Brenda May Gallery 2013

B R E N D A M AY GALLERY exhibition calendar 2013 23 Jan – 9 Feb 24 - 27 Jan 12 Feb – 2 Mar 5 – 23 Mar 26 Mar – 13 Apr 16 Apr – 4 May 7 – 25 May 28 May – 15 Jun 18 Jun – 6 Jul 9 – 27 Jul 30 Jul – 17 Aug 20 Aug – 7 Sep 10 – 28 Sep 1 – 19 Oct 22 Oct – 9 Nov 12 – 30 Nov 3 – 21 Dec

Sculpture 2013 Art Stage Singapore Josh Raymond | Kelly-Ann Lees Senden Blackwood | Helen Mueller Fiona Fenech | Dianne Longley Paper Works II James Guppy | Waratah Lahy | Nicole Welch Benjamin Storch | Helena Leslie Janet Parker-Smith | Amanda Stuart Mighty Small Al Munro | Marguerite Derricourt Joel Bliss | Irianna Kanellopoulou | Todd Fuller Doble & Strong Art + Science | Sugar, Sugar Will Coles GaGa SaGa | Robert Boynes | Lezlie Tilley Christmas Show

BRENDA MAY GALLERY

FOLLOW US brendamaygallery.com.au/blog/ facebook.com/brendamaygallery twitter: @brendamayart pinterest.com/brendamayart Will Coles, ‘NOTHING’ 2008 cold cast resin (aluminium) - unique, 2 x 6 x 10.5cm

Brenda May established Access Contemporary Art Gallery in Sydney in 1985 to support emerging Australian artists.

The Gallery moved into the 2 Danks Street Complex at its inception in 2001 and currently 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, Waratah Lahy, Melinda Le Guay, Al Munro, Carol Murphy, Mylyn Nguyen, Leslie Oliver, Lezlie Tilley and Peter Tilley.

We continue our support of many artists from around Australia by hosting selective solo and thematic exhibitions. After many years of participating in the Melbourne Art Fair, we are now looking to broaden our international audience by exhibiting our artists in Art Stage Singapore.

We have a big year planned and hope you enjoy this challenging and exciting line up.

B R E N D A M AY

ANNEX

Introducing the Brenda May Annex (BMA). Beginning in February this year, the Gallery will showcase successful applicants to exhibit in the Annex, curated and supervised by the Gallery.

Unlike most rental spaces, BMA will provide an opportunity for artists to gain direct experience and feedback regarding their work, while fostering a relationship with a Gallery that has a long history of supporting emerging artists. Special consideration will be given to installation and new media work, but all proposals will be considered. We currently have a full and varied program for this year, however all enquiries are welcome.

A complete listing of exhibition details and requirements are available on the Gallery website: brendamaygallery.com.au

ART STAGE SINGAPORE Marina Bay Sands Exhibition and Convention Centre 24 to 27 January

Will Coles ‘Might is Right’ 2012 (work in progress) fibreglass resin, gold leaf 130 x 80 x 50cm

Mylyn Nguyen Dirt (Wolf) 2012 Coir-Peat, pebble, twig, fibre, clay, watercolour on paper 19 x 20 x 7cm variable

Waratah Lahy, Nightlife 2008, installation view, Brenda May Gallery

Brenda May Gallery will be exhibiting the work of three represented artists - Will Coles, Waratah Lahy and Mylyn Nguyen - at Art Stage Singapore.

SCULPTURE 2013 curated group exhibition 23 January to 9 February

Greer Taylor ‘three percent 3%’ 2011 found sticks, cotton thread, alligator clips, timber, paint, 30 x 380 x 5cm

This popular annual event was established by Brenda May at Access Gallery in 1998 and continues to be an important platform for the promotion of sculpture.

This year features the work of Senden Blackwood, Joel Bliss, Walter Brecely, Will Coles, Jim Croke, Marguerite Derricourt, Todd Fuller, Lyndal Hargrave, Kelly-Ann Lees, Barbara Licha, Simon Maberley, William Maguire, Angela McHarrie, Emily McIntosh, Brendan Murphy, Leslie Oliver, Arun Sharma, Benjamin Storch, Greer Taylor and Peter Tilley.

