HONEY LONG & PRUE STENT - TOUCHING POOL

ARC ONE Gallery is delighted to present Touching Pool, a highly anticipated solo exhibition by one of Australia’s leading artist collaborations, Honey Long & Prue Stent. The exhibition runs from 21 August - 5 December.

What if there was a force that flowed between everything and connected us? Water? Love?
In ‘Touching Pool’ we turn a loving and somewhat provocative gaze upon wet bodies and environments that stir something deep inside. These evocative moments and textures have been gathered from our ongoing practice of abstracting bodies and materials within environments. Condensed morsels, they provoke a host of feelings: affection, repulsion, lust, wonder, hunger, joy. Despite the fractures that exist, when one starts to string bodies and scenes together, these seemingly disparate things seem to sing to each other.

- Honey Long & Prue Stent, 2020

Inspired by the touching pool often found at aquariums and the sensorial connections with nature they elicit, this exhibition speaks to the conflicted and estranged relationship we have with the natural world. Using a pared down visual language of colour, texture, and form, Touching Pool captures performative encounters between bodies and the natural environment. In these works, submerged bodies writhe, dance, bend and twist into organic matter while materials adeptly used by the artists such as shimmering transparent fabrics, wax, glass and netting, blend and merge the body and landscape. Zoomed-in, tightly cropped, abstracted, and enveloped, bodies become creaturely while aquatic animals, river beds and rock formations evoke human forms, revealing sights/sites of commonality and connection that “sing to each other”.

Working across photography, performance, installation and sculpture, Honey Long and Prue Stent (both b. 1993, Sydney, Australia) have been making art together since they were teenagers. Long completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts at Sydney College of the Arts, Sydney, in 2015 and Stent completed her Bachelor of Arts (Photography) at RMIT, Melbourne, in 2014. Their work has been shown across Australia and in various countries internationally, including Switzerland, Spain,

the United Kingdom and the United States. Recent exhibitions include Bowness Photography Prize, Monash Gallery of Art, Melbourne (2020); In Her Words, Horsham Regional Art Gallery, Horsham, Victoria (2019); ‘Eyes on Main Street’ Wilson Outdoor Photo Festival, Wilson, North Carolina (2019); Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award, HOTA, Queensland (2018); Phanta Firma, ARC ONE Gallery, Melbourne (2018); Oceans From Here, Australian
Centre of Photography, Sydney (2018); Anticipation is part of the seduction, BLINDSIDE Gallery, Melbourne (2018); London Photo, The Female Lens: 9 Contemporary Female Photographers, Huxley- Parlour Gallery, London (2018); Future Feminin, Fahey/ Klein Gallery, Los Angeles (2018); Long and Stent, Nicola Von Senger Gallery, Zurich (2018); Players, curated by Cristina De Middle Puch, Photo Espanña Festival, Madrid (2017); and Sites of the Imagination, ARC ONE Gallery, Melbourne (2017). They have participated in a number of projects, including City of Sydney Site Works, Sydney (2019); The Billboard Project, Incinerator Gallery Moonee Valley City Council, Melbourne (2019); This _ _ _ _ _ _ _ may not protect you but at times it’s enough to know it’s there, collaboration with Amrita Hepi, Underbelly Arts Festival, Sydney (2017); Sound and Vision, Sydney Opera House, Sydney (2016); and Gucci #24 Hour Ace, LA. Their work is held in the collections of Horsham Regional Art Gallery, Deakin University Art Collection, Artbank, HOTA, and the City of Sydney.

> Exhibition essay by Kathleen Linn

> View exhibition

Honey Long & Prue Stent, ‘Touching Pool’ exhibition view, ARC ONE Gallery, 2020.

Honey Long & Prue Stent, ‘Touching Pool’ exhibition view, ARC ONE Gallery, 2020.

ANNE ZAHALKA IN EXHIBITION OF AUSTRALIAN PHOTOGRAPHY IN FLORIDA

ANNE ZAHALKA is a featured artist in the exhibition From All Points of the Southern Sky: Photography from Australia and Oceania, open now at the Southeast Museum of Photography in Florida.

Curator Ashley Lumb has chosen thirteen artists who incisively explore the Australian continent. The artists drag Australia’s contentious past into the light of the present, visualising the ghostly legacy of colonialism and bearing witness to the devastating impact of human-induced climate change.

Conveying a singularly Australian experience but one with innumerable global parallels, From all Points of the Southern Sky continues at SMP until 16 December.

