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RAMESH MARIO NITHIYENDRAN

R@MESH
SULLIVAN+STRUMPF / SYDNEY
20 OCTOBER 11 NOVEMBER
GREGORY
HODGE
SULLIVAN+STRUMPF / SYDNEY
18 NOVEMBER 22 DECEMBER
Judy Darragh | Build up | 1 22 December 2017
Two Rooms 16 Putiki St Newton Auckland New Zealand | 64(9) 360 5900 | info@tworooms.co.nz | tworooms.co.nz
Judy Darragh, Papercraft 2017
 STARKWHITE PRESENTS LAITH McGREGOR & DANIE MELLOR

ART LOS ANGELES CONTEMPORARY | 25-28 JANUARY 2018

Image: Danie Mellor, Above and below, 2016

wax pastel, wash with oil pigment, watercolour and pencil on paper mounted on aluminium, 900 x 1200 mm, private collection

STARKWHITE | 510 Karangahape Road. Auckland. New Zealand | contact@starkwhite.co.nz | starkwhite.co.nz

JULIA GORMAN
ACT CASUAL
10 28 OCTOBER 2017

Julia Gorman, Energy Field in a Field of Energy, 2017, acrylic on plywood, 112 x 215cm

SOPHIEGANNONGALLERY.COM.AU
how long must we live right before we dont even have to try

TOMISLAV NIKOLIC 2017 BVLGARI ART AWARD WINNER

FOX JENSEN McCRORY AUCKLAND
OCTOBER 12 - NOVEMBER 11
t h i s i s n o f a n t a s y. c o m
 CONTENTS UPFRONT
News & events 22
News and views on the art world.
Money sullies art 30
Carrie Miller on how the era of post-truth is
tampering with the value of our art as well
as our politics.
Agenda 32
The accessorisation of Indigeneity reached
new heights with the release of the Chanel
Boomerang, writes Eugene Cheung.
Behind the scenes 34
In whats been considered resoundingly sad
news, Sydneys Watters Gallery will close next
year. Carrie Miller blames the internet.
Exhibition preview 38
A preview of In Cahoots at Fremantle Arts Centre.
Open dialogue 46
Andrew Frost and Carrie Miller discuss how
social media puts a pretty filter over the ugly,
dog-eat-dog reality of contemporary art.
Art fairs 58
Art fairs around the globe this quarter.
Inside the covers 62
Tracey Clement reviews MUSE: A Journey through
an Art Collection by Janet Holmes Court,
On the couch 66
Louise Martin-Chew talks to curator
Emily McDaniel.
Not to be missed 70
The must see exhibitions this quarter.
On the cover // Tony Albert, Kieran
Smythe and David Collins, Warakurna If I could have 84
Starwars #2 (detail), 2017. C-type Dr Natasha Cica presents the artwork on
print, 100 x 150cm. COURTESY: THE her wishlist.
ARTISTS, SULLIVAN+STRUMPF, SYDNEY AND
WARAKURNA ARTISTS, ALICE SPRINGS.
ARTISTS
What now? 88
Presenting the recent work of artists Mira Gojak,
Alberto Garcia-Alvarez and Cameron Robbins
What next? 96
Introducing artists Pepai Jangala Carroll,
Ashleigh Garwood and John A Douglas.
Global 105
Here we present the artists finding critical
acclaim abroad.
NATSIAA pick of the crop 118
Our writers and critics round up some of the
highlights from this years National Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards.

w w w. ar tcol l e ctor. n e t. au 7
CONTENTS 82
OCTDEC
PROFILES 2017
Anne Noble: Throwing light 128
The lauded photographer interrogates our Art Collector
complex relationship with the natural world.
Editor-In-Chief
Words by Briony Downes.
Susan Borham
Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran: An uprising 134 Publisher
Alison Kubler talks to one of the most Beatrice Spence
engaging and exciting artists practicing in Editor
Australia right now. Emma ONeill

Teresa Baker: A practice shaped by spirits 140 Art Director

The artist channels the feminine strength of Louise Summerton
her spirit ancestor with spectacular results. Deputy Editor
Louise Martin-Chew writes. Jessa Melicor
Intern
Nike Savvas: Elevated frequencies 144 Emily Grant
Tess Maunder on how Nike Savvas bends
the rules of optical perception. Associate Editors
Dr Alan Cholodenko
Collectors Dossier 154 Edward Colless
Michael Hutak
John Walsh: Traversing worlds
John Young
Tracey Clement explores how the artist bridges
Rex Butler
the divide between fantasy and reality Professor James Choo

Critics choice 168 EDITORIAL INQUIRIES

Five international artists who have recently Emma ONeill
captured Emily Nathans attention. DISTRIBUTION INQUIRIES
Newsagency distribution
COLLECTING Gordon & Gotch Australia
Specialty & bookstore distribution
Collector 174 Trident Sales & Distribution Australia
Artkeeper International distribution
Alison Kubler talks to Brian Tucker, art world Gordon & Gotch (New Zealand)
accountant and collector of Indigenous art. Immedia (Asia)
SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES
Dealer 180 Phone: +61 2 9363 4324
Global Sensibility Web: www.artcollector.net.au/subscribe
Jane ONeill interviews Ian Geraghty and
ADVERTISING INQUIRIES
Peter Maddison of the recently launched
Phone:+61 2 9363 4324
gallery -f-i-l-t-e-r-, Sydney.
Produced & Published by
Art centre 186 ART EDITED
Hayley Megan-French profiles Erub Arts. ABN 48 614 849 197
PO BOX 1452
Collecting in my city 190 Double Bay, NSW 1360
Writers from across the globe give us the lowdown Phone: 02 9344 0913
Email: feedback@artcollector.net.au
on collecting trends in three contemporary art
hotspots: Los Angeles, Shanghai and Yogyakarta. Directors
Susan Borham
For the diary 198 Beatrice Spence
The exhibitions in our diaries this quarter.
Reproduction in whole or in part is not permitted
without the written authorisation of the publisher. In the
Off the wall 208
reproduction of artworks all reasonable efforts have been
Tai Mitsuji reviews Christopher Hanrahans made to trace copyright holders where appropriate.
recent exhibition at Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney.
ISSN 1440-8902

8 w w w.ar t c ol l e c t or.n e t .au

JUZ KITSON 1 26 NOVEMBER 2017

WWW.GAGPROJECTS.COM
GAG@GREENAWAY.COM.AU
ADELAIDE
Tarryn Gill
23 NOVEMBER - 13 DECEMBER
T 08 8331 8000 E mail@hugomichellgallery.com W hugomichellgallery.com
 MAVIS NGALLAMETTA
MY COUNTRY SIX NEW PAINTINGS
21 September - 15 October 2017

Small Horse Creek, 2017, natural ochres and charcoal with acrylic binder on linen, 272 x 201 cm
CONTRIBUTORS
Jacquie Manning is a Sydney based
photographer with a practice focused on
portraiture and lifestyle photography within
the Arts. She is regular photographer for
Museum of Contemporary Art, Carriageworks
and The Sydney Opera House.
Andrew Stooke is an artist and writer
based in Shanghai and London. Much of
his recent work has been in the form of
collaborative performance.
Brigitta Isabella is an art writer based in
Yogyakarta. She is a member of research
collective KUNCI Cultural Studies Centre
and part of the editorial collective of the
new peer-reviewed journal Southeast of
Now: Directions in Contemporary and
Modern Art published by NUS Press,
Singapore.
Feeling Garrulous Terrors is an artist
and writer living in Los Angeles.
Lucinda Bennett is a writer and curator
based in Aotearoa. She is the 2017
curatorial intern at Dunedin Public Art
Gallery, prior to which she was a curator
at The University of Aucklands Window
project space.
Jane OSullivan is a freelance art writer
and journalist based in Sydney. She has
written for publications including the
Australian Financial Review, Artnet, Art
Guide, Ocula and Artist Profile. She is
a former editor of Art Collector.
Alison Kubler is a curator and writer
with more than 20 years experience based
in Brisbane.
John Neylon is an Adelaide-based art
writer, curator and art critic for The
Adelaide Review.
Helen McKenzie is a freelance writer and art
adviser. Helen also conducts international art
tours for Art Collector magazine.
Tracey Clement is an arts writer and artist
based in Sydney.
Maja Baska is a freelance photographer
based in Sydney.
Carrie Miller is a freelance writer based in
Wollongong.
12
Dr Andrew Frost is an art critic,
broadcaster and lecturer.
Dr Ashley Crawford is a cultural critic
and arts journalist based in Melbourne.
He is the author of a number of
books on Australian art, including
Transformations: The Work of Sonia
Payes and Spray, The Work of Howard
Arkley.
Louise Martin-Chew is a freelance arts
writer.
Jane ONeill is a freelance curator
based in Melbourne.
Nic Brown is an Adelaide-based artist
and writer. She is
also Collections Manager at Flinders
University Art Museum and lecturer at
Adelaide Central School of Art.
Briony Downes is an arts writer living
in Hobart.
Damien OMara is an artist and
photographer based in Brisbane.
Paris Lettau is an arts writer based in
Melbourne. He is currently a sessional
tutor in art history at the University of
Melbourne.
Chad Alexander is an artist and
photographer born and based in Belfast.
Coen Young is a Sydney-based artist.
Ingrid Periz is an art critic and curator
based in New York.
Zan Wimberley is a freelance
photographer specialising in the arts
across portraiture, performance, artwork
and install documentation.
Tess Maunder is an independent
curator, writer, editor and researcher
currently based in Brisbane, Australia.
Sammy Preston is an arts writer, editor,
and curator living in Sydney. Sammy
is the arts columnist at Broadsheet
Sydney, and contributes regularly to
local and international art journals.
Emily Cones-Browne is an arts writer
living in New York.
Eugene Yiu Nam Cheung is an art
history and gender studies graduate
from The University of Sydney. Having
worked at galleries across Sydney and
Melbourne, his research interests lie in
postcolonial readings of Australian art.
Kate Britton is a writer and curator
based in Sydney.
Professor Sasha Grishin AM, FAHA is
an emeritus of the school of literature,
languages and linguistics at the
Australian National University. He has
published 17 books and more than
1,000 articles.
Hayley Megan French is an artswriter
and artist living in Sydney.
Amelia Winata is a writer and curator
based in Melbourne.
Jane Llewellyn is an Adelaide-based
freelance writer and former editor of
Art Collector.
Emily Nathan is an art critic, culture
writer, translator and editor based
between Paris, Copenhagen and LA.
Tai Mitsuji is a writer and curator,
who holds a Masters (with distinction)
in Art History from the University of
Oxford. He has previously written for
a variety of domestic and international
publications, including Art and
Australia, Art Monthly Australasia,
Art Guide Australia and The
Sydney Morning Herald.
Russell Kleyn is a photographer
based in Wellington, New Zealand.
His portraits are included in the
permanent collections of the National
Portrait Gallery in London and The
New Zealand Portrait Gallery in
Wellington.
Dr Natasha Cica is director and
CEO of Heide Museum of Modern Art
in Melbourne. She was the founding
director of the global consultancy
Kapacity.org, and has been recognised
by the Australian Financial Review
and Westpac as one of Australias
100 Women of Influence.
w w w.ar t c ol l e c t or.n e t .au
Lucy Culliton
Bibbenluke Menagerie

10 October 4 November 2017

Jan Murphy Gallery

JOHN Gow Langsford Gallery
18 October - 11 November 2017

WALSH Preview:
Tuesday 17 October, 5-7pm

Image: Whare Waka (detail), 2017, oil on unstretched canvas, 1230 x 1820mm

GOW LANGSFORD GALLERY

26 LORNE ST / CNR KITCHENER ST & WELLESLEY ST AUCKLAND NZ
PO BOX 5461 T: +64 9 303 4290 WWW.GOWLANGSFORDGALLERY.COM
 AMANDA MARBURG
22 NOVEMBER 2017
10 DECEMBER 2017

63 JERSEY ROAD WOOLLAHRA

SYDNEY AUSTRALIA

OLSENGALLERY.COM
F U T U R E A R T E F A C T S
ALEXI FREEMAN + TESSA BLAZEY + JANE BURTON
oct 12-nov 18 | 2017 | CRAFT VICTORIA | watson place | melbourne
 KARLA DICKENS
HUNG, STRUNG AND QUARTERED

Andrew Baker Art Dealer

26 Brookes Street Bowen Hills Qld 4006
07 3252 2292 0412 990 356
info@andrew-baker.com www.andrew-baker.com
 Lawrence Pennington, Pukara, acrylic on linen, 110 x 85cm

ABORI G I N A L & PAC I F I C A R T I N A S S O C I AT I O N W I T H S P I N I F E X AR TS

P RO J E C T, TJ UN TJ UNT JA R A , W E S T E R N AU S T R A L I A P R E S E N TS

Lawrence Pennington
30 September 21 October 2017

1/24 Wellington Street, Waterloo NSW 2017 +61 2 9699 2211

Aboriginal & Pacific Art info@aboriginalpacificart.com.au www.aboriginalpacificart.com.au
ALEXANDER McKENZIE
Guida del Giardino
16 November - 10 December 2017

under the rocks and stones, 2017, oil on linen, 167 x 228 cm (detail)
John aslanidis

sonic network no. 17

27 september 21 october 2017
gallery 9

sonic network no. 18

site specific commission for longchamp
omatesando, tokyo
on view from 1 october 2017

gallery9.com.au
9 Darley St, Darlinghurst
Sydney +61 2 9380 9909
info@gallery9.com.au
 Amber Koroluk-Stephenson
Shadows on the Wall

Ian Paradine
Morphing the Idol

November 1 December 2
2017

Amber Koroluk-Stephenson, 24 Carlton St Prahran VIC

The Hunt, 2017, oil on linen, T +613 9521 7300
40 x 50cm
annapappasgallery.com
Tue to Fri 105, Sat 115
UPFRONT
NEWS &
EVENTS
NANDA\HOBBS CONTEMPORARY ON THE MOVE
N
anda\Hobbs Contemporary will relocate
from the Sydney CBD to a new gallery
space in Chippendale in late October
this year. The move out of their city
location, to a larger space in Meagher
Street, Chippendale has been long-awaited by
gallery directors, Ralph Hobbs and Raj Nanda
and their artists.
It is a building that has waited its whole life
to be turned into an exhibition space. It has a
great sense of light and space soaring ceiling
heights, timber beams and concrete floors with
doors opening onto two streets. Being street level
and out of the CBD is new for us allowing us
to open on Saturdays, have greater public access
22
and accessible parking. We, along with our artists
and clients are really excited to be part of such a
vibrant arts precinct and around the corner from
White Rabbit Gallery, Hobbs says.
The director continues we have actually wanted
this space for six years, so to finally have it and be
able to extend our exhibition program and present
the artistic vision of our artists is a dream come
true. The Chippendale space became available as
the lease of their King Street premises expired and
the disruption caused by the light rail development
in the City was getting worse.
Hobbs is enthusiastic about the move from the
city to Chippendale. Its a little edgy and raw,
which we like but not too far from the city for our
CBD clients. Its also on the drive path for people
coming into town from the airport. The proximity
to other great galleries in the area is a big bonus
and with Sydney Contemporary now exhibiting
annually at Carriageworks, more collectors are
discovering the area.
After a building refurbishment the new space
opens with a show by Paul Ryan in late October.
Hobbs says, It will be our first show with him and
we are super excited about what he has planned and
how the works will look in the expanded space.
Helen McKenzie
NANDA\HOBBS CONTEMPORARY,
12-14 MEAGHER STREET, CHIPPENDALE.
w w w.ar t c ol l e c t or.n e t .au
kenneth macqueen E X H I B I T I O N

The weir, Darling Downs c. 1950 (detail) watercolour 38 x 45.5 cm

2 ARTHUR STREET, FORTITUDE VALLEY, BRISBANE 10:00 AM 5:00 PM TUESDAY TO SATURDAY

TELEPHONE: 07 3358 3555 FAX: 07 3254 1412 EMAIL: INFO@ PHILIPBACONGALLERIES.COM.AU

14 NOVEMBER 9 DECEMBER 2017

UPFRONT
NEWS &
EVENTS

TARNANTHI:
FESTIVAL OF CONTEMPORARY ABORIGINAL & TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER ART
t means to come forth or appear in the

I language of the traditional owners of the

Adelaide Plains. A new day rising and a
new beginning: Tarnanthi. And that is the
title Nici Cumpston, the artistic director
of the Art Gallery of South Australias Festival
of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Art, chose to name her epic event.
Tarnanthi launched in 2015 and immediately
secured its position as the biggest Indigenous
visual arts event on the map. The first incarnation
attracted more than 50,000 visitors. This year,
more than 40 art centres from across Australia
will participate with the work of more than 1,000
artists from across the country featuring at city-
wide exhibitions and events including a three-day
art fair, from 13 to 22 October 2017 and a major
exhibition at the Art Gallery of South Australia
running until 28 January 2018. Works at the fair
will be for sale with prices ranging from $50 to
$10,000. The Art Gallery of South Australia will
be throwing its weight behind the event with an
ambitious exhibition of contemporary Indigenous
art that presents works of artists from as far east
as the Torres Strait to the heart of the Anangu
Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands and beyond.
Ashley Crawford

TOP // Freda Brady, Wawiriya Burton, Angkaliya Eadie

Curtis, Tjangili Tjapukula George, Sandra Goodwin, Beryl
Jimmy, Nyurpaya Kaika Burton, Iluwanti Ungkutjuru Ken,
Sylvia Ken, Tjungkara Ken, Manyitjanu Lennon, Betty
Muffler, Matjangka Nyukana Norris, Mary Katatjuku Pan,
Betty Kuntiwa Pumani, Antjala Tjayangka Robin, Alison
Munti Riley, Tjariya Nungalka Stanley, Carlene Thompson,
Maringka Tunkin, Jeannie Wallatina, Judy Wallatina,
Puna Yanima, Yaritji Young, Kungkarangkalpa Seven
Sisters, 2016, Fregon, South Australia, synthetic polymer
paint on linen. COURTESY OF ERNABELLA ARTS, IWANTJA ARTS,
KALTJITI ARTS, MIMILI MAKU ARTS, TJALA ARTS, TJUNGU PALYA,
PHOTO: SAUL STEED

RIGHT // Reko Rennie, OA_RR, 201617. 4K three channel

digital video, PAL, stereo sound, 7 minutes, 47 seconds.
COURTESY THE ARTIST AND BLACKARTPROJECTS, MELBOURNE.
PHOTO: JUSTIN MCMANUS

OPPOSITE // Angkaliya Curtis painting at Cave hill, 2016.

Natural pigment Tutu on rock. PHOTO: LEOPOLD FIALA.
COURTESY THE ARTIST AND TJUNGU PALYA, NYAPARI COMMUNITY.

