PAT BRASSINGTON IN NEW BUXTON CONTEMPORARY EXHIBITION

PAT BRASSINGTON is featured in Buxton Contemporary’s new exhibition This is a poem, curated by Melissa Keys.

Bringing contemporary art and poetry into dialogue, This is a poem is a multi-disciplinary project encompassing new commissions in a diverse mix of media and forms, live performances, a publication and an exhibition.
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The project draws notable artists and poets into creative discourse. Each participant has been invited to write, perform, read or present in visual form an original work of poetry in response to an artwork held in the University’s Buxton Contemporary collection. In this case, choreographer/interdisciplinary artist Sandra Parker responds to Pat Brassington’s 1998 work, Neck.⁣
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Conceived to creatively animate the collection, This is a poem brings art, artists, and poetry into orbit with audiences through an experimental and experiential exhibition that explored the longstanding tradition of ekphrastic poetry.⁣
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Capacity limits are in place, so pre-book your visit to ensure there's room for you. The exhibition continues until 14 November.
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More information >

Image 1: Pat Brassington, Neck, 1998, pigment print, 72 x 54cm; Image 2: Installation views of Sanda Parker's work alongside Pat Brassington's work, photos by Christian Capurro.

ANNE ZAHALKA FINALIST IN OLIVE COTTON AWARD

Congratulations to ANNE ZAHALKA, whose recent self portrait is a finalist in the Olive Cotton Award for Photographic Portraiture.

Anne says of this work:
“Venturing into the reimagined landscape of Macquarie Island carrying a trusty pair of binoculars, I found myself amongst an astonishing array of wildlife and mega herbs. Scientists, adventurers, and volunteers navigate carefully through the fauna and flora of this fragile ecosystem doing important field work.

While biological sciences play a vital part of the research program on Macquarie Island, there is the greater uncontrollable environmental issue of marine plastics. As I scoured this habitat of courtly creatures, I was disturbed to see small colourful pieces of plastic populating the ground washed in with tidal flows.”

The Olive Cotton Award exhibition will be on display at Tweed Regional Gallery until Sunday 19 September.

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Anne Zahalka, Anne Zahalka with a Colony of Boffins, 2021, pigment ink on rag paper with plastic, 54cm x 70.6cm

LONG & STENT FINALISTS IN NAKED & NUDE ART PRIZE

Honey Long & Prue Stent, Hydro, 2020, archival pigment print, 108 x 72 cm

Congratulations to HONEY LONG & PRUE STENT, whose work Hyrdo is a finalist in the Naked & Nude Art Prize 2021 at Manning Regional Art Gallery.

This biennial Art Prize commenced in 1990 with entries open to Australian artists. The winning entry receives a generous cash prize and is acquired by the Friends of the Manning Regional Art Gallery and donated to the Manning Regional Art Gallery’s permanent collection.

The selected finalists include sculpture, painting, ceramics, drawing, photography, installation and video – highlighting the diversity of approaches to representation of the human form by contemporary artists in Australia.

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JANET LAURENCE'S 'REQUIEM' ACQUIRED BY THE NGA

ARC ONE Gallery is thrilled to announce that JANET LAURENCE’S Requiem has been acquired by the National Gallery of Australia.

This remarkable work was recently featured in Know My Name: Part One at the NGA.

Requiem is a work of great complexity and scale. It is underpinned by a deep love by this artist who has devoted her artistic practice to the overwhelming importance of the natural world. Made in the wake of the 2019-20 bushfires, a hailstorm that shattered the glasshouses of the CSIRO and a global pandemic, this work draws together elements and specimens from nature as a lament for a world in danger and a call for greater awareness of environmental issues.

ARC ONE is delighted to have been the principle facilitator of this major acquisition.

“The work is like a Memento Mori. It is about what we’ve lost and are continuing to lose. It is also a piece about memory and how it distils and alters reality. This parallels nature’s ability for transformation.”
– Janet Laurence

“'Requiem' has an angelic weight that calls attention to the fragility of the natural world. This is a significant work that will resonate throughout history for many people greatly connected to ideas of time and the gravitas of nature.”
– Fran Clark, Director, ARC ONE Gallery

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Images: Janet Laurence, Requiem, 2020, perspex, found materials, Know My Name: Part One installation view, National Gallery of Australia, 2020.

