ROBERT OWEN

Robert Owen, Melbourne Modern: European Art & Design at RMIT since 1945 installation view, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, 2019.

ROBERT OWEN spoke yesterday at A Bauhaus Impact at RMIT at RMIT Gallery, as part of the public programs for Melbourne Modern: European Art & Design at RMIT since 1945.

To mark the centenary of the founding of the Bauhaus school of art and design in Germany, curators Jane Eckett and Harriet Edquist, and artists Emily Floyd, and Robert Owen will be considering the extent to which Bauhaus principles impacted the teaching of art, architecture and design at RMIT.Robert Owen, 'Melbourne Modern: European Art & Design at RMIT since 1945' installation view, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, 2019.

JOHN YOUNG

John Young, Fairweather Transformation XI, 2019, Oil on Belgian linen, 76 x 72 cm.

ARC ONE Gallery is delighted to present Silent Transformations, an important new body of work by leading Australian artist John Young.

Highly regarded in Australia and internationally for his commitment to intellectual rigor and aesthetic finesse, in Silent Transformations Young explores the sublime inherent in metamorphosis in a series of new paintings.

These meticulously painted abstract and representational canvases are meditations on the process of transformation. As Young describes, they point to “the moment when a caterpillar changes into a moth, when deformation and reformation exist side by side. Here, banal time continues unperturbed outside of the cocoon. We see the transformation of a caterpillar into a moth, but at that moment, what is inside the cocoon knows not what it is. There is a sublime, metaphysical and indescribable paradox between the one state and the other – and this change yields two different qualities of time. Within change, there is a melancholy. Once recognised, it’s impossible to see the world of forms in the same way again. In this silent transformation, form leads to a great formlessness and then back to form yet again. And so, the world goes, not kept static in ideal forms, but eternally and melancholically transforming.

The original bares little significance: we lose sight of it and forget, as it is hybridised into another, and yet another. In our mourning of forms gone, in our loss, our eyes try to adjust, to trace new edges, searching for a new significance of the world - as it is when sitting Shiva. This too will be our plight, as our own bodies hybridise and are augmented with the robotic and the algorithmic.”

-       John Young, 2019

John Young, Shiva II, 2019, Oil on Belgian linen, 71 x 89.5 cm.

The exhibition is presented in three thematic groups: The Fairweather Transformations take inspiration from Ian Fairweather, tracing the transfiguration of this nomadic artist’s work; Shiva mourns the forms lost within transformation; and finally, The Mute Palace shows that not all transcultural and hybridised forms will be permitted witness. Like the caterpillar changing into a moth, these paintings are evidence of silent transformation, of that which is unsayable, barely discernible; those gaps between civilisation that abound and enrich our world.

John Young Zerunge was born in Hong Kong and moved to Australia in 1967. Young read philosophy of science and aesthetics at the University of Sydney and then studied painting and sculpture at Sydney College of the Arts. His investigation of Western late modernism prompted significant phases of work from a bi-cultural viewpoint, and he has devoted a large part of his three-decade career towards regional development in Asia, participating in significant touring exhibitions in the Asia-Pacific region including Art from Australia: Eight Contemporary Views, (1991, South East Asian Museums), Transcultural Painting (1994-5, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong), Systems End (1996, Japan and Korea), as well as representing Australia at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in Antipodean Currents (1995, USA). Young has regular solo exhibitions in Australia and also shows in Berlin, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

From 31 August – 20 October this year, The Lives of Celestials, a comprehensive survey exhibition of three recent History Projects by Young will be exhibited at the Town Hall Gallery, Boroondara. In 2005-06, a survey exhibition covering 27 years of works was held at the TarraWarra Museum of Art, Victoria, curated by Maudie Palmer. The Bridge and the Fruit Tree, a survey exhibition covering works from 2000-2012 was exhibited in February-March 2013 at Drill Hall Gallery, Australian National University, Canberra, curated by Anthony Oates and Terence Maloon.