24 w w w.ar t c ol l e c t or.n e t .au

 PAINTING ON COUNTRY
B
y almost any standards its remote. Sitting
roughly 600 kilometres south-west of Alice
Springs, its an arduous drive through desert
land. It is also home to artists from Nyapa-
ri, Kanpi and Watarru communities of far
northern South Australia. Sitting at the base of the
Mann Ranges, the Nyapari Community act as host
to the Tjungu Palya art centre where a radical project
has been underway.
Painting on Country is a recent undertaking that has
given the artists of Tjungu Palya an opportunity to work
directly with their native landscapes. The project was
born when senior lawman, Keith Stevens, Pitjantjatjara
man born at Granite Downs, began a discussion with his
fellow artists about reigniting opportunities to work on
Country in the way that his ancestors had traditionally
when they roamed and dreamt about the surrounding
Nyapari, Kanpi and Watarru lands. Whitefellas are
seeing all our work on canvas but we want people to see
the places that really are this dreaming, says Stevens
To this end, four senior artists identified appropriate
sites for the creation and documentation of ephemeral
artworks drawn with natural white tutu pigment.
While the drawings were inevitably temporary, since
w w w. ar tcol l e ctor. n e t. au
washed away with the first summer rains, they were
captured through a series of six stunning large format
photographs now available to the rest of the world. This
is a very old idea, an idea that came to us through our
ancestors, said Stevens in an interview with curator
at the Art Gallery of South Australia, Nici Cumpston.
I used to camp near these rock holes with my father
and he told me Dont leave this ngurra (home) its up
to you to stay and look after this dreaming So I was
thinking I might show some of this special place and
our stories and let people know how important these
sites are for my family.
WHITEFELLAS ARE SEEING
ALL OUR WORK ON CANVAS
BUT WE WANT PEOPLE TO SEE
THE PLACES THAT REALLY ARE
THIS DREAMING. KEITH STEVENS
The project provides a much-needed opportunity
for senior artists to lead young artists and art workers
on bush trips, encouraging direct cultural exchange and
adding another dimension to the working patterns of
the art centre, adds art centre manager Benji Bradley.
Painting on Country combines ancient stories and drawing
techniques with cutting edge photographic technology,
allowing the Tjungu Palya artists to highlight the stag-
gering diversity of their desert home. And Stevens is far
from finished communicating his cultural history, he
says. Now you have seen the drawings, our next project
will be about inma (ceremonial dancing). We want to
make a movie about a big ceremony at each community
with costumes and everything else. In each movie we
will perform a different inma, one for Watarru, one for
Kanpi and one for Nyapari. All the children and families
will be involved. Maybe you can see it next year.
Ashley Crawford
PAINTING ON COUNTRY EXHIBITS AS PART
OF TARNANTHI: FESTIVAL OF CONTEMPORARY
ABORIGINAL & TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER ART AT
THE ART GALLERY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA, ADELAIDE
FROM 13 OCTOBER 2017 - 28 JANUARY 2018.
25
UPFRONT
NEWS &
EVENTS
OLSEN GRUIN IN NEW YORK CITY
W
ith its initial conception born out of
an experiment, the incredibly positive
response towards Olsen Gruins first
chapter is the stuff New York City
success stories are made of; their
recent move into a bigger, higher-ceilinged, light-
filled gallery space in Manhattans Downtown
Orchard Street a strategic match for the patience,
perseverance, timing and serendipity the city often
demands from transplants.
The response was so overwhelming that it became
obvious there was a place for us [here], says Tim
Olsen, renowned Australian gallerist and co-founder
of Olsen Gruin. It was never my aim to establish
a marsupial Australian Antipodean art outpost,
but with a few American and European artists who
showed interest in us, it seemed that the style of our
operation was embraced.
26
Success aside, Olsen and co-owner Emerald
Gruin still expected to have to top up the bank
account to keep things rolling. To my surprise, the
gallery is running profitably sooner than expected.
The hoards of people coming through has astounded
me considering we are a new entity in a bountiful
art city, Olsen explains.
...New York has a lot more confidence in regard
to paying good money for the avant-garde, he notes.
[Its] certainly a less judgemental environment
being the son a famous artist father, Im enjoying the
anonymity that New York provides me and the escape
from tall poppy syndrome that often interferes with
the perception of the gallery back home.
Weary of the increasing homogenization of
galleries reflected at recent art fairs, Olsen Gruins
curatorial goal is a 65 per cent focus on European
and American art, featuring only the most pertinent
Australian artists who dont disrupt the general
art conversation.
We wish to create a platform by which there is
less condescension and more appreciation for our
very talented Australian visual artists. It would be
foolish to concentrate exclusively on them... [but]
we are giving these artists an assimilation into the
milieu of world art, Olsen explains.
We are not trying to prove anything here, we
just hope for intellectual and visual respect where
respect is due... We are a laconic laid back nation,
who believe in ourselves and are prepared to work
hard, especially when we know we have something
to offer.
Emily Cones-Browne
// Installation view, Stephen Ormandy.
COURTESY THE ARTIST AND OLSEN GRUIN, NEW YORK,
w w w.ar t c ol l e c t or.n e t .au
Pah Painting 4 (detail), 2015, oil and clay pigments on linen, 2720mm H x 1080mm W Photo: Kallan MacLeod

03 - 28 OCT 2017
STAR GOSSAGE
Andrew Sullivan
THE BIRDS OF EARLWOOD
25 October - 19 November 2017

GALERIEPOMPOM.COM
2/27-39 ABERCROMBIE ST
CHIPPENDALE NSW 2008
+61 430 318 438

Andrew Sullivan
Brown Goshawk (detail), 2016,
oil on linen, 82 x 71 cm.
Photo: Docqment
UPFRONT
MONEY SULLIES

// James Little, SS17, 2015. Part of a

meta-exhibition project using Instagram,
Koenig-Galerie. COURTESY: THE ARTIST.

30 w w w.ar t c ol l e c t or.n e t .au

 MONEY SULLIES ART
FACT AND FICTION ON EQUAL FOOTING
How the era of post-truth is tampering with the value of our art
as well as our politics.
I
n a post-truth world, all realities are
possible. Artist James Little exploits these
possibilities through his Instagram-based
project in which he creates digitally ma-
nipulated exhibitions of his work by
transposing it into existing gallery photos.
These are then posted online as documenta-
tion of real exhibitions. These fabricated
images elicit real responses from the contem-
porary art world, from likes on social media to
expressions of interest by galleries wanting to
show Little because of his successful exhibi-
tions. Little calls this process credentialism
whereby the legitimacy, the cultural value and
the perception of the work is heightened by
the context in which it is viewed.
Littles project may seem fanciful but it can
be read as a cautionary tale. The practice of
creating a false reality surrounding an artists
career is more commonplace than you might
think. If you Google how to write a fake art-
ists CV you will come across the blog post,
How to write an artists CV when you dont
have much (or any) experience. As this article
correctly notes, crafting a CV when you are a
new or emerging artist can be a bit of a Catch
22. When you apply for an exhibition, say at
an artist run space, you are asked to list your
experience, but your lack of experience is the
very reason why you are looking for opportu-
nities to exhibit.
This problem has a solution. There is an
increasing tendency for artists resumes to be
artificially inflated if not shamelessly falsified
to seem more impressive than the sometimes
w w w. ar tcol l e ctor. n e t. au
very unimpressive truth of an artists career.
While this practice is longstanding among
emerging artists who struggle to catch a break,
what is new is that those with extensive experi-
ence and representation by high-end galleries
feel the need to fudge the truth. Editors, writ-
ers and critics all report finding half-truths
and outright lies on artists CVs. These in-
clude artists falsely claiming to be in impor-
tant group exhibitions to winning prizes and
receiving grants. While these lies can be eas-
ily fact-checked it seems that, in a post-truth
world, artists are no longer concerned with
something as irrelevant as facts.
While from an artists perspective the truth
may seem unimportant, the impact on collec-
tors can be significant. It is not so much the
artists actions that may affect collecting prac-
tices but rather the complicity of the galleries
that support them. If galleries have falsified re-
sumes on their website then collectors assume
this to be an endorsement of them. Galleries,
of course, have a good reason to tolerate this
dishonest practice: it inflates the cultural and
therefore financial value of an artists work.
Collectors therefore need to be savvy in re-
searching an artists background, including
checking any claims about major awards such
as prizes and grants. Unfortunately, its no
longer possible to just take what is said about
an artists career at face value. It may seem like
its not a collectors job to be fact-checking an
artists CV, but in an age of fake news, its in
their interests to do so.
Carrie Miller
31
UPFRONT
AGENDA
S
ince its release in May this year, the
RETURN TO OWNER Chanel Boomerang has stirred fiery debate
about Indigeneity, consumerism and
The accessorisation of Indigeneity the intersection between the two in the
reached new heights with the release of 21st century. Lacquered jet black with an
the Chanel Boomerang. Eugene Cheung accent of exposed wood, the boomerang
is embossed with the signature white
unpacks the issue.
crossed logo of the Chanel brand a symbol so
deeply coded as a sign of affluence and prestige.
Yet, since its release, the Chanel Boomerang has been
rightly criticised as an insensitive and ignorant
decontextualisation of the boomerangs cultural
origins, which to many obliterate Aboriginal
heritage and accessorise Indigeneity for the high-
end consumer.
Created as part of Chanels new collection where
functional, everyday items such as surfboards and
tennis racquets are given new meaning and elevated
to a supposedly refined status of high culture, the
Dear Chanel,
I would like to know whether you would like to give
comment on your recent Chanel Boomerang incident,
wherein you have been subject to global criticism about
racial insensitivity and cultural appropriation. Many see the
boomerang as an ignorant and kitsch decontextualisation of
a sacred object to Australian indigenous communities. Could
you offer a perspective on this interpretation?
Kindest,
Eugene
32
French fashion house fails in distinguishing how
appropriating a surfboard is distinct from that of a
socially entrenched and culturally significant object
like a boomerang. The luxury brand did not respond
to Art Collectors questions regarding the matter and
refused to provide an image.
From the oversaturation of Indigenous art in
the art market to the consequent oversupply and
normalisation of counterfeit Aboriginal motifs in
souvenir shops, Australians have played and continue
to play a colossal role in how international businesses
(whether in fashion or otherwise) understand how
they can rightly interact with and alter the meaning
of objects like the boomerang. I wont continue to
critique Indigenous appropriation and the socially
toxic effect it has because there exists a trove of
literature that better articulates and expounds this
issue. Instead, I want to unpack the cultural factors
that have led Chanel to manifest this boomerang,
and the reasons the accessorisation of Indigeneity
remains such a widespread and endemic issue in
both Australia and the international market.
I was recently advising a client who upon my
suggestion to purchase a painting from the
Warlukulangu artist community deemed it a clich
to have a piece of Indigenous art in his living room.
In a self assured and matter of fact way, the collector
declared to me, Its almost a stereotype to have
Aboriginal art in an inner city apartment. As an
art dealer with left leaning sensibilities, you learn
to balance your own confusion and anger against
opportunities for your own commercial gain. You
tacitly smile and mumble a passive yet strongly
charged, I see, and you close the deal with an
agreeable, decorative landscape painting.
In the closely related field of fashion, US fashion
house Rodarte was embroiled in controversy similar
to the Chanel Boomerang during its 2013 Autumn
collection. An assemblage of dresses were hung off
the frames of tall, slender white women, who strutted
down the catwalk likely to be ignorant that the motifs
wrapped around their bodies were harvested from an
array of Indigenous communities; each with distinct
customs, spiritualities and painting practices. Yet,
Rodarte conflated their designs as being drawn
from Australian Aboriginal Art, disconnecting
Indigenous individuality and saturating on a
global platform a clichd and reductive aesthetic
of Indigenous creativity.
Yet, non-Indigenous people profiteering from
Indigeneity arent just isolated in the glitzy
worlds of art and fashion. The depreciation of
Indigenous artistry is arguably most obvious at
w w w.ar t c ol l e c t or.n e t .au
tourist destinations across Australias major cities.
In a 2016 survey conducted by Gabrielle Sullivan
at the Indigenous Art Code, vendors of items
bearing Indigenous symbols and motifs at Queen
Victoria Market in Melbourne and Circular Quay
in Sydney were candid in their responses about the
provenance of their wares. Outsourced to workers
in Indonesia and China, very few of the didgeridoos
and boomerangs spotted in shopfront displays truly
originated from Australian Indigenous hands.
Together with the silent practice of some urban Dear Eugene,
art dealers exploiting non-metropolitan, Indigenous Please find CHANELs statement in regards to your enquiry below:
artists, what surfaces is the commercial perception
that Aboriginality is an easily profitable cultural Chanel is extremely committed to respecting all cultures, and
expression freely plagiarised without need of deeply regrets that some may have felt offended.
tremendous artistic skill or cultural praise. In other The inspiration was taken from leisure activities from other
words, the monetary interests of the coloniser replace parts of the world, and it was not our intention to disrespect
the spirituality attached to Indigenous objects. These the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community and their
practices slowly yet certainly shift the boomerang to
significance to the boomerang as a cultural object. As such, this
become produced along the same cultural conveyer
object was included into a sportswear range.
belt as that of the surfboard and tennis racquet: tools
that are seen as ubiquitous and ordinary, neither Sportswear has always been part of CHANELs identity. Gabrielle
creatively impressive nor aesthetically significant. Chanel had, before anyone else, an intuition for the sporting
The trickling up of these cultural perceptions has influence on fashion, and designed elegant and comfortable
evidently gained momentum with the arrival of the sportswear. Karl Lagerfeld has continued in the spirit of Gabrielle
Chanel Boomerang. As Australia bombards tourists Chanel by regularly inviting sportswear and accessories into his
and locals alike with inexpensive and tokenised collections. The spring-summer 17 collection boomerang is part of
depictions of Aboriginal Australia, labels like Chanel this long-standing approach. In this collection, Chanel also offers
arguably feel endorsed to elevate the boomerang as tennis rackets, a stand up paddle, beach rackets and balls.
a perceived form of inferior everyday culture to an
expression of superior high-end luxury.
As Chanel throws its ill-fated boomerang into the
Kindest,
fiery PR hell that has come of this, true to form, it
Chanel Representative
seems this boomerang returns and hits a problem
that lies closer to home. The discussion remains
as to how we can destigmatise the way Indigenous
creativity is understood in mainstream Australia
because it seems understanding and respect
appear as obvious answers. Yet, it remains to be
seen whether or not these issues remain comfortably
uncomfortable for everyday Australian debate, or
whether it is something we are ready to unload so
that Indigeneity is not typecast and accessorised
both locally and internationally.

THE FRENCH FASHION HOUSE FAILS IN DISTINGUISHING HOW

APPROPRIATING A SURFBOARD IS DISTINCT FROM THAT OF A SOCIALLY
ENTRENCHED AND CULTURALLY SIGNIFICANT OBJECT LIKE A BOOMERANG.
w w w. ar tcol l e ctor. n e t. au 33
UPFRONT
BEHIND THE SCENES
CLICKS VERSUS BRICKS AND MORTAR
When the gentle men of contemporary art Geoffrey Legge and Frank Watters recently
announced their gallery's imminent closure, it marked the beginning of the end of the
type of deeply committed artist representation Watters Gallery had maintained for more
than five decades. Carrie Miller blames the internet. Portrait by Zan Wimberley.
I
n whats been considered resoundingly sad news,
Sydneys Watters Gallery will close next year
after 54 years of operation. Director Geoffrey
Legge identified the changing nature of the art
world as the primary reason for the closure:
Weve discovered that our energies have not
really been great enough for the demands of
the art world we find ourselves in. There are new
challenges and possibilities which younger people
can exploit with confidence and enjoyment.
When contacted by Art Collector Legge elaborated
on this change. At the gallerys inception it was very
much a place where one hung paintings or displayed
sculpture and waited for people to drop in, he re-
members. In the age of the internet, however, many
people do their gallery visiting via their computer
screen. For Legge, it is just not the same. We spend
many days without a single visitor. There seems little
point in maintaining a presence in the hope that
someone may, possibly drop in.
Theres no doubt the internet has disrupted the
way art is marketed and artists market themselves.
The digital age has been an emancipating cultural
force, allowing artists to connect directly with their
audiences. Moreover, the web democratizes the con-
ventional hierarchy of represented versus unrepre-
sented artists and emerging versus established ones.
Now anyone can become popular and successful
through a direct appeal to the public.
From this perspective, galleries are increasingly
obsolete. The new wave of collectors feel confident
to purchase work directly, they dont need the
imprimatur of the traditional white cube. These
collectors utilise different networks to determine who
they buy: social media, art fairs, buzz at openings.
THERE WAS SOMETHING VERY EXCITING ABOUT BEING WITH
SOMEONE IN THE PRESENCE OF ARTWORKS. THE ENGAGEMENT
WITH PEOPLE WAS VERY IMPORTANT.
34
While this may seem a good thing and for a small
number of artists who have managed to become social
media stars it has been what many fail to consider
is the long-term benefits of gallery representation.
Galleries like Watters take the representation of
their artists very seriously, demonstrating commit-
ment and loyalty, regardless of the market. This allows
artists time and space to develop their practice and
to experiment when needed.
Now that art exists in a global market place it is at
the whim of larger forces, unprotected by the gallery
system. This may be somewhat ameliorated by the fact
that the internet enables galleries to have international
reach. Instead of being confined to state borders, art
commerce is a genuinely global enterprise. Galleries
therefore have commercial opportunities that werent
available to them in the past. In reality, however, this
reach has coalesced into a few mega-galleries that hold
the balance of power.
For those who believe in the emancipatory power
of the digital age, the internet can be seen as a force
for good in the art world, a place where artists have
equal access to power and influence. For romantics,
the internet is a place where authentic experiences of
art go to die. As Geoffrey Legge puts it: There was
something very exciting about being with someone
in the presence of artworks. The engagement with
people was very important. Our clients became friends
and there was a lot of interaction between visitors.
People talked about the works they were looking at.
This is one of the things I miss most about the new
digital age.
WATTERS GALLERY, SYDNEY WILL CLOSE AT
THE END OF 2018.
GEOFFREY LEGGE
w w w.ar t c ol l e c t or.n e t .au
w w w. ar tcol l e ctor. n e t. au 35
 JULIE DAVIDSON

WAYS OF SEEING 14 NOVEMBER - 2 DECEMBER 2017

137 Flinders Lane Melbourne 3000 T 03 96543332

flg.com.au info@lg.com.au
Tues-Fri 11am - 6pm Sat 11am - 5pm*
*Final Saturday of exhibition gallery closes at 3pm for de-install
1989 - 2017 Director Claire Harris

Image: Detail left to right Magnolia, 2017, oil on linen, 122 x 192 cm, Into the Mist 2017, oil on linen 122 x 122cm
ASHLEIGH GARWOOD MAY
409b George Street
Wa t e r l o o N S W 2 0 1 7
MASSING www.mayspace.com.au

10 OCTOBER TO 4 NOVEMBER
info@mayspace.com.au
t. + 61 2 9318 1122 SPACE

Ashleigh Garwood, FORM#1 2017, silver gelatin print, edition of 3 + 2AP, 60.5 x 50cm
UPFRONT
EXHIBITION

IN
CAHOOTS
Six artists travelled to remote art centres
across Australia to work alongside the
locals. In Cahoots is the exhibition that
resulted from this ground breaking project
and according to Jane OSullivan it
proves that collaborations can go far
beyond any single artists horizon.

W
hen we talk about artist residencies we often
just focus on what the artist gets out of it, and
how their horizons or career opportunities
have been expanded. Whats often forgotten
is what they give back. Fine, if were talking
about a residency in Paris, but its a different
story if its with a remote Aboriginal
community. There have been too many times where artists
fly in, fly out and fail to give credit, but a new exhibition
project at Fremantle Arts Centre is helping change that.
1.
In Cahoots, which opens in late November, is a sprawling
exhibition. There are woven objects bursting from car doors,
kinetic sculptures counterbalanced by stones, carved bowls
like rotund ant hills and even photographs of kids dressed
up as Star Wars characters. For a project involving six artist
residencies, there are certainly a lot of objects, and a lot of
artist names, in the final cut. But thats part of the point.
The idea developed after Fremantle Arts Centres major
exhibition We Dont Need a Map: A Martu Experience of the
Western Desert, which saw several large collaborative pieces
commissioned from Martumili Artists. We learned a lot
from that process about how to help facilitate these kinds
of cross-cultural collaborations, says Erin Coates, the
coordinator of In Cahoots and an artist herself. Because they
can go terribly wrong...it can be exploitative.
In Cahoots hands the reins to six art centres, five in remote
Western Australia and one on Victorias Mornington
Peninsula. Each centre nominated an artist they wanted
to work with and the choices speak to their vastly different
needs and interests. Buku-Larrnggay Mulka, for example,
wanted Curtis Taylor to come up to work with filmmaker
Ishmael Marika a matching of two rising stars. Baluk
Arts, the centre on the Mornington Peninsula, needed an
artist who could respond and work with its diverse group
of artists. They found multidisciplinary Western Australian
artist Neil Aldum, whose skills span engineering, sustainable
1.
development and a host of visual arts mediums. 1.

