B R E N D A M AY
GALLERY
exhibition calendar 2012 18 January – 11 February 14 February – 3 March 6 March – 24 March 27 March – 14 April 17 April – 5 May 8 May – 26 May 29 May – 16 June 19 June – 7 July 10 July – 28 July 31 July – 18 August 21 August – 8 September 11 September – 29 September 2 October – 20 October 23 October – 10 November 13 November – 1 December 4 December – 22 December
Sculpture 2012 – group exhibition Major Artists, Major Works | Lezlie Tilley James Guppy | Will Coles In The Mirror – group exhibition Introducing III... New Photographers | Leslie Oliver Carol Murphy | Jacek Wankowski Robert Boynes Chiaroscuro – group exhibition Patsy Payne | McIntosh + Fairbairn Guest Curator - Akky van Ogtrop Sybil Curtis | Michael Edwards Art + Food: Beyond the Still Life Jim Croke | Peter Tilley Todd Fuller | Mylyn Nguyen Melinda Le Guay | Sam Robinson
BRENDA MAY GALLERY
Stay in touch via the blog: brendamaygallery.blogspot.com
Brenda May established Access Contemporary Art Gallery in Sydney in 1985 to support emerging Australian artists. The Gallery moved to 2 Danks Street when it opened in 2001 and now represents a small group of emerging to senior artists working in a broad range of media. Gallery artists are Tanmaya Bingham, Senden Blackwood, Robert Boynes, Will Coles, Jim Croke, Sybil Curtis, Todd Fuller, James Guppy, Melinda Le Guay, Carol Murphy, Mylyn Nguyen, Leslie Oliver, Marc Standing, Lezlie Tilley and Peter Tilley. To better promote our Represented Artists, the Gallery calendar returns to a three week schedule; however, we will continue our support of non-represented artists by hosting selective solo and thematic exhibitions throughout the year. We hope you enjoy this year’s challenging and exciting lineup.
Marc Standing, Waking Me Forever, Brenda May Gallery, installation view, 2011
SCULPTURE 2012 curated group exhibition 18 January to 11 February
This year features the work of Senden Blackwood, Mark Booth, Walter Brecely, Robert Bridgewater (courtesy Niagara Galleries, Melbourne), Ewen Coates (courtesy Anna Pappas Gallery, Melbourne), Will Coles, John Cox, Jim Croke, Marguerite Derricourt, Corrigan Fairbairn, Todd Fuller, Kelly-Ann Lees, Angela McHarrie, Emily McIntosh + Marcus Dillon, Mylyn Nguyen, Leslie Oliver, John Petrie, Jimmy Rix, Fatih Semiz, Vanessa Stanley, Oliver Tanner, Peter Tilley, Caramel Wallace and Jacek Wankowski. This annual event was established by Brenda May in 1998 and continues to be an important platform for the promotion of sculpture.
Mark Booth, installation view (MOP Projects), 2010, U-PVC pipe, matt white enamel paint, fluorescent light, dimensions variable. Image courtesy of the Artist and Sebastian Thaw.
Senden Blackwood,‘ioka’ 2011, carved basalt, steel base 180 x 70 x 65cm, Private Collection Image courtesy of the Artist, installed at Sculpture by the Sea 2011
LEZLIE TILLEY Pages from an a-less novel 14 February to 3 March
Lezlie Tilley, ‘Preface’ 2011
Nulla dies sine linea = never a day without a line A constant image that has followed me throughout my career has been the ‘telephone doodle’ in all its simplicity and complexity. My recent connection with Euclid’s geometry has fired my interest to explore other forms of that universal image. In this instance, my drawings are dragged between the extremes of sketchy and finished, spontaneous and measured. The linear images can be viewed as maps, pathways, or a system of writing time itself.
