Peter D Cole’s 1998 design, Langley Landscape with bridge, waterhole, tree and moon, was translated into tapestry by the ATW in 2003.

Cole is known primarily for his brightly coloured metal sculptures, which incorporate a narrative voice within an almost minimalist / abstract style. His pastel drawings relate to his sculptural structures through colour, line and form.

The design for this tapestry was selected from a large range of Peter’s pastel drawings, and was chosen for its elegant composition of the landscape elements, characteristic of Peter’s work, set in a field of gently pulsating orange. Depicting the surrounding landscape of his Langley studio, the rich burnt orange background gives the landscape depth and the weavers have kept the spirit of the original medium of pastel by bleeding the background colour through the other solid areas of colour. The tapestry medium, in a magical way, enhances the colour and strengthens the composition and is able at the same time to be true to the artist’s fine lyrical expression.

Interestingly, the original pastel from 1998 depicted a different element in the top left hand corner and for the design of this tapestry—the studio element was replaced with the moon. The design may appear deceptively straightforward, but often these designs are the ones that present the most technical challenges for the weavers, in this case keeping true to the preciseness of the line-work was a key focus for the weavers.

Peter D Cole has exhibited widely and undertaken major public art commissions across Australia.

Untitled, designed by prominent American artist Frank Stella in 1996, proved to be a challenging and exciting project for ATW weavers.

Stella is an American painter, sculptor and printmaker, having worked through minimalism, hard-edge painting and post-painterly abstraction in his extensive career.

The tapestry design Stella produced for Untitled is a celebration of the bold colour and kaleidoscopic pattern and line-work that is now synonymous with Stella’s wider practice.

Stella’s work has been exhibited widely and is housed in many major international institutions.

The ATW was thrilled to weave Family Trust, designed by prominent Australian artist who was dubbed the bad boy of the Melbourne art scene in the 1970s-80s, Gareth Sansom.

Sansom’s painting has always been styled as a provocation to middle-class taste. His painting is expressionistic, replete with iconoclastic and sexually explicit imagery. Motifs from popular culture are interspersed with distorted figures and combined into a personal mythology: the canvases teem with manic energy, punk references and rebellious humour.

Family trust is an image brimming with contorted, spewing faces with disembodied eyes, all writhing in a patch worked pattern. The image is claustrophobic, packed with energy and agitated movement, and layered motifs jostling for attention.

Unlike most artists commissioned by ATW, Sansom did not desire active collaboration during the development of his tapestry. Once the design was finalised, he sought no further involvement in the tapestry’s evolution. However, after its completion he confessed that his curiosity had been so piqued that while the work was in progress he prowled around the Workshop at night, attempting to catch glimpses of the tapestry on the loom.

Family Trust is part of the ATW’s collection and was exhibited in a major retrospective of Sansom’s work, entitled Transformer, at the National Gallery of Victoria in 2017-18.

Sansom’s work has been exhibited widely in national and international institutions. He is represented by Milani Gallery in Brisbane.