News

Hugo Michell Gallery Open: Garawan Wanambi + Troy-Anthony Baylis

Hugo Michell Gallery invites you to the opening of ‘The Cleansing’ by Garawan Waṉambi and ‘Yes, I am Musical’ by Troy-Anthony Baylis, presented as part of Tarnanthi: Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art for 2021.
*Please note*
-If you wish to join us for the opening of these exhibitions, RSVP is essential to mail@hugomichellgallery.com
-Guests for the exhibition opening are required to wear a mask.
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Garawan Waṉambi
Yolŋu people, Northern Territory
In his latest exhibition titled ‘The Cleansing’, Garawan Waṉambi’s works are imprinted with the pattern of the land and sea of coastal Raymangirr, a sacred and restricted site at Arnhem Bay. These painted patterns describe and conceal larrakitj, which are used by the Marraŋu clan in sacred ceremonies at freshwater springs – representing a symbolic cleansing of the land and people.
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Troy-Anthony Baylis
Jawoyn people, Northern Territory
‘Yes, I Am Musical’ picks up its rhythm from a quaintly coded 1950s question used to identify homosexual men – ‘Are you musical?’ In this exhibition, Troy-Anthony Baylis carries forward queer culture and experience by gently and humorously prodding at language and visual culture through the resonances of popular music. The exhibition brings together three bodies of work: a major new piece in his Glomesh and ‘faux-mesh’ Postcard series; a series of small-scale Immediacy Paintings of inscriptions in paint; and his Anita Bryant Monuments collages that subvert anti-gay hate speech.
Exhibitions run from: 6 October to 6 November
Official Exhibition opening: Wednesday 6 October, 6-8pm
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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.
Tarnanthi is presented by the Art Gallery of South Australia with Principal partner BHP and support from the Government of South Australia

Sera Waters announced as Artist for 2022 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art

We are excited to announce Sera Waters will be exhibiting in the 2022 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Free/State at the Art Gallery of South Australia, curated by Sebastian Goldspink.
“Free/State assembles a group of artists who are fearless; the provocateurs, vanguards and outsiders – challenging histories and art forms, and in the process, offering reflections on an era of multi-faceted global upheaval. The exhibition explores ideas of transcending states, from the spiritual and artistic to the psychological, and embraces notions of freedom in expression, creation and collaboration.”
Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Free/State
4 March – 5 June 2022
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Sera Waters is an Adelaide based artist, arts writer and academic. Since being awarded a Ruth Tuck Scholarship in 2006 to study hand embroidery at the Royal School of Needlework (UK), Waters’ art practice has been characterised by a darkly stitched meticulousness. Her embroideries and hand-crafted sculptures dwell within the gaps of Australian histories to examine settler-colonial home-making patterns and practices, especially her own genealogical ghostscapes. More recently Waters has been exploring how textile traditions can help navigate a future affected by climate change.

Waters is currently undertaking research and developing her ‘Future Traditions’ project, enabled by being awarded the 2020 Guildhouse Fellowship (with Art Gallery of South Australia, supported by the James & Diana Ramsay Foundation). Her solo exhibition, Domestic Arts, is currently touring South Australian regional galleries with Country Arts SA presented in partnership with ACE Open. This exhibition was developed from being the 2017 recipient of the inaugural ACE Open South Australian artist commission. Other major exhibitions include Dark Portals, at the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, University of Western Australia (2013), Sappers and Shrapnel at Art Gallery of South Australia (2016) and Going Round in Squares at Ararat Gallery TAMA (2019).

Her works are held by the Cruthers collection of Women’s art, Ararat Regional Gallery, the Art Gallery of South Australia and private collections nationwide. Waters is a studio member of Central Studios, lecturer at Adelaide Central School of Art, and is represented by Hugo Michell Gallery.

Hugo Michell gallery Open: Clara Adolphs + Laura Wills

Hugo Michell Gallery invites you to the opening of ‘One Eye Open’ by Clara Adolphs and ‘Clouded’ by Laura Wills.
*Please note*
-If you wish to join us for the opening of these exhibitions, RSVP is essential to mail@hugomichellgallery.com
-Guests for the exhibition opening are required to wear a mask.
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‘One Eye Open’ by Clara Adolphs draws upon the artists vast archive of collected photographs, recontextualising the individuals who populate them. The works are filled with solitary figures and quiet, pensive moments; moments that seem to slip away as suddenly as the paint has been applied to the canvas. Working quickly and with purpose, Adolphs allows the paint to take on a life of its own.
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An exploration of place, ‘Clouded’ by Laura Wills has been informed by a residency undertaken in Emu Bay, Kangaroo Island. As a landscape only recently devastated by bushfires, Wills observed the epicormic growth of trees and plants – previously dormant fauna activated by smoke. Her drawings speak of her own perceptions; looking at seeds, trees, leaves, soil, all changing with time, season, and fire.
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Exhibition runs from: 2 September – 2 October
Official Exhibition opening: Thursday 2 September 6-8pm


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 Finissage Event: Artist Talks with James Dodd + Sera Waters

Hugo Michell Gallery invites you to a special ‘Finissage’ event! Please join us for an afternoon of SALA Festival Artist talks with exhibiting artists Sera Waters and James Dodd on Saturday 28th of August, 2-4pm.