EUGENIA RASKOPOULOS & JACKY REDGATE IN 'KNOW MY NAME: PART TWO' AT NGA

Jacky Redgate, Light Throw (Mirrors) #3, 2010-11, C-Type photograph face mounted on acrylic, 126 x 158cm

JACKY REDGATE & EUGENIA RASKOPOULOS are included in Part Two of Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now at the National Gallery of Australia.

Following a gradual transformation from Part One, Part Two is now open in its entirety. Know My Name tells a new story of Australian art. Looking at moments in which women created new forms of art and cultural commentary such as feminism, the exhibition highlights creative and intellectual relationships between artists across time.

Part Two continues until 26 January 2022.

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JULIE RRAP AWARDED FELLOWSHIP IN NSW GOVERNMENT

Congratulations to Julie Rrap, who is one of five successful fellows in the NSW Government's Fellowship program!
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The New Dimensions: NSW Visual Arts (Established) Fellowship will support Julie Rrap with funding to allow her to focus on a self-directed professional development program, and also to undertake an additional project or acquisition commission from the MCA. This marks the third year of a partnership between Create NSW and MCA for the New Dimensions: NSW Visual Arts (Established) Fellowship.

The opportunity for Julie Rrap to develop a new body of work and program of research with the Fellowship is significant. This research and artwork will question how we “look” or “look away” when confronted by certain bodies. This is a very timely project for Rrap and an extension of a meaningful practice centred around challenging and questioning traditional expressions of the female body.

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Portrait of Julie Rrap in her studio by Jacquie Manning⁠

PAT BRASSINGTON LIMITED EDITION OF 'FRED'

PAT BRASSINGTON has generously donated her work Fred to support the Ballarat International Foto Biennale. You now have the unique opportunity to purchase a limited edition work by the legendary Brassington, at a smaller size than her gallery works.

Fred is a wonderful expression of Brassington’s signature photo-media work. You can purchase this work via the BIFB website, with proceeds contributing to Ballartat Foto’s future and helping to support artists and champion photography as an art form in Australia.

Artwork details: 

Pat Brassington,
Fred, 2014
Hahnemühle Photo Rag, 308gsm, 100% archival cotton rag
15.8cm x 18.3cm
Limited edition of 30

CURATOR TALK AT JOHN YOUNG'S 'DIASPORA, PSYCHE'

On Thursday 1 July, join curator Penny Teale at Bunjil Place Gallery as she discusses JOHN YOUNG’s latest survey exhibition Diaspora, Psyche.

This exhibition brings together John’s History Projects and Double Ground Paintings to contextualise his recent focus on the history of the Chinese in Australia since 1840, examining how meaning is created through historic expressions of cross-cultural ethics, material and cultural exchange, and the effects of diasporic experience on the psyche.

The talk will be held at 12 noon on Thursday 1 July. Admission is free. Stay tuned for more talks, film screenings, a catalogue in various languages and AR guided tours related to this exhibition!

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MORNING TEA WITH ROBERT OWEN AT HEIDE

Join ROBERT OWEN for an intimate tour of his exhibition Blue Over Time at Heide tomorrow, followed by a delicious morning tea at Heide Café with the artist and his studio manager, Angela Connor.

Robert will share stories and insights into his journey as an artist. Museum admission, tour, and morning tea included!

Book tickets here >

JOHN YOUNG SURVEY AT BUNJIL PLACE

JOHN YOUNG’s new solo show Diaspora, Psyche opens at Bunjil Place Gallery today! This is a major survey of works spanning 17 years, from 2003 to 2019.

John Young, Three Worlds, 2004, (from the Double Ground Paintings: The Persian Paintings), digital print and oil on linen, 189.5 x 231.5 cm, Private collection

In the most comprehensive presentation of his practice since 2005, Diaspora, Psyche brings into dialogue two of Young’s most significant bodies of work: the History Projects (2008-2019) and the celebrated Double Ground Paintings (1995-2005). This pairing will contextualise Young’s recent focus on the history of the Chinese in Australia since 1840 within his four-decades long investigation into the condition of diaspora and the negotiation of bicultural ethics and perspectives.

