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April 2012

Australia’s gallery guide $4.00

Mike Parr Women at GOMA Alight in WA Sydney’s MCA

Art News 1

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Changing of the Guard New Directors for State Galleries This year sees the official passing of the directorial baton in two of Australia’s oldest public institutions; the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), Sydney, and the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), Melbourne.

return to the NGV, where he served as Deputy Director from 2000 to 2007. During his time in Queensland, Ellwood was instrumental in raising the public profile of the Gallery, in particular that of the new Gallery of Modern Art.

Dr Michael Brand and Mr Tony Ellwood will replace outgoing directors Mr Edmund Capon at the AGNSW and Dr Gerard Vaughn at the NGV, respectively, marking a new era in an already distinguished history for both galleries.

The incoming Directors have big shoes to fill; with Capon retiring after a staggering 33 years in the role, and Vaughn 13 years. The AGNSW and the NGV prospered under their leadership; both men staging significant exhibitions of international art and expanding their respective galleries’ collections.

His directorship of the AGNSW is the latest in a series of impressive appointments for Brand who served as Director of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles from 2005 to 2010, and is currently Consulting Director of the Aga Khan Museum, under construction in Toronto. Impressed by the Board of Trustees’ innovative and ambitious vision for the future, he says that the “gallery has a great opportunity to further build on its international partnerships that will bring extraordinary works of art to Australia”.

Ellwood leaves the post of Director at the Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art to page 32

Dr Brand and Mr Ellwood will bring to their roles a wealth of curatorial, scholarly and managerial experience, as well as a significant international presence, in what promises to be both an exciting time for Australia’s cultural institutions. www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au www.ngv.vic.gov.au

1. Dr Michael Brand 2. Mr Tony Ellwood

Museum of Contemporary Art Opens its new doors

Manifestations of NOW A group show

The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Sydney, has once again opened its doors to the public after an extensive, $53 million redevelopment. All part of the redevelopment, new and reconfigured gallery spaces have been unveiled.

Curated by Sapna Chandu, artist collective We Australians presents ‘Manifestations of NOW’ (MoNOW) - a series of shows across public and private spaces at Federation Square, Melbourne.

‘Marking Time’ will be the headlining exhibition, featuring works by eleven international artists that explore the concept of time and its passing. As well as this, the MCA collection will be highlighted in ‘Volume One: MCA Collection’ – curated by Glenn Barkley, it features works by over 150 artists acquired throughout the gallery’s history.

A series of substantial commissions by Australian artists will feature in the unveiling, all of which will be showcased in various spaces inside and outside the gallery. Architecturally innovative, and visually spectacular, the new look MCA promises to be an artistic and cultural force of world class quality.

Museum of Contemporary Art Open from March 29, 2012 Sydney www.mca.com.au

Showcasing a new generation of Australian artists, MoNOW inspires new ways of seeing contemporary Australian identity. Eighteen progressive contemporary artists from around Australia present diverse artistic practices and cultural traditions that challenge mainstream expressions of contemporary Australia. The multidisciplinary exhibition encompasses drawing, sculpture, video installation, photography, live performance and hybrid art forms.

WeAustralians.org is a Melbourne based artist run initiative that explores new ways of representing contemporary Australia, supporting innovative art that emerges from diverse cultural traditions.

Federation Square April 7 to 27, 2012 Melbourne Paula do Prado, Estrella, 2009, mixed media Courtesy the artist

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Industry 1

The Australian Commercial Gallery Association and You

By Owen Craven Founded in 1976, the Australian Commercial Gallery Association (ACGA) represents the most respected and active voice in the Australian visual art world. It is the peak body for the Australian commercial gallery sector, comprising 54 members operating in all states and territories, and is committed to the ethical treatment of Australian artists, operating under a comprehensive, self-regulated code of conduct.

