Homescape, after the flood, 2024

This is part of a series of streetscapes from the Northern Rivers region of NSW, where I grew up. In early 2022 the region was hit by devastating floods, with more than 800 homes destroyed and thousands damaged. Returning since the floods is bittersweet; as the communities gradually recover, homes in the most flood impacted areas are now being acquired by government for demolition. Others have been carefully repaired and many will be raised to withstand the future flood events which are now inevitable. This streetscape is emblematic of the unique character of the region, with lush gardens flourishing in the sub-tropical climate; a jumble of housing styles from “Queenslanders” built with local hardwood and elevated by elegant timber stilts, to the 1970s house with its mission brown brick undercroft and white metal baluster. In memorialising these ordinary residential landscapes I am hoping they will endure.

NG Malla’s art practice focuses primarily on urban and domestic landscapes; particularly homes and residential neighbourhoods. She is interested in the familiar houses and streetscapes across Australia’s inner city, suburban and country towns, the memories and hopes they evoke about our own housing histories and aspirations, and the assumptions we may make about their occupants. The strong visual language associated with each architectural style; from the ‘colonial’ cottage to the Victorian terrace; Federation bungalow; mid century fibro and beyond, and their interactions with Australian native vegetation, exotic species, and intense sunlight – lend character and meaning to our everyday streets and suburbs. Her domestic interiors and still life paintings continue this interest with the Australian home and the ways in which rooms and objects echo people or place – from the floral patterning on a living room sofa to the glimpses of garden through a window.
NG Malla recommitted to her painting practice in 2019 after an intense two decades of working in academia and parenting four children. Since this time she has been in numerous selective exhibitions and prizes, including:
• the Lethbridge Landscape Prize (2023, 2024)
• the Hawkesbury Art Prize (2023)
• the Mount Eyre Art Prize (2023)
• the Blacktown Art Prize (2023)
• the Waverley Woollahra 9×5 competition (2022, 2023, 2024)
• the Hunters Hill Art Prize (2022, 2023)
• the Greenway Art Prize (2021, 2022).

Her work has been exhibited at:
• Purple Noon Gallery (August 2024)
• Affordable Art Fair Brisbane, Sydney 2024 with the Toowoomba Gallery
• Michael Reid Northern Beaches (Mini Release, September 2023, Summer Show 2023/2024; June 2024
• Rex Livingston Art Gallery Katoomba (Dec, 2023, Emergence March 2024)
• Saywell Gallery Marrickville ‘That Place’ group exhibition 2022, 2023)
• Balmain Watch House (2023)
• Toowoomba Grammar Art Show (2023, 2024)
• Window Gallery, Chippendale (1992)
• Green Iguana Café, Newtown (solo exhibition, 1992)
• Siddhartha Art Gallery, Kathmandu, Nepal (1991, 1992).
N G Malla (Nicole Gurran Malla) has a Bachelor of Arts, Masters in Urban & Regional Planning, and a PhD from the University of Sydney (2002). Her ongoing academic research in urbanism complements her art practice.