NRCG Annual Program 2024 by Ballina Shire Council

annual program 2024

CONTENTS Acknowledgement & About Us

Mayoral Message

Welcome - Gallery Coordinator

Strategic Direction & Snapshot

Exhibition Program

Ignite Studios

Gallery Shop

Getting Involved

Images: (cover) Billie Baker, Mutual (detail), 2023; (opposite) Carolyn Delzoppo, Existent, 2022; pg 3 NRCG Gallery, Image: Miles Away Media, 2023.

The Northern Rivers Community Gallery & Ignite Studios respectfully acknowledges the Nyangbal people of the Bundjalung Nation as the traditional owners of the land upon which the Gallery and Ignite Studios stands. We pay respects to elders past, present and emerging and acknowledge their living culture and unique role in the creative life of this region.

ABOUT US

The Northern Rivers Community Gallery (NRCG) & Ignite Studios has established itself as a leading arts and cultural institution of the Northern Rivers, fostering creative exhibitions and programs, building community capacity, and supporting opportunities where arts and culture can thrive. Housed in the heritage listed former Ballina Municipal Chambers and Ballina Fire Station, NRCG & Ignite Studios is a cultural precinct, equipped with professional gallery spaces, a retail outlet, artist studios, workshop/project spaces, artist-in residency, ceramics studio and kiln services. Our facilities support a range of economic and creative development opportunities across the creative industries.

MAYORAL MESSAGE The 2024 annual Northern Rivers Community Gallery program promises to deliver an exciting year ahead of thought-provoking exhibitions encompassing a range of themes and mediums from local, regional, and national artists. Our Gallery Coordinator, Imbi Davidson, leads a team of dedicated staff and amazing volunteers. Together they are set to make 2024 bigger and better than ever. In 2024 the Gallery will host the Byron School of Art Graduate Award, Southern Cross University Graduate Award exhibitions, and deliver a firstclass exhibition program with leading Australian artists and emerging talent. Ignite Studios will host a range of public programs including creative workshops with professional artists, in-conversation series in the Gallery, engaging community projects, and launch a new ceramics studio and kiln firing service. I can’t wait to see this exciting program unfold. The Gallery is sure to go from strength-to-strength and attract visitors from far and wide with the exhibitions and events planned.

Sharon Cadwallader | Mayor Ballina Shire Council

WELCOME In the past year the Northern Rivers Community Gallery and Ignite Studios has delivered the hugely successful Ballina Contemporary Art Market, Commemorative Flood Recovery Project, supported the activation of public art in the Ballina CBD and Ballina Byron Gateway Airport, and presented a quality annual program of exhibitions, workshops and events. We look forward to building on these great achievements, and 2024 promises to be an exciting and creatively inspiring year ahead. On behalf of the NRCG team and volunteers, I’d like to invite you to get involved and support the Gallery in 2024. There are many ways to join our creative community from volunteering or becoming an NRCG Member, to signing up to our monthly newsletter, following us on social media or visiting our website to stay up to date with exhibitions and public programs. We look forward to welcoming you to the Gallery & Ignite Studios in 2024.

Imbi Davidson | Coordinator Gallery & Ignite Studios

NRCG 2023 IN-REVIEW Throughout 2023 NRCG & Ignite Studios has maintained its commitment to the creative industries, fostering renewed growth, opportunities and support for artists and community participation. Our statistics show increases in all areas of activity and our aim is to continue to build upon these positive trends into 2024 and beyond. Visitation 15,394 Total Visitors & Attendees

Activity 25 Exhibitions 35 Public Programs

Participation 654 Program Participants 35 Public Programs 14 Pop-Up Exhibitions or Hires

Artists Supported 89 Artists Exhibited 54 Artist Shop Suppliers 81 Artists Employed

Images: (opposite) Sascha Bravery, Covering Encompassing Exhibtion, Image: Miles Away Media, 2023; (pgs 6-7) Mark Kleine, Once Upon a time - Anne Boleyn, 2017.

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exhibition program 2024

exhibition program

She’s a Hardcore Rainbow Claudie Frock & Leona DeBolt

Flora Insularis David Fell & Kay Lee Williams

this place... this time... Carolyn Delzoppo

First Aid Jenny Gill Schirmer

JANUARY EXHIBITIONS 10 January - 3 March 2024

She’s a Hardcore Rainbow explores the artists’ determination and dedication to their art practices after the 2022 Lismore flood destroyed or damaged works from their last exhibition together. She’s a Hardcore Rainbow is an investigation into the role that colour, and art has played in both these artists’ recovery and their coming to terms with loss. Image: Claudie Frock, Mountain Heart, 2023

