Everywhere at all times: bringing the archive into the contemporary 19th – 22nd September 2013
Danie Mellor Brian Robinson Christian Thompson
MICHAEL REID SY DNEY - BERLIN - MURRURUND I
Everywhere at all times: Bringing the archive into the contemporary Danie Mellor
Brian Robinson
Christian Thompson
19th - 22nd September 2013
Everywhere at all times: bringing the archive into the contemporary Emily Cloney + Michael Reid Seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries, millennia. We arrange our lives and memories in an assortment of parcels of varying size. But not everyone thinks of time in this linear way. The aboriginal view of time is multi-dimensional; events are measured according to their importance, like a series of concentric circles emanating from an individual. In this view of time it is important events – whenever they occurred - that feel more vivid and ‘recent’ than trivial experiences that, according to the clock or calendar, have only just happened. When you think of time in this way the idea of history, of separating past from present, takes on a very different complexion and the concept of an archive bursts out of its restrictive traditional definition. It is no longer a remote resource consulted occasionally but instead an integral part of today’s experience; a collection of images and information whose significance is as much in the here and now as it was when its elements were created. It is this ability to bring the archive into the contemporary that makes the work of three of today’s indigenous artists so powerful. Artist and sculptor Danie Mellor, whose mother’s family comes from the Atherton Tablelands in Queensland, uses the journals and diaries of early explorers to discuss cultural interaction and post-colonial encounter. In his works on paper indigenous people, native animals and birds stand out as the only splashes of vibrancy in a landscape flooded with the sterile blue and white imagery from 19th century English Spode transferware. Mellor’s sculptures of animals and birds mimic the dioramas of taxidermied specimens seen in museums all over the world. But a darker message lies behind their traditional poses. Kangaroos, often life-size and with just a glimpse of fur or claw visible from under their mosaic-covered exteriors, demonstrate the insidious, paralysing creep of a new culture claiming land at the expense of what had been there for millennia. Brian Robinson grew up in Waiben (Thursday Island) in the Torres Strait. While working as a curator and arts administrator he created several public art commissions such as Woven Fish (2003) - huge spectacular angel fish that spout water in Queensland’s Cairns Esplanade Lagoon. Since being awarded a residency in at KickArts Contemporary Arts’ Djumbunji Press in Cairns, Robinson has been working full time as an artist developing his imagery and techniques. Where his ancestors used turtleshell, wood and stone, Robinson engraves his designs on lino and on zinc and copper plates. The 25 000 year Torres Strait Islander history of etching, incising and mark-making not only inspires but is revitalized in Robinson’s printmaking. With the sense of joyfulness that pervades all his work, he melds the Melanesian and Christian imagery of his Waiben childhood with characters from contemporary culture such as Mickey Mouse, Batman and Astro Boy.
Christian Thompson has studied Fine Arts at the University of Southern Queensland and Performing Arts in Amsterdam and is one of the first two indigenous students to be awarded a Charlie Perkins scholarship to Oxford University. The 2012 series of self-portraits, We Bury Our Own, is Thompson’s response to the archival collection of photographs of Aboriginal Australians at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford. Using a variety of costumes and props including votive objects – candles, flowers, butterflies and crystals - Thompson conveys a sense of the culture and ceremony documented in the archive. The resulting body of work performs a spiritual repatriation of the original collection by ‘setting something free, providing a platform or a new gateway…a departure point’. The work of Danie Mellor, Brian Robinson and Christian Thompson blurs the boundary between historical artefacts and contemporary artworks. Imagery, ideas and techniques - both inherited and rediscovered in archival material - are meshed with new artistic practices, materials and symbols to challenge a linear view of cultural history and capture what the late anthropologist Bill Stanner described as ‘everywhen’. Danie Mellor, Brian Robinson and Christian Thompson will be exhibiting with Michael Reid Berlin (www. michaelreid.com.au) at Preview Berlin, 19th – 22nd September, 2013.