Three separate monographs have been written on John Young’s works and projects by Dr. Graham Coulter-Smith (1993, Schwartz City Publications); and Dr. Carolyn Barnes and William Wright AM (2005, Craftsman House, Thames & Hudson); and Dr Carolyn Barnes and Professor Jacqueline Lo (Australian National University Drill Hall Gallery). In 2017, Young released a new publication of The Macau Days with novelist Brian Castro, supported by the J.M Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice. John Young’s work features in prominent museum collections in Australia and internationally, and recently has been acquired in depth by M+ Museum, Hong Kong.

IMANTS TILLERS

On Tuesday 6 August at 6pm, The University of Melbourne will host the Melbourne premiere of Thrown Into the World, directed by Antra Cilinska.

This feature-length documentary offers unique insight into IMANTS TILLERS’ creative process and cross-cultural identity. The screening will be followed by a half hour discussion with Imants Tillers, chaired by Ian Mclean.

The film will screen at Federation Hall on the university’s Southbank campus. Places are filling up fast, so register your attendance today!

JACKY REDGATE

Jacky Redgate with her work, Buxton Contemporary, 2019.

JACKY REDGATE is featured in Bauhaus Now! at Buxton Contemporary.

Bauhaus experiments with photography have been reprised by Redgate, particularly those of Florence Henri, who used prisms and mirrors in order to exploit, as her Bauhaus teacher Moholy-Nagy explained, 'the ambiguities of present-day optical creations'. Redgate's images are created through repetitive flashes across variously sized circular mirrors. These four new works in her decade-long series are like a secular alter to light, recalling the intensity of Henri's photography.

These works were included in Redgate's solo exhibition at ARC ONE Gallery earlier this year. .

Bauhaus Now! continues until 20 October.

More information >

ROSE FARRELL & GEORGE PARKIN

Farrell & Parkin, Self Portrait #2 from the series Self Portraits, 2003, Type C Colour photograph, 73 x 76 cm.

ARC ONE Gallery is delighted to present Rose & George, a survey of Rose Farrell & George Parkin’s provocative and visionary collaborative practice.

‘We see ourselves to be one artist with one mind, a total equilibrium.’

–      Rose Farrell & George Parkin, 2010. 

Rose Farrell (1949 – 2015) and George Parkin (1949 – 2012) are recognised nationally and internationally as one of Australia’s most significant and pioneering collaborative artistic partnerships. Their extraordinary vision and united mind pushed the boundaries of photographic portraiture and video art throughout the three decades of their practice.

This exhibition surveys Farrell & Parkin’s oeuvre through selected key works from major series produced between the mid-80s and 2011, including Repentance (1988), Black Room (1992-93), Pulleys, Dislocations and Counterweights (1997-98), A Thousand Golden Remedies (2000), Self Portraits (2003-06), Random Acts (2004), Chinese Self Portraits (2006-09), and their final collaboration, Curious Evolution (2008-11).

Farrell & Parkin, The Annunciation from the series Repentance, 1988, Type C Photograph, 166 x 128 cm.

Linking performance, photography, illustration and sculpture, Farrell & Parkin’s elaborately constructed photographic tableaux contemplate the history of the body and mind. Drawing on a myriad of cultural and historical references – from Renaissance and Baroque religious iconography, cinema traditions, myth, and the healing focus of archaic Eastern and Western medical practices and psychiatry – these works explore the mysteries and uncertainties of the human psyche and the fragility of our existence; articulating what Farrell & Parkin have described as, ‘the perilous journey that humans take throughout life’.