More information >

Interview with curator Ashley Lumb >

Review in This Is Tomorrow art magazine >

IMANTS TILLERS FINALIST IN 2020 WYNNE PRIZE

Congratulations to IMANTS TILLERS who is a finalist in the Wynne Prize 2020! His work Prayer for rain will be on view at the AGNSW from 26 September. 

Read Imants’ poignant artist statement below:

“A flower meadow is an unusual subject for an Australian landscape – we are more familiar with the harsh realities of fire, drought and flood. Yet such gentle, quiet and fecund places exist on our continent – notably in the subalpine areas of NSW, Victoria and Tasmania. And indeed proximity to the summer meadows of the Kosciusko National Park was one of the reasons I moved with my family to Cooma, 25 years ago. But here the meadow of daisies is also a metaphor for the self. So we pray: ‘MINE THOU LORD OF LIFE, 
SEND MY ROOTS RAIN’.”

More information >

Imants Tilers, Prayer for rain, 2020, synthetic polymer paint, gouache on 54 canvas boards, 227 x 212 cm

Imants Tilers, Prayer for rain, 2020, synthetic polymer paint, gouache on 54 canvas boards, 227 x 212 cm

TEN CUBE RELEASES LANDMARK PUBLICATION

Ten Cubed has released a publication to celebrate their tenth anniversary and the conclusion of their project - 2010 - 2020: TEN CUBED CONCEPT, COLLECTION, GALLERY.

Ten Cubed is an art experiment begun in 2010 whereby an evolving top ten contemporary artists were collected in depth. Their collection includes ARC ONE artists PAT BRASSINGTON & CYRUS TANG. 

This beautifully designed book records various stages of their wonderful journey - from conception, building the gallery, acquiring the collection to exhibiting the works of the many artists they are proud to have supported.⁣

Purchase your copy here!

PAT BRASSINGTON IN 'LEGACY' EXHIBITION

PAT BRASSINGTON is part of the exhibition LEGACY, now open online via Wyndham Art Gallery. This exhibition opens up a dialogue between six artists to consider what we keep, what we share and what we leave behind.

Brassington’s surrealist photo-media works are eerie and inviting, like snippets of dreams hiding in the corners of memory. They act as a counterpoint to Liam Benson’s photo and video pieces that feed on the aesthetic of the Australian gothic.

“Brassington has never stopped making works that startle and astonish, that create chills and uncanny flushes, night sweats and eerie incantations of strange eroticism. In many ways she forms a bedrock to this exhibition. Brassington has never eschewed crediting other giants in her creative evolution, from the early Surrealists to the bleak majesty of literary giant Cormac McCarthy. And there can be no doubt that her legacy has helped carve new spaces for younger Australian artists (especially, but by no means exclusively, female artists) to traverse,” writes Dr Ashley Crawford in the catalogue essay. 

LEGACY is co-curated by Caroline Esbenshade & Dr Megan Evans, and continues until 11 October.

View the exhibition here

Read the catalogue essay here

MURRAY FREDERICKS AT ANU - VIRTUAL TOUR

MURRAY FREDERICKS’ striking cube in the outdoor gallery at ANU looks great from every angle! These impressive steel cubes are a new permanent fixture on University Avenue in Canberra, providing a year-round, free and public ‘walk of art’.

Four of Murray’s photos are displayed on this cube in the inaugural exhibition ‘Where I Stand’ - a stirring collection of photographs from six iconic Australian photographers. The installations can be taken singularly, or read end to end, with themes such as rejuvenation and connection to country linking the works.

Where I Stand is produced by AMBUSH Gallery and curated in partnership with Head On Photo Fest, and will be showing at Exhibition Avenue, Kambri at ANU until 31 October.

If you’re unable to get there in person, you can now enjoy the works in a 4-minute online video that guides viewers through the outdoor exhibition. Watch it here!

Images: Install photography of Where I Stand by Martin Ollman

EUGENIA RASKOPOULOS IN ARTIST PROFILE MAGAZINE

EUGENIA RASKOPOULOS is profiled in the latest edition of Artist Profile magazine!

“Throughout Raskopoulos’ forty-year career, the artist has maintained a deep interest in changing the present by challenging the ways in which we describe the past. She has woven her own image and experiences into a series of photographs, films and installations to articulate the constant negotiation that migrant bodies face in foreign cultures,” writes Michael Do.⠀

Raskopoulos is currently working towards her solo show at ARC ONE Gallery opening in March 2021. Pick up the magazine for a peek inside her studio!