More than 35 years on, in a vastly different looking - and bigger! - ‘art world’ to when the association first formed, what does the ACGA mean and do for you today? Using its experiences and structured voice, the collective membership is the primary point of contact for the visual arts sector to connect with governments, the general public and the wider arts industry. In a sense, the ACGA serves as an industry ‘watchdog’ to the galleries and the artists; offering assistance and advice.

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While federal Government policy and legislation may be conceived with good intention, the effects of change can often be significant. The ACGA maintains an ongoing line of communication with governments to ensure the real world of artists and galleries is considered in forging ahead with change. In recent times, the ACGA has been deeply involved in significant Government reforms such as the Artists’ Resale Royalty Scheme, the Indigenous Art Code, the Cooper Review into Superannuation, the Forgeries Focus Group, and a National Cultural Policy. In each case, positive amendments to legislation were negotiated to ensure all parties benefited.

In 2011, the ACGA coordinated and secured 16 of its member galleries to exhibit at the Korean International Art Fair in Seoul. With the financial support of the Australian government, the ACGA was able to assist and promote its members and their artists as part of the Australia-Korea Year of Friendship bilateral celebrations on an international scale.

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For the practicing artists, being represented by an ACGA member gallery ensures ethical and fair professional practice. Membership to the ACGA is not automatic and is assessed upon track record by the board. Galleries exist not only to exhibit and sell art work but to promote the long term careers of their represented artists - the ACGA monitors and helps its members in many areas including advice on contracts, insurance of artworks, consignment records and international exposure.

When purchasing or learning about art from an ACGA member, collectors and audiences are confident they are dealing with the most reputable galleries in the market. With countless years of collective experience, the association speaks amongst itself and proffers advice – working together for the growth and strength of artists and the industry.

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Like many industries today, the visual arts is growing and changing at a cracking pace. The ACGA is excited by what challenges and changes lie ahead and remain committed to support their members and, thus, the broader visual arts community - ensuring the success and strength of the creative voice in Australia and abroad. www.acga.com.au For further information about the ACGA, please contact: National President Randi Linnegar (randi@kingstreetgallery.com), VIC / TAS Chair Anna Pappas (anna@annapappasgallery.com), SA / NT Chair Karen Brown (karen@karenbrowngallery.com), NSW Chair Stella Downer (info@stelladownerfineart.com.au), QLD Chair Bruce Heiser (bh@heisergallery.com.au), WA Chair Diane Mossensen (art@mossensengalleries.com.au)

1. David Pallisser at Anna Pappas Gallery, Korean International Art Fair 2. Niagara Galleries, Korean International Art Fair 3. Randy Linnegar, Korean International Art Fair

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Exhibition Reviews 1

Mike Parr: Brain Coral

By A.J. Edwards The National Art School Gallery in Sydney is presenting an exhibition of Mike Parr’s work that firmly places the focus upon the seminal artists large body of works on paper and prints. Brain Coral also includes a small selection of video footage of performances that contextualise and support how these modes of Parr’s practice are inter-related and an essential component of the artists’ process of making and communicating.

Born in 1945, Parr is renowned for his confronting performances which explore his own physical limits, memory and subjectivity. These extreme physical feats often depict acts of self mutilation and stand for much more than mere grotesque artifice or spectacle. They serve to point out our own levels of self understanding or misunderstanding as well as protests against comfortable public attitudes. These performances are often documented photographically and on video.

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In his own right, Parr’s works on paper show a superb mastery of line and drawing skills - the envy of any great artist worldwide. He has a sensitivity of touch that visually captures the viewers’ attention, balancing topographical finery with a contrasting array of raw mark making especially when it comes to his dry point etchings. Scale of work and his understanding of viewer responses through years of performance based art also create great impact in his twodimensional pieces, making him one of Australia’s most compelling contemporary artists. He has been a pioneer of modern artistic thought in this country and has seen the landscape of our art world change dramatically. This level of experience and his ability to continually survive and avoid any artifice in his provocative ideas reflects his dedication and, like all great artists do, he simply makes interesting and challenging work.

