Couples, where each partner has an independent creative life, are not as rare as one might expect.
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In fact, the Maitland Regional Art Gallery has over the years devoted several exhibitions to showing works by such Hunter-based couples as John Martin and Rachel Frecker, John Turier and Nicola Hensel or Eric and Robyn Werkhoven.
Commonly, separate careers are strengthened where partners practise in different art forms, necessitating separate studios.
Often the viewer may find it hard to find crossover influences in aesthetic as much as imagery.
So it is interesting to have the opportunity until June 9 at Art Systems Wickham to see a combined exhibition by well known sculptor and teacher Vlasé Nikoleski and his wife, the widely exhibited textile artist Judi Nikoleski.
They have called the show Landscape Metaphors, finding common ground between elegantly abstract metal sculpture and brilliantly coloured, elaborately stitched fabric panels.
There is also a joint commitment to technical excellence and an ability to find imaginative, maybe unorthodox uses for a rich gamut of materials.
They have called the show Landscape Metaphors, finding common ground between elegantly abstract metal sculpture and brilliantly coloured, elaborately stitched fabric panels. There is also a joint commitment to technical excellence.
Judi has built up a formidable reputation for textile design and innovation in little more than 10 years.
Her creative art quilts have been shown in at least 25 exhibitions, winning many awards, mostly in Australia but also in the US.
Her present work continues experiments in the use of dyes and pigments creating richly evocative surfaces, often calling up aspects of landscape.
Her technique currently involves silkscreen printing with added painted areas of colour unified by a complex layering of machine stitching.
In the many small panels in the exhibition she achieves a rainbow of opulent colour effects on elaborately manipulated surfaces.
Indeed, it seems that colour is continuing to grow in intensity and assurance, a feature of the enthusiasm for creative textiles as fostered by Newcastle's unique specialist gallery and its workshops.
Sculpture too is labour intensive.
Vlasé Nikoleski has enjoyed a long career with 35 major solo exhibitions and more than 50 landmark group shows, winning many prizes and commissions.
His work is included in major galleries in Australia, England and his native Macedonia.
He has developed a characteristic visual language where combinations of materials and treatments riff and play with frequently sardonic references to the natural world.
Especially in large totemic works where a central stalk evolves from a sandstone base through fabricated stainless steel into a cast bronze finial.
Smaller works in the present exhibition also use a combination of materials to play games with suggestions of domestic objects and tools, even musical instruments.
This time there are no bronze casts of actual fish.
Many more of Vlasé Nikoleski's works, particularly larger pieces, should find their way into public collections in our area.
The sculpture park of the Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery would be an ideal site for the male and female pair of 'Fish out of Water' works in the current exhibition.
Similar pieces could also adorn the embryonic sculpture enclave at Newcastle Art Gallery or the vista behind the University Art Gallery.
The University of Newcastle years ago commissioned from Vlasé an elaborate water feature outside the Chancellery.
I hope it is still working and not choked with weeds and silt, a common problem with art works recreating the environment.
Many people will remember Vlasé as an influential teacher at the University Art School and as a mentor for complex technical issues. He was for many years a member of the staff that gave the institution and its precursors a golden age 40 years ago.
Who could believe now that there were six or more practising painters employed to teach a lucky cohort of students?
The public art collections of the Lower Hunter should ensure that they represent this formative era when Frank Celtlan and John Montefiore painted the figure, John McGrath explored symbolic geometry, Peter Singleton created animal allegories, Gary Jones invoked the pared back minimal and Aldona Zakarauskas gave a new edge to collage.
Meanwhile, the joint exhibition at Art Systems Wickham until June 9 will give a lot of pleasure combined with awe at the mastery of materials.
These two artists make their chosen disciplines look easy.
Don't be fooled.