Angela McHarrie ‘Push, Pull and Twist #2’, 2011 painted wood and polished stainless steel 200 x 110 x 66cm

Peter Tilley ‘In Search of the Sea’ 2012 cast iron, Corten steel 186 x 60 x 124cm (Installed at Sculpture By the Sea - Bondi)

JOSH RAYMOND #atwar 12 February to 2 March

Josh Raymond, ‘Mars 1’ 2012 pigment print on archival paper, 65 x 49.5cm, edition of 3

New work by Josh Raymond.

This work is part of my continued exploration of geometric forms and the interplay between positive and negative space. I am also playing with the appearance of weightlessness, whilst continuing to use dense, industrial materials.

KELLY-ANN LEES

Kelly-Ann Lees, ‘One Metre Squared’ 2012, recycled welded steel 100 x 100 x 100cm, (Installed on Nobbys Beach, Newcastle)

Infitialis tractus 12 February to 2 March

SENDEN BLACKWOOD kaiu 5 to 23 March

I feel like everything I want to say is written in the lines and planes of each piece. The repetitive physical process of carving translates my decisions and ideas into a subtle language, inherent in the finished form.

Senden Blackwood, ‘sila’ 2012, limestone and basalt, 50 x 110 x 40cm

HELEN MUELLER Forest requiem 5 to 23 March

Helen Mueller ‘Requiem 1’ 2012 woodblock print 120 x 76cm

I found a stand of melaleuca clinging to the rocks along a wild stretch of beach on the north coast of NSW; branches twisted and deformed by an unforgiving wind; desiccated and brittle for want of water. Dead now, these trees bear witness to a life - like many other lives - on the edge, and a struggle to survive in less than ideal circumstances.

This melaleuca forest formed the starting point for the woodblock prints in this exhibition. In the working process I discovered that struggle can result in rich complexity, in elegance and grace.

FIONA FENECH Utterances of the Everyday 26 March to 13 April

A sense of identity is grounded in our individual experiences that makes our own storytelling unique and also familiar. The cautionary tales that pervade everyday life are often ritualised into the cultural use of domestic objects, helping to construct collective and personal identities. Throughout this exhibition, the act of subverting such familiar ideas and items to reveal a sense of threat or violence is explored as a way of transforming and appropriating the familiar into fantasy, making visible the myths we live by.

Fiona Fenech, ‘Ruler of the Universe’ 2012 coloured polychrome pencil, thread on canvas - diptych, 31 x 47.5cm each

DIANNE LONGLEY Keeper of Imagined Landscapes and Sweet Monsters 26 March to 13 April

Dianne Longley ‘Cocoon of Coconut Ice’ (detail) 2006 pokerwork, decal, oil + encaustic on hoop ply 30 x 40cm

Fantastic worlds and mystical dreamscapes enact the absurdity of human existence in my porcelain works, encaustic panels and prints. The works in this exhibition combine primordial plant forms such as yuccas, agaves and cacti, with fanciful figures and imagined landscapes. Magicians signal a quest, fantastic creatures interact and medieval monsters are guardians of future possibilities.

Inhabiting these small works are creatures from the Renaissance historia animalium of Conrad Gesner, humorous figures from 16th century French humanist and artist François Rabelais, contemporary Japanese ‘kawaii’, pop-imagination figures and toys and grotesque historical imagery. This cast of creatures and plants is combined to create various peculiar and curious scenarios. My characters live in a world where nothing is certain.

PAPER WORKS II curated group exhibition 16 April to 4 May

Paper is such a commonplace and pervasive material. We write on it, read it, drink out of it and eat off it, yet in terms of conservation it is considered one of the most fragile of mediums in the art world.

This exhibition is ostensibly concerned with the nature of paper itself; featuring works produced with paper or about paper.

Exhibition install, Paper Works 2010, Brenda May Gallery

Melinda Le Guay ‘Ruffle 1’ 2007 paper on board 48.5 x 72cm

Mylyn Nguyen ‘Bottle A Tree + Girl’ 2011 glass bottle, dirt, sponge, twig, watercolour + ink on paper, dimensions variable (Private Collection)

JAMES GUPPY MUDWORKS 7 to 25 May

A few years ago my practice went through an important change as, rather than referencing the images of others, I began working from my own photographs. Friends became models and accepted various physical indignities to indulge my story-making impulses. Rich and unexpected things came out of these sessions with the photographs becoming an important part of my work process.

This process matured with the involvement of my wife, Trude. I wanted to dress the models in Liminal garments suggesting archaic themes, she responded by making a bonnet of twigs, a corset of cow ribs, a crown of bark, and on fully grasping my intentions she added so much more.

