Sally Bourke
Hugo Michell Gallery invites you to the opening of Sally Bourke's 'Silence is just a sound' and Bridie Gillman's 'The Bend' on Thursday 18th April, 6-8pm.
Sally Bourke
Silence is just a sound
In Sally Bourke's exhibition 'Silence is just a sound', abstracted portraits serve as portals to the depths of memory. With a deft hand and keen introspection, Bourke captures the essence of silence—not as absence, but as a profound presence. Through her evocative paintings, she invites the viewer into a realm where silence reverberates with the echoes of the past, offering a nuanced reflection on the complexities of human experience. Her paintings beckon us to listen, to immerse themselves in the quietude where memories echo softly.
Bridie Gillman
The Bend
This exhibition has been made in response to a specific moment experienced while walking in Washpool National Park, NSW, on Gumbaynggirr, Bundjalung and Ngarabal Country. A dramatic shift in light and atmosphere on a bend of the track that called us to pause. From within the bend – hanging, holding vines connect trees to each other, drawing lines to follow from one point to another, left to right, light to dark. This experience and the observations made, act as the starting point for the paintings, translated through colour and line.
Collected field recordings blend seamlessly with Reuben Schafer's instrumentation to create a captivating soundscape.
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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.
– If you wish to join us for a staggered opening at either 6pm or 7pm, RSVP IS ESSENTIAL to mail@hugomichellgallery.com
– Due to the current government restrictions visitors are required to wear a mask
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Tempest
– Act 1, Scene 1, The Tempest, William Shakespeare, 1607-1611
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Primordial
adjective
1. existing at or from the beginning of time; primeval.
2. basic; fundamental.
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Congratulations to Sally Bourke and Richard Lewer who have been announced as semi-finalists in the 2019 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize.
“For the judges, the shortlisted artists collectively demonstrate the way in which portraiture can and should be much more than the sheer skill of capturing of a likeness. The power of portraiture instead manifests from the almost intangible coming together of artist and subject; a tension or ‘rub’ that encourages the viewer to remain with a work and to return to it time and again, well beyond the initial moment of recognising the subject.
Judge Kelly Gellatly
The finalists will be announced on the 16 October and the winner will be revealed 30 October. The exhibition of finalists will be held at the historic Juniper Hall, Paddington from 31 October to 1 December 2019.
Hugo Michell Gallery invites you to the opening of Sally Bourke’s ‘The Quick Brown Fox’ and Narelle Autio’s ‘around a golden sun’.
Sally Bourke is a Newcastle-based artist with a firm footing in painting. An obsessive maker, Bourke has a rigorous approach to her day-to-day studio practice. These habitual processes are evident in her paintings, which often depict an image archive reconciling experiences from the past. Though abstract, Bourke’s paintings are curiously recognisable, a celebration of personal encounter and memory.
Of ‘The Quick Brown Fox’, Bourke states: “Travelling in remote areas as a child taught me to look carefully. The places I went felt isolating and, at times, dangerous. I used to tag along on hunting trips with my dad in order to be closer to him. Experiences in the Australian bush had a profound effect on my visual language and mark-making. The landscape in Western NSW is brutal and beautiful, soaked in deep human cultures that are precariously perched on top, at times not understanding the depth of what they are in.
I wanted to be in my dad’s company, but I knew the deal: It meant being captive to the environment, while simultaneously up against death. It’s one of the places that keeps drawing me back, to blind faith, and the human condition – the dark bargain of intimacy.
The portraits are different versions of the same protagonist. The huntress and her counterparts, a domestic interior, a room of one’s own.”
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Narelle Autio’s vibrant and award-winning images of Australian outback and coastal life have won her impressive national and international acclaim and captured the hearts and imaginations of viewers. One beauty of Autio’s work is its ability to speak to so many people about their own experience of being coastal dwellers. Another is the play of colour and light in the photographs, giving them a magic and painterly quality that transcends the usual depictions of the beach. Autio’s images give back to the coastline the complexity, drama, and beauty that are eroded by postcards and clichés.
“I love those hot, windless summer evenings. There is a quiet stillness to the world that seems magnified by the mirrored surface of the sea. The last fingers of sun loiter over the beach, reaching out hanging on to the day.
Warmed by the inferno that was the day, the water is busy. A melting pot of humanity. Families and dog walkers, sun worshippers, teenagers and lovers come to sit and play in this big beautiful pond of water that hugs Adelaide’s coast. The ocean is calm and embracing, restoring us but perhaps it is an illusion. Maybe the magic hour is hiding a truth.
There is an old story I’ve heard, a myth probably… a frog in a pot of cold water. If you turn the temperature up slowly it won’t feel it. The frog will not try and save itself. Sitting quietly, comfortably. Slowly boiling itself to death. The change in temperature so gradual it won’t realise till it is too late.”
Please join us in celebrating the launch of these two incredible 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 welcomes the addition of Sally Bourke to our represented artists!
Sally Bourke is a Newcastle based artist with a firm footing in painting, incorporating a range of techniques producing incredibly profound outcomes. An obsessive maker, Bourke has a rigorous approach to her day-to-day studio practice. These habitual processes are evident in her paintings which often depict an image archive reconciling experiences from the past. Though abstract, Bourke’s paintings are curiously recognisable, a celebration of personal encounter and memory.
Selected group and solo exhibitions include Artist Focus at Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery, Lake Macquarie (2018); Yarn, Newcastle University Gallery, Newcastle (2017); Brutal, The Lock Up Art Space, Newcastle (2017); Opening the Box, Tamworth Regional Art Gallery, Tamworth (2013); An Open Secret, Cessnock Regional Art Gallery, Cessnock (2013); MARITIME, The Lock Up, Newcastle (2011); Latitude, The Lock Up Art Space, Newcastle (2008) and Pandora’s Box, Newcastle Art Space, Newcastle (2006).
We congratulate Sally on all her achievements and we are thrilled to work with her in the future.
Richard Lewer's 'History of Australia’ and Sally Bourke’s ‘Tall Tales and True’.
“Over the last few years I’ve read, researched, listened to oral histories, travelled extensively, and interviewed many people, all with the aim of immersing myself in Australia and Australian culture. Giving context to the time that I live in in Australia, I am considering its history, politics, culture, people, et cetera.” – Richard Lewer
Representing the culmination of a period of research, Lewer’s latest body of work, ‘The History of Australia’, projects a national narrative. Throughout his career, Lewer’s visual outcomes have examined the intricacies of social narratives, and offered an immersive view of experience and community. However, ‘The History of Australia’ forms a broader chronicle, summoning the chorus to which these findings contribute. ‘The History of Australia’ provides documentation and an understanding of events that Lewer believes have shaped the Australia we live in today.
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‘Tall Tales and True’ by Sally Bourke is a container for oral histories with unbelievable elements. The narrator seems to have been included in its’ stories. The silent glances of the characters belie the gravity of its heroes. Perhaps even at the expense of the truth. The painted protagonists of ‘Tall Tales and True’ ride the spectrum between Veritas, gossip, and the ironic solitude of the echo chamber.
Please join us in celebrating these two incredible exhibitions and our first of 2018!