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While Parr’s technical skills and prints seem remote from his performance work, both have elements of psychological similarity and intention. His etchings feature a barrage of intense, immediate and radiating lines. Parr has been fascinated with observation and the possibilities and responses of memory distortions.

His ‘landscape’ prints are such depictions memories of views passed by and the intensity of his self portraits highlight his uncompromising analysis of the self and notions of identity.

Of his reasons, he states “I started drawing in 1981 because around that time I stopped doing the body art performances that I’d done throughout the 1970s”, though later he returned to physical performance.

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This stimulating exhibition at the NAS Gallery showcases works rarely or never before seen in Sydney. It includes works from the 1970s such as the print-based Black Box series, but also features recent prints and drawings made as recently as in the last 12 months. It is an important NAS Gallery - National Art School Until 14 April

Sydney

1. Islands of the Dead, 2004, carborundum relief, hand coloured from plywood on 4 sheets of Velin Arches 400 gsm paper, 250 x 480cm, unique state Courtesy the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery 2. Sheet from Sawtooth portfolio, 2009, silkscreen, drypoint, carborundum, lithograph, charcoal dust and stamps on 19 sheets of Hahnemuhle 350 gsm paper, 108 x 78cm Courtesy the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery 3. Black Box for Word Situations, variation 3, 1971-1991, pencil, typewritten ink, blood, metal fibre-tipped pen on paper and grease proof paper in black enamel painted cardboard box, 31.8 x 27.8 x 7.8cm Courtesy the artist and Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney

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Exhibition Reviews 1

Contemporary Australia: Women

By Anna Madeleine ‘Contemporary Australia: Women’ at Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) is the second exhibition of the gallery’s triennial series ‘Contemporary Australia’. It includes the work of 33 female Australian artists - indigenous and nonindigenous - working across a variety of media and who are at different stages in their career.

The exhibition investigates the importance of femininity, be it subtle or overt, in the context of contemporary Australian art, exploring the social and cultural shifts that have taken place in recent decades. Gender specific concepts such as mother hood, birth, and female sexuality, are presented in new light by the curators, thus challenging preconceived notions of women and women artists in our contemporary society.

What’s in a name?, by Jennifer Mills, is a series of portraits of women by the same name. Sourced through social networking, the candid drawings are snapshots of the lives of over 300 women. page 38

With this body of work, Mills illustrates how selfrepresentation and online avatars are increasingly important aspects of contemporary self-identity, and in turn dissects her own identity.

Deborah Kelly’s photographic portrait series The Miracles is one of the major commission pieces for the exhibition. Kelly sought out and photographed 37 families whose children were conceived through Assisted Reproductive Technology – such as IVF. Family portraits, presented in antique frames, are based on Renaissance paintings of disputed authorship and directly reference their composition, lighting, symbolic objects and subject’s expressions. Kelly invited a varying array of families for the project; “heterosexual, same-sex, transgender, single parents, multigenerational families, and others.

All the families have, or are having, ‘miraculously conceived’ children”, she explains.

By looking at ‘miraculous conception’ in both a sacred, religious sense and by modern reproduction technology, Kelly is connecting personal identities and unknown histories throughout the evolution of family sociology; the

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idea of questioned authenticity resonating through the work on many levels.

The result is a densely layered work of beautifully powerful images that lend the families a sense of mystery, magic, and higher powers. Kelly portrays demographic shifts in contemporary lifestyle, and its evolution through art, technology and society.

‘Contemporary Australia: Women’ celebrates the role of women artists as shaping contemporary Australian art, illuminating valuable female perspectives on current social and political issues and through a diversity of art forms. An emphasis on gender can risk projecting women’s issues onto works where they may be un-intended. But presented in the correct fashion, as they are here, the works are left to their devices. ‘Contemporary Australia: Women’ is a showcase of women artists’ perspectives on contemporary issues, rather than a showcase of womens’ issues expressed through art.

