Isaac Julien Takes 'Refuge' in Sydney

/

Isaac Julien, En Passage (Stones Against Diamonds), 2015, Premier Photograph, 180 x 240cm, Edition of 6 plus 1 AP; image Courtesy the artist and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney

Freshly unveiled in Sydney, the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery delivers a new exhibition from British artist Isaac Julien. Titled 'Refuge', the gallery brings together a survey of works spanning almost a decade of the artist's career. The collection consists of Julien’s poetic cinematography and photographic installations shot in locations across three continents.

Geography is a recurring theme in the work, alongside displacement. Featuring landscapes such as the Icelandic Vatnajökull caves – among Europe’s biggest glaciers – along with Palazzo Gangi, where Luchino Visconti filmed The Leopard in 1963, cartographies begin to speak of the wider concerns of the world today. The artist critically responds to spaces that are suspended on the edge of crisis and change.

The elements of war, moving populations, transcultural exchange and the neglected natural world are brought together in refined theory and visual beauty to create a 'modern-day requiem'. There is the persistent element of hope, however, with the desire for betterment lurking throughout the work, which is on show until 19 November.

Isaac Julien, Echo (Stones Against Diamonds), 2015, Duratrans image in lightbox, 120 x 120cm, Edition of 4 plus 1 AP.; image Courtesy the artist and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney

Ajit Ninan: The Searing Art of Political Commentary

/

AJIT NINAN, Installation view, MUSEUM OF AUSTRALIAN DEMOCRACY, CANBERRA; image COURTESY CAITLIN SEYMOUR-KING

As part of the 'Confluence' festival celebrating India in Australia, the Museum of Australian Democracy brings us an exhibition on prolific political cartoonist Ajit Ninan. Snuggled inside Old Parliament House in Canberra, the grand building features a series of small spaces that shoot off broad sweeping corridors, a perfect site for this intimate exhibition.

The main exhibition space is the size of a decent bedroom, or what would have been a mid-sized office for the ministers of old. The colours are warm reds and oranges with soft lighting. There are several small illustrations framed around the room, and a silent projection plays in the far corner. The modest display mimics the way that Ninan’s cartoons first present to the viewer. They are simple small sketches, some in colour, and mostly unassuming in presence. But when you look closer, there lies the searing political commentary, the unashamed condemnation of political figures, the concisely captured complexities of everyday life.

Political cartooning is a very intriguing artform. It is a practice prevalent across the globe and shows us how active critique is absolutely essential for political and social systems. The simplicity and humour indicative of the artform is the key to its success. Refined 'just so' to a single image, it allows the artist to deliver an impactful message and reach audiences.

A further dimension to this is the state of the modern democracy: over-saturated with media, news and information. Ninan steps outside of the circus to remark on just how absurd things can become as we attempt to navigate our way through a democracy increasingly directed by bureaucracy, technology and economics. Furthermore, the modern democracy is heavily peppered with individual egos, committed to their own agendas. Ninan assertively examines the double speak of politicians to determine what they are in between the vapour of what they say.

For those of us not expert in the political landscape of India, do not fear: each illustration is accompanied with a helpful explanation to fill you in. Otherwise the show resonates very comfortably with Australia's own rich history of political cartooning and age-old tradition of vocally challenging government.

AJIT NINAN, Installation view of 'politrix' series, MUSEUM OF AUSTRALIAN DEMOCRACY, CANBERRA; image COURTESY CAITLIN SEYMOUR-KING

Waterhouse Art Prize Arrives in Canberra

/

Winner of the Emerging Artist Category: Dan Power, G[RAZED], 2016, Pen and ink on bull skull; image courtesy the national archives of australia, canberra

This week, the National Archives of Australia (NAA) launched its leg of the Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize, for which it is an exclusive partner with the South Australian Museum in Adelaide. The biennial prize and exhibition - named in honour of zoologist and first curator of the SA Museum, Frederick George Waterhouse - will only be seen in Adelaide and Canberra. A total of 81 works were accepted into the prize this year and the NAA presents 25 winning and highly commended works.

