Melbourne Art Fair : Robyn Sweaney, Drift
The tightly choreographed paintings of Robyn Sweaney respond to the philosophical and ontological currency of the built environment. The artist’s preoccupation with the Australian architectural vernacular – particularly from the post-war period – is rooted in an enduring fascination with the physiognomy of cultural identity. Domestic dwellings divulge more than their mere exteriors, functioning as physical incarnations of the aesthetic, ideological and social structures influencing human behaviour. Informed by travel through familiar and unfamiliar rural and suburban places, Sweaney finds that, ‘certain elements of place resonate an unexplainable reaction within me – something ignites deep within memory. The landscape is somehow opened up by the search itself and my response can reach beyond its visual appearance.’
Robyn Sweaney has exhibited regularly since 1992 and has been involved in over one hundred group exhibitions. She was the winner of the Wynne Trustees’ Watercolour Prize, AGNSW (2019) and has been the finalist of many major awards including the Wynne Prize (2024, 2023, 2019, 2017, 2011 ), Salon Des Refusés (2022, 2021, 2018, 2016, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2009, 2008), Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Prize (JADA) (2018, 2014, 2010, 2008, 2004), Mosman Art Prize (2015, 2010, 2009), Paddington Art Prize (2015, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009), Moran Prize (2012, 2011), Portia Geach Memorial Award (2019, 2013), Fleurieu Art Prize (2013) and Sulman Prize (2009). Her work is held in public and private collections throughout Australia including the State Library of New South Wales, Artbank, Home of the Arts (HOTA), Tweed Regional Gallery & Margaret Olley Art Centre, Grafton and Lismore Regional Galleries.
-
Robyn SweaneyFinding parallels, 2025acrylic on polycotton95 x 135cm, 97.5 x 137.5cm (framed)$18,000Sold -
Robyn SweaneyOut of the Blue, 2024acrylic on polycotton95 x 135 cm, 97.5 x 137.5 cm (framed)$18,000
-
Robyn SweaneyParts of the whole, 2025acrylic on polycotton50 x 70 cm, 52.5 x 72.5 cm (framed)$8,900Sold
-
Robyn SweaneyOne of these days, 2025acrylic on polycotton50 x 70 cm, 52.5 x 72.5 cm (framed)$8,900Sold
-
Robyn SweaneyCool and Breezy, 2024acrylic on polycotton50 x 70 cm, 52.5 x 72.5 cm (framed)$8,900Sold
-
Robyn SweaneyEbb and Flow, 2024acrylic on polycotton50 x 70 cm, 52.5 x 72.5 cm (framed)$8,900Sold
-
Robyn SweaneyEndless Blue, 2024acrylic on polycotton50 x 70 cm, 52.5 x 72.5 cm (framed)$8,900Sold
-
Robyn SweaneyPerspective Shift, 2024acrylic on polycotton50 x 70 cm, 52.5 x 72.5 cm (framed)$8,900Sold
-
Robyn SweaneyUndercurrent , 2025acrylic on polycotton40 x 50cm, 42.5 x 52.5cm (framed)$7,500Sold
-
Robyn SweaneyCounterbalance, 2025acrylic on polycotton40 x 50cm, 42.5 x 52.5cm (framed)$7,500Sold
-
Robyn SweaneySlow drift, 2025acrylic on polycotton40 x 50cm, 42.5 x 52.5cm (framed)$7,500Sold
-
Robyn SweaneyClear Blue Day, 2024acrylic on polycotton40 x 50 cm, 42.5 x 52.5 cm (framed)$7,500Sold
-
Robyn SweaneyIn the mood, 2024acrylic on polycotton40 x 50 cm, 42.5 x 52.5 cm (framed)$7,500Sold
-
Robyn SweaneyDrifting, 2024acrylic on polycotton40 x 50 cm, 42.5 x 52.5 cm (framed)$7,500Sold
-
Robyn SweaneyLittle Green, 2024acrylic on polycotton40 x 50 cm, 42.5 x 52.5 cm (framed)$7,500Sold
-
Robyn SweaneySummer Romance, 2024acrylic on polycotton40 x 50 cm, 42.5 x 52.5 cm (framed)$7,500Sold
-
Robyn SweaneyDreams and Imaginings, 2024acrylic on polycotton40 x 50 cm, 42.5 x 52.5 cm (framed)$7,500Sold
Drawn to the exterior of modest homes in the Australian landscape, Robyn Sweaney paints tightly choreographed works that respond to the philosophical and ontological currency of the built environment. The theme of ‘home’ as a concept has been challenged and adapted over the years as economics and external circumstances have changed. Over the past few decades, what is now commonly built has changed significantly. The external face of our urban landscape has become radically different, especially along the coastal fringe of Australia.
Thinking about the dichotomy of ‘permanent impermanence’ and the philosophical problem of time and change and what it means to be at ‘home’, Sweaney contemplates what is truly needed to make home.
Drift…
“Drift has multiple meanings, some that relate to the nature of how I find my subject matter and the calm essence of what I am trying to achieve, however it also refers to the state of mind that these places evoke. The very nature of travelling through places slowly observing familiar and not so familiar landscapes looking for houses, generally relies on happenstance and being totally carried along without a plan, guidance or control. These moments in time and place are a but a glimpse of what I observe but they build a picture of a world I see and wish to apply focus.”
Sweaney happened upon the houses featured in this new body of work in recent travels to coastal Victoria and New South Wales. The homes resonated with Sweaney inexplicably. While the paintings are based on real places, they are fictionalized to create a composition and an emotional response.
In more contemporary times the need to escape or to travel to a simpler and less complicated life is still a big part of our culture. Stepping outside our usual lives and the relationships within them can be transitory experience. The building is but a receptacle for these experiences.
Though outwardly a simple and small-scale building, the older style beach houses and their presence within our contemporary world and cultural landscape symbolises something more than just a holiday house. Beach houses offer people many things a home cannot. Time spent is temporary, precious and often imperfect. Once a very common feature along our coastline, their very presence displayed casualness, uniqueness, resourcefulness and adaption. Their existence represents the contradictory qualities in the fact that they were not permanently lived in, yet they still represented an extension to and interconnectedness with an alternative way of life. A break from all that a busy life offered at home.
Coastal towns and suburbs still contain these rare vestiges of the past, they seem to be holding onto a tenuous grip on these spaces that were once so uncluttered and open. Outdoor chairs left waiting empty for visitors with little revealed of what is inside with curtains or blinds shut or half drawn from the light or passersby. These elements create a vignette of a life that can only be dreamed of and imagined by others. The disappearing nature of these houses makes them even more significant. Robyn Sweaney captures their essence, giving the houses value and a quiet focus.
Robyn Sweaney has exhibited regularly since 1992 and been involved in over one hundred group exhibitions. She was the winner of the Wynne Trustees’ Watercolour Prize, AGNSW (2019) and has been the finalist of many major awards including the Wynne Prize (2024, 2023, 2019, 2017, 2011 ), Salon Des Refusés (2022, 2021, 2018, 2016, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2009, 2008), Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Prize (JADA) (2018, 2014, 2010, 2008, 2004), Mosman Art Prize (2015, 2010, 2009), Paddington Art Prize (2015, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009), Moran Prize (2012, 2011), Portia Geach Memorial Award (2019, 2013), Fleurieu Art Prize (2013) and Sulman Prize (2009). Her work is held in public and private collections throughout Australia including the State Library of New South Wales, Artbank, Home of the Arts (HOTA), Tweed Regional Gallery & Margaret Olley Art Centre, Grafton and Lismore Regional Galleries.
