TOMMASO DURANTE

Tommaso Durante emigrated to Australia after a distinguished career as an artist and academic in Italy. In Australia he has firmly established himself as a leading sculptor, ceramicist and printmaker. For the production of his recent artist's book ,"Skin, Surfaces and Shadows", Durante has enlisted renown poet Chris Wallace-Crabb to write the text, master binder George Matoulas  for the hand binding and Pharos Editions for the printing. The book is printed on Somerset Book White from St Cuthbert's Mill in England. The papers deckle edges have been retained . The images were produced by Durante from a small digital camera for preliminary editing by the artist. Luminosity, depth edits and expanded colour gamut was undertaken at Pharos Editions for approval by the artist.

A recent review in the USA by Judith Hoffberg," Umbrella online", Vol 31, No1, March 2008, says it much better than our modesty would allow.

"...a stunning new bookwork which pushes the boundary of art, craft and design by combining digital technologies with traditional techniques and materials. With Hugo von Hofmannstal's quotation as a guide "Depth is to be hidden. Where? On the surface"  you will have a hint of what the artist intends .

With wrought images and design of the artist and the sculptured words of the poet, Durante tries to explore the surface of things and the figurative dividing line of the shadow, with no fear to run the risk of beauty as a side effect. in fact beauty is everywhere - the paper is heavy and handmade to support the gorgeous imagery of prints which goes beyond the double pages to the universe itself..."

Well there you go.. We think it is pretty good too.

The current edition of Imprint (Spring 2008, Vol. 43 No3),features an article about the book by Durante on pages 24 and 25.

The edition consists of only 25 copies of the book , several of which have already been purchased by major institutions including the National Library of Australia and Melbourne University. The book was launched in Melbourne at The National Gallery of Victoria and in Canberra at The National Museum of Australia.

BRONEK KOZKA

Commercial photography and education have occupies much of Bronek Kozka's time . Recently he has been making strong inroads into the fine art photography scene, which he admits, is his real destination.

In 2007 he was the recipient of  a Hasselblad Masters Award , the only one awarded to an Australian in that year. Earlier in 2008 he was a finalist in The Lewis Moran Prize , the richest and most prestigious award for photography in Australia and more recently the Wiliam and Winifred Bowness Photographic Prize .

Kozka's work utilises meticulous styling, lighting and directoring skills to create performances that describe narratives of human encounter. This is highly collectable work from one of the strongest voices in art photography today.

This work has was also recently commended in the Sunshine Art Prize, Cairns, Queensland, earning Kozka  $1000.