© Martin Browne Contemporary © All images copyright Marlene Gilson This catalogue is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. COMPILER: Ally Russell-Floyd PHOTOGRAPHY: Jane Gardner COLOUR SEPARATIONS: Spitting Image, Sydney Cover Image: Gordon, My Place - Before, 2020, acrylic on linen, 120 x 150 cm
MARLENE GILSON My Place - Before 4 - 28 March 2021
MARTIN BROWNE CONTEMPORARY 15 HAMPDEN STREET PADDINGTON NSW 2021 TEL: 02 9331 7997 FAX: 02 9331 7050 info@martinbrownecontemporary.com www.martinbrownecontemporary.com GALLERY HOURS: TUESDAY - SUNDAY 10:30AM - 6PM
MARLENE GILSON My Place - Before Since she began painting in 2012, Marlene Gilson’s focus has been on challenging the understanding we have of the colonial period as it played out in the ancestral lands of her Wathaurung people – an area which covers Ballarat, Werribee, Geelong, Skipton and the Otway Ranges in Victoria. Extending the existing colonial representations to include the Indigenous communities and Chinese immigrants who were present but unacknowledged in the images handed down from that time, Marlene Gilson has reclaimed and re-contextualised historical events as various as James Cook’s arrival and proclamation of the claiming of Australia, the ‘purchase’ of the land on which the city of Geelong now stands, and the events surrounding the Eureka Rebellion. Although originally learning her Wathaurung history from her grandmother, Gilson only began painting in her mid 60’s while recovering from an illness. Her meticulously rendered images display a narrative richness and theatrical quality akin to the traditional genre of history painting. Yet while Gilson’s paintings reconfigure historical narratives, they also display her spiritual connection to Country – often including her two totems, Bunjil the Eagle and Waa the Crow.
LIST OF WORKS
Building the Stockade at Eureka, 2021, acrylic on linen, 100 x 120 cm Another day on the Goldfields, 2021, acrylic on linen, 76 x 100 cm Land not for sale, 2020, acrylic on linen, 76 x 100 cm The start of a City - Ballarat, 2020, acrylic on linen, 76 x 100 cm Come Back, 2020, acrylic on linen, 60 x 70 cm William Buckley and John Batman, 2021, acrylic on linen, 76 x 100 cm Stone houses and eel trapping, 2020, acrylic on linen, 76 x 100 cm William Buckley at Bells Beach, 2020, acrylic on linen, 100 x 120 cm Gordon, My Place - Before, 2020, acrylic on linen, 120 x 150 cm
Building the Stockade at Eureka, 2021, acrylic on linen, 100 x 120 cm
Another day on the Goldfields, 2021, acrylic on linen, 76 x 100 cm
Land not for sale, 2020, acrylic on linen, 76 x 100 cm
The start of a City - Ballarat, 2020, acrylic on linen, 76 x 100 cm
Come Back, 2020, acrylic on linen, 60 x 70 cm Following page: William Buckley and John Batman, 2021, acrylic on linen, 76 x 100 cm
Stone houses and eel trapping, 2020, acrylic on linen, 76 x 100 cm
William Buckley at Bells Beach, 2020, acrylic on linen, 100 x 120 cm
Gordon, My Place - Before, 2020, acrylic on linen, 120 x 150 cm
MARLENE GILSON Born 1944, Warrnambool Clan – Wathaurung (Wadawurrung) SOLO EXHIBITIONS
AWARDS
2021 My Place - Before, Martin Browne Contemporary, Sydney, 4 March - 28 March 2021 2020 On Country, Martin Browne Contemporary, Sydney, 5 March - 29 March 2020 2018 Marlene Gilson, Biennale of Australian Art, Art Gallery of Ballarat, Ballarat, 21 September 2018 – 3 February 2019 2017 What If, Koorie Heritage Trust, Melbourne, 5 August – 8 October 2017 2016 Painting Stories, Aunty Marlene, Solo Exhibition, Creswick and Bacchus Marsh Libraries, NAIDOC Week. 3 – 10 July 2015 Guraham - King William - His Country, Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka, Ballarat, 26 September – 23 January 2016 2014 Wadawurrung - Past, Present & Future, Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre at Melbourne Museum, Melbourne, 5 December 2014 – 28 June 2015 (with Deanne Gilson) 2012 Welcome to our Country (Ngardang baap yarrang) - Mother and Daughter - Wathaurung (Wadawurrung) Dreaming, Art Gallery of Ballarat, August 4th, 2012 - September 9th, 2012 (with Deanne Gilson)
2016 City of Ballarat, Bunjil Plaques on Twelve Historical Buildings 2016 Gekko Painting Award, Ballarat 2015 The 10th Anniversary Victorian Indigenous Art Awards, Art Gallery of Ballarat, 9 August – 20 September 2015 2015 Koorie Heritage Trust Reconciliation Award, Christmas Exhibition 2014 Koorie Heritage Trust Reconciliation Award, Christmas Exhibition 1956 Specially Commended Certificate of Merit, Children’s Art Award, Footscray, Melbourne
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
COLLECTIONS
2019 New Acquisitions, Shepparton Art Museum, January 2019 2018 The National Picture: The Art of Tasmania’s Black War, National Gallery of Australia, 12 May – 29 July 2018 touring to Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery, Hobart and the Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery, Launceston 2018 Superpostion, 21st Biennale of Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 16 March – 11 June 2018 2018 Colony: Frontier Wars, National Gallery of Victoria 15 March 2018 – 15 July 2018 2017 Reconciliation, Manningham Art Gallery, Doncaster, Victoria 24 May – 24 June 2017 2017 Taking the Myth, The Lost Ones Gallery, Ballarat, 26 April – 28 May 2017 2017 Leather Poisoning, Counihan Gallery, Brunswick, Victoria,11 March 2017 – 9 April 2017 2016 Sovereignty, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 17 December 2016 - 26 March 2017 2016 Kingston Art Centre, ‘I Never Painted My Dreams, I Painted My Reality’, Kingston Art Centre, Moorrabin, Victoria, 2 - 27 September 2016
Art Gallery of Ballarat, Ballarat Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Australian Catholic University Art Collection, Melbourne Bundoora Homestead, Bundoora City of Melbourne Art Collection, Melbourne Counihan Gallery, Brunswick, Victoria Deakin University Art Collection Gekko Systems Art Collection, Ballarat Guirguis Art Collection, Ballarat Koorie Heritage Trust, Melbourne Manningham Gallery, Doncaster, Victoria National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Nigel Buesst Art Collection, Melbourne Parliament House Art Collection, Canberra Shepparton Art Museum, Shepparton Sovereign Hill Gold Museum, Ballarat Works held in private collections Australia and USA