Rose Farrell (1949 – 2015) & George Parkin (1949 – 2012) worked collaboratively from 1984 – 2012, creating enigmatic performative photography and video art. Their importance to Australian art history became apparent early in their career with national representation, acquisitions, and exhibitions by major public art institutions in Australia and abroad, including Black Room at the National Gallery of Victoria, 1995, the Scottish International Festival of Photography, 1995, Curious Evolution at Deakin University Gallery, 2015, and Topography of a Collaborative Mind, a major retrospective at Glen Eira City Council Gallery in 2010. Their work was curated into international exhibitions in Canada, France, Russia, Germany, the United States, and Asia, including Photographica Australis, which opened at the National Gallery of Thailand, Bangkok in 2003 and toured through Asia, 2003-04, and Science Fiction at the Singapore Art Museum, 2003. Major group exhibitions include Infinite Conversations: Asian-Australian Exchange, National Gallery of Australia, 2018; Constructed Worlds, National Gallery of Australia, 2011; The Naked Face: Self Portrait, The Ian Potter Centre, NGV Australia, 2010-2011; Role Play: Portrait Photography, NGV International, 2007-08; Heavenly Creatures, Heide Museum of Modern Art, 2004-05; Second Sight: Australian Photography in the NGV, NGV Australia, 2003 and Wall to Wall, National Gallery of Australia, 1998. They held over 50 solo exhibitions and numerous group during their lifetime together.

Farrell & Parkin were the recipients of numerous awards and prizes including the 2005 Josephine Ulrick & Win Schubert Photography Award, Gold Coast City Art Gallery, and in 1992 and 1994 they were the recipients of the Gold Medallion at the International Photographic Salon of Japan in Tokyo. In 2006 they participated in the Red Gate Gallery International Residency Program in Beijing. They received a number of grants including an Arts Victoria, International Program – Export & Touring Grant in 2008 and an Australia China Council Grant in 2007.

Their work is held in major public collections nationally and internationally including Belgium, Canada, Portugal, Scotland, and the United States. Australian collections include the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane; Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; and Artbank.

JANET LAURENCE

JANET LAURENCE explores The Johnston Collection alongside her own creative practice in her new installation at Fairhall Exhibition House, titled The Palm at the End of the Mind.

The Johnston Collection encompasses a superb collection of English Georgian, Regency and Louis XV fine and decorative arts, gifted by William Robert Johnston (1911-1986), which are displayed in the domestic setting of his former East Melbourne residence, the 'Fairhall' townhouse.

Janet Laurence has been invited to reconceptualise the Collection with interventions and site-specific installations of her own work within the exhibition house. The results explore the double-edged sense of 'collecting' nature, whether for preservation or extravagance.

Visitors will need to book a tour of the house here.

The exhibition continues until 17 September.

Read the review from Inside Magazine here >

Janet Laurence, The Palm at the End of the Mind, installation view courtesy of the The Johnston Collection. Photo: Luts Photography.

JULIE RRAP

Julie Rrap in her Sydney studio. Photo: Jacquie Manning.

JULIE RRAP is featured in the Collector's Dossier in the new issue of Art Collector Magazine, on sale now.

In the feature, Julie discusses her four decades of practice and her upcoming exhibition at ARC ONE, Twisted Logic. The show will feature ambiguous bronze elements, cast from her body, that could be read as either weapons or armour; exploring what Rrap describes as 'that quite slippery relationship between art, culture, and any particular political regime or system that happens to be in power.'

ARC ONE co-director, Fran Clark, who has worked with Rrap since 1999, recalls seeing her work for the first time: 'I was immediately struck by this artist's unique creativity; an artist of intelligence producing strong and iconic art with an excellent grip on that ever-elusive quality, humour.'


Twisted Logic shows at ARC ONE from 3 September - 5 October.

Read the article online here >

IMANTS TILLERS

This Sunday 21 July at 4pm, Cinema Nova is screening It All Started With A Stale Sandwich, followed by a Q&A with its director and special guests.

The film is an insightful documentary celebrating the 50-year history of Kaldor Public Art Projects, from acclaimed film-maker Samantha Lang. Imants Tillers is one of the artists featured in the film. In it he reflects on his 1984 group show at P.S.1 Gallery in New York, An Australian Accent, as well as assisting Christo & Jeanne-Claude with their mammoth project wrapping Little Bay in 1969.

More information >

HONEY LONG & PRUE STENT

Honey Long & Prue Stent, 'Dust Flood', 2018, archival pigment print, 72 x 108 cm.