Danie Mellor For over a decade, Danie Mellor has been a dominating force in the Australian contemporary art world. With his shared heritage – his father was American-Australian and his mother Irish-Aboriginal – he is perfectly placed to investigate the interaction of different cultures and to encourage a new conversation acknowledging Australia’s shared history. Mellor’s pencil and pastel works draw from the distinctive designs of English Spode transferware. In works such as Welcome to the Lucky Country (2009) - one of three works by Mellor exhibited in the 2nd National Indigenous Art Triennial in 2012 aboriginal figures, native animals and fauna vividly stand out as the intricately drawn blue and white background threatens to seep over and appropriate the landscape. Mellor also explores this uneasy coexistence between Indigenous people and colonial settlers in sculpture, his choice of materials adding further poignancy. He makes shields, inspired by the heritage of his mother’s people in the Atherton Tablelands, from steel reclaimed from colonial-style travelling trunks, and covers his hugely popular kangaroos with mosaic pieces of the type of china favoured in 19th century English dining rooms. In Red, White and Blue (2008) a group of three waist-high kangaroos, each covered in a mosaic of one of the three colours of the colonizers’ flag, raise their front paws in “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” poses. Through the work, exhibited in Menagerie at the Australian Museum in 2013, Mellor powerfully exposes the myth that before colonization Australia was an empty land, a terra nullius. “A kangaroo is never just a kangaroo;” he says, “it’s a very loaded symbol.” And a much sought after one – there is a lengthy waiting list of keen collectors. Mellor won the 26th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award in 2009 and his work is in the collection of major regional, state and national museums and galleries. He will be exhibiting at the National Gallery of Canada as part of Sakahàn International Survey of Indigenous Art in 2013 and a major touring survey exhibition of his work is planned for 2014.
Danie Mellor SuperNatural 2013 Mixed media on paper 152 x 210 cm (diptych, each panel 152 x 105 cm)
Brian Robinson Brian Robinson’s life revolves around art: “I create art, I speak and write about art, and I dream, sleep and eat artwork.” In his head and during dreams he sees what completed works will look like and records them in a sketchbook to recreate later. Frequently found working outside in the bush or at the beach, enjoying the comments and responses of passers by, he jokes that he could carve lino in his sleep. During a busy fourteen years spent as a curator and arts administrator at Cairns Regional Gallery Robinson’s practice tended more towards sculpture and public art commissions including Woven Fish (2003), the angel fish sculptures that spout water in Cairns Esplanade Lagoon. In 2010 a year long residency at the Djumbunji Press at Cairns’ KickArts Contemporary Arts allowed him the time and space in which to develop his imagery and carving skills, and to master etching into zinc and copper plates. Robinson’s linocuts and etchings blend western ideas and images with the traditional Torres Strait carving designs and myths he absorbed while growing up on Waiben (Thursday Island), 39 kilometres north of Cape York in the Torres Strait. Ilan Regatta (2011) sees traditional Melanesian sailing boats share the water with folded paper boats and in As the Rain Fell and the Seas Rose (2011), a finalist in the 2011 Blake Prize, Noah and his animals have been replaced with a group of Torres Strait Island warriors, Mickey Mouse, Batman and Astro Boy. The playful aspect of Robinson’s character is evident in almost every work he creates, “there’s always tongue in cheek aspects somewhere,” he says. Robinson’s work is held in numerous regional state and national museums and galleries including the National Gallery and Australian War Memorial, Canberra. A well-respected curator, he is on the Board of the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra. Of his future art practice Robinson says, with typical joie de vivre, “I’m eager, very eager to see what will happen.” And so are we.
Brian Robinson 3 fishermen and a Lamborghini Linocut printed in black ink from one block Edition of 30, 2012 Published by Djumbunji Press KickArts Fine Art Printmaking Image size: 400 x 885 mm Paper size: 635 x 1100 mm Paper type: BFK Rives white 300 GSM Ink type: Heidelberg Black Pantone
Brian Robinson Handline, Ngurupai wharf Linocut printed in black ink from one block Edition of 40, 2011 Published by Djumbunji Press KickArts Fine Art Printmaking Image size: 520 x 380 mm Paper size: 800 x 600 mm Paper type: BFK Rives white 300 GSM Ink type: Heidelberg Black Pantone
