Fine Art Studios

Please ensure you have enrolled in the Fine Art Studio course in enrolment online.
You will not need to preference this course: students will be allocated to their home studios course relevant to their year level.
(Note: There is a separate page for Fine Art Workshop classes and a separate page for ART: History+Theory+Cultures classes.)
The Fine Art Studios are offered under the following course codes:
Fine Art Studio 3 VART  3646 (2nd year)

Fine Art Studio 5 VART 3648 (3rd year)

Fine Art Studio classes are 24 credit point courses and will require 6 contact hours per week.

For more information about a course, please contact the Studio Lead of the offering studio or course coordinator.

Please find link to the course guide VART3646 or VART3648.

Please note: although we would like to offer all of the Fine Art Studio options below, classes are subject to viability and may not run if numbers are too low.

Course Information


  • Course Coordinator
  • Teacher
  • Day + Time
  • Location

Offering Studio & Studio Lead/Coordinator


  • Art History – Clare McCracken
  • Ceramics – Kris Coad
  • Drawing – Greg Creek
  • Gold & Silversmithing – Mark Edgoose
  • Painting – Peter Ellis
  • Photography (BP117) – Alan Hill
  • Print – Richard Harding
  • Sculpture – Fleur Summers
  • Video – Greg Creek

Artist: Amber Macklin / Photographer: Isabella Capezio

Ceramic Research Project


  • Kris Coad
  • Kris Coad & TBC
  • Wednesday 9.30am – 4.30pm
  • 04.01.01
  • Fine Art Studio 5 (Ceramics)
In this course you will undertake a semester-long ceramic research project to produce an archive of your process and final resolved ceramic works. You will extensively investigate an area of direct interest to you and your ceramic practice, that will engage you physically and mentally, working independently with the guidance of your lectures. This course will assist in developing your ability to conduct and document research that is integral to the ongoing practice in all creative disciplines.

FIONA HALL "DEAD IN THE WATER" 1999
NATIONAL GALLERY OF VICTORIA, MELBOURNE. PURCHASED, 1999
© COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

Developing Practice in Sculpture


  • Fleur Summers
  • TBC
  • Tuesday 9.30am-4.30pm
  • 37.01.02
  • Fine Art Studio 3 (Sculpture)
In this course you will develop your sculptural practice by producing a series of guided experimental works which connect with contemporary sculpture. In tandem with these processes of production, you will develop a series of conceptual and material strategies which will aid you in developing your own unique approach to making. You will also research and document a series of artists, works and themes and begin to build an archive of research material to draw on in the future. You will use these early works and your research archive to develop and present an independent work. This course aims to provide you with the conceptual and technical skills and tools to consolidate your work to date and to assist you in developing directions that you can expand on as your practice develops.

Franz West exhibition, Installation View, Tate Modern 2019, Photo credit: Simon Perry

Expanded Sculpture Studio


  • Simon Perry
  • Simon Perry
  • Wednesday 9.30am-4.30pm
  • 37.01.01
  • Fine Art Studio 5 (Sculpture)
In the first half of this course, you will develop your sculptural practice by producing a series of experimental works which build upon and extend your thematic, material and research interests. In tandem with these processes of production, you will research and document a series of artists, works and themes and begin to build an archive of research material to draw on in the future. In the second half of the course you will use these early works and your research archive to develop and present a major work. This course aims to provide you with the conceptual and technical skills and tools to consolidate your work to date and to assist you in developing directions that you can potentially expand on as a professional artist or in further study.

2019_Intersections_Lund

John Lund, Complex Freeway Interchange Network, 2018, photograph, dimensions variable

Intersections: Exploring the analogue digital interface through print discourses 


  • Andrew Gunnell
  • Andrew Gunnell & TBC
  • Tuesday 9.30am – 4.30pm
  • 49.02.04
  • Fine Art Studio 3 (Print)

In this course, you will engage with contemporary art practices that deploy studio theories and philosophies of print imaging as a springboard to art making that go beyond the workshop edition. You will engage in conceptual and technical explorations that expand your current understanding of the analogue digital interface. You will investigate and experiment with handmade, machine made and screen-based methods to consider your practice in relation to local, national and international contemporary ideas and philosophies. You will also be encouraged to develop your own practice with consideration of audience, the practice of your peers, and how these operate within the art community and society in general. 

