The Printmakers exhibition catalogue

25 JUNE – 3 AUGUST, 2011

THE PRINTMAKERS

THE PRINTMAKERS

The exhibition will feature work from 3 prominent printmakers. Each artist selecting an emerging or associate printmaker that the artist has mentored or in some way offered assistance to the development of that artist’s journey in printmaking.

The Printmakers exhibition came about from several coincidental and unrelated ideas and happenings in and around the Gallery over the last year: the presence of Master printmaker Theo Tremblay on one of his flying visits to his second home of Bungendore from Cairns; the recent return to Canberra by printmaker Robyn Collier from British Columbia and her desire to again exhibit with the Gallery; and regular visits by myself to the very busy Griffith Studio and Graphic Workshop of the Gallery’s longest standing visual artist, Pamela Griffith.

Together the three artists represent everything that is good about printmaking in Australia. All three are long standing and highly accomplished exhibitors at the Gallery. And very importantly they are all educators as well as artists who are all are committed to passing on their knowledge to students and emerging artists of all ages. Theo’s specialisation both academically and practically is with Indigenous Australian and Torres Strait Islander artists, hence the ideal location for his Editions Tremblay studio/workshop in Far North Queensland. Pamela conducts workshops throughout Australia on a regular basis and Robyn has divided her time between teaching in Western Canada and Australia.

With that in mind the idea of three Master printmakers exhibiting with one of their mentored, emerging and young artists became almost a natural progression of thought.

Theo’s choice of Yam Islander Glen Mackie, provides an opportunity for the Gallery to present the visually stunning stories presented by Glen in his relief prints steeped in his cultural background. Theo considers Glen as among the top three Torres Strait Islander printmakers with Dennis Nona and Alick Tipoti: High praise indeed.Pamela Griffith’s associate for this exhibition Nicholas Nicola, is a calm, unassuming and affable artist with a deep sensitivity to the Australian landscape and an artist who is humbled by the deeply spiritual relationship between Aboriginal Australians and their land that they refer to as “mother”. The interaction between Nic and Glen’s approach to the representation of the land will be evident in both their works on exhibit and in their, at times, “in common” aesthetic thinking, when the two artists meet here at the Gallery.

Robyn Collier’s long association with the Gallery has given rise to five previous solo exhibitions that have covered her long career in printmaking, including a retrospective exhibition that realised numerous sales from the floor of our Octagon ArtSpace while we were sorting out the

works for exhibition. Dividing her time between Canberra and Canada has left little time to form substantial mentor relationships with young emerging printmakers in Canberra.

Enter Tess Barker who joined the staff of the Gallery some 12 months ago coming to us as a recent arts and education graduate and dedicated printmaker. Tess has had a fairly rapid rise to success when she collected 2nd prize in the emerging artist youth section of the prestigious Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize Award, at the Art Gallery of South Australia. Robyn’s ethereal muted etchings are an ideal contrast to Tess’s richly coloured and mono-toned depictions of Australian flora and fauna. The two artists have been meeting on common grounds such as the Megalo Print Workshop in Canberra and at Robyn’s home studio in preparation for the exhibition.

All six artists in this exhibition are printmakers, teachers and people sensitive to their natural surroundings and the multicultural character of this great country. All acknowledge the priceless value of collaboration and learning from each other, and all will present work of exceptional quality and diversity that will make this one of the standout printmaking exhibitions in the Gallery’s near 30 year history.

Stan d’Argeavel MA(VA) Exhibition Coordinator

TOP: GRIFFITH STUDIO AND GRAPHIC WORKSHOP, SYDNEY

PAMELA GRIFFITH

NICHOLAS NICOLA

Pamela Griffith is a well-known and popular Australian artist. Her talent is multifaceted with a broad approach to both subject matter and art medium ranging through portraiture, drawings, landscape and still life. Above all, her art reflects a love for the history, landscape, flora and fauna of Australia. A prolific artist in the print medium over the past thirty years Pamela has produced over 300 editions from her Griffith Studio and Graphic Workshop. These are primarily etchings, but also include lithographs and woodblocks.

