News

Slipstitch a touring exhibition curated by Dr. Belinda von Mengersen has arrived at Latrobe Regional Gallery. Featuring the work of Lucas Grogan and Sera Waters, Slipstitch considers the growing pursuit of figurative embroidery in contemporary art. Giving reference to embroidery as a traditional tool for autobiographical story telling the exhibition includes a diverse group of emerging and established artists.

“In recent years contemporary artists in Australia have embraced embroidery for its capacity for poignant and reflective narrative. The re-emergence of embroidery is part of a broader questioning of the hierarchy of materials that has gained momentum since the 1990s. Embroidered objects have often been read literally and relegated within a domestic framework. These new contemporary works break down preconceptions by exploring what embroidery can become once it transcends the regularity of pattern and decoration. Historically, embroidery like the Bayeux Tapestry, was used as a tool for personal or political narratives. Slipstitch aims to introduce a contemporary audience to the capacity of embroidery for drawing and communication in this mode.”

This exhibition has been touring regionally since 2015 and will open in Bendigo on the 28th of May and run till the 26th of June you can find out more about this exhibition here.

“It’s a strangely confronting video which will attract people as they walk into the entrance,” Roet says.””

Lisa Roet’s Heart Beat is an immersive installation exhibited at the Australian Experimental Art Foundation. The work is on display until April 2nd. To read Jane Llewellyn’s article in the Adelaide Review click here!

Tim Sterling has been shortlisted for the Deakin University, Contemporary Small Sculpture Award! The winner of this prestigious award will be acquired by the Deakin University and awarded $10,000. Sterling has created a piece titled Bessa block, comprising of over 6000 cable ties and 3500 paperclips and standing at only 24cm high, this impressive work has taken over 2months to make.

We congratulate Tim on this impressive work! The winner will be announced on the 8th of June at the launch of the exhibition at Deakin University, more details here.

Congratulations to Justine Varga who has been announced as a finalist in the National Photography Prize at MAMA (Murray Art Museum Albury). Established in 1983, the biennial prize is valued at $50,000 making it the richest photography prize in Australia.

Opening on Saturday the 21st of May, the selected acquisition from this prize will join a collection of more than 90 works.

For more information click here!

Elvis Richardson’s blog CoUNTess: Women count in the art-world has published data on gender representation in Australian contemporary visual arts since 2008. Its data-collecting activities provide hard evidence of the need for – and add substantial traction to – action by women artists working to bring gender equality to art education, art practice and contemporary art culture. It is frequently cited.

Responses to gender inequality in contemporary art have increased internationally over the past few years. They include influential New York critic Jerry Saltz’s ongoing commentary on gender statistics, The East London Fawcett Group’s Great East London Art Audit, a data collection project focusing on London contemporary art galleries in 2012, the 2014, Gallery Tally in which Los Angeles artist Micol Hebron asked artists to submit posters visualising the gender representation of commercial galleries then exhibited them online, and the continuing artistic activism of the US-based Guerrilla Girls and Pussy Galore. All these projects have used statistics about unequal gender representation to question how notions of quality and taste apply in determining artistic merit and success.

The Countess Report is a benchmarking project and online resource on gender equality in the Australian contemporary art sector. Put together by Elvis Richardson, it compiles and analyses data on education, prizes, funding, art media, organisational makeup, and exhibitions of various kinds across a wide range of galleries including national and State, regional, commercial, ARIs (Artist Run Galleries), and CAOs (Contemporary Art Spaces). The Countess Report is based on publically available data collected from websites, exhibition catalogues, magazines and media in the calendar year 2014, chosen because the data set is recent, complete and still readily available. Detailed findings now available in The Countess Report offer evidence not previously available and provide a test case sample for future benchmarking.

The project has been designed as a public resource in the form of a website http://www.thecountessreport.com.au where the base collated data is presented. The results of this data are also available in summary form in this report. The project raises questions rather than provides answers, although this report does contain preliminary findings and initial recommendations for future research and activities.

The Countess Report was conducted by Elvis Richardson, through the initiative and research funding of the Cruthers Art Foundation and assistance provided by NAVA, an Advisory Committee and other paid and unpaid assistants.

See coverage here: Sydney Morning Herald, The Guardian

Jane Llewellyn reviews William Mackinnon’s Internal Weather for The Adelaide Review, now at Hugo Michell Gallery:

““I really want to get across my experience and the feelings associated with these places,” Mackinnon says. “It’s not really representational of a place; it’s almost more a psychological feeling of going somewhere or leaving.””

Read more here!

Lisa Roet ‘s Heart Beat is now exhibiting at the Australian Experimental Art Foundation, until 2 April.

Berlin-based Rachel Vance writes in the catalogue: “Her large-scale, theatrical projection Heart Beat (2014-16) confronts audiences with an enlarged three-dimensional projection of a human heart. The mesmerising accompanying soundtrack—a collaboration with musician Charlie Owen—echoes the pulsating beat of the heart, drawing gallery visitors into the depths of a simulated corporeal cavity.

Heart Beat is an example of Roet’s fascination with ideas of isolation and comparison. The animated heart, created with cutting-edge Musion technology—a three-dimensional holographic technology—is in fact a simulation of a hybrid heart. Animated by science animator Drew Berry, the image itself, derived from echocardiogram and MRI footage of the artist’s own heart, is imperceptibly amalgamated with imagery from a gorilla’s heart. Part animal, part human. The gorilla footage was sourced from a research team studying heart health as part of the International Primate Heart Project at Cardiff University in Wales. Such comparative exploration relates directly to Roet’s previous examination of the ‘humanzee’; a hypothetical interspecies human-chimpanzee hybrid.”

Heart Beat is accompanied by a second installation, We Are Animal, part of the result of the artist’s ongoing collaboration with leading Chinese artist Shen Shaomin.

Read more from Vance on Roet and view the catalogue here.

This project has been supported by The International Primate Heart Project based at Cardiff Metropolitan University, Arts Victoria, Melbourne Heart Care and the Adelaide Festival of Arts.

Thanks to Art Guide for their write-up on our Janet Laurence’s latest project, H20: Water Bar!

Janet says of the project:

““It’s funny how in Australia we’ve got that reaction, that we’ve got plenty here and we’re OK. Our water is so fragile, and so much of our water has been affected by industrialisation and mining. People don’t realise it’s their drinking water that’s being affected in that way.”

In 2006 Toowoomba residents voted against having recycled wastewater pumped into their homes. “The people objected to it because they thought it was dirty,” she says. “That’s total ignorance. That’s just how we are here. We’re like that with food. We don’t realise things can run short very quickly.””

Read the interview and article in full here!