ON ART

Jemima Wyman (Palawa) is an LA-based artist and Samstag Scholar (2005). Over three decades, Wyman has explored collective organising, democracy and dissent through photographic collage, painting, performance, textiles and moving image. She joins Associate Curator Anna Zagala in the studio to discuss  Deep Surface , a major survey exhibition devoted to her work now on at the Samstag Museum of...

Ellie Buttrose is the curator of the 2026 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, a survey exhibition featuring 24 artists across three venues: the Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA), the Adelaide Botanic Gardens and Samstag Museum of Art. Joining Samstag’s Associate Curator Anna Zagala in the studio midway through the exhibition’s installation  Ellie shares how this survey of Aus...

In 2025 Samstag Museum of Art invited Kaurna-based artist and Samstag scholar Monte Masi to create a new work to be performed across multiple performances in the gallery. Monte joins Associate Curator Anna Zagala to discuss what drew him to art in the first place, the thrills and perils of the improvised unscripted encounters, and his experience living and studying in San Francisco during a tech b...

Ryan Presley (Marri Ngarr) is a visual artist living on Yugambeh Country (Logan City, QLD). His practice spans painting, printmaking, sculpture, video, installation, and writing, and is marked by a deep engagement with the visual economies of power, memory, and resistance.  Commissioned by the University in 2024 to paint a portrait of its Chancellor, the Honorable John Hill, Ryan joins Associ...

Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro have been life partners and artistic collaborators for over 25 years. They join Associate Curator Anna Zagala to discuss their new exhibition,  Psychopomp , currently on display at Samstag Museum of Art. The outcome of the UniSA Jeffrey Smart Commission, the work is a cacophonous and vibrant moving image work that explores the porous relationship...

South Australian artist Louise Haselton was invited by curator Jasmin Stephens to create work in response to North Terrace, the cultural boulevard that runs through Tarntanya / Adelaide, for the exhibition North Terrace: worlds in relief, which recently opened at Samstag Museum of Art. Louise joins Associate Curator Anna Zagala on the podcast to discuss, among other things, how a pamphlet in the U...

Ahead of the launch of Samstag Museum of Art’s group exhibition Direct, Directed, Directly , Chinese Australian poet and artist Chunxiao Qu joins Associate Curator Anna Zagala to discuss her art practice. Chunxiao Qu grew up in Qingdao, China, before emigrating to Naarm / Melbourne in 2015 to study at Monash University, where she is now based. She shares why working with language interests h...

In this episode, Samstag Associate Curator Anna Zagala speaks with artist Archie Moore (Kamilaroi / Bigambul) and film maker Molly Reynolds. Molly worked with Archie to produce his Samstag Museum of Art / 2024 Adelaide Film Festival moving image commission Archie Moore: Dwelling (Adelaide Issue).  The exhibition is on at Samstag until 29 November 2024. On the day the exhibition launch, they discus...

Kaurna/Adelaide-based artist, researcher and 2024 Samstag Scholar Ash Tower joins Samstag Associate Curator Anna Zagala to discuss his love of learning, what influenced him to select the British School at Rome, Italy, and the importance of preparation.  ON ART is supported by the Gordon Darling Foundation and Solstice Podcasting. It is produced by Tilly Balding in Tarntanya/Adelaide. The conversat...

Dr Irene Watson (Tanganekald, Meintangk, Bunganditj and Potaruwutj) sits down with Dr Vernon Ah Kee (Kuku Yalandji, Waanji, Gugu Yimithirr and Koko Berrin) for a yarn, six years after the pair first worked together on Vernon’s commission to create an ephemeral site-specific artwork of Kaurna language words on the grounds of UniSA, City West campus. Recently refreshed, the artwork embeds Kaurna con...

Saudi/Palestinian artist Dana Awartani joins Samstag Curator Anna Zagala to discuss her art practice, living between cultures, and the importance of her unique art education in both contemporary art and traditional crafts, in shaping her art practice and career.  Dana shares the background to the two moving image installation works currently on display at Samstag Museum of Art   I Went Away and Fo...

Artist Hayley Millar Baker (Gunditjmara/Djabwurrung) joins Anna Zagala, Associate Curator at Samstag Museum of Art, to discuss her moving image work,  Nycyninasty  (2021) currently screening at Samstag as part of the 4t h  Indigenous Art Triennial: Ceremony  curated by Hetti Perkins for the NGA.  Hayley shares what prompted her to pivot from photography to moving image, how the pressure of the pan...