DANI MARTI IN CONVERSATION

Join DANI MARTI in conversation with director & curator of UNSW Galleries José Da Silva this afternoon at 5:30pm. Dani will discuss his video and painting practice, in particular his work in the exhibition Friendship as a way of life.

This event will be live-streamed - register your attendance here!

Dani Marti, Notes for Bob, 2012-16, installation view at UNSW Galleries, 2020. Photo by Zan Wimberley

Dani Marti, Notes for Bob, 2012-16, installation view at UNSW Galleries, 2020. Photo by Zan Wimberley

JOHN DAVIS WORK ACQUIRED BY GEELONG GALLERY

JOHN DAVIS’ work Koan 64 was recently acquired by the Geelong Gallery. Beautifully pictured here in their exhibition Turmoil & Tranquility, which ran earlier this year, this piece was highlighted once again thanks to National Science Week. 

Davis’ practice incorporates a diverse use of materials and provides unique interpretations and representations of landscape and ecology. While still characterised by the use of inexpensive or found materials and low-technology processes of his earlier work, Koan 64 presents a philosophical perspective and a deeper concern for the state of the world. 

John Davis’s practice from the 80s and 90s foreshadows contemporary environmental issues. He was particularly concerned with the devastating impact non-indigenous people were having on the environment, particularly in regards to the health of the Murray River system and the quality of water due to modern human practices such as irrigation and land clearing.⁠

For any art teachers following, Geelong Gallery has prepared an excellent learning resource for Levels 5-9 Visual Arts which includes this work and ⁠highlights themes such as human impact on the environment, sustainable farming and globalisation.

More information >

John Davis, 'Kōan 64', 1994, twigs, calico, bituminous paint, cotton thread, 2378 x 150 x 7 cm. Photo by Andrew Curtis.

John Davis, 'Kōan 64', 1994, twigs, calico, bituminous paint, cotton thread, 2378 x 150 x 7 cm. Photo by Andrew Curtis.

LYDIA WEGNER FEATURED ON COVER OF ART EDIT MAGAZINE

Art Edit magazine Issue 25 with photograph by Derek Swalwell.

Art Edit magazine Issue 25 with photograph by Derek Swalwell.

LYDIA WEGNER’s work ‘Gold Angle’ is on the cover of the latest issue of Art Edit magazine.

The cover shows the Brunswick residence of an avid collector, with interior architecture and design by Lucy Bock. Loose furniture and objets d’art avoid opulence, but reference the client’s love of colour and timeless design pieces.

Contact the gallery to view a selection of Wegner’s available works!

JANET LAURENCE AWARDED ANTARCTICA FELLOWSHIP

Very exciting news for JANET LAURENCE, who has been awarded the 2020 Australian Antarctic Arts Fellowship!

Janet will spend time at Australia’s Casey research station to develop an immersive installation, tapping into both the minutiae and the expanse of the extreme environment. “I am overwhelmed with excitement to have been offered the opportunity to travel to Antarctica and make art in response to its beauty, fragility and otherworldly power,” she says. “I have expectations, and yet I know that the actual experience of Antarctica will open up unknown and far-reaching possibilities."

Due to COVID-19 impacts on the Australian Antarctic Program, Laurence will travel to the icy continent during the 2021/22 season. Congratulations Janet!

More information >

Janet Laurence in her studio, photographed by Felicity Jenkins.

Janet Laurence in her studio, photographed by Felicity Jenkins.

HONEY LONG & PRUE STENT, CYRUS TANG & ANNE ZAHALKA SHORTLISTED FOR BOWNESS PRIZE

Congratulations to ARC ONE artists HONEY LONG & PRUE STENT, CYRUS TANG and ANNE ZAHALKA who are all finalists in this year’s Bowness Photography Prize!

This year the MGA Foundation is committed to ensuring a physical as well as a virtual exhibition of the Bowness Prize finalists, and has extended the exhibition period over summer.

The shortlisted photographs will be exhibited from 31 October 2020 until 7 February 2021, with the prize announcements scheduled for January 2021!

More information >

JOHN YOUNG WORK ON AWARD WINNING WINE

2017 Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay

2017 Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay

Congratulations to Leeuwin Estate on their award for Best Chardonnay in the 2021 Halliday Wine Companion Awards. This bottle features ARC ONE artist JOHN YOUNG’s stunning work ‘Veiled Spectrum V’ on the label. Leeuwin Estate commissioned the artist to produce the original painting, which is now held in their important collection and displayed in the Leeuwin Estate Art Gallery in Margaret River.