Brian Robinson Harvest season I Linocut printed in black from one block Edition of 30, 2012 Published by Djumbunji Press KickArts Fine Art Printmaking Image size: 515 x 795 mm Paper size: 800 x 1200 mm Paper type: BFK Rives white 300 GSM Ink type: Heidelberg Black Pantone
Brian Robinson Dinghy blo Ali Linocut printed in black ink from one block Edition of 40, 2010 Published by Djumbunji Press KickArts Fine Art Printmaking Image size: 300 x 100 mm Paper size: 520 x 1200 mm Paper type: Arches BFK white 300gsm Ink type: Heidelberg Black Pantone
Brian Robinson Midas touch II Linocut printed in black ink from one block Edition of 30, 2011 Published by Djumbunji Press KickArts Fine Art Printmaking Image size: 350mm x 1100mm Paper size: 650mm x 1200mm Paper type: BFK Rives white 300 GSM Ink type: Heidelberg Black Pantone
Brian Robinson Navigating narrative - Nemo’s encounter in the Torres Strait Linocut printed in black from one block Edition of 10, 2012 Published by Djumbunji Press KickArts Fine Art Printmaking Image size: 560 x 1090 mm Paper size: 800 x 1200 mm Paper type: BFK Rives white 300 GSM Ink type: Heidelberg Black Pantone
Christian Thompson For six weeks in early 2013 the formal portraits that usually hang in the Hall of Trinity College, Oxford were taken down and replaced with photographic works by Christian Thompson. It was the first time in over 450 years that a student’s work had been exhibited there and unsurprisingly it was Thompson - an artist whose work centres on unexpected combinations and collisions - who had forged the way. At the same time, and only a short distance away, there was another exhibition of Thompson’s work, We Bury Our Own, a series created in response to the Pitt Rivers Museum’s archival collection of photographs of Aboriginal Australians. As is typical of Thompson’s work, the images use a variety of costumes and props including votive objects – candles, flowers, butterflies and crystals – to perform a spiritual repatriation of the collection. The photographs are, as Thompson puts it, ‘setting something free, providing a platform or a new gateway… a departure point from the archive into the contemporary’. Although Thompson himself features in the majority of his work – which includes videos and performance works – paradoxically he aims to disappear. By totally or partially obscuring his face - with a colour-saturated hoody cascading with pearls in the King Billy series (2010) or a model ship in Invaded Dreams (2012) - Thompson allows the viewer of his work to imbue it with their own meanings and narrative. Thompson is regularly on the move. He has undertaken residencies in the UK, USA, The Netherlands, Singapore, Australia and Canada and is currently studying for a doctorate in Fine Art at Oxford University where he is one of the first two recipients of a Charlie Perkins scholarship. His work is held in the National Gallery, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the National Gallery of Victoria and the Queensland Art Gallery.
Christian Thompson ‘Untitled #1’ 2010 King Billy series C-type print 100 x 100 cm Edition of 10
Christian Thompson ‘Untitled #2’ 2010 King Billy series C-type print 100 x 100 cm Edition of 10
Christian Thompson ‘Untitled #3’ 2010 King Billy series C-type print 100 x 100 cm Edition of 10
DANIE MELLOR Born 1971, Mackay, Queensland Lives and works in Canberra and Sydney Education PhD, School of Art, National Institute of the Arts, Australian National University Master of Arts (Fine Art), Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, University of Central England, UK Bachelor of Arts (Visual) with Honours, Canberra School of Art, Australian National University Certificate in Art, North Adelaide School of Art, South Australia
Solo Exhibitions 2014
UPCOMING
Major survey and touring exhibition, University of Queensland Art Museum, curated by
Maudie Palmer, AO 2012 Danie Mellor, Manly Art Gallery and Museum, New South Wales Paradise Garden, Michael Reid, Sydney 2011
The Nature of Things, Michael Reid, Sydney
2009 A Balance of Power, Michael Reid, Sydney 2008 The great creative Golden Age of long ago and here and now, Caruana & Reid Fine Art in association with Holmes Ă Court Gallery, Perth, Western Australia 2007 Visions of a Curious Wonderland, Michael Reid, Sydney
