ART GUIDE Exhibitions to see this August

WORDS BY CHESTER OGILVIE

WHO’S WHO PORTRAIT EXHIBITION

From the all-too-temporary chalk drawings on the sidewalk to gloriously colourful splashes of paint on canvas, the art of children is so often wonderfully unique, unfiltered, unusual and imaginative. Honouring Jules Francois Archibald, the Who’s Who Portrait Exhibition encourages and inspires students from kindergarten to grade six living across the Geelong region. Students are invited to submit a portrait that celebrates their own identity, family, friends or local identities.

Shoulda Been Here Yesterday

Curated by the dynamic duo Jessi Rebel and Ula Majewski, this multi-media group show is all about our deep connection to the saltwater and the coastal places we call home. Featuring over 50 stunning artworks, the exhibition puts the spotlight on First Nations artists and other ocean creatives living on Wadawurrung Country, making it a celebration of culture, creativity, and community.

HOOP GALLERY UNTIL 27 AUG

Essays On Earth

In the words of American novelist and environmental activist Wendell Berry, “The Earth is what we all have in common.” Held across three gallery spaces, Essays on Earth is a collaboration between multidisciplinary artist Brodie Ellis, painter/printmaker John Wolseley and poet Paul Kane that fuses Ellis and Wolseley’s observations of the natural world with the themes and reflections of Kane’s verse essays, Earth, Air, Water, Fire. An expansive video installation lies at the heart of the exhibition.

BENDIGO ART GALLERY 9 SEP - 14 JAN

Transference

An exhibition that encourages viewers to speculate about what processes may have taken place to create the thing they see is in its final days. Transference welcomed four Castlemaine-based artists in Justin Andrews, Michael Graeve, Melinda Harper and Clayton Tremlett to create a body of works that experiments with varying methodologies of this print process. Artists recorded the process of transferring colour, shape, gesture and texture to allow for a “joyful kind of visual uncertainty”.

CASTLEMAINE ART MUSEUM UNTIL 3 SEP

Geelong Art Show

Curated by Jan Synott OAM and judged by Paul McDonald Smith OAM, the newly formed Geelong Art Show aims to become an integral part of the local art scene. There will be four categories in 2023, with that to be expanded over coming years to include other artistic mediums. All surplus funds as a result of the art show will be donated to Australian charities, this year being the Geelong Region Cancerians.

SACRED HEART COLLEGE, NEWTOWN, HEPBURN 18-20 AUG

LITTLE BIG, BIG LITTLE

Art doesn’t have to be serious. The works of Raymond Arnold, Douglas S. Y. Cham, Madeleine Child, Gary Erickson, Barrie Goddard, Naomi Hobson, Anna Kristensen, Clifford Frank Last and Renee So are featured in this playful introduction to the elements and principles of arts, styles and art movements. Big and little visitors alike are encouraged to explore colour, texture and scale, all while contemplating some of the big questions.

SHEPPARTON ART MUSEUM UNTIL 3 SEP

WAYNE ELLIOTT: STORIES FROM YONDER

As a young’un, Wayne Elliott would climb Mount Elephant or sit atop silos as a way to see as much of the world as he could. As he tells it, if there is more to see, there is more of a story to tell. Among the works in his new appropriately titled exhibition is ‘Lasseter’s Reef’, which tells the story of Harry Lasseter’s discovery of the legendary gold reef – and his inability to find it again.

THE HIVE, OCEAN GROVE UNTIL 27 AUG

Racv X Bifb

The RACV has partnered with the Ballarat International Foto Biennale for three lengthy exhibitions. Within the Landscapes (RACV Goldfields Resort) explores landscapes within landscapes, hidden around the resort. Aldona Kmieć’s Winterbloom (Goldfields Gallery) is an invitation to explore the boundaries of our imagination with fluid and bright photography taken during the depths of COVID. And Erik Johansson’s Behind the Image (ArtHouse) uses original drawings and short documentaries to explain how the artist’s physical photography is brought to life with digital effects.

RACV X BIFB EXHIBITIONS 19 AUG - 3 DEC