MAJOR ARTISTS, MAJOR WORKS Major Artists, Major Works will feature a significant artwork by each of the fifteen artists represented by the Gallery. Size is relative. For some, ‘major’ may simply mean ‘bigger than a shoebox’, whereas for others it can entail the use of a crane and the removal of the Gallery doors!
featuring important works from the represented artists 14 February to 3 March
Mylyn Nguyen, ‘Green floral chair’ 2009 found chair, wood, foam, dirt, paint 87 x 48 x 53cm
WILL COLES Nihilist archaeology 6 to 24 March
Are we and our junk reaching critical mass? If all our junk is made in China, we will have nothing worth digging up in the future. The trivial and shallow now represent the peak of Western Civilisation. The internet brings the entire history of human achievement into our homes, but we are watching ‘reality’ TV. Welcome to the age where nearly everyone grows old, hates the young and is so busy being scared of dying that they have forgotten how to live. Stop, take a deep breath and step back.
Will Coles ‘Memorial to an unknown armchair general’ 2011 cold cast resin
JAMES GUPPY The figures in these new works are dredged from James Guppy’s unconscious to throw light onto the cold darkness of rationality. Guppy has always been comfortable in the world of fairy tales and myths. As a child living in the north of England, these fantastic stories were his way of understanding the land he grew up in, providing a poetry and passion that prosaic history could not give. Animals were another starting point for these new paintings. However Guppy was not interested in the domesticated creatures that inhabit our lives, but in the way their untamed forebears move within our psyche. Through these paintings, Guppy continues the examination of myth and powerful women. These are not the predictable, nourishing earth mothers, but rather those types that society traditionally feared and marginalised: the witch, the virago and the furies. These are the strong women, the extraordinary women who offer the possibilities of other lives. James Guppy, ‘The Miscreants Burden’ 2011, acrylic on linen, 137 x 92cm
Anima Rising 6 to 24 March
IN THE MIRROR curated group exhibition 27 March to 14 April
No one sees themselves the way the world sees them, as one’s reflection is, of course, seen in reverse. This show is an opportunity for the artists to share their unique view of themselves and to redirect the focus from the celebrity of the sitter, back to that of the artist. Not limited simply by traditional representation, unfettered by medium, In the Mirror will endeavour to offer a different view from the portrait as defined by and typically selected for the Archibald Prize.
Tanmaya Bingham ‘Doing Something with Nothing’ 2010 colour pencil and mixed media on board 170 x 119cm
Opposite Page: Todd Fuller ‘Double Take (An Animated Sketch)’ 2011 mixed media, collage on paper, 56 x 75.5cm Private Collection
INTRODUCING III... tammie castles kelly-ann lees helena leslie oliver tanner
Helena Leslie’s new body of work is a series of small watercolour drawings based on a collection of found and familial photographs, all of which contain traces of the photographer. Helena Leslie ‘The Shooting Party’ (detail) 2011, watercolour on paper, 41 x 31cm
17 April to 5 May
Tammie Castles’ works reflect an obsessive mind, one that seeks to map and notate her experiences, creating an illusion of memory through the layering of images on transparent and opaque materials.
Tammie Castles ‘Windows on Haast’s Bluff’ 2011 ply + clear self adhesive vinyl 20 x 16 x 2.4cm
Using the body as a vehicle, Oliver Tanner’s work explores the balance between presence and absence, the fragment and the whole, emphasising structures of negative and positive space. Oliver Tanner ‘Pewter Bust’ 2011 cast pewter 50 x 40 x 15cm
Kelly-Ann Lees ‘Double Diamond’ 2011 welded recycled steel heat fins 12 x 14 x 22cm
The new work by Kelly-Ann Lees continues her exploration of geometric shapes and repetition using recycled and found objects.
NEW PHOTOGRAPHERS alex austin penelope cain tasman miller 8 to 26 May
Tasman Miller, ‘Untitled’ 2011, c-type digital print on Ilford Gold paper, 40 x 50cm
This is an exhibition of three contemporary photographers new to the Gallery. The artists will create a small body of work that best represents their artistic practice. This show is part of the Head On Photo Festival.