Group Exhibitions (Selected) 2013 SakahĂ n International Survey of Indigenous Art, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa 2012 Terrain: crossing landscape and country, Art Gallery of South Australia murr-ma: Uncovering Aboriginal & Australian Contemporary art, Halle am Wasser and Preview Berlin, Michael Reid, Berlin NEW 2011: Selected recent acquisitions University of Queensland Art Museum unDisclosed, 2nd National Indigenous Art Triennial, National Gallery of Australia Redlands Westpac Art Prize, National Art School Gallery, Darlinghurst Animal/Human, University of Queensland Art Museum Sculpture Is Everything: Contemporary Works From The Collection, QAGOMA, Brisbane Keeping Places, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide Bungaree, Mosman Art Gallery touring exhibition, curator: Djon Mundine, OAM 2011
Multiple Histories, Jan Murphy Gallery, Brisbane Curious Colony, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney (a Newcastle Region Art Gallery travelling exhibition) Your Move: Australian Artists Play Chess (a Bendigo Art Gallery travelling exhibition to The University of Queensland Art Museum; McClelland Gallery + Sculpture Park, The Elisabeth Murdoch Gallery; Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of Art, University of South Australia Imitation of Life, Canberra Museum and Art Gallery Atonement, Bega Valley Regional Gallery, New South Wales Message Stick: Indigenous Identity in Urban Australia, an Artbank international touring exhibition Blending Boundaries, Goulburn Regional Art Gallery, New South Wales Reclaimed: Contemporary Australian Art, Bathurst Regional Gallery, New South Wales Global Backyard, La Trobe Regional Gallery, Victoria The New Arcadia, Lismore Regional Gallery, New South Wales
2010 Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing, PLC Croydon, New South Wales Non Sufficit Orbis, Melbourne Art Fair, in association with Caruana and Reid Fine Art, Elizabeth Bay Curious Colony, Newcastle Region Art Gallery
DANIE MELLOR 2010 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Northern Territory Museum and Gallery, Darwin Time Travel: Reimagining the Past, Tweed River Art Gallery Buffalo, Bird and Bandicoot - Paintings, prints and sculpture from the Flinders University Art Museum Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Collection, Gallery M, Flinders University art Museum, Adelaide Your Move: Australian Artists Play Chess, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria Redlands Westpac Art Prize and Exhibition Mosman Art Gallery, New South Wales Interpreting Portraits: Macquarie 1810 – 2010, Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, New South Wales Important Aboriginal Art from Private Collections, Michael Reid, Sydney 2009 NEW WORLD, NEW ORDER: A Complex Vision, Jan Murphy Gallery, Brisbane Spectrum, acga gallery@federation square, Melbourne, Artists’ Ink: printmaking from the Warrnambool Art Gallery Collection, Ararat Regional Art Gallery, Victoria National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Northern Territory Museum and Gallery, Darwin A Balance of Power, Caruana & Reid Fine Art, Sydney Menagerie, Australian Museum and Object Gallery, Sydney Floating Life, Contemporary Aboriginal Fibre Art GOMA, Brisbane Animal Attraction, Newcastle Region Gallery, New South Wales The Indigenous Ceramic Art Award, Shepparton Art Gallery, Victoria Now and Then, Campbelltown Art Centre, New South Wales MCA COLLECTION: NEW ACQUISITIONS, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney Culture Warriors: National Contemporary Indigenous Art Triennial, curator: Brenda L. Croft, National Gallery touring exhibition at GOMA, Brisbane and Katzen Arts Centre, American University Museum, American University, Washington, USA Bravura, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide 2008 Important Aboriginal Art, Caruana and Reid Fine Art, Sydney National Works on Paper, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Victoria National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Northern Territory Museum and Gallery, Darwin Melbourne Art Fair, Michael Reid, Sydney
2007 Voyage + Recovery, Fireworks Gallery, Brisbane From the Landscape of the Curious, Uber Gallery, St Kilda, Victoria National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Northern Territory Museum and Gallery, Darwin Culture Warriors: National Contemporary Indigenous Art Triennial, National Gallery of Australia, curator: by Brenda L. Croft Indigenous Ceramic Art Award, Shepparton Gallery, Victoria 2006 In memories lie fragile dreams, Solander Gallery, Canberra 3 Large Rooms, Fireworks Gallery, Newstead Art Sydney ’06, Rex Irwin Art Dealer National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Northern Territory Museum and Gallery, Darwin Voyages of Recovery or An Ongoing Catalogue with Moments of Reason from the Cabinet, Canberra Museum and Art Gallery, Canberra Artbank: Celebrating 25 Years of Contemporary Art National touring exhibition More from the Cabinet, Despard Gallery, Hobart Important Aboriginal Art, Caruana and Reid Fine Art, Sydney 2005 Important Works on Paper, Rex