Exhibition Highlights

During 2019, the Gallery hosted five touring exhibitions and 18 self-initiated exhibitions, which included a major national art prize and two exhibitions featuring international loans.

A Shared Obsession: Margaret Olley & Fred Jessup Margaret Olley Art Centre

28 June – 17 November 2019

A Shared Obsession explored the connection in art and life between Margaret Olley and Fred Jessup, two Australian artists who enjoyed a lifelong friendship and a shared obsession for still life painting.

They each dedicated their lives to painting, in particular to exploring the artistic possibilities of everyday objects composed and rearranged within the immediate surrounds of their own extraordinary home studios.

For the first time, examples of their paintings from across their enduring careers were exhibited together and alongside photographic suites by Greg Weight, which revealed their remarkable creative living spaces — Olley’s in Sydney, Australia and Jessup’s in Espondeilhan, southern France.

Exhibition sponsor

Christopher J. B. Williams

Platinum Member of the Tweed Regional Gallery Foundation Ltd.

Publication sponsor International research funded by

National research funded by

Flower sponsor FLOWERISTA | byronflowerista@gmail.com

Margaret Olley (1923–2011) Evening still life with Turkish pot (detail) 1982 oil on board, 75 x 120 cm Collection of Max and Nola Tegel © Margaret Olley Art Trust

Use: contemporary jewellery and small objects A touring exhibition from Museums and Galleries Queensland

15 March – 19 May 2019

Use was an exhibition of high-quality contemporary Australian jewellery and small objects, curated by Lisa Bryan-Brown. The exhibition was thematically focused on ‘tools’ and processes to explore the conceptual breadth and layers of meaning that operate within this premise for jewellery practitioners and metalsmiths. While contemporary practices are highly diverse in their forms and motivations, ‘tools’ are the common denominator which define the field of creative practice that this exhibition celebrates.

Use was an initiative of the Jewellers and Metalsmiths Group of Australia, Queensland Chapter Inc. (JMGQ) and showcased the work of 17 contemporary jewellers/metalsmiths drawn from the JMGQ membership, including emerging, mid-career and established Australian jewellery artists.

Use installation image, featuring Catherine Hunter, Colour Restore series, 2016 Photo: David Toyer

Self-made: zines and artist books A State Library Victoria Exhibition

22 February – 19 May 2019

Self-made: zines and artist books delved into the do-it-yourself culture — from limited-run artist books to cut-and-paste photocopy fanzines. The exhibition explored the evolution and diversity of these radical publishing alternatives.

The exhibition celebrated the power of self-publishing to communicate directly with readers, create community and support counter-culture movements. It showed how self-publishing empowers makers of all abilities and backgrounds to become creative producers, challenge dominant models, and make work that anyone can appreciate and collect.

Self-made featured works by leading international artists including: Swiss German artist, Dieter Roth; Pop Art-influenced American artist, Ed Ruscha; pioneering conceptual artist Sol LeWitt; and renowned Australian painter, sculptor and printmaker, Robert Jacks. The exhibition also included a local content section, featuring works from artists of the region and from the Tweed Regional Gallery collection, as well as a dedicated reading lounge, which revealed the breadth and beauty of artist books and zines.

Self-made installation image. Photo: David Toyer

Oh life is mad and frenetic… but do look after yourself Maria Kontis 8 March – 14 July 2019

On a walk in the poet’s garden Dean Home 22 March – 17 August 2019

Melbourne-based artist Maria Kontis spent one month working in the Gallery’s Artist in Residence Studio undertaking research and concept development for her solo exhibition in the Friends Gallery.

“During my residency at the Nancy Fairfax Studio, I immersed myself in the history, society and culture of Murwillumbah and its surrounding communities. It was my hope to develop a material, effective and drawn response to life in the area. Initially, I focused on the photographs of the community. I spent many hours looking at thousands of photographs in the Tweed Regional Museum Collection Store. But I wanted to do more than look at photographs. I wanted to draw the ‘photo-graph’ of the community across multiple planes and from multiple viewpoints. I gathered information and ideas from local newspapers and various books and newsletters published by the Tweed Regional Museum, the Tweed Shire Council and the Historical Societies of Murwillumbah, Uki and Tweed Heads. I also attended council meetings, met with local groups, visited exhibitions, observed ongoing life in the community, talked with people and listened to their stories. These encounters are vital to the development of my project. In a sense, they are my project.” Maria Kontis With a career that spans almost 30 years, Dean Home has created a distinct style that communicates his journey as an artist. His bold and opulent still lifes are carefully constructed and artfully balanced, with an added sense of drama and theatricality. On a walk in the poet’s garden wove the still life and landscape genres together. Selected objects make an interior scene, but they can also be simultaneously read as landscapes, often literally on his featured trademark chinoiserie. Home said that one day he suddenly realised that an object could tell a story inside a story by providing a pictorial boundary. Chinese ceramics act as his vehicle for conveying these stories. He is interested in how this object tells a story and plays a role in spatial composition. Traditional Chinese vessels are poetically fused with the Western sensibilities of still life representation with a contemporary aesthetic in mind.

