B R E N D A M AY
GALLERY
exhibition calendar 2007
17 Jan to 3 Feb 6 Feb to 3 Mar 6 to 31 Mar 3 to 28 Apr 1 to 26 May 29 May to 23 Jun 26 Jun to 14 Jul 17 Jul to 11 Aug 14 Aug to 8 Sep 11 Sep to 6 Oct 9 Oct to 3 Nov 6 Nov to 1 Dec from 4 Dec
Sculpture 2007 James Guppy Liz Stops / Patsy Payne Art + Humour Too Al Munro / Marc Standing Barbara Licha / Catriona Stanton I’m as Mad as Hell... Carla Priivald / Andrew Best Leslie Oliver / Helen Mueller Julie Byrnes / Angela Macdougall Peter Tilley / Hadyn Wilson Jimmy Rix / Lezlie Tilley Birthday Show
BRENDA MAY GALLERY
Jim Croke - Sculpture, October, 2006
Brenda May established Access Gallery in Sydney in 1985 to support emerging Australian artists. The Gallery moved to the Danks Street complex when it opened in 2001 and currently represents a small group of well established artists including Robert Boynes, Jim Croke, Sybil Curtis, James Guppy, Melinda Le Guay, Barbara Licha, Angela Macdougall, Carol Murphy, Lezlie Tilley, Peter Tilley and Hadyn Wilson. The Gallery maintains its committment to support Australian artists by hosting a broad range of solo and thematic exhibitions. An extensive ‘open’ stockroom of movable racks completes this user-friendly gallery.
Sculpture 2006 - Applied Arts - Form + Function, January, 2006
SCULPTURE 2007 Form Without Function 17 January to 3 February
This year we are focusing on artists working in glass and ceramic within a sculptural rather than functional idiom. This exhibition acknowledges new and inventive ways of working with these mediums. Frequently there is a sense that these materials dictate the creation of functional objects, often taking the form of vessels. For this exhibition we have amassed a group of artists whose works strongly confront this stereotype. William Lungas, ‘Archi-type’ (detail), 2006, 80 x 450 x 40cm, porcelain, fibreglass, fluorescent lights
This show will be part of Sculpture 2007; on exhibition in selected Sydney galleries each January. This regular event was established at Access Gallery in 1998 and continues to be a platform for the promotion of sculpture.
Alexandra Chambers, ‘Celadon and Teal Dressing Set’, 2005, blown glass, 36 x 16 x 4cm Brigitte Bouquet, ‘Coral Suburbs’ (detail), 2005, ceramic, hessian, 150cm (diameter)
JAMES GUPPY The Weather Reports 6 February to 3 March
For the last few years I have been exploring that unease in the world; the sense an impending millennial something is in the air. Although this something may be the consequence of human actions there is a logic that natural forces are being fatally stirred.
James Guppy, ‘Study #2’, 2006, acrylic on canvas, 25 x 25cm
I have noticed that billowing clouds accompany most modern disasters. Whether explosions, collapsing buildings, volcanoes or storms; beautiful clouds of smoke, rain, dust or debris hang over humanity. This seems to be an essential part of the violence of destruction and a veil over what lies within.
James Guppy, ‘Study #1’, 2006, acrylic on canvas, 25 x 25cm
LIZ STOPS Carbon Credits 6 to 31 March
Liz Stops, ‘Ironbark’, 2002, recycled corrugated iron, rivets, 147 x 170 x 75cm
My focus remains with landscape. This body of work is made up of tree-like objects that are an extension of the porcelain forms I have been making for several years. They have been made mainly from the materials used to define and delineate my immediate landscape, for example fencing wire and corrugated iron. My intention is to reinforce the notion that all of the landscape we inhabit is artificial and constructed and needs care in its design and use to be sustainable.
PATSY PAYNE Mountain Building 6 to 31 March
Patsy Payne, ‘Cloud Mountain 1’ (detail), 2006, graphite stencil drawing on paper, 77 x 106cm
This new body of work uses the form of the mountain as a metaphor. The concept is developed through drawing, and subsequently ‘mountain building’ is undertaken through 3D modeling into vertical laser cut slices of glass. The drawings are illusory, made of shimmering lines of graphite dots that draw out the key profiles and shapes of the mountains. The mountains hover, as if dislocated from the ground, and take on the appearance of clouds - mountains made of air. What makes us feel overawed in nature? Our most fundamental relation to the gigantic is articulated in our relation to landscape, as it surrounds us. We are enveloped, surrounded, enclosed within its shadow. Where we can know the gigantic only partially, the miniature presents us with an analogue, a mode which matches world within world, controlled, balanced and in proportion. The transparency of these forms will bring us into the view as giants to consider our huge footprint within the natural world where our undeniable and ongoing relation to nature is to control and exploit the resources within it.
