News

Clara Adolphs featured on cover of Artist Profile Magazine

Clara Adolphs has been featured in the most recent issue of the Qantas magazine.

About Adolphs' painting practice, Susan Horsburgh writes: “Like old photos, Adolphs’ paints allude to a constancy, suggesting that our experiences aren’t so different from those of our grandparents. “The wider world and society might change but the human condition doesn’t.”.

Clara Adolphs’ exhibition ‘Silent Reply’ is now showing at Hugo Michell Gallery until 20th May.

Enquiries to mail@hugomichellgallery.com

Artist Profile Magazine | Issue 63 | 2023 - MCA Store Museum of  Contemporary Art

Pictured: Qantas ‘Travel Insider’ Magazine, May 2023; Cover to pp 131-135.

Hugo Michell Gallery Opening: Guruwuy Murrinyina, Garawan Waṉambi & Djirrirra Wunuŋmurra | David Booth [Ghostpatrol]

Hugo Michell Gallery invites you to the opening of ‘Dhulmu -Deep’, featuring work by Guruwuy Murrinyina, Garawan Waṉambi and Djirrirra Wunuŋmurra, and ‘Drawing Is Magic, and I Believe It!’ by David Booth [Ghostpatrol] on WEDNESDAY 24th May, 6-8pm.
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Guruwuy Murrinyina, Garawan Waṉambi and Djirrirra Wunuŋmurra
Dhulmu – Deep
The Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Art Centre, located in the Aboriginal community of Yirrkala, is one of Australia’s premier Aboriginal art centres. The meaning of Buku-Larrŋgay in Yolŋu matha is “the feeling on your face as it is struck by the first rays of the sun”.
Hugo Michell Gallery are proud to present the incredible works by artists Guruwuy Murrinyina, Garawan Waṉambi and Djirrirra Wunuŋmurra, ranging from paintings on Stringybark to Larrakitj.
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David Booth [Ghostpatrol]
Drawing Is Magic, and I Believe It!
About the work, Booth shares: “Growing up I was lucky that the scrap drawing paper in my home was nice large never-ending sheets of dot matrix paper recycled from my dad’s work as a bridge engineer. Sometimes this paper had CAD plan drawings on it, and I remember spending a lot of time colouring, scribbling, and playing on that side of the page. There must have been something in those technical drawings that my brain liked.
The task I set for my drawings is to exist as a beacon or portal to help people feel optimistic and remember to access their own magical playground in their mind.
I have strong childhood memories of watching my dad on our holidays admiring massive dams or impressive bridges and observing him soak up all the detail and beauty of these drawings brought to life. My daydreamy child brain loved joining the dots between plan drawings and being dwarfed by the epic structures as we walked across my dad’s bridges. This is my foundation for believing that ‘Drawing is Magic’.
David Booth in the studio with works for 'Drawing Is Magic, and I Believe It!, 2023. Photography by Amber Fletcher
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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.
We also acknowledge the Yolŋu people whose land on which the works for this exhibition have been created, and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture and pay respects to Elders past, present, and emerging.

Georgia Spain joins Hugo Michell Gallery as represented artist

Hugo Michell Gallery welcomes the addition of Georgia Spain to our represented artists!

Georgia Spain is a visual artist and musician living and working in Naarm (Melbourne). She graduated with a BFA in painting from the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne in 2015, where she was the recipient of the Lionel Gell Foundation Scholarship and a finalist for the Margaret Lawrence Gallery's Majlis Travelling Scholarship. In 2020, Spain was the recipient of the Brett Whiteley Travelling Scholarship administered by the Art Gallery of New South Wales. In 2021, Spain's work ‘Six Different Women’ (2021) won the Trawalla Foundation Acquisitive Prize in the Women's Art Prize Tasmania. In the same year, Spain was announced as winner of the Sir John Sulman Prize for her work ‘Getting down or falling up’ (2021).

Her work often explores the complexities of human behaviour; using narrative and storytelling to examine the cultural, political and personal. Her paintings frequently look at ideas around human spectacle, theatricality, ritual and ceremony. She is interested in the emotional and performative exchanges between people in social and psychological spaces and in her paintings physical connection is explored through bodies in groupings.