 


Dana Schutz
Trouble and Appearance 2019
Oil on canvas
90 x 96 inches
228.6 x 243.84 cm
Photo Peter Ellis

Painting, Thinking Through Making


  • Peter Ellis
  • Phill Edwards + TBC
  • Tuesday 9.30am – 4.30pm
  • Studio 02.03.04
  • Fine Art Studio 3 (Painting)

This course advances your practice inspiring you to discover an expanded view of what painting can be in contemporary art.  Painting is a way of thinking equally as a way of making. You will explore painting through material, space and colour to produce “pure” and hybrid works. Through studio research you will explore different forms of imagery and abstract practices expressed through a range of concepts, techniques and media. You will expand upon the use of traditional, historic and experimental media to build upon your established strengths. A variety of projects will lead to your individual studio projects that are based on your own interests. 

You will engage with ideas of figuration, narrative, mythology and abstract and non- objective art practices; exploring the found image and object, screen media and text. You will experience strategies to increase the scale and production of your work. You may experience how the concepts of painting as image may be transformed to the investigation of painting as object, installation, ephemeral and site-specific work. You will experiment with systems to document and display artworks. 

This course is studio based and complemented by online learning, visual lectures, field trips, class discussions and student presentations that focus on the development of a body of exploratory, experimental and resolved artworks relating to your individual interests. 


Katharina Grosse, The Horse Trotted Another Couple of Metres, then it Stopped. 2018, Paint on 8,000 square metres of fabric. Installation detail, Carriageworks, Sydney. Photo Peter Ellis.

Painting - Advanced Studio


  • Peter Ellis
  • Sarah Tomasetti, Phill Edwards + TBC
  • Wednesday 9.30am – 4.30pm
  • Studio 02.04.04
  • Fine Art Studio 5 (Painting)

In this course you will experience an expanded view of painting as image and as material presence. Through a variety of established and experimental research strategies, you will discover new ways to develop form, content and methodology to advance your studio production. The aim for this course, is for you to develop a focussed, sustainable, exploratory individual studio practice that relates to your own ideas. 

Generalised thematic propositions are introduced, leading to the development of an individual studio investigation, where you will build upon your established strengths and explore new concepts and methods of production. You may investigate painting, drawing, performance, video, digital media, installation and more. You will investigate a variety of making strategies and pictorial systems of visual information that inform how expanded painting practices can create individual meaning, new ways of seeing and limitless possibilities. 

You may experience diverse ideas of – Materiality, abstraction, the human image, the landscape and the natural world, identity, hybridity and migration, pop culture, digital and time-based practices, and personal symbolism. You will develop a draft studio work proposal that is directed to your individual studio projects. This course is studio based complemented by online learning, student presentations, demonstrations, visual lectures, individual and WIL group tutorials and feedback and field trips to exhibitions in a supportive and stimulating environment

 


Photograph of Rachel Whiteread's studio by Nigel Shafran 2010

Studio Drawing Projects


  • Greg Creek
  • Greg Creek & Carolyn Eskdale
  • Wednesday 9.30am – 4.30pm
  • 04.04.04
  • Fine Art Studio 5 (Drawing)

In this course you will initiate your individual Studio Projects as an exploration of the diversity of contemporary practices, media and ideas. Your thinking may form through varied forms of enquiry: from picture making, narrative, figuration and installation to time-based practices or event-based work. Building upon your strengths, you will establish a strong, sustainable working method and individualised material research supported by conceptual frameworks, leading to a body of Development and Resolved work. 

You will focus upon thematic and self-directed practices, in media appropriate to your individual projects, that address meaning within the production and exhibition capacity of your emerging art practice. Through lectures and presentations, and critical writing about your practice you will further your understanding of the ways artists link methods and ideas to underpin and extend their industry-based careers. 


Artist: Sarah Douglass / Photographer: Michael Quinlan

The Narrative Through Clay


  • Kris Coad
  • Kris Coad
  • Tuesday 9.30am – 4.30pm
  • 04.01.01
  • Fine Art Studio 3 (Ceramics)
This class explores the conceptual potential that clay and the process of ceramics can communicate both universal and personal stories. Through a series of teacher directed investigations students will research narrative themes. Students will develop the craft of ceramics and engage with materials, processes, tools and technologies directed by their research. Students will be encouraged to develop an individual approach and interpretation to develop new work and an individual material and formal expression. 

RICHARD HARDING, COVID NATIONALISM 2021& BORDER CONTROL 2017, PHOTOGRAPHIC SCREEN PRINT WITH ACRYLIC MIRROR, DIMENSIONS VARIABLE, IMAGE COURTESY OF ARTIST.