The Waterhouse Art Prize is intriguing for its unique cross-occupation of museum, art, science and material culture territories. Artists are asked to present the natural world as they see it, and the prize is powerful in representing the visual arts as a valid voice in institutional discourse around conservation, biology, evolution and climate change.

The prize has made a very successful comeback from a two-year hiatus, having received feedback from artists participating in earlier rounds of the competition. The prize has been opened up to include all forms of media except for photography. The Waterhouse can be applauded for its willingness to transform itself and recognise that contemporary artists are increasingly cross-disciplinary and no longer bound by traditional mediums and categories. Prizes for emerging art and 'scientists’ choice' were also rolled out. The result is a hugely diverse number of works on display at the NAA, including painting, sculpture, glass, ceramics, found material, paper work, digital work and more.

Four artists from the Canberra region are featured in the line-up, with Dan Power receiving the prize in the emerging category for his ink work on a bull’s skull. Jenni Kemarre Martiniello, a local glass artist with a studio at Canberra Glassworks, was at the launch to describe the making of her work, Parachilna bicornual set. The complex pieces take their inspiration from the artist's father and his stories of trips to Parachilna in South Australia as a young man. He would describe the open fields of small flowers blooming in the springtime, reflected in the vibrant colours of the work. The work is detailed and layered to evoke the weave of the bicornual basket and takes around 20 hours to prepare. Locals Emilie Patteson and Elizabeth Kelly are also on show.

The Waterhouse Art Prize will be on display at the National Archives of Australia in Canberra until 13 November 2016.

Highly Commended: Jenni Kemarre Martiniello, Parachilna bicornual set, 2016, Hot blown glass with murrine; image courtesy the national archives of australia, canberra

Diverse Indigenous Voices Heard in US Exhibition; 'Everywhen'

/

Stephen Gilchrist, the Australian Studies Visiting Curator at the Harvard Art Museums, in front of Vernon Ah Kee’s many lies (2004), during preparation for ‘Everywhen: The Eternal Present in Indigenous Art from Australia’, Harvard Art Museums, 2016; image courtesy and © President and Fellows of Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts; photo: Kris Snibbe/Harvard University

‘Everywhen: The Eternal Present in Indigenous Art from Australia’ at the Harvard Art Museums is from Indigenous Australian curator Stephen Gilchrist. The Australian Studies Visiting Curator at the American museum brings together some 70 works from Australia that explore Indigenous conceptions of time, seasonality, performance and remembrance. The pieces are diverse, dating from the last 40 years, and the exhibition reflects on how the art historical landscape has shifted in its representation and understanding of Indigenous art. Artists on show include Vernon Ah Kee, Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Doreen Reid Nakamarra, Rover Thomas, Christian Thompson and Judy Watson.

‘Everywhen’ is a term first used by Australian anthropologist William Stanner, and is an apt expression to describe an Indigenous perception of time as being layered and interconnected. This essential idea relies on active encounters between the ancestral and natural worlds, and is reflected in the exhibition's sentiment that ideas must evolve and shift; nothing can remain fixed.

The exhibition aims to present an Indigenous narrative that is not bound to the canon of colonial constructs. It invites the 40,000-plus years of Indigenous residence alongside those 228 years of European colonisation to share the exhibition space; Gilchrist is attempting to create an expansionary movement in understandings of Indigenous ways of being in the world.

Acknowledgment of country is performed within the exhibition, a largely foreign idea for American audiences: something Gilchrist calls an active process of ‘Indigenising’ a place. It is a political act of declaring to the world the sovereignty of Indigenous land, words and bodies. The impact of the show deepens in its placement on an American site, where a similar history of erasure has occurred.

The show closes 18 September 2016 for our friends and visitors in North America. For those not lucky enough to catch it, read our in-depth interview with Stephen Gilchrist by the historian Khadija von Zinnenburg Carroll in our September issue, out now.