‘Low Pressure System’ by James Dodd & Henry Jock Walker brings together a collection of ongoing investigations and will include a new teamwork exploration. Whilst having shared many art adventures together, this will be the first duo exhibition for the pair. This exhibition plays out the affinitive connection that both Dodd and Walker have for painting, colour and abstraction.

‘Specks’ by Sera Waters presents a body of work created during the time of the pandemic; she grapples with her own grief amidst lockdowns and growing climatic disasters. Sera transforms specks of data, family histories, found materials, and textile traditions into tales, reminders, and laborious reckonings.
Please join us in celebrating the end of these two SALA Festival exhibitions!
*Please note*
-If you wish to join us for this event, RSVP is essential to mail@hugomichellgallery.com
-Due to the current government restrictions visitors are required to wear a mask.
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.

Sam Gold Joins Hugo Michell Gallery as a Represented Artist

Hugo Michell Gallery welcomes the addition of Sam Gold to our represented artists!

Sam Gold is a South Australian artist living and working on Kaurna Yerta (the Adelaide Plains). Gold turned their hand to ceramics in earnest in 2018, bringing over a decade of training in Transpersonal Art Therapy (Ikon Institute), Furniture Design (TafeSA) and studies in Contemporary Art (UniSA, ACSA) to the medium. Currently practicing out of the JamFactory in a tenant studio, Gold works in ceramics, sculpture and installation. 

Gold explores the bodies ontology and poiesis through documenting movement and memory. Utilising clay for its mimetic, metaphorical and therapeutic qualities. This process-oriented work is held together by the indexical trace of gesture, repetition and healing. The works are made with the intention of marking the clay from the body, the body as a tool and the clay as a site to document. The intention in Gold’s work is to speak to the storiness of our lived materiality and view objects as artefacts that are imbued with intimate acts of meaning.  

Gold has exhibited widely, including such galleries as JamFactory, Southwest Contemporary, End Space Gallery, Praxis Artspace, Manly Art Gallery and Museum, Floating Goose Studios, CraftACT, and the Museum of Contemporary Art. Most notably they were featured in the 2019 Australian Ceramic Triennial, Hobart, and were recently selected as one of five emerging artists for Primavera, the Museum of Contemporary Art’s annual exhibition of emerging artists living and working in Australia, aged 35 years and under.

Gold has works held in the ArtBank collection, as well as numerous private collections nationwide. They have been the recipient of several awards, grants, and residencies. Selected awards and grants include Australia Council Grant, The Australian Ceramic Council Award (University of South Australia), JamFactory Award, Guildhouse Catapult Mentorship, Helpmann Academy Creative Investment Fund, and George Street Studio Residency.

We congratulate Sam on all of their achievements and are thrilled to be working together in the future.

William Mackinnon announced as finalist in Arthur Guy Memorial Prize

Congratulations to William Mackinnon who has been selected as a finalist in the prestigious Arthur Guy Memorial Prize with his painting Strive for the light.

Held every two years, the Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize attracts some of Australia’s most accomplished artists, awarding a generous acquisitive cash prize of $50,000. The Prize provides Bendigo Art Gallery with the opportunity to survey a breadth of contemporary painting by established and emerging artists from across Australia.

The Prize was initiated by Mr Allen Guy CBE (1917-2007) to honour his brother Arthur Guy (1914-1945) whose life was tragically cut short whilst in military service in New Guinea. Inaugurated in 2003, Bendigo Art Gallery acknowledges all those who have contributed to the success of the Prize and look forward to the continuation of this prestigious and highly regarded acquisitive prize.

The finalists’ exhibition opens at Bendigo Art Gallery on Saturday 20 November, and will be on display until Sunday 13 February, 2022. For more information, visit the Bendigo Art Gallery website.

Justine Varga announced as FINALIST in Bowness Photography Prize

Congratulations to Justine Varga who has been selected as a finalist in the 2021 Bowness Photography Prize for her chromogenic photographic work Shiaparelli. This work will be featured as part of Justine Varga’s upcoming exhibition ‘Masque’ to be presented at Hugo Michell Gallery in November 2021. 

About the work, Varga says:

“When we look at photographs, we are generally asked to view them as a window onto another place and time. Echoing a famously shocking hue, Schiaparelli ruptures this convention by asking the viewer to simultaneously look through and at its photographicness, and from its centre to its edge. The matrix from which this photograph is derived is a negative on which I have inscribed saliva, urine, bath water, ink and paint, mingled materials of genealogical and historical remembering. This photograph also deliberately draws our attention to its margins, an area of the photograph created during the printing process itself. Refusing to give up any easy meaning, Schiaparelli stages an encounter with the viewer, an experience as much as a document.”