In this exhibition of current works, Home invited people to see “where some of these ‘genre-overlaps’, playing against my own pictorial iconography, have led me. I feel my journey to the Orient, both real and on the poet’s page, has been very rewarding and has some distance to travel yet.”

Dean Home, In the gold pavilion — contemplating the silver moon (detail) 2018 oil on board, 140 x 175 cm. Image courtesy of the artist

Art Deco from the National collection: The World Turns Modern A National Gallery of Australia Exhibition

31 May – 25 August 2019

From around the 1920s, Australian artists responded to the international movement towards Modernism and Art Deco. Shaking off the austerity of World War I, they captured the vitalism of a nation reborn by creating images of an abundant nation filled with strong, youthful figures. Technological advancements and urbanisation influenced the emergence of Art Deco — a new aesthetic in art, architecture, design and fashion.

Comprised entirely of works selected from the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) collection, this exhibition displayed superb examples of the diverse expressions of Art Deco.

With its bold, simplified shapes and emphasis on geometry and line, Art Deco was the right aesthetic for the times. Buildings lost their decorative embellishments, fashion became less structured and corseted, and women were enjoying greater freedoms, such as the right to vote and to travel unchaperoned. The image of the stylish independent woman became popular in portraiture and graphic design for posters and advertisements. The art also encapsulated the excitement for many people around the potential to travel across continents and internationally.

Art Deco from the National Collection: The World Turns Modern installation view. Photo: David Toyer

Dwell Robyn Sweaney

24 May – 21 July 2019

Olive Cotton Award 2019

12 July – 22 September 2019

Robyn Sweaney’s art practice excavates the complexities of Australian identity and place by responding to the suburban mundane of rural and urban environments. Drawn to the quirkiness of the Australian landscape, Sweaney is interested in how homes and streetscapes function as aesthetic incarnations of the belief structures influencing human behaviours on emotional, intellectual and spiritual levels. Over the years her practice has also included still life, landscape and portraiture.

Sweaney’s current work focuses on the coast and revisiting still life. In some of her most recent work she has painted still lifes using collected, unwanted ceramics and dried, coastal foliage. She is interested in creating not merely picturesque still lifes but synecdochal representations of place. These objects physicalise fragments of place by being displaced – pried from their original residence and recontextualised as revenant presences from another time and place.

Robyn Sweaney, Lie of the land (detail) 2018 70 × 100 cm, acrylic on polycotton © The artist

The Olive Cotton Award for Photographic Portraiture is generously funded by the family of Olive Cotton, one of Australia’s leading twentieth century photographers, and aims to show new portraits by professional and emerging artists. The Award is held biennially, with a major prize of $20,000. It is also acquisitive, making the Olive Cotton Award an important source for the Tweed Regional Gallery’s collection of Australian portraits.

The 2019 Award judge was Marian Drew, Adjunct Associate Professor, Queensland College of Art. In 2019, 79 finalists were selected from a total of 432 entries. Belinda Mason’s Taken was selected as the winning portrait. Marian also Highly Commended works by Brett Moffatt, Dave Carswell, Michael Corridore and Sam Scoufos. Petrina Hick’s Cleopatra was acquired for the Gallery’s collection with Director Susi Muddiman OAM awarding her the 2019 Director’s Choice.

Belinda Mason, Taken (detail) 2019 66.5 x 97 cm, lenticular Acquired as the winner of the Olive Cotton Award for Photographic Portraiture, 2019 Tweed Regional Gallery collection © The artist

Eternally Ephemeral Kate Rohde 19 July – 1 December 2019

Borrowed Landscapes Marian Drew

23 August 2019 – 26 January 2020

Melbourne-based artist Kate Rohde was the Gallery’s Artist-inResidence in September 2018.

“During my residency I was particularly interested in two aspects of the region and of the Gallery itself: the dramatic landscape of the Northern Rivers region; and the maximal re-creation of Margaret Olley’s home studio in the Gallery.

The vista from the studio looks directly to the dramatic peak of Wollumbin/Mt Warning, and imagining the dramatic geological history of the area is fascinating to me. I loved to watch the sunset over the mountain and the changing weather. As a keen stargazer it was a great pleasure to spot the visible planets and observe their nightly transit across the sky. The other fascination was looking through the re-creation of Olley’s home studio, exploring the detail of the vast accretions of ephemera built up over decades. The layering of items brought to mind some kind of archaeological site.

