Newly painted commission painting requested for the City of Belmont. Delivered in October 2025.

Making the occasions of the 5th Anniversary of the Belmont Hub, the City of Belmont has commissioned Rivervale based artists Bruce and Nicole Slatter to produce two new artworks for the Civic Art Collection. Bruce and Nicole Slatter grew up in Perth's northern suburbs in the late 1970s, an experience that continues to fuel their collaborative practice. Since 2003, they have lived in Rivervale, in the City of Belmont, where they explore suburbia's intrigue and beauty through visual art.

Their work examines how place shapes identity over time - through the hopes and aspirations of residents, and the materials and structures that define the suburb. The Belmont Brickworks, the Great eastern Highway motel pools, representing Western Australia's collective aspiration to build the ideal future.

Realist paintings of Belmont landmarks connect to undergrowth, skies, and temporary building additions of residents, weaving a shared story of place. Sculptural formats and shifts in sale invite viewers to consider suburban identity - both collective and individual. The additions and subtractions of suburban life - houses demolished for new builds, enduring landmarks, DIY garages and pergolas - offer visual evidence of lives lived together.

The work amplifies the sensory and visual elements that define our sense of place and identity. Familiar landmarks and shared visual experiences provide common ground for exploring contemporary existence. These moments emerge between the everyday realities of suburban life: sun-scorched lawns, overgrown pockets of introduced plants forming connected fabric. Despite efforts to contain this wildness, it becomes something most residents grow to love and embrace.

Bruce Slatter and Nicole Slatter have had separate careers as exhibiting artists since graduating from art school in the 1990's. In recent years they have collaborated on artworks that draw together ideas of lived experience and suburbia in painted and sculptural form. They each hold a Bachelor of Arts with first class Honours and Masters from Curtin University and more recently, PhDs in Art from RMIT. They have works in several public collections, including the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Artbank, Bankwest, Woollahra City Council, RMIT University, King Edward Memorial Hospital, Royal Perth Hospital and Curtin University. Nicole recently received a highly commended award at the Perth Royal Art Prize for Landscape. Bruce is a previous winner of the Bankwest Art Prize. Nicole and Bruce are both academics at Curtin University.