Stephen Benwell’s People now: recent ceramics and paintings, features a collection of paintings on paper commenced in 2018 and continued during the Covid lockdowns. Primarily known for his ceramics, it is less well known that Benwell is a masterful draftsperson whose drawing and painting practice spans the gamut of figuration and abstraction.

“I began these paintings at a time when I didn’t have a ceramics studio. For the series I add a landscape or an interior or a window while always the male figure is there.”

Alongside these paintings, Benwell has produced a new series of hand-formed, palm-sized ceramics. These intimate shell-like vessels are painted in Benwell’s signature style; adorned with faces from the artist’s local community in St Kilda where he has lived and worked for the majority of his professional life. With a practice spanning over five decades, this body of work affirms Benwell’s virtuosity in the application of his craft. His unique voice and evolving contemporary vision continue to uphold his position as one the leading artists of our time.