He may be a State Cultural Treasure with artworks in multiple public and private collections in Australia, but Trevor Vickers has made it an annual goal to exhibit his highly-regarded contemporary art in the City of Cockburn’s Show Off exhibition since its inception in 2003.
After a lifetime of creating art and advocating for artists, Trevor (81) and his late wife Ruth moved from the UK to Hamilton Hill in 1997 where they embraced the community.
In Quintessentially Cockburn fashion, Trevor has continued to create art and contribute to Perth’s cultural life, producing some of the finest contemporary art in Australia from his serene yet busy home studio.
With other WA artists, he helped establish Art Collective WA in 2013, after several Perth galleries closed, greatly reducing opportunities for homegrown artists to exhibit and sell their art, and to continue their contribution to WA’s arts culture.
The Perth-based artist-owned registered not-for-profit association is now internationally recognised and its members participate in art fairs in Singapore and Sydney and other partner galleries in Perth and WA regional centres.
“When we first began exhibiting at art fairs as Art Collective WA we were shown with emerging organisations and art schools, but today, all these years later, we are invited to appear in the Sydney and Melbourne art fairs alongside with the top galleries in Australia,” Trevor said.
“Painters in WA were unknown until we started Art Collective WA. Now the art world knows the talent that is here.”
At the time of writing, Trevor’s works were appearing in two exhibitions, one in Perth and another in Melbourne, and preparing for Show Off.
“Show Off (art exhibition) is a wonderful thing. That exhibition pulls in an enormous amount of painters and other artists from Cockburn,” he said.
“You wouldn’t imagine that there are that many people in the arts in Cockburn, but there are.
“There are some old greats like George Haynes and Jane Martin in the Show Off exhibition and artists who are just starting out, the complete spectrum.
“Very experienced artists who have been creating for 60 years and others at the opposite end of their artistic life. That egalitarian aspect of Show Off is what has been so great over the past 20 or so years.”
Adelaide-born and Perth-raised, Trevor has also been creating art for more than six decades, first exploring painting in the early 60s, and staging his first solo show in 1965.
He was an exhibitor in the landmark 1968 exhibition The Field at the newly opened National Gallery of Victoria, showcasing 74 mainly young artists in what was considered a radical collection of ‘hard-edged‘ works inspired by the American abstract art movement.
Apart from his home studio, Trevor said another favourite place to spend time in Cockburn was its multicultural supermarkets, in particular Scarvaci’s IGA in Hamilton Hill.
“To me, the great mix of cultures and friendliness that has produced the variety of supermarkets, like Scarvaci’s, is a symbol for the whole of Cockburn,” he said.
“It is quite different to the cold environments at Coles and Woolies.
“I remember my wife Ruth asking if Scarvaci’s could source any Marmite, and within a week it was on the shelf.
“The selection reflects our community from Portuguese, to Mexican, Italian and the many other nationalities that make Cockburn what it is today.
“We loved Hamilton Hill then, and it continues to grow and evolve for the better.”
Trevor was named in the WA Government’s State Cultural Treasures Awards in November 2024, joining a distinguished cohort of 46 that has made a deep and enduring impact on the WA arts landscape.
In recognition of this honour, Art Collective WA has launched an initiative and Australian Cultural Fund campaign to preserve his legacy: the ‘Trevor Vickers Living Artist Estate’.
It will involve working with Trevor to archive his life’s work of more than 800 paintings to ensure they are accessible to future generations.
His work is held in many collections including the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Art Gallery of South Australia, the Art Gallery of Western Australia, the Heide Museum of Modern Art and corporate collections including Wesfarmers and Bankwest.
Find out more about Show Off 2025 on the City's
website.
To learn more about Art Collective WA visit their
website.
Caption: Trevor Vickers with some of his art at Art Collective WA. Image: Art Collective WA.
Caption: Trevor Vickers’ art on display at Art Collective WA. Image: Art Collective WA, Robert Frith, Acorn Photography.
Article by Michele Nugent.