We congratulate Georgia on her achievements and look forward to her first solo exhibition at Hugo Michell Gallery in September 2023.

Register your interest at mail@hugomichellgallery.com

Georgia Spain, Hot wind, 2022, acrylic on canvas, 152 x 198 cm. Private collection.

Zaachariaha Fielding announced as WINNER of Wynne Art Prize

We are so thrilled to share that Zaachariaha Fielding has been announced as the WINNER of the Wynne Prize 2023 for his painting 'Inma', which depicts the sounds of Mimili, a small community in the eastern part of the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands.

Fielding says, "This is a memory that I was able to document which happened in Paraulpi. It’s a place that’s like the Sydney Opera House for the APY Lands! It’s where people come to embrace and celebrate children, teaching them how to move and mimic their clan emblem, and, for Mimili, this has always been the maku (witchetty grub)."

Fielding presents Mimili through his childhood lens, recalling how he observed inma (song and dance) and movement. He says, "The atmosphere of this work is full of sound, movement and teaching. All of the communities [are] coming together, shar[ing] their storylines. However, this platform is only for children. This is for the babies and it’s about them being taught by the masters, their Elders."

Fielding literally weaves Pitjantjatjara language into this work, using the teaching between grandchildren and grandparents as a stylistic element to outline and define the artist’s view of Country.

Congratulations Zaachariaha!

Zaachariaha will be presenting new work at Hugo Michell Gallery in October as part of the 2023 Tarnanthi Festival. Contact us to register your interest.


Pictured: Zaachariaha Fielding, Inma, acrylic on linen, 198.5 x 306.2 cm

Finalists in the 2023 Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prize

The 2023 Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Art Prize finalists have been announced!

Zaachariaha Fielding, Richard Lewer, and William Mackinnon have been selected as finalists; Zaachariaha Fielding is a finalist in the Wynne Prize; Richard Lewer as a finalist in the Sulman Prize; and William Mackinnon has been announced as a finalist for the Archibald Prize.

Presented by Art Gallery of New South Wales, the exhibition will run from 6 May – 3 September 2023

Zaachariaha Fielding, Inma, acrylic on linen, 198.5 x 306.2 cm

This painting by first-time Wynne Prize finalist Zaachariaha Fielding depicts the sounds of Mimili, a small community in the eastern part of the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands. Fielding says, "This is a memory that I was able to document which happened in Paraulpi. It’s a place that’s like the Sydney Opera House for the APY Lands! It’s where people come to embrace and celebrate children, teaching them how to move and mimic their clan emblem, and, for Mimili, this has always been the maku (witchetty grub)."

Fielding presents Mimili through his childhood lens, recalling how he observed inma (song and dance) and movement. He says, "The atmosphere of this work is full of sound, movement and teaching. All of the communities [are] coming together, shar[ing] their storylines. However, this platform is only for children. This is for the babies and it’s about them being taught by the masters, their Elders."

Fielding literally weaves Pitjantjatjara language into this work, using the teaching between grandchildren and grandparents as a stylistic element to outline and define the artist’s view of Country.

Richard Lewer, Richard’s medical disasters, acrylic on linen, 181.5 x 152.7 cm

About the work, Lewer shares: "This self-portrait documents my medical history and the experience of inhabiting this body. My work frequently explores vulnerability and personal history by bringing to light topics that may be considered taboo or seen as oversharing. I am not seeking sympathy or pity. The confessional and humorous nature of the painting is a way for me to override any shame or stigma of talking about my health.

Placing these intimate and sometimes embarrassing personal histories and experiences in the public domain is both cathartic and empowering for me as an artist, and hopefully this work prompts audiences to share and examine their own bodily histories."

William Mackinnon, Rich Lewer, friend and rival in sport and art, acrylic, oil, automotive spray and glitter on linen, 159 x 129.3 cm

 

William Mackinnon’s subject is fellow artist Richard Lewer. Both are four-time Archibald finalists, while Lewer is represented in this year’s Sulman Prize and was one of the artists commissioned by the Art Gallery of New South Wales to produce work for the Sydney Modern Project.