Congratulations to HONEY LONG & PRUE STENT, whose work 'Dust Flood' is a finalist in the 2019 Pro Hart Outback Prize.

This Prize in an annual acquisitive competition for works in any media which reflect the spirit and diversity of the Australian outback. The winning work will be added to the nationally recognised collection of the Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery.

The finalist exhibition will be showcased at BHRAG from 19 July.

More information >

JULIE RRAP

Opening today at Blue Mountains City Art Gallery is the exhibition with every breath, featuring JULIE RRAP's work Blow Back.

with every breath presents work by 15 artists who encourage us to be still, breathe, reflect and listen. The idea of breath is beautifully captured in Julie Rrap’s suite of photographs, Blow Back, where the artist has etched the breath of 33 female artists, friends and contemporaries on the frame’s glass. Five other ARC ONE artists posed as Rrap's subjects in this work!

The exhibition continues until 25 August.

More information >

Interview with the curator >

GUAN WEI

GUAN WEI's large-scale work Revisionary is in the Art Gallery of New South Wales' new exhibition In one drop of water.

Drawing on rich and diverse works of art, primarily from the AGNSW collection, this exhibition explores the poetic, symbolic and social significance of water in Asian art. Revisionary is dominated by an aqueous bright blue plane, symbolising both the heavens and the ocean. The artist has referred to this work as representing a form of last judgement.

The exhibition continues until December 2020.

More information >

Guan Wei, Revisionary, 1998, 26 panels, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, dimensions variable.

MARIA FERNANDA CARDOSO

Maria Fernanda Cardoso, On the Origins of Art I-II [film still], single channel HD video, hyper realistic sound with tactile dimension, 6:54sec loop

MARIA FERNANDA CARDOSO's video installation On the Origins of Art I-II is now on show at the MCA in their new exhibition The lover circles his own heart. The exhibition presents artworks from the MCA collection that deal with the theme of relationships.

The subject of Cardoso's video work is the Maratus, a tiny Australian spider commonly known as the peacock spider. The artist has recorded their ostentatious mating ritual using HD macro cinematography and a laser vibrometer, capturing the male spider's colourful dance and the distinctive beat it makes with its vibrating abdomen. With this work, Cardoso argues that humans are not alone in their production and appreciation of the arts – the spider's complex system of courtship has, after all, created a discerning aesthetic sense among the females, who will either choose or reject the male based on his choreographed performance!

The exhibition continues at the MCA until 22 September.

More information >

JOHN YOUNG

The Australian Tapestry Workshop is hosting an exclusive visit to the studio of JOHN YOUNG next Tuesday 2 July at 5.30pm.

Young has collaborated with ATW on two significant tapestries, 'Open World' (2005) and 'Finding Kenneth Myer' (2011). Join the artist on a tour of his studio, and to learn more about his practice and recent projects and exhibitions.

Book now to secure your spot!

More information >

JOHN DAVIS | ROBERT OWEN

Robert Owen, Origami #8, 1992, acrylic on canvas, 122 x 122 cm

Melbourne Modern: European art and design at RMIT since 1945, curated by Jane Eckett and Harriet Edquist, is now open at RMIT Gallery, featuring the work of ROBERT OWEN and JOHN DAVIS.

In the wake of WWII, hundreds of exiled and displaced European artists, architects and designers arrived in Melbourne and sought employment with RMIT. Melbourne Modern traces a legacy of European intervention and interdisciplinarity through successive generations of RMIT teachers and students to the present day.

The exhibition continues until 17 August.

More information >

IMANTS TILLERS

Still from the film Thrown Into The World.

Thrown into the World is a feature-length documentary on the life and work of IMANTS TILLERS. The film offers a unique insight into Tillers' creative process and cross-cultural identity.

Thrown into the World will be screened at Parliament House in Canberra at 2pm today, followed by a Q&A with with Imants and Justine Van Mourik, Director of the Parliament House Art Collection.

Watch the trailer here, and read more about the Canberra premiere here.

LYDIA WEGNER

Lydia Wegner, Sliding Yellow, 2019, archival inkjet print, 100 x 67 cm.