38 w w w.ar t c ol l e c t or.n e t .au

w w w. ar tcol l e ctor. n e t. au 39
UPFRONT
EXHIBITION
1. // Tony Albert, Lucy Lewis Mitchell
and David Collins, Warakurna Starwars
#1, 2017. C-type print, 100 x 150cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTISTS, WARAKURNA ARTISTS,
ALICE SPRINGS AND SULLIVAN+STRUMPF, SYDNEY.
2. // Fire from Martu burning Country,
East of Parnngurr Community, 2017.
COURTESY: THE ARTISTS AND FREMANTLE ARTS
CENTRE, FREMANTLE.
3. // Video still of Baluk Arts artists
collecting stones from Shoreham Beach,
Mornington Peninsula, 2017. VIDEO: NEIL
ALDUM. COURTESY: THE ARTISTS, BALUK ARTS,
MORNINGTON PENINSULA AND FREMANTLE ARTS
CENTRE, FREMANTLE.
4. // Coolamons made by artists Elsie
Dickens, Yangkarni Penny K-Lyons,
Trent Jansen, Mayarn Lawford, Eva
Nargoodah and Gene Tighe drying in the
sun, 2017. PHOTO: ERIN COATES. COURTESY:
THE ARTISTS, MANGKAJA ARTS, FITZROY CROSSING
AND FREMANTLE ARTS CENTRE, FREMANTLE.
2.
40
Fremantle Arts Centre then worked with the Arts
Law Centre of Australia to develop a framework for
the visiting artists, essentially a code of conduct.
(Other arts organisations can now access a version
of this toolkit too, through Arts Law.) A major part
was about listening to communities, and being led
by them at every step. Another was repeat visits. All of
the In Cahoots artists began with a week to familiarise
themselves, then returned for a longer stay. As Coates
explains: Collaborating is really challenging. It
doesnt necessarily click straight away.
It made travel costs more expensive, but it also
changed the way artists approached their time. Tony
Albert, for example, used his first week at Warakurna
Artists to ask with open hands what they wanted from
him. That ended up being much more collaborative
than me responding to them or just doing my own
work while I was there, he says. The centres artists
told him about a past project they had done, using
materials found around the area to make community
angels. When Albert returned, he brought with him
a load of metalworking tools and extra hands in the
form of David Collins, a documentary photographer,
and Joel Spring, a young Aboriginal architect.
We brought things like angle grinders and rivet
tools and drills with metal drill bits, and set up various
stations so if someone wanted something cut that
they couldnt cut themselves, they could bring it to
the cutting station...manned by myself, David or Joel.
We were physically doing a lot of that more labour
intensive work, he says. Senior artist Eunice Porter
Yunurupa was one of the early adopters, getting
into the new tools with scary vigour and mustering
community-wide enthusiasm for the project.
The idea grew and became something where we
remade the whole community, as Albert puts it,
capturing different elements of its architecture, like
water towers, as well as football players, community
w w w.ar t c ol l e c t or.n e t .au
 3.

members and animals. The kids, too, came in to

make their own props and costumes for a heart-
warming series of dress-up photographs, shot
by Collins. The final list of Warakurna artists
involves over 40 names.
Albert is passionate about being a role model in
these sorts of projects. I want to show successful
ways of collaborating with Aboriginal people,
he says. (He notes that as an Aboriginal artist
living in Sydney, hes as much an outsider as any
non-Aboriginal.) Its unfortunate that for such
a long time that when it does happen, it happens
with the wrong intentions or the outcome is not
successful. Theres so much potential.
While the residencies all took different paths,
Louise Haselton was another who concentrated
on facilitating access to things not usually
available in remote communities, in this case, a
new medium. As Art Collector goes to press, she
is getting ready for her second, longer stay at
Papulankutja Artists. She says plans are likely
to change, but her first visit has her thinking
4. about foundries. She aims to develop cast metal

w w w. ar tcol l e ctor. n e t. au 41
objects to pair with woven tjanpi objects made
by Papulankutja artists.
Haseltons own practice is attuned to the
histories and resonances of everyday materials.
She has wrapped found objects like polystyrene
packing foam and metal handles with yarn,
for example. There are obvious parallels here
with wrapped and woven tjanpi objects, but its
clear that materials and process are just starting
points for what could be some very interesting
conversations. The finished work Haselton is
envisaging marries two mediums in uneasy
partnership: one very grand, and associated with
the canons of fine art, and the other unassuming
and tied to the decorative, though stronger and
more enduring than it looks.
At Mangkaja Arts, furniture and object designer
Trent Jansen began by sitting with Rita Minga
to hear Kimberley stories and mythologies,
particularly around a creature said to lurk among
the anthills. The resulting carved coolamons
are giant, embedded with human hair and the
colour of dust; they recall both the form of this
lumpen Jangarra figure and the dirt mounds he
hides behind. They are unsettling objects, deeply
wedded to place. Another part of the project 5.
involves rusted metal sourced from abandoned
cars in the area, and there are plans for Johnny
Nargoodah and his son Illium Nargoodah to
travel to Jansens studio on the New South Wales
south coast to continue to refine these objects
into furnishings, tables and chairs.
Car parts also turn up in work made on
Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiros residency
at Martumili Artists. Working with the master
weaver Thelma Judson as well as Kumpaya
Girgiba, Rachel Handley and Karnu Talyor,
they have produced a series of car doors with
organic woven forms bulging out of the windows.
The additions give these rusted, desert emblems
of decay a pulsing, new beat of life. Its these
sort of odd, syncretic harmonies that show
collaborations have always had a potential that
goes far beyond any single artists horizons.

IN CAHOOTS SHOWS AT FREMANTLE ARTS

CENTRE FROM 25 NOVEMBER 2017 TO 28
JANUARY 2018. 6.

42 w w w.ar t c ol l e c t or.n e t .au

 5. // Falcon. Production still, 2017. PHOTO:

FREMANTLE ARTS CENTRE THEN WORKED WITH THE ARTS

CLAIRE HEALY AND SEAN CORDEIRO. COURTESY: THE
ARTISTS, MARTUMILI ARTISTS, NEWMAN AND FREMANTLE
ARTS CENTRE, FREMANTLE.

LAW CENTRE OF AUSTRALIA TO DEVELOP A FRAMEWORK 6. // Work in progress by Trent Jansen and
Mangkaja artists Elsie Dickens, Yangkarni
Penny K-Lyons, Mayarn Lawford, Eva

FOR THE VISITING ARTISTS, ESSENTIALLY A CODE OF Nargoodah and Gene Tighe, 2017.
PHOTO: TRENT JANSEN. COURTESY: THE ARTISTS
AND FREMANTLE ARTS CENTRE, FREMANTLE.

CONDUCT A MAJOR PART WAS ABOUT LISTENING TO 7. // New works by artists at Warakurna
for In Cahoots, 2017. PHOTO: DAVID COLLINS.

COMMUNITIES, AND BEING LED BY THEM AT EVERY STEP. COURTESY: THE ARTISTS, WARAKURNA ARTISTS,
ALICE SPRINGS AND SULLIVAN+STRUMPF, SYDNEY.

7.

w w w. ar tcol l e ctor. n e t. au 43
 DESPARD GALLERY
1987-2017

GEOFF DYER Recent Paintings

15 November - 10 December 2017
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I m age: Waterfalls 2017 oil on linen 122x122 c m si g ned LR
 MATTHEW
The Right Crowd, 2017, Oil on polished copper, 90x60cm

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UPFRONT
OPEN DIALOGUE

CARRIE MILLER: I dont think people outside the art

OPEN DIALOGUE: world realise just how strict the orthodoxy of what

HASHTAG TOTES AGREE, counts as progressive thought is inside it. Facebook

SMILEY FACE, WINKY FACE
Andrew Frost and Carrie Miller discuss how
social media puts a pretty filter over the
ugly, dog-eat-dog reality of contemporary art
Illustration by Coen Young.
is the perfect platform for articulating the rules of
this type of thinking. It reveals the herd mentality
of it and the literal mindedness at the heart of it.
For example, Australia Day. There is only one way
to demonstrate you are on the right side of the
argument and that is to change your profile pic to
an Aboriginal Flag and to talk about Invasion Day.
There is no room for nuance or for your kids to
enjoy a day off and a sausage sandwich. You will get
shouted down if you dont toe that ideological line.

ANDREW FROST: Careful now. You dont want to

give the impression that were on the wrong side
of things. Its important to say where you stand
on certain trending topics because, in the absence
of saying the right thing, its assumed youre on the
wrong side, especially if youre a middle aged white
man. They call that type of social media activity vir-
JOIN THE CONVERSATION ON
tue signaling - telling your peers that youre like
TWITTER VIA @ARTCOLLECTMAG
them. It has become a form of abuse from the right
wing who accuse social justice warriors of being
snowflakes who are virtue signaling their positions
on social, ethical and aesthetic issues. The thing is,
most of those individual debates have merit, but
the way theyre expressed has become totally homo-
genised. My entire news feed is now people pushing
an agenda or their careers. Occasionally people will
post art in their Facebook newsfeed, either their own,
or their favourites from art history, and geez its a
nice change. So wheres that sausage sandwich you
were offering me?

CM: Trust you to want the sausage sandwich - its a

symbol of white, male privilege. I get that the right
likes to attack what it demonizes as postmodern
identity politics without understanding the ethical
basis for that train of thought. But its also the case
that sensible people on the left are increasingly
critical of the way certain identities are given special
ontological status by virtue of pseudo-intellectual
left-wing group think. This type of thinking has
infected the art world and its been given a platform
through social media, especially Facebook. I got off
Facebook three years ago because I couldnt stand
the constant art world whining about who had a
legitimate claim to stuff, whether that was who

46 w w w.ar t c ol l e c t or.n e t .au

 should win a prize or be in a show or be written
about by a critic. Like you say, there is merit to these
claims but there is also a banality to the assertion
that one identity is inherently more legitimate
than anothers in relation to art.
Hashtag totes agree, smiley face, winky face.
AF:
The art world has always been like this. In the
olden days there was a more defined hierarchy
in terms of who got to speak, and when. Smart
academic journals or little magazines with a
500 copy print run was where the hard thinking
was done. Newspaper art criticism was where ven-
dettas and reprisals were carried out. Bitchiness
and gossip was usually confined to after-open-
ing drinking sessions. I learned almost everything I
needed to know about post modernity from mean
girls at parties. Nowadays, all of that has been
squashed flat by social media - all views are equal
and all barriers to accessing your peers have been
eliminated. But there are rules to follow if you are
an emerging, established or senior artist. Emerging
artists use social media to complain about stuff,
established artists use it to promote themselves
and seniors put pictures of their boats and grand-
kids. The natural neediness of artists, the patrician
loftiness of old school gallerists and the obsessive
career building of art critics are all amplified on
social media, except everything is at equal volume.
I find it strange when I see immensely wealthy art
world identities posting their travel pics, family
snaps and social get-togethers on Facebook just
like regular people do. Either that means the rich
are like us, or social media warps everything into
acceptability. I remember when a friend of mine
peed off the funicular railway at Roslyn Oxleys
place after an opening. How we laughed. Now
thatd be all over Instagram within seconds.
CM: But isnt that the trouble with Instagram?
That it promotes an idealised art world where
frenemies pose for happy snaps at each others
openings and everyone hearts images of bloat-
ed, dumb money collectors in Venice? It puts a
pretty filter over the ugly, dog-eat-dog reality of
contemporary art.
AF: Says the woman who posts pictures of herself
with famous artists who come to her house to pay
w w w. ar tcol l e ctor. n e t. au
homage, drink tea and eat entire packets of Short-
bread Creams. Look Carrie, youve got to embrace THE NATURAL NEEDINESS
the new paradigm. Artists are using social media
to synergise their social lives and their professional OF ARTISTS, THE PATRICIAN
output while maintaining their status as thought
leaders. That twinge of envy were feeling about LOFTINESS OF OLD SCHOOL
people who appear to be more successful than us,
and certainly much richer, is the natural state of GALLERISTS AND THE
things now. I know some artists just post pictures
of their latest paintings, because we all know artists OBSESSIVE CAREER BUILDING
like to show off and get encouraged to do good
work, but theyre also doing something a lot more OF ART CRITICS ARE ALL
valuable than simply making art - theyre building
their brand. Scoff all you like but who wouldnt AMPLIFIED BY SOCIAL MEDIA,
want Michael Zavross lifestyle?
EXCEPT EVERYTHING IS AT
CM: Give me a famous artist and Shortbread
Creams over your preferred scenario of enter- EQUAL VOLUME.
taining a washed-up one with a handful of soggy ANDREW FROST
Orange Creams stuck to the bottom of the tin. Im
all for artists building their brands in fact, I want
in on the action. Why is it that arts professionals
particularly art writers and critics have been
less successful at this brand-building gig when
social media offers a democratic platform for do-
ing so? In the real art world, writers and critics
are pressed into the service of artists and major
galleries, at least in Australia. But youd think
the virtual art world would represent a unique
opportunity for arts professionals to become social
media influencers on par with wellness bloggers
and Kardashians, wouldnt you?
AF: It depends entirely on what youre selling.
Just as the obviously superior Orange Cream is
an acquired taste, we have to look beyond the lit-
eral minded interpretation of what is gained from
branding and not just go for the immediate pay
off of an over-rich cream biscuit, i.e. getting paid
for play. Most active art critics and writers have
medium to high-range social media profiles. The
UK artist and art critic Matthew Collings is very
active on Facebook, where he posts pretty eclecti-
cally about art, TV, gardening and politics, and in
the US Jerry Saltz is all over Twitter and Facebook,
when hes not being banned for posting images of
classical nudes that contravene community stan-
dards. In Australia, people like John McDonald
came to the online art world late in the game but
47
UPFRONT
OPEN DIALOGUE
are now all over the place websites, Facebook, etc.
And then when you throw in the whole slew of culture
writers and pundits - everyone from Rebecca Solnit
to McKenzie Wark you realise its pretty unusual
not to be online. As to what that all actually adds up
to is another question does all this branding create
real world opportunities for writers and artists, or is
it just a really concentrated microcosm of how the
world is now? All show and no go?
CM: I take your point, but what Im talking about
is not just online and Facebook where you have the
space to air your opinions thats not so different
to working in the traditional media space but
platforms like Instagram and Twitter where ev-
erythings distilled into 140 characters or a single
image. There are no breakout social media influ-
encers among arts professionals in Australia and
theres definitely an opportunity. I was watching
an old episode of Channel Nines The Block recent-
ly and they were judging the contestants living
and dining rooms. One of the judges pointed to
an Adam Cullen Growler print hanging on the wall
opposite the dining table and said Thats genius,
and something like: This picture sets the tone for
the whole room. When Cullen pictures become
decoration there is definitely an opportunity for
contemporary art professionals to exploit the vo-
racious need for images in a democratized digital
public sphere. We could create a brand and then
exploit our influence to get people to buy prints of
contemporary artworks. We could split the profits
with artists. That could be a nice earn.
AF: Theres a huge resistance by artists to use social
media as the sole platform for the dissemination
of their work. There are plenty who have built up
followings on Instagram and Tumblr posting images
of works in progress, or exhibitions or whatever, and
there are a few digital artists who use social media
platforms to create an international audience, but
most artists want the big payday of selling out an
exhibition, or showing in a biennale or whatever.
There are some would be influencers out there, but
its interesting that so very few of them are either
good at social media, or their work is terrible. Thats
not to say I dont find your ideas fascinating and I
would like to follow you on social media, but youre
not there. But seriously, Carrie, wheres that sausage
sandwich you promised me?
48
MODERN LEXICON
Decoding contemporary artspeak for the
discerning reader. Your guide: Andrew Frost.
Influence
I GOT OFF FACEBOOK THREE The literal definition of influence is the capacity to have
an effect on the character, development, or behaviour of
YEARS AGO BECAUSE I someone or something, or the effect itself. In an art world
context, it has three distinct applications. In the first
COULDNT STAND THE instance, influence is something an artist acknowledges.
The artist draws up a wish-list of the names of artists
CONSTANT ART WORLD from whom they think they have drawn concepts
and/or stylistic techniques, a list that is then
WHINING ABOUT WHO HAD circulated to journalists, critics and collectors with the
understanding that any discussion of the artists work
A LEGITIMATE CLAIM TO should only acknowledge those names. The second
example is where an influence is ascribed to the artists
STUFF, WHETHER THAT WAS work by others. Caution is advised here because, even
if such influence is obvious, the artist may vehemently
WHO SHOULD WIN A PRIZE disagree if the stated influence is not on the list. The
third meaning an artist under the influence, being a state
OR BE IN A SHOW OR BE of self-medication until they either a) die, or b) are
properly acknowledged for their place on someone
WRITTEN ABOUT BY A CRITIC. elses wish list.
Appropriation
CARRIE MILLER
The use of someone elses intellectual property
images, sounds etc - for artistic expression [and
profit] is considered by many lay people as being a
kind of theft. In an art context, this act is referred to
as appropriation where an artist may reproduce in
part or the whole of another artists work with little
if any alteration. Made modishly fashionable in the
late 1980s through to the 90s - to its current status as
a kind of digital media craft skill - appropriation asks
the viewer to take the artists openly acknowledged
purloining of other peoples stuff in good faith.
This is of course impossible, which of course was the
intention.
Stealing
To steal is to take another persons property without
permission or legal right and without intending to return
it. In an art world context, just as in the real world,
stealing is an act performed with the intention of
trying to get away with it. This can range from literally
breaking into someones house and stealing their art
collection, and then selling it off, to taking another
artists ideas and/or style without attribution and
then selling it off. Just as the art thief will generally
choose a target out of sight of a main road or security
cameras, so too an artist will generally steal from
lesser known contemporaries, foreign artists or
obscure historical sources. Where the art thief goes
to jail if caught, the artist who steals can expect to be
admired for their audacity.
w w w.ar t c ol l e c t or.n e t .au
 15 November - 9 December 2017
Teresa Baker
www.vivienandersongallery.com
Teresa Baker, Minyma Malilunya 2017, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 150 x 200 cm

WHAT ARE THE DEAD GIVEAWAYS
that the person youre talking to doesnt know about
CONTEMPORARY
ART?
As a rule I avoid getting
anywhere near contemporary
art with people who dont
know a thing about it
as I dont want to be the
explainer, and why make
them feel bad? but
sometimes its unavoidable.
Thats different is a
giveaway. INGRID PERIZ
WH EN S O M E O N E S AY S THAT THE RE S RE AL ART, A N D
TH EN TH E RE S A L L THI S P OST MOD E RN STUFF.
When they describe a
painting as a picture
and exhort its modern
virtues. Both things are
quite endearing actually.
ALISON KUBLER
w w w. ar tcol l e ctor. n e t. au
UPFRONT
SURVEY
Im a ridiculous person to
ask because so much of what
Ive learned about art has
come from very smart, very
patient people. If someone
genuinely wants to talk about
One of the dead art, I dont care, Im in. Its
giveaways that when they dont and theyre
someone doesnt just struggling for something
know about to say that it gets tiring.
contemporary art is Oh my sister-in-laws best
that they talk about friends mother is an artist!
money. Anyone that She paints cats! Especially
knows anything if they double down and pull
about contemporary out their phone to show you
art knows that you said distant connections
should never look Facebook page, and their
at the price list and collection of flat, wall-eyed
say: Holy shit, that cats. Seriously, Im not going
paintings worth a to write about that. Oh wait,
shitload! CARRIE MILLER I just did... JANE OSULLIVAN
A NDREW FROST
I genuinely believe that anyone can
respond to contemporary art given the right
circumstances. I suppose one giveaway that
someone is intimidated by contemporary art
is the tendency to equate the perceived hours
spent making a work with quality. Quips like,
That must have taken hours are often an
indication of this kind of thinking. JANE ONEILL
51
 Hinterland no. 1 2017, oil and beeswax on linen, 120 x 96cm
PHILIP WOLFHAGEN HINTERLANDS

Contemporary Fine Art 13 to 30 October 2017

369 Elizabeth Street North Hobart
Tasmania Australia 7000
T: 03 6231 6511
E: info@bettgallery.com.au
www.bettgallery.com.au
James Ormsby
PAULNACHE
NEIL FRAZER 19 October - 12 November 2017
Melt

Talus, 2017, acrylic on canvas, 198 x 198 cm

ANTHONY BARTOK MANDATORY FIELD
28 SEPT 28 OCT

The New Standard Gallery

236A Riley Street, Surry Hills 2010, (+61) 8278 7155

Info@Thene w s tandar dg allery.com / W w w.thene w s tandar dg allery.com

Open: Tuesday Saturday 10.00Am - 5.00Pm

Image. ANTHONY BARTOK, HOME/OFFICE . 2017, acrylic on raw canvas, 153 x 213 cm
UPFRONT
ART FAIRS

ART FAIR REPORT

International art fairs worth a
flight this quarter.

PARIS PHOTO
9-12 November, 2017
Grand Palais Paris

Dedicated to presenting the best of the

photographic medium from the 19th century
to the present day, over 180 international
galleries and publishers from 31 countries
will facilitate Paris Photos promise of an
ambitious and unprecedented sprawling fair.
The 21st edition proposes a special curatorial
program by design icon Karl Lagerfeld, whose
fascination with the power and evocative
nature of the photographic image will be
explored via the thousands of curated works
presented at the fair, in addition to a special
edition book from Steidl Publishing. Now in
its third consecutive year, the PRISMS sector,
dedicated to serial works and large formats,
will unveil 14 major projects in the Grand
Palais Salon dHonneur.
Emily Cones-Browne

// Lillian Bassman, Barbara Mullen, aboard Le

Bateau Mouche, Chanel Advertising Campaign,
Paris, 1960. COURTESY: THE ESTATE OF LILLIAN BASSMAN
AND PETER FETTERMAN GALLERY, SANTA MONICA.