ART + HUMOUR TOO group exhibition 3 to 28 April
Joan Ross, ‘Wearing My Special Flower Undies’, 2005, mixed media on paper, 38 x 29cm, courtesy of the Artist and Gallery Barry Keldoulis
Following on from the success of our 2005 exhibition we present Art + Humour Too. This show promises to offer the viewer a unique blend of Art + Humour that draws its power from a serious social discourse on contemporary life. It will include the whimsical work of our regular artists accompanied by others for whom a look on the lighter side of life is equally essential. With that in mind we hope you’ll join us for a serious laugh...
Carol Murphy, ‘Cat Bikini’, 2005, ceramic, stained timber base, 45 x 12.5 x 9.5cm
AL MUNRO Future Farming 1 to 26 May
Al Munro, ‘Future Farm I (Mona Vale)’, 2006, paper, model bull, 10 x 15 x 5cm
Future Farming continues my investigations into the patterns and codes used to represent and ‘map’ the natural world. It also draws on an interest in the relationship between prints - both traditional and digital - and scientific thought. The works reference the historical role prints have held in circulating and controlling information about the natural world. The works also refer to contemporary projects in mapping nature such as genetic profiling and Dolly the sheep. By using techniques such as conventional collage, I draw attention to nature as a construct that is open to change, manipulation or reinterpretation.
MARC STANDING New Painting 1 to 26 May
Marc Standing, ‘Backyard Bliss’, 2006, oil on canvas, 80 x 80cm
The human condition has been a strong influence in the majority of my work which is why I always return to the figure as subject matter. My interest lies in trying to capture the allusive essence of our nature; that live, raw nerve. In this new body of work, the adolescent provides a vehicle in which to portray our vulnerability and awkwardness. The onset of puberty can be a time of isolation and dislocation. The empty masses of colour in the paintings emphasise this displacement; a shifting equilibrium between claustrophobia and freedom. For many of us the memories of adolescence take us back to the domesticity of our childhood; our homes, families, pets, fears, and awakenings. Therefore the paintings throw back identifiable and familiar memories. I have attempted to keep a raw intensity to the work. I do not want polished surfaces; I want to see under the skin.
BARBARA LICHA Fractals 29 May to 23 June
Barbara Licha, ‘Fractals X002’, 2006, mixed media on canvas, 46.5 x 35.5cm *The Dictionary of Modern Thought, Fontana Press, London 1988 p.329
“In physics, mathematics and in nature there are shapes and structures which, although they appear to be irregular and random, nevertheless have a special pattern of regularity in their ‘randomness’. This regularity, called self-similarity, derives from the fact that, even when magnified, these systems still look much the same.”* By observing people I realise that meaning in faces, and the mental/ physical/emotional language of bodies, speak of individuality but also become anonymous as people blend into masses. When part of a crowd they become examples of self-similarity. In my last exhibition I depicted aspects of the human condition with a strong focus on the repetitive nature of lines and the multiplication of faces. To merge chaos and order will remain an interest, but I will also explore the connection between the figure as an individual and the crowd as blend of characters - as Fractals.
CATRIONA STANTON Estranged Tales 29 May to 23 June
Catriona Stanton, ‘Field’, 2006, bamboo toothpicks, beeswax, tarlatan, 42 x 50 x 10cm
Nostalgia for the imaginary freedom of childhood has instigated these works. I have attempted to bring the child’s presence into awareness through miniaturisation. Diminutive scale permits the imagination to roam freely into stored memories and unknown adventures. Reminiscing on my affinity with Australian Eucalyptus forests I wonder how this relates to the Euro-centric woods of fairy tales stored in my imagination. The perilous journey into the unknown in fairy tales such as Hansel and Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood is encapsulated in the image of the dark forest. There is also rich mythology surrounding the Australian bush epitomised in paintings by Frederick McCubbin and films like Picnic at Hanging Rock. Landscape is a concept shaped by our culture and imaginations. I have chosen the forest as the setting to explore the blurred boundaries between fantasy and factitiousness, the real and the imagined.