Through the lens of an indigenous artist (Williams) and a field ecologist (Fell), this work offers a window into material plant use, plant identification, and the burgeoning impact of the anthropocene on our fragile and sensitive ecosystems. Each artist utilises and interprets plant materials by drawing on their own experiences that traverse art and science, culture and ecology. Image: Kay Lee Williams, Cloth in Situ, 2018

This exhibition explores drawing as a means to observe, explore and understand the world around, and the artist strives to convey a sense of wonder at the complexity and mystery of the relationships between everything out there - the unceasing cycles of promise, decay, and regeneration. Image: Carolyn Delzoppo, this place... this time (detail), 2023

First Aid is a reflection on Jenny’s work as a frontline emergency nurse in Northern NSW where the challenges of caring for the vulnerable during pandemic and floods fell to the community as the structures that usually protect us, failed.

Image: Jenny Gill Schirmer, First Aid, 2023

exhibition program

Portrait of a Landscape Jenevieve Beves

The Boy From Ramingining Cassandra Scott-Finn

Mestiza/Mestizo Mark Kleine

Exhale, in forward motion Curated by Fabian Pertzel

MARCH EXHIBITIONS 6 March - 28 April 2024

Drawing inspiration from her surroundings, Jenevieve’s work is rooted in an ongoing exploration of mark making, landscape, memory and nostalgia. Through the fusion of abstraction and representation, Jenevieve’s expressive and emotive paintings capture the essence of place, depicting an atmosphere reminiscent of past memories.

Image: Jenevieve Beves, Lake Ainsworth 1(detail), 2023

In The Boy From Ramingining each photograph is a narrative, offering a glimpse into the daily rhythms, spirit, and untold stories woven into the landscapes of Arnhem Land. Scott-Finn’s lens transforms into a storyteller, seamlessly bridging the realms of art and life. The exhibition extends an invitation to witness the authenticity and cultural vibrancy of Ramingining and pays homage to Scott-Finn’s journey in Arnhem Land alongside her 8-year-old son. Image: Cassandra Scott-Finn, Boyca After Hunting, 2022

Mestiza/Mestizo is an exhibition that celebrates the multifaceted nature of identity. Drawing from key components of Kleine’s practice, the exhibition speaks to their lived experience as a ‘mestizo’ - a person of ‘mixed’ Filipino descent. This is expressed through photographic narratives that depict Kleine in a variety of guises. Image: Mark Kleine, Rouge (detail), 2013

‘Exhale, in forward motion, but remember, where you have been.’ This exhibition, curated by Fabian Pertzel, explores artwork as narrative, inviting an audience into the worlds of Queer regionality. It is a collection of visual short stories and compendiums of identity in motion.

Image: Fabian Pertzel, Sexuality and Homosexuality: A New View, 2018

exhibition program

Coastal biome LeAnne Vincent

The Importance of Unassuming Things Susan Gourley

Mutual Billie Baker

Re-present Lyndall Phelps

MAY EXHIBITIONS 1 May - 23 June 2024

This new work functions to form visual representations characteristic of Anthromes on the east coast of Australia. These natural ecosystems accommodate significant flora and fauna that can go unseen unless viewed closely. Coastal biome aims to celebrate natural environments in urban areas, while reminding us of our impact on often unseen ecosystems existing around us. Image: LeAnne Vincent, Storylines, 2022

Drawing upon the still life genre, The Importance of Unassuming Things utilises the humble, versatile, and mimetic qualities of discarded materials to replicate new, used, and disused, small life-size objects found in everyday life. This visual response reflects Susan’s expanding practice into the material, symbolic and metaphoric capacities of rubbish to explore ideas and impacts of consumption and waste. Image: Susan Gourley, Mushroom and Sponge Stack, 2021

Mutual reflects upon the interconnection of human mysticism to land based grounding practices. The work involves varying methods of weaving, painting, sewing and photographic processes in a textile based format, that explore the material process of making as well as the beauty of partnership. A web of reciprocity in the finding of nature. Image: Billie Baker, Mutual (detail), 2023

Since 2020 Lyndall Phelps has been investigating 19thcentury Australian botany and ornithology, particularly the role played by women. Re-present focuses on two women who played an active role in producing the rich illustrations in early ornithological publications. Phelps’ installation includes textiles, sculpture and works on paper, and highlights local bird species that are classified as vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered. Image: Lyndall Phelps, Re-present: Lathamus discolor (Swift Parrot), 2020-23

exhibition program

Scribbly Gums and Landforms Dianne Ingram

2023 SCU Graduate Award Thomas Hannah

Fallen Jenny Kitchener

The 13th Annual Grace Cruice Memorial Exhibition BACCI

JULY EXHIBITIONS 26 June - 18 August 2024

Artist Dianne Ingram uses mixed-media to describe her expressions and interpretations of Australian scribbly gums and the surrounding bushland which is very dear to her heart. This exhibition Scribbly Gums and Landforms is a collection of mixed-media paintings which respond to this theme.