Everywhen: The Eternal Present in Indigenous Art from Australia, exhibition view of the Seasonality-themed gallery, Harvard Art Museums, 2016; image courtesy and © President and Fellows of Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts; photo: Harvard Art Museums

Hope and Optimism from Art Collective WA

/

Trevor Vickers, Breakfast Variations, Projection, 2016; image courtesy sno contemporary art projects, Sydney

Given the current climate of Sydney's art scene - closures of TAFE and university art programs, changes to the city's most dynamic art schools, shrinking budgets for museum acquisitions and the challenges of attracting new patronage to commercial galleries - the current exhibition showing at Sydney Non Objective (SNO) in Marrickville is very timely. 

The exhibition comes from across the nation and is brought to us by Perth group Art Collective WA, who featured in Art Monthly's April WA focus edition. The situation Sydney finds itself in was similarly experienced on the west coast some four years ago. Galleries closed their doors in financial hardship and Perth artists were left to flounder. This prompted the birth of Art Collective WA, taking inspiration from Melbourne's artist initiative Pinacotheca. 

The four artists showing at SNO are all members of the collective that works to support established WA artists. Helen Smith, Jeremy Kirwan-Ward, Trevor Vickers and Jurek Wybraniec are internationally exhibiting abstract artists with studios based in Fremantle and Perth. The SNO show invites audiences to see each individual's exploration in minimal abstraction. 

Ultimately, the show, which runs until 28 August 2016, celebrates hope and renewal in times of adversity.

Helen Smith, Reunification Series # 70 , 2016, Found image assemblages; image courtesy the artist and SNO contemporary art projects, Sydney

Much-Anticipated Parr Survey Opens at the NGA

/

mike parr: foreign looking, exhibition view, national gallery of australia, canberra, 2016

Mike Parr is considered to be Australia's most significant practising performance artist. He established himself as a controversial and provocative artist in the early 1970s and was formative in the development of conceptual art in Australia. The retrospective, opening today in Canberra, features a range of media from the prolific artist, including film, print, drawing, sculpture and photography.

Experimenting with poetry and the written word in his early work, Parr then found performance to explore his interest in memory, the unconscious, self and the image of self. He ruthlessly pushes his body to extremes to achieve the 'limit state'. Works show him slicing his belly, starving himself in solitary confinement, pushing pin tacks into his leg and wrapping his head in wire, in an often uncompromising confrontation with his audience.

In conjunction with the exhibition, the gallery has reconstructed the artist's 1974 'Information Centre', which will contain a large collection of archival material as well as a display of Parr's numerous journals, highlighting the artist's rigour in relentless self-analysis. It will also be a site for talks, workshops and performances throughout the exhibition, which runs until 6 November 2016.

Bronze liars (1996): parr constructed these portrait busts partially blinded

Information Centre is the site for early work as well as archival and reading material

NATSIAA Winner Announced!

/

Harold Joseph Thomas (Bundoo) with his work Tribal Abduction, overall winner of the 2016 Telstra Art Award

Tonight in the Top End, the 2016 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award (NATSIAA) was presented to Darwin artist Harold Thomas for his work Tribal abduction. The annual event has run since 1984, hosted by the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT) in Darwin. Major sponsorship from Telstra has helped the continuing success of the award and a AU$50,000 cash prize for the winner. The awards celebrate the achievements and contribution of Indigenous artists across Australia: emerging or established, traditional or contemporary, and in all media. The judging panel that selected the winning works comprised artist Vernon Ah Kee, curator Kimberley Moulton and philanthropist Don Whyte.

The works of the 75 Telstra NATSIAA finalists, including this year's Work on Paper Award-winner Robert Pau and 2016 Bark Painting Award-recipient John Mawurndjul, will be exhibited at MAGNT until 30 October 2016.

Betty Kuntiwa Pumani with her work which won the Telstra General Painting Award

Nicole Monks and her performance piece, We are all animals, which won the Wandjuk Marika Memorial 3D Award (sponsored by Telstra) 

Two Stellar Exhibitions Open at Beaver Galleries

/

Detail of Storm from Mount Ainslie by Alicia Mozqueira; image courtesy the artist and beaver galleries, canberra

Canberra's largest and well-respected commercial gallery, Beaver Galleries, opened a double exhibition this week with 'Dawn and Dusk' from Alicia Mozqueira and 'Winter Drawings' from Lucienne Rickard.

