Mixed media paintings of works on paper 2025 Sydney Contemporary Works on Paper The wheels were in motion long before this , 2025. Mixed media on Arches Huile 300gsm 76x168cm Drawing remains a constant in my practice. It guides and fleshes out the process from imagination to exploration. I’ve long been drawn to the visual language of the intangible and the unknown. Returning to works on paper this year came with its own set of challenges. The last significant body of work on paper was produced in 2023 for Sydney Contemporary. In 2024, I shifted to working with materials that carry visual weight, where the act of making depended on activating their inherent materiality as a compositional tool. The current work is no different—only the scale has shifted, down to the molecular level. Round about , 2025. Mixed media on Arches Huile 300 gsm 56c76cm This time, the focus turned to the interaction between mixed media—graphite, charcoal, watercolour primer, pigment, watercolour, gouache, and water-based crayon—and the surface of the paper. What sets this apart is the role of mark-making: its intention becomes central in orchestrating the composition. Despite the shift in materials, the exploration of spatial relationships continues to serve as a unifying thread. The works investigate spatial relationships and the coexistence of disparity and dissonance. Like many, I’ve felt the turbulence of recent years—a time of unrest and suffering, amplified by the ubiquitous reach of technology, where parallel lives feel both tangible and surreal. Alongside this, a pervasive sense of helplessness lingers, leaving us suspended in a situation without clear beginning or end. These themes reverberate throughout the works, with the titles offering insight into these abstract reflections. This body of work began as an artist’s book—an exploration of a shared world. Each page features a distinct abstract composition, resolved with specific intent. Some pages are cut horizontally at random points; others are folded vertically. As the book is leafed through, new compositions emerge through the juxtaposition of adjacent images. These visual collisions, combining the intentional with the non-intentional, give rise to new compositions. The element of the unknown sustains my curiosity in this process. There are no ‘good’ or ‘bad’ compositions, only more compositions to work with. Some have been reimagined as paintings on Arches paper. The phrase that surfaces in my consciousness is 'parallel collisions'. Swell, 2025. Mixed media on Arches Huile 300 gsm 56c76cm 1/21 Parallel collisions [proof of concept for artist's book] , 2025. Mixed media on Fabriano torchon 270gsm 29.5x42cm Dance of chance with infinity , 2025. Mixed media on Fabriano torchon 270gsm 29.5x42cm Blue liner , 2025. Mixed media on Fabriano torchon 270gsm 29.5x42cm Parallel collisions , 2025. Mixed media on Arches Huile 300 gsm 76x56cm The colouring pencils , 2025. Mixed media on Fabriano torchon 270gsm 29.5x42cm Soft tissue , 2025. Mixed media on Fabriano torchon 270gsm 29.5x42cm Our material cunnings , 2025. Mixed media on Fabriano torchon 270gsm 29.5x42cm Soup of signs , 2025. Mixed media on paper, 38x56cm No beginning , no end , 2025. Mixed media on Arches Huile 300gsm, 57x70.5cm

Links or index to the selected exhibitions and projects. Selected Projects + Exhibitions Sydney Contemporary 2025 Byproducts 2024 Flotsam jetsam 2024 constellation in the cranny 2018 ON PAPER the elephant in the room paper contemporary 2023 paean Playbox Passing Through 2022 paper contemporary 2019 forms on edge Several ways of conversations

Material Thinking & Art Making on the borrowed land of the Gadigal Wangal clans, the Eora people [Australia]. A visual documentation of art exhibitions featuring paintings, mixed media works on paper, and installation pieces. Installation view of Byproducts 2024