Many of Nic’s prints derive from an intense interest in the Australian bush. He is still very much in the process of comprehending the natural elements of this ancient continent. Acknowledging that he is depicting the topography previously occupied by the ‘first Australians’, he also admits to only having a dimly perceived appreciation of the Aboriginal artists’ far more mature and astute understanding of the landscape.

Pamela co-designed her studio’s pneumatic press, heater and aquatint loom and believes that art should be available for everyone. Among her many publicly acclaimed projects was the design of the artwork on the decorative fabrics (toiles) to commemorate the Australian bicentenary and the beatification of Saint (then Mother) Mary MacKillop. The Australian National Gallery has a complete set of her proofs.

Nic also sees a cosmological link between land and sky and space adding the concept of ‘father’ to his acceptance of the Indigenous view of the land as ‘mother’. Working almost exclusively in the 6 x 4 inch format and often combining drypoint, sugarlift and aquatint on the same etched plate, Nic believes it is up to the imagination of the printmaker to use any method of leaving marks suitable for the artist’s purposes of image-making.

Pamela Griffith – Exuberance 8/25, $725 / $440 unframed XPPG1618

Pamela Griffith – The Wanderer 1/25, $660 / $440 unframed XPPG41

Pamela Griffith – Golden Bower Bird, Atherton 1/15, $1295 / $880 unframed XPPG1631

Pamela Griffith – The Lagoon 8/25, $1295 / $880 unframed XPPG1308

Pamela Griffith – The Wondrous Isles of the Galapagos, $1295 / $880 unframed XPPG1597

Pamela Griffith – The Burn In the Bush 1/15, $1295 / $880 unframed XPPG61

Nicholas Nicola – Angel Rock A/P, $360 / $260 unframed XPNN01

Nicholas Nicola – Archangel, Wolli Creek A/P, $360 / $260 unframed XPNN06

Nicholas Nicola – The Dance of the Dead A/P, $360 / $260 unframed XPNN07

Nicholas Nicola – Early Morning, Coledale A/P, $360 / $260 unframed XPNN05

Nicholas Nicola – Early Morning, Coledale A/P, $360 / $260 unframed XPNN05

Nicholas Nicola – Heart of the Universe A/P, $360 / $260 unframed XPNN09

Nicholas Nicola – Mangrove Souls, Cooks River, $360 / $260 unframed XPNN02

Nicholas Nicola – Rock Face, Coledale A/P, $360 / $260 unframed XPNN04

Nicholas Nicola – The Last Judgement A/P, $360 / $260 unframed XPNN03

Nicholas Nicola – Well of Life A/P, $360 / $260 unframed XPNN08

TOP: MEGALO PRINT STUDIO + GALLERY, CANBERRA

ROBYN COLLIER

TESS BARKER

Born in Sydney, Robyn moved to British Columbia and in 1979 received a Bachelor of Education Degree. She studied Renaissance art in Europe, and moved to the Queen Charlotte Islands, Canada, teaching native Haida children and adult printmaking at night. In Vancouver she began the theory portion of her postgraduate degree, with an art major. After completing research in Australia, she was awarded a Master of Arts Degree, from the University of British Columbia in 1995.

Robyn is a relief teacher in the ACT and has been a member of the Studio One Print workshop (now Megalo Arts) since 1987.

Tess recently completed a double degree in Teaching and Fine Art (Honours) at Newcastle University. She is a printmaker working in linocut and is drawn towards the depiction of Australian flora and fauna. She had the opportunity to document the beauty of the Ku-ring-gai National Park while growing up in the Pittwater area of Sydney.

Robyn’s work ideologically and physically spans her two familiar continental influences from the waters that pervades both Western Canada and Eastern Australia. Her information rich etchings are often adorned with embossing, engraving, solar plate, hand colouring, copper and gold leaf to depict her chosen subjects.

Tess has worked and exhibited in galleries in Newcastle and Sydney and is one of Bungendore Wood Works Gallery’s customer service representatives. Her framed linocut print, Protea: New and Spent Bud was awarded second prize in the youth art section for emerging artists at the 2010 Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize.

Her finely executed relief images both in monotone and in brilliant colouring are indicative of her chosen subjects and display a level of confidence and maturity not often found in such a young artist.