Alex Austin, ‘Untitled #1’ 2011 archival pigment print, 86 x 65cm
Penelope Cain ‘Light artillery for the corporate raid’ 2011, digital print on photographic paper 65 x 170cm
LESLIE OLIVER Love Stories 8 to 26 May
Leslie Oliver ‘Love Stories’ 2010 stills from video installation
As a teacher of young filmmakers from around the world, I have recorded short interviews with over 1,000 students. The form of the interview has not changed in 15 years. I ask them to recount a time when they fell in love. I have the generous permission of many current and former students to use these interviews to build a small video installation. I will accompany the video with a collection of small abstract sculptures on the same theme. This show is on view as part of the Head On Photo Festival.
CAROL MURPHY imago 29 May to 16 June
imago | me gə | noun ( pl. imagos , imagoes or imagines | me dʒ niːz|) 1. Entomology the final and fully developed adult stage of an insect, typically winged. 2. A ceramic exhibition exploring change and body form, referencing story books and social media.
Carol Murphy ‘beautiful butterfly’ 2011, ceramic, timber, metal 18 x 9 x 8.5cm
darn it the zip’s broken, i am beautiful butterfly trapped in this ugly caterpillar’s body, if you peel back the layers you will find me, butterflies are free, miss free love but none wants her. but where am i. i am lost. bunny, kitten, submissive. through the looking glass. it’s broken. i am bleeding. if one eats cake ...one grows bigger. drink me can you live on cake alone. i am alone. more tea... squelch, i am changing, but what into, i wonder. find me.
JACEK WANKOWSKI Metamorphosis 29 May to 16 June
Jacek Wankowski ‘Encrustations - Samurai Blade’ 2010, stainless steel, oxidised and lacquered mild steel 90 x 75 x 55cm
Metamorphosis investigates ideas of perception, of known and unknown things that engage the forces of nature, of change and growth – and challenge our understanding of what we believe. My sculptures are mostly made in steel. They range from large scale, outdoor pieces to smaller, intimate works – a play between the small and the large scale, between intricacy and simplicity. Inspired by observation of pattern and form in the natural world, they embody movement and anticipation, and often a sense of unfolding, of unwrapping – an opening in anticipation of something to be revealed. These works pursue that moment between balance and flight where the precise distribution of mass, form and space activate the sculpture – a creative engineering that aims to imbue a potency of energy, of aerial lightness, or alternatively of crushing weight.
Senden Blackwood, ishi, Brenda May Gallery, installation view, 2011
ROBERT BOYNES Language of the Street 19 June to 7 July
My work evokes the sounds, sensations and body postures found in our urban spaces – the language of the street. Are we as viewers, simultaneously the observer and the observed – stepping in and stepping out of the frame? A body, traced or sprayed like a tattoo on the wall of a narrow laneway, leaving the skeletal remains and memory of a dance. It is the conversion of noise into motion, into fractured image and crackling light. Robert Boynes, ‘Urban Tattoo’ 2011, acrylic on canvas, 120 x 80cm
CHIAROSCURO curated group exhibition 10 to 28 July Chiaroscuro is the treatment of light and shade for dramatic effect in drawing, painting and printmaking. It is the effect of contrasted light and shadow created by light falling unevenly or from a particular direction, on something or someone. Chiaroscuro is thought to have originated before the Renaissance; this exhibition seeks to show the work of contemporary artists using this traditional practice.
Marc Standing ‘immersion’ 2010 oil on linen 60 x 60cm
Tasman Miller ‘Portrait in Absentia No.3’ 2009, c-type digital print on Ilford Gold paper edition of 3, 47 x 60cm
James Guppy, ‘African Wild Dogs’ 2010, acrylic on linen, 30.5 x 76cm
EMILY MCINTOSH + CORRIGAN FAIRBAIRN two person exhibition 31 July to 18 August Emily McIntosh ‘Egg’ 2011 solid glass, timber dimensions variable
My work is still concerned with memory, preservation and the psychological and physical aspects of the human condition. This new body of glass sculpture intends to examine these layers of intricate and complex systems and magnify some of these astonishing processes that constantly occur within us, to manage our complex world.
