NotFair 2021
May 20-27 & June 11-13
@ the former Kardinia Church, Chris Gahan Reserve, 61-71 Mcilwrick Street, Windsor
NotFair’s 10th year was last year, but, due to The Plague we were obviously unable to celebrate accordingly. In 2021 we made up for lost time in a big way. Our 2021 venue was the former Kardinia Church in Windsor. Holding a fair in a former place of worship in a time of post pandemic insecurity and enduring hardship for the arts – which has resulted in many artists have grown understandably obsessed with issues of climate change and the very fate of Planet Earth – was A Leap of Faith indeed and seems the obvious connection that brought together |notfair| 2021.
36 artist, showcasing over 200 works in what may have seemed an eclectic feast of visual triggers – were connected in this undercurrent of apocalyptic obsession, and what follows there were references to Earth aplenty – the use of earth itself as a media, depictions of the landscape irradiated and images of its denizens such as feasting meat ants. There were found objects rearranged – even the bulk of a Volkswagen Golf, grown obese with strange metallic fungus.
All in all, |notfair| 2021 remained a stubborn celebration of creativity and imagination and skill in the face of adversity.
NotFair, Australia’s Original Independent Art Fair
Artists
NotFair 2021 Artists
Alicia King
Amber Cronin
Amelda Read Forsythe
Angela Casey
Ara Dolatian
Ash Coates
Ben Taranto & Yin Paradies
Ceri Hann
Chee Yong
Christian Bishop
Darren Tanny Tan
Eloise Kirk
Erik Sherman
Farnaz Dadfar
Hayley Arjona
Jack Rowland
James Bonnici
Jason Waterhouse
Jennifer Whitten
Jeremy Blincoe
Joshua Bonson
Julie Vinci
Kate Ballis
Laetitia Olivier-Gargano
Liss Fenwick
Liz Sonntag aka Tinky
Matilda Davis
Michael Carney
Moya Delany
Nic Malacari
Nicholas Burridge
Shea Kirk
Simon Attwooll
Terry Taylor
Yuria Okamura
NotFair acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land upon we gather and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and future. We recognize the strength, pride and expression of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Virtual Tour
NotFair Awards 2021
Arkley Award
The memory of much-loved artist Howard Arkley is honoured by the Arkley Award, established in 2010 by Arkley’s mother, Gwen and her late partner Frank Lewis. The aim of the prize is to acknowledge the skills of emerging artists and reflect Howard Arkley’s passion as practitioner and teacher.
“We’ve done it in memory of Howard,” said Gwen Arkley. “I feel he would have wanted to help younger artists. He won awards himself, but he was also a very generous artist, teacher and friend.”
The $5,000 non-acquisitive award focusses on talent in painting and photography.
Winner: Alicia King
At NotFair 2021, Alicia King presents a new series of tactile sculptural works using elemental materials and natural forces, including iron and magnetism. Each piece is titled with the coordinates of one of the world’s largest iron deposits, thought to have come to Earth via possible supernovas (PSNs).
Anne Runhardt Art Award
Established in 2017, the Anne Runhardt Art Award was founded to uncover and enable outstanding talent within the visual arts. The $5,000 non-acquisitive award is dedicated to independent, experimental and thought-provoking art deserving of greater recognition and opportunity. All participating artists of |notfair| are considered finalists of the Anne Runhardt Art Award.
The inaugural 2017 winner was Chris Henschke for his eponymous work Songs of the Phenomena (2016). A transformed nuclear reactor, a mechanical beast feeding of fruit through electrodes, softy howling, pulsing, creating random sounds. The work was since acquired by Dark MOFO, under auspices of MOMA Hobart.
The 2017 award was judged by Gareth Sansom – who’s retrospect exhibition Transformer was showing at NGV Australia at that same time – together with Ashley Crawford and Anne Runhardt.
Winner: Farnaz Dadfar
Farnaz Dadfar The Beloved is Here 2021. Site specific work. 4 x 4 m.
Farnaz Dadfar is an Iranian-born Australian artist, based in Sydney. Her interdisciplinary practice is characterised by a personal narrative offering a small window into an alternative realm of spiritual and philosophical experience. By recuperating certain characteristics of Persian Sufi poetry and Farsi literature as artistic material, she is exploring the concept of linguistic diaspora and flâneur through a lens of displacement and migration.
Anne Runhardt Art Award
Established in 2017, the Anne Runhardt Art Award was founded to uncover and enable outstanding talent within the visual arts. The $5,000 non-acquisitive award is dedicated to independent, experimental and thought-provoking art deserving of greater recognition and opportunity. All participating artists of |notfair| are considered finalists of the Anne Runhardt Art Award.
The inaugural 2017 winner was Chris Henschke for his eponymous work Songs of the Phenomena (2016). A transformed nuclear reactor, a mechanical beast feeding of fruit through electrodes, softy howling, pulsing, creating random sounds. The work was since acquired by Dark MOFO, under auspices of MOMA Hobart.
The 2017 award was judged by Gareth Sansom – who’s retrospect exhibition Transformer was showing at NGV Australia at that same time – together with Ashley Crawford and Anne Runhardt.
Winner: Farnaz Dadfar
Farnaz Dadfar The Beloved is Here 2021. Site specific work. 4 x 4 m.
Farnaz Dadfar is an Iranian-born Australian artist, based in Sydney. Her interdisciplinary practice is characterised by a personal narrative offering a small window into an alternative realm of spiritual and philosophical experience. By recuperating certain characteristics of Persian Sufi poetry and Farsi literature as artistic material, she is exploring the concept of linguistic diaspora and flâneur through a lens of displacement and migration.
The Lennox Award
A House Haunted… by Art
Ghosts, Gangsters, Artists, Actors, Authors and Musicians have all collided in this magical abode. A veritable Who’s Who of Melbourne’s cultural characters have collected, at one time or another, at a former pub, now dubbed The Lennox, at Richmond’s 208 Lennox Street.
The Lennox Award is founded to enable emerging artist to exhibit and connect at this historical venue. It offers a free exhibition with a fully catered opening night.
The award is kindly presented by Helen Bogdan.
The Lennox Award 2021 will be judged by Helen Bogdan and the Ashley Crawford.
Winners: Ash Coates and Liss Fenwick
Ash Coates is a multi-disciplinary artist. His practice involves, but is not limited to, painting, animation/video, installation and digital art. Across these mediums the artist conjures environmental and scientific narratives, while gleaning reference materials from the landscape, personal events, mythology and science fiction\horror films.
Liss Fenwick’s Meat Tray is a series of photographs that look at historical narratives of white settlement in rural northern Australia through images that depict flesh-eating ants (Iridomyrmex sanguineus) consuming feral buffalo meat. In a night-time ritual, Fenwick repurposes tarnished silver trays to feed the ants on her family’s rural property in Humpty Doo, NT, on the unceded land of the Larrakia people. Fenwick photographs the ants as they swarm the flesh using the trays as an autobiographical stage for a ‘theatre of the absurd’.
Exhibitions were held at The Lennox in February 2022 – view here:
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