News

Lisa Roet’s ‘Golden Monkey’ Collaboration Unveiled as Part of ‘White Night Melbourne’

Lisa Roet’s Golden Monkey, a collaboration with Inflatable Design and Felipe Reynolds, will be unveiled on Saturday 20 February at 7pm at the Melbourne Town Hall, as part of White Night Melbourne. Golden Monkey has been supported by the City of Melbourne Arts Grants Program.

Works from Justine Varga’s ‘Accumulate’ Series Acquired by the National Gallery of Australia

Three works from Justine Varga’s Accumulate series have been acquired by the National Gallery of Australia!

EdgeEnter and Exit (Red state) are now on display at the NGA as part of Australian Art Now.

Congratulations to Justine on this most exciting acquisition!

Artists Announced in the Fleurieu Art Prize 2016

The Fleurieu Art Prize, the richest landscape prize in the world, will present a diverse selection of artists working across multiple-media celebrating Australian landscape. Established in 1998, this non-acquisitive prize is valued at $65,000 and will be the first time the prize has been exhibited in the CBD. The exhibition will take place at the Samstag Museum of Art, running from 3 June to 29 July 2016.

The winner will be announced at the launch on the 2nd of June and judging panel includes: Nigel Hurst, Director, Saatchi Gallery London; Suhanya Raffel, Deputy Director and Director of Collections, Art Gallery of New South Wales; and Erica Green, Director, Samstag Museum of Art.

A huge congratulations to Narelle Autio, Ildiko Kovacs, Janet Laurence, Richard Lewer, William Mackinnon, Sera Waters and Amy Joy Watson who have all been shortlisted for the prize!

For more details and a full list of participating artists, click here.

Janet Laurence’s ‘H2O: Water Bar’

Janet Laurence’s latest project will be exhibiting in Sydney from 13 to 28 February from 6 to 9pm at Paddington Reservoir Gardens:

“Sydney’s latest must-visit tasting bar is serving something more precious than vintage French bubbles or Japanese whiskey: our natural water supply.

H2O: Water Bar is a reflective, glassy glistening installation by Janet Laurence that allows you to sample a variety of water sourced from diverse regions of Australia.

Outfitted like an apothecary or laboratory, H2O: Water Bar is set amongst the heritage industrial space of the Paddington Reservoir Gardens’ inner chamber, opened to the public especially for this installation.

Australia’s identity is forever tied to our relationship with water, from the waterholes used as weapons during the colonial era, to the long droughts that affect our regional communities, and the environmental threats to the future of Australia’s ground water. By inviting you to experience the qualities of different Australian waters, H2O: Water Bar helps us to better understand the complexity and fragility of this vital resource.”

Read more about the project here and here!

Lisa Roet’s ‘Heart Beat’ at the Australian Experimental Art Foundation

Lisa Roet’s Heart Beat will exhibit at the Australian Experimental Art Foundation from 26 February to 2 April.

Lisa Roet is renowned for her exploration of the complex ape-human intersection.

In Heart Beat, presented by the AEAF in partnership with Adelaide Festival of Arts, a giant hybrid gorilla/human heart pulsates to a blood-rushing soundscape, in a realm of science fiction where contemporary spirituality and ethical dilemmas collide.

With a hint of freak show ‘smoke and mirrors’, this groundbreaking and immersive 4D video installation uses the mutations of Roet’s own body to examine how cutting-edge scientific technology affects ‘humanness’.

Produced in collaboration with musician Charlie Owen (Beasts of Bourbon / Divinyls) and scientific animator Drew Berry (Walter and Eliza Institute).

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.

For opening dates and times, click here.

Trent Parke in ‘Public Image, Private Lives: Family, Friends and Self’ at the Art Gallery of South Australia

Public Image, Private Lives: Family, Friends and Self is now open at the Art Gallery of South Australia!

The spectacular exhibition features works by our own Trent Parke, as well as by Julia Margaret Cameron, Harold Cazneaux, Max Dupain, J.H. Lartigue, Andy Warhol, Carol Jerrems, Pat Brassington, Sue Ford, Mark Kimber, Ann Newmarch, Ian North and William Yang.

Public Image, Private Lives, open until July 3, delves beneath the surface of familiar (and some unfamiliar) images in Australian and international photography, to highlight close connections between the photographer and subject, whether they be friends, family members or the photographers themselves.

Parke most recently exhibited at the Art Gallery of South Australia in 2015, premiering The Black Rose. Public Image, Private Lives presents works by Parke from the iconic The Christmas Tree Bucket.

Trent Parke’s ‘The Camera is God’ at Monash Gallery of Art

The Monash Gallery of Art presents Trent Parke’s The Camera is God. This is a significant exhibition by and for Parke, the internationally-renowned Australian photographer. The MGA will be presenting this exhibition alongside a range of Parke’s work recently acquired for its collection. The Camera is God will run from 26 November 2015 to 21 February 2016.

See MGA website for more details.

Janet Laurence in ‘Anthropocene’, the Fine Art Society, London

From 17-27 November, Janet Laurence presents Anthropocene with Scottish artist Angela Palmer at the Fine Art Society in London.

Anthropocene (from the Greek anthropo – ‘man’, and cene –‘new’) is the name used to denote the proposed new geological era due to supersede the current Holocene epoch as a formal scientific recognition of the prevailing and irrevocable impact of human life on earth. 

Both Laurence and Palmer share an interest in the changing face of the environment and humanity’s effect on the planet and will present, shown alongside each other for the first time, works reflecting this ever-present issue. 

Darebin Art Prize 2015

Congratulations to Nadine Christensen and Elvis Richardson, who have been selected as finalists for the 2015 Darebin Art Prize!

The Darebin Art Prize is a biennial national multi-medium acquisitive art prize awarding excellence in contemporary visual art.

The $10,000 acquisitive prize includes a wide range of contemporary practices.

The exhibition opens 10 December 2015 at the Bundoora Homestead Art Centre and closes 21 February 2016. More information on the Prize here!

Gold Coast Art Prize 2015

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!