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ART INSIGHT

March 07

Art Insight, October 08

Ralph Hobbs Ralph Hobbs
Art Director
Art Equity

 

Dear Subscribers,

 

Welcome to Art Insight.

 

Art Equity has a packed programme for the second half of 2009. Andrew McIlroy's exhibition titled "Plunge", opening on 13th August in Sydney, sees the artist take his refined technique to another level. Simply put, the work is beautiful. For more information, scroll down to the In Focus section.

Art Equity is on the road in August. Adam Nudelman, one Australia's major emerging talents is holding an important exhibition in Launceston, Tasmania on 28th August. The exhibition will be held in conjunction with Poimena Gallery and will include 40 small paintings that I can only describe as "gems". All works were painted during the 62 days he spent in the Tasmanian highlands. For more information on the paintings, please contact me at
rhobbs@artequity.com.au.

In September we exhibit the remarkable work of Katy Woodroffe in Sydney. Since her last exhibition in 2006, Katy has become one of Australia's leading exponents of print based media. Currently completing her PhD in Visual Arts and with several overseas exhibitions to her credit, she is a serious artist and one to watch.

In October we welcome Geoff Dyer back for his third solo show at Art Equity. Scroll to the Market Watch section for a sneak preview of his most recent work. Dyer featured on ABC's Artscape documentary on Tuesday night. If you missed it, catch the repeat on ABC2 on Sunday night. More details in Top Performers below.

Apart from the exhibition calendar, we will also keep you in the loop with the best of new editions, primary and secondary market artworks - and don't forget, if you have a requirement for something special, let us know and we will find it!

Regards,
Ralph

 

In Focus

In Focus

ANDREW McILROY
Plunge

In revisiting the sea as subject for his latest body of paintings, Andrew McIlroy investigates childhood memories, the sea forming an inherent part of psychic life. Plunging into shadowy depths, lost suspended in the vastness for a moment, these works are imbued with a poetic mystery and a sense of the sublime; yet they hint at the promise of resurfacing to the familiar sounds of summer vacation and youthful exuberance. In composition and in his skilled use of tone, McIlroy is drawn towards abstraction, whilst remaining true to the European Romantic tradition in choice of subject and methodology of highly glazed, fine painting.

Partly autobiographical, these paintings recall McIlroy’s long family summers, diving off the Portsea pier for hours, and of a familiar voice calling him home. Present also is a sense of unease permeating the works. The fears invoked by deep waters and sinking into the abyss, deliver poetic metaphors for anxieties which gripped the artist’s own childhood.

These are, too, universal works, offering to us a sense that we’ve been here before, provoking recollections of our own awe of watery depths or terror of the unknown. In this, we are reminded of the menace of Rick Amor’s solitary man running down Frankston pier, of the darkness and the terror of his oceans.

One of McIlroy’s hero painters, Amor further influences his love of intelligent painting, and a desire to create excursions in intellectual activity. In his attempt to capture the sublime in paint, and in describing the sea as his inspiration, McIlroy refers to Edmund Burke’s profound treatise, A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origins of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful.
“No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as terror; and whatever is terrible with regard to sight, is sublime. . . The sublimity of the ocean is due to the fact that it is an object of no little terror” (Sect II, Part II).
Burke goes on to describe vacuity, darkness, solitude and silence, vastness, or greatness of dimension, all as powerful causes of the sublime.

In examining these principles in paint, McIlroy has succeeded. Not attracted to the bold, gestural and at times anguished strokes of abstract painting associated with modernism, the artist combines his semi-abstract compositions with a reverence for the traditional trained hand of the Masters. The result is a superb manipulation of a narrow palette, bringing power and depth to these pervasive, intelligent canvases.

Brenda Colahan 2009





 


 

 

MAIN IMAGE: Andrew McIlroy, Plunge, Oil on Linen 183x168cm (*Available) TOP: Andrew McIlroy painting in his Melbourne studio NEXT:Andrew McIlroy, Sublime, Oil on Linen 183x168cm (*Available) BOTTOM: Andrew McIlroy, Plummet, Oil on Linen 154x146cm (*Available)  LEFT: Andrew McIlroy, Deep Breath, Oil on Linen 154x146cm (*Available)

 




Media View

Art Equity News


TOP: Morten Lassen, Untitled, oil on linen, 50x50cm (*Available) NEXT:Adam Nudelman, Autumn Snow, The Great Lake, Acrylic and oil on canvas board, 30x25cm (*Available) NEXT: Al Bailey running an Education Seminar at Art Equity.

 

DANISH ARTIST, MORTEN LASSEN JOINS THE ART EQUITY STABLE

Art Equity is delighted to welcome Danish artist, Morten Lassen to our stable of artists. Morten lives and works outside Copenhagen and has established a strong following from art collectors throughout Scandinavia. He also exhibits in Germany and is represented by The Rebecca Hossack Gallery in London.

Morten enjoyed sell-out success with Tim Olsen Gallery holding three solo exhibitions between 2004 and 2008. In 2003 he was selected by Sydney Grammar School for their six month Artist in Residency programme.

Morten's abstract, expressive painting style has been influenced by the COBRA painters, specifically Dane, Asger Jorn. Lassen's paintings are made up of numerous layers. "While painting the first layers, I try to conquer the canvas and make it mine. In the following layers, I work with colour composition, structure, contrast and balance."

Morten Lassen's work is held in numerous corporate collections including KPMG - Sydney, Pfizer - Copenhagen, Danske Bank - Haderslev, Ministery of the Interior and Health - Denmark.

We look forward to Morten's first solo exhibition with Art Equity in February 2010.

Find out more about Morten Lassen >


 


ART EQUITY EDUCATION SEMINARS in 2009

 

Art Equity conducts regular education seminars across Australia to investors and collectors at all levels. These discussions are an excellent forum for learning more about art market trends and forecasts, artists to watch and innovative ways to invest in art as part of a diversified asset portfolio. 