I now see the photographs as works in their own right as, although technically different, thematically they are a continuation of my visual obsessions.

James Guppy, ‘Forest’ 2012, giclée print, edition of 6

WARATAH LAHY Hidden 7 to 25 May

Waratah Lahy ‘Climb’ 2012 oil on canvas 16 x 18cm

I am attracted to hidden things: not just things that are well hidden, but things that are more subtly obscured, disguised in plain sight. I like to glean from my everyday observations, taking time to notice the details that prove themselves to be humorous, sly, tricksy and uplifting. I am taking time to paint moments and places that deserve more than a cursory glance, more than passing attention.

NICOLE WELCH Illumination 7 to 25 May

The Illumination works began when I was an artist-inresidence at Hill End in 2010. The archetypal Australian landscape that I encountered was overwhelmingly felt, along with the colonial histories imbued within. My ancestry is strongly connected to this region, dating to pre1850 when my ancestors arrived to secure pastoral leases on ‘uncharted’ land. These personal family histories, the broader history of the region and the European idealism projected upon this landscape became the focus of this new work.

Nicole Welch, ‘Illumination #2’ 2012, pigment ink, face-mounted, 47.5 x 120cm

Sybil Curtis, Cylinders, Cones and Spheres 2012, installation view, Brenda May Gallery

BENJAMIN STORCH Slowly Turning 28 May to 15 June

Benjamin Storch ‘Liminality’ 2010 Corten steel 183 x 103 x 53cm Salisbury Cathedral (kindly supported by the Arts Council of Wales) Photographer: Ash Mills

The sculptures I create often embody mathematical principles related to dynamics and topology, as this provides a means of visualising their complexity via CAD. Gravity makes it difficult to use softer mediums, so there is an interesting tension between the ethereal, fluid intention and the often tedious manipulation of rigid metal. In a way, the manual process has become part of the intention and leaves a tangible trace of the tensile forces at work.

HELENA LESLIE Helena Leslie’s exhibition continues the artist’s fascination with shadows in a series of delicate watercolours picturing scenes from found photographs and ephemera. The works draw on historical references and fragments of stories that have been removed from their original context to ‘float’ on the paper.

again 28 May to 15 June

Capturing moments in time, the works are imbued with nostalgia and charm. Wrapped in the past, their subjects emerge both remembered and forgotten.

Helena Leslie ‘The shooting party 6’ 2012 watercolour on paper diptych (left panel) 6 x 9cm each (Private Collection)

JANET PARKER-SMITH Little Wonders 18 June to 6 July

Janet Parker-Smith ‘Bird Crowd (plus one) - The Conversation’ 2012, collage and screen print, 120 x 80cm

This new series of collages and objects deal with ways of seeing. Using humour, they explore displacement and aim to provoke enquiry into how one receives, perceives and imagines physical ‘otherness’.

The work explores nature’s boundless capacity for reinvention and rejuvenation, as well as the necessity for these processes as a means of survival. Referencing nature and alchemy, the work discusses the effects of progression and existence on nature and our environment.

AMANDA STUART Lines of Desire 18 June to 6 July

Amanda Stuart ‘mongrel country (nil tenure)’ 2008 (Installed at Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Manuka) Photographer: Brendon McGeachie

My art practice explores the crackling tensions that arise when natural and cultural heritage collide. Using my experience as a park ranger, my work strives to convey the complexities that characterize human interactions with outsider species, focusing on species that are perceived as repugnant, dangerous or vermin.

Presently a candidate for a PhD in Visual Arts at the ANU School of Art Sculpture Workshop, my current sculptural practice researches the tense relationship between wild dogs, dingoes and humans in southeastern Australia.

MIGHTY SMALL co-curated by Olivia Welch 9 to 27 July Jim Croke ‘Asterisk’ 2009 steel 14 x 15 x 15cm (Private Collection)

Artwork on an immense scale often enthrals and consumes, whereas smaller works captivate on a much more intimate level, drawing the viewer in for closer inspection.

This exhibition will not simply be concerned with works that are little, but works that defy the very notion of small meaning less or denoting an absence. It will present work that is compact, but is in every way just as powerful, notable and spectacular.

