The Quarterly 1.1

T H E Q U A R T E R LY B R E N D A M AY

G A L L E R Y | 2 Danks Street Sydney Australia | brendamaygallery.com.au

SUMMER 2015

VOLUME 1

NUMBER 1

J ANUA RY – MARCH 2015 SCULPTURE 2015: Sculpture Park 28 January to 14 February The 2015 edition of our annual sculpture exhibition will feature artworks that are capable of withstanding the elements. As these works are intended for outdoor settings, curatorial attention has been paid to functionality, scale, construction and visual impact.

SMALL PUBLISHERS

JANET PARKER-SMITH

curated by Akky van Ogtrop 17 February to 14 March

Questionable Intentions 17 February to 14 March

An exhibition of artists’ books and zines of every nature, whether that is handcrafted, commercially printed, editioned, unique or collectively made.

My recent work extends my fascination with humans and nature, and their boundless capacity for re-invention and rejuvenation.

Exhibition install, Going Gaga with Dada 2012, Brenda May Gallery

Janet Parker-Smith, ‘Transitionally Lost’ (detail) 2014, digital print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Paper, ed of 7, 100 x 70cm

EMILY MCINTOSH

KEVIN MCKAY

Synthesis 17 March to 11 April This work examines cellular replication and scientific innovations being used to create new biological materials.

Emily McIntosh, ‘Marquette for Erythrocytes’ (detail) 2014, polymer clay, dimensions variable

Glory Days: South Sydney Studies 17 March to 11 April This series of small plein air paintings explores the unique urban landscape surrounding Brenda May Gallery.

Kevin McKay, ‘Water Board block, McEvoy St, Waterloo’ (detail) 2014, oil on linen canvas board, 25.5 x 35.5cm

BLA CK BOX PROJECTS

DANIEL CONNELL

NICHOLAS TORY

RESOLVING RUINS

Obsolete 28 January to 14 February

Make 17 February to 14 March

curated by Screen Space 17 March to 11 April

A figure moves through the forest.

Rain falls, her dress dissolves, as she gradually retreats into the landscape.

Locked in a cupboard, the video installation ‘Make’ presents the life cycle of a worker and his creation, exploring ideas of obsessive work behaviour and the absurdity of an ephemeral practice.

Featuring artists who take the detritus of human activity as their starting point and transform and resolve it in unique and often mesmerising ways.

Daniel Connell, ‘Obsolete’ 2013, film still detail

Leela Schauble, ‘Synthetic Species Motion Study No. 7’ 2013, HD video, edition of 4

Nicholas Tory, ‘Make’ 2014, concept detail

GALLERY N EWS Robert Boynes in Pop to Popism at the Art Gallery of New South Wales Two works by Robert Boynes from the collections of the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the National Gallery of Victoria are currently on view in the blockbuster exhibition Pop to Popism until 1 March 2015. The exhibition has brought together major works by local and international artists who either pioneered, contributed to or notably engaged with the Pop Art movement.

Robert Boynes, ‘Playboy club news’ 1974, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 152 x 152cm In the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales

A RT S TA GE SI N GAPORE 2015

ROBERT BOYNES: LONG TAKE, SLOW DISSOLVE Across fifteen panels, Long Take – Slow Dissolve encapsulates the aesthetic and energy of a contemporary, urban environment. Though the artist uses layers of iconography that are site-specific, such as the National Gallery of Victoria’s ‘water-wall’ and a veil of hanging ping-pong balls installed at the end of a tiny alley in Melbourne, Boynes’s work evokes the overall energy of the big city, imaging no particular place and therefore lending itself to reflect any modern metropolis. Fractured imagery of crowds, references to the chaotic noise of communication, glowing fluorescent lights and junctions

of human interaction are composed in a linear narrative colours and shapes radiate from the canvases throughout the strip. The heat and activity of many of the panels in Long Take – Slow Dissolve are grounded and juxtaposed with moments of strong colour and texture, though a definite emphasis on the human form in relation to urban spaces is always evident. Though each canvas is compiled of multiple layers, they exist as fleeting moments; peripheral glimpses of a familiar city-scape.

BACKGROUND Robert Boynes’s work has been likened to that of a filmmaker who, in a single frame, captures that illusive “moment in time”. One can think of his work as a ‘mirror’, reflecting current ideas of the times back at society. Boynes’s career has already spanned five decades, accommodating three aesthetically distinctive periods, all of which make astute comments about contemporary society.

