Winner of the Gold Award 2012 & Togart Contemporary Art Award 2012, acclaimed Queensland artist Sally Gabori recently exhibited her work at the inaugural Sydney Contemporary 13, and currently has her work featured at Personal Structures at the magnificent Palazzo Bembo at the 55th Venice Biennale.

Having also recently exhibited his iconic photographic images at Sydney Contemporary 13, New Zealand born artist Greg Semu is receiving accolades for his evocative photographs, as he embraces Samoa as his ancestral and spiritual home, and explores themes of cultural displacement in his artwork.

Irene Namok, one of the most exciting artists to emerge from far north Queensland, explores the rainforest environment that surrounds her home at Lockhart River. Irene Namok in 2012 extensively exhibited her sublime paintings in Australia and internationally, including Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Booker Lowe Gallery in Texas, USA, and Cairns Regional Art Gallery.

Following her success of her recent exhibition at Alcaston Gallery, Dena Ashbolt observes the diminishing life force of a bunch of tulips through photographic images and video to capture the delicate motion found in their decay, and in the passing of time. In 2012, Dena Ashbolt has been a finalist in the Rick Amor Drawing Prize, Art Gallery of Ballarat, Victoria, and the Paul Guest Prize, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria, and she was highly commended at The Nillumbik Prize, Montsalvat, Victoria.

-Beverly Knight 2013

Image: © Alcaston Gallery