Urban Dreaming - an exhibition of works by artists from the Sutherland Shire & beyond

Toyota Community Spirit Gallery presents

urban dreaming

an exhibition of works by artists from the Sutherland Shire AND beyond

Toyota Australia Toyota House, Cnr Captain Cook Drive & Gannons Road, Caringbah, NSW Inquiries Ken Wong 0419 570 846

Toyota Community Spirit Gallery

The Toyota Community Spirit Gallery is an initiative of Toyota Community Spirit, Toyota Australia’s corporate citizenship program. Toyota Community Spirit develops partnerships that share Toyota’s skills, networks, expertise and other resources with the community.

The Toyota Community Spirit Gallery aims to provide space for artists, especially emerging artists to show their work. The space is provided free of charge to exhibiting artists, no commission is charged on sales and Toyota provides an exhibition launch and develops a catalogue for each exhibition.

Thanks to the Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Sutherland Shire Council whose networks and advice have supported this project.

urban dreaming exhibiting artists

Leonie Barton, Pamela Gregory, Soyoun Kim, JinGJing Mo, Peter Rathborne, Anke Stäcker

curator Ken Wong

thanks to Gordon Bunyon Sydney Toyota Community Spirit Gallery Committee Eddie Mostaghimi, DAS Management Katarina Persic Sutherland Shire Hazelhurst Regional Gallery

catalogue editing & prepress Watch Arts (watcharts.com.au)

graphic design Sandra Kiriacos

Image front cover Self, Cooking by Soyoun Kim, C-type photo print, 2007 54 x 80cm Inside page: Red Impression (detail) Jingjing Mo, photograph, 2008, 59 x 84cm This page: Nuclear Fairy by Peter Rathborne, photograph, 2008, 81 x 56cm

Ken Wong curator

This is the second exhibition for the Toyota Community Spirit Gallery Sydney and features the works of three local artists from the Sutherland Shire and three from wider Sydney.

The gallery is based on a successful model that has operated at Toyota Australia’s Corporate Headquarters in Melbourne since it opened in 2004 presenting a continuous program of 18 exhibitions which have now shown the works of over 360 artists.

All artists who participate in the exhibition program are eligible to apply for the $10,000 Toyota Community Spirit Artist Travel Award, which invites the individual artist to propose a travel project that they believe has the potential to significantly develop their career.

The works in this exhibition are mainly photo media based, but also include printmaking and drawing. The subject matter is primarily based in the urban environment, but also explores the intimate and deeper connection we all inevitably share with our home and surroundings. In this way these pictures reveal an almost tribal way of seeing the everyday, that perhaps provides an insight into the sacred and magical aspects of how many indigenous people perceive and value the world around us.

Perhaps we could all benefit, if we learned to value and care for both the natural and man made environment that nurtures, protects and provides for us all, just that little bit more.

Welcome to Urban Dreaming.

Ken Wong is the Director of Watch Arts, a Melbourne based contemporary arts consultancy.

He has worked in the fine arts industry for over ten years in both commercial and community arts, curating and managing a host of projects including gallery and outdoor sculpture exhibitions.

artists & works 8

Leonie Barton Wonderful Wise Women Limited edition print [8 of 50] 2008 72 x 108cm $1500 [unframed]

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Pamela Gregory Cityscape Photograph, 2008 56 x 80cm $350 [unframed]

Opera House Photograph, 2008 56 x 80cm $350 [unframed]

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Soyoun Kim Self, Cooking C-type photo print [artist print] 2007 54 x 80cm $800 (unframed)

Self, Daydreaming II Silk Screen print [artist print] 2007 43.5 x 61cm $800 [unframed]

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JINGJING MO Red Impression Photograph, 2008 59 x 84cm $120 [unframed] Sweethearts Photograph, 2008 59 x 84cm $120 [unframed]

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PETER RATHBORNE Fisherman’s Bay Photograph, 2008 81 x 56cm $350.00 [unframed]

Nuclear Fairy Photograph, 2008 81 x 56cm $350.00 [unframed]

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ANKE STäCKER At the Waterfront C-type photograph [edition of 6] 2006 51 x 81cm $950 [unframed] On Princes Highway C-type photograph [edition of 6] 2004 51 x 81cm $950 [unframed]

urban dreaming

Leonie Barton GUEST ARTIST

Wonderful Wise Women, Limited edition print [8 of 50] 2008, 72 x 108cm

Wonderful Wise Women is a very personal, self-

biographical piece. The woman on the left is covered as she doesn’t need to look to the past, the central woman is serene and happy with the present and the woman on the right is open to the future and ready for what is to come.

Leonie is predominantly a self-taught artist who began exhibiting in 2005. Within that short period of time she has been a finalist in the Willoughby Art Prize, Woollahra Art Prize, The Churchie Emerging Artist Award and invited to exhibit in the ASX/Rueters annual art show. In 2007 Leonie was chosen by Avant Card as the selected visual artist and was awarded a print run of twenty thousand cards to be distributed nationally.

