PAT BRASSINGTON WORK SUBJECT OF MUMA QUEER READINGS

PAT BRASSINGTON’s work has been written on as part of Queer Readings of the Monash University Collection. For this project, a group of writers and artists have been invited to contextualise a selection of works of art through the lenses of their experience and knowledge.

Commissioned writer Anne Marsh says of Pat Brassinton’s work:

‘Formally, the work critiques the modernist grid by monumentalising the everyday and punctuating it with fetishist and abject references made-up in the viewer’s mind as they contemplate the soft material abstractions made out of discarded underwear. In this way Brassington gives the work its own potential intelligence. It is as if the viewer needs to have a visual conversation with the image in order to decode it.’

Anne Marsh is a Professional Research Fellow in the Victorian College of the Arts at the University of Melbourne.

Read the full text here >

Pat Brassington, Rising Damp, 1995, gelatin silver prints, 35 parts, each 59 x 44 cm

PAT BRASSINGTON IN THE BALLARAT FOTO BIENNALE

PAT BRASSINGTON is featured in the 2021 Ballarat International Foto Biennale. The biennale’s core outdoor program invigorates the city of Ballarat by transforming busy streets, laneways, shopfronts and landmark buildings into exhibition spaces with public art.

Say it with Flowers is a site-responsive exhibition at Ballarat General Cemetery, curated by Wotjobaluk curator Kat Clarke. Responding to memory, mortality, longing and community, the exhibition is a meditation on the significance of flowers and land within the framework of nostalgia and memory.

Flowers represent a potent symbol of life and death, reminding one of both celebration and decay. While acknowledging the sensitive nature of the site, the exhibition aims to challenge the idea of the cemetery as a dormant space and demystify it as one for reflection and contemplation on the transience and impermanence of life.

BIFB continues until 24 October.

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Pat Brassington’s Blush (2014) & Quiescent (2014) on display at the Ballarat General Cemetery in the exhibition Say it with Flowers, 2021.

JOHN YOUNG IN ARTIST PROFILE MAGAZINE

JOHN YOUNG is profiled in the latest edition of Artist Profile magazine.

H.R. Hyatt-Johnston’s essay on John Young examines the international scope of the artist’s life and work, as well as attending closely to local connections and influences. Accompanied by Bri Hammond’s pensive portraits, Hyatt-Johnston traces Young’s trajectory from a childhood in Hong Kong to studies at the University of Sydney, living in London and Paris under the Power Scholarship for the Cité International des Arts, to returning to Australia, founding what is now 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art with Melissa Chiu, and finally to creating new work for Bunjil Place in 2021.

Read the essay by subscribing online, or have it delivered to your home as part of subscription packages.

John Young photographed by Bri Hammond

VIDEO TOUR OF JOHN YOUNG'S EXHIBITION 'DIASPORA,PSYCHE'

Bunjil Place Gallery may be temporarily closed, but they’ve worked hard to find ways for you to experience JOHN YOUNG’s survey exhibition 'Diaspora, Psyche', from the comfort of your own home.

Take some time to enjoy this short video with John Young as he shares some of the key ideas that have shaped his thought-provoking and timely exhibition.

You can also take a virtual tour of the exhibition here >

HONEY LONG & PRUE STENT AT FOTOGRAFISKA STOCKHOLM

HONEY LONG & PRUE STENT have work in Fotografiska Museum Stockholm’s ground-breaking new exhibition centred on the naked body in contemporary photography.

NUDE features the work of 30 female artists from 20 different countries in a collection of images that portray the body through beautiful, disruptive, and experimental lenses, seeking to subvert the historically predominant male gaze and celebrate the human form.

The exhibition continues until 28 November.

More information >

Honey Long & Prue Stent, Wind Form, 2014, archival pigment print, 106 x 159cm

JANET LAURENCE IN BIOCENOSIS21, AT THE IUCN WORLD CONSERVATION CONGRESS

JANET LAURENCE is included in the important exhibition Biocenosis21 with her film Requiem at the IUCN World Conservation Congress. The film uses original footage from areas affected by the bushfire crisis in Australia, 2020, with a music score by William Barton. Through this film, Janet brings to our attention the stark realities of Australia's threatened bushland. 

Curated by Alice Audouin, Bioceniosis21 is an exhibition of contemporary art and brings together fourteen french and international artists who are the most inspired and committed to biodiversity. Happening from 4 – 11 September, the exhibition is organised by Art of Change 21.

More information >

Janet Laurence, Requiem, film still, exhibited as part of Biocenosis21, at the IUCN World Conservation Congress

PAT BRASSINGTON & JACKY REDGATE IN BOWNESS ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITION

PAT BRASSINGTON & JACKY REDGATE are included in the MGA Bowness Photography Prize Anniversary exhibition at Wangaratta Art Gallery, from 21 August – 14 November, 2021.