Irianna Kanellopoulou ‘Canned’ 2009 multifired ceramic, glazes 11.5 x 8.5 x 6cm (Private Collection)

Lezlie Tilley, ‘325 Tiny shells arranged according to the laws of chance’ 2011 shells and pencil on paper, 10 x 10cm, (Private Collection)

AL MUNRO Patterns from an invisible world 30 July to 17 August

Al Munro, ‘Polytope Diffraction Pattern 1’ 2012 pencil + pigment marker on Stonehenge paper 35 x 35cm

I use drawing-based media to examine processes of scientific representations of the natural world. The work in this exhibition stems from research in crystallography; the study and mapping of atom arrangements within a solid.

It is fascinating how crystallographic diagrams form endlessly repeating grids of complex symmetries that translate the natural world into the visual and mathematical language of geometry and pattern.

The drawings in the series Patterns from an invisible world take a number of complex crystallographic grids as their starting point. By using the intersections of the grid lines as a template, I map a random series of points in space to create new maps of an undiscovered invisible world.

MARGUERITE DERRICOURT Travelling Light 30 July to 17 August

Marguerite Derricourt ‘Ghost Moth’ 2012 painted mild steel 120 x 150 x 100cm

My initial investigation into the life of moths started with the journey taken by the Bogong moth from Queensland to the caves of the Snowy Mountains in New South Wales and the mountains of Victoria. The annual migration of these creatures is long and arduous, and often they are blown off course and end up clustering on the lighted windows of city buildings.

This exhibition is a variation on the theme of nature, migration, flight and the changes that come about during this process.

JOEL BLISS Hard Metal 20 August to 7 September

Joel Bliss in his studio

I am investigating techniques of traditional hand-worked metal fabrication sparked by an interest in early 20th century car manufacturing - a process which relied on skilled metal workers. With this new body of steel works I have endeavoured to use hand tools, making way for a more intimate relationship with the material. I think of steel as a substance that can be transformed from a hard, rigid medium into a softer, more malleable and flexible material.

As a performance piece on the opening night of the exhibition, I will relate my sculpture back to the cars from the early 20th century by assembling a complete working 1928 Model A Ford in the Gallery space.

IRIANNA KANELLOPOULOU Wild Things Roam 20 August to 7 September

In my work, narratives explore issues of identity and (dis)placement through a transformation of images and found objects outside of their initial intent and purpose.

The featured protagonists unveil a macrocosmos of masked identities, fragmented conversations and fleeting moments. Deliberately shifting relationships between human and animal qualities, the figure becomes a cultural object that projects a narrative of a ‘new and improved’ reality; a super reality.

Irianna Kanellopoulou, ‘Wild Thing’ (detail) 2012 multifired ceramic, glazes, 34 x 33 x 19cm

TODD FULLER There’s no place like Rome 20 August to 7 September

Todd Fuller ‘morning minutes’ 2012 oil + pigment on white earthenware, stool, iPod showing hand drawn animation ‘somewhere in between’, 6:10 120 x 46 x 42cm (Private Collection)

In 2012, Todd Fuller was the recipient of the William Fletcher Travelling Fellowship. Included in this award is a three month residency at the British School at Rome from April to June this year. During this period he will undertake an autonomous study of the works of the Masters, refining and developing his skills as a draftsman while granting new life to the parchments of the past through animation.

DOBLE & STRONG Robert Doble and Simon Strong’s third collaborative exhibition, and first in Sydney, marks a return to their fascination with the science of modifying and manipulating the human body.

10 to 28 September

Their new works will depict imagined morphological changes and cross-species hybridizations, as well as continuing a visual aesthetic which renders the internal to the surface and magnifies cellular detail.

Doble & Strong, ‘Progenitus’ 2010 gloss enamel & Iriodin on chromatic print mounted on aluminium - triptych, 179 x 379 x 5cm

ART + SCIENCE curated group exhibition 1 to 19 October Al Munro ‘Patterns that aren’t 5’ 2011, constructed pink glitter + silver cardboard, 14 x 11 x 1.5cm

The faculties of art and science are inextricably connected. Images are used to illustrate experiments and discoveries, and scientific ideas have influenced artistic movements, such as Impressionism and the Renaissance. Photography’s original scientific categorisation is another example of this relationship involving inspiration, cross-pollination and the rethinking of disciplinary boundaries.

Art + Science aims to explore and examine these multifaceted connections.