If you are interested in attending a seminar when one is scheduled in your capital city, please click here and leave your details.

winner

Top Movers

Top Movers

 

 

Adam Cullen

The rise of Adam Cullen continues.

[The Cullen] Hotel - the third of seven artist themed hotels is due for completion in November. The 115 room boutique hotel is located in Prahran and will feature original paintings and sculptures by Cullen. [The Olsen] and [The Blackman] are set for completion in the first half of 2010.

Find out more about Adam Cullen >

 

Geoff Dyer

 

Geoff Dyer was featured in the ABC documentary Artscape: Landscape Of The Wynne on Tuesday night.

The programme took viewers into the studios of four contemporary Australian painters as they prepared canvases for the 2009 Wynne Prizes - Australia's oldest and most prestigious landscape painting prize.

The documentary will be repeated on ABC2 on Sunday, August 02 at 7:00pm

Don't miss Geoff Dyer's third solo exhibition at Art Equity in October.

Find out more about Geoff Dyer >

 

Wentja Napaltjarri

 

Collectors of Wentja Napaltjarri's work will be impressed to hear of her new auction record set at Sothebys Aboriginal Art auction in Melbourne last week. The 150x250cm acrylic on linen titled "Sandhills" sold for $36,000 against estimates of $30,000 to $50,000. Her previous highest price was $12,000, set in 2006 at Lawson Menzies.

Find out more about Wentja Napaltjarri >

 

Chen Ping

 

Chen Ping has recently been taken on by New York based art gallery, EL Projected. Ping now has representation in Australia, China, France and the USA.

Find out more about Chen Ping >

 

 




 





TOP:
[The Cullen] luxury boutique hotel opening in November 09
NEXT:
Geoff Dyer, Binalong Bay 2, Watercolour on paper, 56x76cm (*Available) NEXT: Wentja Napaltjarri, Rockhole west of Kintore I, (Detail) Collagraph, 68x84cm, Edition of 50 (*Available) NEXT: Chen Ping, Room, Getting Quiet, 2009, Oil on Canvas, 180x150cm (Available) LEFT: Morten Lassen, Untitled, oil on linen, 60x60cm (*Available)

 

Market Watch

Market Watch


Whilst the Australian art market is bracing itself for the lowest annual sales total in ten years, it's not all gloom for art collectors and investors.

The mid-year auctions (completed last week) were well down on last year's results but auction rooms were full and there was an air of increased consumer confidence. The greatest challenge for auction houses continued to be the critical lack of high-end stock as vendors hang tight to their prized works.


Catalogues were thinner than usual and many of the estimates were lower than market expectations - particularly on lower-end lots. The opportunity for picking up a bargain was certainly there.

Sotheby's Aboriginal art auction on July 20 saw few major works with estimates over $80,000. The sale totaled $2.58 million- more than $1 million down on last year's sale but up on clearance rates - 63% of works sold and 70% by value.

The star lot was the 1895 cover piece, Corroboree by William Barak which sold for $504,000 (inc BP); almost three times its low end estimate.

An early Papunya painting by the late Shorty Lungkata Tjungurrayi set a new record for the artist at $168,000 (inc. BP) and Mt Liebig painter, Wentja Napaltjarri tripled her previous high with a work titled "Sandhills" selling for $36,000.

The mid-range lots suffered at Sotheby's with many leading names failing to find buyers - Rover Thomas, Lily Kelly Napangardi, Dorothy Napangardi, Emily Kame Kngwarreye to name a few. No doubt post-auction negotiations would have seen transactions for some.

The Menzies Art Brands (Deutscher Menzies and Lawson Menzies) held a combined sale on June 24th totaling $4.36 million for the group ($5.23 million including commissions). The 72% clearance rate was a pleasing result - not so positive was the 52% clearance by value - the result of numerous works selling below estimates. Paintings by Fred Williams and Arthur Boyd realised $600,000 each (inc. bp) against estimates of $550,000-700,000. Fred Cress


 

exceeded expectations when his painting True Believers sold for $144,000, eclipsing his previous auction record of $55,000.

Deutscher and Hackett's July 21st sale of the Naval & Military Club's collection of fine art is the good news story for this round of auctions. An exuberant auction room set the scene for a successful sale - 100% clearance by number and 180% by value. 23 Works by Sir Arthur Streeton sold, all above estimates. Portraits by Sir William Dargie’s and Septimus Powers First Australian Division Artillery Going Into The Third Battle Of Ypres also sold well above estimates.

Whilst most commercial galleries have seen a drop in sales of between 10-30% (sometimes more), there are some notable exceptions. This pertains to well priced established (mid-career) artists who are producing outstanding limited bodies of work. Artists like Adam Cullen, Martine Emdur, Garry Shead, Adam Nudelman, Del Kathryn Barton, Michael Johnson and Geoff Dyer are positioning themselves at the top for the next wave in the art market.

Whilst auction houses have been dropping estimates to focus on clearance rates, the galleries have put a "hold strategy" on pricing. A drop in prices in the primary market is not on the agenda. On the contrary, expect price increases in the next 12 months as the market recovers.

Another key indicator for the 'next wave' artists are those that are bucking the trend at auction. Adam Cullen, for instance more than doubled his auction record at Sotheby's in May when a work sold for $26,400 (inc. bp) against estimates of $14,000 to $18,000. The artist has a hotel named after him (being launched shortly) and a solo exhibition lined up in London next year.

Another movement we predict will feature strongly in the Australian art market over the next decade is the rise in interest of contemporary "world artists". In the past, a number of galleries have shown European and American artists in Australia to mixed success. However the last art boom, in part driven by the rise of the internet, has started to bring a whole new aesthetic and talent pool to our shores. Metro Gallery in Melbourne is currently showing the in-demand UK sculptor; Alexander Hoda and Art Equity will have its first international artist exhibition when it shows Danish talent Morten Lassen, in February 2010.

Anyway you look at it, the art market has had a tough 2009 - no surprises given the state of the world financial markets over the last 12 months. Whilst auction activity is clearly suffering, there are however a number of encouraging signs for the months ahead, particularly in the primary market.