Gallery of Modern Art 21 April to 22 July

Brisbane

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1. Deborah Kelly, After Circle of Bellini from The Miracles, 2012, dimensions variable Courtesy the artist and Gallery Barry Keldoulis, Sydney 2. Jennifer Mills, What’s in a name? (detail), 2009-11, mixed media on paper, 323 drawings, dimensions variable Photograph: Susannah Wimberley 3. Deborah Kelly, After after Crevalcore from The Miracles, 2012, dimensions variable Courtesy the artist and Gallery Barry Keldoulis, Sydney

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Exhibition Reviews 1

Alight

By Melissa Pesa The Oats Factory in Perth presents, ‘Alight’ - an exhibition that explores the transformation of identity in our globalised, post-national world.

Curated by Darryn Ansted and Simon Cox, ‘Alight’ provides a variety of representations of cultural identity, cross-cultural transformations, migrant experiences, and post-colonial and postcommunist theory through contemporary methods of painting, photography and installation.

A geographically diverse group of artists - Hoda Afshar, Darryn Ansted, Nathan Beard, Ogi Naidansuren, Hitesh Natalwala, Fran Rhodes and Caitlin Woods – create works that respond to contemporary issues of identity and multiculturalism, which speaks beautifully here in the context of Australia’s multicultural and fluid identity. The exhibition shares personal insights into the thoughts and journeys of these artists, all page 40

of whom have moved – and still do move – between countries and cultures.

These seven artists produce works that motivate the viewer into a critical analysis of their own identity and how they are perceived by and relate to the wider society. Curator and artist, Darryn Ansted, experiments with colour, perception and image to create abstract works that deconstruct cultural ideologies and questions their ethical dimensions. Hitesh Natalwala, working in collage, contends with his own history of migration and its impact on his cultural identity. The works in the exhibition seem to be a direct response to current cultural issues in Western Australia. Each artist is based in Perth and is aware of the intense levels of migration in Australia and its role in the transformation of our cultural identity and is concerned with the process of re-configuring cultural forms as a means of re-generation.

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Fran Rhodes creates hand-coloured photographic prints of gardens that she wallpapers into a small room, engulfing the viewer in a composed heterotopic environment. Her garden images create a sub-culture – a third world – that allows the viewer to transcend their own identities to better understand their place in the world.

Rhodes draws on the notion of space and place in relation to self-identity and collective-identity; “in exploring these notions I draw on the traditions of domestic decoration from the UK as well as Persian carpets and the Garden legacy of Colonialism”, she explains. The traditional garden of the Persians was a sacred space that was supposed to bring together, inside its rectangle, four parts representing the four parts of the world. And carpets were originally reproductions of gardens - a sort of garden that can move wherever its owner takes it.

The symmetry and mirror effect in Rhodes’ images explore the hybrid nature of cultures and personal identities these days. Her work attempts to resolve questions of ‘identity’ for people assimilating into a new country and making it ‘home’. The works challenge those people to place themselves within the new context and embrace jointly their new home’s culture and their background.

The Oats Factory Until April 22, 2012

Perth

1. Fran Rhodes, Gardens, 2011, hand coloured photographic print, dimensions variable 2. Darryn Ansted, Occupy, 2011, oil on linen, 70 x 51cm

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Exhibition Brief

Izabela Pluta Study for a sham ruin

Jon Cattapan Imagine A Raft

This exhibition explores Pluta’s fascination with follies; ‘eye-catchers’ that resemble classical structures. Conceived while on a residency in Northern Ireland, the artist set out to locate various prefabricated ruins that date back to eighteenth-century England.

Jon Cattapan’s debut exhibition with Dominik Mersch Gallery presents two related but visually diverse sets of paintings. In his ongoing ‘Imagine a raft’ series he uses, as a starting point, simple digital photographs of hard rubbish collections to present interwoven structures and objects that have a more open meaning.