LYDIA WEGNER is speaking at the MGA alongside fellow exhibiting artist Lauren Bamford and Senior Curator Pippa Milne to discuss the concept and process behind the commission Robin Boyd: Portrait of an Australian House.

The resulting new work is presented with a unique architectural intervention in the MGA gallery.

The artist talk will take place this Saturday 15 June between 2 - 3 pm. The exhibition continues until 12 July.

The event is free, but do register here.

JULIE RRAP

Julie Rrap, ‘Stepping Out,’ 2012, bronze and metallic paint, 16 x 25 x 28 cm

JULIE RRAP's work Stepping Out is included in Simon Denny's exhibition Mine opening at MONA tomorrow. The exhibition revolves around mining as a reflection of hope and anxiety about the environment, technology, and development.

Stepping Out recalls Rrap's iconic foot image Overstepping (2001). In both works she extends an image of her feet, transforming them into a pair of stiletto heels. Rrap's high-heeled feet represent a futuristic speculation on where genetic engineering and cosmetic surgery may lead us.

This exhibition opening is part of the Dark Mofo programme. It will continue into the evening, with live music from 4pm.

EUGENIA RASKOPOULOS

in a word untitled #1, 2004, marble, 193.5 x 71.5 x 3 cm; Un(truth), 2019, reflective vinyl, 578 x 358.5 cm. Installation view at Campbelltown Arts Centre; photo courtesy of the C-A-C.

EUGENIA RASKOPOULOS is exhibiting a newly commissioned work in OK Democracy, We Need To Talk at Campbelltown Arts Centre (C-A-C), alongside an existing work. 

OK Democracy, We Need to Talk is a conversation and a provocation that suggests an ambition for change through the exploration of how democracy is performed in its current state. Reflecting on the current state of democracy in Australia and around the world, the exhibition presents an open discussion about democracy and its future – or potentially – its demise.

Raskopoulos worked with journalist Peter Greste on her new work Un(truth), which focuses on journalists who have lost their lives in search of democracy and freedom of speech. Mirrored letters run down the gallery wall, forming the names of 54 journalists who were killed in 2018. This work is paired with an older piece, In a word, a marble slab inscribed with the word DEMOCRACY in Ancient Greek. The marble sits on the floor as if dropped from above and suggests a broken or unstable system. "I equate democracy with a sense of freedom, a sense of equality, but I feel neither of these are accurate descriptions of democracy in this day," Raskopoulos said.

The exhibition continues until 31 July.

MURRAY FREDERICKS

Murray Fredericks, Array 8, 2018, digital pigment print on cotton rag, 120 x 170 cm

MURRAY FREDERICKS has a large feature in the latest edition of Artist Profile magazine. Fredericks touches on his formal influences, his process, and his ongoing relationship with Lake Eyre. 

"The geometry goes back to the Bechers, and Donald Judd in minimalism. One of the criticisms of that minimalism is that it's detached and cold. I look at this as minimalist work but overlaying it with emotion and re-overlaying with a political message...What I am looking at is anything in the landscape that is used to quantify the viewer's experience. Out there it is about setting up where perspective and scale are denied. That is where I am trying to find abstraction," says Fredericks.

Issue 47 of Artist Profile is in stores now and the profile will be online in the weeks to come.

GUO JIAN

Guo Jian, The Square, 2014.

GUO JIAN was detained in China over his controversial model of Tiananmen Square in 2014. The Square saw a diorama mired by war, and covered in raw pork mince; a representation of the sights and smells of Tiananmen. Now in Australia, Guo is remaking the model to mark 30 years since the massacre. It will be exhibited later this year. 

Guo Jian explains that "My art is my power, I can send a message to people through it and I want people to know I will never forget what happened at Tiananmen Square." And further that "Tiananmen has become a symbol of China’s power; no-one can touch it - but I wanted to make the diorama show that it will rot."

Read more about Guo Jian's experiences as a Tiananmen Square protester and his remaking of The Square via the links below.

SBS News Article>

Crikey Article>