‘I have known Rich for many years. We have shown at some of the same galleries and have often been finalists in the same prizes. Over the last few years, we have found a shared love of sport and have a rolling competition going on between tennis, padel [a racket sport] and surfing,’ says Mackinnon.

‘Rich’s altruism is legendary. He is constantly supporting other artists and has helped me catch a break several times in my career. He devoted a decade of unpaid hours to train amateur boxers, who had no idea what a big figure he was in the artworld.

‘There is another side to Rich that few see: his indomitable work ethic and determination to push himself. He has the inner mongrel to fight his way to the top. In January [2023], he destroyed three months of work as “it just wasn’t good enough”.’

‘Every artist needs a rival to push them to greater heights. Freud had Bacon, Manet had Degas, Picasso had Matisse. I have Rich Lewer.’

 

Hugo Michell Gallery Opening: Clara Adolphs | Ellis Moseley

Hugo Michell Gallery invites you to the opening of 'Silent Reply' by Clara Adolphs and 'Heist' by Ellis Moseley on Thursday 16th March, 6-8pm.
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Clara Adolphs
Silent Reply

“I like to think that everything exists all at once. Or everything that has existed, still exists. My objective is to make these photographs alive, now. I ask the question, what is the truer evidence of time, the photo or the painting?” – Clara Adolphs

Adolphs draws upon discarded and found photographs which, by their very nature, represent a medium that is infinitely reproducible. And yet, each photograph embodies the ‘truth’ of a specific moment in time. Adolphs continues this process in her studio practice; remaking a painting from a singular image over and over to capture the essence of the moment in time that the photograph was taken.

In 'Silent Reply', Adolphs paintings each have a ‘pair’ or ‘partner’ to question the idea of the original and the copy, and how meaning is carried or obscured through repetition. In confronting this dilemma, she refers to historian Roland Barthes, who posits that “perhaps we have an invincible resistance to believing in the past, in History, except in the form of myth. The Photograph… puts an end to this resistance: henceforth the past is as certain as the present, what we see on paper is as certain as what we touch.”

If photography is a ‘certificate of presence’, then we might consider every one of Adolphs’ paintings as a similar record of presence. Through the work, she imagines a new landscape - a record of life.
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Ellis Moseley
Heist

‘Heist’ presents an experimental and conceptual project that features exquisitely formed ceramic vessels and wall pieces. Whilst valuing the important aesthetic considerations of the object, this exhibition is part of Moseley’s ongoing research to test the limits of what an artwork can be.

Moseley’s assigns individual consciousnesses to the vessels in the gallery. The vessels themselves are not considered by the artist to be the work, but simply an anchor for the artwork, a physical object that accompanies the metaphysical artwork. Functioning much in the same way a church or temple does as a physical place for the consideration of metaphysical (non-physical) things.

‘Heist’ invites the viewer to examine what it is exactly he is claiming, through examining the nature of their own consciousness/inner awareness and perhaps that of the person standing next to them in the gallery.

The exhibition 'Heist' has been supported by the Helpmann Academy through a Creative Development Grant awarded to Ellis Moseley.
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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.


Selected work by Ellis Moseley, 2023

 

Easter Long Weekend Closure

Wishing you all a safe and fun-filled Easter long weekend from the entire Hugo Michell Gallery Team. 

Please note that Hugo Michell Gallery will be closed over the Easter long weekend, re-opening on Tuesday 11th of April for usual gallery open hours. 

Save the date for Clara Adophs’ ‘Silent Reply’ and Ellis Moseley’s ‘Heist’, opening on Thursday 20th April 2023, 6-8pm.

Enquiries to mail@hugomichellgallery.com

 

William Mackinnon showing in Melbourne Now at the National Gallery of Victoria

We are excited to share that William Mackinnon is showing in ‘Melbourne Now’ at the Ian Potter Centre, National Gallery of Victoria, opening from Friday 24th March 2023.

Bold in scale, ‘Melbourne Now’ will be displayed throughout all levels of The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, including permanent collection galleries, showcasing new works and commissions by emerging, mid-career and senior practitioners as well as local collectives.

