Philippe Le Miere’s ‘Alice in Kellyland’ merges two icons of Australian modernism: Charles Blackman’s Alice of Wonderland and Sidney Nolan’s Ned Kelly. What relation do these (anti) heroes bear? One is a blonde girl plucked from a British children's book and the other is an infamous Australian outlaw, condemned to the gallows.

Like the Phantom of the Opera, Alice’s face is half shielded by Kelly’s iconic helmet. Both she and her bushranger can be understood as symbols for Australian modernism, painted by Blackman and Nolan as experimentations with the boundary between myth and reality. Alice symbolised Blackman’s wife, Barbara Blackman, while Nolan identified with the outcast Kelly. Where does the legend end and history begin?

Bright and bold, Philippe Le Miere’s ‘Alice in Kellyland’ reinterprets Australian modernism by merging the whimsy of Blackman’s Alice and the defiance of Nolan’s Ned Kelly. In this original pochoir print, Le Miere invites viewers to wonder at Kellyland, where the fusion of these cultural icons opens up new paths for exploration.

This work is a pochoir (posh-waar) print. Emerging in late nineteenth-century Paris, pochoir printmaking involves layering and hand-colouring each component of the image. This unmechanized process gives each edition its own ‘aura’ while requiring significant time and skill. By the 1930s, pochoir had largely faded with the rise of more efficient, mechanized printing techniques. Master printmaker Jeffrey Makin was the first to connect Le Miere's experimental process with this nearly forgotten early twentieth-century practice. Subtle disturbances in the painted surface, with elements slightly misregistered, enhance its textural appeal. Once embraced by Matisse and Picasso, pochoir is now revived by Le Miere, uniting art and craftsmanship to imbue each piece with the essence of an original painting.

Philippe LE MIERE (1975 - )
'Alice in Kellyland' 2026
acrylic on paper
Edition of 25
Image Size: 34 x 26 cm
Dimensions: 42 x 30 cm
Signed: Signed, titled and editioned in margin
Comes with Letter of Provenance

(c) The Artist or Assignee