Anne Zahalka, Leisureland series, installation view, 2018.
The group exhibition, Incommensurable, featuring ANNE ZAHALKA's Leisureland series has been reviewed in the press.
Gael Newton's review here.
Art Almanac review here.
The Canberra Times review here.
The exhibition continues at ANU Drill Hall, Canberra until 8 April 2018.
Janet Laurence, The Matter of the Masters (detail), 2017, Installation View. Photo: © AGNSW, Christopher Snee
Revered contemporary artist Janet Laurence presents What Colour is the Sacred? at ARC ONE Gallery this March. Following her acclaimed exhibition, The matter of the masters, at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Laurence will exhibit a new work using elements and concepts of the museum installation inspired by conservation research undertaken at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Laurence’s recent body of work investigates the intersection of art, science and nature through an analysis of artists’ materials and their origins. With a specific focus on the work of Rembrandt and other Dutch masters, Laurence explores the ‘physiology of a painting’ in her modular vitrines and haunting images derived from botanical illustrations and x-ray fluorescence scans. The exhibition harks back to the artist’s earlier alchemical works (with her research beginning 12 years ago) and reveals a view of colour from its source in the nature of the world.
From natural history collections she has sourced raw pigments and binders, commonly found in paintings, and presents these substances as scientific experiments or specimens in individual ‘cabinets of curiosity’. Interested in a scientific analysis of colour, Laurence likens her contained installations to an anatomy lesson, or a ‘medical examination’ of paintings. Elements such as eggshells, bone, and minerals are gathered, revealing the organic origins of the old masters’ materials and how they were subsequently transformed into powerful human stories and cultural objects. In providing an artistic interpretation of the palette of this era, Laurence stresses that all matter stems from the environment and that nature and culture are deeply entwined.
The exhibition also features Laurence’s iconic mixed-media wall work, including a long frieze with a series of panels moving between fluids and images, matter and light, fractured and fragile landscapes. Her Plants bleed lakes depicts a spectral range of colours sourced from plants paired with their botanical illustrations to reveal the scientific roots. Colours created by plants, often referred to as ‘lakes’, are transparent and fugitive by nature, like nature. Taking her title from Michael Taussig’s book of the same name, Janet Laurence’s What Colour is the Sacred? is an intelligent and beautiful meditation on the mysteries of colour, creative alchemy, and the enduring primacy of the earth.
Janet Laurence is a Sydney-based artist who exhibits nationally and internationally. Renowned as one of Australia’s leading contemporary artists, her practice examines our physical, cultural and conflicting relationship to the natural world. She creates immersive environments that navigate the interconnections between organic elements and systems of nature. Within the recognised threat to so much of the life world, she explores what it might mean to heal, albeit metaphorically, the natural environment, fusing this with a sense of communal loss and search for connection with powerful life-forces.
Her work is included in museum, university, corporate and private collections as well as within architectural and landscaped public places. Key collections include: NGA, Canberra; AGNSW, Sydney; NGV, Melbourne; QAG, Brisbane; AGSA, Adelaide; Artbank Australia; Macquarie Bank Collection; and Kunstwerk Summlung Klein, Germany.
Recent significant projects include: Listen, to the Sound of Plants, Australian Tapestry Workshop, Melbourne (2017); The Pleasure of Love, October Salon, Belgrade (2016); Deep Breathing: Resuscitation for the Reef, for the Paris Climate Change Conference (2015) and the Paris International Contemporary Art Fair (2015), followed by the installation Deep Breathing at the Australian Museum, Sydney (2016); Tarkine for a World in Need of Wilderness, Macquarie Bank Foyer, London (2011); In Your Verdant View, Hyde Park Building, Sydney (2010); Waterveil, CH2 Building for Melbourne City Council; Memory of Lived Spaces, Changi T3 Airport Terminal, Singapore; Elixir, permanent installation for Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial, Japan (all 2006); The Australian War Memorial (in collaboration with TZG Architects), Hyde Park, London (2003); In the Shadow, Sydney 2000 Olympic Park, Homebush Bay (2000); Veil of trees, Sydney Sculpture Walk (with Jisuk Han); 49 Veils, award-winning windows for the Central Synagogue, Sydney (with Jisuk Han, 1999); The Edge of the Trees (with Fiona Foley), Museum of Sydney (1994); and The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Australian War Memorial, Canberra (with TZG Architects, 1993).
Laurence has been a recipient of Rockefeller, Churchill and Australia Council fellowships; recipient of the Alumni Award for Arts, UNSW; and is currently visiting fellow at the NSW University Art and Design; Australian representative for the COP21/FIAC, Artists 4 Paris Climate 2015 exhibition; visiting fellow of the 2016/2017 Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg (HWK) foundation fellowship; and artist in residence at the Australian Museum.