Leeuwin Estate first developed an association with the arts fraternity when launching the famous ‘Art Series’ wine labels. The artworks that appear on the labels are acquired by the Estate, whose collection now comprises over 150 paintings and artworks from artists including John Olsen, Arthur Boyd, Sir Sidney Nolan, Lloyd Rees, Albert Tucker, Fred Williams, Robert Juniper, Clifton Pugh, ROBERT OWEN and IMANTS TILLERS.

ARC ONE Gallery is currently showcasing two works by John Young from the same series in our exhibition COLOUR SENSE. Contact the gallery for more information about these available works.

GUAN WEI’S tapestry Treasure Hunt is currently on display at the Australian Tapestry Workshop. In this tapestry, Guan Wei references navigation, exploration, migration and the influence of globalisation through the fable of admiral Zheng He.

Admiral Zheng He led a legendary fleet of “treasure ships” which sailed to foreign lands in the early 1400s, creating new nautical maps and collecting rare spices, treasures, birds and animals. The ‘Treasure Hunt’ tapestry represents the flora and fauna Zheng He might have encountered in his travels, including sea monsters drawn from Chinese and European mythology. The land shapes in the design reference 14th century Chinese maps and the Chinese symbols for East and West and the names of mountains have been painted in. Each smaller drawing within the work also has a significance within European or Asian history.

The design is inspired by a large painted mural from Guan Wei's exhibition Other Histories at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney in 2006. The tapestry was shown at ARC ONE for his 2018 solo exhibition Chivalry, and will remain on display at the ATW until 6 November 2020.

Treasure Hunt, 2017, Guan Wei, woven by Chris Cochius, Pamela Joyce, Jennifer Sharpe and Cheryl Thornton, wool and cotton, 0.864m x 3.6m. Photo by Jeremy Weihrauch.

Treasure Hunt, 2017, Guan Wei, woven by Chris Cochius, Pamela Joyce, Jennifer Sharpe and Cheryl Thornton, wool and cotton, 0.864m x 3.6m. Photo by Jeremy Weihrauch.

ROBERT OWEN DONATES WORK TO FUNDRAISER FOR BARPIRDHILA

ROBERT OWEN has donated this work to Modernisters For Barpirdhila - an online art sale commencing this evening raising money for the Barpirdhila Foundation, an Aboriginal-controlled not-for-profit organisation that develops, nurtures and supports Aboriginal Excellence within the arts and music sectors.

@modernistersfor is an instagram account created by Dean Keep and Jeromie Maver as a platform to raise awareness and funds for important issues in our community. Their latest drive is ‘ARTfair: Modernisters for Barpirdhila’, which asks a selection of contemporary artists to donate a postcard sized artwork. The postcard may be understood as an important means of bridging distance, fusing art and text to convey stories about our experience of place.

This work by Owen is from the series ‘Spent Light’ consisting of paintings and sculpture recycling all the masking tape he uses in the studio. Follow @modernistersfor to stay updated on this online art fair!

More information >

Robert Owen, ‘Binocular #3’ from the series Spent Light, 2020, acrylic paint, card, tape, 14.6 x 20.5 cm

Robert Owen, ‘Binocular #3’ from the series Spent Light, 2020, acrylic paint, card, tape, 14.6 x 20.5 cm

JULIE RRAP INTERVIEWED ON 'THE ART SHOW'

For those that missed the insightful interview with Julie Rrap on Wednesday, this week’s ‘The Art Show’ is now available to stream via the ABC Listen App and on the web HERE >⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Julie reflects on her formative years as a young artist living in Sydney and Europe, and using her own body in her art practice. “It’s not an identity thing - I’m not an artist who’s trying to reveal something about myself. I’ve often spoken about what I do as more of a trickster, I act as a kind of vehicle,” she says. “When I see myself in an image, it’s almost like the third person - it goes through this transformative process in the making of art. It’s a representation, it’s not me.”

Listen back to hear about Julie’s time working for photographer John Delacour, the evolution of her ‘Overstepping’ concept, her interest in Cindy Sherman’s use of masquerade, and the importance of female role models in the art world.

Swipe through for images of the works Julie refers to in the conversation!

CYRUS TANG WINS INCINERATOR ART AWARD

CYRUS TANG is one of the winners of The Incinerator Art Award 2020 with her video work I wish…

The Incinerator Art Award (IAA) is Incinerator Gallery’s annual art award and exhibition celebrating contemporary arts practices that are socially engaged, environmentally aware, and seek to enrich community through dynamic, creative practice.

Cyrus Tang, I wish…[still], 2019, 2 channel video projection.

