The Others

“Actually, It’s…”

There’s an undeniable thrill in finding out something is not as it seems. 

In art there’s always layers to be peeled back, processes involved that aren’t always clear from seeing the final product or themes that slowly reveal themselves the longer you look, but for some, you’ll find yourself lulled into a false sense of understanding, until the Artist says “Actually, it’s…” 

Franca Turrin

When I first saw Franca’s work in-person, the huge, vibrant and alien-like florals caught my attention right away.  My cousin looked at me and said “Wow, that’s amazing, I wonder how she edits to get them to look like that?”

If you thought the same thing, then I think you’ll be just as delighted and amazed as we were, when she told us the entire thing was done in-camera!  Apart from a few minor tweaks in post, the magic of Franca’s floral works are done in the studio using fiber-optic lights and super long exposures, to create alien-like organics.  The resulting images are stunning, mind-blowing, vibrant works that truly bring joy to any space.

Todd Simpson

You wouldn’t be the first to assume from a distance (or through a screen!) that Todd’s works are photographs.  In fact, he’d be so unsurprised to hear you refer to them as such, that I can imagine he’d be able to purchase a lot of art supplies if he had a dollar for everytime he said “Actually, it’s a painting!”  

Not just a painting, but actually, they’re airbrushed paintings!  These stunning pieces use the language of photography – playing with depth of field, blur, bokeh, vibrant lighting and reflections to show us new perspectives on the urban landscapes that we’re already so familiar with.  

Todd’s pieces are absolutely conversation starters, and once you’ve experienced the joy of realization, you’ll be dying to introduce the pieces to someone new, so that you can watch them experience it too. 

Jon Setter

When I first stumbled upon Jon Setter’s work on Instagram, I thought to myself – how did he paint those lines so straight and clean?!  A page of tiny thumbnails, I scrolled through until curiosity pushed me to click on the thumbnail and get the full view.  It was only reading the caption that I realized – this is photograph!  Once you see it, everything else clicks into place, and you start to see the line of a building here, the texture of brick there, or a tile or curb.  

Jon’s ability to flatten space to play with composition, colour and scale is truly masterful, and there’s a real joy in knowing the perfect images come from our imperfect world, as seen through an artists’ lens.

Rose-Mary Faulkner

Rose-Mary’s work reminds me a bit of layered coloured pencil, or airbrushed paint, perhaps prints even?  But actually, Rose-Mary’s work is Kiln-fused glass.  If you have no idea what that means, no worries – because at first, me too! Luckily, Rose-Mary had a couple on minutes at the Fair to show me how multiple pieces of glass were printed with different photos, layered on top of each other, and then heated so they fused together to create one.   The transparent properties of the glass mean that the photographs are visible through each other, creating ghostly impressions of the images – that’s how you get the absolutely stunning “Impression Series”.  In person, they are beautifully matte and very much defy the expectations most people have of glass, but the medium truly has an affect that you can’t get from any other.

There really is so much to discover, and in art, almost nothing is as it seems…

Discover and shop all the artists who showed with us at The Cutaway in Barangaroo, May 11 – 14th 2023.