We’re delighted to share that the Heide Museum of Modern Art is currently showing Richard Lewer’s ‘Making Contact with Colin McCahon’, which has been newly acquired for the Museum collection through the Ann Bennett Acquisition fund.
Drawn from a body of work the artist describes as ‘Disaster Narratives’, consisting of a painted inventory of personal mishaps, embarrassments and social calamities, the pictures in this exhibition tell of two awkward encounters: one that took place while Lewer was a resident artist in Aotearoa/New Zealand at McCahon House, and the other when he participated in the International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York city.
With his wry ambiguous humour Lewer addresses oddly memorable interactions with visiting curators in each location, two of whom he is closely acquainted with and the other a prospective international connection. Naturally everything goes wrong and the visits are undercut by wild assumptions, an unwelcome summoning of spirits, and a curator with an extreme aversion to the cold.
The 2024 Ann Bennett Acquisition will be on display from 12 October 2024 to 30 March 2025 in Heide’s Kerry Gardner & Andrew Myer Project Gallery.
Pictured: Richard Lewer, I was on the McCahon residency in NZ when I had some out of towners Alexie Glass-Kantor and Emily Cormack arrived to stay the night. After dinner they decided to do a seance and try and make contact with Colin McCahon. I wanted no part as I didn't know what to say to my hero Colin if we'd got hold of him. Alexie and Emily went ahead without me and thankfully they got hold of a sailor spirit who'd been there before McCahon. Phew (installation view), 2024, Heide Museum of Modern Art. Photography by Christian Capurro