Irwin Art Dealer, Sydney Predominantly White, Fireworks Gallery, Brisbane A Backward Glance, Fireworks Gallery, Brisbane Landscape Now, Solander Gallery, Canberra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Northern Territory Museum and Gallery, Darwin Primavera, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney 2004 Fremantle Print Award and Exhibition, Fremantle Arts Centre, Western Australia Important Works on Paper, Rex Irwin Art Dealer, Sydney National Works on Paper, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Victoria National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Northern Territory Museum and Gallery, Darwin, and Touring Exhibition Sydney Affordable Art Fair Important Works on Paper, Rex Irwin Art Dealer, Sydney
DANIE MELLOR 2003
Shield and Show, Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville, Queensland
National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Northern Territory Museum and Gallery,
Darwin (Highly commended)
Story Place – the art of Cape York and the Rainforest, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
Fremantle Print prize and Exhibition, Fremantle Arts Centre, Western Australia
Trees, Rex Irwin Art Dealer, Sydney
Kultur Hund, Rex Irwin Art Dealer, Sydney
What have you done lately? Fireworks Gallery, Brisbane
2002-1992
Artists’ Books and Limited Editions, 3, Drill Hall Gallery, ANU
International Works on Paper Fair, Sydney
Fremantle Print Show, WA
National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Northern Territory Museum and Gallery,
Darwin
Kanagawa International Print Triennial, Japan
Reena Ellen Jones Print Acquisitive, Warrnambool City Gallery, VIC
Jacaranda Drawing Prize, Grafton Regional Gallery, NSW
Internationaal Exlibriscentrumi, Sint-Niklaas, Belgium
Perpetual Motion, Tandanya, Adelaide
Passage, Kyoto Seika University, Japan
Sorak Biennale, Korea
Open to Print 3, British Student’s Print Competition, University of Sunderland, UK
Open to Print 4, British Student’s Print Competition, University of Sunderland, UK
Native Titled Now, Tandanya, Adelaide
Fragile Objects, National Library, Canberra
Reena Ellen Jones Print Acquisitive, Warrnambool City Gallery, Victoria
Lloyd Rees Memorial Youth Art Prize, Sydney
Bathurst City Gallery Acquisitive Exhibition, Bathurst, New South Wales
The Alice Springs Art Prize, Araluen, Northern Territory
The Art of Place, Heritage Commission, Old Parliament House, Canberra
2002-1992
National Works on Paper, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Victoria National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Northern Territory Museum and Gallery, Darwin (Highly commended)
Awards 2010
Winner, Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing, PLC Croydon, New South Wales
2009
Winner, 26th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award
2009
Winner, Indigenous Ceramics Award, Shepparton Art Gallery
2008
Winner, Tallis Foundation National Works on Paper, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery
2007
Highly Commended, National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards
2006
Canberra Critic’s Choice Award for Visual Arts Research and Development grant, University of Sydney
2003
Highly Commended, National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards
2002
Highly Commended, National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards
2000-2004 Post Graduate Study Award, ANU, 2000-2004 2000-2003 Australian Research Council Research grant 1996
Rotary Art Prize
1995
DEETYA Overseas Study Award
1994
Australian National University Award
Collections •
National Gallery of Australia
•
Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
•
Queensland Art Gallery
•
National Gallery of Victoria
•
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory
DANIE MELLOR Collections •
Canberra Museum and Gallery
•
Art Gallery of South Australia
•
Art Gallery of Western Australia
•
Artbank
•
New Parliament House Art Collection
•
Warrnambool Art Gallery
•
Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery
•
City of Sydney Art Collection
•
Adelaide Festival Centre
•
Muswellbrook Regional Gallery
•
Cairns Regional Gallery
•
Shepparton Regional Gallery
•
Campbelltown Arts Centre
•
Newcastle Region Art Gallery
•
Kerry Stokes Collection
•
Packer Collection
•
Holmes à Court Collection
•
King & Wood Mallesons
•
Australian National University
•
Flinders University
•
University of Queensland Art Museum
•
Murdoch University Art Collection
•
PLC Croydon, New South Wales
•
Tjabal Centre, Australian National University
•
Tuggeranong Arts Centre, Australian Capital Territory
BRIAN ROBINSON Kala Lagaw Ya Moa and Wuthathi tribal groups, Torres Strait Creole language groups Born 1973, Waiben (Thursday Island), Queensland Lives and works in Cairns Education and Employment 2006-2010 Exhibitions Manager/Deputy Director, Cairns Regional Gallery 2004