Corrigan Fairbairn, ‘Silence’ 2011 mixed media, steel, canvas, acrylic, 294 x 25 x 102cm
Originally, the shapes and motifs within my work were influenced by imagery from outer space, which as they evolved, became part of my sculptural language. In my current body of work the process has been immediate, with each sculpture resonating parts of the one that came before it. I think this has created a strong lineage in the work which shows a methodical evolution of ideas.
PATSY PAYNE Wraith 31 July to 18 August
I continue to use environmental textures and forms as the material of the body. The body is a transparent screen fabricated from steel, so the form is both fragile and intrinsically strong. The interplay of positive and negative spaces metaphorically balances the dichotomies that are part of the human condition. The body, identity, sense of place, dislocation and detachment are themes that continue to feature strongly. How does the insignificance of a life span relate to the vastness of geological time as played out in fields and textures developed from sublime sky or mountain landscapes?
Patsy Payne, (illustrated - plan drawing for a sculpture to be fabricated in Corten steel), 2011, 220cm high
Going Gaga with Dada: A dedication to spontaneity, chaos, innovation and nonsense curated by Akky van Ogtrop 21 August to 8 September
Like the Dadaists of their time, this exhibition will seek to define the undefinable — with prints, collages, artists’ books, zines, posters, typography and more. Akky van Ogtrop graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands, majoring in printmaking and has a Masters Degree in Fine Arts from Sydney University, with her Thesis on Dada. As director and manager of major arts events, Akky has many years of experience as an arts administrator and creative manager with extensive contacts and national and international project experience. Akky was the Founder and Executive Director of the Sydney Art on Paper Fair and is an approved valuer for the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program in International and Australian works on paper (prints, drawings, watercolours and artists books) after 1900. Akky is also currently serving on various boards, including: President, Print Council of Australia; Member Cultural Committee, Manly Art Gallery & Museum; President, Sydney Chamber Music Festival and is a Foundation member of the Art Gallery of NSW. Theo van Doesburg (Christian Emil Marie Küpper) with Kurt Schwitters ‘Kleine Dada Soirée’ 1922, lithograph, 30 x 30cm
MICHAEL EDWARDS Household objects 11 to 29 September
Michael Edwards ‘Still life with football and pedestal’ 2011 oil on canvas, 80 x 70cm
My work continues to explore the Still Life and its place in contemporary Australian painting. I focus in particular on the sort of objects that might be found in the home. Sometimes this is because they are interesting in their own right, and other times it is because these objects act as symbols that suggest more ambiguous or contradictory meanings. Either way, there are rich traditions to build upon. In this current series of work I look at the way the miscellany of things found in the household environment can comment on everyday life in Australia, from the small triumphs and tragedies, to all the ordinariness that lies somewhere in between.
SYBIL CURTIS Cylinders, cones and spheres 11 to 29 September
Sybil Curtis ‘Luminous’ 2011 oil on linen 35 x 35cm
Among the artists I most admire is CĂŠzanne. In his mature years, he attempted to give underlying structure to his landscapes by rendering them in terms of cones, cylinders and spheres. As a pale homage to the Master, instead of copying his style or even attempting to apply his theory, I have found real structures that are in fact made from these simple geometric shapes. They are the grain silos and other agricultural and industrial structures that rise like gigantic monuments out of the vast western plains.
ART + FOOD: BEYOND THE STILL LIFE curated by Megan Fizell
Will Coles ‘junk’ 2009 cast ciment fondu edition of 20 4.5 x 11.5 x 10.5cm Private Collection
2 to 20 October
This exhibition will consider the representation of food within the visual arts and beyond the standard still life tableaux. The consumption of food is a universally shared experience, enabling people viewing the exhibition to connect with the issues surrounding consumerism, food production and cultural identity. Art + Food: Beyond the Still Life will be on view during the Crave Sydney International Food Festival.
