Herstory: A Journey Into the Soul of Contemporary Female Art With Sydney's Future Women Artists Exhibition

By Miriam Feiler 03/06/24

Australia’s Future Art has championed emerging digital artists through NFT dance parties since 2021. Now, they’re working in corporate spaces to make the phygital art more accessible, alive and influential.

Herstory: A Journey Into the Soul of Contemporary Female Art With Sydney's Future Women Artists Exhibition

Part of Decential Media’s celebration and recognition of Women’s History month

Myles Cooper and Dave Goode have been launching artists onto the global digital art scene since January 2021. Their company, Future Art, was one of the first to experiment with utility NFTs through their Access All Art (AAA) Pass. This membership introduces upcoming artists to AAA holders via exclusive immersive dance parties in locations such as Ibiza, Miami, Sydney and London. Some of their early featured artists went on to dominate the web3 art world, like FEWOCiOUS and Sarah Zucker.

Now, Cooper and Goode have expanded their support with Future Art, to a curation service “transforming public spaces into vibrant arenas for storytelling and interactive art experiences.” Their latest installation, Herstory - Future Women Artists, is in collaboration with 1 Denison, a premium skyscraper in Sydney, Australia, that is home to such companies as Microsoft and SAP.

The exhibition features four female artists whose artworks will hang in the foyer of 1 Denison until April 26th. Bianca Andronicos, associate director of experience services and communications at 1 Denison has been charged with bringing the building to life, “so that tenants feel excited to come to work,” she said.

“Part of my role is to organize art curators, like Future Art, to come in with exhibitions that have meaning and substance behind them,” Andronicos said. “We are thrilled to have wonderful Australian artists with such heartfelt stories to bring to our community.”

Herstory features works by Sarah Main, Carmel Jenkin, Sophie Tea and Serwah Attafuah. Co-founder of Future Art and curator of the exhibition, Myles Cooper, explained that he handpicked these artists because “they combine all the facets that you need to be a successful ‘future artist’ these days - storytelling, tech, being a great artist and business savvy.”

A journey into the soul

Sarah Main demonstrating her acrylic artworks. Photo credit: Ashley Mar.

Based in Ibiza, Sarah Main is a DJ and visual artist whose vibrant phygital works experiment with augmented reality, AI and avatars. She’s been painting since she was a teenager and has an interest in interactive multimedia and music. Web3 and AI have given her a way to converge her passions and talents, and expand creatively at a much deeper level. Her five artworks showcased in Herstory deal with her father’s current illness.

“Each one of the paintings goes through the various stages of what you go through when you have a very sick loved one,” she said.She described the paintings as ‘living artworks’ - the technology enabling her to update the animated artwork, narration and music at any time to delight and surprise collectors.

Carmel Jenkin with two of her artworks, The Piano and The Tub. Photo credit: Ashley Mar.

Similarly, Carmel Jenkin’s art is a journey into her soul, and the way she has found solace from her grief. Jenkin started drawing and painting at 15 years of age after her mother’s untimely passing from cancer. “Drawing and painting the female body became my coping mechanism. My works show women facing grief, yet within them there is resilience and evolution and strength,” she said. After struggling to be noticed by the established art world, Jenkin found empowerment through social media, where she was able to tell her story and share her art with an appreciative audience. It was through her Instagram page that Future Art spotted her, giving her a platform to showcase her art to a new audience of collectors.

This is an excellent exhibition. I found the pairing of the austere foyer of 1 Denison with these moving and intimate artworks a wonderful juxtaposition. Herstory - Future Women Artists curated by Future Art runs until 26 April.

lead image, from left to right: Bianca Andronicos, Dr Jessica Priebe, Carmel Jenkin, Sarah Main, Susan Rothwell. Photo credit: Ashley Mar.