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

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.

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A record of mixed media works on paper submitted for Sydney Contemporary 2019. 2019 Paper Contemporary a Sydney Contemporary event +

An exhibition of engagement with materials through responding, making and assembling- a way of making sense of experience. Byproducts This body of work showcases a collaboration with materials. This collaboration generally occurred at two levels: the selection of materials whose lives originated for a different purpose, and the artist’s response to their inherent properties. They in turn are informed by a narrative of migration and its intergenerational effects. The plywood offcuts are remnants from previous projects, readapted into new work. Forms shaped by plasters and pumice intimate the byproducts of forced displacement and increased disorder. Cardboard boxes, an ambivalent material, are perceived as a symbol of a system designed to generate profit from cheap labour; here they suggest two readings, one is the drive of aspiration for a better life, and the other is a homage to those who delivered a better life to the coming generation. Working with these materials also demanded a response to the incidentals of their unexpected behaviour. Like gifting another vocabulary to a sentence, these incidentals pointed to the resolution of each work. The sense of these works, engendered through their materials and assemblage is at times contradictory, at others complimentary. It evokes senses of detachment and attachment, presence and absence, contact and separation, abandonment and reclamation, permanent and transient. Ultimately, the process of making is a way of engaging with the byproducts of displacements and emplacements. Working with the repurposed materials, and assigning them with a new identity, suggests a making good– reordering the disorder. Individual Works Installation View

Information on the artist with artist statement, biography, CV, history of exhibitions, awards, projects, and trainings. Anie is an Australian artist based in the Gadigal land of the Eora people [Sydney, Australia] whose practice primarily focuses on the use of materials, with their intrinsic properties woven into the narratives of her work. These narratives explore the human body and its sensory processes, delving into how we interpret and make sense of our experiences. Often, metaphors reflecting the emotional effects of engagement, disengagement, and re-engagement are embedded in the spatial arrangements and materials used. Broadly, her narratives are drawn from periods of temporal settlement in various cultures during formative years. The spatial arrangements, shapes, borders, and surfaces are essential in the creation of the imagery. Anie has also had the opportunity to collaborate with a range of artists, which has allowed her to interpret and respond to works beyond her practice, deepening her understanding of her art. Selected Exhibitions, Projects, Awards 2025 Paper Contemp orary, Sydney Contemporary , Carriage Works, Newtown 2024 Byproducts , SLOTprojects, Alexandria Flotsam jetsam, SLOTwindow, Alexandria 2023 Paper Contemp orary, Sydney Contemporary, Carriage Works, Newtown SLOT20, Delmar Gallery, Ashfield Passing Through , Slot, Alexandria 2019 Paper Contemporary, Sydney Contemporary, Carriage Works, Newtown Group Print Show, Factory49, Marrickville Paean , Slot, Alexandria A silver voice from the corner, 2018 2018 Feeling Bodies , The Waiting Room, Sydney Hospital Constellation In the Cranny (solo), AIRspace Projects, Marrickville Paper Contemporary, Sydney Contemporary, Carriage Works, Newtown Waverley Art Prize, Highly Commended (Mixed Media Category) 2017 On Paper (solo), Factory49, Marrickville Paper Contemporary, Sydney Contemporary, Carriage Works, Newtown 2016 Forms on Edge (solo), AirSpace Projects, Marrickville Youkobo Art Space a Tokyo Residency Open Sttudio Liquid, Paper and the Space in Between 2015 The elephant in the room , Slot, Redfern Paper Contemporary, Sydney Contemporary, Carriage Works, Newtown Openings [a group painting exhibition], AirSpace Projects, Marrickville 2014 Intimate Worlds [a group painting exhibition], AirSpace Projects, Marrickville 2012 Several Ways of Conversations (collaborative drawing exhibition as 3ppod), Shihan Gallery, Seoul, South Korea Remarking | Remaking , Blacktown Art Centre, Sydney Yarns between Bubbles (collaborative drawing as 3ppod ), Tin Sheds Gallery, Sydney 2010 Bodies in Sustained Emotions. galleryeight, Sydney 2008 At the Periphery of Space. Tin Sheds Gallery, Sydney 2007 My Story (group) Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing 2006 Tim Olsen Drawing Prize Kudos Gallery (Commended) 2004 Out On a Limb (group) Bathurst Regional Art Gallery 2003 Stitched, Naked (solo) 4A Gallery Hazelhurst Art Award: Art on Paper (Finalist) Training 2004-2007 MFA (Distinction) College of Fine Arts, UNSW 2004 Australian Postgraduate Award scholarship 1994-1997 BFA (Honours Degree, Class 1) College of Fine Arts, UNSW Professional Developments 2014-current Assists with projects at SLOT 2024-current Assists with projects at UPSpace Gallery 2017-2018 Committee member of AIRSpace Projects 2016 Artist Residency, Youkobo Artspace 2007 International Drawing Research Institute Symposium, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing

A work of installation of mixed materials: plastic serving plate painted in gold colour, abstract geometric painting on 3 panels of hessian used for coffee beans exports, and an Ikea child chair in white. Paean Installation with painting on hessian, plastic serving plate, Ikea chair SLOT 28.04.2019 - 01.16.2019 Like many artists, Anie Nheu sees her life reflected in her art. She feels that because her life went one way rather than another her art has permission to go that way as well. As this idea of representation grows it becomes an exercise in mapping that can chart life across generations. It can stretch to accommodate ancestors and locate the artist with in a pantheon of concerns that artists will often describe as their way of making sense of the world. Anie was born on the road, as she said “moving from place to place with my parents since the civil war in East Timor”. To live a life, as she sees it, in 3 parts, now drawn into a “harmonious whole”. This is the map she has given us. Sketched out on 3 hessian bags stitched together with twine and Anie’s painting that has settled across the surface in a way that does not obscure the origin of her bags - bags,metaphorically that she has lumped since her days in East Timor as an infant. Of course the work is a painting, symbolic of nothing more or less than itself. It gracefully observes the conventions of abstraction and achieves a beauty that is new to the hessian sacks. But Anie has included some jarring elements. The work is improbably placed on the wall, as if she were to continue working on it rather than display it for our considerationThere is a chair, arbitrarily placed that seems to contradict our preconceptions of scale. And far off to the side is a golden oval that might be something venerated. The painting that is a map has been given its own space; its own set of preconditions that is different to ours. It is somewhere else. Tony Twigg