An installation of abstract geometric paintings on shaped marine plywood, exhibited in SLOT’s window space. The work explores the notion of an obvious presence—something visually assertive yet deliberately overlooked to maintain the status quo or preserve a sense of equanimity. The Elephant in the Room Acrylic on marine plywood, soft plastic 355x220x90 cm SLOT 20.12.2015 - 20.01.2016 Anie Nheu’s art is about space. Most literally in this piece, it is the space between 2 pictures. This is the gallery exhibit almost always overlooked, the artefact essential to all museums, it’s the place where something isn’t, as Anie Nheu describes it, the Elephant in the room. In this piece, the gallery-like space around the work has been artfully “sculptured” into a form of equal importance to the objects that make up the exhibit. And it is the art of a dance. A painted colour doesn’t cover an entire surface; it leaves a colour behind that pushes the form back while correspondingly the wall pushes forward. At another moment holes cut in the work offer lagoons of white wall while offshore two islands of colour seem to have been deposited, “Spratley like”. This picture is not presented on a wall, it’s colonising the wall. Gently underlining the fact that it has taken ownership of the space. Gracefully wrapping around a corner in the wall and quietly stepping off the wall onto the floor this work has arrived in our space, subtly merging with our space as we observe its elegant form. In her notes on the piece, Anie Nheu describes her work as “identity formation” a process where the obvious can go unsaid. Here among the morphing relationships of her forms she reads the emotive content of the work that replicates her life as a migrant. Travelling with her parents from Taiwan through the 3rd world to Australia what might have been a firm foundation for most of us was fluid for Anie. Things have never been just one thing for Anie. And if we think for a moment few things are ever just one thing. This elegantly restrained work approaches the edges of most art and fearlessly steps across them. With out hesitation it side steps the self-serving clatter or transactional enterprise and in its place offers us poetry reflection and silences that otherwise would remain unseen, the elephant in the room, perhaps. ctre of what is perceived. Tony Twigg

An exhibition of works on paper boards at Factory49, Marrickville. The project explores the interrelationship between the occupied and negative space using abstract geometric imageries, focusing on shapes and edges. On Paper Factory49 5.10.2017 - 28.10.2017 On Paper, is a small body of work planned for the Project Space for Factory49. These works continue the artist's interest in developing her visual language in bringing the invisible into the physical realm. The installation focuses on what is presented, and what is perceived, and how the two negotiate their coexistence in our day to day lived experiences. Visually, this is suggested through the feel of the body. This manifests in rendered, evocative forms and their distinct way of inhabiting their assigned space. Surfaces of these works serve as a metaphor for the site of exchange, where the body is simultaneously an active agent and a receptor of external influences. These intermeshed connections are drawn onto the surface with considered mark-making using various media. In the confines of this small space, the forms are arranged to frame the ‘connections’ they have with one another. The space created is intimate and subtly surreal, touching off a sense of wonder and imaginary dialogues that are at once universal and personal. The title, On Paper, relates literally to the use of paper as the material support for these works. At another level, this expression is used here in its usual sense: in theory, in writing, figured at face value. In day-to-day operations, what is on paper is constantly being negotiated with our inner perceptions: our understanding of what is perceived may not be the very understanding that props the spectre of what is perceived. Photographed by Joy Lai & John Dennis

A record of works on paper submitted for Paper Contemporary, Sydney Contemporary 2023 2023 Paper Contemporary a Sydney Contemporary event

This body of work is an extension of the previous exploration of the solo exhibition, Forms on Edge at AIRspace Projects in 2016. The edges, forms and placements in space were the primary vehicle in image making and in assembling emotive narratives. For this exhibition, the change of material from plywood to paper clay introduces the sense of touch as the predominant form of expression in their making. Constellation in the Cranny AIRSpace Project 2.11.2018 - 16.11.2018 This body of work is an extension of the previous exploration of the solo exhibition, Forms on Edge at AIRspace Projects in 2016. The edges, forms and placements in space were the primary vehicle in image making and in assembling emotive narratives. For this exhibition, the change of material from plywood to paper clay introduces the sense of touch as the predominant form of expression in their making. The touch brought its metaphor into the visual realm. The reflexive nature of touch adds the reading of cause and effect in the constellation of these forms, creating a dynamic simultaneous back-and-forth feel, while the spatial considerations and placements integrate the negative space into the whole. This project aims to 'make sense' embodying the invisible and the affects of body memory and its processes. + These works remain experimental in their making. Air-dried paper clay has been widely used for intricate sculpture and craftwork, it is less common in its use as a painting support. The material introduces the fragile characteristic, dictating their process and handling. This in turn encapsulates the energy and care in their making, which ultimately lends the forms their intrinsic characteristics and identity. Photographed by Joy Lai & John Dennis ^

