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Nabilah Nordin and Nick Modrzewski searched high and low for a space that could function as both a home and art studio. They looked at industrial warehouses and shopfronts, until a period house in Newport (10 kilometres south-west of the Melbourne CBD) came along that fit all their needs perfectly.
The couple were immediately inspired to make the space their own. Their vision – a place for art and life to converge; a testing ground to brew ideas and think through possibilities for future exhibitions.
‘We use every room in this house to think through our ideas and experiment with sculptures, paintings, words, and sounds,’ says Nick, who works as both an artist represented by COMA, and a barrister.
Their first order of business – painting the reading room walls. ‘We wanted to create a painterly gesture and movement in this room, so one of the walls is loosely painted green, with all the brush marks showing,’ says Nick. ‘We also embedded small ceramic pieces into this wall.’
The surrounding walls were also painted in contrasting colours, framing artworks and book displays. ‘We wanted to create the sense of multiple paintings within paintings, so that there is no clear division between the art and the architecture,’ explains Nabilah, whose art is represented by Neon Parc.
It’s hard to believe it’s been only six months since Nick and Nabilah moved into this home, with so many art pieces made specifically for the space. Among them are sculptural door knobs, ‘spider egg light fittings’, and ‘shrunken head coat racks.’
‘Things are always moving and changing – walls are painted and repainted and sculptures are built into the doorways,’ says Nick. ‘We feel like this house is an ongoing artwork and we’re at the beginning of a long process of sculpting and painting it.’
Next up, working with David Anthony at Made For and Joseph Moon at Moon Building Group to build a sculpture and painting studio in the garden!
Nabilah says, ‘We only feel like this is the first chapter to the many changing faces of our new home.’
Nabilah and Nick will both be showing at the upcoming Melbourne Art Fair on 17-20 February 2022. Nabilah will be showing with Neon Parc, and Nick with Discordia.
