Exhibitions

Step into MRAG this Autumn and Winter to enjoy etchings by old Masters, be enchanted by an exotic reading room and contemplate the fragility of life.

Li Hongbo, Gun No.1 (detail), 2016, paper, dimensions variable.

Purchased by Maitland Regional Art Gallery, 2016.

Guns to Roses from the MRAG Collection

29 Feb – 2 Aug 2020

Guns to Roses from the MRAG Collection Guns to Roses brings together artworks from the MRAG Collection, and selected works on loan, that illustrate how artists respond to the precariousness of our times – the fragility of life as impacted by war, political unrest and climate change, and the consciousness of our own mortality. The central element of the exhibition is the installation Gun No. 1, which sees paper weapons transformed into vibrantly coloured rosettes. This work, created by Chinese artist Li Hongbo, reflects the Chinese saying that ‘life is as fragile as paper’.

Alison Alder, Remember Me (detail), 2019, screen print on paper, aluminium, plastic, steel, 120 x 80 x 50cm

Let all birds fly: the hybrid print

8 Feb – 3 May 2020

Questioning long-held traditions of printmaking, guest curators and artists Therese Kenyan and Patricia Wilson-Adams have invited ten artists to join them in exploring the very nature of printmaking. They seek to push the boundaries of the medium and fly free from conventions.

Kei Takemura, Renovated buildings GUTANNAHME-ESSO (detail), 2014, broken German model buildings, Italian synthetic cloth, Japanese silk thread, 25 x 15 x 19cm

Kei Takemura: How can it be recovered?

8 Feb – 3 May 2020

Kei Takemura’s artworks are characterised by overlapping a layer of embroidered cloth onto a photograph, drawing or broken objects. In her Renovated series, Takemura repairs broken objects using silk thread, transforming these wounds into objects of beauty. For the artist, the act of embroidery creates a state of being ‘tentative’; it transforms objects and places which no longer exist, and brings fragments of memory towards a tangible existence.

Masters & Apprentices

22 Feb – 3 May 2020

The ‘Masters’ part of this exhibition is comprised of 21 works on paper by Goya, Renoir, Picasso, Rembrandt, Chagall, Miro and more from the Lakeview Collection of Old Masters. Budding ‘Apprentices’ from local primary and high schools were invited to creatively respond to these works; together we have the Masters & Apprentices!

Roger Lancaster, The Blue Room (detail) digital print, dimensions variable

Maitland International Salon of Photography

22 Feb – 3 May 2020

For over 60 years the Maitland International Salon of Photography (MISoP), which operates via various Camera Clubs in the Hunter Region, has invited photographers from around the world to enter its annual competition. This exhibition showcases 50 entries chosen by MISoP judges and MRAG, across categories including Colour, Nature and Travel.

Lucas Grogan, The Shroud (detail), 2016, cotton on Italian wool, Venetian lace, chux and cotton, 259 x 239cm

Lucas Grogan: Long Story Short

22 Feb – 17 May 2020

Maitland-born artist Lucas Grogan’s work spans multiple disciplines, including embroidery, murals and painting. This is the first solo exhibition at MRAG of Grogan’s work, and includes a mural painted directly on the Gallery walls. Grogan’s sense of humour and personal experiences permeate his bold fastidiously patterned, highly graphic, pun-filled signature blue artworks.

Ken Searle & Nadia Wheatley: Learning from Country

9 May – 26 Jul 2020

Learning from Country showcases six multi-award-winning children’s books by artist and designer Ken Searle and author Nadia Wheatley, including The Papunya School Book of Country and History. The books explore what Searle and Wheatley learnt from Country whilst working as consultants at the school in the Aboriginal community of Papunya, Northern Territory.

Helen Hopcroft, Accidental Harpy 3 (detail), watercolour, pencil and ink on paper, 21 x 29.5cm

Helen Hopcroft: The Re-Enchantment

16 May – 23 Aug 2020

Local artist Helen Hopcroft invites you to transform a giant cardboard box city into the city of your dreams, and to sit in a rather exotic and enchanting reading room. Her exhibition explores the idea of falling in love again, whether that be with someone, something, or even your own life.

Alex Seton, Someone Else’s Problem, 2015, marble dust, resin, Tasmanian oak, stainless steel, dimensions variable

M&G QLD: Safe Space Contemporary Sculpture

23 May – 16 Aug 2020

This touring exhibition from Museums and Galleries Queensland brings together three-dimensional artworks by twelve Australian artists exploring psychological aspects of physical space. Central to many of the works is the human body – its dimensions and the theatre or spectacle that unfolds around it.

In Brief

The Australian Society of Miniature Art: Intimate Universe

9 May – 26 Jul 2020

The universe is unfathomably vast, limitless and unknowable; but we each live in our own small world, an intimate universe of personal experience. These artists reveal what living in an ‘Intimate Universe’ means to them.

Waiting for Equality

9 May – 16 Aug 2020

Based on an in-depth research project at the University of Newcastle, the first to focus on a regional LGBTQI community, this exhibition documents the Newcastle/ Hunter LGBTQI community in the critical decade leading to the vote for marriage equality.

Please note that exhibition details are subject to change.