Public Program

Artist Talk

Saturday 14 February, 3pm – Join Peter Sharp and Michelle Cawthorn in the gallery for an artist talk reflecting on the residency and the works presented in Second Fiddle.

‘We Have Cats’ - double bass improv trio

Saturday 21 February, 3pm – Double bass improv trio ‘We Have Cats’ will be engaging in a musical dialog in response to Second Fiddle.

Related Media

Art Wank Podcast

Listen to Peter Sharp and Michelle Cawthorn in conversation about their experience at the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation on Art Wank, hosted by Julie Nicholson and Fiona Verity. Listen here on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

Hyperallergic

While in residence at the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, critic and curator John Yau visited Sharp and Cawthorn in their studio and spoke with them about their approach to drawing landscapes and ecologies.

Read the article here on Hyperallergic.

Peter Sharp + Michelle Cawthorn / SECOND FIDDLE

In February 2026, DRAW Space was delighted to present Peter Sharp + Michelle Cawthorn / SECOND FIDDLE. The exhibition opened at 6pm Thursday 5 February and ran until 5pm Sunday 1 March.

In March–April 2025, Dharawal/Sydney-based artists and life partners Peter Sharp and Michelle Cawthorn undertook a joint residency at the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation in Bethany, Connecticut, USA. Situated on a 70-acre wooded property, the residency offered uninterrupted studio time, supporting individual practices alongside a shared period of reflection.

Click to download a copy of the room sheet (left).

Josef and Anni Albers were influential modern artists and educators who began teaching at the Bauhaus in Germany before continuing their work in the United States at Black Mountain College and Yale University. The Foundation continues this legacy through artist residencies and through access to its extensive archives and research library.

Working independently from the Albers Archive, Sharp and Cawthorn developed distinct bodies of work that come together in this exhibition. Responding to the residency’s surrounding landscape and to sustained dialogue with the Foundation’s curatorial team, Sharp has developed a large collection of black-and-white drawings that shift between natural and abstract forms. Engaging with Anni Albers’s weavings held within the Archive, Cawthorn has produced a series of nuanced coloured-pencil drawings featuring layered geometric patterns that echo the texture of woven fabric. The exhibition also includes a new joint two-channel video work, Tickle, which stages a visual conversation between the two artists, with neither playing second fiddle.

Together, the exhibition brings these parallel investigations into relation, revealing practices that remain separate yet intimately engaged.