Her work, The matter of the masters, was recently shown at AGNSW in association with the Rembrandt and Dutch Masters exhibition.
PAT BRASSINGTON's work can be seen in The Design Files latest article about Buxton Contemporary. The Gallery dedicated to The Michael Buxton collection will open Friday 9 March.
To read the full article, please click here.
Pat Brassington, By the Way, 2010, Pigment Print, 72 x 90 cm
Congratulations to PAT BRASSINGTON for receiving the Australia Council Award for Visual Arts 2018! The prestigious peer-nominated award recognises and celebrates the significant contributions of eight leading artists from different fields to Australia’s artistic and cultural vibrancy. The recipients will be honoured tonight during a special ceremony at Carriageworks, Sydney.
More information here.
Art Guide Australia article here >
JOHN YOUNG will be discussing the collaboration between contemporary art and literature, based on the history of Macau, with VCA scholar Edward Colless and poet Hayley Singer on Thursday 8 March, 6:30pm at Readings, Carlton.
Young will also be signing his latest publication Macau Days.
Find out more here.
Guan Wei, Loong (Dragon), 2018.
GUAN WEI AND GUO JIAN's spectacular Lunar Lanterns are now on view as part of City of Sydney's Chinese New Year Festival. GUAN WEI's Loong (Dragon) can be viewed on the forecourt of the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia and GUO JIAN's Rat in the East side of the Circular Quay in Sydney until 25 February.
Anne Zahalka, Santa’s Kingdom Christmas Tunnel, Fox Studios, Sydney, 2004, light-jet print, Type C, 115 x 145 cm.
ANNE ZAHALKA is included in Incommensurable, a group exhibition at Drill Hall Gallery in Canberra. The show looks at photo media in the era of globalisation and includes a selection of works from Anne's Leisureland and Natural Wonders series.
Incommensurable will be on view from 22 February until 8 April. The artists will be in conversation with exhibition curator Terence Maloon Friday 23 February at 12 noon.
JULIE RRAP is a featured artist in Hannah Gadsby's new two-part series, Nakedy Nudes, in which the comedian takes a close look at the nude - one of the most enduring subjects in western art history. The show will air on the ABC Tuesday 27 February and Tuesday 6 March, at 9:30pm.
Julie Rrap, Window Dresser No. 1 (Marilyn) A-R-MOUR Series, 2000, digital print, 195 x 122 cm.
MARIA FERNANDA CARDOSO's 'The Art of Seduction' has been featured in the Good Weekend Magazine, on Saturday 17 February.
You can read John McDonald's article here.
Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Look at me! I am an artist from Australia. Maratus splendens, 2018, lenticular print, 10.2 x 15.2cm.
Imants Tillers. The Journey To Nowhere, 2017. Acrylic, gouache on 90 canvas boards, 228.5 × 355cm.
IMANTS TILLERS has been interviewed by Art Territory, in the lead up to the artist's retrospective Ceļojums uz nekurieni / Journey to Nowhere. The exhibition opens in July this year, at the Latvian National Museum of Art, Latvia.
In discussing the show, Imants explains:
"My exhibition, indeed one could say my work, is all about “belonging” and “not belonging” – about relationships between a “fatherland” and its diaspora. In many ways, this is almost the universal leitmotif of the 20th century. Much of the contemporary world, at least what is called “the new world”, is populated by the descendants of refugees and immigrants, most notably Australia..."
The article can be read here.
GUO JIAN is included in Carnival of the Bold's art exhibition, Chindia, in which six visual artists feature works exploring cultural and national identity, politics, displacement and diaspora histories of those with Chinese and Indian heritage.
The show includes two special events — ‘Chindia: Stories from the Artists’ and ‘Chindia: Short Films from the Diaspora’.
This free exhibition runs from 15 – 26 February 2018, at Gaffa Gallery, 281 Clarence St Sydney.
Guo Jian, The Landscape No.3, inkjet pigment print, 5 panels, 2016, 200 x 235 cm (overall).
MARIA FERNANDA CARDOSO's works will be shown in Chaos & Order: 120 Years of Collecting at RMIT, an exhibition which will run at RMIT Gallery from 13 April to 9 June 2018. Drawn from the University Art Collection, Chaos & Order is an ambitious survey of artwork collected by RMIT over the last century.
Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Naked Flower #1: One wife, three husbands, 2013, digital print, acrylic face mounted on aluminium, 45 x 30 cm.
