Amy Joy Watson
Hugo Michell Gallery is thrilled to be participating in Sydney Contemporary Art Fair for 2026, with solo bodies of work by Ildiko Kovacs, Julia Robinson, and Amy Joy Watson from 3 to 6 September, Carriageworks.
Tactile, gestural, and emotionally resonant, the curated presentation speaks to works that engage with the natural world and are defined by unique materials.
As part of our extended booth presentation, we will present an intimate salon-style display of new works in the Storeroom Annexe. Clara Adolphs, Sally Bourke, Bridie Gillman, Sam Gold, Lucas Grogan, Richard Lewer, William Mackinnon, Fiona McMonagle, Georgia Spain, Justine Varga, and Paul Yore.
Preview requests to mail@hugomichellgallery.com
Pictured (TOP) Amy Joy Watson, Metallic thread on brass mesh with brass frame, 119 × 155 cm, photography by Andy Nowell
Hugo Michell Gallery invites you to the opening of William Mackinnon’s ‘1000 Joys and 1000 Sorrows’ and Amy Joy Watson’s ‘Until Sunbeams Find You’ on Saturday 16th November, 1 pm - 3 pm.
This event will also officially launch Mackinnon's monograph publication.
Opening Event & Book Launch | Saturday 16th November, 1pm – 3 pm
Artist Talks | William Mackinnon & Amy Joy Watson in conversation with Hugo Michell
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William Mackinnon
1000 Joys and 1000 Sorrows
Artist Talks | William Mackinnon & Amy Joy Watson in conversation with Hugo Michell
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William Mackinnon
1000 Joys and 1000 Sorrows
"William Mackinnon loves what paint can do and is interested in creating moments of rupture—or rapture—through the serendipities of technique. With seeming ease he captures the velvet sheen of dark, the crackled bark of a tree, the fur of the silent, waiting bushland on a road’s verge. His evocations of sea include not only the shimmer of light hitting the water, and the creaming froth of a wave, but also the feel of sea spray. Signs remain of paint spattered against the canvas, and these lush drip marks remind us of both the liquid possibilities, the very wateriness of paint, and the experience of being submerged ourselves in the deep." - Chloe Hooper
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Amy Joy Watson
Until Sunbeams Find You
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Amy Joy Watson
Until Sunbeams Find You
In creating the embroidered tarnished brass mesh works for 'Until Sunbeams Find You', Amy Joy Watson continues to develop her own visual language of weaving metallic threads through surfaces to melding celestial and earthly landscapes with the play of light.
The new material direction in this body of work evolved from a happy accident in the studio, where pristine golden mesh developed a patina, inspiring Amy to experiment with developing patinas. Where she once applied watercolour washes to paper, the artist now tarnishes the brass with household acids, embracing the unpredictability of time and the elements.
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Hugo Michell Gallery are proud to partner with Bird in Hand Winery for this opening event.
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Hugo Michell Gallery are proud to partner with Bird in Hand Winery for this opening event.
The exhibitions will be on display from 14 November - 7 December 2024.
Hugo Michell Gallery acknowledges the Kaurna people as the traditional custodians of the Adelaide region, and that their cultural and heritage beliefs are still as important to the living Kaurna people today.
Hugo Michell Gallery invites you to the opening of 'Yirrkala - Next Wave' by Bulthirrirri Wunuŋmurra & Binygurr Wirrpanda and 'Goodnight Air' by Amy Joy Watson on Saturday 5th November.
Artist Talks | Saturday 5th Nov, 1:30pm
Opening Event | Saturday 5th Nov, 2-4pm
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Bulthirrirri Wunuŋmurra & Binygurr Wirrpanda
Yirrkala - Next Wave
Opening Event | Saturday 5th Nov, 2-4pm
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Bulthirrirri Wunuŋmurra & Binygurr Wirrpanda
Yirrkala - Next Wave
'Yirrkala - Next Wave' shines a light on two early career artists working out of Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Indigenous Art Centre, Yirrkala. Striking a balance between continuity with their forebears’ artistic legacy and innovative artmaking, the exhibition showcases works by Bulthirrirri Wunuŋmurra & Binygurr Wirrpanda that speak to the concept of water as a metaphor and tool for discussing abstract concepts of existence in Yolŋu culture.