58 w w w.ar t c ol l e c t or.n e t .au

 FRIEZE LONDON
5-8 October, 2017
Regents Park

The London edition of the eminent Frieze

Art Fair will feature over 160 galleries and
over 1,000 iconic and emerging artists. Their
annual non-profit programme includes
Frieze Projects and the Frieze Artist Award,
presenting new site-specific works by
contemporary artists. This years Frieze Film
explores themes of surrealism, popular myth
and the carnivalesque, with highly influential
American artist Alex Bag, known for her
video performances since the 90s a noted
highlight. As always, the premiere fairs
boundary-pushing contemporary works are
complemented by the classics in the Frieze
Masters program, appealing to a generous
scope of serious collectors.
Emily Cones-Browne

// Helly Nahmad, Frieze Masters, 2016. PHOTOGRAPH

BY MARK BLOWER. COURTESY OF MARK BLOWER/FRIEZE.

ART MIAMI
5-10 December, 2017
Downtown Miami

2017 marks a new downtown location for Art

Miamis internationally acclaimed program,
now in its 28th year. The move will allow
Art Miamis two major fairs Art Miami and
CONTEXT to operate from one 14-acre lot with
room for projected growth. Majorly catalysed
by the early 2000s Miami Beach iteration of
Art Basel, Miami has become the pre-eminent
East Coast destination for global collectors,
attracting jet setters and tastemakers for multi-
million dollar acquisitions of significant 20th
and 21st century works. Their collaboration
with renowned galleries and a respected
network of art dealers, advisors, curators and
museums draws an average of 75,000 visitors
during the annual Miami Art Week.
Emily Cones-Browne

// COURTESY: KEN HAYDEN PHOTOGRAPHY AND ART MIAMI, MIAMI.

w w w. ar tcol l e ctor. n e t. au 59
UPFRONT
ART FAIRS

THE OTHER ART FAIR RETURNS TO SYDNEY

Art crowds are set for another surge of art fair fever
this spring with The Other Art Fair (TOAF) taking
up a new location at the Australian Technology
Park. The popular artist-led event marks the fair's
third appearance in Sydney, led by fair director Zoe
Paulsen. From 26-29 October, artwork from more
than 100 artists will be exhibited. Each participating
artist has been chosen by a selection committee of
art industry professionals including; Ramesh Mario
Nithiyendran (artist), Annette Larkin (director of
Annette Larkin Fine Art), Michelle Newton (deputy
director, Artspace) and Rhianna Walcott (gallery
manager, Artereal).
Artworks at the fair are sold directly from the artists
to collectors. The atmosphere is relaxed, vibrant
and exciting, which attracts everyone from first time
buyers to seasoned collectors, says Ryan Stainer,
founder of The Other Art Fair. This year has also seen
TOAF expand to new cities, including Melbourne
and New York.
Jessa Melicor

// Opening night at The Other Art Fair, Melbourne

2017.PHOTO: YUTING LIU. COURTESY: THE OTHER ART FAIR, AUSTRALIA.

60 w w w.ar t c ol l e c t or.n e t .au

SUE ANDERSON
35 Derby Street Collingwood VIC 3066 Outer Place
Open 7 days 10am to 6pm
T 03 9417 4303
melbourne@australiangalleries.com.au 31 October - 19 November 2017
australiangalleries.com.au
Member Art Galleries Association of Australia
AU S T R A l I A N GA l l E R I E S
Image: Urquhart Bluff 2017 oil on linen 138 x 172 cm MELBOURNE
UPFRONT
INSIDE
THE
COVERS

JANET HOLMES COURT

MUSE: A JOURNEY THROUGH AN ART COLLECTIO N

J
anet Holmes Court knows a thing or
two about change. She was studying or-
ganic chemistry when she met her future
husband Robert and was working as a
science teacher when they got married in
1966. He went on to become Australias
first billionaire. She went on to become
MUSE
a successful entrepreneur, philanthropist, art col-
lector, and one of Australias wealthiest women. So
it is no surprise that in her book, MUSE: A Journey
through an Art Collection, Janet introduces her col-
lection by outlining the central place change holds
for her. Watching the perceptible change is one
of the threads of the collection, she explains. I
dont admire the finding of a formula that works
and sticking with it for 40 years because it makes
the artist successful. I admire the constant striving,
developing and experimenting that artists involve
A Journey through
themselves in.
The title of this book is well chosen. It is indeed
an Art Collection
a pictorial journey that also offers some insights Janet Holmes Court
into how this significant Australian collection was
formed. In addition to investing in risk-takers,
MUSE makes it clear that buying entire shows
by artists they admired was part of the Holmes
Court collecting strategy.
In 1981, while in London, they bought every
work in a exhibition called Mr Sandman, Bring me a
Dream at the Museum of Mankind. This purchase
included works by Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri
and other artists from Papunya. This was their
first major acquisition of Indigenous Australian
works, an area that would go on to become one
of the strengths of the collection. As the author
puts it, It was a complete revelation. In 1980s the
couple also purchased an entire suite of batiks on
silk made by female artists from Utopia, such as
Emily Kame Kngwarreye, and most of the works
in a show which featured John Firth-Smith, John
Peart, David Rankin, Robert Jacks, Michael
Johnson and David Aspden.
MUSE is written almost entirely in the first
person by Janet, but an introductory essay by

62 w w w.ar t c ol l e c t or.n e t .au

 Watching the
Perceptible Change

is one of the threads of the collection:

following speciic artists, not just having one
example of the work of every Australian artist.

For example, Michael Johnson. We dont have as many of his

works as we have of, say, Brian McKay, Emily Kame Kngwarreye
or Lloyd Rees, but we have several works that show how he
was developing. Howard Taylor is another one. Howard was
constantly pursuing new ways of illustrating the light that he
found in the forest.
What is my interest in that? In watching that perceptible change
and inding it so appealing? I suppose its a combination of
many things, but one thing is the admiration for artists who are
not in it for the money. They are constantly developing and
searching for new ways of looking at the world and reining
what they do. Deinitely risk-takers, because they would have
had exhibitions where people would have thought, Oh my God,
hes lost it now. They may continue along that line or they may
Alan Dodge adds some biographical background. step away from it. They continue to explore whatever it is that
inspires them.

Following the 1987 stock market crash and Rob- I started life as a chemistry teacher and, if I wanted, I could
still be a chemistry teacher, but I chose not to be. Change is
quite productive beyond just changing your position; it can
make for a richer life. You can understand the world better
erts premature death in 1990, he explains, Janet if you look at it from diferent perspectives. If youre seventy
years old you have witnessed many changes in the world,
and you have to adjust your own thinking.
took over the business and the Holmes Court I dont admire the inding of a formula that works and sticking
with it for forty years because it makes the artist successful.

collection. She restructured both. After selling I admire the constant striving, developing and experimenting
that artists involve themselves in. Scientists do it all the time.
Theres no point in having them otherwise.

her European art, the Holmes Court collection

became exclusively a repository of Australian work MELLOR, Danie
A curious land framed by wonder, 2008
mixed media on paper, 102 152 cm

with a strong focus on Indigenous artists and artists

from her home state, Western Australia. MUS E: A Journey through an Art Collection 14 Watching the Perceptible Change 15

Like any group of accumulated objects, the

Holmes Court collection forms a kind of portrait
of Janet herself. And one of the most charming
aspects of MUSE is her willingness to share personal
anecdotes. For example, in discussing one of her
IN ADDITION TO INVESTING IN RISK-TAKERS,
three Brett Whiteley paintings, Yellow Nude, 1978,
she says, This painting now hangs in the dining
room of the home of one of my sons. His seven-year-
MUSE MAKES IT CLEAR THAT BUYING ENTIRE
old daughter has described it as inappropriate.
Elsewhere she sets herself the troubling task of
SHOWS BY ARTISTS THEY ADMIRED WAS PART OF
wondering which works from the collection she
would save if her house caught fire. The answer is THE HOLMES COURT COLLECTING STRATEGY.
surprisingly down-to-earth. Instead of reaching
for the big-ticket items she chooses those with
sentimental value. Aside from two luxe ceramic
vases by Stephen Bowers and a painting by Noel
Counihan, the majority of the other works that
make her rescue list were made by her children
when they were small.
The scope of MUSE, like the collection, is vast.
It includes colour plates of artworks by some 90
artists, ranging from colonial Western Australia
landscapes, to paintings by some of Australias
biggest names, including: Rover Thomas, Dorothy
Napangardi, Fred Williams, Margaret Preston,
and Lloyd Rees. Despite this impressive breadth,
MUSE is not a scholarly book. Its strength lies in
its intimacy.
Tracey Clement

JANET HOLMES COURTS MUSE: A JOURNEY LAMB, Joanna

Suburban House 04, 2014

THROUGH AN ART COLLECTION IS PUBLISHED acrylic on canvas, 122 180 cm

BY UWA PUBLISHING: CRAWLEY, WESTERN

AUSTRALIA.

w w w. ar tcol l e ctor. n e t. au 63
Peter James Smith
26 September - 14 October 2017
Opening Tuesday 26 September 5 - 7pm
15 putiki street, arch hill
auckland, new zealand
w w w. orexart.co.nz
orex@xtra.co.nz
Ata la ya I & II e a rthe nwa re c la y dry-g la ze d a nd printe d 69 c m hig h

a vita l she ffe r

The G e ne ro us Ve sse l Marina Mirage, Seaworld Drive,
Main Beach, Q 4217 Ph: 07 5561 1166
De c e mber 2 to Dec ember 15, 2017 www.antheapolsonart.com.au
UPFRONT
NEWS
ON THE COUCH:
MOVING
AGAINST
THE CURRENT
Louise Martin-Chew talks to Emily
McDaniel, a curator, educator and
writer from the Kalari Clan of the
Wiradjuri nation in Central New South
Wales. This year McDaniel was one
of three judges on the 34th Telstra
NATSIA Awards at the Museums and
Art Galleries of the Northern Territory
(Darwin). Portrait by Jacquie Manning.
What are the compelling issues within
Aboriginal art regional and urban at
this time?
The issues pertinent to regional Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander art are as varied
as those in non-Indigenous art. With such
diverse practices nationally, it is difficult to
summarise the sector as a whole. But using
the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Award as an example of current
Indigenous contemporary practice, I am
noticing a strong return to language to artic-
ulate connection to culture, making powerful
statements of leadership. The act of being
an Indigenous artist is inherently political
artists are embracing it as a platform for
self-determination and self-representation.
Another recent public debate has been
about monuments and statues, and their
sometimes vexed histories. In 2015, you
curated the first public art commission for
the Barangaroo precinct. How important
is public art in telling the contemporary
Indigenous story?
66
Indigenous art in the public domain is cru-
cial, to tell the stories of how we got to be
where we are now. It becomes a new way of
mapping a city or understanding a place.
The histories of place are embedded in the
landscape and art is able to manifest them in
a physical form, making those stories accessi-
ble to everyone that connects with that site.
In April 2017 you travelled to Venice as
part of the Aboriginal Emerging Curator
program are you emerging?
I dont feel that that word accurately describes
a curatorial practice. Seemingly we could
be in a constant state of emergence, as your
work is never done as a curator. Early ca-
reer curators are doing some of the most
interesting work at the moment, and I was
fortunate to be alongside many of them on
that Venice trip, many of us having at least a
decade of experience. I find the word emerg-
ing in reference to artists limiting as well.
A great example is Betty Muffler who won
the Telstra Emerging Artist Award this year.
She is a senior woman in her community;
emerging fails to recognise the complexity
of her experience.
Also this year you curated Walan Yinaagir-
bang | Strong Women for Firstdraft Gallery.
How important are gender issues?
Incredibly important. Though there are many
contemporary women artists, there is little
recognition of their work. Large scale proj-
ects, particularly in Sydney, are dominated
by male creatives and artists. I question why
that is. There is an aesthetic of strength, and
the timely, detailed and meticulous artistic
practices of women artists challenge that. I
would like to raise the profile of female artists
and ensure that they receive the opportunities
their practice deserves.
Whats next on your agenda?
It is a privilege to be working currently on
the Sydney Festival, with artistic director,
Wesley Enoch. I am curating a project for
Barangaroo Headland Park. Apart from that
I am always collating and collecting stories
and ideas for new exhibitions.
THE ACT OF BEING AN INDIGENOUS ARTIST IS
INHERENTLY POLITICAL ARTISTS ARE EMBRACING IT AS A
PLATFORM FOR SELF-DETERMINATION AND SELF-REPRESENTATION...
Real Presence

Apparent Light Contradiction 120x130cm acrylic & collage on board 2017

Idris Murphy 5 23 December 2017

melinda schawel
silver lining
2 - 19 November 2017
UPFRONT
NOT TO BE MISSED

NOT TO BE MISSED
Our writers present the unmissable exhibitions taking place this quarter.

1.

70 w w w.ar t c ol l e c t or.n e t .au

 1. // Ka-ryn Taylor, Observers
Gaze, 2017. Cast acrylic,
42 x 48 x 2.5cm.

2. // Ka-ryn Taylor, Platonics of

a Solid V, 2017. Cast acrylic,
pvc, 42 x 48 x 2.5cm.

3. // Ka-ryn Taylor, Euclids

Transit, 2017. Cast acrylic,
63 x 86 x 65cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND ANNA
PAPPAS GALLERY, MELBOURNE.

Ka-ryn Taylor
Implicate Order
Anna Pappas Gallery, Melbourne
4 October - 26 October, 2017

Intrigued by the abstract nature of reality

explored in mathematics and quantum physics,
New Zealand artist Ka-ryn Taylor creates works
2. which reflect the curious behaviours of particles
in an aesthetic language. These are works which
glow; structures which shift with the body, which
shimmer, refract, capture and cast light.
Titled after an ontological concept used by
theoretical physicists, Implicate Order gestures
towards the deepest, most fundamental aspects
of reality the tiny yet mighty parts of our
world that are surely there but cannot be seen
by the naked eye. The exhibition itself is a subtle
experiential encounter, a poetic response to the
notion of diffraction, and to the uncertainty
principle to those complex scientific and
philosophic ideas which swirl below everyday
experience, informing our reality but rarely
rendered knowable, let alone visible.
Coming off the back of showing her material
installations in Personal Structures, which ran
concurrently with the Venice Biennale earlier
this year, as well as showing at Art Athena 2017
International Art Fair, Athens, Greece (courtesy
Anna Pappas Gallery, Australia) and in Sydney
Contemporary 2017 (courtesy Sanderson
Contemporary, New Zealand), Taylors latest
explorations will be showing at Anna Pappas
Gallery, Melbourne.
3.
Lucinda Bennett

w w w. ar tcol l e ctor. n e t. au 71
UPFRONT
NOT TO BE MISSED

Jane Burton, Alexi Freeman

and Tessa Blazey
Future Artefacts
Craft Victoria, Watson Place, Melbourne
12 October - 18 November 2017

The project Future Artefacts brings together three

very different artists - Alexi Freeman, Tessa
Blazey and Jane Burton each with their own
distinct visual language, says Karen Woodbury,
director of the eponymous Melbourne space, who
co-curated the show alongside Craft Victoria. The
show will be the first at Craft Victorias new exhi-
bition space in Watson Place, Melbourne.
Seven years ago conceptual designers, Freeman
and Blazey were inspired by their shared love of sci-
ence fiction and geometry. They set out to identify
the human body as their primary site for explo-
ration. In an ambitious undertaking, the artists
created jewelry sculptures by combining ancient
low-tech jewelry processes, such as low cost wax
casting and chainmail construction with contem-
porary manufacturing techniques such as laser cut-
ting. Freeman and Blazey view their collaborative
practice as the crafting of wearable sculptures that
could potentially become artefacts of the future.
In collaboration with the pair, photographer Jane 1.
Burton turned her lens to imagine the moment
that these artefacts are discovered. The resulting
suite of five photographic works are at once gothic,
cinematic, and ethereal. Karen Woodbury says, All
three artists have a firm grounding in fine arts,
having either studied sculpture or printmaking
at art school. It is exciting to see the delineation
between fine art, design and fashion blurred and
reinvented in these works, as each artist brings to
the fore their technical and creative imperatives.
Though each artists practice is distinct, according
to Woodbury, there is also an element of shared
vision that is both instinctual and nuanced.
Woodbury adds that the show will include the
unveiling of new collaborations with sculptor
Kate Rohde and composer Byron Meyer. The
collaborative work of Freeman and Blazey has
been exhibited at a range of public institutions
including the Powerhouse Museum, Craft Victoria
and the National Gallery of Victoria. Burton, too,
has exhibited extensively throughout Australia
and her previous work is represented in major
art collections including the National Gallery of
Australia. Future Artefacts will also exhibit at the
Australian Design Centre, Sydney, 25 January - 27
March 2018.
Ashley Crawford 2.

72 w w w.ar t c ol l e c t or.n e t .au

 1. // Alexi Freeman and Tessa
Blazey, Gown of shadows.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND KAREN
WOODBURY GALLERY, MELBOURNE.

2. // Alexi Freeman and Tessa

Blazey, Gown of shadows 2.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND KAREN
WOODBURY GALLERY, MELBOURNE.

3. // Jane Burton, Future

Artefacts #2, 2017. C-type
photograph, 90 x 59.2cm
(variable).Edition of 3 +1 A/P.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST.

4. // Jane Burton, Future

Artefacts #1 2017. C-type
photograph, 90 x 59.2cm
(variable). Edition of 3 +1 A/P.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST.

3. 4.

w w w. ar tcol l e ctor. n e t. au 73
UPFRONT
NOT TO BE MISSED

1. // Simon Blau, Horse Costume,

2017. Acrylic on board, 122 x 152cm.
2. // Simon Blau, Screen Time, 2017.
Acrylic on board, 76 x 91cm.
3. // Simon Blau, Off Duty Police
Woman, 2017. Acrylic on board,
152 x 137cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND GALLERY 9, SYDNEY.

1.
Simon Blau
Flawed Narratives
Gallery 9, Sydney
25 October 11 November 2017

Recent paintings by Simon Blau are grounded in

a humorous resignation with the more humdrum
aspects of everyday life. Although the dominant
palette of white, blue and cherry red is familiar,
the artist now veers away from abstraction towards
narratives with a symbolic sensibility. In a work
that pinpoints one of the social problems of our
era, Screen Time depicts a figure languishing by a
computer screen. The figure emanates a sequence
of patterned arcs that speak of the immersion of
ones self in technology. Blau treads a line between
the laughable and the sinister in Off Duty Police
Woman. Here, even splats of blood are rendered
with joy. Although the brushstrokes are gestural
and highly visible, these figures are balanced
within geometric compositions that may well
take cues from Sonia Delaunay. A notable feature
of this series is the play with hard-edged white
lines to create an illusion of a diptych. The artist
describes the way these splits refer both to the
problem of picture framing and also impose an
awkwardness on the paintings. This will be the
11th solo exhibition for Blau at Gallery 9, where
the artist has exhibited since 2006.
Jane ONeill 2.

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3.

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UPFRONT
NOT TO BE MISSED

Angela & Hossein Valamanesh

New Works
GAGPROJECTS, Adelaide
29 November 22 December 2017

Though Hossein and Angela Valamanesh are both fascinated with the
natural world the pair is inspired by it in different ways. This exhibition
celebrates their distinctive approach to their respective practices but also
displays their shared vision and aesthetic.
Hossein uses materials often sourced directly from the natural environment
and creates sculptures and installation works that deal with issues surrounding
identity, place and time. Hosseins Iranian heritage is a clear influence on
his work, along with references to the Australian landscape and Indigenous
culture.
The work Takes Two... draws on his 1999 Untitled work made from a lavender
bush from his garden. The lavender branch was lit by an oil lamp which
created a sense of movement and energy. Takes Two... is made from a pair of
Mallee gum branches cast in bronze also has a human like quality to it, it
looks like two figures intertwined.
Angela is particularly fascinated by forms and patterns she observes in 1. // Angela Valamanesh, Insect/Orchid
5, 2017. Ceramic, 27 x 12.5 x 4cm.
nature. She doesnt draw her subject matter directly from the natural world
but rather from already mediated representations from science, in particular 2. // Hossein Valamanesh, Garden &
microscopic imagery. Angela is also fascinated with the documentation of Cosmos #2. Gold leaf, bamboo leaves
on board, 68 x 122cm.
botanists and natural scientists from the past. Through her sculptural forms
she blurs the line between science and art. PHOTO: M KLUVANEK. COURTESY: THE ARTIST

Jane Llewellyn 1. AND GAGPROJECTS, ADELAIDE.