Cyrus Tang, I wish…[still], 2019, 2 channel video projection.

Speaking of her selected work, Tang says, “In Chinese culture, the wishing tree is identified as possessing a special religious or spiritual value. The worshippers write their wishes on paper and throw it to the wishing tree. Since March 2019, there have been a series of protests in Hong Kong over the extradition bill which relates to human rights and rule of law protections. For the first time in Hong Kong history, riot police used tear gas and smoke bombs to beat back protesters. The fog that drifts through this scenery is not a romantic mist but a toxic cloud of tear gas, drifting in from recent scenes of demonstration against the extradition bill in Hong Kong. Will the “god” take notice of these wishes of the Hong Kong citizens and the hope behind them?”

Visit the finalist exhibition online HERE >

Cyrus’ prize includes a solo exhibition at Incinerator Gallery in 2021 - stay tuned for these details!

CYRUS TANG WINS MCCLELLAND SMALL SCULPTURE AWARD

A huge congratulations to CYRUS TANG who has won the inaugural McClelland National Small Sculpture Award!

Tang is one of four winners chosen by the judges from 320 submissions. Her work The Modern World Encyclopaedia Vol 2 (2017) presents the partially cremated pages of a 1936 encyclopaedia alongside its hardbound cover. The sculpture refers to collective cultural knowledge and its fragility.

McClelland Gallery established this new award as a way of supporting artists in the current moment. Its prescriptions encourage sculptural concepts suitable for a domestic scale, no more than 50cm at the largest dimension. “We believe collectors are increasingly interested in including three-dimensional artwork in their collections, and we are pleased to offer the works of all 44 finalists for sale via a digital catalogue,” said McClelland Sculpture Park+Gallery Director, Lisa Byrne.

Be sure to check out the digital catalogue HERE.

Contact ARC ONE Gallery for more information about acquiring this work!

Cyrus Tang, The Modern World Encyclopaedia Vol 2, 2017, cremated book ashes, book cover and acrylic case, 40 x 40 x 45cm

Cyrus Tang, The Modern World Encyclopaedia Vol 2, 2017, cremated book ashes, book cover and acrylic case, 40 x 40 x 45cm

MURRAY FREDERICKS IN OUTDOOR EXHIBITION AT ANU

MURRAY FREDERICKS is featured in a new photographic exhibition, situated outdoors on Exhibition Avenue - the new year-round, free and public exhibition space along the length of University Avenue in the new Kambri precinct at ANU in Canberra.

Where I Stand is a stirring exhibition of 24 photographs from six iconic Australian artists, curated in partnership with Ambush Gallery and Head On Photo Fest. The installation has been curated to create a narrative about rebirth and rejuvenation that can be read end to end, or taken singularly. Identity, connection to country and nature weave the images together.

Exhibition Avenue is a series of substantial cubes, each buttressed internally with water tanks and constructed from steel. These serve as a canvas for the photographs, which are lit by solar energy for 24-hour viewing.

The exhibition runs until October 31.

More information >

Install shot by Martin Ollman.

Install shot by Martin Ollman.

Murray Fredericks, Muybridge, 2015, digital pigments print, 140 x 187 cm

Murray Fredericks, Muybridge, 2015, digital pigments print, 140 x 187 cm

CYRUS TANG INTERVIEWED FOR ART GUIDE PODCAST

CYRUS TANG is interviewed on the latest episode of Faraway, so close, a podcast hosted by Tiarney Miekus of Art Guide dedicated to considering the anxieties and opportunities emerging in the arts in our new COVID-19 world.

In this third edition of the podcast, Tiarney asks: how do you think about the future at a time when the future feels so uncertain? Artists Cyrus Tang & Lucy McRae give their thoughts and feelings on where we are now, and where we’re headed next.

“In Eastern philosophy, loss is not really like a loss, it’s like a transformation from one state to another state. This is how I see it. Even though I deal with a lot of history and loss [in my work], I keep on thinking that it’s because of history that we can perceive the future,” says Cyrus. The artist moved to Australia in 2003, 2 months after the SARS outbreak devastated her family and friends in Hong Kong. She asks herself how the memory of that crisis and loss affects the present.

Cyrus’ new body of work seeks to capture & archive this present moment in Australia. ARC ONE will be launching an online exhibition of these works soon!

Listen to the podcast here >

Left: Cyrus Tang. Right: Lucy McRae, photograph by Ira Chernova.

Left: Cyrus Tang. Right: Lucy McRae, photograph by Ira Chernova.