ON ART

Ellie Buttrose

Ellie Buttrose is the curator of the 2026 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, a survey exhibition featuring 24 artists across three venues: the Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA), the Adelaide Botanic Gardens and Samstag Museum of Art. Joining Samstag’s Associate Curator Anna Zagala in the studio midway through the exhibition’s installation  Ellie shares how this survey of Australian contemporary art has unfolded and continues to surprise her, what these artworks and art practices reveal and why exhibition making is an experimental practice. 2026 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art Yield Strength Friday 27 February — Monday 8 June 2026 See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Monte Masi

In 2025 Samstag Museum of Art invited Kaurna-based artist and Samstag scholar Monte Masi to create a new work to be performed across multiple performances in the gallery. Monte joins Associate Curator Anna Zagala to discuss what drew him to art in the first place, the thrills and perils of the improvised unscripted encounters, and his experience living and studying in San Francisco during a tech boom and the tail end of the Occupy Wall Street movement. https://www.nts.live/shows/extra-extra [https://www.nts.live/shows/extra-extra] https://www.montemasi.com/ [https://www.montemasi.com/] See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Ryan Presley

Ryan Presley (Marri Ngarr) is a visual artist living on Yugambeh Country (Logan City, QLD). His practice spans painting, printmaking, sculpture, video, installation, and writing, and is marked by a deep engagement with the visual economies of power, memory, and resistance.  Commissioned by the University in 2024 to paint a portrait of its Chancellor, the Honorable John Hill, Ryan joins Associate Curator Anna Zagala in the studio to discuss his exhibition Daydreamer, how growing up in Mparntwe/Alice Springs and an early love of drawing shaped his trajectory, and what he hoped to convey of the sitter in the portrait, currently on display at Samstag Museum of Art. The episode concludes with a throw to Samstag and Ryan’s conversation with art historian Dr Andrea Bubenik. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro

Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro have been life partners and artistic collaborators for over 25 years. They join Associate Curator Anna Zagala to discuss their new exhibition, Psychopomp, currently on display at Samstag Museum of Art. The outcome of the UniSA Jeffrey Smart Commission, the work is a cacophonous and vibrant moving image work that explores the porous relationship between science and mysticism. In this conversation, they delve into the history of rocket technology and its link to spirituality, contemporary pagan rituals, and why, after leading a peripatetic life, they decided to settle in the Blue Mountains. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Louise Haselton

South Australian artist Louise Haselton was invited by curator Jasmin Stephens to create work in response to North Terrace, the cultural boulevard that runs through Tarntanya / Adelaide, for the exhibition North Terrace: worlds in relief, which recently opened at Samstag Museum of Art. Louise joins Associate Curator Anna Zagala on the podcast to discuss, among other things, how a pamphlet in the University of South Australia’s Architecture Museum caught her eye, what walking North Terrace yielded, and the tactile pleasure of working with Japanese papers. Louise Haselton is a visual artist who employs a range of presentations. Her practice explores the inherent qualities of everyday materials, seeking connections and relationships between seemingly disparate materials and objects gleaned from the world around us. North Terrace: worlds in relief is on at the Samstag Museum of Art, 20 June – 26 September 2025. The exhibition features Andrew Burrell / Allison Chhorn / Louise Haselton / the ArtHitects (Gary Carsley and Renjie Teoh) / with poetry by Natalie Harkin ON ART is supported by the Gordon Darling Foundation and Solstice Podcasting and produced by Tilly Balding in Tarntanya/Adelaide. The conversation was recorded 16 June 2025. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.