 


For information
on Art Equity's payment plan structure please contact one of our Account Executives on (02) 9262 6660 or email to info@artequity.com.au.

TOP: Geoff Dyer, Dusk, Ocean Beach 1, 2009 Oil on linen, 153x183cm (*Available) LEFT: Katy Woodroffe, Los Cantaros 5, 2008, Mixed media on paper, 132 x 110cm (*Available)

Rental News

Rental News

Art Equity Rentals Offer

To discuss rental options for this work, please contact your Portfolio Manager

 

MAIN IMAGE: George Ward Tjungurrayi, Tingari, (detail) Acrylic on linen, 183x320cm


What's On

What's On

Art Equity Gallery

Adam Nudelman
62 Days in the Highlands
28 August - 4 September
Poimena Gallery
Launceston Church Grammar School
Button Street
Launceston  TASMANIA
CLICK HERE for E-Invitation


Katy Woodroffe
Cadenza
17 September to 2 October 2009


Geoff Dyer
New Works
15 - 30 October


Adam Nudelman
Reading the Markers
12 - 27 November

Exhibition Openings To join our Exhibition mailing list, please click here and leave your name, address and email address.

Art Education Seminars If you are interested in attending a seminar at Art Equity Gallery, please click here.

NSW

Art Gallery of NSW

Silk Ikats of Central Asia
An exhibition of late 19th century robes, tunics and textile panels that presents the remarkable artistic achievement and technical virtuosity of the silk designers, dyers and weavers of Central Asia.
2 July - 11 October 2009

Intensely Dutch: image, abstraction and the word, post-war and beyond
Uncompromising, confronting, optimistic – after World War II a new young generation of Dutch artists took to modernity as never before. For them it was a time of renewal. This exhibition presents the work of some of the most important post-war Dutch artists, including those associated with CoBrA and art informel, and those who preceded them, such as Willem de Kooning.
Until 23 August 2009

Sydney Long: Pan
Pan epitomises Long’s distinctive vision of the Australian landscape and his symbolist-inspired visual language of bush idylls, which developed from the stylistic tenets of Art Nouveau. This Focus Room exhibition provides an in-depth historical analysis of Pan as well as considering the work’s significance within the broader developments of Australian landscape painting during the build-up to Federation.
Until 30 August 2009



et al. maintenance of social solidarity
et al. is the name of an elusive collective of artists from New Zealand who keep their individual identities to themselves. Their installations explore complex aspects of human behaviour, including philosophy, religion, technology and politics.
Until 13 September 2009



The Dreamers
This exhibition celebrates the lives and work of eight distinguished Aboriginal artists who have contributed significantly to Australia’s cultural landscape. Profiling major bodies of work by Kutuwulumi Purawarrumpatu (Kitty Kantilla), Ronnie Tjampitjinpa, Rusty Peters, Dr David Malangi, John Mawurndjul, Ginger Riley Munduwalawala, Judy Watson and Munggurrawuy Yunupingu from the Gallery’s collection, the exhibition draws comparisons with key works by other artists with whom they share a synergy, each creating a new vision. They are the dreamers for the future.
Until 18 December 2009

Nicholas Mangan: Between a rock and a hard place
For his new project, Melbourne-based artist Nicholas Mangan looks to the tiny South Pacific island of Nauru. Nauru is the starting point for a richly imaginative installation incorporating found objects, collages and video, as Mangan explores the idea that “the middle of nowhere is the centre of everything”.
Until 13 September 2009

COMING.....

Printmaking in the Age of Romanticism
Romanticism emerged in the late 18th century as a powerful force in the development of European music, literature, painting and the graphic arts. This exhibition of over 100 prints includes works by artists, including Blake, Turner, Goya, Géricault and Delacroix, who turned to printmaking for its unique, expressive possibilities.
6 August - 25 October 2009

The Field
The Field - the inaugural exhibition for the triumphant reopening of the National Gallery of Victoria in 1968 - featured 74 works by artists working in Australia. This Focus Room installation will feature six paintings shown in this seminal exhibition, from the Gallery's collection.
5 September - 29 November 2009


Kaldor Public Art Projects: 40 years
2009 is the 40th anniversary of Christo's wrapping of Little Bay. It was the very first John Kaldor project and over the years the artists and curators Kaldor brought to Australia marked the most ambitious exposure of Australian audiences to international contemporary art. This exhibition and catalogue celebrates this history and launches its next phase.
2 October 2009 - January 2010


Dobell Prize for drawing 2009

The Dobell Prize is the most respected award for drawing in Australia. Initiated by the trustees of the Sir William Dobell Art Foundation, the prize was first awarded in 1993. The winner receives $20,000.
5 November 2009 - 31 January 2010



Rupert Bunny
Rupert Bunny was one of the most successful expatriate artists of his generation. A superb colourist and fine draughtsman, with a strong interest in rhythmic composition, Bunny was inspired by a range of late century tendencies, most particularly Symbolism with its affinity to the life of the imagination.
21 November 2009 - 21 February 2010


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Museum of Contemporary Art

LOUISA BUFARDECI & ZON ITO
This exhibition is the fourth in a series of ‘international pairing’ projects, and presents the work of Australian artist Louisa Bufardeci alongside Japanese artist Zon Ito.
Until 25 October 2009

Ricky Maynard: Portrait of a Distant Land
The series consists of photographs of Tasmania’s physical and social landscapes, following song lines and ochre trails, tribal movements and historical displacement routes, creating a form of visual diary derived from collective oral histories. The deeply personal project records cultural and historical sites significant to Maynard’s people, the Ben Lomond and Cape Portland peoples of Tasmania.
Until 23 August 2009

RISING TIDE: FILM & VIDEO WORKS FROM THE MCA COLLECTION
This exhibition represents the second in a two-part exchange of collections between the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, California.
Until 23 August 2009

MCA COLLECTION: NEW ACQUISITIONS
New Acquisitions 2009 showcases artworks acquired into the MCA’s permanent collection over the past 12 months.
28 July 2009 - 31 January 2010

COMING.....

