Artists in Residence Program

May 2026

Iulia Ilisan is a contemporary artist based on Darkinjung Land (Central Coast), Australia. Her work is a celebration of nature, memory and culture, woven together in bold color, layered textures and evocative storytelling. 

Born in Romania, shaped by the vast landscapes of Canada, and now calling the east coast of Australia home, she brings a deeply personal and global perspective to her vibrant, mixed media creations. 

Whether through painting, carving, mixed media or graphics, her art invites viewers to connect with their own stories, memories, and sense of joy.

Iulia’s work has found homes across continents, resonating with those who are drawn to color, texture, and a feeling of soulful connection.

https://www.iistudios.co/

MAY-JULY 2026

Eden Payne is a South African born artist and designer. Her practice is grounded in connecting deeply with our shared ecology and embracing more-than-human perspectives. Her work explores how our perception and value of objects shifts with their form, acknowledging that everything is made up of earthly resources and always in a state of flux. She fosters a notion of care and reinvestment into neglected things as an act of protest against the human culture of waste and is frequently drawn to materials found in gutters, crushed on highways, tangled on reefs and washed up on shores. Eden’s background as a designer creating digital tools and experiences using emerging technology has given her insight into the unseen resource consumption of the tech sector, these themes of tangible and intangible waste are embedded in her works.

MAY - JULY 2026

Anna-Francesca Seymour is an early-career artist on Darkinjung land. Her practice explores non-extractive ways of relating to ecologies, during a time of climate crisis. When artmaking Anna intends to leave no trace; she engages a circular framework by working with biodegradable fibres, natural dye practices and repurposed materials. Through environmental installations she imagines sculptures which move-with, think-with and become-with the natural world. 

AUGUST - OCTOBER 2026

Maree Azzopardi is an internationally exhibited Australian artist whose work is held in public and private collections across Australia, Italy, Malta, Sweden and the U.S., including Artbank Australia, MUZA in Valletta, and Marisa Del Re Gallery in New York. She has exhibited alongside Marina Abramovic, Cindy Sherman, Annie Leibovitz, Tracey Moffatt and Vanessa Beecroft, among others, and has been represented by galleries in Rome, Sweden and the Blue Mountains.

Her career spans three decades of solo and group exhibitions across Australia, Europe, the Americas and the Middle East, with notable shows at St James Cavalier in Valletta, Galleria Il Ponte Contemporanea in Rome, Libby Edwards Galleries, and Counihan Gallery in Melbourne. Key bodies of work include Chrysalis, The HUMANA Series, Chaos and Revelry, and Exquisite Corpse. She has been a finalist in the Blake Prize, the Dobell Drawing Prize, the Ravenswood Australian Women's Art Prize and numerous other national prizes, and has received artist-in-residence awards at St Vincent's Hospital Sydney and Bundanon.

Azzopardi has maintained a long-term curatorial collaboration with Jonathan Turner, Italy's curator of the year spanning more than 16 exhibitions across three continents since 1996. She is currently represented by Galleria Il Ponte Contemporanea in Rome, Rex-Livingston Art & Objects in Katoomba, and Galleri Tapper-Popermajer in Malmo, Sweden.

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2026

Kellie De Waal is a contemporary artist based on the Mid North Coast, New South Wales. Her practice centres on the construction of immersive sculptural environments, exploring themes of nostalgia, perspective, and joy. 

Her ongoing Microcosm series examines the idea of contained worlds and intricate environments that reinterpret landscapes and ecosystems at shifting scales. Through densely layered textures and vibrant colour, her work oscillates between playfulness and complexity.

Drawing on formative experiences of growing up on the Central Coast during the 1990s and early 2000s, De Waal transforms discarded and overlooked materials into tactile compositions that reflect a collective nostalgia shaped by shared experience.

Since debuting in 2023, she has exhibited across regional New South Wales, developing a distinctive visual language defined by material experimentation and a strong sense of narrative form.

OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2026

Laura Curcio is an Australian contemporary sculptor, who explores gendered and cultural histories through their use of clay, metal and found objects. Anthropomorphism of animals and objects are key to their practice; an effort to transform the ordinary into the absurd. An impulsive creator, they are led by experimentation through hand-built coils, slip casting, textured relief work, and indulgent glaze application.   

Curcio has completed a Bachelor of Arts (2014), Master of Arts (2016) and has recently graduated with their Diploma in Ceramics at Northern Beaches TAFE (2025). Their works have been exhibited at Campbelltown Arts Centre, Firstdraft, Newcastle Arts Space, Manly Art Gallery & Museum, and White Bay Power Station.

They have been a finalist in the Northern Beaches Environmental Art & Design Prize (2025), Greenway Art Prize (2024), Fisher’s Ghost Art Prize (2024), and Clay Sydney Art Prize (2023).