Mozqueira is an emerging Canberra painter exploring the dark romanticism of the natural environment. The oil paintings in this series capture the richness of the ACT landscape in seasonal transition. The artist magnificently renders the qualities of light, air and sky with a tender hand and sublime colour. Mozqueira asks us to pause and absorb the heady beauty of our own environment.

Rickard is a Hobart-based artist who has refined her art-making to a meticulous method of graphite marking on drafting film. The repetitive process is executed with painstaking precision and results in vivid, textural works that command presence in the gallery space. Rickard deals with the interwoven themes of beauty, brutality, death and disintegration wrapped up with a fundamental reverence for living things.

Both artists are on show until 21 August 2016, and well worth feasting your eyes on.

Detail of Tribute by Lucienne RIckard; image courtesy the artist and beaver galleries, canberra

Speculating 'Imagined Worlds' at Melbourne's Town Hall Gallery

/

imagined worlds, Installation view; image courtesy Town Hall Gallery, melbourne

Located in the redeveloped Hawthorn Arts Centre in Melbourne, Town Hall Gallery's most recent exhibition, 'Imagined Worlds', smudges the lines between reality and the imagined. Exhibiting the work of nine established Australian artists, the show raises questions around what the imagined landscape can do for artists and viewers. The artworks explore dreamlike representations of place that compel and captivate, allowing the imagination to consider what life could be in these new worlds.

Curated by Mardi Nowak, artists comprise Kevin Chin, Ara Dolatian, Connor Grogan, Tony Lloyd, Andrew Mezei, Kate Shaw, Ben Taranto, Christie Torrington and Alice Wormald.

The intriguing speculations of 'Imagined Worlds' continue until 21 August 2016.

imagined worlds, Installation view; image courtesy Town Hall Gallery, melbourne

MPavilion 2016 Design and Writer Announced!

/

Model of MPavilion design by Bijoy Jain; image courtesy Studio Mumbai

Melbourne's MPavilion in Queen Victoria Gardens will again be transformed into a design and cultural hub later this year, from October through February. Bijoy Jain, of architecture firm Studio Mumbai, has been appointed to build the temporary pavilion by the Naomi Milgrom Foundation, which will be home to a massive series of talks, workshops, performances and installations.

Jain is a leader in sustainable and ethical architecture and has been described as an architect who thinks like an artist. He explores ideas around the role of craft and the handmade in architecture and works alongside skilled artisans and craftspeople to construct his buildings. The Indian architect is interested in the human element of what he calls the concept of 'lore', when local techniques, materials, traditions and knowledge are passed on and shared. In engaging with 'lore', Jain hopes the pavilion to be a 'symbol of the elemental nature of communal structures ... a place of engagement, and a space to discover the essentials of the world and of oneself.'

The 12-metre-high building will be constructed from the most basic of materials: bamboo, earth, stone and rope, and will place the visitor at a point between earth, ground and sky. Once the program ends, the pavilion will be allowed to continue its legacy when it is moved to a permanent home in the city's vibrant architectural landscape.

And newsflash!: To coincide with the design's launch, Art Monthly has once again collaborated with MPavilion and the National Association for the Visual Arts to present the MPavilion/Art Monthly Writing Award of AU$3000. The award aims to support writers in the field of interdisciplinary practice within art and design. This year, Tess Maunder is the worthy recipient and will develop an essay to be published in the December 2016 issue of Art Monthly. Currently a Curatorial Collegiate for the 11th Shanghai Biennale, Maunder will also appear as part of the official MPavilion program. 

recipient of the MPavilion/Art Monthly Writing Award; image courtesy tess maunder

Incredible Craftsmanship in Takeyoshi Mitsui's Sublime 'Sense'

/

Japanese artist Takeyoshi Mitsui was invited to spend a six-week residency at Canberra Glassworks and his exhibition 'Sense' shows the results of his stay. Moving away from his background in production work, Mitsui is interested in how the closed vessel may stand as a representation of the summation of life. As this is his first Australian exhibition, Mitsui was also keen to explore how glass is perceived as an artform in Australia, in contrast to Japan where ceramics is considered the dominant medium.

