Artist Statement
I met Ramesh at his Perth Festival show of large-scale ceramic sculptures entitled Idols. Maybe he was a bit of an idol for me—I admired Ramesh’s work for the immediacy and instinctiveness of his approach, the sculptures were anarchic and a little nutty. His paintings also contained a textural, haptic quality. They encouraged accident, impulse and feeling. Being an artist, I fancied painting in the same way, or I would at least try. We hung out, struck up a friendship and continued chatting over the year. Ramesh recently suggested that I paint a portrait of him—I told him that was silly as I’m not a portraitist.

About the Subject
Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran is a Sri Lankan-born, Sydney-based artist working within the field of sculpture and ceramics. His creations are a mesh of ideas and attitude in the form of vibrant, bold and skewed self-portraiture. Drawing on his Hindu and Christian heritage, his work plays with scale and form whilst dealing with themes of gender, religion, ideas of ugly art and the politics of sex. Nithiyendran has held numerous shows locally and internationally including a solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

Further Insight
Wade Taylor is an early career artist from Perth. He completed a Bachelor in Fine Arts at the University of Western Australia, Perth. Working primarily in painting, Taylor’s work is an exploration of Australian identity and landscape, conveying notions of suburbia, nostalgia, and the every day. With a focus on the materiality of paint and the emotive properties of colour and light, his works centre on a familiar yet unsettling quality to the contemporary Australian landscape.