Esther Erlich Erlich's style is raw, vital and spontaneous, yet also displays the skill and gloss of a well-seasoned artist. It is the brilliant combination of striking, even haunting portrait-like features with the light, grace and somewhat abstract fluidity of her more decorative style that makes her work so inspiring. Be it in the muted haze of a retreating figure, the subtle turn of an outstretched ankle, or the provocative expression of her subject, one cannot help but recognise themselves. Erlich brings us face to face with our own reality, but softens the blow with a hint of froth and bubble. WINNER OF THE DOUG MORAN PORTRAIT PRIZE 1998, WINNER ARCHIBALD PEOPLES' CHOICE 2000 & DOBELL DRAWING PRIZE FINALIST 2007 & CHARLATAN INK PRIZE 2011, NEW YORK.

Christopher Lees Opal miner turned landscape painter breathes new life into the art market with his arresting landscapes. Christopher Lees reflects an authority in his brushstrokes which is evident in his monumental perspectives of the Australian terrain. In his twenties Lees travelled extensively throughout remote Australia, working as an opal miner. Now based in rural Victoria, his experiences of the outback unravel on the canvas in panoramic and dioramic form.

Jill Lewis Through the layered negotiation of the canvas, Lewis’s imagery reveals fragmentary, dream-like, moments that translate into a sense of the familiar. The viewer is embroiled in a pictorial journey, at once candidly childlike and extraordinarily sophisticated.

Carlo Golin An isolated group of decaying persimmons, a line of gnarled mangosteens, a vulnerable pile of plums. Carlo Golin’s new body of work “In The Real” seeks to transform domestic objects into something much more mysterious and theatrical.

Darren Gannon Returning to stretches of south coast NSW, Gannon accumulates working drawings on site, sketching elements of weather or impressions of a landscape,in order to generate the content for his paintings back in his Sydney studio.

Dayle Bolton Dale Bolton's splendidly costumed circus characters are positioned against rich and atmospheric backdrops. The complexities of the human condition are dramatised and exposed through the medium of theatre.The wry and playful narratives of the artist's satirical tableaus hint at darker agendas.

Steve Rosendale Mystery, tension and high contrast embody the atmosphere of Rosendale’s paintings. Following the artist’s 2007 sell-out show, this current body of work, “Bring the Money, Come Alone”, once again lures the viewer into Rosendale's nostalgic world of romantic crime…an urban vision both complex and sophisticated.

Nicholas Burton Nicholas Burton’s visual stories are told through relentless riveting and denting of hard metal into malleable surfaces. Complex patterns appear as detailed ‘braille-like’ etchings in aluminium. Burton’s metallic landscapes draw the essence out of the everyday object and awaken our spiritual connection to the land. SULMAN PRIZE FINALIST 2002 & 2007

Neil Hicks With a loaded palette knife of impasto, Hicks paints tiered colour bands of sunset and breeze beyond naked trees. Indigenous references to the artist's heritage are subtly infused into texture and meaning; mottled backgrounds and cloaked layers insinuating a narrative beyond the immediately visual.

Poh Ling Yeow Poh Ling Yeow's recent works explore the mythical girl/woman subject and her menagerie of animals. Despite her obvious physical differences this wise young woman finds solace and kinship in these families. Poh's paintings are exquisitely crafted into romantic character studies inhabiting seductively ephemeral worlds.

Mia Galo Not shy to portray the female form clad or naked, Mia Galo’s vibrant paintings capture the spirit of the independent woman.

John Hart John Hart is concerned with the complex, often ambivalent intersection between classical painting, photography and digital imaging. Drawing inspiration from realist artists including Gerhard Richter and Chuck Close, Hart employs photo-mechanical material as the impetus for his paintings. A tradition established by these predecessors was to set one representational process against another, creating a tension in the work between the indexicality of photography and the conceptual or imaginative possibilities of painting. 1.

Willy Sheather Willy Sheather’s paintings are an exercise in imagination. The landscape surrounding her home, in rural NSW, forms the backdrop to her theatrical interior world. Sheather says of her works: “they reflect my internal space. Some of them are autobiographical – they represent me wrestling with my artistic gift; wanting it to be well used”. EXHIBITED HONG KONG 2007 BLAKE PRIZE FINALIST 1998 TATTERSALL'S PRIZE FINALIST 2000, 2001

Vitor Dos Santos Brett Whiteley Travelling Scholarship finalist 2008 Vitor Dos Santos, a bilingual artist who travelled throughout his childhood, uses an ecclectic mix of materials often on plywood - charcoal, graphite, pencil, newspaper and acrylic paint. The artist imaginitively explores a disenchanted popular mass culture by provoking questions about language, travel, communication and social hierarchies.

