Contemporary painting

Hugo Michell Gallery Opening: Zaachariaha Fielding + DANIEL+EMMA

Please join us for the launch of Zaachariaha Fielding’s ‘Ngangkali (Night Sky)’ and DANIEL + EMMA’s ‘World Expo 2025’ on Thursday 24th July from 6-8pm, presented as part of the 2025 South Australian Living Artists Festival.

Zaachariaha Fielding
Ngangkali (Night Sky)

Zaachariaha Fielding's solo exhibition ‘Ngangkali (Night Sky)’ continues his exploration of ancestral narratives and songlines. His paintings pay homage to his inherited Tjukurpa (ancestral knowledge and law) through a vivid palette and expressive use of Pitjantjatjara language.

Fielding is a multidisciplinary artist, originally from the Mimili Community in the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands of South Australia, currently working out of the APY Collective Art Centre. Widely recognised as the frontman of the electronic musical duo ‘Electric Fields’, his visual arts practice has gained momentum in recent years, having exhibited at prominent Australian institutions such as the National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of New South Wales, and Art Gallery of South Australia, in additional to international presentations.

DANIEL + EMMA
World Expo 2025

‘World Expo 2025’ captures the unique moments intertwined with exploring new places and the experiences shared, resulting in a still life scene of furniture and objects embodying magic memories.

Daniel To and Emma Aiston established the design studio DANIEL EMMA in 2008 as a platform to express their ideas through Industrial Design. The studio engages in a wide range of projects, from desk objects to large-scale installations. With a focus on creating the unexpected from simple objects and forms, DANIEL EMMA draws inspiration from the rich and diverse culture of Australia. Their designs aim to be “just nice,” blending subtlety with originality.

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.

Richard Lewer's 'Steve' body of work acquired by National Gallery of Australia

We are thrilled to share that Richard Lewer’s 2024 body of work ‘Steve’ has been acquired by the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) and will be presented in the NGA’s collection display in 2025-26 before touring nationally.

Richard Lewer’s ‘Steve’ is a gentle exploration of the complexity of a family coming to terms with a dementia diagnosis. Through animation and a suite of paintings on domestic Laminex tabletops, this exhibition tells the story of man named Steve presented from the perspective of his family as they cope with the effects of his illness. In addition, the artist weaves his own personal story into the work with a group of paintings that look back on personal moments from Lewer’s own life.

Pictured: Richard Lewer’s ‘Steve’, 2023-24, acrylic paint on Laminex tabletops, dimensions variable; Richard Lewer, Steve [video], 2023-24, animation and super-8 footage, 4:39 mins, HD/4K.

Hugo Michell Gallery Opening: Marisa Purcell + Kate Ballis

Please join us for the launch of Marisa Purcell’s ‘Light Savour’ and Kate Ballis’ ‘Liminality Antipodes’ on Thursday 27th June from 6-8pm.
___
Marisa Purcell
Light Savour
"After a drive back to the city from the bush at dawn, Marisa Purcell, mesmerised by the early morning light and its ability to shapeshift a landscape, drove straight to the studio and started work. With a lush palette of greens, she recreated the moment she had seen through the windscreen — night passing the baton to day, light carried on the fog and splintering through the trees. Purcell has long been interested in windows and frames — both what we see through a window and what we don't see.
To the edges of her paintings are clues to what lies within, a cipher to decode the ceaselessly captivating ambiguity of light and colour. One painting calls to mind the experience of flash blindness; the moment when harsh light floods the retina, causing both an explosion of colour and a temporary loss of vision. Another is like a fragment of Monet’s Water Lilies writ large “Everyone will see a different colour,” she says, on the erraticism of light, perception and colour. “Like a lamp in front of a mirror, these works reflect their own source of light.” – Ariela Bard, exhibition catalogue essay
___
Kate Ballis
Liminality Antipodes
In the liminal spaces where the ethereal touches the terrestrial, my infrared exploration of the South Island of New Zealand captures a world both familiar and otherworldly. As alizarin crimson mountains rise and teal waters mirror the rich deposits of pounamu (greenstone), these surreal landscapes bridge the realms of reality and myth.
About this exhibition, writer Dylin Hardcastle writes: “To find a home in Liminality, in the threshold of a horizon, between deep sky and wide lake, where the near and far feel not so far apart, is to surrender, voluptuously, to something felt. It is an ability to sit between regions - opaque and edged - and to feel, instead, the incredible release of shapelessness.”
___
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.