Summer is well and truly here, and despite the challenges the latest coronavirus variant is presenting, art lovers have been making the most of the resurgence in exhibitions and gallery openings – especially if the success of Sydney’s recent The Other Art Fair is anything to go by.

If you want to refresh your personal art collection for your next summer dinner party or your home office (after a well-earned break), now is the perfect time to check out what’s trending in art.

I am working closely with Australia’s best home decorators and interior designers to source and frame the right artwork for the right space. 

The first and most important thing about choosing art is you need to love it! The size of the room, your style, tone and theme are also things that need to be considered.

With that in mind, here are some key artists working at the cutting edge of Australian art. 

Art with Global Influences

Martine Vanderspuy has had a lifetime love affair with the sea, resulting in her aerial inspired resin art. Through experimentation, she has mastered the difficult process of painting with resin, creating photorealistic work depicting the moods of the ocean. 

Martine’s paintings inspire the feeling of movement and open a visual window onto the sea. Her bold compositions use the fluidity and translucency of resin to capture the dazzling effects of light and water.

Martine says, “I am inspired by the ocean: its power, beauty, and tranquillity. This multitude of moods is what I am trying to convey in my painting.”

Multi-award winning artist Shazia Imran is best known for her expressive mixed media pieces that explore the spiritual and emotional discourses underlying familiar architectural landscapes and the organic.

She draws her inspiration from her travels, exploring the infinite expressiveness of her subjects through watercolours, acrylics and mixed media.

Her delicately multilayered paintings explore the connections between landscape, memory and the subconscious through texture and the interplay of light and dark, creating an atmosphere that opens itself up to multiple meanings.

Curves in Art

Alejandra Sieder’s paintings are an abstract interpretation of her personal perception of the world around her and an exploration into the introspective self.

Given that her paintings are an exploration of consciousness and interiority, each work is different as it expresses a different mental process. While some pieces feel sombre and almost claustrophobic others are far softer and lighter, transmitting an atmosphere of hopefulness. 

Sieder’s work centres on the analysis of the human condition and how we respond to the situations we are confronted with.

All Sieder’s works start as personal subjective pieces, but once in the public realm move farther away from the personal and psychological, given the non-objective nature of abstraction. She uses an innovative range of materials in her pieces, such as oil, acrylic, sand, ink, iron shavings and resin. These materials add an impasto physicality to the canvas that brings a new dimension and mimic her underlying emotional process.


Initially, Avi Efrat’s passion for the art world came from sourcing and selling artworks and building a team to match clients with art pieces. Over time, demand for a convenient, safe and beautiful way to showcase artworks led to his mobile and storefront framing business, Fantastic Framing.