My exhibition seeks to capture these two elements — to reconcile the seemingly timeless story and slow evolution of the landscape with the layering of a personal history. Combining my interest in decorative arts, in particular vessels, textiles and wallpaper prints, I will create an immersive installation that distils my residency experience.” Kate Rohde With a practice that spans more than 20 years, Marian Drew is one of Australia’s most influential and significant photo-media artists. Her artistic career is characterised by innovative photomedia explorations and her distinct use of painterly light and long exposure.

This new exhibition titled Borrowed Landscapes traced Drew’s practice through a selection of artworks from 1983 to 2018, using the landscape as its central theme.

Throughout her work, Drew acknowledges the pictorial relationships of landscape and history to cultural identity. As Drew says, “‘Landscape’ is often represented as something apart from ourselves and yet it is an idea we carry with us, culturally forming our relationship to the natural world.”

Marian Drew, Devonian Seas (detail) 2018 inkjet print, edition 10, 60 × 75 cm. Image courtesy of the artist

Love

6 September – 17 November 2019

Curated by Gallery Director Susi Muddiman OAM, Love explored the concept of love in its multiple forms: romantic, true, enduring, affectionate, altruistic, selfless, platonic, erotic, obsessive and manic. There’s the agony of unrequited love and love lost, the memory of your first love, and the grief associated with those we’ve loved who are no longer with us. There’s love for the land and our sense of place in it, and there’s the special bonds of parental love.

The exhibition featured new and existing work by more than 30 contemporary Australian artists responding to the theme of love, including Ben Quilty, Danie Mellor, Euan Macleod, Fiona Lowry, Guy Maestri, Joanna Braithwaite, Joshua Yeldham, Lucas Grogan, Maria Kontis, Michael Cook, Michael Zavros, Patricia Piccinini and Victoria Reichelt.

The exhibition was complemented by a Spotify playlist compiled which Gallery visitors could download via a link or QR code in the exhibition space and listen to as they wandered around the space, or at home.

Love installation image. Photo: David Toyer

Olley Land Christine Druitt-Preston 27 September – 17 November 2019

Myself — At My Favourite Place Les Peterkin Portrait Prize for Children 27 September – 17 November 2019

The works shown in this exhibition were informed by drawings of the Margaret Olley home studio re-creation made during Christine Druitt-Preston’s self-funded residency in the Nancy Fairfax Artist in Residence Studio in March 2018.

Unlike the ordered compositions of Margaret Olley’s paintings, these artworks responded to the unedited, multi-layered, cluttered and visually fascinating rooms that were Margaret Olley’s home and studio in Duxford Street, Paddington.

The dynamic contrasts made possible in the lino block prints that formed the core of this exhibition, coupled with the ambiguity created by combining mediums to make collages, provided a new lens through which to experience the known. Vertical tulle panels were appliqued with hand-stitched lino print motifs that were found within the re-creation, and these, along with the source sketchbooks were displayed in the exhibition.

Christine Druitt-Preston, Olley Land – A lover’s tale (detail) 2019 lino block and embroidery on vintage domestic textile, 40 x 60 cm Image courtesy the artist

During 2019 local primary school students were invited to create a self-portrait featuring themselves at their favourite place. Asked to choose a setting or situation that captures their interests and conveys something about their life and personality, these young artists have used a variety of media to create imaginative and meaningful portraits.

Ranging from the delightful paintings of kindergarten students to detailed illustrations by children in upper primary classes, Myself — At My Favourite Place displayed 40 framed prize-winning works on the wall and another 200 outstanding works in display folders. This increasingly popular prize is named for artist and art teacher Mr Les Peterkin, and is a celebration of the artistic talent of local primary school students, providing a glimpse into how young people see the world around them.

Dharylle Price, The forest 2019, Condong PS, age seven, 1st Prize: 5–7 years

Fresh: Your Collection Tweed Regional Gallery collection 27 September – 21 June 2020

Fresh: your collection showcased recent additions to the Tweed Regional Gallery collection from the past four years, featuring a diverse selection of artists’ prints, photography, painting and sculpture, many of which were displayed in the Gallery for the first time.

The exhibition reflected the Gallery’s active acquisition program and paid tribute to the generosity of donors, including artists, collectors and philanthropists, the Friends of the Gallery and the Tweed Regional Gallery Foundation, whose assistance has been critical to the growth of the collection to more than 1,000 artworks. The exhibition also illustrated the Gallery’s current collecting practices and demonstrated how the Gallery breathes life into the existing collection through fostering the work of living artists.

