News

Hugo Michell Gallery Open: Bulthirrirri Wunuŋmurra & Binygurr Wirrpanda | Amy Joy Watson
05
Nov

Hugo Michell Gallery Open: Bulthirrirri Wunuŋmurra & Binygurr Wirrpanda | Amy Joy Watson

Hugo Michell Gallery invites you to the opening of 'Yirrkala - Next Wave' by Bulthirrirri Wunuŋmurra & Binygurr Wirrpanda and 'Goodnight Air' by Amy Joy Watson on Saturday 5th November.
Artist Talks | Saturday 5th Nov, 1:30pm
Opening Event | Saturday 5th Nov, 2-4pm
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Bulthirrirri Wunuŋmurra & Binygurr Wirrpanda
Yirrkala - Next Wave
'Yirrkala - Next Wave' shines a light on two early career artists working out of Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Indigenous Art Centre, Yirrkala. Striking a balance between continuity with their forebears’ artistic legacy and innovative artmaking, the exhibition showcases works by Bulthirrirri Wunuŋmurra & Binygurr Wirrpanda that speak to the concept of water as a metaphor and tool for discussing abstract concepts of existence in Yolŋu culture.
Tides, rain, springs, dew, mist, clouds are all drawn on to discuss these abstract concepts of existence. And so, this next wave of Yirrkala artists is breaking on the shore of mainstream awareness.
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Amy Joy Watson
Goodnight Air
In 'Goodnight Air' Amy Joy Watson builds on her distinctive visual language that explores geography, light and emotional states through delicate woven landscapes, made of metallic thread.
Across embroidered works on paper and tarnished brass mesh, this new body of work explores art making as a process for healing and recovery.
In the wake of post-natal anxiety and acute insomnia, Amy’s slow and gentle hand stitching process revealed itself as a form of active meditation, one that is vital to her mental health.
Shimmering golden threads represent the cascading water or “liquid sunshine” that manifests in visualisations that appear during moments of contemplation and meditation.
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Binygurr Wirrpanda, Mäna at Lutumba, 2022, etching and on found metal sign, fixative and etched aluminium, 92 x 126 cm

Binygurr Wirrpanda, Mäna at Lutumba, 2022, etching and on found metal sign, fixative and etched aluminium, 92 x 126 cm

Amy Joy Watson, Untitled, 2022, Metallic thread, brass mesh and brass frame, 114 x 92 cm

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 Open: William Mackinnon
28
Sep

Hugo Michell Gallery Open: William Mackinnon

Hugo Michell Gallery invites you to the opening of 'Home and Away' by William Mackinnon on Thursday 29th September, 6-8pm.
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William Mackinnon
Home and Away
William Mackinnon is an internationally regarded Australian artist, living and working between Ibiza, Spain, the UK, and Australia. His highly anticipated exhibition ‘Home and Away’ continues the artist’s affinity with the quintessential Australian landscape in large-scale cinematic paintings and limited prints which depict some of his most iconic imagery.
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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 this exhibition!

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
Above: William Mackinnon, Mother and Child, 2021-22, colour lithograph, 76 x 56 cm, edition of 10
Header: William Mackinnon, Night Thoughts, 2021-22, acrylic, oil and automotive enamel on linen, 160 x 220 cm
Paul Yore's major survey exhibition at ACCA
28
Sep

Paul Yore's major survey exhibition at ACCA

We are thrilled to announce the launch of Paul Yore’s major survey exhibition ‘WORD MADE FLESH’ at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne.

Presented as part of ACCA’s Contemporary Australian Solo Series, ‘Paul Yore: WORD MADE FLESH’, curated by Max Delany, is a comprehensive survey encompassing the full scope of Yore’s work—appliques, quilts, tapestry and needlework, banners and pendants, collage and assemblage, and largescale narrative and history paintings, as well as a major monographic publication. The exhibition will be constructed maximally as a gesamtkunstwerk, presenting work over the past fifteen years, alongside a major new room-scaled sculptural installation to be developed for the exhibition.

