Artists in Virtue & Virtuosity unfurl the ideas behind their artworks in the exhibition in discussion with a close collaborator who has been a point of care and community throughout their practice.

Chantal Fraser x Brian Fuata

12 March 2022, 5pm
Cement Fondu
FREE, no rsvp required

Join us for a conversation between Chantal Fraser and Brian Fuata as they discuss Fraser’s bejeweled wind turbine, The Way (2018) in Virtue & Virtuosity. The Way, asks if virtue-signaling perpetuates one directional energy transfer, particularly for First Nations and Pasifika artists, whereby the gallery benefits from the association while unsustainably extracting the artists’ resources of creativity and power. Chantal and Brian met in the early-mid 2000’s through Chantal’s relation to Brian’s sister, artist Ai Fuata. They’ve been friends ever since. In addition to being friends, Chantal also participated in A Sixth Column Is A Public Column with Wrong Solo (Brian and Agatha Goethe-Snape) in 2019.

Chantal Fraser is a Brisbane-based, Auckland-born artist whose practice explores subversion of cultural and anthropological readings and does so through ornamentation and performative adornment. Fraser has exhibited nationally and internationally, including at QAGOMA, Institute of Modern Art, Artspace, Vancouver Art Gallery, Griffith University Art Museum, La Cité internationale des Arts in Paris, and Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Centre in New Caledonia.

Brian Fuata is a performance maker working with improvisation.

Maya Kilic x David Suyasa
2 April 2022, 2pm
Cement Fondu
FREE, no rsvp required

Join us for a conversation between Maya Kilic and David Suyasa as they discuss Kilic’s new commission by Cement Fondu for Virtue & Virtuosity. Kilic will present a triptych of videos titled Overabundance (2022), which combine digital collage, performance and motion tracking tools to playfully tease the absurd relationship between predatory digital algorithms and the ironic promotion of healing, nature and wellness within virtual spaces. As artists, Kilic and Suyasa approach photography with a critical lens and expand upon the form through a digital practice. In 2021, Suyasa curated Kilic’s work Great Escapes as a part of a group exhibition They Might Be Dreaming at Layton Street.

Maya Kilic is a Sydney-based is a mixed-media artist working within the field of digital photography, video and animation to explore alternate ways of documenting life in a digitally prevalent era by representing ‘the real’ as an interplay of physical, virtual and imagined worlds. Kilic is an early career artist who has exhibited at UTS Gallery X Central Park for Art Month, Airspace Projects and PARI.

David Suyasa is a Balinese-Australian image based artist living on Gadigal Land. Research is an integral part of his practice which informs his concerns of biography, diaspora and storytelling. With a precise technical foundation, his work takes advantage of the formal use of and expansion of photography, moving image, performance and poetry.