2.

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 1. // Lucy Culliton, Budgies
and kangaroos, 2017. Oil on
canvas, 60 x 60cm.

2. // Lucy Culliton, Sparrows

and japonica, 2017. Oil on
canvas, 110 x 80cm.

3. // Lucy Culliton, Trooper

on Frans rug, 2017. Oil on
canvas, 60 x 60cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND JAN
MURPHY GALLERY, BRISBANE.

1. 2.

Lucy Culliton
Bibbenluke Menagerie
Jan Murphy Gallery, Brisbane
10 October 4 November 2017

If its hanging around the property, shell paint it. Ducks, geese, sheep. Trees, flowers.
Battered old knit toys, iced cakes, cacti, and roosters, as well as decidedly vivid landscapes
in an impressionist style. Lucy Cullitons studio is Bibbenluke Lodge, a 1930s homestead
on the remote Monaro plains in Southeast NSW, and it seems that she rarely wishes to
leave. She famously missed a stunning view of Mt Fuji while busily drawing horses during
a rare flight to Europe. Culliton abandoned graphic design, at the age of 27 and began
studying art at National Art School (formerly East Sydney Tech). Today, her exhibitions
consistently sell out. Culliton is a regular finalist in the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman
Prizes and has won numerous prizes, including the 2006 Portia Geach Memorial Award
for her painting, Self with Friends. Her work is represented in the collections of the National
Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Macquarie Bank and Parliament
House, Canberra. Bibbenluke Menagerie is a compendium of portraits of the extended
family she hosts on her farm.
3. Ashley Crawford

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UPFRONT
NOT TO BE MISSED

1. // Avital Sheffer, Sentinel V, 2017.

Ceramics, 68 x 23 x 15cm.

2. // Avital Sheffer, Argaman II,

2017. Ceramics, 49 x 23 x 13cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND ANTHEA POLSON
ART, GOLD COAST.

Avital Sheffer
The Generous Vessel
Anthea Polson Art, Gold Coast
2-15 December, 2017

Avital Sheffer carries her heritage with both pride

and curiosity. Its not hard to see her Middle Eastern
roots emanating from her elegant and strangely
timeless ceramics. While clearly contemporaneous,
the works also carry the air of having been recently ex-
humed from the desert sands. A year spent travelling
inspired this body of work. In 2016 she was granted
an Australia Council residency in Barcelona and the
artist set out to investigate her personal heritage in
Spain. She had traced her bloodlines back 500 years,
to study the cross-cultural aesthetic in the ceramics
of Al-Andalus and the Mudjar periods and in her
words, to immerse myself in the manifestations
of the Spanish Golden Age where the three great
religions lived together in an amalgam of cultures
and collaborated in the fields of science, philosophy
and the arts. Sheffer then travelled through the
Caribbean and Central America in order to follow
the history and art of the Spanish conquest.
Sheffers work is held in public collections such
as the National Gallery of Australia, Sydney Power-
house, Ateliers dArt de France, Museu del Cntir,
Argentona, Spain, Manly Art Gallery & Museum,
The Jewish Museum of Australia, Regional Galleries
across Australia, as well as Foundations, corporate
and private collections in Australia, USA, The Mid-
dle East and Europe. Ahead of her show at Anthea
Polson Art, director Anthea Polson adds that An
exhibition of Avital Sheffers hand-built ceramic art
resonates the atmosphere of a sacred space. Spot lit,
and standing on their plinths the rotund forms may
be thought of as portals between realms past and
future, temporal and spiritual.
Ashley Crawford 1.

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 2.

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UPFRONT
NOT TO BE MISSED

1.

Alexis Hunter Estate

Alexis Hunter 1948-2014
Trish Clark Gallery, Auckland
6 October 11 November 2017

Sexuality, destruction, rape and voyeurism infused her work

both as a painter and a photographer. Born in Auckland, Alexis
Hunter wasted little time making the shift to London where she
felt the issues that obsessed her would find a far more receptive
audience than that in New Zealand. In 1972 she joined the
Artists Union Womens Workshop in London, alongside such
renowned feminist photographers and filmmakers as Marga-
ret Harrison, Tina Keane and Annabel Nicolson, making a
distinct mark on her adopted landscape with text, photography
and film. This will be the first survey of her work since her death 1. // Alexis Hunter, Object Series,
of motor neurone disease in 2014. For a comparatively short 1974-75. Silver gelatin photograph,
career, Hunter made a remarkable impact, even in the early 1970s 41 x 50cm.
when she was shown at the Hayward, the ICA and the Sydney 2. // Alexis Hunter, Automatic study
Biennale and various European museums. Hunters series The for Muse of War, 1989-90. Oil on
Models Revenge (1974) and Approach to Fear XIII: Pain Destruction canvas, 61 x 50.8cm.
of Cause (1977) remain classics of both her genre and her time. COURTESY: THE ARTIST, THE ESTATE OF ALEXIS
2. Ashley Crawford HUNTER AND TRISH GALLERY, AUCKLAND.

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 The Third Tamworth Textile Triennial
Tamworth Regional Gallery, Tamworth
13 October - 10 December 2017

Tamworth Regional Gallerys renowned Textile Triennial, in its third incarnation

and under the guidance of renowned curator, Glenn Barkley, is aiming to build
on the rich cultural history and reputation that the Tamworth biennials and
triennials have established. Barkley stresses that the event aims to push for-
ward new conversations and create a safe harbour for unsafe discussions.
Indigenous, multi-cultural, environmental and minority groups will, in
this iteration of the Triennial, provide a sense of broader engagement as
the key theme. Bringing it all together is a kind of openness that comes
through exhibiting, talking and creating which can involve both artist
and viewer as equal participants, says Barkley. The making process is
equally as important as the works themselves, and the conversations
while creating and showing create an open house where all ideas and
responses are welcome.
Ashley Crawford
1. // Julia Robinson, Slippery hitch,
2017. Gourds, silk, thread, gold
plated steel and fixings, mixed
media, 100 x 30 x 40cm.

2. // Meredith Woolnough,
The New Neighbours (detail),
2017. Embroidery thread, pins.
Dimensions variable.
COURTESY: THE ARTISTS AND TAMWORTH
REGIONAL GALLERY, TAMWORTH.

1. 2.

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Painting
On
Country
A project by Tjungu Palya Arts at
TARNANTHI: Festival of Contemporary
Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art.

TARNANTHI at the Gallery

13 October 2017
28 January 2018
 Colville Gallery

Chen Ping, The Picnic, 2017. Oil on canvas, 92.5 x 152.5cm.

Chen Ping
The Picnic
24 November 13 December 2017

Also Representing
Mathew Armstrong, Julia Castiglioni-Bradshaw, Jason Cordero, Jane Giblin,
Paul Gundry, Leanne Halls, Colin Langridge, Henrietta Manning, Jerzy Michalski,
Milan Milojevic, Ian Parry, Kate Piekutowski, Effie Pryer, Sweet+Shore, Luke Wagner

91A Salamanca Place, Hobart 7000 Tasmania P +61 362 244 088 M 0419 292 626
Macq1T3, 18 Hunter Street, Hobart 7000 Tasmania
E info@colvillegallery.com.au W colvillegallery.com.au OPENING HOURS 10am to 5pm daily
IF I COULD HAVE

IF I COULD HAVE...
Dr Natasha Cica, director and
CEO of Heide Museum of Modern
Art in Melbourne picks 10 works
that she would buy immediately
if she could.

1. // Maringka Burton Fregon, Green

and Natural Stripes with Emu Feathers
and Crochet, 2017. 20cm diameter x 6cm
height. Tjanpi Desert Weavers,
Alice Springs, $214.50.
1. 2.
2. // Pat Brassington, Succinct, 2016.
Pigment print, edition of 8, 60 x 45cm.
$6,600 (print only), ARC ONE Gallery,
Melbourne.

3. // Leah Fraser, Turn your body to light

shaman (front), 2015. Earthenware,
citrine and apophyllite, 22 x 17 x 19cm.
Arthouse Gallery, $1,600.

4. // Adam Pyett, Dancing lady orchid [1],

2011. Oil on linen, 102 x 86.5cm.
Sophie Gannon Gallery, Melbourne,
$7,500.

5. // Lola Greeno, Green maireener shell

necklace, 2016. 168cm. PHOTO: PETER
WHYTE. Handmark Gallery, Hobart, $8,700.
7.
6. // Michael Zavros, Self portrait as saint
with Sean OPry/Versace, 2015. Archival ink
on Hahnemhle photo rag, 120 x 90cm.
Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane, $9,000.

7. // Annabel Butler, Backyard Brollies, 6.

2017. Oil on board, 13 x 23cm.
Stella Downer Fine Art, Sydney, $700.

8. // Emily Floyd, Puffins with Fish #

Bjrglfur Thor Bjrglfsson and Bjrglfur
Gumundsson, 2017. Wood, two part
epoxy paint (matte black and blue), mild
steel with black oxide coating, 45 x 25
x 35cm each. Edition of 2. PHOTO: ZAN
WIMBERLEY. Anna Schwartz Gallery,
Melbourne, $15,000.

9. // Ivan Gracner, Objekat. Metal

on aluminium, 300 x 200 x 200cm.
TransformArt Gallery, Belgrade,
USD $25,000 (AUD $31, 715).

10. // Luke Wagner, The Last Summer,

Lake Pedder 1972 #4 . Oil and wax on
linen, 122 x 183cm. Colville Gallery, 8.
Hobart, $8,000.

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3. 4. 5.

10.

For weekly
updates on whats
available from
leading Australian
and New Zealand
galleries, subscribe
to Art Collectors
digital newsletter
Whats in the
stockroom?
9.

w w w. ar tcol l e ctor. n e t. au 85
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
PAPUNYA TULA ARTISTS

KATARRA
BUTLER
NAPALTJARRI
SOLO EXHIBITION
4 25 November 2017

Katarra Butler Napaltjarri,

Untitled, 2014. Acrylic on
Belgian linen, 122 x 91cm.

93 James Street New Farm Queensland 4005

M 0400 920 022 T 07 3358 5811 F 07 3358 5813
E suzanne@suzanneoconnell.com
W www.suzanneoconnell.com
Franck Gohier, Fear Art, 2016, screenprint, water-based ink on 290gsm acid-free ivory board. MAGNT Collection. Gift of Franck Gohier, 2017. Image: MAGNT the artist.
ARTISTS
WHAT NOW
WHAT NOW?
Our writers talk to three artists who
MIRA GOJAK
Your wire sculpture configurations possess
what appear to be free form lines yet they are
incredibly sturdy and carefully arranged. There
collectors should know about.
is a sense of weightlessness to them. Recent
pieces have used layers of wool wrapped
around metal, creating a heaviness that
contrasts with earlier work. Is there a common
theme even though these works occupy space
differently?
Some of my recent work uses a continuous line of
wire or steel that meanders in space, its sense of
movement and fluidity obliterating a clear bounded
outline. Now the permeability of the work is more
random and active. Depending on where you stand,
it becomes a negotiation in, around and through,
tangled masses, accumulations and escapes.
Since 2014, you have been undertaking a
PhD at Monash University. Can you tell me
1.
88
about your research and how it ties in with
your practice as a whole?
Ive always been interested in the interplay
between notions of boundaries and boundlessness
in the construction of a sense of self. Often this
presents in my work as a holding pattern of forces,
hesitations and kinetic gestures that trace the bodily
apprehension of the seemingly contradictory idea of
the weight of weightlessness, or as Canadian poet
Anne Carson puts it, as clear as complicated air.
The newer works made while completing my PhD
explore the same themes from the opposite direction.
Intuitive is a word often used to describe your
work and the forms you create are very gestural.
Can you describe the process you undertake to
create a work?
I start by considering an immense space, for example
the blue sky and its associations with the immaterial,
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 1. // Mira Gojak, Clutch, 2017,
Steel and yarn 180 x 170 x 210cm.
Installation with Damiano Bertolli,
Future Eaters, MUMA, Melbourne,
August - September 2017.

2. // Mira Gojak, Black swan, white

swan (triptych), 2017, Felt tip pen,
Texta, gouache and watercolour
on paper, 115 x 240cm. Private
Collection Melbourne.

3. // Mira Gojak, Stops, 2017,

Steel and yarn 140 x 170 x 80cm,
Future Eaters installation at MUMA,
Melbourne, August - September 2017.

2. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND MURRAY WHITE

ROOM, MELBOURNE

the infinite and other aspirational ideas of possibility.

The works then aim to trace how something like
the blue sky could be apprehended in a material
sense as a place. These blue sighs and mutterings,
attempt to index the constant stopping and starting
of ones exertions whether they be pleasurable,
uncertain or pained.
There is something about the gestural that I find
pleasurable to work with. The line drawn on paper
- especially a smooth paper where one can glide
across unhindered at whatever pace, fast or slow,
bold or careful, repetitious or impulsive - has its
own kinetic pleasure, probably more akin to dancing
or what I would imagine conducting a musical
ensemble would be like.

Now your postgrad studies are nearing

completion, what is on the horizon for you?
Im excited to be exhibiting sculptures alongside the
works of Elizabeth Newman at Neon Parc in late
October. Sometime next year there will also be a
solo show of new drawings at Murray White Room.
Hopefully through the process of experimenting and
remaining open to the frisson of chance accidents
and other associations and conversations, my work
will settle into a new constellation thats rich or
insightful enough to lead onto new thinking about the
materials and processes needed for the next work to
be made.
Briony Downes

MIRA GOJAK SHOWS WITH NEON

PARC, MELBOURNE FROM 27 OCTOBER -
16 DECEMBER, 2017. 3.

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ARTISTS
WHAT NOW

ALBERTO GARCIA-ALVAREZ
An immersion in culturally significant periods is
a distinguishing factor in the admirable practice
of Alberto Garcia-Alvarez. Born in Barcelona
in 1928, the artist grew up during the Spanish
Civil War and as a student attended the Llotja
Art School. He later became one of the founders
of the FLAMMA group (1948 - 1953), working
on religious murals and frescoes including the
Saint Sebastian Chapel in Tossa de Mar. Religious
outdoor wall sculpture at the University of
Auckland; Collective Mind encompassed references
to both minimal sculpture and mathematical
structures. Garcia-Alvarez has always maintained
the importance of an uncompromised personal
vision, but over the last five years, there has been a
revival in public interest for his work.
Recent works include an expansive range of highly
gestural large scale paintings, small assemblages and
1. // Alberto Garcia-Alvarez, Crossings, Installation
at Tim Melville Gallery, October 2014.
2. // Alberto Garcia-Alvarez, 1982-35, 1982.
Oil on wood, 70 x 62cm.
3. // Alberto Garcia-Alvarez, 2016-88.6,
2016. Water-based mixed media on canvas,
213 x 173cm. Fletcher Trust Collection.
PHOTO: KALLAN MACLEOD. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND
TIM MELVILLE GALLERY, AUCKLAND

commissions marked a valuable way for the artist
to both immerse himself in traditional painting and
to work within a social space.
In his studio practice, Garcia-Alvarez was
exploring tendencies towards abstraction. During
the counterculture period of the early sixties,
he moved to the United States to teach at the
University of California at Berkeley where he
remained until 1971. Religious commissions during
this time included the Portland Church and Saint
Joachim Catholic Church in Madera. But the artist
continued to follow tendencies in abstraction too,
exhibiting with minimalists Frank Stella and Brice
Marden and staging solo exhibitions at San Jos
Art Centre and San Francisco Museum of Modern
Art. Upon moving to Auckland, New Zealand in
1972, he commenced a career in academia where
he became a well-respected mentor for many New
Zealand artists including Stephen Bambury and
Judy Millar. In 1980 he completed the permanent
geometric sculptures. Like Constructivist imagery, the
assemblages bear the traces of religious iconography
that is reduced to a series of lines. In 2015, Robert
Leonard curated the Crossings series at Wellingtons
City Gallery. And earlier this year, the Fundacio Vila
Casas in Barcelona mounted a major solo exhibition,
marking six decades since the artists last exhibition
in Spain. Garcia-Alvarez is now preparing for an
exhibition at Tim Melville Gallery, Auckland, opening
31 October. When pressed about plans for the
exhibition, the artist sagely replied, The act of doing
is for me the essence of the work; an intense moment
(hours, days or years) of physical, emotional and
subjective activity. I know what I dont want to accept
in my work, all else is possible.
Jane ONeill
ALBERTO GARCIA-ALVAREZ HOWS AT TIM
MELVILLE GALLERY, AUCKLAND FROM 31
OCTOBER 25 NOVEMBER 2017. 2.

1.

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ARTISTS
WHAT NOW
CAMERON ROBBINS
Some artists use paintbrushes, some use
photographic emulsion and others use spray
cans. Cameron Robbins uses the wind. Robbins
is fascinated by nature in all its permutations. I
first met the artist in 2003 and even by then his
strange, spindly, spinning metal structures were
popping up on rooftops and across landscapes
around the country. Architects in particular were
enamored with his arcane practice, which I had
first seen installed on the roof of Daryl Jacksons
architecture firm in Melbournes CBD. These
werent static aesthetic objects, they were machines
often designed for drawing and activated purely by
the whims of the weather.
Soon after meeting him, I travelled with Robbins
on an artists journey to the highlands of Victorias
Falls Creek in 2006. Robbins would arise early
and disappear into the mountains to construct odd
structures that would get to work for him as he
roamed. The results, captured by the thermals, were
delicate and poetic and oddly mysterious.
Robbins career trajectory began normally enough.
He completed his Bachelor of Arts, specialising in
sculpture, in 1985. But then, like the breeze, he
seemed to drift always creating and producing, but
never quite settling.
That would seem to have changed come 2016.
Robbins was curated by Nicole Durling and Olivier
Varenne for a major showing at the Museum of Old
and New Art (MONA) in Hobart. Titled Field Lines,
it presented the saga of Robbins practice, which
1.
92
had over the years grown to include sound and 1. // Cameron Robbins, Mt Jim Magnetic
Anomaly, Loops, 2011. Giclee or Type-C
video, photography, installation and sculpture, all still
photograph, on rag paper edition of 5 +1
connected to the natural world. Robbins also for the A/P Printed at 120 x 80cm.
first time committed to a commercial gallery, MARS,
2. // Cameron Robbins, Wind Section
in the Melbourne suburb of Windsor, where Field Instrumental, 6 - 15 October 2014, NW
Lines will be reinterpreted this year and where the Passage, 2013. Wind drawing, duration
rooftop already graces one of his manic works. 9 days pigment ink on paper 503.5 x 75
MONA was an ideal site for Robbins. His work cm. PHOTO: Rmi Chauvin
has always referred to the environment in one 3. // Cameron Robbins, Anemograph,
form or another. MONAs founder, David Walsh, Crux, 2015, Giclee or Type-C photograph,
meanwhile has referred to his museum eventually on rag paper edition of 5 + 1 A/P Printed
at 160 x 100cm.
being subsumed by the waters of Hobarts River
Derwent. Utilising the extremes of humble pencil, COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND MUSEUM OF OLD AND
NEW ART (MONA), HOBART
high-end hydraulics and the potent power of
the tides, Robbins illustrated the inevitability of
Walshs dire prediction with both technological and
aesthetic grace.
I guess Im trying to connect to landscape, and
to the greater dynamic of the whole climate system;
I GUESS IM TRYING TO
how patterns move through a particular location,
Robbins says. To me thats the most direct way to
CONNECT TO LANDSCAPE,
access the greater energies and forces around us.
Spanning three decades and revealing dramatic
AND TO THE GREATER
shifts in media and approach, Field Lines unveils an
artist whose relevance, for better or worse, could not
DYNAMIC OF THE WHOLE
be more timely. CLIMATE SYSTEM; HOW
Ashley Crawford
PATTERNS MOVE THROUGH
CAMERON ROBBINS: FIELD LINES, MARS
GALLERY, MELBOURNE WILL SHOW FROM A PARTICULAR LOCATION.
21 OCTOBER 18 NOVEMBER. CAMERON ROBBINS
2.
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w w w. ar tcol l e ctor. n e t. au 93
 TOM ALBERTS

CHARLES NODRUM GALLERY 23 November - 9 December

www.charlesnodrumgallery.com.au (03) 9427 0140
267 Church Street Richmond Victoria 3121

MARCUS BEILBY STEWART MACFARLANE

ARTISTS
WHAT NEXT

WHAT NEXT
Sammy Preston takes a look at three artists who collectors should keep their eye on.