MAKING IT NEW: FOCUS ON CONTEMPORARY AUSTRALIAN ART
Making It New is a meeting of contemporary artists, works and ideas; a group exhibition that has no overriding theme. Materially and conceptually diverse in their approaches, the participating artists are linked by their continuity, focus and commitment to a singular practice over one or more decades.
10 September - 11 November 2009

FORBIDDEN: FIONA FOLEY
Fiona Foley is one of Australia’s most significant artists, as well as an influential curator, writer and academic. A Badtjala woman from Fraser Island in Queensland, she is known for an incredibly diverse artistic practice spanning two decades and encompassing painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture, mixed media work, found objects and installation.
12 November 2009 - 31 January 2010

YINKA SHONIBAREscover the work of internationally acclaimed artist Yinka Shonibare MBE, with this major solo exhibition encompassing 12 years of his artistic practice. From his eye-catching headless mannequins to engaging photographic narratives, Shonibare explores ideas about contemporary African identity, the legacy of European colonialism, class structures and social justice.

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Australian Centre for Photography

Edward Burtynsky: Australian Minescapes
A travelling exhibition from the Western Australian Museum

Edward Burtynsky is one of the world's leading contemporary landscape photographers. His 'manufactured landscapes' have included stark images of recycling yards, mine tailings, quarries and refineries. This series of images, taken in the eastern goldfields and the Pilbara of Western Australia, continues Edward Burtynsky's examination of natural landscapes modified by mankind in the pursuit of the raw materials required for our modern society.
Until 22 August

Christopher Ireland: Breathe
Breathe is a collection of portraits of women who have lost their husbands to asbestos-related diseases. Photographed by Christopher Ireland in their local environment, each image tells a story about how these women have looked for answers, struggled to cope and ultimately grieved their loss.
Until 22 August

Francesca Rosa: Interior Disaster
Interior Disaster is a record of a decomposing household approximately eleven months after Cyclone Larry destroyed it. With the studious intent of a forensic photographer, Francesca Rosa takes inventory of the peeling veneers and mouldy carpets as residual evidence of a crime by an absent and unknowable perpetrator.
Until 22 August

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Historic Houses Trust

Paper & Clay: impressions of the past
Northside Print makers, a group of 11 print artists together with 4 invited ceramics artists have created works based on each artist’s own interpretations of place and identity responding to historical, social, cultural and environmental aspects of particular HHT properties.The print artists have chosen a variety of mediums to express themselves including etchings, woodcuts, lithographs and solar prints. The ceramics artists have used individual approaches, displaying unique surface treatments and finishes, to echo their interpretations.

The Mint
Until 31 July 2009

Shooting through: Sydney by tram
In collaboration with the Sydney Tramway Museum at Loftus, this hands-on exhibition brings together tram memorabilia, photos and archival film spanning a one hundred year history from the first horse-drawn tram in Pitt Street in 1861 to the last electric tram (to La Perouse) in 1961. Experience the sights and sounds of the much-loved trams that played a crucial role in shaping Sydney.

Museum of Sydney
Until 18 October 2009

Irish orphan girls
This fleeting chapter in Australia’s immigration history looms larger than most: weaving together Ireland’s harrowing years of famine, its culture and countryside in turmoil and families torn apart, with hopes of a future beyond the seas.

Hyde Park Barracks Museum
Until 30 October 2010

Glenn Murcutt: architecture for place
Glenn Murcutt’s groundbreaking designs are internationally recognised as being at the forefront of contemporary architecture. Architecture for place is a special exhibition that reveals the way Murcutt crafts his projects, with a selection of ideas presented from initial sketch to detailed construction drawings and the final built work. A series of photographs by Anthony Browell capture the essence of Murcutt’s architecture in constructed form.

Museum of Sydney
Until 5 October, 2009

Gadigal Place
Gadigal Place explores the traditional lives and early contact experiences of the Gadigal and other Aboriginal clans of the Sydney basin. It reveals fascinating stories about how Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people interacted in the early days of the colony.

Museum of Sydney
Until 30 December, 2010

COMING.....

Martin Sharp Sydney artist
Artist Martin Sharp presents a unique and personal account of Sydney, featuring material from his own collection and family archive.

Museum of Sydney
31 October, 2009 — 14 March, 2010

Smalltown
Smalltown is a dialogue between photographer Martin Mischkulnig and author Tim Winton, travelling through out-of-the-way parts of Australia.

Museum of Sydney
10 October, 2009 — 14 February, 2010


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Newcastle Region Art Gallery


Salon
In 1978, when the new Gallery building was opened, Daniel Thomas AM wrote a seminal piece in Art and Australia about the national importance of the Newcastle Region Art Gallery collection. Thirty years on, Thomas has been invited to select his favourite paintings from the collection, which will be displayed in a 'salon hang' for the National Museums Australia conference.
Until 2 August 2009

Animal Attraction
This exhibition held in conjunction with the International Minding Animals conference to be hosted by The University of Newcastle from 13 – 18 July,explores our changing relationship with animals. Work by leading contemporary artists Patricia Piccinini, Danie Mellor and Cherry Hood will be included in the exhibition.
Until 2 August 2009

 

COMING.....