For Pluta, the folly becomes a symbolic structure capable of manipulating an artificial paradise in which the viewer becomes lodged in multiple contexts simultaneously. While concerned with these specific structures, ‘Study for a sham ruin’ metaphorically explores temporal depth, illusion, artifice and spatial distance.

The found objects are assembled in his paintings as ‘rafts’, which float in his compositions to explore identity and memory of time and place.

Galerie pompom April 10 to May 5, 2012 Sydney

Dominik Mersch Gallery March 29 to April 30, 2012 Sydney

Izabela Pluta, Untitled #7 (Study for a sham ruin), 2012, pigment ink-jet print on non-woven giclée paper, 50 x 50cm Courtesy the artist and Galerie pompom, Sydney

Jon Cattapan, Hard Rubbish, 2011, oil and acrylic on linen Courtesy the artist and Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney

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Dane Lovett Forking In The River Of Time

Karla Marchesi To Have and To Hold

Lovett’s still life paintings, despite the digital world we live in, hark back to the not too distant past - a time of home recorded video cassettes, LP records and copied CDs. His works are delicate observations of remnants from music and popular culture in which private histories collide with universal stories.

Karla Marchesi investigates buildings in transition: abandoned houses, renovations, and destroyed homes.

Drawing on a still life tradition, Lovett nests forgotten and discarded technology amongst domestic plants and foliage stems, propagated in used glass jars. The plant cuttings bring these objects, and their associated memories, alive.

They float from being solely personal into a space of shared cultural experience.

By treating discarded objects with all the reverence of a traditional still life, her paintings convey a sense of unexpected beauty that emerges from a sense of place. The scenes of detritus are translated into objects of contemplation through the intricate style of realist painting.

Throughout the series of paintings in this exhibition we are compelled to pause and mediate on these objects, querying how they occupy space, and allowing them to inform us of the past.

Sullivan+Strumpf Fine Art March 27 to April 21, 2012 Sydney

Beam Contemporary March 30 to May 5, 2012 Melbourne

Dane Lovett, Cosmos Vessel, 2012, acrylic on canvas, 214 x 153cm Courtesy the artist and Sullivan+Strumpf Fine Art, Sydney

Karla Marchesi, These myths no longer ring true, 2011, oil on ply, 150 x 150cm Courtesy the artist and Beam Contemporary, Melbourne

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Exhibition Brief

Paula do Prado Mellorado

Karen Boulden The Bones of Angels

Mellorado is an old Spanish word that translates as ‘improved upon’, once used to describe people who inherited either money or property. do Prado explains that her “grandmother Elsa always said ‘Lo que se hereda no se roba’, which means ‘what is inherited can't be stolen - it's in the blood’”.

Utilising natural silk, unique dying techniques and the bones of road kill, Karen Boulden’s debut solo exhibition speaks of mysterious associations; otherworldliness, birth, death, decay, stigmata and cicatrix (scars left by wounds), land and nature.

do Prado’s work has long had a sentiment of political activism, fighting for the rights of the oppressed. True to the purpose of her art and activism, she feels “its no surprise that I have always understood my inheritance to be something innate, a spiritual sense of identity and belonging”.

In this show, Boulden gives voice to slain native animals, symbols of a natural world eclipsed by technology and a speeding culture.

Gallerysmith Until April 14, 2012 Melbourne

Chapman & Bailey April 3 to 29, 2012 Melbourne

Paula do Prado, Un Gesto Ritual, and Mujer, and Why did you come here?, 2011, acrylic on gourd, installation view Courtesy the artist and Gallerysmith, Melbourne

Karen Boulden, The Darkness Behind, 2012, natural silk on wood, dyes, wombat teeth, 100 x 78cm Courtesy the artist and Chapman & Bailey, Melbourne

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Katy Woodroffe In Search of Paradise

Ariel Hassan About Madness

This body of work has developed from research into the impact of the Persian garden on the surroundings of the Alhambra, the Taj Mahal and its associations with the Paradise garden.