Internship, National Museum of Australia; Gab Titui Cultural Centre, Thursday Island; National Gallery of Australia
2001-2006 Curator, Cairns Regional Gallery 1999-2001
Exhibitions Officer/Technician, Cairns Regional Gallery
1997
Internship Trainee Curator, Arts Administration/Technician, Cairns Regional Gallery
1995
Advanced Certificate in Visual Arts (ATSI), Tropical North Queensland Institute of TAFE, Cairns
1994
Survival Skills for Visual Artists Certificate, Tropical North Queensland Institute of TAFE, Cairns
1994
Associate Diploma of Visual Arts (ATSI), Tropical North Queensland Institute of TAFE, Cairns
Solo Exhibitions 2013 Brian Robinson, Michael Reid at Murrurundi, Murrurundi, New South Wales 2012 men + GODS, KickArts Contemporary Arts, Cairns Intertwining Mythology, Mossenson Gallery Collingwood, Melbourne 2011 New work by Brian Robinson, KickArts Contemporary Arts, Cairns 2008 Brian Robinson, Anglicare, Cairns Northern Mythology: The Art of Brian Robinson, Banggu Minjaany Gallery, Cairns 2007 Brian Robinson, MacDonnells Law, Cairns
2003 Oceanic Navigator, Cairns Regional Gallery, Cairns 2000 Malu Girel, Cairns Regional Galler
Group Exhibitions (Selected) 2013 Performative Prints from the Torres Strait, Arts Centre Melbourne 2012 Lagau Dunalaig, with Joel Sam, KickArts Contemporary Arts (National tour to 2014) Malu Minar: Art of the Torres Strait, Cairns Regional Gallery (International tour, New Zealand) 2011
Blake Prize Finalists Exhibition, Sydney (National tour) Fremantle Print Award, Fremantle Art Centre, Fremantle Cairns Indigenous Art Fair Director’s Exhibition, Cairns Regional Gallery 28th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin New work from Djumbunji Press, with Joel Sam and Billy Missi, Nomad Galleries, Darwin and Canberra Land, Sea and Sky: Contemporary Art of the Torres Strait Islands, Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane DIScovery, Salamanca Art Centre, Hobart, Tasmania (National tour)
2010 Malu Minar: Art of the Torres Strait, Cairns Regional Gallery (International tour, Tjibaou Cultural Centre, Noumea) Lagau Dunalaig, with Joel Sam, KickArts Contemporary Arts, Cairns 2009 Malu Minar: Art of the Torres Strait, Cairns Regional Gallery (International tour, Tjibaou Cultural Centre, Noumea) Lagau Dunalaig, with Joel Sam, KickArts Contemporary Arts, Cairns 12 Degrees of Latitude: Regional Gallery and University Art Collections in Queensland, Museum & Gallery
BRIAN ROBINSON 2009 Services Queensland Touring Exhibition (National tour) Hutchins Art Prize, Hutchins School, Tasmania Geelong Acquisitive Print Award, Geelong Gallery, Victoria Menagerie: Animal Sculptures by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Artists, Object Gallery & Australian Museum, Sydney (National tour) Burnie Print Award, Burnie Regional Gallery, Tasmania On the Edge (International tour, India) On the Edge (National tour) 2008 Fremantle Print Award, Fremantle Art Centre, Western Australia Strands of Time, Banggu Minjaany Gallery, Cairns Sheridan Mirage Port Douglas Art Prize, Port Douglas Community Centre, Queensland On the Edge, James Cook University Cairns campus; Tanks Arts Centre, Cairns; Oceanic Art & Framing Gallery, Port Douglas, Queensland 2007 Ailan Currents: Contemporary printmaking from the Torres Strait, KickArts Contemporary Arts, Cairns; Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville, Queensland Far North Queensland Printmakers, Baboa Gallery, Brisbane, Queensland Maritime Stories, TANKS Art Centre, Cairns 2006 Gatherings ll, Gab Titui Cultural Centre, Thursday Island, Queensland Habitus Habitat, KickArts Contemporary Arts, Cairns, Queensland 2004 Out of Country, Queensland Indigenous Arts marketing and Export Agency, Washington DC, Virginia, USA Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award – Celebrating 20 Years (National tour until 2005) 2000 Islands in the Sun, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ACT (National tour until 2003) Inland Island, Object Gallery, Sydney 1998 Ilan Pasin: Torres Strait Art, Cairns Regional Gallery, Cairns (National tour until 2001)
1996 Raiki Wara (Long Cloth), National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (National tour until 2000) Art Ou Artifice Torres Strait Art, Noumea, New Caledonia (Artist in Residence) Ancient Land, Modern Art, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane (National tour until 1998) 1995 Pacific Dreams, Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville, Queensland (Artist in Residence) 1994 From Papunya to Now, Berlin, Germany
Awards (Selected) 2011
Finalist, Blake Prize for Religious Art