The Politics of Print: Protest and Power


  • Richard Harding
  • Richard Harding & TBC
  • Wednesday 9.30am – 4.30pm
  • 49.02.04
  • Fine Art Studio 5 (Print)

In this course, you will engage with contemporary art practices that employ reproductive technologies such as printmaking and photography that challenge the status of the unique art object developing a praxis deploying the intersectionality of race, gender and class. In this context, you will be challenged to research other practitioners' methodologies and experiment with processes beyond your current practice. You will be directed to appropriate resources and instructed in divergent methods sensitive to the needs of your practice. You will participate in group critique sessions as well as individual tutorials to assist you in contextualising your work in relation to historic and contemporary art practices that engage with positions of protest and power. 


Pipilotti Rist Gravity Be My Friend 2007; audio video installation; installation view at Australian Centre for Contemporary Art; Melbourne; 2011. Photo: Andrew Curtis.

Video & Sound Studio


  • Greg Creek
  • TBC
  • Wednesday 9.30am-4.30pm
  • 4.2.03, 4.2.06
  • Fine Art Studio 3 & 5 (Video)
In this course you will explore processes which use duration and time engaging with mediums such as sound, performance, improvisation, installation, video, and site-responsive art. During the semester you will develop works that consider the methodologies, strategies and problematics of Time-based practice through action, recording, composition, process, exhibition, and archive. You will be asked to consider what it means to experience/perform/listen to an artwork unfold over time according to the temporal logic of the medium, and also to engage in the historical and cultural legacies related to temporal art practices. Building upon your strengths, you will be encouraged to develop a strong sustainable working process through your own individualised creative research, leading to a group of resolved works in a format appropriate to your individual projects. Experimentation and play with time-based concepts, techniques and processes is encouraged to develop new ways of reflecting on and critiquing your practice. Supportive individual and group tutorials, lectures, collaborative workshops, technical demonstrations and individual studio work complement this course.

WONDERLUST-EXTENDED STUDIO PRACTICES Caspar_David_Friedrich

Caspar David Friedrich, Chalk Cliffs on Rügen, 1818, Oil on Canvas

Wonderlust: Studio Research


  • Peter Westwood & Irene Barberis
  • Peter Westwood & Irene Barberis
  • Tuesday 9.30am – 4.30pm
  • 04.05.03
  • Fine Art Studio 3 (Drawing)
In this course you will further develop your emerging practice as broad-based contemporary art form. You will explore approaches to art as an enquiry into the world. You will develop individual modes of practice that may be medium specific, or cross various media and cycles of making as investigative method. Wonderlust is the desire to be in a heightened state of wonder, so in responding to this idea of wonder, and wandering, you will be given opportunities to work through experimental ideas, practices and processes. You will investigate thematic and self-directed projects to consider ideas of what an art practice is and how the dynamics of an art practice may evolve within our current times, leading to the development of self-directed and resolved bodies of artwork.  

Touch & Hold


  • Kirsten Haydon
  • TBC
  • Tuesday 9.30am – 12.30
  • 02.01.03
  • Fine Art Studio 3 (G+S)

In this course, you will undertake a series of projects to explore the haptic qualities of touching and holding as a sense, a concept, a function, and a making premise to create jewellery and objects. Through touch and hold we make and use objects imbuing and finding spaces for jewellery to contain meanings and ideas.  

You will research historical and contemporary concepts relating to the sense and meaning of Touch and to the notion and function of Hold. From this research you will develop drawings, models, material experiments and maquettes testing your ideas. You will learn and engage with a series of modules to inform and support the development of your finished work this semester.   

Note: Learning modules scheduled across Tuesday and Thursday afternoons between 1.30 to 4.30pm.

  

 


Rosemary Gunzburg 2017

Jewellery & Object Major Research Project


  • Nick Bastin
  • TBC
  • Wednesday 9.30am – 12.30
  • 02.01.04
  • Fine Art Studio 5 (G+S)

In this course, you will undertake a semester long research project to produce a "Research Archive" and "Final Resolved" works. During this time you will choose your own subject to explore that is relevant to the direction of your work. This will include identifying the topic, technique and material for exploration. You will develop methodologies in your "Research Archive" to incorporate into and develop a "Final Resolved" group of both jewellery and object based works. This course will assist in developing your ability to identify an area of research, conduct experimentation and then document that research. This major project will be integral to your ongoing creative practice and will assist you in developing your artistic position and the directions of your future work.

Note: Learning modules scheduled across Tuesday and Thursday afternoons between 1.30 to 4.30pm.