Collection Peek

New Acquisitions

Nyarapayi Giles, Warmurrungu

2015, Acrylic on canvas, 106.5 x 101cm Purchased for the MRAG Collection in 2021 with the assistance of the 2320 Collectors Club

Tamara Dean Tumbling through the treetops

2020, Eco-solvent pigment print, 110 x 160cm Purchased for the MRAG Collection in 2021 with the assistance of the 2320 Collectors Club In May 2021, the inaugural ‘2320 Collectors Club’ event was held at MRAG, an evening during which participants donated funds for the acquisition of a new artwork into the MRAG Collection. The “Collectors” were presented with five artworks, selected by MRAG curators, one of which would be purchased after a vote. The beautiful painting Warmurrungu by Western Desert artist Nyarapayi Giles was chosen after a tight vote. In this work Giles paints the tjukurrpa (stories) of Warmurrungu, a special ceremonial site near Karku (her birthplace), depicting the travels of emus of the Dreamtime and the rockholes at which they stopped. In an unexpected, but very delightful turn of events, two of the 2320 Collectors very generously made an extra donation so that the second most popular work of the night, Tumbling through treetops, by Sydney-based artist Tamara Dean, could also be acquired. During lockdown, Dean created a series of photographs using her own body as the figurative element within a natural landscape, at times appearing emboldened, as in this work, and in others appearing to flee from an invisible threat. This timely work reflects the duality of Dean’s psychological response to the pandemic, from claustrophobia and anxiety to a sense of release and connection to nature.

Words: Cheryl Farrell, Collection Curator

Member Sally Denmead invited Maitland-born artist Jackie Gorring to reflect on an artwork she created in the early 80s, which was acquired into the MRAG Collection. Reflection

I first came across Jackie Gorring’s work a couple of years ago, possibly in local artist Robyn Werkhoven’s Studio La Primitive Arts Zine and felt an immediate connection with it. Gorring makes large relief prints, stamping textured images of odd bod characters, animals and farmyard objects from Styrofoam into curious assemblages. I noticed that Jackie was born in Maitland (in 1953) and wondered if any of her work was in the MRAG Collection. Happily – yes! Loft, a small linocut on handmade paper, was acquired into the Collection after being commended in the Maitland Art Prize in 1985. Roger Butler, then Curator at the NGA, described it as an “exquisite” linocut, which at the time reflected “a growing interest of print makers to control all aspects of a print’s production” (Newcastle Herald, 1985). I contacted Jackie, who now lives in country Victoria and regularly opens her ‘Palace of Wonder and Creative Abandon’ gallery to the public– to reflect on the work. Jackie says Loft refers to the barn her family had just built at Limeburners Creek and is a print of one of the kids’ beds in the loft. “I wanted a simple image to show off the paper,” she says, having been “heavily into making paper in those days”. Jackie made paper from recycled envelopes, newsprint, dried leaves and even (labour-intensive) from cumbungi reeds surrounding the dam at that time.

Jackie says she shifted from using lino in the 90s, when she started experimenting with printing from Styrofoam; “I loved the immediate quality and the ease, texture and spontaneity [it] gave me,” she says, and she still does. Aside from big bold prints, Jackie made many sculptures during lockdown inspired by local identities and animals around her.

Jackie Gorring

Loft, c.1983 (not dated) Linocut on handmade paper, 17.5 x 13cm. Purchased for the MRAG Collection in 1985 with the assistance of the Art Gallery Society.

The MRAG Collection comprises more than 6000 paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs and limited edition prints, by Australian and international artists. Visit mrag.org.au/learn/collection to find out more.