2010 Residency, Djumbunji Press KickArts Fine Art Printmaking (52 weeks) 2009 Residency, Djumbunji Press KickArts Fine Art Printmaking (4 weeks) 2008 Merit Award for Sculpture, Sheridan Mirage Port Douglas Art Prize, Port Douglas 2003 Skills and Arts Development Grant, Australia Council for the Arts 2001 Arts and Culture Recognition Award, Cairns Corroboree, Cairns 1999 Golden Circle Arts Finalist, Young Australian of the Year 2000, Brisbane 1998 New Work Grant, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board Australia Council 1997
Professional Development Grant, Museums Australia
1996 Residency, Art Ou Artifice, Torres Strait Art, Noumea, New Caledonia 1995 Residency, Pacific Dreams, Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville
Commissions (Selected) 2010 Land Sea Sky: Contemporary Art of the Torres Strait, exhibition commission, Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art; numerous private commissions 2009 Esplanart Public Art Project, Festival Cairns, Cairns Cairns Esplanade signage, Cairns Regional Council, Cairns 2006 Great Walks: Art and Environment Public Art Project, EPA/PowerLink, Cairns
BRIAN ROBINSON 2004 Waterfall sculptures: five stingray forms with waterfall component and lighting, residential complex, Cairns 2003 Woven fish, Cairns City Council, Cairns Esplanade Project, Cairns 2002 Eight bronze plaques, Cairns City Council, Cairns Esplanade Project, Cairns Taba Naba Norem ll, sculpture, Art Coordinates, Perth 1999 Spinning top, Cairns City Council, Shield Street Upgrade, Cairns 1998 Oceanic pods, Cairns Convention Centre, Stage 2 (6) sculptural forms, Cairns Passenger Ferry design and co-ordination Sunstate Airlines, IBIS, Torres Strait Travel, Cairns
Collections (Selected) •
Museum of Contemporary Aboriginal Art, Utrecht, The Netherlands
•
Australian Museum, Sydney
•
Australian War Memorial, Canberra
•
Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney
•
Brian Tucker Collection, Brisbane
•
Cairns Regional Gallery
•
Charles Darwin University Art Collection, Darwin
•
KickArts Contemporary Arts, Cairns
•
Environmental Protection Agency, Cairns Office
•
Geelong Gallery, Victoria
•
Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Queensland
•
Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Centre, Noumea, New Caledonia
•
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
•
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
•
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
•
National Museum of Australia, Canberra
•
OTC Collection, Australia
•
Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane
•
Queensland University of Technology Art Museum Collection, Brisbane
•
The Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, Virginia, USA
CHRISTIAN THOMPSON Bidjara Born 1978, Gawler, South Australia Lives and works in Australia and Oxford Education 1996 Bachelor of Visual Arts in Fine Art, University of Southern Queensland 1999 Bachelor of Visual Arts in Fine Art (Honors), Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology 2004 Masters of Fine Art, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology 2008 Dasarts Advanced Studies in Performing Arts, Amsterdam 2010 Matriculated Trinity College to study for DPhil in Fine Art at the Ruskin School of Fine Art, University of Oxford
Solo Exhibitions 2013 Survey Exhibition 2003-2010, Trinity College, Oxford 2012 We Bury Our Own, The Long Gallery, Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford 2009 Lost Together, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne 2008 Australian Graffiti, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne 2007 The Sixth Mile, Chalk Horse Gallery, Sydney 2006 The Sixth Mile, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne Vote Yes – An Aboriginal Thompson Project, Westspace, Melbourne Ethnoaerobics, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne 2004 The Gates of Tambo, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2003 Emotional Striptease, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne 2002 Show Me the Way to Go Home, George Adams Gallery, Melbourne Blaks Palace, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
Group Exhibitions (Selected) 2012 HIJACKED III: Contemporary Photography from Australia and the UK, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts and QUAD Gallery, Derby, UK murr-ma: Uncovering Aboriginal & Australian Contemporary art, Halle am Wasser and Preview Berlin, Michael Reid, Berlin Close Encounters: The Next 500 Years, Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art, Winnipeg, Canada 2011
Solo, Modern Art, Oxford, UK Tell Me Tell Me: Australian and Korean Art 1976-2011, Museum of Contemporary Art at the National Art School Gallery, Darlinghurst, Sydney