The painting Home and Away was featured in William Mackinnon's highly anticipated exhibition of the same name. This body of work continues the artist’s affinity with the quintessential Australian landscape in large-scale cinematic paintings which depict some of his most iconic imagery. He explores the possibilities of painting through what is often a fantastical representation of the environment around him: whether it be a roadscape, landscape, or dreamscape.


‘Melbourne Now’ is open to the public from 24 March to 20 August 2023. Visit the NGV website here for more information.

 


Pictured: William Mackinnon, Home and Away, 2021-22, acrylic, oil and automotive enamel on linen, 260 x 200 cm

HUGO MICHELL GALLERY OPENING: LUCAS GROGAN | PAUL SLOAN

Hugo Michell Gallery invites you to the opening of 'CABINETS' by Lucas Grogan and 'The Gleaners' by Paul Sloan on Thursday 16th March, 6-8pm.
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Lucas Grogan
CABINETS

In 'CABINETS', Lucas Grogan takes the exhibition’s namesake as a starting point. Rather than the usual contents found in medicine cabinets, “good rooms” and libraries, his cabinets of are filled with an unreal assortment of things we need, things we want and things we can’t forget.

Some Cabinets operate like portraiture; collections that combine the aspirational and impossible with the low brow and familiar. Others like time-capsules, whereby every book title is a competing and conflicting element of the zeitgeist. Or like THE TEST, a combination of both, where the viewer must collect and follow their own thoughts, feelings and experiences to an ultimate resolution. They’re introspective, private and showy all at once.

Newcastle based Lucas Grogan’s distinctive visual language has developed over the years to coalesce into his recognisable style. He uses painting, drawing, needlepoint and installation to explore themes of isolation, inclusion and cultural collisions, through an autobiographical lens. His works are interwoven with dry wit and a piercing sense of humour

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Paul Sloan
The Gleaners
Paul Sloan’s ‘The Gleaners’ takes its name from Jean-Francois Millet’s controversial 1857 painting. Sloan—a veteran gleaner of scenes himself—presents a collection of images spring loaded with meaning, which reflect on how we look back in order to look forward.
Frankenstein’s monster is imagined within social media. Protest placards of 1960s counterculture morph with self-help slogans. A classical bust recalls an ancient oracle. A turtle carries a soldier’s helmet on its back, alluding to the collateral damage of war. A black cat strides forward purposefully, in defiance of the message painted on its side.
In ‘The Gleaners’, Sloan reflects on the cyclical tropes and techniques we use to navigate impending crisis. Rich with the symbolism and seductive graphic impact that are the hallmark of his work, Sloan’s beguiling images provide poetic and prophetic insights for our time.
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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.
Paul Sloan, The End, 2023, Gouache on paper (unframed), 55 x 76 cm
Paul Sloan, The End, 2023, Gouache on paper (unframed), 55 x 76 cm

Marc Etherington joins Hugo Michell Gallery as represented artist

NOW REPRESENTING

Hugo Michell Gallery welcomes the addition of Marc Etherington to our represented artists!

Marc Etherington spent his formative years ingratiating himself in the Sydney art community while fostering his emerging painting career. As a self-taught artist, Etherington has maintained a consistent practice in painting and small sculpture for over a decade and honed his unique style. 

Etherington’s naive application and heightened imagination have been integral in establishing his oeuvre. His use of colour and composition combine with his sense of whimsy to take us into an alternate reality at times nostalgic, absurd or humorous but always tapping into something we can connect to. His landscapes and interiors are depicted with an eye for highly amusing detail, touching on themes such as mass production, pop culture and collectibles. 

Currently based in Canada, Etherington has exhibited widely nationally within Australian and internationally. He has been a finalist in such prestigious awards as the Archibald Art Prize, Sir John Sulman Art Prize, and Wynne Prize at the Art Gallery of NSW, the John Fries Award at UNSW Art & Design, and Fisher’s Ghost Art Award at Campbelltown Art Centre.

His works are held in the Artbank collection and numerous private collections in Australia, North America and Europe.

Enquiries to mail@hugomichellgallery.com

Pictured: Marc Etherington portrait for ‘Talking with Painters’ Podcast, 2018. Photo by Maria Stoljar