Robyn Collier – Blue Wren, $495 / $330 unframed XPRC01

Robyn Collier – Waiting, $495 / $330 unframed XPRC02

CDATA[Robyn Collier – Australian Natives, $580 / $825 unframed XPRC05

Robyn Collier – Ravens Cry, $495 / $330 unframed XPRC04

Robyn Collier – Window on my World, $745 / $580 unframed XPRC05

Robyn Collier – You Called, $495 / $330 unframed XPRC03

Tess Barker – Union 1/20, $650 / $400 unframed XPTB03

Tess Barker – Doryanthes Excelsa 1/20, $750 / $500 unframed XPTB01

Tess Barker – Gippsland Water Dragon 1/20, $650 / $400 unframed XPTB05

Tess Barker – Something Borrowed Something Blue, $650 / $400 unframed XPTB04

Tess Barker – Trapped, $600 / $350 unframed XPTB07

Tess Barker – Emerging (Cicadas) 1/20, $600 / $350 unframed XPTB06

Tess Barker – Crimson on Gymea 3/30, $650 / $400 unframed XPTB02

TOP: EDITIONS TREMBLAY NFP, CAIRNS

THEO TREMBLAY

GLEN MACKIE

Master printer Theo Tremblay is a pioneer of collaborative printmaking and publishing and the mentoring of Aboriginal and Zenadh Kes (Torres Strait) artists in a range of print mediums. He completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Boston Museum School then studied drawing and printmaking at Oxford University, where he was also a founding member of the Oxford Printmakers Co-op.

Glen originates from Yam Island in the eastern Torres Strait group and is now resident in Cairns. He was taught to carve and paint by members of his extended family. Glen’s mission is to keep alive the sacred stories, myths and legends of his people, and he does this through his beautifully intricate and deeply detailed relief prints. He features the motifs and totems of his father and mother, the Kursi (Hammerhead Shark – which he has adopted as his own) and Kodal (the Crocodile) in many of his works, with the highly decorative, visually stunning and detailed symbols telling the story he is portraying.

Theo specialises in etching, lithography, relief printing, monoprint and screenprinting. His and many other artist’s works created in the Editions Tremblay NFP workshops have been acquired by major galleries and museums in Australia and internationally. In 1995 Theo earned a Canberra Times Critics Circle Award and a citation from Mick Dodson of the National Council for Reconciliation in the same year. Theo continues his essential mentoring work with printmakers including Glen Mackie from his new studio/workshop in the Canopy Arts Complex in Cairns.

Glen finds ‘Vinylcut’ a more versatile medium than ‘Linocut’ as it allows him to achieve an amazing degree of accuracy and density in his prints, all printed from a single pass through the press.

Theo Tremblay – Das Grinhaus 1988 30 X 25cm, $550 unframed XPTT06

Theo Tremblay – Denise With Hammer 1985 58 X 43cm, $1200 unframed XPTT05

Theo Tremblay – Elspeth 1983 48 X 34cm, $750 unframed XPTT03

Theo Tremblay – Going Solar 1982 60 X 44cm, $750 unframed XPTT02

Theo Tremblay – Kamaruka Tractor 1982 60 X 80cm, $1200 unframed XPTT01

Theo Tremblay – Motormask 1988 40 X 59cm, $750 unframed XPTT07

Theo Tremblay – Saturday Night, Sunday Morning, $1200 unframed XPTT04

Theo Tremblay – Thaw 1994 40 X 28cm, $550 unframed XPTT08

Glen Mackie – Kursi, $520 unframed XPGM04

Glen Mackie – Sulwul, $685 unframed XPGM03

Glen Mackie – The Two Bala, $685 unframed XPGM01

Glen Mackie – Kubar E (Mono), $640 unframed XPGM07

Glen Mackie – Kubar E (Coloured Ink on Black), $685 unframed XPGM08

Glen Mackie – The Coming of Sigai, $685 unframed XPGM02

Glen Mackie – Waru, $350 unframed XPGM06

Glen Mackie – Gastrokeus, $350 unframed XPGM05

Kings Highway Bungendore NSW 2621

Phone +61 2 6238 1682

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Š Bungendore Wood Works Gallery 2011

gallery@bwoodworks.com.au

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