Stone Country - Salt Water
Showcasing the Gallery’s significant collection of early Arnhem Land bark paintings as well as recent acquisitions, Stone Country – Salt Water will also draw on major private collections. Curated by Michelle Corbett, this exhibition will include work by established artists such as John Mawurndjul, Narritjin Maymuru, Gulumbu Yunupingu and Lofty Bardayal, as well as emerging artists Melinda Getyin, George Dangi and Joe Djembangu.
1 August - 27 September 2009

Albert Namatjira and the legacy of Hermannsburg: A focus exhibition
Fifty years after the death of Albert Namatjira, the first Aboriginal artist to gain acclaim in Australia, his legacy continues at Hermannsburg (Ntaria) in Central Australia. This exhibition commemorates Namatjira's influence and includes new work from Hermannsburg.
01 August - 27 September 2009

Fiona Hall: Force Field
The MCA’s most successful exhibition ever comes to Newcastle! Fiona Hall: Force Field is an in-depth survey of the work of Australian artist Fiona Hall from the 1970s to the present, produced collaboratively between the MCA and City Gallery Wellington.
1 August - 27 September 2009


Margaret Olley: Life’s journey
This exhibition will provide a unique insight into the world around Margaret Olley from the early 1950s to the 1970s through her watercolours and pen and ink studies, tracing the places in which Olley has lived and the cities throughout the world to which she has travelled.
15 August - 25 October 2009

Misty Moderns
This is the first major exhibition to tell the story of Australian Tonalism; a movement championed by the influential and often controversial painter Max Meldrum, which reached its peak during the inter-war period. Developed by the Art Gallery of South Australia the exhibition includes work by Clarice Beckett, Roy de Maistre, Roland Wakelin, Lloyd Rees, Arnold Shore and William Frater.
9 October - 29 November 2009


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Casula Powerhouse

MIL-PRA AWARD 2009
Celebrating indigenous art, the MIL-PRA AECG ABORIGINAL EXHIBITION & ART AWARDS is a competition open to all Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander people living in NSW and the ACT.
Until 11 October 2009

LIVERPOOL ART SOCIETY 2009
Now in its 12th year, the popular Annual Liverpool Art Society exhibition showcases the diverse range of art created by members of the Liverpool Art Society Inc.
Until 11 October 2009

A SENSE OF PLACE
Artist Danny Huynh has created a new body of work called Sense of Place. His photographs pay homage to the everyday people of Shanghai, with a play on East meets West.
25 July - 11 October 2009

 

ACT

National Gallery of Australia

Reinventions: sculpture + assemblage
Reinventions: sculpture + assemblage includes some of Australia’s most significant established artists, such as Rosalie Gascoigne, Robert Klippel and Colin Lanceley, with those of a younger generation like Neil Roberts, Ah Xian, Tim Horn and Ricky Swallow. What the artists share in common is a fascination with reinvention—with taking old materials or established ideas and finding fresh, distinctive and poetic ways to express them.
16 May - 13 September 2009

COMING...

McCubbin: Last Impressions 1907–17

Frederick McCubbin is one of the foremost Australian Impressionists, most well known for his images of the bush. This exhibition traces the radical changes in his work after he viewed the works of the European masters JMW Turner and Claude Monet in London. It includes a diverse range of joyous Australian paintings, from the bush to city life, interiors and portraits.
14 August – 1 November 2009 | Exhibition Galleries

Ballets Russes: the art of costume
A major exhibition of the Gallery’s renowned collection of Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes including costumes by artists Natalia Goncharova, Michel Larionov, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, André Derain, Robert and Sonia Delaunay, Georges Braque, André Masson and Giorgio de Chirico.

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National Portrait Gallery

Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913 - 2008
Temporary Exhibition Gallery

Vanity Fair Portraits traces the birth and evolution of photographic portraiture through the archives of Vanity Fair magazine. Visitors can expect to see many familiar and famous faces in this exhibition depicting the history of celebrity portraiture, for which Canberra is the only Australian venue. This is a touring exhibition from the National Portrait Gallery, London
5 June - 30 August 2009


National Youth Self Portrait Prize

An annual event, the National Youth Self Portrait Prize seeks to encourage young people to embrace self portraiture and its expressive possibilities. Sponsored by ADFAS and the Tallis Foundation, a $10000 prize is offered for the most outstanding self portrait.

Until 13 September 2009

COMING...

Portraits+Architecture
The Gallery has invited 7 leading Australian architect teams to respond to the concept of 'identity through creative process', and has commissioned photographers selected by the architects to produce a suite of photographic portraits.
12 September - 15 November 2009

Headspace 9: Self Identities - Making Connections
Headspace 9 is an exhibition of outstanding student self portraits (paintings, drawings, printmaking, photography and media arts) by Year 10, 11 and 12 school students that will engage a national audience.
12 September - 8 November 2009

 

VIC

 

National Gallery of Victoria - International (NGVI)

Salvador Dalí: Liquid Desire

Salvador Dalí: Liquid Desire is the first comprehensive retrospective of the work of Salvador Dalí ever to be staged in Australia. From his birth in 1904 until his death in 1989 at the age of 85, Salvador Dalí’s life spanned almost a century of dramatic social and artistic change. A full retrospective, the exhibition will comprise more than 200 works in all media including painting, drawing, watercolour, etchings, jewellery, sculpture, fashion, cinema and photography. It will trace the genius of Dalí from his earliest years as a 14-year-old Impressionist painter, to the final paintings, addressing science and physics, created when the artist was in his seventies.
Until 4 October 2009

Light Years: photography and space
The exhibition focuses largely on the 1960s and 1970s – an exciting time for the artistic and scientific exploration of worlds beyond our own. These were ‘light years’, in which people looked up to the skies and beyond, in a real and an imagined sense, and through photography discovered additional dimensions.
Until 27 September 2009

Dressed to Rule:Imperial Robes of China
Dressed to Rule exhibits imperial robes of China from the Qing (pure and clear) Dynasty (1644-1911). Mostly drawn from the NGV Asian Art Collection, the exhibition features robes worn by the Qing Emperor of China and members of the imperial court as well as accessories, including undergarments made of bamboo beads and silk `lotus' shoes for bound feet.
Until 6 September 09

Five Elements – Water
Master Tetsunori Kawana is an internationally renowned practitioner of contemporary Japanese bamboo sculpture. For more than 30 years he has travelled worldwide by invitation to create breathtaking bamboo installations of a spectacular scale unseen in the related traditional practice of Ikebana.
Until 4 October 2009

COMING...