This exhibition brings together, for the first-time, key paintings and installations to present an exploration of transcultural perspectives, examining how meaning is created through historic expressions of cross-cultural ethics, material and cultural exchange, and the effects of diasporic experience on the psyche.

Diaspora, Psyche will be supported by a selection of research and archival material that has informed these works to provide visitors with greater insight into the complexities of the artist's working practices.

More information>

Read review in The Saturday Paper >

CYRUS TANG SOLO SHOW AT INCINERATOR GALLERY

CYRUS TANG’s new solo show Sky Orchestra is now open at Incinerator Gallery.

Sky Orchestra is a project exploring Confucian values of filial piety through the lens of Chinese history and pop culture, and how it relates to the artist’s experience within a Western context. Through Sky Orchestra, Tang delves into the history and legacy of a poem by a well-known Chinese poet Su Shi of the Song Dynasty, whose words evoke the joys and sorrows of human existence from a Buddhist worldview.

Additionally, this project explores the power of music, which was believed to have great moral powers in ancient China. For Sky Orchestra, Tang revisits childhood memories and Confucian thought, with the resultant exhibition conveying themes of loss and renewal.

The exhibition will continue until 1 August.

 More information >

DANI MARTI'S WORK SUBJECT OF ESSAY FOR QUEER READINGS OF MUMA COLLECTION

DANI MARTI’s video work Time Is the Fire in Which We Burn and sculpture Time is the Fire (2010) are the subjects of an essay by Daniel Mudie Cunningham, published as part of MUMA’s new writing project: ‘Queer Readings of the Monash University Collection’.

‘Queer Readings of the Monash University Collection’ invites 20 LGBTIQ+ writers to make queer readings of artworks from the MUMA Collection, forming part of MUMA’s ongoing efforts to diversify writing on the Collection and launching alongside their 60th anniversary program in 2021.

Daniel Mudie Cunningham, curator, writer and Director of Programs at Carriageworks, Sydney, writes:

"Marti’s video practice borrows from the codes and questionable ethics of observational documentary. Naming the exchange established between artist and subject as Intimacy Porn foregrounds the arousal of sexual desire for a spectator of images trading in so-called reality. Watching Marti with John is like being at the end of their bed, positioned polyamorously as a viewer hanging on their every word like foreplay for an excised sex act.”

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Image 1: Dani Marti, 'Time Is the Fire in Which We Burn’ [still], 2009, video, colour, sound; 1 hour 8 minutes 4 seconds; Image 2: Dani Marti, 'Time Is the Fire’, 2010, stainless steel, galvanised iron and copper scourers and galvanised fencing, 220 x 200 cm

EUGENIA RASKOPLOULOS FINALIST IN PORTRAITURE PRIZE

Congratulations to EUGENIA RASKOPOULOS, finalist in the Martin Kantor Portrait Prize with her work Astro!

Named in honour of the late portrait photographer Martin Kantor, this prize is awarded for an exceptional photographic artwork of a significant, living Australian in the fields of art, letters, science, sport or politics. Finalists were carefully selected by judges Naomi Cass, Max Delany, Bill Henson and Fiona Sweet.

See all of the finalists in the one room at the 2021 Biennale this August.

More information >

Eugenia Raskopoulos, Astro, 2013, digital print on archival paper, 100cm x100cm

JANET LAURENCE SHOWING IN GERMANY

JANET LAURENCE’s video work Vanishing is on display at KulturForum Ansbach in Art from Elsewhere, an exhibition in real space of digital and video works from the Momentum Berlin Collection.

Art from Elsewhere focuses on global issues through video work and installation, reflecting on the environmental traumas we inflict on our planet and its creatures and exploring the (un)quiet poetry of the day-to-day.

Vanishing is Janet Lauence’s first video work, made during a residency at @tarongazoo. It shows close-up footage of threatened mammal species, and the rise and fall of their breathing flanks. Originally shown as a two-screen installation, this single channel version was specially released for the Momentum Collection.

Art from Elsewhere continues until 25 July.

More information >

Janet Laurence, Vanishing, 2009. Installation view, Janet Laurence: After Nature, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, 2019.  Single-channel video, sound, 9 minutes (looped). Collection of the artist. Image courtesy the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia © the artist. Photograph: Zan Wimberley

JANET LAURENCE SPEAKS ON JOHN OLSEN

Tomorrow Saturday 19 June at 2pm, JANET LAURENCE will speak at the National Art School exhibition John Olsen: Goya’s Dog.