‘Paul Yore: WORD MADE FLESH’ will be presented at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art from 24 September –20 November 2022.

Press Coverage

ABC News: Australian artist Paul Yore speaks about censorship in art, queer culture and Catholic kitsch as ACCA exhibition surveys his career

The Australian Arts Review: Paul Yore: WORD MADE FLESH

Sydney Morning Herald: Shaped by breakdown and brush with police, Paul Yore takes aim at modern life

ArtsHub: Paul Yore battling controversy with love and labour 

Art Guide: Paul Yore on beauty, cooking and chaos - and why he's ultimately an optimist

The Guardian: Penis straws and obscene quilts: the artist turning junk into a queer church

NBC International News: 15 LGBTQ art shows that are spicing up global museums this fall

The Conversation: Paul Yore: the uncompromising Australian artist riotously tackling queer culture, corporate greed and hyperconsumption

For artwork enquiries contact mail@hugomichellgallery.com

Hugo Michell Gallery Open: Nyunmiti Burton | Marc Etherington
19
Aug

Hugo Michell Gallery Open: Nyunmiti Burton | Marc Etherington

Hugo Michell Gallery invites you to the opening of 'Kungkarangkalpa (Seven Sisters Songline)' by Nyunmiti Burton and 'Strange days indeed' by Marc Etherington on Thursday 25th August, 6-8pm
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Nyunmiti Burton
Kungkarangkalpa (Seven Sisters Songline)
Nyunmiti Burton was born in Alice Springs and grew up in Pukatja (Ernabella) where she now lives and works. For this solo exhibition ‘Kungkarangkalpa (Seven Sisters Songline)’ Burton paints the ancestral story of the Seven Sisters, a significant Tjukurpa that describes the intergenerational strength of Aṉangu women learning from and protecting one another.
“I heard these stories from my father, mother and grandfathers. I think about the future of the country for the next generation.” - Nyunmiti Burton
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Marc Etherington
Strange days indeed
Marc Etherington’s works take pop culture, fantastical imagined scenarios and scenes of everyday life as his subject matter, rendering them through a darkly humorous and sometimes absurd lens.
About his latest body of work, Marc shares: “I am living in a small town in Alberta where it’s not uncommon to see somebody wearing a cowboy hat, cowboy boots or a big shiny belt buckle. Also dinosaur bones are found sometimes down by the river. A man found a huge one last year imbedded into the river bank which went to a museum collection. I’m obsessed with finding my own dinosaur bones. I think maybe these two things have seeped into my subconscious and worked their way into my new paintings.”
 
Please join us in celebrating the launch of these two exhibitions!
 
Nyunmiti Burton, Untitled (235-22AS), 2022, acrylic on linen, 200 x 300 cm
Nyunmiti Burton, Untitled (235-22AS), 2022, acrylic on linen, 200 x 300 cm
Marc Etherington's 'Strange Days Indeed' at Hugo Michell Gallery, 2022
Marc Etherington's 'Strange Days Indeed' at Hugo Michell Gallery, 2022
Hugo Michell Gallery are proud to partner with Bird in Hand Winery for this opening event.
 
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.
Sera Waters announced as artist in 2022 Busan Bienniale: We, on the Rising Wave
20
Jul

Sera Waters announced as artist in 2022 Busan Bienniale: We, on the Rising Wave

We are thrilled to share that Sera Waters has been selected for the 2022 Busan Biennale: We, on the Rising Wave.

The Biennale’s title symbolizes the constant inflow and outflow of immigrants from other port cities around the world, suggesting global interconnectedness. It is also a metaphor for dissemination in an environment of technological change, as well as a description of Busan’s rolling landscape of seaside hills.

The Busan Biennale artistic director Haeju Kim shares: “The exhibition will put forward a viewpoint that narrates the stories of backstreets in Busan, and how they are intersected and connected to that of other major cities, in an attempt to explore ways adapting to the ever-changing world as we ride the waves ahead of us.”