August 2009: Building a Collection: Recent Acquisitions of Prints and Drawings

October 2009: Chinoiserie: Asia in Europe 1620 – 1840
Re-view

November 2009: Wisdom of the Mountain: Omie Bark Cloths

December 2009: Drape: Classical Mode to Contemporary Dress

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National Gallery of Victoria - Ian Potter Centre

Shared Sky
Coinciding with the International Year of Astronomy, Shared sky explores the cultural experience of the night sky over our southern continent. From Warmun in North Western Australia to Melbourne in Victoria artists of different cultural backgrounds and locales explore humanity's enduring psychological engagement with the southern stars over the centuries. This exhibition of prints and drawings by Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists from the NGV collection also includes sculpture, painting and photography.
Until 2 August 2009

John Brack
More than any other artist of his generation, John Brack was a painter of modern Australian life. Unlike his contemporaries, Brack painted neither myth nor history and when he focused on the landscape, it was the sprawl of suburbia that caught his attention rather than the ubiquitous Australian bush. The first John Brack retrospective to be held in more than twenty years, this exhibition will survey the artist’s complete oeuvre, incorporating paintings and works on paper from all of his major series and including pictures such as The bar 1954 and Collins St., 5 p.m. 1955, now regarded as some of the most iconic images of 20th century Australian art.
Until 9 August 2009

2009 Cicely and Colin Rigg Contemporary Design Award
The Cicely and Colin Rigg Contemporary Design Award was established to support Victorian artists. With a prize of $30,000, it is arguably the most prestigious award of its kind in Australia and is a reflection of the NGV’s ongoing commitment to contemporary craft and design practice. The works on display are informed by a broad range of social, environmental, material, and aesthetic concerns. Every work included in this exhibition embodies the potential to become a ‘design classic’ of the future.
Until 30 August 2009


Draw the Line: the Architecture of LAB
Draw the Line: the Architecture of LAB presents the process of architectural design through the material of the Federation Square NGV archive together with LAB’s subsequent projects. It explains how architects think about their designs and how concepts and processes become realised as architecture. The exhibitionl consists of conceptual material, working drawings and models.
Until 13 September 09

Long Distance Vision: Three Australian Photographers
This exhibition examines the idea of the ‘tourist gaze’ and its relationship with three contemporary Australian photographers. Christine Godden, Max Pam and Matthew Sleeth have photographed not only aspects of the everyday at home but venture forth in the world with the delighted, but not uncritical, eyes of the traveller.
28 August – 21 February 2010

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Centre for Contemporary Photography

Gallery 1
Bianca Hester
FASHIONING DISCONTINUITIES

Assembling the forces of brick, air and image, fashioning discontinuities stages a sequence of architectural appropriations which engage with materiality in relation to movement, space and embodiment.
Until 2 August

Gallery 2
LOUIS PORTER
CHEAP FLIGHTS

The photographs in Cheap Flights would not make it into many holiday albums, but they are still travel photographs. Taken on various trips between 2005-2008 they examine the more disappointing aspects of travel.

Gallery 3
ARLO MOUNTFORD
THE FOLLY
Comprising of a three-channel, digital animation and a four-channel, sound mix, The Folly is the re-interpretation of three paintings by sixteenth-century Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

Gallery 4
SIMON ZORIC
I KNOW YOU DESPISE ME FOR NOT BEING STRONGER

Simon Zoric’s work explores the messiness of relationships and the dichotomies inherent in power, passivity and blame.

SA

Art Gallery of South Australia


Making Nature: Masters of European Landscape Art
Making Nature explores the way in which European artists since the Renaissance have represented the landscape according to different ideologies: the ideal, the sublime, the picturesque, the romantic and the realistic. Through superb oil paintings, watercolours, prints and drawings from the collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia, visitors to this exhibition experience the emotive powers, serenity and poetry of nature. Artists include Titian, Claude Lorrain, Rembrandt, Joseph Wright of Derby, J.M.W. Turner, James McNeill Whistler, Eugène Boudin, Vanessa Bell, Lucien Pissarro, Nikolaus Lang and Andy Goldsworthy.
Until 6 September 2009

The Divine Imagination: Spiritual Art in the 20th Century
Drawn from the collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia, this selection of prints, drawings and watercolours examines the central importance of spirituality to the work of twentieth-century artists.
Until 26 July 2009

COMING...

John Brack
More than any other artist of his generation, John Brack (1920-99) was a painter of modern Australian life. Unlike his contemporaries, Brack painted neither myth nor history and when he focused on the landscape, it was the sprawl of suburbia that caught his attention rather than the ubiquitous Australian bush.
2 October 2009 – 31 January 2010

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Samstag Museum of Art (University of SA)

Simryn Gill: Gathering
Simryn Gill's intriguing art operates experimentally across a range of ideas, methods and media, including photography, objects, collections and text works.
7 August – 30 October 2009

Yvonne Koolmatrie: Eel Traps
Yvonne Koolmatrie has lived all her life in Ngarrindjeri country, which ranges from the Coorong, a wetland wilderness at the mouth of the Murray River upstream to the present-day farming communities of South Australia's lower Murray Riverland.
7 August – 6 September 2009

 

TAS

Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery

The 80s Show
The 1980s was characterised by a heightened criticism of Modernism, as artists, craftspeople and designers embraced post-modern eclecticism.

A window into the 1980s through the TMAG Art and Decorative Art Collections, this exhibition features works by Tasmanian, national and international artists, designers and craftspeople to provide a diverse display of objects and images which represent the kaleidoscopic nature of the era.
Until February 2010

Tayenebe
Tayenebe is a Tasmanian Aboriginal word meaning ‘exchange’. Tayenebe is also the name of an art project underway in which Tasmanian Aboriginal women are reviving traditional fibre skills as part of a larger process of reclaiming culture.

Integral to Tayenebe is sharing between people and across time.

A series of fibre workshops facilitated by Arts Tasmania will culminate in an exhibition opening at TMAG during NAIDOC week 2009, and tour major Australian cultural venues from January 2010.
Until 29 November 2009

City of Hobart Art Prize 2009
This annual prize exhibition rewards artists from around Australia and focuses on two disciplines each year.
Until 9 August 2009

Islands to Ice: The Great Southern Ocean & Antarctica
Islands to Ice is the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery’s new exhibition exploring the definitions, perceptions, mythology and motivations of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. It explores the places, the people, the creatures and the phenomena that make the great southern wilderness a world of its own. It is an invitation to journey south from Hobart across wild sapphire oceans to the crystal desert of the Antarctic.