Matthew Cheyne Cheyne's current paintings recharacterise classical mythical figures from a modern perspective. His technically formal work seeks to make the ordinary extraordinary, giving everyday items uncanny powers and symbolic weight. 2010 METRO PRIZE FINALIST

Damien Baumgartner Damien Baumgartner investigates the haunting quality of an empty highway as the inspiration for his work. Focusing on the overlooked and the mundane, Baumgartner's roadsides, replete with debris, force a new reading of our urban position. BRETT WHITELEY TRAVELLING SCHOLARSHIP FINALIST 2005 GLOVER FINALIST 2004

Amanda Parer Amanda Parer is an emerging artist from Tasmania where her work is gaining recognition from both public and private collectors. She was selected three times for the Blake Prize (2009, 2010 & 2011), as well as a 2008 Glover Prize Finalist. Parer comes from an artistic family - she is the great grand niece of Damien Parer, who won the first Oscar for his documentary of the battle of Kokoda, and niece to David Parer, producer of wildlife documentaries.

Gus Leunig "As a young child I moved between Daylesford and Sheparton, before settling, at the age of five, in Euroa. My parents split up when i was in high school, and in the old fashioned sense, I picked up an instrument, a fishing rod and a bag of worms, and I ran for the hills."

Luke Wagner Luke Wagner’s haunting utopian vision of the landscape appears back-lit, relying on the artist’s technique of using many delicate veils of oil paint. Darkly painted swathes of pared-down terrain are rich with classical echoes yet the surrealist elements override to unnerve and provoke the viewer to look again. The promise of solitude beckons us to enter these seductively "stripped bare" environments and to search for the spiritual beyond the visual. GLOVER PRIZE FINALIST 2007

Nicholas Daunt Trans-continental abstract painter Nicholas Daunt enjoyed a fast-paced youth, notably whilst creating multiple U.S shows, then enjoying a successful painting and advertising career in Australia during the ‘80’s and ‘90’s. However after the millennium came a sea-change to the NSW coast, and so with his new-found spiritual approach to a simple life he has created this latest series of large oils on canvas…. works in rhythm with the tides seen from his studio.

Kareena Zerefos Kareena Zerefos is a Sydney born, London-based artist and self-confessed daydreamer who collects fine bone china tea sets, but prefers to drink coffee. Twenty-eight year old Zerefos has an unhealthy obsession with dangerously sharp 2B pencils…and her pencils, along with a yearning to escape to a world of make-believe, lead her to create whimsical illustrative work...she loves the word ‘elephant’, her Italian greyhound called Pelle and visiting natural history museums.

Helen Norton Helen Norton is an established Australian artist with a long record of highly acclaimed exhibitions, having shown throughout the country and abroad.. In 1985 the artist settled in Broome where she developed her unique style and 'essence as an artist'. This was an exciting period when Broome was absorbing international cultural influences and the place was alive with visitors thanks to the efforts of English entrepreneur Lord Alister McAlpine.

Jack E. Pemble METRO 5 ART PRIZE FINALIST 2007

Janine Riches Janine Riches has moved through 30 years of painting and drawing. The artist resides in Gippsland Victoria where her ongoing exploration of layers relates to Australian history and layers of indigenous ancestors and their untold stories. Her attraction to Melbourne's hidden lane ways and the discovery of sophisticated street art runs through her latest series. The walls of the hidden lane ways are rustic and weathered, painted over and over, covering secrets and untold stories which appeal to her style of painting and story telling.

Jill McFarlane "The viewer may identify with the women (in my paintings) and see themselves in their alternatively devilish and innocent expressions or be seduced by the illusion of their servitude. I am interested in conflicted relationships of voyeurism in my work and the pornographic tendency to reveal everything and the erotic inclination to hide".

Alexandra Spyratos Alexandra Spyratos was born in Kenya where she lived most of her life surrounded by the exotic beauty and wilderness of Africa. Based between Byron Bay, Australia and Malindi, Kenya, Alexandra has made two tranquil corners of the world her base, painting in her studios for exhibitions worldwide.