Semi Permanent Sydney 2023

Bijan Berahimi is an Iranian-American designer and founder of FISK, a studio and gallery in Portland, Oregon. FISK has become an ongoing project based around culture, community, and commerce through the lens of art and design, the studio championing a wide range of ethnicities, voices, and backgrounds. Berahimi has collaborated with Nike, Toro y Moi, Harvard, Boiler Room, and was the first designer-in-residence at Facebook HQ.

Using words, colour, and sound, data journalist, writer, artist, and producer Mona Chalabi rehumanises data to better help us understand our world and the way we live in it. Her writing and illustrations have been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Guardian, where she is currently the data editor, and have earned her a fellowship at the British Science Association, an Emmy nomination, and recognition from the Royal Statistical Society.

Liam Young is a film director and architect, and founder of the urban futures think tank Tomorrows Thoughts Today and the nomadic research studio Unknown Fields. Young's practice is situated within the fields of design fiction and critical design. His work explores the increasingly blurred boundaries among film, fiction, design, and storytelling, with the goal of prototyping and imagining the future of the city.

Irish writer, academic and disability activist Sinéad Burke is the founder of Tilting The Lens, a consultancy that asks: ‘Is this accessible?’ Burke supports clients – including Gucci, Ralph Lauren, Netflix, and Pinterest – in moving from awareness to action, accelerating systemic and cultural changes for a world that is more accessible and equitable for everyone. Her work has been featured and recognised by Vogue, The Financial Times, and Vanity Fair.

Evi O. is a multi-disciplinary designer and self-taught artist with 15 years award-winning industry experience. In the design sphere, she leads Evi-O.Studio – a design office famed for their highly-crafted, impactful design, striking balance between beauty and function. Evi-O.Studio practices across publication design, identity design and creative collaborations. In the art world, Evi O. roams the abstract genre, fortifying the power of colours and utilising her practice as a way to understand the world and a channel for her constant curiosity.

The founder of Australia’s first Indigenous edu-tech company, Indigital, seeks to develop innovative ways to digitise and translate knowledge and culture from remote and ancient communities. Her aim is for Indigital to help create meaningful pathways for Indigenous people into the digital economy, and at Semi Permanent, Mikaela will discuss the intersection of cultural knowledge and digital technology and how it applies to the future of business through the metaverse and Web3.

Chris Yee is a Sydney-based artist, illustrator, designer, and animator specialising in traditional “pen and paper” methodologies. He believes in the power of character and storytelling and is heavily drawn to constructing narratives ranging from the humorous to the monstrous and macabre. Inspired by comics, wrestling, K-pop, punk and 2000s rap, it is the hyperreal and grey area within these genres, the blurring believability between reality and fiction, that he finds most engaging. Outside his art practice, Chris is a designer and animator who has produced work for some of Australia’s best-known brands, including Apple, VIVID Festival Sydney, Sony Australia, Samsung, Sydney Opera House, Vans, Red Bull, Universal Music and Marvel Comics. In 2019 he created his first Permanent Heritage Artwork, ‘Tumbalong’, for Chinatown, Sydney. He is currently teaching multi-disciplinary arts at the University of Sydney and from 2022 is part-lead producer for New York-based EST Media’s Australian team.

Jazz Money is a Wiradjuri poet and artist based on Gadigal land, Sydney Australia. Her practice is centred around poetics while producing works that encompass installation, digital, performance, film and print. Jazz’s writing and art has been widely presented, performed and published nationally and internationally in Europe, Asia, North America and South America. Jazz's first poetry collection, the best-selling how to make a basket (UQP, 2021), won the David Unaipon Award.

Filipe Carvalho is an Emmy-winning designer and director working in film and television. Born and raised in Lisbon, Portugal, Filipe started out as a graphic designer in the 1990s before moving into the film and television industry. He started his career as a young freelancer working remotely with US studios, and is currently an independent director while running his design studio, Foreign Affairs, for clients including HBO, FX, and A24. Filipe believes good ideas will always supersede good visuals, but he thrives on making both come together. He has garnered numerous accolades including an Emmy for Outstanding Main Title Design for Starz’s Counterpart. He is a regular fixture in the creative festival circuit, and has spoken at events all over the world. Filipe is a member of the American Television Academy.

Jordy van den Nieuwendijk is a Dutch artist currently living and working in Melbourne. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague in 2011, where he held a funeral and memorial service for his then alter-ego ‘Superoboturbo’. 
 Through painting, Jordy explores fundamental objects of everyday life. Working with primary colour palettes and simplified shape structures, he has a talent for examining subject matter in series that innovate inside carefully controlled boundaries. While freeing himself from the choice between abstract or figurative image forms, he creates a field of tension reinforced by the timeless character of his work. His tendency towards this style of painting could be described as new purism. He has had solo exhibitions in Amsterdam (De Voorkamer), Rotterdam (Kunsthal), Düsseldorf (Ninasagt), London (Public Gallery) and New York (Moiety). As a commercial illustrator, he has worked on projects for numerous clients such as Apple, American Express, Dropbox, Hermés, Jacquemus, The New York Times, Rimowa, Vogue and WeTransfer. Always injecting elements of fun and playfulness into his editorial work, he maintains a truly unique and discernible approach. Jordy’s work walks a charming and endearing line between the mature and naive. Often (if not always) it conveys an underlying optimism which is assuredly refreshing in our contemporary culture.