I’M AS MAD AS HELL... group exhibition 26 June to 14 July
“I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell - ‘I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!’ Things have got to change. But first, you’ve gotta get mad!... You’ve got to say, ‘I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!’ Then we’ll figure out what to do...” Such was the call to power made by Howard Beale in the 1976 film Network. Beale’s words seem to have an even greater resonance in the twenty-first century where our lives are dictated by global terror and the hysterical responses to it. For this exhibition we have asked our artists to consider what maddens them and what they are willing to stand up and shout about.
Opposite page: James Guppy, ‘Walking the Dog’, 2004, acrylic on paper on canvas, 35 x 35cm Carla Priivald, ‘Mary Street, Newtown-Aug 2005’ (detail), 2005, digital photograph A/P, 22.5 x 30cm
CARLA PRIIVALD Painting + Graphics 17 July to 11 August
I have photographed graffiti art around the world. To make my work, I use the text, stencils and graphics I find in urban art spaces. I first construct a digital image and then re-create it in paint. I build the layers over many months and work on several paintings at a time. ‘Devil on a Wall’, (pictured) shows graphics from the Berlin Wall, Prague, Slovenia, Melbourne and Sydney. Carla Priivald, ‘Devil on a Wall’ (detail), 2006, digital photograph, A/P, 60 x 37cm (edition of 6)
The works explore social narratives that concern youth culture and graffiti art as a communicative act.
ANDREW BEST New Sculpture 17 July to 11 August
Since the late 1990s my work has oscillated between figuration and abstraction. This has been expressed mainly in drawing and sculpture. In this body of work I am seeking to define my own abstract visual language. My sculptures represent the real world as well as more intuitive responses to my environment.
Andrew Best, ‘Anatomy’, 2006, mild steel, 18 x 23 x 23cm
LESLIE OLIVER Gesture Here Gesture Now 14 August to 8 September
Sculpture can have the special quality of defying time with a moment, a gesture or form frozen still. As viewers, we move around a static work in our ethereal world of flux where nothing is fixed or able to be re-lived. In the presence of certain sculptures, time and movement feel more palpable. These new works are made as gestures or greetings from a parallel universe where everything is eternally silent and still to the busy, ever fluid world we inhabit. Leslie Oliver, ‘Stretch’, 2006, mixed metals, 19 x 24 x 10cm ‘Chat’, 2006, mixed metals, 17.5 x 13 x 6cm
HELEN MUELLER Travelling North 14 August to 8 September
The metal of my printing plates has loosened and spun itself into a vessel form. And, as if printed, the vessel has multiplied, once for every day of my journeying year. The porous vessels both receive and contain. They are boats to move the soul. They follow maps drawn by filaments of knowledge and intuition. There is no destination, only direction, as I take a course due north.
Helen Mueller, ‘Travelling North’ (detail), 2006, steel wire, dimesions variable
JULIE BYRNES A Smile In The Mind 11 September to 6 October
Julie Byrnes, ‘Handy Iron’, 2006, cast polyester resin, perspex, laser print on acetate, 23 x 16 x 8.5cm
“It is not necessary for the public to know whether I am joking or whether I am serious, just as it is not necessary for me to know it myself.” (Salvador Dali)
I am on Sal’s side. I enjoy using wit, irony, parody, satire to make my point or no point at all. It just happens and I can’t do anything else. There is a bubble, somewhere deep in the soul and it lies around making itself useless and finally pops to the surface in the nick of time to express the next thought. And thank goodness for that. My thoughts are ordinary. That’s the fun part – taking the ordinary and making it extraordinary. In so doing I am happy to bend the rules and see what happens. Stuff just happens. Call it post expressionist, pre expressionist, never expressionist, surreal, abstract, conceptual – whatever – but I aim to employ the imagination and intellect of the viewer via the bubbles and smile in the process.
ANGELA MACDOUGALL Spontaneity 11 September to 6 October
Angela Macdougall, ‘Feel’, 2006, found galvanised metal, dimensions variable
The title for the exhibition refers as much to the subject matter as it does to the use of materials. The aged tin and found materials provide an element of surprise, chance and unpredictability. The sculptures and wall pieces capture a particular moment in time and are reminders of our universality. The exhibition will look at the individual in our complex contemporary condition. It will include a variety of animal and figurative works. The animals are avenues for affection, patience, compassion and protection that are not always available in human relationships. They also serve as a metaphor for human behaviour and personality. They provide access for humanity to both the natural world and the art world’s complex vocabulary of symbols and allegories.