Image: Dianne Ingram, Scibbly Gum No.1 (detail), 2023

Presented in partnership with Southern Cross University (SCU), this exhibition showcases the work of a recent graduate from the Bachelor of Art and Design (BAD) Undergraduate program. The award supports the promotion and development of outstanding emerging graduates from the BAD undergraduate program and presents exciting emerging art practices to local audiences. Image: Thomas Hannah, Some and Not Others (detail) 2023

In the exhibition Fallen, Jenny Kitchener presents a glimpse into what the future may hold for five Northern Rivers endangered or vulnerable animals. Using collage and print media, the imagery seeks to highlight one undesirable outcome: extinction. Image: Jenny Kitchener, In loving memory of... the green and golden bell frog, 2023

Presented by the members of the Ballina Arts & Crafts Centre Incorporated (BACCI), the 13th Annual Grace Cruice Exhibition is a tribute to Grace Cruice and her vision showcasing the best works created by BACCI members.

Image: 12th Annual Grace Cruice Exhibition installation, 2023

exhibition program

Shaman Cola Nick Pike

I saw it differently Sam Holt

Birds of a Feather Jenn Rowe & Laeten Taylor

Time & Tide Group Exhibition

SEPTEMBER EXHIBITIONS 21 August - 13 October 2024

Shaman Cola is a mixed media exhibition exploring inner worlds within the greater context of a shared space and intelligence. The works are a celebration of self-searching and spiritual discovery; they are tasteful and appropriate.

Image: Nick Pike, Enjoy A Savage Freedom (detail), 2023

I saw it differently looks to mine a single photo / moment as the genesis for every work of the exhibition spanning both paintings and sculptures. In this sense the exhibition explores the endless myriad of opportunities that exist for any moment in time, from all facets of our physical surroundings to our mental states. Image: Sam Holt, Afternoons riding afternoons (detail), 2022

This joint exhibition between Jenn Rowe and Laeten Taylor examines environmental impacts through two distinct forms of representation using the organic and inorganic.

Image: Jenn Rowe, black duck fusion, 2023

Time & Tide reflects on contemporary fine art printmaking methods, with seven artists presenting significant early work from their archives in conversation with new work that responds to the theme Time and Tide. Artists are Marian Crawford, Jan Davis, Dianne Longley, Diana Orinda Burns, Jan Palethorpe, Penny Peckham, and Olga Sankey. Image: Jan Davis, Horse, 1996

exhibition program

Embedded Thread Justin Telfer

BSA Graduate Award Emma T Woodburn

Exposed Sienna van Rossum

Suburban Superheroes Sprung Dance Theatre

NOVEMBER EXHIBITIONS 16 October - 8 December 2024

Justin Telfer explores the narratives embedded in textiles. A constant companion from birth to death, fabric is intricately linked with our daily existence, connecting us to places, identity and moments in time.

Image: Justin Telfer, Under Indooroopilly Bridge 1978 (detail), 2020

Presented in partnership with the Byron School of Art (BSA), this exhibition showcases the work of a recent graduate. The award supports the promotion and professional development of outstanding emerging graduates from the BSA three year course and presents exciting new talents to local audiences.

Image: Emma T Woodburn, Seeking Future Simple, 2023

Sienna van Rossum’s Exposed exhibits still-life paintings from her current doctoral research. The intimately sized works question our ways of seeing through their meticulous details of overlooked matter.

Image: Sienna van Rossum, Metaxy (detail), 2022

Suburban Superheroes champions diverse representation through photographic portraits of Sprung’s community artists. Developed in collaboration with Sprung Artistic Director, Daniele Constance, artist, Sarah (Lewis), and photographer, Jorge Serra, the show centres diverse minds and bodies, celebrating them as they unashamedly express themselves around their community, in big, colourful and contemporary ways. Image: Jorge Serra, Suburban Superheroes, 2023

ignite studios 2024

ignite studios

IGNITE STUDIOS & PUBLIC PROGRAMS Ignite Studios is a community-engaged facility with workshop spaces, creative studios, an Artist-inResidence program, offices, and a ceramics studio with six wheels and two Woodrow kilns. Each year Ignite Studios delivers a vibrant public program of workshops, artist talks and special events, and hosts community events from pop up exhibitions, launches and film screenings to workshops, meetings and creative forums. Ignite Artist Residency Time and space for a single artist to expand their artistic practice for a period of between two and twelve weeks. Ignite’s residency program includes access to studio space and a small bedsit and is open to local, national and international arts professionals from a broad range of creative disciplines. Applications are accepted year-round. Ignite Ceramics - Studio & Kiln Firing Services Ignite’s ceramics facilities include a throwing studio with six wheels, and two kilns, available for hire by qualified ceramic artists and those just starting out. Creative Studios Two airy, light-filled studio spaces with secure, 24hour access are available for long-term, low-cost lease to creative practitioners, organisations, or businesses from the region.