2010 The Beauty of Distance: Songs of Survival in a Precarious Age, 17th Biennale of Sydney 2009 Hybrid Arts Fest Australia, Radialsystem V, Berlin, Germany 2007 Andy and OZ: Parallel Visions, The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, USA Culture Warriors – National Indigenous Art Triennial, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Gertrude Studio Artists, Gertrude Street Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne Workin Down Under, Wood Street Galleries, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA Eye to “I”, Ballarat Regional Art Gallery, Ballarat Raised by Wolves, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth Apropos: Human Rights in Contemporary Art, BUS Gallery, Melbourne I Spy (The Start of Something), Westspace, Melbourne
CHRISTIAN THOMPSON 2006 Terra Incognita, Gertrude Street Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne 2004 Skin, Salamanca Arts Centre, Hobart Sguardi Australiani, Camogli, Italy A Matter of Time, Tamworth Textile Biennale, Tamworth, New South Wales Spirit and Vision, Kunst der Gegenwart Sammlung Essl, Vienna IMAGE - Contemporary Aboriginal Art, Aboriginal Art Museum Utrecht, Netherlands The Space Between, Curtin University, Perth A Matter of Time, Tamworth Textile Biennale, Tamworth, New South Wales Art Paris, The Louvre, Paris MAAP Gravity, Multimedia Arts Asia Pacific, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore 2003 Drama is Conflict, Linden Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne Australians, Perth Institute for Contemporary Art, Perth Tactility 200 Years of Indigenous Textiles, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra TRAFFIC, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney Emotional Striptease, 24 hour art, Darwin Drama is Conflict, Linden Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne 2002 Crossing (New Australian Art), ATSKI Gallery, Helsinki, Finland 2001 LUMO Intohimo, Photographic Triennial of Finland, Helsinki Message Sticks, Sydney Opera House 2000 Use By, Contemporary Centre for Photography and 200 Gertrude Street, Melbourne Biennale of Contemporary Art, Noumea, New Caledonia
Curated Exhibitions 2007 No Fun Without You, Mahoney Galleries, Melbourne 2006 A lot of Love Goin’ Around, Project Space, Melbourne 2005 Contemporary Commonwealth 06, ACMI and NationalGallery of Victoria Intern – Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne 2004 If You Only Knew, City Gallery, Melbourne White Hot – New Art from Different Places, Hush Hush Gallery and City Lights, Melbourne 2003 High Tide – Contemporary Indigenous Photography, Linden Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne 2002 What’s Love Got To Do With It? RMIT Gallery, Melbourne 2000 Beyond the Pale, Adelaide Biennale of Contemporary Australian Art, Adelaide Assistant to Curator Brenda L. Croft, Adelaide
Awards 2010 Inaugural Charlie Perkins Scholarship for study at Oxford University Residency, Blast Theory, Brighton, UK Residency, Green Street Studio, New York, USA 2008 Residency, Dasarts, Advanced Studies in performing Arts, Amsterdam 2007 Australian Post Graduate Award! RIPE Art & Australia/ANZ Private Bank Contemporary Art Award (Highly Commended) 2006 Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces Studio Artist 2006–2008
CHRISTIAN THOMPSON 2006 Residency, ARTPLAY, Cherbourg State Primary School, Melbourne Centre Contemporary Photography, Kodak Summer Salon, Best Portrait for ‘In Search of the International Look’ City of Melbourne, Arts and Culture Grant 2005 Curatorial Internship at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image Creative Fellow State Library of Victoria Visual arts and Crafts Grant, Australia Council for the Arts Residency, RAWSPACE, Brisbane New Media Arts Grant, Australia Council for the Arts 2004 New Media Arts grant, Australia Council for the Arts MAAP online Residency, Singapore 2003 City of Melbourne Arts and Culture Grant Australia Council for the Arts, Emerging Artist Grant Residency, Banff Centre for the Arts, Alberta, Canada 2002 City of Melbourne Arts and Culture Grant 2001 Residency, Project 304, Bangkok, Thailand 2000 Alchemy Master Class for Artists, Powerhouse, Brisbane
Collections •
National Gallery of Australia
•
Art Gallery of New South Wales
•
National Gallery of Victoria
•
Queensland Art Gallery
•
Peter Klein Collection, Eberdingen, Germany
•
Myer Collection, Melbourne
•
City of Melbourne Collection
•
Latrobe Regional Gallery, Morwell
•
Aboriginal Art Museum, Utrecht, The Netherlands
•
Private Collections
MICHAEL REID SY DNEY - BERLIN - MURRURUND I
Everywhere at all times: Bringing the archive into the contemporary Danie Mellor
Brian Robinson
Christian Thompson
19th - 22nd September 2013
ABOUT ROBERT MCLEOD