Artists

John Waller

John Waller is an Australian artist and educator whose paintings are drawn from landscapes he has an emotional empathy with. Born in Mildura in 1954 and raised in the Mallee, he works in a mode of landscape-based abstraction.

Waller is visibly concerned with the craft of painting. He trowels, scrapes and smears pigment into evocative textures. His use of colour and the layers of images allows you see glimpses of other landscapes, figures and objects.

Waller has exhibited nationally for four decades. Solo exhibitions include Home Country: the Art of John Waller — Survey 1999–2003 at Shepparton Art Gallery (2003), Survey: John Waller 1990–2002 at Bundoora Homestead Arts Centre (2002), and Mildura Arts Centre (2002). As Artist in Residence at La Trobe University he held four solo exhibitions at the La Trobe University Art Museum between 2001 and 2007, and he showed at Peking University in 2007. Commercial solo exhibitions include Lyttleton Gallery, Melbourne, annually from 1991 to 2006; Mossgreen Gallery, Melbourne (2008, 2009, 2011, 2014, 2016); Arthouse Gallery, Sydney (2010); Red Sea Galleries, Brisbane (2016, 2017); Artvisory, South Yarra (2018); Queenscliff Gallery (2021, 2022, 2023); and Brickworks Gallery, Castlemaine (2021).

Group exhibitions include the Glover Prize finalists' exhibition (2021), the R & M McGivern Art Prize finalists (2006), My Country at Bendigo Art Gallery (2005), Common Ground at Bundoora Homestead Arts Centre (2006), From the Fringe to the Centre at Mildura Arts Centre (2002–03), and Abstract Interpretations of the Australian Landscape at La Trobe University Art Museum (2002).

His work has been written about by Dr Christopher Heathcote and appears in Bernard Smith's Australian Painting 1788–2000 and McCulloch's Encyclopedia of Australian Art.

His work is held in collections including Artbank, Mildura Arts Centre, Shepparton Art Gallery, La Trobe University, Bundoora Homestead Arts Centre, the City of Darebin Art Collection, Telstra and the Alfred Hospital.

Cat Poljski

Cat Poljski is a Melbourne-based Australian artist and printmaker whose work explores the built environment — the way cities are constructed, layered and reimagined through print. Combining images of buildings from cities she has lived in and visited, including Melbourne, New York, Beijing, London and Munich, she creates imagined urban landscapes that move between the real and the constructed.

Poljski holds a Diploma of Fine Arts (Printmaking) from Phillip Institute (RMIT) and a Master of Fine Arts from Monash University. Her practice has been shaped by international residencies, including a Red Gate Studio residency in Beijing (2008), two PointB Studio residencies in Brooklyn, New York (2011–12, 2013–14), and a residency at the Australian Tapestry Workshop (2016).

Her solo exhibitions include Reflecting Spaces (2024) and Hidden Spaces (2023) at Tacit Art, Sub-Divide (Tacit Galleries, 2020), Obstructing Views (Collingwood, 2018), Masking the City (Dear Patti Smith Gallery, 2013) and Imagined Cities (Jenny Port Gallery, 2011). Notable group exhibitions include the Guanlan International Print Biennial in Shenzhen, China (2009), de.con.struct at Matteawan Gallery in Beacon, New York (2015), the Swan Hill Print Prize, and The Alliance — a collaborative body of work with fellow artist Louise Blyton, shown at Neospace (2018) and Queenscliff Gallery (2023).

Poljski has also undertaken major print commissions, including a series for architecture firm Irwin Consult, and has collaborated with master printer Peter Lancaster of Lancaster Press. Her work has been reviewed and written about by critics including Robert Nelson and Dr Christopher Heathcote, and she was awarded the Dame Joan Sutherland Grant by the American Australian Association in 2008.

Cat lives and works in Melbourne.