Benchmark @ Central Park

Kevin Bynder was born in Perth in 1975 to a Whadjuk-Yuet Nyungar Mother and a Widi-Badimia Yamatji Father. At the age of 23, Kevin began his career as an artist, moving from Fitzroy Crossing to Broome where he established his first art studio.

Since those humble beginnings, Kevin has sold his art locally, nationally and internationally. Kevin's studio is based in Perth's Yagan Square where he can be found working on his latest piece of art, or speaking about the Noongar culture to locals and tourists.

Kevin has also worked in schools, teaching Indigenous students from remote communities. As well as his work on canvas, Kevin has designed the uniforms of a number of professional sporting clubs in Australia such as, Fremantle Dockers, West Coast Eagles, Perth Wildcats and the Port Adelaide Football Club.

Luke O’Donohoe is a Western Australian artist working across murals, public art installations, commercial sign painting and graphic design.

His inclination towards typography and graphic design driven approaches to art making, is born out of the lasting impressions made by sign painting, and advertising and design methods.

Woven through his larger murals and smaller studio works is a recurring investigation into current and classic incarnations of the shared contemporary Australian vernacular as well as reflections on important mechanisms for social cohesion.

Previous clients include FORM, Gage Roads, Water Corporation, City of Vincent and Mary Street Bakery.

Mel McVee is a multi-disciplinary artist working primarily in the realms of community art, murals, sculpture and illustration.

Aesthetically her work deals with the idea of lines and connection. Her cartographic background of creating maps for the environmental industry piqued her fascination in the way the world can be shaped in absolutes. She uses solid colours and shapes to creatively define an area, an idea or a relationship. Her work reflects the stylization seen in linocut prints or stain glass windows, while the colours she uses invoke a sense of nostalgia within the surrounding environment.

Her work is simultaneously whimsical and personal and reflect cultural and historic elements of the locations in which they are painted.

In addition to studio-based works, Sioux Tempestt’s practice employs a multi-disciplinary approach, generating mural, public, sculptural and digital content which meaningfully contributes to its context.

Her work aims to create a narrative and connection as Sioux believes art plays an intrinsic contribution to our wellbeing, health, and happiness—more so now than ever.

Traversing across different mediums and scale of works enables Sioux to push creative boundaries. Through materiality and physicality, her expressive abstractions intuitively fuse colour and form. The dynamic effects achieved from these techniques evolve from natural emotive responses to her immediate inner-city surroundings. The use of aerosol is influenced by urban art and provides an exciting immediacy.

Watch renowned artists Kevin Bynder, Sioux Tempestt, Luke O’Donohoe and Mel McVee (aka Melski) finish painting their unique park bench designs.

Feel free to ask questions about their approach; what inspires them; their art practice; and how art can help you lead a more centred, balanced and thriving life.

This is the BENCHMARK FINALE EVENT so we will be joined by all eight of our Benchmark artists: Anya Brock, Kevin Bynder, Marcia McGuire, Mel McVee (aka Melski), Luke O’Donohoe, Brenton See, Elly Sumner and Sioux Tempestt. Feel free to ask questions about their approach; what inspires them; their art practice; and how art can help you lead a more centred, balanced and thriving life.

This practice goes back for centuries but was truly made into an art form by the French Impressionists. Their desire to paint light and its changing, ephemeral qualities, coupled with the creation of transportable paint tubes and the box easel (the precursor to the plein air easels of today) – allowed artists the freedom to paint en plein air (or “in the open air”).

The talented Perth Plein Air Painters will participate in a Quick Draw Challenge at Central Park:

- FREE to participate

- BYO materials, easel etc

- Registration | 11.30am – 12pm

- Painting Challenge | 12pm – 2pm

- Afternoon Tea & Winners announced | 2.30pm – 3.30pm

- Paint any scene from life using Central Park’s building and city surrounds as your inspiration.

- Prizes donated by Central Park will be awarded based on artist votes.

Benchmark

Register for an event

Kevin Bynder

Luke O’Donohoe

Mel McVee(Melski)

Sioux Tempestt

Thursday 28 September

Friday 29 September - FINAL EVENT

We’re looking forward to
seeing you at Benchmark