About art
Discover: Young Talent at our Melbourne Fair
Affordable Art Fair Melbourne returns 31 August - 3 September at the Royal Exhibition Building, and we're so excited for you to meet our selection of emerging artists set to present their must-have art.
Miranda Smith
Friday 23 June, 2023
Affordable Art Fair Melbourne is proud to reintroduce its much-anticipated Discover: Young Talent platform. This dynamic platform showcases five artists who have been carefully chosen for their remarkable creativity and fresh perspectives in the art world.
Uncovering hidden gems, the platform provides collectors with a unique opportunity to acquire artworks from emerging artists before they inevitable soar to great heights. This handpicked selection encompasses a diverse range of mediums and styles, promising an exciting discovery for every visitor. The Discover: Young Talent platform is not to be missed at the upcoming Affordable Art Fair Melbourne during your visit 31 August – 3 September.
DISCOVER: YOUNG TALENT
YI CHENG
Yi Cheng is a Melbourne-based artist whose artworks draws from his everyday experiences and encounters. Yi’s work aims to evoke feelings, creating an atmosphere and mood that permeates his paintings while presenting his experience in a suggestive greater narrative.
Yi is bringing a series of works to the Affordable Art Fair called BY THE POND, which is a response to the pond in Carlton Gardens, at our very own venue the Royal Exhibition Building. These paintings represent a portrait of his experiences of the place and the duck’s impressions on him as he translates them through painting
Let his artworks transport you to the peaceful pond, where every stroke carries the weight of personal reflection and an invitation to explore the beauty found within the simplest of encounters.
CHRIS HENDERSON
Chris Henderson is a figurative artist known for his reactive and emotionally-focused work. Drawing inspiration from growing up in a rural environment, Henderson’s artwork often reflects themes and colours associated with his upbringing.
Through confident mark making and expressive forms, he captures the essence of his subjects in painting. His work ignites a subtle fascination with our surroundings, inviting viewers to contemplate the relationship between the figure and its environment. Dedicated to his creative process, Henderson continually explores new ways to express his storytelling and incorporates elements from his rural background.
ALEX KYNASTON
Alex Kynaston is a Melbourne-based artist whose practice critically engages with the connection between painting and psychoanalysis. Kynaston’s saturated palette captures dreams and emotional traces of the everyday throughout her work in landscape and portraiture. The world that Kynaston’s paintings inhabit is equal parts romantic and haunting, her work as expressive as it is uncanny. Kynaston embarks from her award-winning Master of Fine Arts graduating portfolio at RMIT in 2022 to a thriving studio practice dedicated to unravelling painting’s complexities.
A must-add to your collection, be sure you keep an eye out for them as you peruse the fair aisles 31 August – 3 September.
LIV MCCARTEN
Straight from completing a BFA at RMIT with distinctions, Liv McCarten has emerged into the art scene with an almost sell out debut exhibition in February 2023, showcasing a variety of her work and the balanced duality between her bold coloured, pop art styled pieces and her highly textural realism works, all connected by reference to everyday imagery. This collection exhibits the more textural, realist side of Liv’s work to highlight her process of working solely with a palette knife to sculpt the image onto the canvas.
Plus, fair visitors will have the opportunity to see Liv live-painting onsite at Affordable Art Fair as an artist in action. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to see these textural pieces form on canvas for yourself!
FLICK CHAFER-SMITH
Flick is a Ngarrindjeri artist and Torch staff member who creates geometric, tessellated paintings inspired from moments in her childhood and stories passed on to her.
Flick believes her art practice gave her an identity to build on and feel accepted in the world as an artist. Through her art she has connected with her family who live on Country and is always learning more about her culture. It has changed her as a person because she has re-evaluated boundaries that stopped her from attempting things in the past.
Since 2011, The Torch has delivered the Indigenous Arts in Prisons and Community program, which provides art, cultural and arts industry support to Indigenous men and women who have had experience with Victoria’s criminal justice system.
The program supports the development of self-esteem, confidence and resilience, through cultural strengthening and artistic expression. The Torch assists artists to reconnect with culture, earn income from art sales, foster new networks and to pursue educational and creative industry avenues upon their release.
We are so excited to see Flick’s must-have artworks at Affordable Art Fair Melbourne this winter! Don’t miss out on your chance to collect them for yourself.
This line-up of young artists is a must-see, so don’t forget to purchase your tickets! We hope to see you 31 August – 3 September at the Royal Exhibition Building.