Mitsui uses a method of blowing into moulds to achieve his immaculately crafted vessels. The artist is a recipient of the Arts ACT-supported Asialink reciprocal residency program run between Canberra Glassworks and Toyama Glass Studio in Japan. 

For those in Canberra, head down to the Kingston foreshore to check out these beauties before the show closes on July 25!

NGA Announces Summer Blockbuster, 'Versailles'

/
These mesdames and messieurs showED off the pomp and ceremony of the French court

These mesdames and messieurs showED off the pomp and ceremony of the French court

A harp player and a handful of frilly French aristocrats helped announce the summer blockbuster 'Versailles: Treasures From the Palace' at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Opening December 9, the exhibition will showcase the astonishing luxury of French high society with a number of personal items belonging to King Louis XIV-XVI and Marie Antoinette, lent by the the palace museum, Château de Versailles. 

Addresses were given by the French Ambassador Christophe Lecourtier, the President of the Versailles museum Catherine Pegard, and Director of the NGA Dr Gerard Vaughan. All three distinguished speakers reflected on the timeliness of the exhibition and the recent terror and political disquiet seen in France. The exhibition aims to celebrate what Versailles represents for France: strength, creativity, innovation. But Vaughan also promises a healthy dose of sex and passion to balance the politics. 

This will be an exhibition to book early; it's sure to seduce!

Gerard Vaughan, Beatrix Saule, Catherine Pegard, Andrew Barr and Christophe Lecourtier

Gerard Vaughan, Beatrix Saule, Catherine Pegard, Andrew Barr and Christophe Lecourtier

Drill Hall Gallery Reopens After Extensive Refurb

/

Visitors at the 'Streets of Papunya' exhibition showing at the Drill Hall Gallery, canberra

Canberra's heritage-listed Drill Hall Gallery unveiled its recent AU$2 million face lift last night. The military training hall turned slick art gallery installed a climate control system, state-of-the-art lighting tracks and a purpose-built exhibit dedicated to the hero of the ANU Art Collection, Sidney Nolan's Riverbend. 

The renovation has truly transformed the building and maximises the Gallery's new potential as an acclaimed contemporary art space. Freshly polished dark wooden floorboards reflect the crisp white partitions that stretch to the ceiling high above. The space is elegantly broken up by the exposed brick of the building, a reminder of its entrenched history.

The gallery launched with travelling exhibition 'Streets of Papunya', and artists Linda Tjunkaya Syddick Napaltjarri and her sister Martha McDonald Napaltjarri were at hand to see it open. Curated by esteemed Papunya scholar Vivien Johnson, the show seeks to frame contemporary work against the historical establishment of Papunya as an epicentre for Aboriginal art. Women artists feature more conspicuously across the current generation. The show presents a number of visually stunning painted works as well as video, sculpture and collage.

The gallery has extended its hours and will now be open 10am-5pm Wednesday-Sunday.

Linda Tjunkaya Syddick Napaltjarri and her sister Martha McDonald Napaltjarri, both around 80 years old, at the opening of 'Streets of Papunya'

'Tough and Tender' opens at National Portrait Gallery, Canberra

/

Robert Mapplethorpe, Sebastian, 1980, silver gelatin photograph, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, purchased 1980

The National Portrait Gallery, Canberra has opened their most recent exhibition, 'Tough and Tender'. Curated by, and emerging from the doctoral research of Christopher Chapman, the exhibition examines the complexities of youth, masculinity and gender. The works poetically reflect on the inherent vulnerability of innocence and beauty to corruption. Guest speaker Christos Tsiolkas (author of 'The Slap') launched the show with these insightful words: "Toughness is being brave in the world as you are." 'Tough and Tender' runs until 16 October.

Entry and title wall to exhibition

Christos Tsiolkas toasting with artists Warwick Baker and Rozalind Drummond