Eloquent Objects: The Wongs Collection of Chinese Antiquities & Artefacts
The Wong collection is the most significant donation of Chinese art and antiquities ever presented to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. The collection comprises more than 250 individual items from the Neolithic period through to the twentieth century.

COMING...

Jao Tsung-I: The Amalgamation of Mind and Universe
Professor Jao Tsung-I is the most prominent scholar and artist of present day China. This will be the largest exhibition of his works ever shown outside of Asia.
28 August 2009 - 15 November 2009

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Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery
(Inveresk)


Phenomena Factory
Phenomena Factory is the result of a successful partnership between Rio Tinto Alcan and the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, with generous support from the Tasmanian State Government and Launceston City Council. The objective of the partnership is to encourage the community to explore and engage with science and technology.


Aspects of Tasmanian art
Over 100 paintings, prints, watercolours and sculptures exploring the two dominant themes in Tasmanian art—landscape and portraiture. The exhibition celebrates the richness of the Museum's art collection from colonial to contemporary times.

The Great Dying: extinctions that changed life on Earth
The extinction of the dinosaurs (K/T Extinction) has fascinated the world ever since their discovery. Their disappearance is now widely accepted to be the result of an impact from an asteroid. Lesser known but far more catastrophic to life on Earth, was an earlier extinction (Permian/Triassic Extinction). It is thought that nearly 96% of all marine life and 70% of terrestrial life on Earth died. The reasons for this massive extinction are numerous: acid rain, increased carbon dioxide and rising sea temperatures. Plus, a region known as the Siberian Traps has shown massive lava outpourings.
More recently, there has been recognition of a possible impact site off the Western Australian coast which occurred in the Permian. The exhibition draws upon the Museum’s rich collection of dinosaurs and mammal- like reptiles.

WA

Art Gallery of Western Australia
 

David Walker: Anatomy of the object
David Walker is one of Western Australia’s most accomplished and influential designers and crafts people. David Walker: Anatomy of the object will reveal Walker’s profound fascination with the skeletal form as a vehicle for spatial and structural explorations, and his abiding commitment to find a form of expression born out of a sense of Australia. Works from the State Art Collection, private lenders and public institutions, as well as the artist’s personal collection, will be included
Until 18 October 2009

Mari Funaki, works 1992 – 2009

this exhibition celebrates one of Australia’s leading jewelers and her considerable achievements between 1992 and the present day
Until 18 October 2009

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Perth Institute of Contemporary Art

Intimate Acts
Searching philosophical exchanges, fleeting glimpses and peep hole voyerurism Intimate Acts brings together a range of performative, video and photographic works that provide a glimpse into the nature of intimacy, desire and the suggestive power of the imagination. Drawing together National and International artists this exhibition will explore the social, physical and psychic relations between subjects.
Until 2 August 2009

Concerts: Adam Geczy
Evoking 60's and 70's video art Adam Geczy's Concerts poetically explores creativity, collaboration, friendship and pedagogy. Described as the 'consummate videographic creation' by leading art writer John Conomos this enthralling and resonant installation by one of Australia's most thought provoking and inquiring artists is 'a clarion call to the importance of ideas, dialogue, history and politics in art'.
Until 2 August 2009

Helovanorak

Hold Everything Dear: Benjamin Armstrong

Strangely beautiful and fascinatingly repulsive, Benjamin Armstrong's mysterious glass and wax sculptures are immediately suggestive of mythical waterborne creatures or future pre-historical life-forms. Hold Everything Dear: Benjamin Armstrong features three major new works, including some of the largest hand blown glass forms ever produced in Australia. The works slide between the psycho-sexual notions of the uncanny and evoke ideas about fertility. Armstrong's unsettling sculptures compel us to reflect on the dark, inaccessible parts of the human psyche.
Until 2 August 2009

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Perth Centre for Photography

five: Christopher Young

five explores ambiguity, minimalism and the frame in photography

Christopher Young is interested in who or what is not there, what he can’t quite see and the helplessness of not being able to ground an image in a time line.
The images are an attempt to exploit this helplessness and the illusion of reality to create a more visceral, rather than intellectual, response to images.
Until 2 August 2009

slight (revisited): Corinne Bates
slight is a photographic installation evoking the artists profound contemporary isolation and unease through the study an depiction of transient light.
Until 2 August 2009

NT

Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory

Supercrocodilians: Darwin’s ultimate survival story
Supercrocodilians: Darwin’s ultimate survival story is an exhibition demonstrating Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution through crocodilians.  Supercrocodilias  will feature an array of crocodilian specimens from ancient fossils to modern examples.  Visitors will come face to face with one of the largest crocodilians known to have ever existed, which may have measured over 12 metres in length.  Other displays include Australian fossil species from the last 100 million years, which show a diversity of aquatic forms as well as species apparently better adapted for a life on land.
Until 29 November 2009

COMING...

26th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award
The 26th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award aims to showcase the very best of Australian Indigenous art from around the country.

