Guest Artists & Galleries 2026

The Brandon Circle
Melbourne

We are pleased to be invited as a group to exhibit at this year’s Camberwell Art Show.

The Brandon Circle emerged through a group of artists regularly meeting, talking all things art, and generally socialising at the Brandon Hotel, a charming and quaint little venue in Carlton North, Melbourne. A common thread with these artists, in addition to enjoying each other’s company socially, is a passion for preserving representational fine art in a contemporary, everchanging artistic environment. The group includes established landscape, marine, and portraiture painters in various mediums including oil, pastel, and watercolour.

www.thebrandoncircle.net

Craig Penny

Craig studied art at Federation University, where painting and graphic design attracted most of his attention. Craig pursued a successful career as an illustrator in the advertising industry and became a member of the Illustrators Association of Australia.

Craig’s career has progressed into a range of media including skills in computer graphics. As a result Craig, has also undertaken a successful career in teaching traditional drawing and illustration at Victoria University and Swinburne University. Throughout this time, he never lost his love of using traditional methods and subsequently specialized in watercolour and acrylic painting and illustrations. This has led to an extremely successful solo career.

In 2001, Craig had his first major solo exhibition.
In 2007, his work was accepted by Gallery Diamante in Carmel, California USA.
Craig is represented by galleries in Australia, Singapore and Cambodia.

David Chen (Chen Xiaoqiang)

He graduated from Nanjing Art Institute in 1985 with a bachelor’s degree, and from the Fine Arts Department of Nanjing Normal University in 1988 with a master’s degree. He was the first Chinese artist to earn a master’s degree in art education.

The 1987 oil painting “The White Uprising” was exhibited at the exhibition marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army in China. In 1988, he became a graphic editor at People’s Fine Arts Publishing House in Beijing. In 1989, he was invited by the French Embassy in China to host a solo art exhibition. In 1991, he was selected for the “100 Famous Chinese Artists Worldwide Tour Exhibition.” His oil painting “Hope” won first prize in the Chinese Folk Painting Competition.

The 1992 oil painting “The Road to My Hometown” was recommended by the Ministry of Culture of China, won the top prize at the 4th International Art Awards in Nice, France, and was permanently acquired by relevant Chinese institutions.

He immigrated to Melbourne in 1993, and three of his works, including a self-portrait, were exhibited at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1994. In 2001, his oil painting “Midday” was displayed at the Canberra National Museum and later displayed in the United Nations General Assembly Hall in New York. In 2013, he won the Gold Award at the Camberwell Art Show.

David Chen has been repeatedly invited to serve as a judge for major Australian art exhibitions, and his works are widely collected.

Frank Chi

Frank Chi is a Chinese-Australian oil painter born in 1954 in Qiqihar, Heilongjiang Province, China. He is part of the artistic lineage of the renowned modern painter Wu Guanzhong, whose influence helped shape Chi’s early artistic foundation.

Over decades of dedicated practice, he has developed a distinctive visual language that bridges Eastern sensibilities with Western oil painting traditions.

Working across both landscape and figurative painting, Chi is known for a style that is grounded in realism yet enriched with expressive depth and subtle abstraction. His landscapes are constructed through layered brushwork and rich textural buildup, revealing a sophisticated command of light, colour, and spatial structure. These works often evoke a sense of quiet intensity, where natural scenes appear both tangible and atmospheric, inviting viewers into environments that feel at once real and dreamlike.

In his figurative paintings, particularly depictions of women, Chi adopts a restrained and contemplative approach. His subjects are rendered with clarity and dignity, conveying a sense of calm, purity, and inner stillness. Rather than focusing on surface beauty, his work emphasizes psychological presence and spiritual resonance.

Chi’s practice is distinguished by its integration of technical discipline and emotional expression. His paintings move beyond mere representation, using realism as a vehicle for conveying personal perception and inner experience. This balance between observation and imagination allows his work to inhabit a space where reality and poetic abstraction coexist. A prolific and widely exhibited artist, Frank Chi has participated in major Australian exhibitions.

It Hao Pheh

It Hao Pheh is a professional artist and art tutor based in Melbourne and has been tutoring for over 38 years. Since 1989, he has successfully held more than 23 solo exhibitions in Australia and overseas and has won countless awards in Australia and taken part in over 300 art exhibitions all over the world, including Malaysia, UK, China, Korea and Singapore.

Through each of his paintings, It Hao Pheh hopes to remind us that our present awareness and sense of belonging can be significantly enhanced by the depiction of rare beauty imbued in the architecture that came before us. His paintings will remain timeless.

As a frequent recipient of many major art awards, his works will continue to be eagerly collected, impressing art collectors and the upper echelons of the international art world for years to come.

Lee Trewartha

Lee Trewartha is an artist based in Central Victoria, whose practice spans painting and drawing. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts and has undertaken PhD studies (pending). Over more than two decades, she has exhibited throughout Australia and abroad, with works held in private collections and galleries in Australia and Indonesia. Her work has been recognized in major national awards, including the Blake Prize and Blake Prize Director’s Cut (2009, 2011), the John Coburn Emerging Artist Award, the Tattersalls Landscape Prize, the Hawkesbury Art Prize (2025), the Kennedy Art Prize (2025), and the inaugural Eckersley Art Prize (2025).

She was awarded the National Gallery Trustees Award, together with research scholarships and travel grants through La Trobe University. Her work has been featured in Australian Art Collector, Monument Magazine, Australian House and Garden, Vogue Loves (online), and the Herald Sun.

Focussing on the Baroque, particularly the concept of bel composto, the integration of light, space, material, and sensation into a unified whole. Moving between figuration and abstraction, she uses landscape and the natural world to create immersive environments shaped by light, and atmosphere.

Salvatore Trigila

Salvatore Trigila (Dip. Fine Art, B. Edn. Grad. Dip. Graphic Communication) is a talented Melbourne Artist who specialises in Cityscapes and Figure Drawings. He was born in Palazzolo, Sicily and loves to travel to his birth place, borders permitting.

He is best known for his drawings of iconic buildings such as The Melbourne Club, and St Paul’s Cathedral in Melbourne, and prominent buildings in Europe.

His work has been featured and sold in many local and international Exhibitions. He owned and operated his own gallery in Lancefield, Victoria, for several years.

1948 Born in Palazzolo, Sicily
1954 Emigrated to Melbourne Australia
1978 Diploma of Fine Art at Bendigo College of Advanced Education
1980 Worked as silk screen artist and plate maker
1991 University of Melbourne, Diploma of Education
1991-2001 Teacher of Art in Secondary and Tertiary Colleges
1995 University of Melbourne, Post Graduate Diploma In Graphic Communication
2002-2016 Exhibited and worked in Australia, Italy and France, established Art Gallery in Lancefield
2016-2026 Salvatore concentrates solely on his art – buildings and figure drawings. He regularly runs art classes for adults and children.