Emily McIntosh, ‘Beats Per Minute’ 2012, solid, etched glass, timber stand, 16 x 64 x 8cm

SUGAR, SUGAR As a species, we are predisposed to seek out sugar to supplement our diet. “Sweet tooth” and “sugar rush” are colloquial phrases used to describe our bodies’ cravings for and reaction to the substance.

Our inclination to seek out the sweet stuff speaks to the pervasiveness of sugar in the visual arts. This exhibition, on view during the Crave Sydney International Food Festival, will feature contemporary art made exclusively with sugar.

curated by Megan Fizell 1 to 19 October

Elizabeth Willing, ‘Goosebump’ 2010, pfeffernüsse biscuits, royal icing (Installed at Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane)

WILL COLES Death Wish 22 October to 9 November

We are all kings and queens of this disposable plastic empire.

Consumerism is the core of everything we know; denial is everything we live by. Concepts of democracy and freedom are now meaningless, as the products bought own those who make the decisions. We are buying the rope to hang ourselves with, beautifully packaged and slickly marketed.

When triviality rules, when your possessions own you, when you aspire to subjugation to a brand, you have reached the end of your usefulness as an individual, a society and a civilisation.

Will Coles ‘Consume’ 2012 resin, gold mica, varnish finish 10.5 x 27 x 18.5cm

The OnGOING GaGa SaGa curated by Akky van Ogtrop 12 to 30 November

The Zine Fest Going Gaga with Dada, 2012

With this exhibition, curator Akky van Ogtrop continues her GaGa exhibition series, this time with the focus on Fluxus, Pop and beyond. It is Pop, with a twist — an exhibition of multiples, artists’ books, zines and other printed matter that turns art into a fingertip sensation.

Constructing a creative philosophy that was anti-bourgeoise, anti-aesthetics, anti-authorship, anti-institution and above all anti-art, George Maciunas urged Fluxus to be a living art that was relational, functional and approachable for all demographics. Fluxus became an ‘intermedia’ movement that spread internationally - adopted and adapted with its growth. The movement, which still continues, played an important role in the opening up of definitions of what art can be.

ROBERT BOYNES Translations 12 to 30 November

In 2012, I was awarded the fellowship from the Capital Arts Patrons Organisation in Canberra which will allow me to make a series of large etchings. These ‘experiments’ will be made in collaboration with master printer John Loane, and will extend the imagery of the street that has been central to my work for the last few years.

Each work will be unique, and on occasion, combine multiple print techniques.

These will be shown alongside my paintings in the November exhibition.

Robert Boynes ‘Solarium’ 2012 acrylic and canvas on board 60.5 x 45.5cm

LEZLIE TILLEY Simple Beauty 12 to 30 November

The endless repetition of these gridded patterns, based on the honeycomb, can grow large enough to engulf the universe.

They can be simple or complex, formal or informal, be stretched or squashed, distorted in endless ways, be flat or warped and can develop from a 2D plane into a 3D form. These possibilities provide endless ways to form and re-form the simple grid of down and across.

The graphics become an instrument for processing and connecting all kinds of information from technological, social, biological, philosophical, personal, geometric, mathematical and scientific networks.

Lezlie Tilley, ‘Network I 1’ 2012, ink on paper, 25 x 13cm

CHRISTMAS SHOW $1,000 and under 3 to 21 December

Michael Edwards, ‘Still life with Green Box and Red and Gold Cloth’ 2009, oil on canvas, 51 x 61cm

Continuing the tradition of the ever popular Access and Brenda May Gallery Birthday Show, the Gallery presents a special Christmas Show to celebrate the end of another year.

Included in the exhibition will be works from our represented and supported artists, made especially for the occasion.

As in previous years, the show will be unavailable for previews and will open at 6pm sharp on Tuesday, December 3 with, of course, all the works for sale at $1,000 and under. We hope you can join us for a drink and a bite to eat at what will surely be an exciting exhibition.

Carol Murphy ‘Drink Me’ 2012 ceramic 22.5 x 24 x 26cm

Waratah Lahy ‘Thirroul Santa’ 2010 acrylic on perspex 20 x 25cm

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 four weeks from Christmas to late January.

Front cover: Todd Fuller + Abby Smith, One and Only, Brenda May Gallery, installation view, 2012 Back cover: Leslie Oliver, Love Stories, Brenda May Gallery, installation view, 2012 Above: Tanmaya Bingham, ‘Wild Thing 4’ 2010, colour pencil & mixed media on board, 29.5 x 29.5cm

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