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 Waterloo NSW 2017 | brendamaygallery.com.au
SPRING 2016
VOLUME 2
NUMBER 4
BLA CK BOX PROJECTS GRAYSON COOKE Old Growth 1 to 27 October Old Growth is an environmental critique and material enquiry, it consists of three video works, each of which explores different effects of resource extraction or anthropogenic climate change. Each work consists of time-lapse photography of film media being chemically degraded. Grayson Cooke, ‘Deforest’ 2016, 1080p digital video - 10:19mins
MERRI RANDELL + CHRIS DENARO (UN) natural urges 29 October to 24 November Merri Randell creates hybrid mediated landscapes to represent her experience, depicting forests vast in scale and detail with the same forms captured from different angles and perspectives. Through the addition of sound and motion these hybrid landscapes come Merri Randell, ‘Bunya: Whip Roots’ 2015, HD video - 10sec loop alive and embody the typically hidden respiratory, digestive and reproductive botanical events of these natural areas. Chris Denaro, ‘Nocturne #39’ 2015 HD video - 33sec loop
Chris Denaro’s work focuses on the night-time experience of forests. In the absence of light the world becomes a void, and the imagination becomes a powerful and uncanny force. Denaro draws on this concept of the void - inspired by uncanny peripheral glimpses from the night-time forest.
Front cover: Catherine O’Donnell, ‘Inhabited space’ 2015-16, charcoal on paper, charcoal wall drawing, 340 x 990cm (overall). Exhibition installation: Close to Home: Dobell Australian Drawing Biennial 2016, curated by Anne Ryan, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 30 July to 11 December 2016.
1 to 27 OCTOBER 2016 CATHERINE O’DONNELL Drawn in Fairfield My drawings are an exploration of architecture, culture, history, and the urban environment with a current focus on 1960/70s housing estates. At first glance, the aesthetic qualities of these utilitarian dwellings may not be evident, these buildings are not always given the same value as other housing and have become a cultural signifier of lower socioeconomic communities across Western Sydney. Catherine O’Donnell, ‘Urban dwellings 10’ 2016 pencil on paper, 25 x 56cm
Through my drawings I aim to extract a sense of humanity drawn from the fact that these are homes, along with the more formal aesthetics of these buildings. I employ realism as a catalyst to ignite the imagination of the viewer and invite them to look beyond the mundane and banal. To revisit these spaces imaginatively and find the aesthetic poetry embedded within the suburban landscape, while at the same time disrupting cultural prejudices that prevent people from seeing the underlying elegance of these simple buildings.
RAY HAYDON, Fluid Dynamics This October at Brenda May Gallery, Auckland-based artist Ray Haydon will display new cursive sculptures in his first Australian solo exhibition. Although his oeuvre includes largescale, outdoor and kinetic sculptures, Fluid Dynamics will primarily focus on Haydon’s smaller scale free-standing and wall-mounted works that create flowing forms from carbon fibre and timber veneer. The twists and turns of these pieces allow them to be viewed from a multitude of angles, each perspective offering an alternate sense of motion and energy. With smooth contours and seamless finishes, the sculptures of Ray Haydon are not complicated or chaotic, rather these curling interventions in space embody fluidity via their clarity of form, the transformation of stunning materials and the Artist’s impeccable articulation. Ray Haydon, ‘Fluid II’ 2016, carbon fibre and American Walnut veneer, 210 x 65 x 24cm
29 OCTOBER to 24 NOVEMBER 2016 JAMES GUPPY, Counterpoint counterpoint is the relationship between voices that are harmonically interdependent (polyphony) yet independent in rhythm and contour. For the past few years my work has been driven by an inner malaise with “the way things are”. Now I am returning to a favoured theme… the body and intimacy. Moved by the rhythms and textures of cherished bodies, I have played with these elements to transform lovers at play into a cantata of forms. The paintings are a celebration of flesh and touch…the essence of our being.
James Guppy, ‘Kissing the Wrist’ 2016, acrylic on linen, 61 x 55.5cm
CAROL MURPHY, Sculptural Forms IV This fourth manifestation of the Sculptural Forms series, first started in 2009, began after Carol Murphy came across an online advertisement for an artwork at an English Antiques Shop. This elegant figure resembled a Cycladic sculpture, with the stylisation of the head and arms entwined. Murphy explains, “I have never wanted to own an artwork more. Upon first seeing it, I was captivated, with no providence attached, it resembled to me something Henry Moore may have carved, as it required considerable skill for its size… I expect it may have been carved by a European sculptor of some note, but somehow was separated from its history.” This exhibition commenced with Murphy’s desire to create a pastiche of the work that first captured her imagination nine years ago — a response to her immediate connection to it. It is also a continuation of a series of exhibitions that presented figures formed in simple shapes, however the new works are more stylised, elongated, and forced into impossible positions.
