In this edition we feature the arrestingly sophisticated work of Howard Taylor (1918-2001) from the Kerry Stokes Collection, on show at Collie Art Gallery. Ted Snell reveals judicious and inspired collecting acknowledging a need to build a comprehensive overview of the artist’s work, very much overlooked nationally during his lifetime. By delving deeply into his environment from the Perth Hills to Northcliffe, where he later lived, Taylor’s seclusion from the outside world reaped visual arts jewels and treasures so beautifully considered it seems impossible he could have come to the conclusions he did in any other way.

Still in Collie, Annette Peterson explores how its $50,000 art prize is very much the key to the town’s future. With the closing of its coal mine and power station in the next decade, cultural tourism is providing a cornerstone for its future, firstly with the building of the Collie Art Gallery, its art prize and the Collie Mural Trail.

Laetitia Wilson reviews Kevin Robertson Paintings 1984-2022 at Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, clearly reveling in this opportunity to explore 38 years of Robertson’s practice, with its twists and turns of interests up to the present.

As Art Gallery of WA Director Colin Walker is now half way through his five year contract, it seemed timely to have a chat about the gallery’s achievements so far during his directorship, and what is on the horizon in future.

We interviewed Amok Island, with his work currently on show at Kamile Gallery in Reverie, gaining an insight of his practice, and celebrate the launch of the 2023 lecture program of the Perth-based Australian Decorative and Fine Arts Societies.