Janet Tavener, ‘Hotdog’ 2011, archival digital print, edition of 10, 80 x 80cm
JIM CROKE Scaled Down 23 October to 10 November Scale is often disregarded as a consideration when making sculpture when it shouldn’t be, as it is just as vital as things like subject matter, materials and composition. These sculptures are not maquettes but are works that, hopefully, are comfortable at the size they are. The decision-making process in these works is just as intense as it is with a larger piece; however, working on a small scale enables me to complete sculptures relatively quickly and thereby receive the rewards that a sense of completion provides. I’ve certainly enjoyed constructing these sculptures and I hope others enjoy seeing and experiencing the final works.
Jim Croke, ‘All Sorts’ 2011 steel, 11 x 13 x 12cm
PETER TILLEY On the Nature of Things 23 October to 10 November
Peter Tilley, ‘Twist of Fate’ 2011, cast iron, lead 90 x 42 x 41cm
This body of work is a privately constructed environment that is a juxtaposition of unlikely objects; collectively a symbolic arrangement that both illustrates and defies the ordinary. A characteristic quality evident is that the works are imbued with a certain stillness or calmness, not necessarily subdued or impassive but pensive and contemplative. There can be a sense of emptiness suggestive of the transient nature of life. A range of thematic ideas and formal strategies are employed, derived from a visual vocabulary that is readily understood. The objects, imagery and underlying narrative are universally common yet multi-layered in meaning, significance and complexity.
MYLYN NGUYEN An owl flew into my office and told me to look for Bear 13 November to 1 December
This is a journey through the everyday in the hope of finding the little magic that I used to carry with me on the train, in my backpack and the reserved special spot on my desk. But, the more I work; the Company car, the Company responsibility, the Company phone and the time spent on, in, and immersed in the Company, I can not seem to find the bear that I packed out of the way. This is about the tiny little bit of moss that sits in the crack of the concrete footpath outside the office that reminds me that one day, I should stop working and go find bear.
Mylyn Nguyen, ‘Down the Bear hole’ 2011 watercolour and ink on paper, green tea bag, twig, fibre 12 x 11 x 6cm
TODD FULLER Somewhere in between the active and the still, the imagined and the real, between light and shade, truth and tale, and of course hope and defeat... Between resting and at flight, and somewhere between duty and desire, that is where he stands, this is where we find him.
Todd Fuller, film still ‘somewhere in between’ 2011
Somewhere in between 13 November to 1 December
SAMANTHA ROBINSON Object, Odject 4 to 22 December
Samantha Robinson, installation of 100 ‘Pretty Decal Cups’
When we consider objects, we identify them by their purpose. Having worked as a ceramicist for the last ten years, the making of objects for the everyday has been my life. The idea of looking at objects and turning them into something else has always excited me. By playing with size, scale and function, we may find something that seems familiar, a little bit odd. Anything that is not where it belongs or where people normally think of it as being, can change perceptions of how we view things. Object, Odject is the deconstruction of the everyday to challenge viewers to interpret something in a way in which it was not normally intended to be understood.
MELINDA LE GUAY Blood Lines 4 to 22 December
Melinda Le Guay ‘Pulse’ (detail) 2011 ink on Taiwanese hemp paper, 140 x 76.5cm
I continue to make work which references aspects of the human body. Using process as an end and a means, and allowing for elements of human error, vigilant hand-eye co-ordination will underpin the performative nature of the work reflecting rhythm and movement.
Director – Brenda May Manager – Megan Fizell Assistant – Olivia Welch Copyright remains the property of the Artist and Brenda May Gallery. No part of this calendar may be reproduced without permission. The 2 Danks Street Galleries are closed on all pubic holidays, the Easter long weekend and from Christmas to mid-January.
Front cover: Marc Standing, Waking Me Forever, Brenda May Gallery, installation view, 2011 Back cover: Carol Murphy, The Importance of being Ernest...no, Enid, Brenda May Gallery, installation view, 2011
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 www.brendamaygallery.com.au info@brendamaygallery.com.au tuesday - friday 11-6 saturday 10-6 t. 02 9318 1122 f. 02 9318 1007