The exhibition featured works by Australian artists including Ben Quilty, Cressida Campbell, Guy Maestri, Judy Watson, John Honeywill, Karla Dickens, Michael Cook and William Robinson.

To launch the Tweed Regional Gallery Foundation Ltd.’s acquisition appeal for 2019 the exhibition included Michael Zavros’ The new Garden Drawing Room, courtesy of Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane.

Salient: Contemporary Artists on the Western Front A New England Regional Art Museum touring exhibition

22 November 2019 – 16 February 2020

In 2017, twelve leading Australian artists visited the World War I battlefields of the Western Front a century after the conflict that claimed so many lives. They created a series of artworks in response to the history and present-day reality of these sites.

This exhibition brought together those works including paintings, drawings, photography and sculpture by Amanda Penrose Hart, Ian Marr, Harrie Fasher, Paul Ferman, Deirdre Bean, Wendy Sharpe, Steve Lopes, Ross Laurie, Michelle Hiscock, Luke Sciberras, Idris Murphy and Euan Macleod.

Euan Macleod, Heaven and hell (detail) 2017 oil on polyester, 100 × 124 cm. Image courtesy of the artist and King Street Gallery

For Country, for Nation An Australian War Memorial Touring Exhibition

29 November 2019 – 9 February 2020

Margaret Olley: Inspired Margaret Olley Art Centre

29 November 2019 – 19 July 2020

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have a longstanding tradition of fighting for Country, and continue to serve with honour amongst our military forces. They have also worked in ancillary, industry, and other home-front activities, and their communities have been thrust into the front line of theatres of war. The touring exhibition For Country, for Nation highlighted these stories and explored themes of remembrance and tradition through family histories, objects, art and photographs from across Australia, drawing inspiration from cultural traditions and symbols of warriors’ discipline, knowledge, leadership and skill.

For Country, for Nation was thematic in structure and within each theme were stories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander experience during wartime and peace.

For Country, for Nation installation view. Photo: David Toyer

Margaret Olley was inspired by her extraordinary home studio for nearly 50 years. It was an ecosystem of art and life. She painted its interiors in changing light, as well as still life subjects selected from the collections of ‘things’ that filled each and every room.

During her lifetime, Olley and her home studio also inspired other artists who painted and photographed her portrait, as well as her home studio.

This remarkable space, in the form of the re-creation at the Margaret Olley Art Centre, continues to inspire artists who undertake residencies in the Gallery’s Nancy Fairfax Artist in Residence Studio.

Drawn entirely from the Tweed Regional Gallery collection, this exhibition included interior and still life paintings by Olley, portraits of the artist and responses to her home studio by contemporary artists.

Margaret Olley (1923–2011) Wildflowers and pears (detail) c.1973 oil on board, 65 x 76 cm Purchased through the bequest of Phoebe McNamara and the Tweed Regional Gallery Donations Fund, 2019, Tweed Regional Gallery collection © Margaret Olley Art Trust

Healing Circle – Home Hiromi Tango

6 December 2019 – Sunday 15 March 2020

Community Access Exhibitions Program January – December 2019

Hiromi Tango is a Japanese-Australian artist dedicated to generating healing conversations through arts engagement. This exhibition of recent work includes Hiromi’s meditative circle drawings, neon light sculptures and photographic works that document her performative practice. The recurring motif of the circle is employed as a universal symbol of healing, representing the cycle of life, regeneration, relationships and a total state of completion.

The Gallery was thrilled to bring these works home to the Tweed community, as Hiromi Tango is one of our most successful regional artists, exhibiting nationally and internationally.

Hiromi Tango Bleached genes (Mikan) open my vulnerability 2018 pigment print on paper and mirrored Perspex, 174.5 x 124.5 cm. ed of 3 + 2 AP Image courtesy the artist and Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney

The Gallery is proud of its commitment to and support of artists from the region, who each contribute so much to the cultural vibrancy of our community. The Community Access Exhibitions Program (CAEP) caters specifically to artists from North East New South Wales and South East Queensland, offering exhibition opportunities to emerging and established artists from the region. Since the Gallery’s relocation to Mistral Road, Murwillumbah in 2004, we have hosted over 100 exhibitions under the CAEP, ranging from exhibitions by artists at the very beginning of their creative career to those by established artists.

In 2019, the Gallery presented five solo exhibitions through the CAEP, including the work of artists Digby Moran, Leora Sibony, Sienna van Rossum, Tamsin Ainslie and Vicki Stavrou.

Digby Moran (1948–2020) Richmond River mud crab (detail) 2018 acrylic on canvas © The Digby Moran Estate