N.G Malla

Nicole G Malla’s art practice primarily focuses on the urban landscape, and she is particularly interested in residential homes and neighbourhoods. Since resuming painting in 2019 after raising four children she has shown in several group exibititions and been a finalist in numerous prizes including the Lethbridge Landscape Prize (2023), the Blacktown Art Prize (2023), and the Hunters Hill Art Prize (2022).

As an artist and urbanist living in Bulanaming country (Marrickville) in Sydney’s inner west, I am fascinated by the ordinary beauty of our urban and suburban landscapes. I am interested in how iconic architectural styles – from the Victorian terrace; Federation bungalow; to the mid century fibro and beyond, are modified over time by their owners via an unsympathetic concrete render; cheerful paint; a riotous garden or kitsch embellishments. I find particular beauty in the ways in which Australia’s intense light and shade spills across the front facades of these homes and the trees and flower gardens which surround them. Our memories make these homes somehow familiar – reminding us perhaps of a student party in an inner city terrace; a family beach holiday; a visit to Grandma’s. In rendering these “house portraits”, I’m allowing their quirky imperfections to shine through my relaxed mark making – these aren’t polished images for a real estate catalogue, but much loved homes and neighbourhoods.