The Award celebrates the important contribution made by Indigenous artists and helps to promote greater appreciation and understanding of the quality and diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art from rural and urban based Indigenous artists throughout Australia, working in traditional and contemporary media. The opening night, held on Friday 14 August 2009 in the MAGNT grounds, is a free public event, and includes the announcement of the winning artists.
Friday 14th August – Sunday 25th October 2009

QLD

Queensland Art Gallery


Tim Johnson: Painting Ideas
A visionary and often eclectic search for artistic and spiritual connections between cultures and countries is at the core of Tim Johnson’s art. This major survey exhibition will range from Johnson’s light performances, films and artist books of the early 1970s to his mature collaborative paintings. The exhibition will focus on the humanist conceptual project that underlies Johnson’s practice, his engagement with Aboriginal culture and belief in collaboration, and his search for spiritual meaning influenced by Buddhist and other philosophies
Until 11 October 2009

American Impressionism and Realism: A Landmark Exhibition from the Met
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The exhibition will present works by some of America’s foremost artists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including James McNeill Whistler, John Singer Sargent, Winslow Homer, Childe Hassam, William Merritt Chase, Maurice Prendergast and Mary Cassatt. Highlighting how Australian artists responded to key artistic developments of the time, more than 30 iconic Australian paintings will also be included in the exhibition. Australian artists will include Tom Roberts, Charles Conder, Frederick McCubbin and Rupert Bunny. The exhibition will include light-filled landscapes and seascapes, magnificent portraiture and images that reflect aspects of modern life — leisure, cities, and intimate depictions of women and children.

Until 20 September 2009

Thru the Lens: Palm Island youth photography project
In 2007, local non-government organisation Bwgcolman Future Inc ran a filmmaking and photographic workshop for Palm Island youths, facilitated by photographer Peta O’Neill. Thirty-five aspiring photographers learnt about the camera, composition, light, different styles of photography, Photoshop, printing, presentation and display techniques, and throughout the week immersed themselves in their new craft, making over 1000 images.

These Palm Island photographs capture many subjects and themes, including celebrations of people and places, everyday activities, and the ‘not-so-good stuff’. The photographers were so busy throughout the week that they earned themselves the nickname 'paparazzi'.
Until 9 August 2009 Foyer, GoMA


William Yang: Life Lines
Photographer and performer William Yang has consistently recorded his life since the early 1970s, from his family history in far north Queensland to the overlapping artistic and gay scenes of his adopted home of Sydney, to his travels around Australia and to China. His works provide a unique chronicle of Australian cultural life, and offer rare insights into the experiences and stories of Australian–Chinese people.
Until 9 August 2009 Foyer, GoMA

COMING...

The 6th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

The Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT) is the Queensland Art Gallery’s flagship international contemporary art event. It is the only major series of exhibitions in the world to focus exclusively on the contemporary art of Asia and the Pacific, including Australia

Floating Life: Contemporary Aboriginal Fibre Art
‘Floating Life’ highlights the importance of fibre within Aboriginal culture and the commitment of the Queensland Art Gallery to developing a unique collection of more than 300 objects.
1 August – 18 October 2009 Gallery 1.1 Foyer, GoMA1

Nurreegoo: The Art and Life of Ron Hurley 1946–2002
R on Hurley was born in 1946 into the Goreng Goreng and Mununjali peoples of south-east Queensland. He began using his formal Western art education to create art works that highlighted a contemporary Aboriginal existence and politics, and led the development of the urban Indigenous art movement with contemporaries such as Trevor Nickolls and Lin Onus. This exhibition will highlight Hurley's distinguished career as one of the early leaders of the urban political movement in Aboriginal art.
8 August – 25 October 2009 Gallery 3.6, GoMA

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Museum of Brisbane

Communities of Faith Walking Together
What do we believe? What do others believe? Do we share similarities and common experiences? In what ways are our faiths or spiritual beliefs unique? These are some of the questions that Communities of Faith Walking Together explores. This exhibition reflects some of the beliefs, practices and rituals of a number of Brisbane’s diverse faith and spiritual communities. The intention is to increase understanding and respect between faith communities and foster awareness within the wider community. 
Until 2 August 2009

Archie Moore: Club
Through this startling installation work, Archie Moore asks visitors to re-consider the notion of how our community celebrates. Moore invites participants to 'join the in-crowd at the Club's birthday'. But be warned, the seats are limited! Will you be allowed in?
4 October 2009

Talking TAPA: Pasifika Bark Cloth in Queensland
Talking TAPA: Pasifika Bark Cloth in Queensland showcases the diversity of Pacific Islander cultural practices, heritage and visual iconography through this exhibition exploring the beaten bark cloth known as tapa.

Works from around the Pasifika region including Papua New Guinea, West Papua, Samoa, Tonga, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, Wallis and Futuna, will be on show.
Until 11 October

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Institute of Modern Art

Peter Robinson
Polymer Monoliths

New Zealand artist Peter Robinson was last seen at the IMA in 2005, exhibiting alongside Gordon Bennett in the exhibition Three Colours. There he offered his sceptical take on post-colonial art-and-identity politics. His recent work, however, leaves such issues behind, in what seems like an abruptly formalist about-face. He has moved away from illustrating political, scientific, and philosophical ideas, and toward playing with materials and exploring the resulting poetic nuances.

His work ranges from roughly hewn, lumpen forms to intricately carved, baroque ones. In our show, Robinson continues his recent exploration of the monolith. In conjunction with Artspace, Sydney; supported by Creative New Zealand, University of Auckland, and Brisbane's Urban Art Projects.
Until 22 August

Brisbane Airport Fresh Cut 2009
Aaron Burton, Sarah Byrne, Tim Kerr, and Hiromi Tango

Brisbane Airport Fresh Cut 2009: Aaron Burton, Sarah Byrne, Tim Kerr, and Hiromi Tango

This year's artists are Aaron Burton, Sarah Byrne, Tim Kerr, and Hiromi Tango. They were chosen by artist Jemima Wyman; Simon Wright, QCA Gallery Director; and Robert Leonard, IMA Director. This year's show is big on video. Three of our four artists work principally in the medium.
Until 22 August

Guy Sherwin Cinema of Perception/Cinema of Performance

Guy SherwinGuy Sherwin
Cinema Of Perception / Cinema Of PerformanceGuy Sherwin
Cinema Of Perception / Cinema Of PerformanceGuy Sherwin
Cinema Of Perception / Cinema Of Performa


TOP: Adam Nudelman, Lake Ball, Walls of Jerusalem N.P 2009, Acrylic and oil on canvas board, 30 x 25cm (*Available)  NEXT: Katy Woodroffe, El Cantaro 5 , Mixed media on paper, 92 x 31cms (*Available)

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