In 2022 Samstag Museum of Art and ACMI commissioned a new moving image work by award winning Bundjulung/Ngapuhi artist Amrita Hepi. Ahead of Samstag’s presentation of Scripture for a smoke screen: Episode 1 – dolphin house (SASA Gallery, 7 July – 11 August 2023), Associate Curator Anna Zagala sits down with the artist to discuss the genesis of the project and her interest in NASAs 1960s 'dolphin h...

Archie Moore (Kammilaroi/Bigambul) is an artist and Samstag Scholar. While a student in Prague, Archie travelled extensively around Europe, including a visit to the Venice Biennale. He returns to Venice 23 years later representing Australia as the 2024 Venice Biennale artist. In a wide-ranging conversation with Associate Curator Anna Zagala Archie shares his preparations for Venice, plans for his...

Tarntanya-based Dancer and choreographer Daniel Jaber and Kuala Lumpar-based art critic Lee Weng Choy join Samstag Associate Curator to discuss Jaber’s dance trilogy  Rite,   Rot  and  Dirt  performed at Samstag Museum of Art in 2022 and explore the nature of engagement from afar. “When Samstag approached me about writing on Daniel Jaber’s trilogy of performances, we decided upon a pair of convers...

Julie Blyfield, a South Australian/Tarntanya based artist and UniSA alumnus, sits down with art historian, writer and curator Julie Ewington to discuss her exhibition .flowers of the sea Julie shares how her grandmother was a formative influence, the importance of engaging with scientific collections, and the unique quality of bi-metal (copper and sterling silver) that uniquely lent itself to this...

Trans-media artist, writer and performer Virginia Barratt is joined by Em König, a multidisciplinary artist, to discuss their collaboration Exosmosis, premiering at Samstag on Thursday 16 June. Under the moniker [sadworm], Virginia and Em will present a new performance-based work centered around Virginia as a performer and Em’s responsive live soundscape. Joanna Kitto, former Associate Curator at...

UniSA visiting research fellow, writer, curator, activist and proud Bandjalung man Djon Mundine OAM sits down with Samstag’s Associate Curator Anna Zagala to discuss his venerable career. Along the way Djon shares his curatorial process, the importance of maintaining a wide perspective and open approach, how the Aboriginal Memorial came about, and what the dingo has to tells us about settler cultu...

Samstag Director Erica Green sits down with two Tarntanya/Adelaide-based makers, ceramicist Helen Fuller and designer Khai Liew. Helen Fuller’s exhibition of objects or ‘pots’ as she refers to them, is currently on at Samstag Museum of Art presented in collaboration with Khai Liew who conceived of the imaginative installation. They discuss Helen’s love of the night sky in the Flinders Ranges, her...

Elyas was awarded the Anne & Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship in 2019 which enabled him to undertake a Master of Fine Arts at Chelsea College of Arts, London. He discusses the process of applying, selecting an institution, the factors influencing his decision and how he navigated the disruption of a global pandemic. On Art is supported by the Gordon Darling Foundation and S...

In the latest episode of ON ART, Samstag Curator Gillian Brown speaks with artist Pilar Mata Dupont and writer Jessica Bunch about working together to write for Pilar’s 2018 moving image work , on exhibition at Samstag from 22 October until 10 December, 2021. Speaking on Zoom from the UK, Netherlands and Australia, they touch on processes of collaboration, adaptation, and the power of storytelling...

In the latest episode of ON ART, Marseille-based, Adelaide-born artist Madison Bycroft on their new moving-image commission B̶I̶O̶P̶I̶C̶ (2021) with Samstag curator Gillian Brown. In a wide-ranging conversation, they discuss the making and presentation of a feature-length film, the politics of storytelling and the philosophical notion of opacity.or Charles Geneviève Louis Auguste André Timothée Bo...

In the latest episode of ON ART, Naarm/Melbourne based artist Alex Martinis Roe on the works that comprise her exhibition, (2014—2017) with Samstag curator Joanna Kitto. They discuss feminist political practices and relationships within the collectives doing that work, as well as Alex's experience as a Samstag scholar and the ways the scholarship has impacted her practice in the years since. To Be...

Hear from artists of the 2021 Adelaide//International. James Tylor speaks with poet Dominic Guerrera about the mistakes, mistranslations and loss of knowledge resulting from European colonist processes in documenting Kaurna culture. Jesse Jones discusses 'Tremble, Tremble'—a dramatic presentation proclaiming a new social order from a female perspective—with exhibition curator Gillian Brown. Bold,...

In this episode, we’re looking at the practice of South Australian artist Kirsten Coelho. Listen in on a conversation she had with fellow ceramicist Honor Freeman, hear poetry and prose from the 2020 SALA Monograph dedicated to her practice, read by the publication’s author Wendy Walker, and hear music by Derek Pascoe with , written in response to .Together ApartIthaca Bold, creative and responsiv...