Presented by the Museum of Contemporary Art Busan, the exhibition – an exploration of collective memory and a reflection on movement and history – will spread to Pier 1 of Busan Port and a house in Choryang from 3 September to 6 November 2022

Sera Waters in the studio, 2022. Photography by Aubrey Jonsson

Hugo Michell Gallery Open: Julia Robinson | Yarrenyty Arltere Artists
14
Jul

Hugo Michell Gallery Open: Julia Robinson | Yarrenyty Arltere Artists

Hugo Michell Gallery invites you to the opening of 'The Beckoning Blade' by Julia Robinson and 'We are from Mparntwe, our ideas are from here and so is our art' by Yarrenyty Arltere Artists.
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Julia Robinson
The Beckoning Blade
Presented as part of the 2022 SALA Festival
‘The Beckoning Blade’ delves into Julia Robinson’s long-standing preoccupation with ritual, fertility, the occult and the macabre that coalesce in this study of the tropes and trappings of the folk horror genre. About this body of work, Julia shares: “The Beckoning Blade' is my love letter to folk horror and in particular Robin Hardy’s 1973 film The Wicker Man. The Wicker Man has long been influential in my practice but in this exhibition it comes to the fore, lending its peculiar air of exuberance, eeriness, and mischievous humour to the work.”
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Yarrenyty Arltere Artists
We are from Mparntwe, our ideas are from here and so is our art
"You mob are in the city maybe looking at our work. Thinking about our work with your city heads. We are in Mparntwe thinking up ideas. Thinking about people who drink tea from a billycan and birds who know how to find water in the desert. The city is different to the desert but when we all look at our art, we can get to know each other. We can be friends." - Marlene Rubuntja, Yarrenyty Arltere Artist
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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!
 
Julia Robinson's 'The Beckoning Blade' has been generously supported by the Australian Government through Arts South Australia.
 
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. 

 

Julia Robinson, A Mouthful of Earth, 2022, linen, thread, sickles, steel, fixings, 110 x 80 x 30 cm

 Selected work by Rosabella Ryder and Rhonda Sharpe, 2022
Min Wong Joins Hugo Michell Gallery as a represented artist
22
Jun

Min Wong Joins Hugo Michell Gallery as a represented artist

Hugo Michell Gallery welcomes the addition of Min Wong to our represented artists!

Min Wong’s sculpture and installation practice examines metaphysical and cultural esoterica of 1970’s countercultures, ‘New Age’ spirituality and recent renewed interest towards self-help and therapeutic culture. Her installations use strategies of appropriation, corporate branding techniques and nomadic meanings that are contingent and subject to the contemporary dilemma of spirituality.

Her practice explores utopias and esoteric practices to reimagine a renewal of connection between nature, community, and spirituality in coexistence. By looking back to past and present spiritual movements, Min’s installations investigate illusory hopes, desire, failure and seeks to remodel speculative worlds as possible futures within the contemporary dystopic.

Min Wong has exhibited widely across Australia and was recently included in the 2022 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Free/State. Min has undertaken numerous international residencies including in Spain, China and Los Angeles. She has been a finalist in prizes such as Churchie Emerging Art Prize, the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize and in 2019 was the awarded the Sculpture prize for the Ghost Fisher Art Award. Her works are held in the collections of Artbank, Housemuseum, Charles Darwin University and the City of Adelaide.

We congratulate Min on her achievements thus far and look forward to working together in the future!