Why pay attention? Derek Jungarrayi Thompson. The pairs

Pepai Jangala Carroll is a part of the
Ernabella Arts cohort. Situated in the
remote far north west of South Australia,
the celebrated centre is the oldest
continuously running Indigenous art centre
in the country. While Carroll was raised in
Haasts Bluff in the Northern Territory, his
connection to both Ernabella and to his
homeland is profound and this is where
his enchanted, minimalist ceramics and
paintings are positioned.
In 2014, Carroll was a finalist in the
Shepparton Art Museum Indigenous
Ceramic Art Award. The artist was
included in Magic Object: Adelaide
Biennial of Australian Art in 2016, and
was also a finalist in the 2016 and 2017
Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Art Awards. This year, Carroll had
his first solo show in Europe, at Aboriginal
Signature in Brussels.
pilgrimage will be the inspiration for Mark
and Memory, at the TARNANTHI festival at
the Art Gallery of South Australia.
The artist says
I will paint, as I have always done, my
fathers Country. It is my tjukurpa, my
memories, my Country.
You can see it at
TARNANTHI at the Art Gallery of South
Australia from 13 October 2017 until
28 Jan 2018. His solo exhibition
Ngayulu anu ngayuku mamaku ngurakutu
(I went home to my fathers country) will
be on show at Hugo Michell Gallery until
21 October, 2017.
2.

What do they do?

Carroll joined the Ernabella Arts in
2009 prior to that he worked doing
various maintenance jobs as a carpenter,
and then later as a constable within the
Ernabella community. Now though, he has
a foot in both the painting and ceramic
studios, where he produces canvases and
stoneware vessels with vivid markings and
energised, organic colour tones.

Whats it about?
Carrolls most recent ceramic and painting
practice resonates in the sacred sites
and dunes and trees of his birthplace a
landscape rich with history and legend;
somewhere he calls his fathers Country.
This year, he returned to this place
between Kintore in the Northern Territory
and Kiwirrkurra in Western Australia,
alongside fellow Ernabella ceramicist 1.

96 w w w.ar t c ol l e c t or.n e t .au

 1. // Pepai Jangala Carroll, Walungurru,
2017. Acrylic on linen, 100 x 150cm.
2. // Pepai Jangala Carroll, Yumari (711
17), 2017. Stoneware, 44.5 x 36 x 36cm.
3. // Pepai Jangala Carroll, Ininti, 2017.
Acrylic on linen, 200 x 220cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST, ERNABELLA ARTS, ALICE
SPRINGS AND HUGO MICHELL GALLERY, ADELAIDE.

3.

w w w. ar tcol l e ctor. n e t. au 97
ARTISTS
WHAT NEXT
ASHLEIGH GARWOOD
Why pay attention?
Sydney-based artist and photographer Ashleigh
Garwood began 2017 with a residency at the University
of Idaho in the Astrophysics Department, deciphering
astrophotography, and the myriad scientific lenses
used to determine the colour and composition of the
universe beyond our sightradio and gravitational
waves, weather patterns, and mapping interferences,
for example.
These composite dimensions and systems of
information beyond regular vision are what interests
Garwood, who is also currently completing an honours
year in photography at the University of Technology,
Sydney.
What do they do?
To construct her images, Garwood blends a great
variety of processesengaging in a number of dark
room and digital techniques to produce densely
layered, otherworldly shots. What continues to spur
her interest in photography is the ability to experiment
with the expectations and control the conventions of the
medium.
1.
98
Whats it about?
Garwoods practice bends the structure and widens
the scope of the visual world. Layers of information
are added, stripped away, and re added. And what is
revealed is the potent power of photography to create
and manipulate our own perception. The title of her
upcoming show MASSING, borrows from architectural
vernaculara way in which to describe how a buildings
form, shape, and size may be perceived. Here, Garwoods
alien landscapes reference the accumulation and erosion
of time and meaning within each image.
The artist says
Photography has such a significant connection to a truth- 1. // Ashleigh Garwood, Retaining
claim, but at the same time images are so fragmented Structure #1, 2017. Inkjet print,
and manipulated. That is the space of photography that 120 x 95 unframed. Edition of 3 + 2AP.
I find really interesting; that you can objectively know a 2. // Ashleigh Garwood, FORM#1,
photographic work isnt a depiction of a reality, but at the 2017. Silver gelatin print, 60.5 x
same time it provides a space for reflecting on that. 50cm unframed. Edition of 3 + 2AP.
3. // Ashleigh Garwood, Land3_Editor,
You can see it at 2017. Inkjet print, 152 x 127cm
Garwoods next show, MASSING will be at May Space in unframed. Edition of 3 + 2AP.
Sydney from 10 October to 4 November 2017. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND MAY SPACE, SYDNEY.
2.
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 3.

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ARTISTS
WHAT NEXT

JOHN A DOUGLAS
Why pay attention?
Interdisciplinary artist John A Douglas has
entered into a new and exciting chapter of his
practice. Hes just been awarded the inaugural
Create NSW Artists with Disability Fellowship,
and for Douglas what began as an artistic
exploration into, and meditation on, the throws
of his own devastating chronic illness, has
become a complex flight into the realm of life
and death, science, medicine, humanity, and
history.
Dantes Inferno is a loose structural template for
the nine video loops in Circles of Fire (Variations).
Desolate sequences were shot on location in the
Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan and Spotted
Lake in Canada, to track the dark transition
between near death and healing.
The artist says
These works are about my own inner world the
emotional, psychological landscape. Because
what do you do? I could have got someone to
shoot my surgery but I guess I didnt want it to
be too literal.
You can see it at
A solo exhibition titled The Nine Circles will be at
Chalk Horse gallery in Sydney from 30 November
until 23 December, 2017.

What do they do?

Douglas powerful 2011 and 2013 live
performance pieces Body Fluid I (After
NJP) and Body Fluid II (Redux) were a
groundbreaking dive into Douglas grueling
lived experience of life support. The 10-
hour durational performance set traced his
monotonous plug in and plug out daily dialysis,
but dressed the medical process in a sort of
science fiction narrative, inspired by Nicolas
Roegs The Man Who Fell to Earth.
Now, following the ordeal of kidney transplant
surgery, Douglas is mining his nightmarish
experience in a similar cinematic fashion,
drawing in and collaborating across disciplines:
performance, costume and textile design, sound
composition, and light.

Whats it about?
The Circles of Fire series charts Douglas mid-
surgery near death experience. Mythology
and cinema become a part of the narrative 1.

2.

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 1. // John A Douglas in collaboration with
Nadege Desgenetez and the ANU School
of Art, The Recipient, 2017. Pigment
print, 105 x 70cm. Edition 1 of 5.

2. // John A Douglas, Circles of Fire

(variations), 2017. Synchronised two
channel HD 1080p video with sound.
Duration: 23 minutes.

3. // John A Douglas, The Vascular

Surgeon, 2017. Pigment print, 85 x
65cm. Edition 1 of 5.
PHOTO: JOHN A DOUGLAS. MODEL: CELESTE ALDAHN.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND CHALK HORSE GALLERY,
SYDNEY.

3.

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 Willy Muntjantji Martin, Wanampi tjukurpa (Water Snake Dreaming), acrylic on canvas, 150 x 150cm

A BO RI G I N A L & PAC I F I C A R T I N A S S O C I AT I O N W I T H
M I M I L I M A K U A R T S, S O U T H AU S T R A L I A P R E S E N T S

Nganampa Manta Lipiwanu Our Expansive Land

26 October 18 November 2017

1/24 Wellington Street, Waterloo NSW 2017 +61 2 9699 2211

Aboriginal & Pacific Art info@aboriginalpacificart.com.au www.aboriginalpacificart.com.au
The 2018 Anne & Gordon Samstag
International Visual Art Scholarships

The University of South Australia congratulates

our 2018 Samstag Scholars
Julian Day (NSW) and Sasha Grbich (SA)

unisa.edu.au/samstag

Julian Day, White Noise, 2016

installation view, NEW16, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. Photography by Matthew Stanton.
Alicia Frankovich
Matthew Allen
GLOBAL
We present artists in the collections
of our readers who are currently
receiving critical acclaim on
the world stage.

Justine Varga
Michael Cook
Tracey Moffatt 105
ARTISTS
GLOBAL

ALICIA FRANKOVICH
Born: 1980

New Zealand-born Alicia Frankovich, is one of

the many New Zealand success-stories, that as
Australians, we might like to claim as our own.
Currently based in Berlin, the artist is well-known
for her wide and experimental scope in performance,
video and sculpture.
Frankovich has marked her career through
maintaining a balance of both local and international 1.
opportunities. Most recently she has performed for
the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. While closer
to home, in 2016 the artist was included in the
TarraWarra Biennale: Endless Circulation, curated by
Helen Hughes and Victoria Lynn at TarraWarra
Museum of Art, Victoria. Also in 2016, Frankovich
was a resident at ISCP, The International Studio
and Curatorial Program in Brooklyn, New York.
While she was there, she performed with senior, and
well-respected performance artist Tehching Hsieh.
Other residencies she has participated in include
AIR Antwerpen, Belgium, The Firestation, Dublin
and Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne. The
artist stresses the importance of these experiences,
"Residencies are a time where you create networks
between yourself and different parts of the world.
In particular, the bonds that you form with other
artists can be very strong. You can also meet a myriad
of curators and produce works in another light. All
of these things make you grow as an artist. Some of
the experiences you share on a residency can carry
with you for a very long time."
Conceptually, Frankovich is interested in delving
deep into critical considerations about movement,
and how certain sensibilities or material engagements
might pertain towards a language within the wider
framework of performance.
2.
Tess Maunder

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 1 & 2. // Alicia Frankovich, outside
before beyond, 2017. Two-channel
video installation, duration 11:14
min, HD, colour, sound, string
curtains, metal bar 535 x 300cm
per screen (Two screens). Installation
view: Installation view, Exhibition
Duration 13:59 min, Kunstverein
fr die Rheinlande und Westfalen,
Dsseldorf 2017
3. // Alicia Frankovich, Even the
Jellyfish, its perfect, 2017. Perspex
sphere, metal, chalk, programmed
light, 70 x 70 x 192cm. Installation
view, exhibition Duration 13:59 min,
Kunstverein fr die Rheinlande und
Westfalen, Dsseldorf 2017.
PHOTO: KATJA ILLNER. COURTESY THE ARTIST AND
STARKWHITE, AUCKLAND.

CONCEPTUALLY,
FRANKOVICH IS
INTERESTED IN DELVING
DEEP INTO CRITICAL
CONSIDERATIONS ABOUT
MOVEMENT, AND HOW
CERTAIN SENSIBILITIES
OR MATERIAL
ENGAGEMENTS MIGHT
PERTAIN TOWARDS A
LANGUAGE WITHIN THE
WIDER FRAMEWORK OF
3.
PERFORMANCE.
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ARTISTS
GLOBAL
1. // Matthew Allen, Black Sea Cycle,
2017. Polished graphite on linen,
20 x 12cm each (4 works).
2. // Matthew Allen, Spectral Variation
7, 2016. Acrylic, oil and resin on
paper, 100 x 66cm.
3. // Matthew Allen, Untitled II, 2017.
Polished graphite on linen, 20 x 12cm.
4. // Matthew Allen, Untitled X, 2017.
Polished graphite on linen, 29 x 21cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND SOPHIE GANNON GALLERY,
MELBOURNE.
THE MOVE HAS PROVED A PRODUCTIVE ONE FOR ALLEN WITH A
LITANY OF SOLO AND GROUP SHOWS SLATED FOR 2017-18.
1.
108
MATTHEW ALLEN
Born: 1981
For many artists, the logistics of international exhibition
are at best costly and difficult, and at worst prohibitive.
Freight expenses, insurance, travel, accommodation and
tax costs mount up quickly. So, when opportunity started
to knock, abstractionist Matthew Allen decided to take
matters into his own hands, and relocate to Amsterdam,
seeking to expand his practice unencumbered by the
logistical issues so many Antipodean artists face as they
look to Europe or America.
The move has proved a productive one for Allen, with a
litany of solo and group shows slated for 2017-18, includ-
ing YIA Paris and a group show titled Lo sguardo di Narciso
(The gaze of Narcissus, which also features Australians
Jonny Niesche and John Nicholson), both with The Flat
Gallery (Milan), and a two-handed show at Neon Heater
gallery (Ohio) with Melbourne-based Becc Orszg explor-
ing the pairs radically different yet strangely affinitive
approaches to drawing, for starters. The artist also shows
with Sullivan+Strumpf, Singapore from 14 October until
5 November, 2017 and with Sophie Gannon Gallery,
Melbourne in April next year.
I have found the scene in Amsterdam to be very
welcoming, Allen says. It is a small tightly-knit scene,
but the galleries are very internationally focused, at-
tending fairs, organising artist exchanges with other
international galleries. In March 2018, Allen will hold
his first European commercial solo show with Cinnna-
mon Gallery, Rotterdam, a young gallery with a strong
program and solid reputation at home and abroad.
These opportunities and the move have provided Allen
with the drive he needs to continue expanding his prac-
tice, both in terms of audiences and form, which has seen
him pushing the limits of his materials. I am working
with a technique of burnishing and polishing layers of
graphite powder on linen, he says, which results in
a darkly mirror-like, gestural surface, that while being
reflective still shows the traces of its handcrafted process.
Kate Britton
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 3.

2. 4.

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ARTISTS
GLOBAL
TRACEY MOFFATT
Born: 1960
This year, Tracey Moffatt represented Australia at the
57th Venice Biennale. On view until 26 November, 2017
Moffatts exhibition is named My Horizon, and it comprises
two new series of large-scale photographs, Body Remembers
and Passage, and two new video works, Vigil and The White
Ghost Sailed In. The exhibition is curated by Natalie King,
and is commissioned by Naomi Milgrom AO.
Moffatt speaks about the concepts behind her newly
commissioned work, and how it connects to an international
audience:
I wanted the 40s-era, film noir images to read as being of
the past, but the storyline speaks about what is happening
in the world today, with asylum seekers crossing borders,
1.
110
Moffatt has said. Passage is a story as old as time itself.
People throughout history and across cultures have always
escaped across borders to seek new lives.
Moffatt first gained international critical reception when
her short film Night Cries: A Rural Tragedy was selected for the
1990 Cannes Film Festival. Her first feature film, beDevil, was
also selected for Cannes in 1993. In 1997, she was invited
to exhibit in the Aperto section of the Venice Biennale. A
major exhibition of Moffatts work Tracey Moffatt: Free-
Falling was later held at the Dia Center for the Arts in New
York in 199798. Following this Moffatt has continued a
rigorous practice at both a local and international level.
Tess Maunder
1. // Tracey Moffatt, Mother and
Baby, from the series Passage,
2017. C Type photograph on gloss
paper, 105.5 x 156cm.
2. // Tracey Moffatt, Touch from
the series Body Remembers,
2017. Digital pigment print on rag
paper, 162 x 244cm.
3. // Tracey Moffatt, Spirit House
from the series Body Remembers,
2017. Digital pigment print on rag
paper, 162 x 244cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST, ROSLYN OXLEY9 GALLERY,
SYDNEY AND TYLER ROLLINS FINE ART, NEW YORK
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 "PASSAGE IS A STORY AS OLD AS TIME
ITSELF. PEOPLE THROUGHOUT HISTORY AND
ACROSS CULTURES HAVE ALWAYS ESCAPED
ACROSS BORDERS TO SEEK NEW LIVES."
2. TRACEY MOFFATT

3.

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ARTISTS
GLOBAL
MICHAEL COOK
Born: 1968
Brisbane-based artist of Bidjara heritage Michael
Cook credits a particular body of work with
garnering his ever-increasing global audience.
Having found success at home, including in the
7th Asia Pacific Triennial and 19th Biennale of
Sydney, he didnt feel his work had impacted in
the way he hoped overseas. It had interest, he
says of the major exhibition Indigenous Australia:
Enduring Civilisation at the British Museum, but
from expats, not from the English, which was sort
of surprising to me. People did not know much
about Australias colonial history, even in the UK.
Immediately, Cooks politically charged imagery
about the legacy of colonialism for Aboriginal
Australians was stripped of some of the power for
which it had gained acclaim in Australia.
1.
112
Then the artist presented Mother at Art Basel
Hong Kong in 2016 with This Is No Fantasy +
Dianne Tanzer Gallery, Melbourne. The series is
made up of photographic vignettes depicting a
lone woman, variously seen with empty prams,
abandoned play equipment, unused tricycles. With
this series, Cook seemed to have found the right
blend of specific cultural and historical content in
this case that the Stolen Generations and universal
resonance, that of adoption, of being apart from
family. It was a particularly personal work for Cook,
who was adopted and raised by a white family. It
was the first time Id shown work overseas where
people hadnt asked me about Australian history,
Cook says. It resonated with a lot of people no
matter what country theyre from. I realised that
all these people were relating to it, people saw it
from their own perspective. That was my first clue I
was getting through to an international audience.
Since finding this acclaim abroad, Cook has gone
from strength to strength. He hopes his next body
of work, an ambitious film project that riffs on 60s
sci-fi aesthetics, alien invasion and UFOs to speak
to the experience of first contact for Aboriginal
Australians, will find an international audience.
With shows in Paris and Art Basel Hong Kong
in 2018, things are looking promising, but Cook
nonetheless remains focused on his roots. Its
nice to think your work will be seen overseas, but
as long as you have local support you can keep
going, he says.
Kate Britton
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 I REALISED THAT ALL THESE PEOPLE
WERE RELATING TO IT, PEOPLE SAW IT
1. // Michael Cook, Majority Rule
FROM THEIR OWN PERSPECTIVE. THAT WAS
- Tunnel, 2014. Inkjet print on
cotton rag, 140 x 200cm.
2. // Michael Cook, Object - Vase,
MY FIRST CLUE I WAS GETTING THROUGH
2015. Inkjet print on cotton rag
140 x 200cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND THIS IS NO FANTASY +
TO AN INTERNATIONAL AUDIENCE.
DIANNE TANZER GALLERY MELBOURNE.+ MICHAEL COOK

2.

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ARTISTS
GLOBAL

JUSTINE VARGA
Born: 1984

Sydney artist Justine Varga recently found her-

self at the centre of an international controversy
following her win of the 2017 Olive Cotton pho-
tographic portrait prize for her image Maternal
Line, which depicted her grandmother. The image
was produced on photographic paper using what
judge Dr Shaune Lakin refers to as complex
photographic darkroom processes. Despite this,
the win attracted criticism from some corners
(all male, Varga notes) for being made without a
camera, and depicting her grandmother through
her spit and marks made on the paper, rather than
a traditional portrait image. Its a story that has
travelled the world, with articles published in
the UK, US, Canada, Russia, China, Poland, the
Philippines, the Netherlands, Spain, Greece and
the list goes on, says Varga.
Much of the critique emerged following an
article in the Sydney Morning Herald. It spiraled
from there, says Varga. [People] felt threatened
by an artist who did not use their pictorial lan-
guage and who dared to reimagine what a pho-
tographic portrait might be. For Varga and her
many supporters, the portrait is a feminist take
on the form, expanding the notion of how we
conceive of portraiture. My grandmother is here
manifest within and as the photograph. There is
no separation between her and the photographic
object. It is a portrait, but not a simple one, not
simply a likeness of a single person. The work
is more an evocation of a relationship between
people, between two women, of our collaboration,
of an exchange between us.
The idea that a person can be seen and under-
stood not through their individuality but through
the ways in which they relate and share with others
(as in the intergenerational exchange that created
the image) is not an unfamiliar one in much fem-
inist, queer, and post-colonial thinking (beyond
hetero-patriarchal systems of representation).
Likewise, in creating the portrait with and not
of her grandmother, Varga employed a relational
and participatory ethic that defied the scrutiny
of womens bodies so often at play in more tra-
ditional photographic portraiture. Despite the
1. well-established and critically robust methods

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 1. // Justine Varga, Masseuse
from Photogenic Drawing,
2017. C type photograph,
175 x 121.8cm, edition of 5.
2. // Justine Varga, Droit
from Photogenic Drawing,
2017, C type photograph,
165.4 x 121.6cm, edition of 5.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND HUGO
2.
MICHELL GALLERY, ADELAIDE.

w w w. ar tcol l e ctor. n e t. au 115

ARTISTS
GLOBAL

JUSTINE VARGA (CONTINUED)

3. // Justine Varga, Maternal

Line from Photogenic Drawing,
2017. C type photograph,
157 x 122cm, edition of 5.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND HUGO
MICHELL GALLERY, ADELAIDE.

employed by Varga, and her long practice of ma-

terial experimentation, Maternal Line sparked a
debate that continues to resonate around the
world. Thankfully for Varga, who avoids social
media, the attention has not been unilaterally
aggressive.
Amidst the furor that erupted, there have
also been some wonderfully considered and
articulate responses, Varga says. The ontol-
ogy and politics of Maternal Line have been
discussed in lecture theatres across Australia
and globally. It seems one of the ultimate
upshots of the Olive Cotton affair is likely to
be an expanded platform for Varga and her
contemporaries. It is wonderful that con-
temporary Australian photography is being
discussed critically within an international
context, she says of the experience. Recently
returned from an Australia Council residency
in London, she says the city feels like a second
3.
artistic home and that she received a lot of sup-
port from international colleagues for Maternal
Line. Things dont appear to be slowing down
for Varga. In addition to three simultaneous
recent solo exhibitions at the National Art AMIDST THE FUROR T HAT ERUPTED, THERE HAVE ALSO BEEN SOME
School, Australian Centre for Photography
and Sydney Contemporary, a group show and WONDERFULLY CONSIDERED AND ARTICULATE RESPONSES THE
two prizes, Varga has received a commission
to create a large-scale installation in the foyer
ONTOLOGY AND POLITICS OF M ATERNAL LINE H AVE B EEN DISCUSSED
of the new Foster + Partners Duo building in
Central Park Sydney.
IN LECTURE THEATRES ACROSS AUSTRALIA AND GLOBALLY.
Kate Britton J U S T I N E VA R G A

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 NAT S I A A
TELSTRA BARK
PAINTING AWARD
Nyapanyapa Yunupinu,
Lines. Earth pigments
on Stringybark. 211 x
115cm.