An exhibition of abstract geometric painting on shaped marine ply. Forms on Edge AIRSpace Project 05-20 August 2016 One of the ideas that sustains Nheu’s visual exploration is the relationships the body forms in the space it inhabits. ‘Relationships’ encapsulates the experiences of a body in a myriad of affect and effects, both tangible and intangible. The background narrative is told through the female body of a perpetual migrant with a culture of birth that is predominantly patriarchal. Resettlement and adaptation brought changes in traditionally assigned roles. Negotiations for place and roles in the new community at large, and at a micro level within the family unit, were acutely felt. These ideas form the basis of the visual framework for the exhibition. Visually, the placement of paintings in an enclosed space becomes the metaphor in the process of resettlement. Like fields with no borders, encapsulated experiences are by nature inter-corporeal; identity is socially constructed and defined by borders and forms. The exhibition as a whole attempts to amass these two seemingly contradictory elements and dwell at its meeting points hedging edges to redefine place and space. The paintings are in effect formed by these edges where space and borders meet. The space the paintings inhabit plays an integral role in the composition of the exhibition. It is used literally in the context of the negotiation of space. Paintings are made with implied sustained emotions that define these ‘bodies’. The visual cues for these are surface treatments, shapes, quality of the edges where two spaces meet, and ultimately, how they claim the space they inhabit. Photographed by Joy Lai & John Dennis

Installation of mixed media (plaster, timber, cardboard, foam) in Chinese characters. Flotsam jetsam Installation of Chinese characters of google translation of 'flotsam jetsam' made with plaster, cardboard, foam, pumice, covered in gouache, Chinese ink, wax SLOT 18 ·08- 21 ·09 2024 Anie Nheu began a discussion of her piece Flotsam and jetsam by reading it aloud. Inadvertently perhaps, identifying her work as both poetry and installation. The large character in a box on the right reads as exit. The characters that follow speak of a watery journey and things thrown overboard along the way, presumably to be washed this way and that by the prevailing currents. As we spoke Anie’s poem became a lament for a Chinese culture that she has never known and conversely an Australian culture that to her remains elusive. Anie was born, on the road, to parents who had already left China and who would take another 17 years to arrive in Australia where Anie assumed her nationality. Here, decades after arriving in Australia the poise of Anie’s installation speaks of China not so much as a culture lost but as a culture imagined. This is not the story of a migrant discovering and reclaiming an abandoned culture, it is a story of cultural invention. The idea that the scripted characters of Chinese language observe both the role of a symbol and of a picture seems to be carried into the graphic arrangement of this installation. It is as though there are two languages being spoken at one time. There is the Chinese story and another story of arrangement that functions as a kind of dance between the various elements of the installation. This is as much a language as the Chinese characters it incorporates. And one like Anie’s Chinese cultural heritage that is more a product of her imagination than it is of received or learnt conventions. There is a gentle touch at work here. One that celebrates the unique qualities of humble materials crafted in the simplest of fashions. Collectively, the serenity engendered by this installation delivers it far from the component elements of its construction and its location, on a street where the various cultures of Australia jostle for a voice. Beyond any cultural precepts this installation has the voice an artist. A most singular artist whose art may be best read as an addition to our culture rather than being the product of any particular culture. Tony Twigg 2024

