Sixfold Project: An Australian Artist Collaboration
Art group, Sixfold Project connects six Australian artists from Queensland to Victoria to the Pacific Islands through a shared commitment to the exhibition of new and innovative work.
Sixfold (Six-Friends-Over-Long-Distance) Project is an Australian artist collaboration spanning the geographic divide between long-time collaborators, Raewyn Biggs, Barbara Dover, Louisa Ennis-Thomas, Julie Poulsen, Rose Rigley and Jennifer Valmadre.
The Artists
-
Barbara Dover
Barbara Dover is a Cairns-based contemporary artist whose multidisciplinary art practice deliberates on our relationship with animals within the understanding of animals as sentient beings. She engages a range of materials, methods and processes including assemblage, sculpture, photography, video and drawing to wrestle with the familiarities and intricacies of human-animal relations at the intersection of aesthetics, ethics and animal advocacy.
-
Raewyn Biggs
Raewyn Biggs is a mixed media artist, whose practice explores various mediums including sculpture, painting and assemblage. Her work often reflects upon aspects of cultural change and the human condition.
Born in New Zealand, raised in Australia and now living on a remote outpost in the Cook Islands, Raewyn’s art and outlook on life is the product of both her Polynesian heritage and her residency in three different countries across the Pacific Ocean.
-
Louisa Ennis-Thomas
Louisa Ennis-Thomas is a Melbourne artist who works across painting, drawing and sculpture, blurring the boundaries in between. Sculpture and installation feature strongly within her practice, underpinned by experimentation with new surfaces, textures and challenging materials.
Ennis-Thomas responds to the human condition and the environments which frame us, both natural and cultural. Art making, writing and collaboration are central to her creative practice.
-
Julie Poulsen
Julie Poulsen’s curiosity for colour and composition were informed by multiple locations in her formative years. From Papua New Guinea to the Gold Coast, from traditional Toowoomba and the United Kingdom to frontier Cooktown, Julie’s travels nurtured a tendency towards discovery and experimentation.
Julie works in her Cairns studio, alternating between painting, mixed media and wall installations, teaching one day a week and managing her practice.
-
Rose Rigley
Rose Rigley is a Queensland-based visual artist and arts educator. Her current practice focuses on memory, specifically, its influence on interpersonal connection and the role of commonplace objects as triggers for recollection. She utilises installation, artist books and sculptural assemblage to consider the beauty of the ordinary and to gain a deeper understanding of the universal in the personal.
-
Jennifer Valmadre
Jennifer Valmadre is a Cairns-based contemporary artist. Her practice includes both 2D and 3D works, dipping into encaustic painting, sculpture, ceramics and an abundance of mixed media.
It’s discovery that informs her practice and defines her work. Her investigation of materials and processes often produces unanticipated results that she seeks to control and reproduce. Mastering these discoveries offers Valmadre the challenge that drives her art production.
How we work
Sixfold Project creates and delivers arts projects with a clear understanding of the importance to involve audiences in strong work; welcoming the viewer as an active participant. We focus on ways to engage new and existing audiences, and to develop community programming which enhances the exhibition experience, adding variety and diversity to art events and displays.
We’re always artists but, sometimes, we’re curators, project managers, grant writers, public speakers and arts educators too.
Sixfold Project and our individual members participate in speaking engagements, exhibitions, commissions, public art and community art events. We run stand-alone workshops and other skill-sharing events as well as developing tailored audience engagement strategies to complement our creative projects.
Who we work with
Public & commercial galleries
Regional arts organisations
Local councils
Art collectors
Artist-run-initiatives
Not-for-profits
Commercial enterprises
Arts funding bodies
What the art industry says
about us
-
‘(This group have produced) an extraordinarily high number of exhibitions… They maintain a business-like model and function to a high degree of professionalism.’
Justin Bishop
Exhibitions Manager, Cairns Art Gallery -
‘(Disquiet: Ecological Anxieties and Transformations, featuring work by artist, Barbara Dover) delighted a diverse audience and strongly communicated a valuable message about marine health relevant to this region. The exhibition came with a well-designed catalogue supplied by the artists…which was greatly appreciated.
Curatorial Team
Artspace Mackay -
‘Really inspiring work!’ ‘Thank you for putting together such a showcase of inspiring artists.’ ‘A wonderful collection of works.’ ‘High quality and engaging works. There should be more exhibitions like this!’
Exhibition Audience
Women in the Arts, Queensland
Sixfold Project Partners
Why is collaboration important to our art practice?
Sixfold Project is an Australian artist collaboration committed to developing challenging works which gain audience attention and address contemporary issues and concerns in thought-provoking ways.
Both individually and in collaboration, we embrace excellence in contemporary art practice and provide leadership in this creative space.
Collaborative practice:
Generates new and innovative ideas
Enables skill-sharing
Draws upon years of collective knowledge and experience
Engages audiences in a diversity of work
Allows us to work with some of our favourite artists
With creative roots in regional Australia, our original connection began in the dynamic arts community of far north Queensland. We have worked together since 2010, developing projects and exhibiting as Knock Knock Contemporary Artists’ Initiative for many years. As our lives moved apart geographically, we formalised our connection to maintain the valuable links we had forged as community arts producers and as an active artist group.
Our group collaboration continues to support and energise our individual practices and to provide opportunities to engage with audiences throughout Australia.
