Garry Shead is one of Australia's most highly acclaimed lyrical figurative painters and has been in the public eye since his first solo exhibition mid 1960s. Grishin argues that despite the stylistic diversity, there exists a single unifying thread throughout his work an erotic impulse.

'Studio' presents an extraordinary anthology of visual and verbal insights into the way paintings are made, and the complex blend of motivation and inspiration that sustains the painter in his or her solitary search for meaning.

Lowell Tarling recorded Martin Sharp's life, and his effect on his friends, over twenty years. Now two volumes in one, in advance of the film of these books - GHOST TRAIN... Sharp: The Road to Abraxas - Part One, 1942-1979 Sharper: Bringing It All Back Home - Part Two, 1980-2013 'Like the Ancient Mariner, it's also a ghastly tale. I could understand the events at Luna Park a bit. I was trying to understand them and then suddenly there was this poetic language working to say: this is a crucifixion, Golgotha, death by fire. And then it starts to fit into Apocalyptic vision. It was Abraxas if you like - the dark face and the light face. To look upon Abraxas is blindness. To know it is sickness. To worship it is death. To fear it is wisdom. To assist it not is redemption. I don't know what it means. I've never been able to work it out. You get a Pop Art Parallel. It was the Year of the Child, the place of Golgotha, the Place of the Skull, and the Ghost Train. You then get these events that are caused by plotting, not caring for kids, carelessness, living a human life - the way of the world.' - Martin Sharp, 4 March 1984

The Ubu film group, Australia's first experimental filmmakers and distributors. A reference for devotees of film, theatre, those interested in the arts, music and graphic design.

Presents an argument for imagining the republic anew. Mark McKenna writes passionately, explaining why the two great symbolic issues of Australian politics in the 1990s--the republic and reconciliation--are linked intimately to one another. The only way forward is a reconciled republic, a republic founded on the full recognition of Australia's history.

Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, countless distinguished writers made the long and arduous voyage across the seas to Australia. They came to give lecture tours and make money, to sort out difficult children sent here to be out of the way; for health, for science, to escape demanding spouses back home, or simply to satisfy a sense of adventure. In 1890, for example, Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife Fanny arrived at Circular Quay after a dramatic sea voyage only to be refused entry at the Victoria, one of Sydney's most elegant hotels. Stevenson threw a tantrum, but was forced to go to a cheaper, less fussy establishment. Next day, the Victoria's manager, recognising the famous author from a picture in the paper, rushed to find Stevenson and beg him to return. He did not. In Brief Encounters, renowned author and speaker Susannah Fullerton examines a diverse array of writers including Charles Darwin, Rudyard Kipling, Stevenson, Anthony Trollope, Mark Twain, Arthur Conan Doyle, DH Lawrence, Joseph Conrad, HG Wells, Agatha Christie and Jack London to discover what they did when they got here, what their opinion was of Australia and Australians, how the public and media reacted to them, and how their future works were shaped or influenced by this country.

In 1944 the Australian literary world was rocked by a hoax which was to become a worldwide scandal. Ern Malley, deceased motor mechanic and poet, was the invention of two Sydney poets, James McAuley and Harold Stewart, who were intent on proving that modern poetry was a sham. The work of Malley comprised lines and words selected randomly, everywhere from Shakespeare to an American report on the drainage of the breeding grounds of mosquitoes. Max Harris published the poetry in the literary magazine Angry Penguins but when the deception was revealed he was mercilessly lampooned, tried and convicted of publishing 'indecent advertisements'. This definitive edition contains all of the poems, a new introduction by artist Albert Tucker, and historical background by Max Harris, John Reed and Colin Wilson; augmented by the unique contribution of drawings and etchings by Garry Shead.