Megha Kapoor is a highly accoladed editor, creative director, writer and stylist who has gained an international reputation within the fashion industry for her timeless aesthetic, elevated reportage and commitment to platforming diverse voices. In September 2021 she was headhunted by Anna Wintour (Global Editorial Director, Vogue, and Chief Content Officer, Condé Nast) to helm Vogue India and has since been instrumental in driving the publication’s rapid expansion both globally and within the subcontinent. Under Megha’s direction, the new era of Vogue India seeks to champion the spirit of creativity in India, spark conversations around challenging subjects, and celebrate the diversity of the subcontinent whilst establishing a new visual language. Her tenure has already seen the publication reach new heights, including a close to doubling of its digital audience, an industry-first introduction of Hindi language programming, and an editorial shift that wholeheartedly embraces inclusivity. Born in India, raised in New Zealand and having spent much of her adult life in Australia, Megha brings a global perspective to Vogue India underpinned by a personal mission to proudly honour her cultural heritage and showcase its beauty and richness to the rest of the world.

Mikaela Stafford is a self-taught 3D motion graphics artist exploring themes of hypothetical futures and is particularly interested in the complex relationships between humans, technology and nature. Mikaela believes exploring the intersections of these realms can provide possible pathways for reconnection to the natural world through the use of digital technologies. By exploring the opportunities and challenges of a cyber-physical future, she seeks to create a new sense of environmental engagement for audiences. Integrating traditional methods of photography, sculpture and lighting design into her digitally rendered 3D environments she creates vibrant and playful work. With a background in stage design, installation art and painting, Mikaela’s work typically depicts thriving and abundant bio-digital environments where technology and the natural world exist harmoniously. By marrying familiar biomorphic forms with imagined environments, her digitally rendered work creates scenes without limits.

Samuel Leighton-Dore is an artist, author and screenwriter based on the Gold Coast, Australia. He has written for publications including SBS Voices and produced illustrated mental health campaigns for ReachOut, Man Cave and the University of Queensland. His ceramic works have been acquired as part of the Gold Coast City Collection and twice selected for the biennial North Queensland Ceramic Awards. He and his husband run Sad Man Studio, a boutique animation studio focussed on creating queer-centric animated stories with heart and humour. His first book, How To Be A Big Strong Man, was released in 2019. His second book, Wow It's All A Lot, is being published by HarperCollins in July 2023.

Seb Chan is Director & CEO at ACMI in Melbourne.Appointed to the role in August 2022, he was previously a key part of the team behind the organisation’s $40 million renewal project, underpinned by co-design methodology, which transformed ACMI into a multi-award winning, multiplatform museum. Seb joined ACMI as Chief Experience Officer in 2015, as the senior executive responsible for the Experience & Engagement division of the museum, guiding teams responsible for visitor experience, marketing, brand & communication design, digital products, technology, and the museum’s collections, digitisation & digital preservation programs. He designed and leads ACMI's CEO Digital Mentoring Program (2021–ongoing), working with CEOs and directors across the Australian arts and cultural sector. He is currently the National President of the Australian Museums and Galleries Association. Prior to ACMI, Seb led the digital renewal and transformation of the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in New York (2011–15) and the Powerhouse Museum’s pioneering work in open access, mass collaboration and digital experience during the 2000s. His work has won awards internationally in the museum, media and design spheres. Seb is Adjunct Professor, School of Media and Communications, in the College of Design and Social Context at RMIT, an international advisory board member of Art Science Museum (Singapore) and board member of the National Communications Museum (Melbourne). He is an alumnus of the Getty Leadership Institute, Salzburg Global Seminar and UNSW. Seb also leads a parallel life in digital art, writing and music.

wani toaishara is a multidisciplinary artist, photographer, and performer working across photography, installation, and avant-garde video art. His practice is exploring ideas concerning African Indigeneity, Statelessness, and climate change, as well as interrogates the effects of dislocation for those on the margins of movements and dialogues. wani has also initiated and been involved in various mutual aid projects across the west and southeast suburbs of Melbourne, serving Black and other multiply marginalized communities. The artist has exhibited and performed at Arts Centre Melbourne, Sydney Opera House, Blak Dot Gallery, Wyndham Art Gallery, Arts House, Malthouse Theatre, and National Gallery Victoria, among other spaces. He has also received numerous awards and fellowships including a Green Room award, Arts House Evolution Award, Wyndham Art Prize, Darebin Art Prize, and most notably the Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography award.