the Island Festival, Launceston TAS
2024 – DARING – Curatorial & Co – Sydney,
2024 – Art Miami – HOFA – Miami Art Week, FL, USA
2024 – Art Toronto – Galerie Robertson Ares – Toronto, Canada
2024 – Intersect Aspen – HOFA – Aspen, Colorado USA
2024 – Kiaf – HOFA – Seoul, South Korea
2024 – Her Alchemy – HOFA London – London UK
2024 – Expo Chicago – Galerie Robertson Arès –
2023 – Art Toronto – Galerie Robertson Arès – Toronto, Canada
2023 – Art Miami – HOFA – Mami Art Week, FL, USA
2023 – CHROMA – Galerie Robertson Arès – Montréal
2023 – Contemporary Istanbul – HOFA – Istanbul, Turkey
2022 – Art Toronto – Galerie Robertson Arès – Toronto, Canada
2022 – Art Miami  – HOFA – Mami Art Week, FL, USA
2022 – ‘Germ’ LSW Drawing Exhibition
2022 – The Grad Show – National Art School
2021 – Rift – Point Five Gallery

Awards

2022 – Sir John Sulman Prize Finalist – AGNSW – ‘The Spectacle’
2021 – The Bird Holcomb Foundation Scholarship

Acquisition

2024 – ‘Sovereign Gestures’ was acquired by the City of Sydney
2021 – ‘The First Order’ was acquired for the National Art School Permanent Collection