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Queenslanders honoured with Australia Council Awards

 

 

Queensland trailblazers Richard Bell, David Malouf AO, Nathan Stoneham and Yaron Lifschitz have been acknowledged with 2016 Australia Council Awards for their exceptional contribution to the arts over many years.

Working across a variety of media, artist Richard Bell (Australia Council Visual Arts Award) uses art to explore the social and political themes surrounding Western, colonial and Indigenous art production. He is currently preparing to exhibit his new work, Embassy, at the 20th Biennale of Sydney this month. Richard is also a member of the Proppa Now Collective in Brisbane, which mentors young Indigenous artists.

As one of Australia’s most celebrated writers and poets, David Malouf AO (Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature) is perhaps best known for stories set in his hometown of Brisbane, particularly the novels Johnno and 12 Edmonstone Street. To celebrate David’s 80th birthday in 2015, the Museum of Brisbane invited five contemporary artists to create artworks inspired by David’s writing for the exhibition David Malouf and friends. 

Nathan Stoneham (Kirk Robson Award – Community Arts and Cultural Development) has worked across the Asia Pacific region as an actor, facilitator, teacher, director, designer, musician and more. His current project, which sees him collaborating with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and their families, cwill be shown at Out Of The Box Festival, Queensland Performing Arts Centre in June 2016. Nathan also co-wrote, co-composed and performerd in 지하 Underground, a queer, bilingual piece of music theatre set in a Korean speakeasy, which toured to Metro Arts, Brisbane Festival, World Theatre Festival and the HiSeoul Festival in Korea.

Yaron Lifschitz (Australia Council Theatre Award recipient), is the Artistic Director and CEO of Brisbane-based ensemble Circa, whose performances have been seen in 33 countries, across six continents, by almost one million people. After graduating from university, Yaron became the youngest director to be accepted into the graduate director’s course at the National Institute of Dramatic Arts, and he has since directed more than 60 productions. Yaron is also the Creative Lead for the 2018 Commonwealth Games arts and culture program.

Read Australia Council's media release to see the full list of Award recipients.

 

Image: 2016 Australia Council Awards Queensland recipients (clockwise from L-R):
Nathan Stoneham, David Malouf AO, Yaron Lifschitz, and Richard Bell. Image courtesy of the artists.