Hassan's most recent series of paintings, ‘About Madness’, have developed a monochromatic palette of fragmented triangles, overlaid with large, negative brush strokes. The work plays off some of the key conflicts of 20th Century painting: abstraction vs mimesis, photography vs painting, and the grid structure.

The work in this exhibition reflects Woodroffe’s journeys into these places, which relate to her emotional and intuitive responses to these very personal experiences.

Also showing, is Hassan's most recent sculptural work that supports itself through a multiple set of interconnected, brain-synapse-like units. Hassan is fascinated by the complex knowledge contemporary science presents to us.

Colville Gallery April 20 to May 16, 2012 Hobart

Greenaway Art Gallery March 28 to April 22, 2012 South Australia

Katy Woodroffe, Mirror Pool: Dusk, 2011, acrylic and pigment on paper, 110 x 74cm Courtesy the artist and Colville Gallery, Hobart

Ariel Hassan, Triangle, 2011, collage of 72 digital prints on rag paper, 78 x 90cm Image courtesy the artist and Greenaway Art Gallery, Adelaide

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Exhibition Brief

Samuel Tupou Pan-o-vision

Samantha Everton Survey Show

The works for this exhibition with Jan Manton Art, Brisbane, were made during a 12-month residency in Wellington, New Zealand.

The highly stylized photographs by Samantha Everton lean on a filmic aesthetic to compose images that explore history, race and culture. Her subjects are often child models depicting adultthemed moments. The composition and styling is reminiscent of 19th century portraiture and captured under long exposures.

“My landscapes are generally stages to explore contrast and contradiction. The void-ish backdrop usually reveals a mash up of retro popular culture, pacific island patterning, and tropical-paradise kitsch. Over the past year biblical iconography has started to play out quasi mystery-dramas within these landscapes and in turn explore ideas of creation, transformation and spirituality”, says Tupou.

This survey exhibition with Anthea Polson Art on Queensland’s Gold Coast is running in conjunction with the Queensland Festival of Photography, organized by the Queensland Centre of Photography.

Jan Manton Art March 28 to April 21, 2012 Brisbane

Anthea Polson Art April 7 to 14, 2012 Queensland

Samuel Tupou, Fire Snake, 2012, silkscreen on high density PVC, 80 x 120cm Courtesy the artist and Jan Manton Art, Brisbane

Samantha Everton, Masquerade, 2009, pigment ink on canson rag, 90 x 108cm Courtesy the artist and Anthea Polson Art, Sydney

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He Xiangyu Cola Project

Anne Pincus The lay of the land: a topographical memoir

‘Cola Project’ investigates material transformation, the products of global capitalism and the impact that its images have upon human culture. In 2008, He Xiangyu worked with factory workers to boil up thousands of litres of cola soft drink for the period of a year. This ubiquitous material was slowly transformed into a syrupy, black sludge and finally into lumps of gleaming coal-like crystals. These crystals were then turned into ink, which the artist has used to create Song dynasty style ink paintings, in the age-old manner of artists reproducing the landscape and sentiment of master paintings.

Munich-based, Melbourne-born artist Anne Pincus returns home for her first Australian exhibition in eight years. The work explores the contrast between an experiential view of place with maps or plans, reducing landscapes to points and lines. This ‘topographical memoir’ weaves together conflicting depictions of space and stories of migration, drawing upon experience and memory against an objective perception.

4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art Until May 5, 2012 Sydney

Anita Traverso Gallery March 29 to April 28, 2012 Melbourne

He Xiangyu, Cola Project, 2009, production image Courtesy the artist and Whitespace, Beijing, China

Anne Pincus, Palace Gardens 3, 2011, oil on canvas 110 x 190cm Courtesy the artist and Anita Traverso Gallery, Melbourne

For Pincus, gardens are a “place of solitude and seclusion, a sanctuary. [It] represents an idealized 'other' world, an almost magical space”.

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