TELSTRA GENERAL
PAINTING AWARD
Matjangka (Nyukana) Norris,
Ngura Pilti. Synthetic polymer
paint on linen, 150 x 198cm. TELSTRA ART AWARD
Anwar Young, Unrupa Rhonda
Dick and Frank Young, Kulata
Tjuta - Wati kulunypa tjukurpa
(Many spears - Young fella story).
Digital print, wood, kangaroo
tendon, kiti (natural glue) and
37 spears. Digitial print: 148 x
176cm. Spears: 280 x 2 x 2cm.

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 PICK CROP OF
THE
Our writers present their highlights
TELSTRA WORKS ON
PAPER AWARD
from this years National Aboriginal
Torres Strait Islander Art Awards. Robert Fielding, Milkali Kutju One
blood. Synthetic polymer paint and ink
on burnt and pierced paper, 153.5 x
140.5cm.
GUNYBI GANAMBARR
TIMOTHY COOK
PEDRO WONAEAMIRRI
ALEC BAKER
DAVID FRANK
T I G E R Y A LT A N G K I
PENNY EVANS
WARRABA WEATHERALL

ALL ARTIST PORTRAITS AND IMAGES

COURTESY: THE ARTISTS AND THE 34TH
TELSTRA NATSIAA AND MUSEUM AND ART
GALLERY NORTHERN TERRITORY, DARWIN.

TELSTRA
EMERGING
ARTIST AWARD
Betty Muffler, Ngangkari Ngura (Healing Country).
Synthetic polymer paint on linen, 166 x 242.5cm.
WANDJUK MARIKA MEMORIAL 3D AWARD
Shirley Macnamara,
Nyurruga Muulawaddi.
Aged spinifex,
18 x 40 x 32cm.

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ARTISTS
NATSIAA
GUNYBI
Gunybi Ganambarr is one of the most popular Yolnu
artists of the past decade who, while adhering to tradition,
has boldly experimented with unorthodox materials and
techniques. He was born in 1973 and worked for a dozen
years as a builder and only in 2002 started carving in the
context of the Buku-Larrngay Mulka Art Centre. In the
following years, he pursued radical experimentation with
carved double-sided barks, heavily sculpted poles, incised
barks, sculptures inserted into poles as well as carving
into discarded industrial rubber belts. At a time when
many were speaking of the decline of Yolnu traditional
bark painting, Ganambarr emerged as an adventurous
and provocative artist whose work did not appear to
violate tradition.
As an artist, Ganambarr has swept some of the major
awards, including the $50,000 West Australian Indigenous
Art Award and the Queensland Art Gallerys Xstrata
Emerging Indigenous Artist Award. He has been featured
in numerous biennale and triennial exhibitions, including
the 17th Biennale of Sydney (2010), and National Indigenous
120
GANAMBARR
Art Triennial NGA (2012), and is a regular finalist in the
NATSIAA awards. His work is well represented in public
art collections throughout Australia and is included in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
His Buyku in this years NATSIAA relates to the Yolngu
use of the hollow pole as an ossuary or bone container
erected for a dead kinsman, sometimes up to a decade
after their death. The designs on these hollow coffins
relate to the clan markings of the deceased. Ganambarr
has allowed the woods natural shape to dictate the form
within, which he has then articulated with ochres and
earth pigments. The organic sculptural appearance of the
work is enhanced with the optical vibrancy of the surface
design. It is a gentle and memorable piece that invites the
eye to circumnavigate the sculpture.
Sasha Grishin
// Gunybi Ganambarr, Buyku. Earth pigments on
stringybark hollow pole, 163 x 22 x 25cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND THE 34TH TELSTRA NATSIAA, DARWIN.
w w w.ar t c ol l e c t or.n e t .au
 When you encounter a painting by Timothy Cook, it is a
TIMOTHY memorable experience with a striking simplicity, directness
and a sense of completeness within itself, in the same way
that we could speak of a Mark Rothko or a Rover Thomas.
COOK Cook is a Tiwi artist who was born in 1958 on Melville
Island and has remained there working at Milikapiti, where he
is connected to the Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association. His
imagery draws on circles, crosses and simple concentric designs
associated with the imagery of the Kulama (yam ceremony),
Pukumani (funeral ceremony) and stories of Purukapali, one
of the great mythological Tiwi ancestral figures. These are the
designs that are also encountered on tungas, the practical
everyday stringy bark bags. All of the designs go back to body
painting, but in Timothy Cooks art they are given licence to
grow and develop without ever departing from their ceremonial
purposes. The use of natural crushed ochres gives the surfaces
of his paintings a wonderful textural quality, a tactility that
is enhanced on close viewing of the work.
w w w. ar tcol l e ctor. n e t. au
Cook over the past 20 years has had considerable success
in exhibitions and awards winning the NATSIAA in 2012,
(also a NATSIAA finalist in 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010
2011) and numerous other awards. He has been included
in prestigious curated exhibitions and is included in
numerous public collections.
The painting Tiwi Jamutakari, Kumunupunari, Tiyari,
literally brings together the three main Tiwi seasons,
Jamutakari (the wet season), Kumunupunari (the dry
season) and Tiyari (September to November, a season of hot
weather and high humidity). The seasons are gathered in
concentric bands leading to a dark centre with vivid white
dots. We descend into this visual vortex while exploring
a dynamic and expanding universe.
Sasha Grishin
// Timothy Cook, Tiwi Jamutakari, Kumunupunari,
Tiyari. Natural ochres on linen, 152.5 x 200cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND THE 34TH TELSTRA NATSIAA, DARWIN.
121
ARTISTS
NATSIAA

PEDRO
WONAEAMIRRI
Still only a young man in his early 40s, Pedro
Wonaeamirri has been painting at the Jilamara
Arts and Crafts at Milikapiti on Melville Island
since 1991, when he was seventeen-years-old. He
worked alongside other noted Tiwi artists, such as
Kutuwulumi Purawarrumpatu and Taracarijimo
Freda Warlapinni, and became a spokesperson
for his people. He is also an artist and dancer,
attaining both a national and international
reputation. He is represented in many national
and international public art collections and his
work played a significant role at Defying Empire,
the third National Indigenous Art Triennial,
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, in 2017.
He has been a finalist at the NATSIAA awards in
2009 and 2012 as well as this year.
Wonaeamirri consciously works within the
Tiwi tradition employing body designs, which
he explains are an extension of ornate pukumani
ceremonial body designs that are found on
Pukumani funerary poles, Yimawilini bark
baskets and associated ritual objects made for
the Pukumani ceremony. There is a rhythmic,
performative aspect to his art with the designs
sung into being. He collects traditional natural
ochres from his country, grinds them himself, and
employs the kayimwagakimi (the traditional Tiwi
iron-wood comb), with a strong field of colour
that is then systematically covered with white
dots applied in neat geometric rows. He paints
on canvas, paper, bark and ironwood poles and is
also an accomplished printmaker who has worked
with the Australian Print Workshop in Melbourne.
Wonaeamirris Mulipinni Amintiya Pwoja
diptych with its body design drawings on paper
at this years NATSIAA is striking in its scale,
presence and the absolute confidence of touch. It
is work which is remarkable, direct and possesses
a mesmerising power.
Sasha Grishin
// Pedro Wonaeamirri, Mulipinni Amintiya Pwoja.
Natural ochres on paper, 120 x 62 x 6cm (2 pieces).
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND THE 34TH TELSTRA NATSIAA, DARWIN.

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 Alec Bakers Maralinga story is a potent memorial to the
ALEC sustained devastation of the country and people of the Maralinga
Tjarutja Lands in the far west of South Australia. More than
60 years ago the first British atomic bomb tests performed
BAKER in Maralinga exposed more than 1,200 Anangu (Aboriginal
people) to radiation, resulting in premature death, diarrhoea,
vomiting, skin rashes, blindness, birth abnormalities and long-
term illnesses including cancer and lung disease. Of his work the
Yankunytjatjara artist states This is my story about Maralinga.
Bakers ink drawing reveals a heightened sensitivity that
surpasses his paintings for which he is better known. The fragility
of line-work is powerful and evokes an enduring sense of grief
for the past, present and emerging. The senior desert mans
brush traces around mushroom clouds that morph into black-
mist tears and crystallize into blue-green atomic glass. Hills
adorned with trees appear like tombstones. The land is sterile
contaminated and generations are affected. Baker says, Its
a sad story, but its important to keep talking about that story
so we dont forget and so it never happens again.
w w w. ar tcol l e ctor. n e t. au
Baker has exhibited in the United States, Hong Kong and
Germany, and nationally in major exhibitions such as the Songlines
Project at the South Australian Museum in 2014, the Art Gallery
of South Australias TARNANTHI: Festival of Contemporary
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art in 2015, and Nganampa
Kililpil: our stars at the Hazelhurst Regional Gallery in 2016. He
has been finalist for numerous awards including the Adelaide
Perry Prize for Drawing, the 33rd Telstra National Aboriginal
and Torres Strait islander Art Award and The 38th Alice Prize:
National Contemporary Art Award. Bakers work is held in the
Araluen Art Collection, Art Gallery of South Australia, Museum
and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Flinders University
Art Museum and Artbank. The artist is represented by Iwantja
Arts, Indulkana, in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara
Lands and Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne.
Nic Brown
// Alec Baker, Maralinga Story. Ink and gouache on paper
99 x 140cm ink and gouache on paper, 99 x 140cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND THE 34TH TELSTRA NATSIAA, DARWIN.
123
ARTISTS
NATSIAA

David Franks figurative paintings are narrative driven Gallery in Melbourne, and in the same year his inclusion

DAVID and created from a blend of observation, memory and

imagination. Opal miners, shortlisted for this years
34th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art
in We are in wonder LAND: new experimental art from Central
Australia at UNSW Galleries, which included a residency
at Cicada Press at UNSW Art & Design, Sydney, Franks

FRANK Awards, demonstrates a recent shift in subject matter,

from memories of Franks time employed with the South
Australian Police to commentary on opal mining at Coober
Pedy and its impact on the health of the land and people.
Coober Pedy, the opal capital of the world and its alien
landscape of mine shafts and mullock mounds, is a small
town about three hours drive south-east of the artists home
Indulkana in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara
(APY) Lands, in the far north of South Australia. In Franks
painting the excavated landscape is cloaked in white paint
and punctuated with repeated figures dressed in rock
dust-coloured uniforms and wearing fossicking packs and
safety hats. Dream-like, the figures are chasing rainbows:
elusive psychedelic stones of fortune, just out of reach.
Since the artists debut solo exhibition in 2015, David
Frank: Nganana Wararakatinyi We are Jumping, at Alcaston
career has seen a series of successes. This year he was
finalist for the prestigious Sir John Sulman Prize and the
Hadleys Art Prize. In 2016 he was winner of The Kings
School Annual Art Prize and the Central Land Council
Delegates Choice Award for the inaugural Vincent Lingiari
Art Award, and was also a finalist for the 33rd Telstra
National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards
and the 64th Blake Prize. Franks work is held in Artbank
and private collections, and he is represented by Iwantja
Arts, Indulkana, in the APY Lands and Alcaston Gallery,
Melbourne.
Nic Brown
// David Frank, Opal Miners. Synthetic polymer paint
on linen, 112 x 168cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND THE
34TH TELSTRA NATSIAA, DARWIN.

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 TIGER YALTANGKI
In his fifth consecutive year as a finalist in the National Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Tiger Yaltangkis large-
scale painting Malpa wiru (good friends), reveals his mastery of
controlled chaos. The artist presents a mash-up of Aboriginal
and popular culture. His work celebrates rock music and science
fiction whilst paying homage to his Anangu culture and community
life in his home Indulkana, located in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara
Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in the far north of South Australia.
Hybrid creatures created from a medley of self-portrait, Mamu
(Pitjantjatjara spirit being), television characters from Dr Who
and The Mighty Boosh, and rock and roll stars from iconic bands
including AC/DC, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd seem to sing,
dance and strut across Yaltangkis canvas-stage, while disembodied
hands wave and clap in time. The motley figures are set against
a relatively subdued backdrop of Ngura (Country), featuring the
Apu Hills and nearby trees and waterholes that are depicted with
a pastel desert-palette of pinks, oranges and yellows.
Yaltangkis practice is gaining increasing critical and commercial
attention nationally. Earlier this year his work was presented in the
w w w. ar tcol l e ctor. n e t. au
inaugural exhibition The National: New Australian Art, a collaboration
between the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Museum of
Contemporary Art and Carriageworks. He recently featured in two
major survey exhibitions at the Art Gallery of South Australia, the
2016 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Magic Object and Tarnanthi:
Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art in
2015. Yaltangkis paintings are held in numerous public collections
including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Museum and Art
Gallery of the Northern Territory, Berndt Museum, Parliament
House Art Collection, RMIT University Art Collection, Western
Sydney University Art Collection and Artbank. Yaltangki is
represented by Iwantja Arts, Indulkana in the APY Lands and
Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, have added the artist to their highly
regarded stable.
Nic Brown
// Tiger Yalangki, Malpa Wiru (Good friends).
Synthetic polymer paint on linen, 196 x 242cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND THE 34TH TELSTRA NATSIAA, DARWIN.
125
ARTISTS
NATSIAA
PENNY EVANS
It is pride that informs Penny Evans wall-based sculpture
Matriline Yinarr Old girls of the south east. She is a Gamilaraay/
Gomeroi woman resident in Lismore, and recalls that this
sculpture was driven, initially, by anger. I was responding to
appropriation of our Indigenous design work and particularly
the diamond, which is a powerful symbol for my people. I was
reminded of a story about Major Nunn, who came into the
Hunter Valley and Gamilaroi country. They came over the hill
and saw fires burning and the sound of possum skin drums.
They saw more than 500 Kamilaroi people with the women
standing in front, holding carved shields.
Each of the ten ceramic masks that make up this work
feature diamond shapes, asserting the inner power and
resurgence, in the last twenty years, of cultural identity in
New South Wales. The symbols are Evans interpretation of
nearby Kamilaroi carvings. As a group, these masks in shades
of black and grey exude quiet power and presence, hung on a
126
black wall with hair and headdress-like extensions made from
a variety of natural materials. They each feature an aspect of
the diamond design, and their arrangement also forms three
diamonds. Evanss conceptual interests (as a ceramicist and a
carver) are highlighted in this work. She said, The diamond
represents putting to rest our dead, and is also dissected and
emerges as a butterfly, symbolising rebirth and freedom.
Other references within their rounded shape include cultural
fecundity and are hybrid shapes of both Dhinawan (emu)
eggs and Waraba (turtle) shells. A clear feminine sensibility is
not betrayed by an appearance of fierce strength and power.
Louise Martin-Chew
// Penny Evans, Matriline Yinarr Old girls of the south
east. Ceramics, raffia, wire, polypropylene, plastic, bamboo,
180 x 200 x 16 x 10 cm (10 pieces). COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND
THE 34TH TELSTRA NATSIAA, DARWIN.
w w w.ar t c ol l e c t or.n e t .au
 WARRABA
WEATHERALL
Warraba Weatherall has had some 15 years
making art on the street. As a result of this
artistic history, maturity and his familial legacy
as a Kamilaroi man, the art that has made since
completing his study at Queensland College of
Art in 2016 is gritty and political, conceptually
rich yet poignant in the questions it poses. His
painting, Last Rites, depicts an incised log with
the carved section bearing the number 92, a
reference to recommendation no. 92 from the
Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in
Custody, which suggested that incarceration
should be a measure of last resort. Trapped
within a bell cage which drips with paint,
the imprisoned log is separated by a line of
police tape from the viewer, and appears over
a Kamilaroi patterned background.
Weatheralls painting speaks to the way in
which incarceration impacts on Aboriginal
people, and marks the thirtieth year since the
Royal Commission was established to examine
reasons for the high rate of deaths in custody.
The painting is technically powerful, and brings
to mind his first solo exhibition Institutionalies,
seen at Brisbanes MetroArts (9 August 26
August 2017). This ambitious sculptural
installation, which occupied the entire gallery,
placed human-scale logs in cages, with the
carved incisions that mark trees during funerary
rites in Kamilaroi country. The painting Last
Rites was a study for this larger sculptural body
of work one that Weatherall concedes was
emotionally exhausting to complete and
indicts the abuse of Indigenous people.
Louise Martin-Chew

// Warraba Weatherall, Last rites. Synthetic polymer

paint on canvas, 150 x 100cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST
AND THE 34TH TELSTRA NATSIAA, DARWIN.

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ARTISTS
PROFILE

THROWING Lauded as one of New Zealands finest

NEW LIGHT contemporary photographers, Anne Noble

interrogates our complex relationship with the
natural world. Briony Downes looks at the artist's
exacting practice. Portrait by Russell Kleyn.