PETER TILLEY Place and Circumstance 9 October to 3 November
Peter Tilley, ‘Uncertainty’ (detail), 2006, painted timber, 160 x 53 x 40cm
I am always looking for meaning and inspiration in everyday objects; through their material, form and history. They are a record of time, place and circumstance and reflect the rituals of daily life. The figures in these new works find themselves in different situations with a selection of curious and mundane objects from a lifetime of habits and pastimes. The placement of items creates a tension, as the unusual and the everyday merge to render the familiar strange. As a compulsive collector, many of the objects in this exhibition occur frequently in my work as part of my visual and symbolic vocabulary, this time to be the patterns for bronze castings.
HADYN WILSON The Place Where You Live 9 October to 3 November
Most of my recent work has entailed creating theatrical settings within shallow boxes and comprising a strong graphic orientation with a narrative content. This combination of approaches remains, as always, within the service of my overriding preoccupation with environment and our relationship to it.
Hadyn Wilson, ‘The Place Where You Live’ (detail), 2006, mixed media and cut-outs in shallow frame, 180 x 120 x 10cm
JIMMY RIX Medieval 6 November to 1 December
During Medieval times, the mindsets of the rich and poor were very different. To escape their suffering, poverty and isolation, the poor turned to religion or mythology. It was through the acts of imaginary characters that the poor learned about chivalry, charity and love to help them deal with their everyday problems. These acts remain embedded in our subconscious to this day. Jimmy Rix, ‘St George’, 2006, cast bronze - unique, 69 x 50 x 29cm
This exhibition presents a personal interpretation of these myths that we all know and love.
LEZLIE TILLEY New Painting 6 November to 1 December
Women’s craftwork has often been an inspiration for artists. Devoid of imagery forbidden by Amish culture for instance, it’s hard to imagine that the shimmering field works of Rothko were not informed by these patchwork quilts. My own work has been drawn from the beautiful patchwork of women’s craft that sometimes takes the form of hard edge abstraction, positioning it within a broader historical context.
Lezlie Tilley, ‘Blue Patchwork’, 2006, acrylic on canvas, 76 x 76cm
BIRTHDAY SHOW group exhibition from 4 December
It’s summer, it’s holiday time and it’s our birthday! To celebrate 22 years of representing Australian artists, we will once again end the year with a special Birthday Party. This popular event provides gallery enthusiasts with the opportunity to purchase an original artwork by one of our artists at a very affordable price. All work on display will be new and unpreviewed.
Brenda May Twenty Years, December 2005
This year’s exhibition will include painting, drawing, sculpture, ceramics and mixed media works. We hope you will be able to come along and join us for a drink and a bite to celebrate the end of another year.
Brenda May Gallery represents (left to right from top): Robert Boynes, Jim Croke, Angela Macdougall, Carol Murphy, Barbara Licha, Lezlie Tilley, Melinda Le Guay, Hadyn Wilson, James Guppy, Sybil Curtis and Peter Tilley.
Back row (left to right): Melinda Le Guay, Jim Croke, Peter Tilley, Angela Macdougall. Middle row: Barbara Licha, Lezlie Tilley, Robert Boynes, Carol Murphy. Front row: James Guppy, Brenda May, Sybil Curtis, Hadyn Wilson and Lottie.
2 Danks Street is an exciting arts hub on the fringe of Sydney’s CBD. It offers visitors an ever-changing array of exhibitions within its ten permanent gallery spaces. The complex also houses the multi-award winning cafÊ and bar - Danks Street Depot. More information can be found at: www.2danksstreet.com.au
Director - Brenda May Manager - Anna Lawrenson Senior Assistant - Lucie Spaven
Copyright remains the property of the Artist and Brenda May Gallery. No part of this calendar may be reproduced without permission. 2 Danks Street is closed all public holidays, the Easter long weekend, and from Christmas to mid January.
B R E N D A M AY
G A L L E R Y
2 D a n k s S t r e e t Wa t e r l o o N S W A u s t r a l i a 2 0 1 7 t. 02 9318 1122 f. 02 9318 1007 tues to sat 11-6 brendamay@ozemail.com.au www.2danksstreet.com.au