Since then Leonie has continued to exhibit with several group shows annually and continues to exhibit for the ASX. Leonie’s studio is housed within Art Depot, her fine art supply store located in Avalon Beach in northern Sydney where she continues to explore mediums to translate her intricate ideas.

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Pamela Gregory community of Sutherland Shire

Opera House, photograph, 2008, 56 x 80cm

P

hotography has been of interest to me for a good number of years. My work includes both black and white and colour photography. The art of photography for me is the drawing of a picture with light. It allows for the expression of ideas not just the creation of images; be they abstract, landscape or figurative. It is not only a way of documenting an event, but a way of documenting ideas.

Pamela completed a Fine Arts Diploma in 2006 and is a member of the Bundeena Art Trail at Studio No 3. Over the past five years she has exhibited her works at the Bundeena Festival Art Exhibition, the Art of Dissent exhibition in Kogarah Council Public Exhibition Space, The Afghan School Exhibition at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and the Royal Art Society Group Exhibition in 2007.

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Soyoun Kim GUEST ARTIST

Self, Cooking, C-type photo print [artist print] 2007, 54 x 80cm

I

have been creating self-portraits, mainly sourced from photographic images, which I often craft to various print media including a variety of photographic processing as well as more traditional printmaking techniques. Each different printing medium enables me add expression through the process which creates a more complete portrait of the inner self and how we are affected by our environment. I call them my ‘self abstractive portraiture’.

Soyoun was born in Korea and has always been interested in creative media work.

She has travelled and studied in different countries of the world including Canada and Australia to improve her skills and achieve her own unique creative practice.

She began with a video camera but later moved to the still camera, which has become her tool of choice, studying photography at RMIT, Melbourne in 2005. A fascination with the beauty of hand printing led her to photogravure processing which is a combination of photo processing and etching techniques. This in turn led her to traditional printmaking methods like as silkscreen and etching. Those skills have expanded her freedom of expression, especially in portraiture. She has exhibited across Australia and also in Korea, and was this year the recipient of the Olive Cotton Award for Photographic Portraiture and also the Waverley Art Prize.

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JinGJing Mo community of Sutherland Shire

Red Impression, photograph, 2008, 59 x 84cm

M

y art practice began in high school in China with painting and drawing, which led on to studies in Graphic Design and several years working in the advertising industry. When I arrived in Australia I started to get interested in photography as I found it gave me more freedom for creative and artistic expression. Until recently, I was involved with the Bundeena Art Trail and I have been inspired by the beauty of the landscape in Australia and in particular the local area. My photographs tend to interpret the character of what I see in the land, and the titles of my work often reflect the human characteristics I see.

Jingjing was born in China and began to learn line drawing, gouache and Chinese calligraphy in high school. In 1999, she entered the Hunan Business College and majored in Art and Design, specializing in advertising and graphic design. In 2001 one of her designs, named Big and Small, was selected for the annual Art Academy of China Student Exhibition. Later, after coming to Australia, she began exhibiting her photographs, participating in the Mungo Interpreting the Land group exhibition at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and the Royal Art Society of New South Wales Artists Exhibition in 2007, where she sold three of her works.

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PETER RATHBORNE community of Sutherland Shire

M

y lifelong interest in photography began with a holiday job in a camera shop at age fifteen.

My interest and studies in painting now complement my photography, with occasional overlaps via digital media.

I am inspired by the excitement of post World War II reportage photographers, and the work of Magnum agency, which in my work competes with the influence of Modernist photographers in Europe and the USA almost a hundred years ago. The emotion of black and white images exploring the human condition or the drama of landscape contains my colour work to occasional forays.

Nuclear Fairy, photograph, 2008, 81 x 56cm

Peter obtained a Certificate in Fine Art at Sydney Institute (TAFE) and is currently studying for a Diploma in Fine Arts majoring in painting and photography. He has produced slides for theatre sets and exhibited across Sydney, including locally at the Hazelhurst Regional Gallery. His work is available for viewing and sale when his studio is open as part of the Bundeena Art Trail.

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ANKE STäCKER

GUEST ARTIST

On Princes Highway, C-type photograph [edition of 6] 2004, 51 x 81cm

M

y work of recent years has been concerned with transitory stages of the urban environment. I am attracted to wastelands, abandoned buildings and makeshift constructions. In the same time I am interested in the transformations of these spaces and the development of the new. I use analogue photography, altering the scenes on location by use of light, viewpoints and playful in-camera manipulations to articulate personal experiences of urban living. I am particularly interested in the nature of memory related to architecture and the environment. My method of combining documentation and visual experimentation acts as a trigger for the reconstruction of memories and histories, real or imagined.

Anke grew up in Hamburg, Germany and later lived in Berlin and Marseille before arriving in Australia in 1988. Her first residence was Melbourne where she worked as a freelance photographer while completing a BA in Media Arts. In 1997 she moved to Sydney and obtained a Master’s degree in Visual Arts. She currently works as an independent photo-media artist.

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