Marc
Marc Wasiak studied Graphic Design, promoting at nightclubs and doing events where he met Gerard and became a stylist.
Marc travelled the world to learn, make art and work. He worked on fashion parades in Melbourne and Sydney, as well as in advertising, both stills and motion, and film.
His crowning glory was making detailed artworks drawing on history, fashion, costume, sets, creative design and directing, film, fun and friends.
Laughter, Fun, Art and Passion was Marc’s Artistic Soul. Please continue this legacy.
Gerard O'Connor and Marc Wasiak, life-long creative partners and soulmates, were an award-winning team of dynamic artists: Gerard, a photographer, set and film maker, and Marc, a wardrobe, prop and set designer.
Over 30 years they made massive complex tabloid work together, their imagery receiving acclaim in Australia and internationally. They began in fashion, advertising, design and art, finding a life-long creative partnership. Showing with the Alasdair Foster Centre for Contemporary Photography in Sydney, Gerard won Australian Commercial and Fine Art Photographer of the Year 2013.
They created and exhibited work at the Pingyao International Photography Festival, China’s largest and longest running art-photo event, winning the Jin Hou Niao Zun award for best international work at the festival. Note that the festival presented work from over 2,000 photographers to an audience of 200,000 visitors in a single week. In this project, they undertook creation of two ambitious new series. One depicted the families of a Qing-Dynasty household presented in the style of a soap opera; the other set in a Diesel Engine Factory set in the Cultural Revolution, this second shot before a large public audience.
Gerard & Marc
In 2016, their massive show Victoriana Pleasure Garden exhibited at the National Trust’s Tasma House and the Spring Fashion Festival Conservatory in Fitzroy Gardens. On the success of this exhibition, they were the only Australian artists invited to remount the exhibition as part of the Festival of Light.
XIX ENCUENTROS ABIERTOS - FESTIVAL DE LA LUZ 2016 was one of largest photographic festivals in the world, based in Buenos Aires, at the Festival of Light.
XIX ENCUENTROS ABIERTOS - FESTIVAL DE LA LUZ procured six images for their large international collection. Ministerio de Cultura, the most important Fine Art Museum in Argentina, selected a work to add to their collection. Additionally, the Australian Embassy, via director Noel Campell in Buenos Aires, procured a major work for their collection. Governor General Sir Peter Cosgrove and Lady Cosgrove requested a private viewing of their exhibition. The Governor General selected four works to be added to the collection for Government House in Canberra, Australia.
Invited back as the only Australian solo show, the theme of the tango express explores the complexities of modern day relationship diversity. This was ‘My Milonga The Dance of The Heart’.
In 2019, the City of Port Phillip Cultural Development commissioned ‘Queen of the Pub’, set in the rock and roll era of the 70s, espousing inner city, recycling, punk and female-run business, stepping from the past to the royal way forward in the future.
Love, people and art are the real connections. But pushing boundaries, enjoying the creative work, making it fun, and finding a like mind is the essence of everything Gerard and Marc did.
Read more
Gerard & Marc: Storytelling on a Grand Scale
Talking Pictures Interview by Alasdair Foster, 1 May 2021
https://talking-pictures.net.au/2021/05/01/gerard-marc-story-telling-on-a-grand-scale/
Angels and Wolves exhibition conjures Gothic tales from the history of Labassa
Sydney Morning Herald article by Janice Breen Burns, April 26, 2017
https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/angels-and-wolves-exhibition-conjures-gothic-tales-from-the-history-of-labassa-20170425-gvrplj.html