If one day you were a fly on the wall in the boisterous Arts Project Australia (APA) studio in Northcote, you would likely find yourself amid the art-making process at its most diverse, chaotic and joyous.

“It’s a really close-knit community, and you feel that when you spend any length of time there,” says Anthony Fitzpatrick. “When you visit the beautiful studio space on any given day, there are usually 30 or 40 artists working away in close proximity, and there’s a real sense of intimacy.”

The Tarrawarra Museum of Art curator had this sense of warmth and togetherness – the “intimate” in Intimate Imaginaries – in mind when he came to put together this landmark group show at the bucolic Healesville gallery. The exhibition celebrates 50 years of APA, which has made a profound contribution to the Australian art world since its inception in 1974 in its support, promotion and facilitation of artists living with an intellectual disability. With a studio in Northcote and a gallery in the Collingwood Yards precinct, APA is a vibrant institution on the Melbourne contemporary art scene. It has launched the careers of numerous artists – including Terry Williams, Julian Martin and Anthony Romagnano, all part of Intimate Imaginaries – who have attracted international attention. It’s the first major exhibition surveying the work of APA artists in an Australian museum.

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The other thing you might notice at the APA studio is the sheer variety of mediums, materials and art forms in play; along with “traditional” disciplines such as painting, sculpture and ceramics, artists experiment with video art, zines and digital media.
Reflecting this diversity was among the enjoyable challenges Fitzpatrick faced in curating Intimate Imaginaries. Another was whittling down the 150-plus artists working at the studio to the 13 whose work appears in the expansive art space that is TarraWarra.

Fitzpatrick’s selection of the artists was informed by the emergence in his mind, as he trawled through their work, of the “intimate imaginaries” theme. As well as expressing that sense of intimacy from the studio, this theme is intended to reflect a trend among APA artists to create work that brings a distinctive, colourful dash of imagination to day-to-day living.

“We often think of ‘the imaginary’ as a flight of fancy or a realm of pure invention,” says Fitzpatrick. “[Intimate Imaginaries is about] everyday creative activity, how we perceive and make sense of what’s around us, how we relate to others and things. The imagination is at work every day in how we navigate and make sense of the world.”

A prime example is the work of Cathy Staughton, who has painted images of Luna Park in St Kilda for four decades, having grown up practically next door to the Melbourne landmark. “In her hands, Luna Park is not just a place to have fun – it is transformed into a site of the fantastic and supernatural, often based on vivid dreams she’s had. It’s a very personal subject for her.”

Another featured artist is Lisa Reid, whose work focuses on her family and domestic environment. Among her works on display is a new commission – a meticulously rendered ceramic of her mother’s 1971 Elna Supermatic sewing machine. Even the abstract pieces in the show – works on paper by Julian Martin and Fulli Andrinopoulos in particular – Fitzpatrick believes convey a sense of intimacy and the everyday. Martin’s work is often based on found imagery, photographs or still life arrangements that he deconstructs, while Andrinopolous’s art represents an “exploration of interior states of being”.

Fitzpatrick’s relationship with APA began seven years ago, in 2017, when he participated in its guest curator program. Intimate Imaginaries has been two years in the making, with the curator leaning on his existing relationship with the organisation to forge the show’s line-up and ideas. But the opportunity to commission new works – there are eight in total – was a special highlight of the project for him.

“I felt it was important not to just present old and existing work, but to really give the artists the opportunity to make and premiere ambitious new work,” he says.

As well as Reid’s sewing machine, new works include a ceramic telescope by Alan Constable, which is perched to “view” out of the large window of TarraWarra’s north gallery. (Constable is legally blind; since childhood, he has made works focusing on cameras and optical instruments.) Also premiering are large-scale murals by Staughton and Georgia Szmerling, painted straight onto the museum’s walls.

“Cathy and Georgia spent four days painting those murals. For me it was exciting to see [the works] evolve over that time, and see the confidence of the artists to take on these large walls. Having them making the marks directly on the museum walls really brought the energy of the studio into the gallery space,.”

Intimate Imaginaries couldn’t possibly encapsulate all the different shades and multitudes of APA artists across its 50 years, but it does give a sense of that bustling hubbub in the studio, and is a stunning tribute to its longevity and innovation.

“[APA] started as a grassroots organisation in 1974, and over the years they’ve built a community, and created an extraordinary platform and network for supporting and advocating for the studio artists to have their work exhibited and collected in some major institutions – not just in Australia, but overseas as well.”

Intimate Imaginaries is showing at TarraWarra Museum of Art until March 10, 2025. On Saturday 8 March 2025, the museum’s new Eva and Marc Besen Centre will host a a day-long event called Rhythms of the Handmade, featuring APA artist-led talks, live artist demonstrations and family-friendly making activities.

Broadsheet is a proud media partner of TarraWarra Museum of Art.