Min Wong's 'Born to Give not to Get' at Hugo Michell Gallery, 2022Min Wong's 'Born to Give not to Get' at Hugo Michell Gallery, 2022

Hugo Michell Gallery Open: Bridie Gillman + Zaachariaha Fielding
16
Jun

Hugo Michell Gallery Open: Bridie Gillman + Zaachariaha Fielding

Hugo Michell Gallery invites you to the opening of ‘Quiet of day’ by Bridie Gillman and ‘Kuwari – Now’ by Zaachariaha Fielding on Thursday 16th of June, 6-8pm.
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Bridie Gillman
Quiet of day
Quiet of day has been made in response to a feeling. Each work draws from a specific moment where artist Bridie Gillman experienced a sense of letting go, of calm rushing over her, of exhaling out the day and breathing in the sky. This often happens as the sun is setting, and the trees have become silhouettes in the liminal time between the sun and the stars.
The paintings are not a representation of a site, but they are based on seen things – skies, hills, gums. They translate an emotional sense of the place through abstraction, layers of colour and considered brushstrokes.
This process of abstracting what Gillman sees has extended into a series of ceramic sculptures that sit alongside the paintings. Distinctive forms taken from different sites – silhouetted rocks and hills – act as the starting points for these objects.
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Zaachariaha Fielding
Kuwari – Now
Kuwari – Now is Zaachariaha Fielding’s first solo exhibition, proudly presented by Hugo Michell Gallery.
Fielding is a multi-disciplinary art originally from the Mimili Community in the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands, currently working out of the APY Collective on Kaurna land/Adelaide. Having established himself as a critically acclaimed musician, the frontman for duo Electric Fields, Fielding is compelled to create art in whichever form is available to him.
His creative and cultural spirit lays bare the constellations of his emotions, memories and experiences in his artworks. About his work, Fielding shares: “I was raised on desert country in the eastern Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands, and come from a long line of multi-disciplinary artists. I am compelled to make work that honours the visual language of my ancient culture. The iconography reflects the way I live my culture in the present, as a constant feature of my world, and visualises how I interact with the beings that populate the Tjukurpa I’ve inherited.”
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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.
With deep gratitude Bridie Gillman acknowledges that the works in this exhibition have been made in response to experiences on Turrbal, Yuggera, Bundjalung and Gumbaynggirr Countries.

 

Bridie Gillman, A valentine sky, 2022, oil on line, 183 x 137 cm
Hugo Michell Gallery Open: Paul Davies + Tony Garifalakis
19
May

Hugo Michell Gallery Open: Paul Davies + Tony Garifalakis

Hugo Michell Gallery invites you to the opening of '12 Frames’ by Paul Davies and ‘Future History’ by Tony Garifalakis.
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Paul Davies
12 Frames
Paul Davies work is driven by friction between opposing forces of built and natural environments, design and art, abstraction, and figuration. In his works, featuring modernist architectural homes set in idyllic landscapes devoid of human form, viewers are encouraged to inhabit the space and generate their own narrative.
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Tony Garifalakis
Future History
The works in this series, first begun in 2017, take their starting point in pre-existing, printed imagery that is sourced from contemporary interior design manuals and hotel brochures, Garifalakis digitally manipulates the originals to create beguiling and seductive new images, ones that retain a hint of their origin, such as surface textures like aluminium, wood and carpet, whilst at the same time transforming them into something new and unrecognisable.
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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.
 
Clara Adolphs and Fiona McMonagle announced as finalists in the 2022 Geelong Contemporary Art Prize
18
May

Clara Adolphs and Fiona McMonagle announced as finalists in the 2022 Geelong Contemporary Art Prize

We are thrilled to share that Clara Adolphs and Fiona McMonagle have been shortlisted for the 2022 Geelong Contemporary Art Prize.

The 2022 Geelong Contemporary Art Prize is a signature event that showcases the diversity and excellence of Australian contemporary painting practice. Through these prizes, staged since 1938, the Gallery has amassed an exceptional representation of Australian paintings whilst supporting contemporary practitioners. Showcasing the best of contemporary Australian painting practice, this $30,000 acquisitive award and biennial exhibition will feature 28 works by leading and emerging Australian artists. Collectively, the stylistic approaches and thematic range of these works reflect the currency and relevance of painting today.

The 2022 Geelong Contemporary Art Prize finalist exhibition will be on show at Geelong Gallery in Victoria from 25 June to 11 September 2022, with the recipient of the $30,000 acquisitive 2022 Geelong Contemporary Art Prize to be announced on Friday 15 July at 6pm.