Images: (pgs 20-21) Screenprinting Workshop, 2023, (left) Signwriting Workshop, 2023, Images: Elise Derwin.

ignite studios

Public Programs Drawing on a mix of creative talents from artists and facilitators across the region and further afield, monthly workshops, artist talks, master-classes, screenings and special events are presented by NRCG & Ignite Studios for the local community. NRCG staff and volunteers also host gallery tours for groups and schools upon request. School Holiday Programs Special holiday programs for young creatives are announced throughout the year. Creative Workshop Spaces for Hire Ignite Studios boasts two accessible spaces available to hire for workshops, creative events, pop up exhibitions, meetings, and special projects. Subsidised rates are available for artists and community organisations.

For more information about Ignite Studios, to make a booking or enquiry, contact our Creative Producer Programs at nrcg@ballina.nsw.gov.au or visit nrcgballina.com.au

Images: (opposite, clockwise from top left) Artist in Residence; Screenprinting Workshop, 2023, Image Elise Derwin; Ceramics workshop with Jacqui Sosnowski, 2023, Image Kate Holmes; Signwriting Workshop with Kate Stroud, 2023, Image Elise Derwin; Ignite Studios Engine Room; Val Smith BCAM Stallholder, 2023, Image Kate Holmes; Mixed Media Workshop, 2023, Image: Elise Derwin; Fantastical Creatures Workshop, 2020, Image Natalie Grono.

ignite studios

gallery shop

NRCG GALLERY SHOP The NRCG Gallery Shop features a range of handcrafted jewellery, ceramics, quality art books, gift-wares and greeting cards and is a popular destination for locals and visitors seeking special and unique gifts and homewares. Local & Ethical Suppliers Suppliers for the Gallery Shop are largely sourced from across the Northern Rivers, offering a range of unique and bespoke local products that reflect who we are as a region and community. The Gallery Shop offers an ever-changing selection of products from regional makers, with the majority of our products sourced from local producers and suppliers. We also source ethical arts and crafts from socially engaged enterprises supporting artists and makers from Indigenous Communities in the Kimberly region and basket makers from remote villages in Myanmar. Sell your products with us! If you are a designer, artist or craftsperson and would like to apply to sell product in the Gallery Shop please contact the Gallery Services Officer at nrcg@ballina.nsw.gov.au or visit our website nrcgballina.com.au

Images: (opposite, clockwise from top left) Artist Books; Beka Ceramics, 2023; Kate Stroud Earrings, 2022; Suvira McDonald Ceramics, 2022; NRCG Gallery Shop 2023; Brooke Clunie Ceramics; Pali Baskets, 2023; Kathyrn Del Barton Tea Towels, 2023.

getting involved

Apply to Exhibit NRCG welcomes proposals from artists, designers, curators, community and cultural groups that display innovative ideas and approaches to contemporary arts practice. Applications open in July and close at the end of August, for the following year’s exhibition period. Annual Membership Join our NRCG Annual Membership program to expand and support our creative community, members receive a range of benefits, including free events and workshops, discounts for public programs and other opportunities. Volunteering at the Gallery Volunteering is a fantastic opportunity to further develop your skills, meet arts industry contacts and be part of our community. Volunteers are a vital part of NRCG & Ignite Studios programs and applications to become a volunteer are open all year. Donations and Sponsorship Donations assist NRCG & Ignite Studios to provide arts and cultural experiences that support, educate and inspire. All donations are tax deductible. Subscribe to our E-News Sign up to the NRCG & Ignite Studios monthly newsletter for regular updates on all upcoming exhibitions, workshops, programs, events and opportunities.

Images: (opposite, clockwise from top left) NRCG Volunteers, 2023; NRCG Flags, & Exhibition view, 2023, Images: Miles Away Media; Gala Jane Mural, Image: Kate Holmes; NRCG Volunteers, Ballina Gallery Cafe, 2023, Image: Miles Away Media; BCAM Flags & Event Team, 2023, Images: Kate Holmes; (back cover) Annique Goldenberg, Living Water Visits [streams of reconnection], 2023, Image: Miles Away Media.

NORTHERN RIVERS COMMUNITY GALLERY & IGNITE STUDIOS

Open: Wed - Frid 9am – 3pm | Sat- Sun 9.30am – 1pm 44 Cherry Street & 60 Crane Street, Ballina NSW 2478 phone 02 6681 0530 nrcg@ballina.nsw.gov.au nrcgballina.com.au | @nrcgballina An arts & cultural initiative of