Drawing on the central importance of critical dialogue, friendship and inspiration shared between fellow artists, the 'Artists x Artists’ talk series brings leading Australian artists into the NAS Gallery to talk about their interpretations, experiences and interactions with the work of Dr John Olsen AO OBE. 

John Olsen: Goya’s Dog is a powerful exploration of an extraordinary Australian artist – from his creative awakening in Spain, through the darkness that threatened to overwhelm him at times, and his ability to reach for the light, pursuing a long and acclaimed career.

Book a ticket >

Image 1: Janet Laurence photographed by Christopher Pearce; Image 2: John Olsen, Reflections on Goya’s dog III (detail), 2021, acrylic on Belgian linen

JULIE RRAP CURATES 'THE OTHER PORTRAIT' AT UTS

Julie Rrap & Cherine Fahd, Give and Take [video stills], 2021, 4 channel video work;

Curated by Julie Rrap and Cherine Fahd, The Other Portrait has just opened across UTS Gallery and SCA Gallery.

Featuring new work by Julie Rrap, this exhibition brings together work by artists who have an established relationship to the concept and traditions of portraiture. Through existing and newly commissioned works, the exhibition provokes a new analysis of the self and the other and examines the ways artists draw on their bodies, families, communities, cultures and experiences to underscore the paradoxes of subjectivity. Located across two spaces – UTS Gallery and SCA Gallery – The Other Portrait proposes the self and the institution as sites in conversation.

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PANEL DISCUSSION
Join Julie Rrap, Cherine Fahd, Rachel Kent, Lee Wallace and Patrick Pound for an afternoon exhibition viewing and discussion moderated by Stella Rosa McDonald. 

Tickets to panel discussion >

READ Art Guide REVIEW >

JULIE RRAP'S 'DOUBLE ECLIPSE' AT DARK MOFO

JULIE RRAP’s Double Eclipse (2015) is programmed at Dark Mofo, happening this week 16-20 June.

A great pair of eyes will begin to go blind, as if by solar eclipse – a metaphor for the power of the gaze, the blindness of desire, and a window to the mind of artist Julie Rrap.

The eyes are projected at 129b Bathurst St, in Dark Downtown.

Image courtesy of Darklab Media

LYDIA WEGNER AT GIPPSLAND ART GALLERY

Opening today at @gippslandgallery is Middle Ground, an exhibition celebrating the contribution of female photographers to the Gippsland Art Gallery Collection, featuring LYDIA WEGNER.

Focusing on a snapshot of seven significant artists, this exhibition showcases the diversity of the works in the Collection and highlights the way these women have impacted the creative industry.

Middle Ground will continue until 1 August.

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PETER WEGNER WINS ARCHIBALD PRIZE

Wonderful news for the Wegner family, and ARC ONE Gallery's LYDIA WEGNER. Congratulations to Peter Wegner, winner of the 100th Archibald Prize with his portrait of 100-year-old artist Guy Warren.

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Left: Peter is pictured here with his daughter and fellow artist Lydia Wegner.

Right: Peter Wegner, Portrait of Guy Warren at 100, oil on canvas, 120.5 x 151.5 cm

CYRUS TANG'S WORK SUBJECT OF ARTICLE ON COBO SOCIAL

Diego Ramirez has penned an insightful reflection on CYRUS TANG’s artwork ‘Power Cables’, a finalist exhibition of the @sovereignasianartprize. Published on @cobosocial, Ramirez writes:

“[Cyrus Tang’s] migratory experience inspires much of her practice, where memory is a ruin that she reconstructs in labour intensive processes. Her body of work ‘Remember me when the sun goes down’ (2020) looks at the empty streets of Vermont and the city of Melbourne area during lockdown as an elegy for the future, documenting the social wreckage of COVID-19.
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Cyrus Tang, Remember me when the sun goes down: Power Cables [detail], 2020, archival pigment print, 90 x 90 cm.

These are the optical traces that collectively form the impression of a blurry memory, a strategy that characterises Tang’ oeuvre, where mental images seem to find form on paper.
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By photographing locations for extended periods of time, then compositing all images into a single frame…the mundane becomes fantastical.”

Read the full article here >