Tides, rain, springs, dew, mist, clouds are all drawn on to discuss these abstract concepts of existence. And so, this next wave of Yirrkala artists is breaking on the shore of mainstream awareness.
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Amy Joy Watson
Goodnight Air
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Amy Joy Watson
Goodnight Air
In 'Goodnight Air' Amy Joy Watson builds on her distinctive visual language that explores geography, light and emotional states through delicate woven landscapes, made of metallic thread.
Across embroidered works on paper and tarnished brass mesh, this new body of work explores art making as a process for healing and recovery.
In the wake of post-natal anxiety and acute insomnia, Amy’s slow and gentle hand stitching process revealed itself as a form of active meditation, one that is vital to her mental health.
Shimmering golden threads represent the cascading water or “liquid sunshine” that manifests in visualisations that appear during moments of contemplation and meditation.
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Hugo Michell Gallery are proud to partner with Bird in Hand Winery for this opening event.
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Hugo Michell Gallery are proud to partner with Bird in Hand Winery for this opening event.
Please join us in celebrating the launch of these two exhibitions!
Hugo Michell Gallery acknowledges the Kaurna people as the traditional custodians of the Adelaide region, and that their cultural and heritage beliefs are still as important to the living Kaurna people today.
BINYGURR WIRRPANDA, Binygurr Wirrpanda, Mäna at Lutumba (972-22), 2022, etching and earth pigments on found metal sign, 92 x 126 cm
Amy Joy Watson, Untitled (detail), 2022, metallic thread, brass mesh and brass frame, 114 x 92 cm
Hugo Michell Gallery invites you to the opening of Amy Joy Watson’s ‘Super Natural Geologies’ and Grant Parke’s ‘Every Person on the B10 Bus’ on Thursday August 1, 6- 8pm.
In ‘Super Natural Geologies’, Amy Joy Watson’s shimmering embroideries and rainbow wire hills reimagine utopic landscapes, moving beyond the natural world as we know it. The geometric quality of these threaded surfaces references the artist’s earlier sculptural works, with spatial planes and strata described by directional lines of thread. During a trip to Arkaroola, Watson was struck by how ancient the landscape was – commonly thought to hold the earliest examples of life on earth. Having grown up believing that the earth was only 6,000 years old, and created in 6 days by a supernatural act of God, Watson investigates this fantastical idea and how it is contradicted by Yura Muda (Adnyamathanha Dreaming), geology and the notion of ‘deep time’. She responds by lovingly and laboriously weaving and stitching – a nod to the possible billion years it took for this landscape to evolve.
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‘Every Person on the B10 Bus’ by Grant Parke presents a selection of drawings and animation from a 3 year project anonymously documenting people on their daily commute.
“I first started these drawings sometime in 2015. I’d moved to Adelaide not long before and was spending a lot of time on public transport, more specifically the B10 bus. I wanted to make use of this time for something constructive. It was never supposed to be anything more than practice and didn’t look likely to be anything more given the rocky nature of bus travel. I chose drawing for two reasons. One, I didn’t know anyone in Adelaide and was desperate to feel some connection with people and two, I’d become scared of drawing. The first reason has been a theme throughout many years of work and the drive for even making it in the first place, trying to find something human in humans. Something beyond the surface. That is why all my subjects were observed without their knowledge. I was looking for an unguarded moment that revealed something of their nature.”
Please join us in celebrating the launch of these two SALA Festival exhibitions!
Hugo Michell Gallery acknowledges the Kaurna people as the traditional custodians of the Adelaide region, and that their cultural and heritage beliefs are still as important to the living Kaurna people today.
17
Nov
Congratulations to James Dodd, Paul Sloan and Amy Joy Watson – all South Australian artists shortlisted for the Gold Coast Art Prize!
Now in its 47th year and hosted by the Gold Coast City Gallery, the Prize includes a total of $30,000 for acquisitions.
Exhibition opens 5 December 2015 and closes 31 January, 2016. Find out more here!