Exhibitions

Meet old and new friends at MRAG this Spring and Summer as you enjoy exhibitions of portrait and landscape painting, a burst of colour from Ken Done and a homage to Maitland’s heritage.

Hello Again – It’s nice to see your face | Portraits from the MRAG Collection

15 Aug 2020 – 14 Feb 2021

Darren McDonald, 'Self', 2013, Acrylic on paper, 76 x 56cm

Purchased by Maitland Regional Art Gallery, 2018

Coming out of isolation to say ‘hello’ again are faces of old friends we haven’t seen for some time, in an exhibition of iconic portraits from the MRAG Collection.

'Hello Again' will also introduce you to new friends, through several recent portrait acquisitions displayed for the first time. These portraits depict faces artists have been compelled to interrogate and record in many different formats and mediums, and their sitters include famous Australians, friends and family, plus self-portraits that provide us with an insight into the artists themselves.

A Passion Shared: The Elliott Eyes Collection

1 Aug - 4 Oct 2020

Nell, 'The Ghost Who Walks Will Never Die', 2008, bronze, 23 x 22 x 22cm

The owners of the Elliott Eyes Collection of contemporary art in Sydney have generously offered MRAG access to their collection of over 300 sculptures, paintings, and ceramics to curate an exhibition specifically for Maitland. It includes work by Clara Adolphs, Euan Macleod, John Coburn, as well as Maitland’s own Todd Fuller and Nell.

Chris Kunko: Thinking of an Old Friend

1 Aug – 15 Nov 2020

Chris Kunko, 'Study' (detail), 2020, ink and biro on paper, 26 x 20cm

The song 'Thinking of an Old Friend', by Japanese guquin player Wu Jinglue, provides the inspiration for this exhibition of work by Gilgandra-based artist Chris Kunko. As he listened to the song, Kunko scribbled down poems that breathed life into locked away imagery and drawings.

Susan Ryman: Hide and Seek

22 Aug – 15 Nov 2020

Susan Ryman, 'Flashcards' (detail) 2008-2012, coloured pencil, ink, gouache on rag paper, varnished, 432 pieces each 12 x 10.5cm

Photograph by Roger Hanley

'Hide and Seek' is an interactive exhibition that encourages viewers to unlock hidden personal stories. The 500-plus small detailed hand-drawn and varnished images in this body of work act as potent visual memory triggers that viewers can unlock, privately or openly, using words and images.

Arlo Mountford: Deep Revolt

22 Aug – 15 Nov 2020

Arlo Mountford, Walking the Line (detail), 2013, Dual channel HD digital animation, 14:37 mins.

This survey of Arlo Mountford’s artistic practice, encompassing video, sculpture and drawing, includes his recent work 100 years (2016), an animated chronology of appropriated artworks charting abstract art since the ‘zero point’ of Malevich’s Black Square in 1915.

A Goulburn Regional Art Gallery exhibition toured by Museums & Galleries of NSW.

2020 Brenda Clouten Memorial Travelling Scholarships

29 Aug – 22 Nov 2020

Leeroy Chapman, 'The Spaces In-Between', 2018, concrete, steel, dimensions variable

This biennial scholarship supports young achievers in the visual arts (30 years or under) who live or work in the Lower Hunter to undertake a program of professional development in an international context. There are two scholarships awarded, based on artistic merit and potential, with all the finalists’ entries exhibited at MRAG.

Anna Louise Richardson: When Night Falls

10 Oct - 15 Nov 2020

Anna Louise Richardson’s work is about intergenerational exchange, parenthood and signifiers of identity based on her experience of life in rural Western Australia living and working on a 7th generation family farm. This is a collection of her work over the last 5 years working through the complex relationships between rural Australians, the environment, and ecological responsibility.

Shan Turner-Carroll: Bodies on a Rock

10 Oct - 15 Nov 2020

'Bodies On A Rock' is an exhibition of existing and new works by local artist Shan Turner-Carroll. Turner-Carroll’s practice documents the multiplicity of connections between body and landscape. Site-specificity is key to this, not only as a premise for the work but also in how an embodied methodology unfolds around each site and location it is presented in.

Holly McNamee: About Maitland

21 Nov 2020 – 21 Feb 2021

Holly McNamee, 'The Old Place' (detail), 2008, conte and charcoal on arches paper, 57 x 38cm

This exhibition is a personal visual record, derived from observation and recollection of times past, of Maitland’s heritage structures and once rich agricultural surrounds. McNamee was a child in Maitland in the 1950s and, after spending many years away, returned in the early 2000s.

Ken Done: Paintings You Probably Haven’t Seen – Selected Works 2000-2017

21 Nov 2020 – 21 Feb 2021

Ken Done, 'Violet coral head' (detail), 2011-16, oil and acrylic on linen, 152 x 122cm.

Courtesy of the artist and Ken Done Gallery, Sydney

Ken Done’s vibrant paintings celebrate Australia’s natural beauty and express wonder in the everyday through glorious colour, spontaneous mark making and brilliant visual expression. A joyful exhibition of significant pieces from Done’s private collection, displayed alongside recent studio work.

Touring from Ken Done Gallery

Fieldwork: AGNSW

28 Nov 2020 – 7 Feb 2021

Hilda Rix Nicholas, 'Through the gum trees, Toongabbie', c1920, oil on canvas, 65.7 x 81.9cm. Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Acquired with the support of the Art Gallery Society of NSW through the Dagmar Halas Bequest 2016 © Estate of Hilda Rix Nicholas

A survey of plein air painting (painting outdoors) west of Sydney between the late 19th and mid-20th centuries, including works by prominent artists such as Elioth Gruner, Julian Ashton and Hilda Rix Nicholas. Portrayals of this region made an important, yet often overlooked, contribution to Australian art.

Touring from the Art Gallery of New South Wales

Andrew Sullivan: Survey into the Cretaceous

28 Nov 2020 – 7 Mar 2021

Andrew Sullivan, 'T-REX (Tyrant Lizard King)' (detail), 2014, oil on canvas, 153 x 213cm

For this exhibition, the artist imagines being assigned to a team of palaeontologists and geographers on a survey expedition into the late Cretaceous period. Recording the fauna and expressing the experience through an artist’s eye, this is a journey into the painter’s imagination.

Touring from Galerie pompom

Please note that exhibition details are subject to change.