Carol Murphy, ‘Study 2’ (work in progress) 2016 ceramic white earthenware paperclay, 8 x 28 x 18.5cm
26 NOVEMBER to 24 DECEMBER 2016 “Yeah. Cheers. Thanks a lot” farewell Danks Street Last year Brenda May Gallery celebrated the major milestone of turning 30. These three decades have been spilt between Access Contemporary Art Gallery (est. 1985) in various Sydney locations and Brenda May Gallery at 2 Danks St in Waterloo. The end of 2016 marks 15 years since the Gallery first became a part of this creative complex on Danks Street and also marks its last, in anticipation of being reborn as May Space in 2017. Although the Gallery had fifteen years of exhibitions, artists and clients prior to opening its doors in Waterloo, it owes many of its strengths, experiences, and achievements to this complex, including: the introduction of many incredible artists to the Gallery’s stable, expanding to a more global platform across Australasia through art fairs, observing the resilience and innovation of the artworld in the aftermath of the financial crisis, and the embrace of new media technologies within the commercial art market. Yeah. Cheers. Thanks a lot is an ode to Brenda May Gallery’s time at 2 Danks Street. An ode to the relationships made, fostered and developed; to the hard times endured and the incredible times shared; to the many anniversaries, openings, and events held and enjoyed; to the other galleries within the complex that have been our peers, neighbours and support group; and to the artists that transform the space every month into something original and exciting. With this vision in mind, this exhibition will feature new works by our Gallery artists, in admiration of their talent and in honour of how they have shaped the Gallery as it stands today. This good bye to the current space is both a celebration of what Brenda May Gallery and its artists have achieved under its roof, whilst also marking this milestone before the Gallery moves onto new things… Yeah. Cheers. Thanks a lot.
2 Danks Street façade 2001
2 Danks Street façade 2016
GA LL ERY NEWS REPRESENTED ARTISTS EXHIBITING IN STATE + REGIONAL GALLERIES
FAREWELL DANKS STREET INTRODUCING M AY S PACE
Catherine O’Donnell at Art Gallery of New South Wales Group exhibition: Dobell Australian Drawing Biennial, 30 July to 11 Dec
As we say good-bye to our Danks Street location at the end of December, we are changing more than just our physical gallery space - we are also changing our name. Starting in 2017, Brenda May Gallery will be known as May Space.
Todd Fuller at Orange Regional Gallery Group exhibition: Kedumba Drawing Award, 20 Aug to 16 Oct Todd Fuller & Catherine O’Donnell at Bendigo Art Gallery Group exhibition: Paul Guest Prize, 27 Aug to 16 Oct Todd Fuller at Grafton Regional Gallery Solo exhibition: Storylines: Drawings from Near and Far, 31 Aug to 23 Oct James Guppy at Tweed Regional Gallery & Margaret Olley Art Centre Solo exhibition: In Flagrante Delicto, 30 Sep to 12 Feb Robert Boynes at Contour 556 (Canberra Public Art Festival) Group exhibition: Interventions in the landscape, 21 Oct to 13 Nov Al Munro at Newcastle Art Gallery Group exhibition: Holding, 26 Nov to 5 Feb
We will be formally launching the new name in our new location in early 2017. Ensure you are on our email list to recieve updates as to our new address and upcoming exhibition calendar.
NOW REPRESENTING ASHLEIGH GARWOOD
Ashleigh Garwood at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre Group exhibition: Silver & Salt, 17 Dec to 5 Feb Mylyn Nguyen at Murray Art Museum Albury Solo exhibition: Found, 24 Jan to 2 May Nicole Welch at Blue Mountains Cultural Centre Solo exhibition: Wildeornes Land - A Media Installation, 1 Apr to 7 May Catherine O’Donnell at Western Plains Cultural Centre Group exhibition: Dobell Australian Drawing Biennial, 6 May to 2 July Robert Boynes at Drill Hall Gallery, Canberra Solo exhibition: Paintings from 2000 to now, 6 July to 13 Aug 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
We are delighted to announce that Ashleigh Garwood has joined Brenda May Gallery as a represented artist. Garwood has steadily gained recognition for her sublime process driven landscape photographs that oscillate between traditional and contemporary photographic techniques. Ashleigh Garwood, ‘Botany’ 2014, silver gelatin prints triptych, edition of 3 + AP, 117 x 279cm