Jacky Redgate, Light Throw (Mirrors) Fold #10 of 10, (detail), 2014-15, chromogenic photograph, handprinted in 2 parts from original negative, 206 x 248cm.
JACKY REDGATE has a forthcoming solo show at Latrobe Regional Gallery in Morwell, Victoria. Titled Light Throw (Mirrors) Fold #1 –10, the exhibition will showcase Redgate's photographic series of the same name for the first time in its entirety, which she produced between 2014 and 2015. The work is part of her ongoing investigation of light and space, her photographs and sculptures are grounded in conceptualism and minimalism.
The exhibition will run from 10 February to 20 May 2018.
EUGENIA RASKOPOULOS's work is featured in a new exhibition at the Centre for Contemporary Photography titled Figuratively Speaking, curated by Laura Lantieri. The show looks at the body as a medium for language in lens-based media and includes three of Raskopoulos's striking large-scale prints from her 'Diglossia' series.
The exhibition runs from 2 Feburary - 11 March 2018.
Eugenia Raskopoulos, Diglossia #4, 2009, pure pigment print on archival paper, 140 x 93.5cm.
Janet Laurence, Maker of the Masters II, 2018, acrylic, wood, mirror boxes x 5 boxes (containing scientific glass, minerals, pigments, shells, egg shell, C type silver halide print on watercolour paper, C type silver halide, print on clear polyester, Dye Sublimation archival print onto Chromaluxe aluminium. Plant specimens, wax, lead,bones, charcoal gold leaf). Photograph: Christopher Snee.
Coinciding with her exhibition The matter of the masters, currently showing at the AGNSW, JANET LAURENCE be participating in two public programs this month.
Firstly, Laurence will present a talk with Petria Noble, head of paintings conservation at the Rijksmuseum, about Rembrandt’s studio practice and as well as Laurence’s own practice. The talk will be held Wednesday 14 February, 5.30pm.
Find out more here.
Secondly, the AGNSW will be holding a film screening of The life world. Filmed over several years in the early 2000s, this documentary is a fascinating insight into the work of Janet Laurence, tracing the inspiration and creation of her major public installations. The screening will be held on Sunday 4 February, 10:45am.
Find out more here.
Janet Laurence, Untitled, 2017, acrylic over mirror, 500 x 500mm.
JANET LAURENCE will be participating in the group exhibition All We Can't See: Illustrating The Nauru Files. The exhibition involves over 30 leading Australian and International artists illustrating the stories unearthed in The Nauru Files, illuminating the human cost of Australia’s offshore detention policies.
The exhibition runs 2–10 February 2018 at The Yellow House Gallery, Sydney.
Find out more here.
IN THE PRESS:
Works by ROBERT OWEN will be included in Modern Currents, an upcoming exhibition at TarraWarra Museum of Art.
Curated by Victoria Lynn, the exhibition features a selection of abstract paintings and sculptures from the Museum's collection. Modern Currents shows that the modernist spirit of abstraction is a current that persists through to the present generation of artists.
The exhibition opens Saturday 24 February and continues through to 29 April 2018.
Find out more here.
Robert Owen, Soundings, (composition #04) 2012
synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 62.5 x 125 cm.
In an interview with the Latrobe Valley Express, ROBERT OWEN discusses his practice and recent site-specific work Afterglow.
The work is showing at Latrobe Regional Gallery until 28 January.
Read the interview here.
Robert Owen stands in his site-specific exhibition Afterglow at Latrobe Regional Gallery. Photograph: Anne Simmons,
The Morning Star tapestry, designed by LYNDELL BROWN & CHARLES GREEN, will be hosted at the Shrine of Remembrance until 25 February 2018. This gives audiences the chance to view the magnificent tapestry prior to its permanent relocation to the new Sir John Monash Centre at Villers-Bretonneux in France, which official opens on 24th April 2018.
In Morning Star tapestry evokes the experience of departure from their home country to war on foreign shores, in particular for Australians at the Western Front. Launched in the final year of the Centenary of the First World War, the tapestry will provide a lasting legacy, remembering the service of Australians in the First World War and commemorating the 46,000 Australian lives lost on the Western Front.
Find out more here.
Morning Star, designed by Lyndell Brown and Charles Green, 2017.
Shepparton Art Museum's summer exhibition, Cover Versions: Mimicry and Resistance, explored ideas around mimicry and impersonation, re-performance or reiteration—expanding on the notion of the cover version and its subversive potential within the digital age.
The exhibition included video works from MARIA FERNANDA CARDOSO, and received the following press coverage:
Image: Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Leaves / Hojas, installation view, 2017, courtesy Shepparton Art Museum as part of Cover Versions: Mimicry and Resistance. Image: Serana Hunt.