AMBER WALLIS AND WILLIAM MCKINNON

Wallis completed a Bachelor of Arts in Visual Photomedia at the Canberra School of Art, ACT and participated in an exchange program with Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Canada in 2002. She completed her Master of Visual Arts at the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne in 2008 and was the winner of the tenth Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship in 2008.

William Mackinnon's paintings sit at the intersection between reality and imagination, what he physically perceives and what he concocts in his mind. He explores the possibilities of painting through what is often a fantastical representation of the environment around him: whether it be a roadscape, landscape, or dreamscape.

Mackinnon’s most recent body of work, The Great Indoors, consists large cinematic roadscapes painted from memory and imagination — of roads recently and less recently travelled. Traversing the Australian landscape through the long night, these paintings invite contemplation. These are not the roads of longing and escape, as seen in his previous work, but are tinged with optimism.