An installation of a charcoal drawing of 2 old trees by a river bank framed in gold coloured bamboo moulding with a lopped tree branch at SLOT's window space. Passing through Installation with charcoal drawing and lopped tree branch SLOT 23.10.2022 - 26.11.2022 Anie Nheu’s piece Passing Through is both an appreciation of nature and a consideration of the appreciation of nature in art. It began during a holiday on a farm at East Gresford beside Allyn River in the upper Hunter. Anie was struck by the beauty of thelandscape and the trees she saw. So much so that she began drawing them, on this occasion a casuarina on the left and a eucalypt on the right. Back in her Sydney studio and faced with the proposition of making something out of her time away for SLOT, Anie focused on her drawing.In a pile of some-one-else’s thrown-out junk she noticed an exquisite Art Nouveau frame, a style that celebrated organic form, in particular trees. It seems to have set the tone of Anie’s piece. Lovingly restored it embellishes the rawness of the Australian bush with an orientalist elegance. Like a giant piece of ikebana, a tree branch cut and re-assembled for the window space offers a counterpoint to the stylised representation of bamboo that frames Anie’s drawing of native trees - incidentally it is drawn in charcoal, the burnt fragments of trees, and is pointing out that the paper is pulped and processed timber taking the metaphor too far? Standing looking at the finished work I found myself thinking how many ways can you say tree in art? Anie commented that she saw it as commodification. She felt that the process of art is to make a commodity out of an experience. In this case the revelry found in nature. Sure, it’s not such a big thing, but in the hands of an artist it becomes that. Tony Twigg

Collaborative project by Anie Nheu and Jan Fieldsend exploring emotions conveyed by the elements used in their assemblages of forms, objects and textures; and almost all works take the form of imaginary bodies with memories. Playbox a collaboration with Jan FieldsendInstallation of paintings, collage of found materials AIRSpace Project 1.8.2014-16.8.2014 The project arose to some extent in an impromptu fashion. This in effect characterises the nature of the work, and hence the title, Playbox. Both artists are drawn to the emotional content conveyed by the elements used in their assemblages of forms, objects and textures; and almost all works take the form of imaginary bodies with memories. In the act of attempting to put two distinct practices into one space, conversations arose not only about formal and spatial concerns but also about poly-culturalism and the ensuing flux that is within each individual, and of course in the wider world. Negotiation of space/place and the making of sense requires a great deal of imagination and an ability to accept really odd things being together. Odd, not in a pejorative sense but perhaps more evoking a gentle poignancy of things not being even, of unsettledness or even as an antidote to standardisation. In his respect it may be apt to observe that Nheu is more interested in eroded painted forms and how they inhabit the space assigned to them, and Fieldsend in the productive alliances of decoration, inimalism, hard-core nostalgia and nature. In this collaborative project with Fieldsend, Nheu was drawn to the thoughts of Mono-ha, a school of art in Japan active between 1968 and 1973, as a way to relate and understand Fieldsend's installations. Loosely translated as 'school of things', Mono-ha art is experienced as multi-sensorial. It uses ordinary objects such as rocks, steel, sticks and cotton with as little human intervention as possible, and often is ephemeral in nature. The focus is on the 'the things’ themselves and their interdependence through juxtaposition and placement.The elements are stripped of their obvious identity and then through the working process particular sensory qualities are amplified. Nheu has attempted to draw on these ideas to create abstract tactile forms made with painted plywood and moulded acrylic paint. In some instances these materials are used as themselves with their intrinsic characteristics laid bare, but often as much stand in as rich shadowy bodies, or perversely doubling as cavities. Anie Nheu, Jan Fieldsend 2014

Several Ways of Conversations, 2012 As a follow-up to Yarns Between Bubbles, this second collaborative project brings together Asian artists Li Wenmin and Yiwon Park in Seoul, South Korea. The mixed media works on paper explore themes of identity by responding to each other's mark-making, while also providing space for each artist to express their individual voice within the shared composition. Several Ways of Conversations, 2012 As a follow-up to Yarns Between Bubbles, this second collaborative project brings together Asian artists Li Wenmin and Yiwon Park in Seoul, South Korea. The mixed media works on paper explore themes of identity by responding to each other's mark-making, while also providing space for each artist to express their individual voice within the shared composition.