What do Australia’s top artists hang on their walls?

Personal art collections can reveal much about their owner, especially when that owner is also an artist. Take a look at any creative’s personal art collection and you’ll likely find an eclectic melange of their own work and those they admire.

We asked five award-winning Australian artists to reveal their most treasured piece, and discovered that for art to truly reach you, it must be chosen with the heart. Not the head.

Guy Maestri

Photo: Daniel Shipp.

Most of the artworks hanging in Archibald Prize winner Guy Maestri’s home are artist swaps. “We can’t always afford to buy much art, so it’s a good way to build a collection,” he says.

Known for his commitment to plein air painting and the Australian landscape, Maestri’s most treasured work is a landscape by Indigenous artist Billy Benn Perrurle. “It hangs in my kitchen, where I can see it the most,” he says.

Artetyerre by Billy Benn Perrurle.

Purchased on a road trip from Darwin to Alice Springs, Maestri met Benn at his studio. “We arranged to go on a painting trip, but he died soon after. I will always treasure this piece,” he says.

When buying art, prioritise passion before profit, Maestri says. “Buy what you love. Billy’s honest work stood out for me. It’s my idea of pure painting.”

Michael Zavros

Michael Zavros.

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A-list artist Michael Zavros’ home brims with portraits, but his favourite piece is a sculpture by American artist Jeff Koons. “He has greatly impacted my work,” Zavros says. “Not so much stylistically, but in terms of concept.”

A multiple of Koons’ famous Split-Rocker sculpture, it doubles as a vase and is a combination of two variations of a rocking horse. “It is his son’s pony and a dinosaur,” says Zavros. “I love its mawkish sentimentality.”

Split-Rocker vase by Jeff Koons.

Zavros, known for his realist style and mesmerising portrayals of luxury, discovered it in New York in 2015. “I was on a studio residency and it had just been released. I fell in love with the folly of it.”

The piece sits nestled among his personal effects in the bedroom. “It sits happily,” he says, “a mini Koons, among our photo frames and trinkets.”

Monica Rohan

Monica Rohan. Photo: Llewellyn Milhouse

Monica Rohan, a 2016 Archibald Prize finalist, paints mystical and colourful forms of self-portraiture, yet her personal favourite is a subtle, minimal monochrome. “It is a self-portrait by Dana Lawrie,” she says. “We studied together and have similar conceptual interests, but very different styles.”

Lack Metal Dana by Dana Lawrie.

Lack Metal Dana hangs in Rohan’s living room with her collection of works by local and emerging artists. “It is an affordable way to grow a collection and support new talent,” she says. “I collect small-scale works because they fit anywhere and are easy to rearrange.”

Rachel Coad

Rachel Coad. Photo: Frances Andrijich

“I visited the gallery several times before I chose this Trevor Vickers work,” says Rachel Coads, winner of the 2016 Black Swan Prize for Portraiture. “Spending time with art is vital. It has to speak to you.”

Coad, known for her haunting figurative oils, says Vickers’ colourful, geometric style could not differ more from her own. “I love to collect vastly different styles of work,” she says.

Rachel Coad hangs her Trevor Vickers work alongside her own painting of a military jet.

Coad hangs her Vickers alongside her own painting of a Harrier jump jet. “I love the contrast,” she says. “Trevor’s vibrant and thoughtful use of colour and geometric form is a real highlight in this space.”

Natasha Bieniek

Natasha Bieniek.

In Natasha Bieniek’s Melbourne home, her own oil paintings rub shoulders with those by others. “My favourite is Heidi Yardley‘s This Evening So Soon. I am drawn to it.”

Bieniek, whose own work draws on the ancient tradition of 16th-century miniature painting and contemporary imagery, acquired it last year. “It’s deeply poetic, hauntingly beautiful,” she says.

This Evening So Soon by Heidi Yardley.

At only 32x38cm, it is small but not as tiny as Bieniek’s works. “Mine range from a matchbox size to an iPhone size.” she says.

Hanging salon style in her living room, Bieniek wants to fill the wall with diverse art. “It’s not about decoration,” she says, “art should speak to you, and when it does, it will give you true joy for a lifetime.”