Over the last 16 years, the Bowness Photography Prize has emerged as an important annual survey of contemporary photographic practice in Australia and one of the most prestigious prizes in the country. The winning work will be awarded $30,000 and will be acquired into Monash Gallery of Art’s nationally significant collection of Australian photographs.

The exhibition will be on display from Thursday 9th of September until 7th November at the Monash Gallery of Art.

 

Hugo Michell Gallery Open: James Dodd & Henry Jock Walker + Sera Waters

Hugo Michell Gallery invites you to the exhibitions ‘Low Pressure System’, a collaborative exhibition by James Dodd & Henry Jock Walker, and ‘Specks’ by Sera Waters. These exhibitions are presented as part of the 2021 SALA Festival.

*Please note*
-Due to the current government restrictions we are unable to serve refreshments at this exhibition opening and you are required to wear a mask.
-If you wish to join us for the opening of these exhibitions, RSVP is essential to mail@hugomichellgallery.com

‘Low Pressure System’ by James Dodd & Henry Jock Walker brings together a collection of ongoing investigations and will include a new teamwork exploration.  Whilst having shared many art adventures together, this will be the first duo exhibition for the pair. This exhibition plays out the affinitive connection that both Dodd and Walker have for painting, colour and abstraction.

Whilst the works of each artist show strong visual correlations; their individual approaches, processes and materials are embedded with varied content.  Dodd continues his investigations into the use of mechanical devices such as painting tools and industrial processes and Walker continues his sew collage of pre-loved wetsuits.

‘Specks’, by Sera Waters presents a body of work that were made during a time of the pandemic, lockdowns, grief, and grappling with growing climactic disasters. Sera has sensitively communicated these themes through laboured methods allowing time for her own and audience reflection.

“I imagine the atmosphere of now is full of specks; specks of the past, specks of data, specks of living matter, specks of stuff. Specks link to others to make threads, then tangles, then whole interconnected networks, that are the basis of the stories and material worlds we inherit and continue to create for the next generations. These artworks were made during the time of the pandemic, lockdowns, my own grief, and my grappling with growing climatic disasters. They transform specks of data, family histories, found materials, and textile traditions into tales, reminders, and laborious reckonings. These stories of stumps, drought-ridden land, extreme heat, and invasive species all arise from past entangles; from a want for wood, from a stowaway pest, from traditions introduced ill-fittingly to another’s faraway land. Tracing these tangles, following their threads, is a way of learning from them, redirecting their accumulated specks into new stories for the future.”

Exhibition runs from: 3 August – 28 August
Official Exhibition opening: Thursday 5 August 6-8 pm
Exhibition Finissage: Saturday 28th August



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.

Temporary Gallery Closure

In line with the SA government direction, our gallery spaces are now temporarily closed. As always, we are accessible online and you can contact the gallery directly to receive digital materials regarding exhibitions and available works.

It is important for our cultural sector that we continue to support artists and creative outcomes. We extend our support and sympathy to all impacted in our community.

All orders through the Hugo Michell Gallery online shop will be processed once we are able to return to the gallery.

Look forward to seeing you in person soon!

Pictured: Richard Lewer, ‘Home Time’, 2013, from ‘The Ten Commandments’, acrylic on foam, 50 x 50 cm

Sera Waters is 'Telling Tales': Bordertown Chronicle Article

Sera Waters speaks with the Bordertown Chronicle about the unveiling of the project Telling Tales, a joint venture between Ms Waters, artist Jo Fife, the Riddoch Art and Cultural Centre, Country Arts SA and Walkway Gallery. This announcement was made at the launch of Waters’ touring exhibition Domestic Arts at Walkway Gallery, Bordertown, on July 9th.

“It’s about domestic tales, family histories and how they haven’t always had a spot in Australia’s official history, so I am trying to bring those back into the narrative,” she said.

“I think there are so many fascinating tales that come out of people’s family histories and also the material stuff in there as well – It’s the materials that are at hand, we are so familiar with them, and we know them, and they are powerful materials.

“These are all family stories in one way or another – my mum was a great family historian, but they speak to other people’s families.“It’s all kind of knotty and tangled – we’re all entangled with each other in some way or another.” – Sera Waters

Click here to read the full article.

The exhibition Domestic Arts on showing at Walkway Gallery until August 29th, 2021. The collaborative Telling Tales work can be viewed at the Tatiara Civic Centre until September 5th.

Sera Waters, Sternum: containing, 2017, found bedspread, hand-dyed bed sheets, cotton, stuffing, rope, found handles, 300 x 150 cm approx. Photography by Grant Hancock.