Curated by MGA Director Anouska Phizacklea, the exhibition celebrates the past winning artists (2006–20) with a selection of works drawn from the MGA Collection and showcases contemporary photography in Australia.

JACKY REDGATE won the Bowness Prize in 2011 with her work Light throw (mirrors) #4, 2011; and PAT BRASSINGTON in 2013 with her work Shadow boxer, 2013.

More information >

Jacky Redgate, Light throw (mirrors) #4, 2011, from the series Light throw (mirrors), 2009–2011, chromogenic print, 126 x 158 cm

Pat Brassington, Shadow boxer, 2013, from the series Quill, pigment ink-jet print, 72 x 50 cm

CONGRATULATIONS GUAN WEI

Congratulations to GUAN WEI who has just been awarded a Doctor of Creative Arts (honoris causa) by Western Sydney University.

This Honorary Doctorate recognises GUAN WEI for his significant contribution to the visual arts at a local, state, national and international level.

Portrait of Guan Wei in his studio

HONEY LONG & PRUE STENT IN TOURING 'VIDEO NOW' EXHIBITION

HONEY LONG & PRUE STENT’s video work Drinking from the Screen is included in the NETS touring exhibition Video Now now open at Swan Hill Regional Gallery. 

Video Now presents a wide array of video-based practices, from explorations of bodily experience and reflections on the fleeting nature of time, to symbolic acts of endurance and social relations. The exhibition posits that contemporary video can be captivating, provocative and confounding. Be enthralled by an overview of video art today and its generative nature as an art form of our times.

Video Now continues at Swan Hill Art Gallery until 3 October.

More information >

Honey Long & Prue Stent, Drinking from the screen, 2020, single-channel video, stereo sound, 4 min. 0 sec.

VENICE BIENNALE BOOK FEATURES ARC ONE ARTISTS

Australia at the Venice Biennale: A Century of Contemporary Art by Kerry Gardner, hardcover 311mm x 251mm

Australia at the Venice Biennale: A Century of Contemporary Art is a new book by Kerry Gardner AM, published by MUP.

This splendidly produced book is the first comprehensive account of Australia’s history at the Venice Biennale, with an invaluable appendix that lists and illustrates many of this country's exhibits.

ARC ONE artists ROBERT OWEN & JOHN DAVIS are featured in the book, having both represented Australia at the pavilion in 1978, and CHARLES GREEN has contributed an exemplary essay among other significant Australian writers.

This richly illustrated publication illuminates the untold stories and origins of the most important event of the art world through one hundred years of Australian modern art.

Australia at the Venice Biennale is available to purchase online here >

SAM SHMITH WORK CENTREPIECE OF NEW CHAMBERS DESIGN

SAM SHMITH’s work Untitled (Plate Glass #2) forms the centrepiece of this new architecturally designed fitout of QC Chambers in Melbourne CBD.

“The Chambers pivot around an artwork, Plate Glass 2, by Melbourne artist Sam Shmith. The urban train scene expressed, reinterprets the views out to the skyline beyond. Black tones throughout the space and lighting by Christopher Boots continue the dialogue with the artwork, offering shifting perspectives of the art, the chambers, and the city itself and a space which provides ongoing contemplation and inspiration.”

– FMD Architects.

More information >

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ANNE ZAHALKA AT GEELONG GALLERY

Anne Zahalka, The Pioneer, 1992 (printed 2021), pigment ink on rag paper mounted onto gatorboard

ANNE ZAHALKA is included in Geelong Gallery’s new exhibition Exhume the grave—McCubbin and contemporary art, opening tomorrow.

Exhume the grave includes works by contemporary Australian artists in response to Frederick McCubbin’s enduringly popular paintings. The sentiments and emotive subjects of McCubbin’s works have helped develop for them a popular visual literacy: they are images that have impressed themselves powerfully on public consciousness over time. Not surprisingly, their significant public profile has also led to these paintings being the subject of re-evaluation and reinterpretation by contemporary Australian artists, through the lens of gender, cultural diversity and inclusion.

In The Pioneer, for example, Anne Zahalka reworks the central panel of McCubbin’s triptych, removing the seated bushman to emphasise the role of women in settling the land, and to rewrite the dominant narrative of the role of men in nation-building.

This exhibition continues until 28 November and coincides with the complementary exhibition Frederick McCubbin—Whisperings in wattle boughs.

More information >

Read article from The Age >

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.

More information >

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.

More information >

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.

More information >

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!

More information >