Taking cues from his time spent in London, Boynes’s work in the late 1960’s reflected the neo-pop era. Imaging material objects and erotica, and using bold colours, fragmented panes and superimposed elements, Boynes’s vibrant canvases exuded seduction and suppressed desire, as

subjects included cars, women, war and popular culture.

These interrogations into the allure of consumerism continued throughout the 1970’s, with many works centered on capitalist culture, societal detritus and moments depicting simple pleasures, such as a lit match igniting a perfectly cylindrical cigarette. A physical move to Canberra saw Boynes’s work shift visually, his previous shallow depth of field and flat, restricted surfaces were replaced with lush painterly ones. These works imaged sites of construction and demolition, representing cities devoid of life, sinking into oblivion. Influenced by a trip to Los Angeles, these works were often desolate, but anxious, and began Boynes’s thematic fascination with the city.

In the 1990’s Boynes returned to a stripped back surface, imaging lonely crowds of shadowed figures and epic topographical maps of urban environments. This period saw Boynes revisit a technique that was honed in his neopop days, screen-printing, a method he continues to employ in his current practice. The advent of digital photography and recent developments in printing techniques worked in tandem to expand the possibilities of the medium. Boynes’s paintings interact with these processes beyond replication.

His works often end up with twenty or thirty layers, applied by various procedures, from dragging paint over screens with sponges and scrubbing brushes, to stenciling and airbrushing. His paintings often include collaged elements

worked into the canvas, taking them further and further away from the original ‘shot’ and more deeply into something ghostly and evocative.

Using these techniques, Boynes’s work in the 2000’s captured monitoring devices and perversion, revealing shadows behind blinds and scenes caught in security mirrors. His most recent works have visualised a perspectival “zoomingin” of subject matter, from the vast aerial views, implicating the hum and chaos of the city via layered imagery, to the people and sights that occupy it – skateboarders, neon signs, groups of children, commuters and advertisements.

Robert Boynes, ‘Long Take - Slow Dissolve’ 2003-2014, acrylic on canvas, timber - 15 panels, 120 x 1081cm

BIOGRAPHY (b. 1942. Adelaide, SA, Australia) The fact that Robert Boynes’s work is held in every major art collections across Australia, a number of international institutions, corporate bodies, private collectors and numerous Australian Regional Galleries, is a testament to the success of his career. These impressive collections include, but are not limited to, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the National Gallery of Australia and all of the many State Gallery collections and Art Museums across Australia. Boynes was already a respected, midcareer artist when he had his first solo exhibition with

Access Contemporary Art Gallery in 1996, Brenda May Gallery’s former incarnation. Boynes’s multilayered paintings continue to draw inspiration from contemporary street culture, more recently incorporating skateboarders, hooded figures and graffiti, among textured backgrounds that contain text, water, signage and lights. Capturing a sense of motion and flux, each canvas stands alone as a fleeting moment or can be configured with others to create storyboards of filmic ‘frames’.

2 015 EXH IB I TI ON C ALEND AR 22 – 25 January 28 January – 14 February 17 February – 14 March 17 March – 11 April 14 April – 2 May 5 May – 6 June 9 June – 4 July 7 July – 1 August 4 August – 29 August 1 September – 26 September

Art Stage Singapore - Robert Boynes Sculpture 2015: Sculpture Park - group exhibition Black Box Projects: Daniel Connell Janet Parker-Smith* | Small Publishers* - curated by Akky van Ogtrop Black Box Projects: Nicholas Tory* Emily McIntosh* | Kevin McKay* Black Box Projects: Resolving Ruins* - curated by Screen Space Paper Works III - group exhibition Black Box Projects: Todd Fuller Ashleigh Garwood | Janet Tavener Black Box Projects: Head On Photo Festival Multiples - curated by Akky van Ogtrop Black Box Projects: Mouthfeel - curated by Megan Fizell Robert Boynes | Lezlie Tilley Black Box Projects: Claire Anna Watson Irianna Kanellopoulou | ...a piece of string... - curated by Al Munro Black Box Projects: Screen Surface - curated by Geoff Weary James Guppy | Nicole Welch Black Box Projects: Nicole Welch

29 September – 24 October

Melinda Le Guay | Mylyn Nguyen Black Box Projects: Love. Lament. Loss.

27 October – 21 November

Waratah Lahy | Peter Tilley Black Box Projects: Nina Ross

24 November – 19 December *

30 Years | 30 Artists | 30 Works - anniversary exhibition 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. +61 2 9318 1122

Front Cover: Peter Tilley, ‘In Search of the Sea’ 2012 cast iron, Corten steel, 186 x 60 x 124cm Installed at Sculpture by the Sea - Bondi 2012