Painting

Hugo Michell Gallery Opening: Marisa Purcell + Kate Ballis
19
Jun

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.
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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
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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.”
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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.
Hugo Michell Gallery Opening: Georgia Spain | Kate Kurucz Exhibitions
25
Aug

Hugo Michell Gallery Opening: Georgia Spain | Kate Kurucz Exhibitions

Hugo Michell Gallery invites you to the opening of Georgia Spain’s ‘No one tells you how to weather a storm’ and Kate Kurucz’s ‘Eventual Horizon’ on Wednesday 30th August 6-8pm.
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Georgia Spain
No one tells you how to weather a storm
This exhibition has been drawn together by an attempt to capture and convey various emotional states, continuing Spain’s exploration and expansion of paint as the medium of choice. Spain shares: “I’ve been looking at a lot of abstract painting and while I still see a lot of figuration in this work, I think the ideas have become broader and looser,” she says. “I’m thinking through ideas around abundance, bodies, excess, ruptures, erasure, togetherness, proximity, and action. Plus birth, life and death, of course!”

Pictured: Georgia Spain, Chorus Of The Whole Heart, 2023, Oil on linen, 198 x 304 cm
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Kate Kurucz
Eventual Horizon
In this body of work for ‘Eventual Horizon’, Kurucz explores the potential power of mystery and the sublime, drawing upon the innate human desire to unravel the great puzzles and mysteries of the world.
‘Eventual Horizon’ is presented as part of the South Australia Living Artist Festival (SALA), and Kurucz a finalist in the 2023 Inspiring SA Science in Art Award for work in this exhibition. She is also a finalist in The Advertiser Contemporary Art Award and UnitCare Moving Image Award.

Pictured: Kate Kurucz,  Party Line, 2023, oil on copper, 45 x 90 cm
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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.
Richard Lewer, Winner of the 2015 Albany Art Prize
04
Sep

Richard Lewer, Winner of the 2015 Albany Art Prize

Congratulations to Richard Lewer, winner of the 2015 Albany Art Prize! This prestigious national painting prize is an acquisitive prize for $25,000, including a studio residency. The winning work, Untitled from the Mostly Sunny series, was presented by Hugo Michell Gallery during Melbourne Art Fair 2014.

Lewer’s statement about the piece:

Last year the Western Australian government implemented a shark culling program off the swimming beaches of Perth and the South West coastline following the deaths of 7 people. Being a surfer, I was spooked by the fatal attacks, but like many locals, was also concerned about the efficacy of the government’s fear-driven policy and the brutality of the baited drum lines used to capture the sharks.

My work explores extremes and conflict; the shark culling program attracted local, national and international attention, and public demonstrations were held around the country; as a social realist I joined the 6000-strong protest at Cottesloe Beach to document the fervent debate in my local community.

The work will be exhibited alongside the other finalists in the regional city of Albany  from September 4 – October 11 2015.

See Albany Art Prize website for more details.

Richard Lewer, Untitled, 2014, from Mostly Sunny, oil on epoxy-coated steel, 100 x 100 cm.

Image: Richard Lewer, Untitled, 2014, from Mostly Sunny, oil on epoxy-coated steel, 100 x 100 cm.

William Mackinnon in The Surfer's Journal
30
Apr

William Mackinnon in The Surfer's Journal

"William Mackinnon’’s landscape paintings portray the Australian terrain and the road laid upon it with ebullience, wonder, whispers——and even terror. The artist makes paintings you can almost inhabit. His visions of the rural parcels around Melbourne capture the vastness of his domain in manners both terrestrial and emotional. But movement and displacement abound in his pictures too, conveying temporal urgency with stunning effect.

In day-lit, long-range views of wooded cliffs along the sea, and racy snapshots from nocturnal car rides wrought with dazzling, painterly invention and compositional risk, Mackinnon suggests the notion that the extraordinary abounds in the mundane and that the search for a perfect wave is not unlike the struggle to make a perfect work of art."

An extract hot off the press from The Speed of Light and Dark: The paintings of William Mackinnon 
by Alex Weinstein in The Surfer's Journal

Ildiko Kovacs, Winner of the 2015 Bulgari Art Award
30
Apr

Ildiko Kovacs, Winner of the 2015 Bulgari Art Award

Congratulations to Ildiko Kovacs on winning the 2015 Bulgari Art Award!

Ildiko is the fourth winner of the Bulgari Art Award, one of the most prestigious art awards in Australia.

The $80,000 award includes the acquisition of one of Ildiko's works by the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and a $30,000 residency in Italy.

The acquired work, Onda, is also the first acquisition of Ildiko's work by the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

"Onda" is the Italian word for "wave"; Ildiko said of the work: "For me it’s a really important part of being at Bundeena, I love the ocean...The ocean has always been my lifeline...a lot of my work I guess is the rhythm of the wave, it’s my response to nature."

The Art Gallery of New South Wales' Head Curator Wayne Tunnicliffe said: "I have long admired the gestural brilliance [of Ildiko's work]..."Onda...exemplifies the artist's innate understanding of colour and line."

Onda is currently on display at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Head on over to our Facebook to check out photos from the award Gala!

Image: Ildiko Kovacs, Onda, 2015, oil on plywood, 180 x 365 cm, collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

William Mackinnon Joins Hugo Michell Gallery as a Represented Artist
02
Apr

William Mackinnon Joins Hugo Michell Gallery as a Represented Artist

We are so excited to announce that William Mackinnon has joined Hugo Michell Gallery as a represented artist! 

William’s landscape paintings sit at the intersection between reality and imagination and convey a powerful sense of place and mood. William showed his latest body of work 'Crossroads' at Hugo Michell Gallery from 12 February to 21 March, hot off his sell-out show at Melbourne Art Fair 2014. In 2014 he was also a finalist in the Basil Sellers Prize and shortlisted for the Alice Prize. Born in Melbourne in 1978, he had his first show at the age of 19. He has exhibited widely nationally, and internationally in London, Washington DC, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing. His work is held in the collections of Ian Potter Museum, Melbourne University, State Library of Victoria, Artbank, Griffith University, Holmsesglenn, Macquarie Bank Collections, RACV and Stonnington Council Collections, as well as various private collections in Australia and overseas.

We are thrilled to add this talented young artist to our great group of artists!