T
he photographic series, created over years of pro-
longed study and observation of a specific subject,
has always been a mainstay for New Zealand-based
photographer Anne Noble. Originally becoming
involved with photography during her time as a
student at Elam School of Fine Arts in the early
1980s, Noble is known for producing exception-
ally large bodies of work, particularly her focused
collections documenting aspects of New Zealands
Whanganui River, Antarctica, and the honey bee.
I like the preoccupation of working slowly on projects for
long periods of time, Noble says. I have just completed a
whole series of works about bees.
It began by chance in my own backyard - I keep bees. My love
of beekeeping just found its way into my work as I observed
bees and came to understand a little of the complexity of the
hive as a living system.
There is no doubt Noble is fond of bees and the natural
world. At Sydney Contemporary 2017, Auckland gallery Two
Rooms exhibited photographs from her 2015/2016 Dead Bee
Portrait series. Devoid of definitive colour and seeped in shadow,
the portraits deconstructed the romanticised image of bees
by focusing on the tiny details and textures of their anatomy
spiky antenna, furry thorax, disembodied wings. Nobles
images carry both a majestic beauty and a brooding melancholy.
The process Noble undertakes to photograph these tiny
subjects is meticulous and hauntingly reverent. Using a re-
purposed electron microscope she learnt how to use in the
1. laboratory of French physicist Dr Jean Pierre Martin, himself

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w w w. ar tcol l e ctor. n e t. au 129
ARTISTS
PROFILE

a keen beekeeper, the bees are first coated in a

thin layer of gold. This allows the electron beam
to trace and photograph each bee, a process that
I AM ALWAYS
accentuates elements standard photography does
not. As a result, works like Dead Bee Portrait #11,
2015 possess a ghostly perspective. The bodies
FASCINATED BY
of the bees appear dusty and flightless with legs
curled and void of movement, like antique spec-
HOW MUCH WE
imens found in an attic; a chilling precursor to
the precarious position bees currently hold within
the natural world.
NEED IMAGES AND
The Dead Bee Portrait series stems from Nobles
long-term interest in nature and how we perceive METAPHOR TO
it. Before the bees, Noble produced the Antarctica
series, a varied sequence of images analysing the
distinctly masculine mythology of the uncharted
INTERROGATE AND
landscape. One of these sequences was Piss Poles,
2008, a collection of images where Noble doc-
umented the locations of flagged areas visitors
COMMUNICATE THOSE
were permitted to urinate in the snow. A contrast
to the grand yet common images of ice cliffs and
DEEP FEELINGS
emperor penguins we regularly associate with
Antarctica, the circular rings of yellow pee connect
the landscape to simpler realities - basic bodily
OF CONNECTION
functions, colour and light.
My project was to problematize how it is
TO PLACE. ANNE NOBLE

we know and understand a place through the

photographic image, and how much images of
Antarctica are influenced by narratives of her-
oism and adventure, Noble explains. I took
a feminist perspective to try and see the place
differently. I didnt want to heroicize Antarctica
as the last wilderness on earth, I found it much
more interesting to look at failures of human
perception and cognition when encountering it,
and to record the appearance of human action in
and on the environment. I am always fascinated
by how much we need images and metaphor to
interrogate and communicate those deep feelings
of connection to place.
Since 2002, Noble has completed three visits
to Antarctica and continues to travel widely and
often. Much of her research into bees was nurtured
during a Fulbright Senior Scholar fellowship at
Chicagos Columbia College and throughout her
career she has been the recipient of numerous
awards for her photography. In 2003, she received
a New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to
photography, in 2009 she was awarded an Arts
Foundation of New Zealand Laureate Award
2.
and in 2015, she became the 31st recipient of
the coveted Higashikawa Overseas Photographer
Award. Noble is currently Distinguished Profes-
sor of Fine Arts (photography) at New Zealands
Massey University.
Nobles latest work remains focused on bees
and she will be exhibiting a series of light filled
photograms of broken wings alongside a suite of
pristinely white three-dimensional printed bees
in Umbra, her solo exhibition at Two Rooms. Her
photographs are also part of the Melbourne Festival
in An Unorthodox Flow of Images, an exhibition of
still and moving images curated by Naomi Cass
and Pippa Milne for the Centre For Contem-
porary Photography. Hinting at new directions,
in early 2018 Noble will be an artist-in-residence
with the Bundanon Trust where she plans to de-
velop new work reflecting on human and insect
architecture.
ANNE NOBLES EXHIBITION, UMBRA, WILL
BE HELD AT TWO ROOMS GALLERY, AUCKLAND
UNTIL 21 OCTOBER 2017.

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 1. // Anne Noble, Eidolon #3, Umbra installation.
Three-dimensional printed acrylic bee on shelf,
20 x 20 x 20cm.
2. // Anne Noble, Bruissement:Bee Wing
Photograms #11, 2017. Pigment prints on
Canson Baryta Paper, 115 x 320cm, Edition of 10.
3. // Anne Noble, Bruissement: Bee Wing
Photograms #13, 2017. Pigment prints on Canson
Baryta Paper, 111.5 x 320cm, Edition of 10.
3. 4.
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4. // Anne Noble, Bruissement: Bee Wing
Photograms #18, 2017. Pigment prints on
Canson Baryta Paper, 111.5 x 320cm, Edition
of 10.
4. // Anne Noble, Bruissement: Bee Wing
Photograms #9, 2017. Pigment prints on Canson
Baryta Paper, 1115 x 3200mm, Edition of 10.
COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND TWO ROOMS GALLERY, AUCKLAND.
PHOTO: SAM HARTNETT.
5.
131
ARTISTS
PROFILE

PRISCILLA PITTS
Freelance curator and writer
IM DRAWN TIME AND AGAIN TO THE BEAUTY OF NOBLES
Wellington
IMAGES: THE LUMINOUS SIMPLICITY OF IN THE PRESENCE
I first became aware of Anne Nobles work in
the early 1980s. Two very different groups of OF ANGELS (1988), THE SENSUOUS DEPTH AND SHIMMER OF
work from this period initiated twin trajectories
that have continued to this day. One was her
Night Hawk series, with its tender and playful
HER WHANGANUI RIVER IMAGES, THE EXQUISITE FRAGILITY
eroticism; the other her first photo essay on
the Whanganui river (The Wanganui, 1980-82a
OF BEES WINGS IN HER RECENT WORKS. PRISCILLA PITTS

second essay followed in 1990-91). Noble has

continued to work largely with the photo essay
format, which allows her to research and explore 6. // Anne Noble, Umbra installation,
Two Rooms Gallery, September 2017.
a given subject in depth. PHOTO CREDIT: SAM HARTNETT. COURTESY OF THE
Im drawn time and again to the beauty of ARTIST AND TWO ROOMS, AUCKLAND.
Nobles images: the luminous simplicity of In
the Presence of Angels (1988), the sensuous depth
and shimmer of her Whanganui River images,
the exquisite fragility of bees wings in her recent
works. The personal nature of much of her work
also engages usbe it through her Catholic
upbringing, the elegiac images responding to
the death of her sister Debbie, or the large-format
close-ups of her daughter Rubys mouth taped
3.
shut, spewing gum or stained with luridly-
coloured sweets.
Concern for the natural environment has
informed Nobles work from the start. Since 2002
she has focused her camera on Antarctica, that
vast wilderness whose susceptibility to human
activity has potentially devastating implications
for our planet. Most recently she has turned her
attention to another worldwide issue, the decline
of the European honeybee.
Aspects of Nobles work are in the traditions
of documentary and landscape photography. Yet,
even here, she brings a very particular intimacy
to the work. In My Fathers Garden (2001), a
profoundly moving response to the death of
her father, takes the documentary photo essay
to a place few would dare to venture, and makes
it intensely personal. Her series Ice Blink (2002-
8) juxtaposes images taken in Antarctica with
photographs of Antarctic museum displays in
a deliberate challenge to the way we visualise,
imagine and represent a place most of us will
never see.
Paris Lettau

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JENNY TODD
Director
Two Rooms Gallery, Auckland

Two Rooms Gallery began representing Anne Noble
in 2004, when she produced her Rubys Room series.
Jenny Todd describes initially being drawn to No-
bles methodological approach to photography and
distinct photographic aesthetic. She fully immersed
herself in researching and literally living alongside her
subjects, Todd says, while also producing a formal
portrait study with a strangely visceral dreamlike
narrative, utilising amplified colours and surfaces
that gave the works an abstract quality.
Todd notes that Nobles current exhibition, Umbra,
currently on display at Two Rooms Gallery, was ini-
tiated by Annes passion for beekeeping and explores
the plight of the honeybee and its significance in our
ecosystem. As part of the project, Noble worked
alongside academics and scientists in Chicago to pro-
duce The Bee Photogram Series and the Dead Bee Portraits,
which Todd describes as a thorough investigation
into the potential loss of bee colonies worldwide;
a haunting and poetic homage to the honeybee.
Two Rooms Gallery has a reputation for work-
ing with the most significant New Zealand pho-
tographers. For Todd, Nobles practice is at the
forefront of this. She is one of New Zealands
most acclaimed photographers and photography
academics, and has been the recipient of many
international awards and fellowships.
While a doyen amongst photographers, Nobles
work also has a wide appeal with international col-
lectors and public institutions. Todd believes this
is because Nobles exceptional photographic talent
is combined with an ability to develop narratives
that resonate with both curators and collectors. By
being so immersed in her subjects and presenting
such a level of research, she draws in the viewer and
shares these stories, while being able to partake in a
broader debate that she presents around our planets
biological systems and environmental issues.
Paris Lettau

BY BEING SO IMMERSED IN HER SUBJECTS AND PRESENTING SUCH

A LEVEL OF RESEARCH, SHE DRAWS IN THE VIEWER AND SHARES THESE
STORIES, WHILE BEING ABLE TO PARTAKE IN A BROADER DEBATE JENNY TODD

w w w. ar tcol l e ctor. n e t. au 133

ARTISTS
PROFILE

AN
UPRISING
Charged with themes of politics, gender, sex and
more, Ramesh Mario Nithiyendrans visceral
sculptures are growing in parallel to his ascent
to art stardom. Alison Kubler talks to the artist.
Portrait by Jacquie Manning.

amesh Mario Nithiyendran has arguably the best

head of hair in the art world, and the regimen to
prove it (for the record, it involves a lot of Aesop),
plus he is not too shabby in the sartorial stakes either.
He is an unabashed fan of Jeremy Scott for Moschino,
whose designs he regularly wears. He is not just,
however, a snappy dresser but one of the most exciting
and engaging artists practicing in Australia at present,
on the radar of curators, critics and art collectors.
His work, audacious and difficult to categorise (much
like the artist), is a riot of influences, themes and aesthetics, a chaotic
mlange that magically holds together. So what exactly does he
make? I asked him to describe his practice for the uninitiated.
I would start with some key words. These would be, gender,
sex, politics, power, religion and figurative sculpture. Although, I
would say that the work is a reflection of the world I live in and the
things that interest me in our current climate. In this respect, its
no surprise that self-portraiture and self-representation seem to
feature as both themes and forms throughout my practice. I also
like to think about the ways in which the past, present and future
mash up and will mash up.
His installations and sculptural forms are an exploration of
the idea of ugly art, wildly figurative with their wonky lopsided
clay forms and cartoonish grins, and the tradition of outsider art:
although the work never tips over into mawkishly or deliberately
bad. Rather, Nithiyendrans hedonistic (at times, downright sexy)
sculptural installations transmit a shamanic vibe. Assembled en
masse his sculptures form a tribe of benevolent spirits; false gods
that beg to be worshipped. I defy you to not like them.
Since winning the 2014 NSW Visual Arts Fellowship (Emerging)
just after graduating from UNSW Art & Design in Sydney his career
has been on a stratospheric trajectory. In 2015 he was awarded
the lucrative Sidney Myer Fund Australian Ceramic Art Award at
Shepparton Art Museum and in 2016 was included in Magic Object,
Lisa Slades Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, the Kuandu Biennale

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w w w. ar tcol l e ctor. n e t. au 135
ARTISTS
PROFILE

in Taipei, Taiwan and produced a solo exhibition, Mud Men,

at the National Gallery of Australia. He is not resting on
his long tresses, however. The artist will have his first solo
exhibition with Sullivan+Strumpf in October 2017. Ursula
Sullivan says, As soon as I saw Rameshs work I thought,
This is incredible. Such a glorious generous mess of ideas
and attitude and awesomeness. I must own one and he needs
to be with us. She adds, Ramesh marks a new generation
of artists that have a very different foundation to many
others, post-millennial perhaps, but ultimately his work
multitasks so many different and often contradictory ideas.
He is ambitious and adventurous, he thinks very broadly
and doesnt see the point of blindly following tradition he
is the new art superstar.
In early 2018 he will exhibit at the 2018 Dhaka Art Summit
in Bangladesh, a project that is co-commissioned by Sydneys
Artspace and the Dhaka Art Summit, and also supported by
the Australia Council. He describes it as his most ambitious
project to date. Ill be flirting with the moving image as a
key component of this work.
One of the most compelling aspects of his work is the
exploration of clay and ceramics, which could be said
to be enjoying a moment in contemporary practice. But
Nithiyendran brings to his work something bigger than
a trend. I think ceramics as a medium is being fetishized.
Projections of authenticity in terms of the handmade seem
to be dominating a lot of the current discourse around
the material and commentary surrounding its use within
contemporary art contexts I actually have no real love
for clay or anything romantic like that. Id be unsurprised
if I spend a few years not even touching it. Although, what
keeps me coming back is fairly base. I enjoy working with
it. The various stages of transformation are engaging. Its
also fairly unpredictable, which keeps the studio process
uncomfortable. If things are feeling safe and formulaic in
the studio, I get pretty bored.
This tension between form and no form is perhaps key
to what makes Nithiyendrans work sing. His works have a
shifting and changing quality that flirts with scale; his project
oscillates between the grandiose (though never bellicose) and
the intimate. He says, I like to make work of all sizes. Im
stimulated by the different bodily/corporeal relationships
and formal considerations one must consider when working
on different physical planes. However, my passion lies with
monumental work. It may sound masochistic, old-fashioned
or bizarrely masculine, but I feel some kind of pull to making
work that makes my body sore. Its a crazy ride ahead.

A SOLO SHOW OF THE ARTISTS WORK ENTITLED

R@MESH WILL SHOW AT SULLIVAN+STRUMPF,
SYDNEY FROM 21 OCTOBER 11 NOVEMBER 2017. 1.

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 HE IS AMBITIOUS AND ADVENTUROUS, HE THINKS VERY
BROADLY AND DOESNT SEE THE POINT OF BLINDLY
FOLLOWING TRADITION HE IS
THE NEW ART SUPERSTAR.
U R S U L A S U L L I VA N

1. // Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran, Head with

many piercings #2, 2017. Earthenware,
glaze, lustre, 101 x 53 x 45cm.

2. // Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran,

3 Legged Deity #1, 2017. Earthenware,
glaze, lustre, bronze, 79 x 40 x 35cm.

COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND SULLIVAN+STRUMPF, SYDNEY

2.

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ARTISTS
PROFILE

URSULA SULLIVAN
Director
Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney

Directors of Sullivan+Strumpf, Ursula

Sullivan and Joanna Strumpf, were introduced
to the work of Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran
by Tony Albert, another of their represented
artists. The first time I saw the work I was blown
away, recalls Sullivan. I was impressed and
confused and delighted and horrified all in
one second. So few artists can draw that out
in me, there was something special going on.
We watched his work develop for a long time,
and then got the opportunity to meet him
at the Adelaide Biennial and we got along so
well! According to Sullivan, there has been
a lot of interest in Nithiyendrans work from
collectors and curators. But she and Strumpf
have been careful to stagger the pricing of the
artists work saying, Ramesh is still young and,
on the international scene, still emerging, so
we must act responsibly regarding prices and
really ensure a slow and steady rise. Indeed, the
artists work appeals to collectors because he
combines traditional techniques, particularly
ceramic sculpture, with contemporary themes
3.
including the impact of the internet on creation
and self perception. She says that collectors
who appreciate Nithiyendrans work love the
unabridged and all-encompassing nature of
his pieces. In 2018, Nithiyendran will exhibit at
the Dhaka Art Summit, a project that has been
co-commissioned by the Dhaka Art Summit
and Sydneys Artspace. Sullivan is excited by
the prospect of Nithiyendrans participation
in the summit, and optimistic at the thought
of Nithiyendrans work being exposed to the
eyes of the worlds best curators and museum
directors.
Amelia Winata 3.

I WAS IMPRESSED AND CONFUSED AND DELIGHTED AND HORRIFIED ALL IN ONE SECOND. SO
FEW ARTISTS CAN DRAW THAT OUT IN ME, THERE WAS SOMETHING S PECIAL GOING ON. WE
WATCHED HIS WORK DEVELOP FOR A LONG TIME, AND THEN GOT THE OPPORTUNITY TO MEET
HIM AT THEA DELAIDEBIENNIAL AND WE GOT ALONG SO WELL! 6.
U R S U L A S U L L I VA N

138 w w w.ar t c ol l e c t or.n e t .au

 3. // Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran,
Creator, 2017. Earthenware, glaze,

BEING IN THE COMPANY OF HIS WORK IS LIKE BEING lustre, 126 x 53 x 42cm.

4. // Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran,

IN HIS COMPANY: YOURE GIVEN LICENCE TO RELAX, Yellow Head, 2017. Earthenware,
glaze, lustre, 68 x 44 x 24cm.

CHALLENGE YOUR IDEAS AND EXPECTATIONS AND COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND
SULLIVAN+STRUMPF, SYDNEY

YOURE INVITED TO LAUGH LOUDLY!

LISA SLADE

LISA SLADE
Assistant Director, Artistic Programs
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran has been

confidently received by so many influential
institutions in such a short amount of time.
But it was as recently as 2014, Nithiyendran
was exhibiting as an emerging artist in the
NSW Visual Arts Fellowship exhibition. This is
where Lisa Slade, who curated Nithiyendrans
work into the 2016 Adelaide Biennial of
Australia Art: Magic Object, first encountered
the artists practice. For an artist as young as
Nithiyendran to have quickly found the level
of success that he has, there must be a certain
cultural poignancy that has struck a chord
with curators and viewers. His works cultural
relevance is probably its cultural irreverence,
says Slade. Being in the company of his work is
like being in his company: youre given licence
to relax, challenge your ideas and expectations
and youre invited to laugh loudly! His
approach is also extremely considered for a
visual artist. Ramesh is a maker but he also
thinks like a curator, says Slade. The audience
experience is always front of mind for him when
he is conceiving his exhibitions. Whether its
plinths or penises (one could argue that they
are related!) he pushes the matter and the
meaning in his installations. Despite ceramic
sculpture being Nithiyendrans predominant
medium, Slade notes that the artist actually
trained as a painter. It is perhaps this formal
education that informs the bright palettes of
his ceramics as well as his regular use of spray
paint, which might be understood as a reaction
to the mediums conservative tradition.
4. Amelia Winata

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ARTISTS
PROFILE
A PRACTICE SHAPED
Louise Martin-Chew looks at how
Teresa Baker channels the feminine
strength of her spirit ancestor.
T
here is intensity in the painting of Te-
resa Baker, a visceral appearance which
draws the eye in and around red and or-
ange shapes, contained and extended by
dotted lines of nuanced yellow, threads
and lines connecting to each other, of-
fering depth, visual nourishment and a
sense of a large narrative within a broad
landscape. She lives in Kanpi, the small
outstation to which her family moved, within the APY
Lands, to be closer to their Country. It is in a remote
part of South Australia, about 20 kilometres south
of the border with the Northern Territory, and sits
at the base of the Mann Ranges. Her paintings are
focussed on the journey of her pre-eminent female
spirit ancestor, Malilu, who is known for strength
and independence. Bakers Wynne Prize entry, Minyma
Malilunya, 2017 depicted the dance of the crippled
Malilu, deserted by her daughters, and her ability to,
nonetheless, gather the bush foods and water she
needed, albeit with the painful dragging of her leg
as she travelled across the landscape.
Teresa Baker is from an artistic family. As a child
she lived in Kanpi with her grandfather, artist Jimmy
Baker, and her grandmother. She remembers him
taking her out to the rock holes as a 12-year-old girl
where he told her the stories at important sites. Later
she lived with her mother, Kay Baker, also an artist,
in Fregon. She moved back to Kanpi after finishing
school, and in 2005 began painting at the Tjungu Palya
art centre. I used to sit next to Jimmy Baker, he was
a good friend, and watch what he did. He showed me
painting stories about emu and his Country. In the
last decade Baker has made significant gains, having
been a finalist in the Telstra Awards in 2013 and 2016,
and the 2017 Wynne Prize. This year she has focussed
on completing work for her solo exhibition at Vivien
Anderson Gallery.
Malilu was known for managing epic conflicts
between the forces of nature, the environment and
140
BY SPIRITS
1.
human behaviour. The artist said, When I paint, in
my heart Im feeling it. Maybe that spirits there, maybe
Malilu is teaching me. I love that Country. When I was
a little girl I just felt the pull, the feeling that I had to
go there. I feel wiru (beautiful) inside that Country.
Baker is not a prolific artist, and is also in demand
with her community relying on her for assistance with
governance issues. She works with her daughters and
other girls for whom she cares, showing them what is
possible with paint at the Tjungu Palya Art Centre.
Manager Liz Bird said, Teresas style has evolved over
the years. The earlier work emulated the way Jimmy
Baker would put down his dots with high contrast,
but she has shifted into more tonal gradients. Of
all of our artists, Teresa has a particular sensibility
for working with colour. The new body of work is a
very confident example of her ability with colour and
composition. She starts anywhere on the canvas and
puts detail around what she has put down at the start
and shifts across the canvas in a very beautiful way.
Vivien Anderson has been exhibiting Baker
since 2013, with this exhibition her second solo.
Anderson said, Some of her earlier work presented
mechanised imagery like plumbing apparatus,
alluding to force under pressure, which is part
of her narrative. Her heroine is the Emu Woman,
from the narrative Malilunya, who shape-shifts
into water and thunders through the subterranean
cave system underneath her Country to avoid
capture by tricky men. Her compositions are so
dynamic, she explores power through paint and
movement.
Last year, Baker was selected for the Australian
Centre for Contemporary Arts Painting. More
Painting, a survey of contemporary Australian work,
which included artists such as Angela Brennan,
Matthys Gerber, Stephen Bram and Vivienne
Binns. Bakers work was hung opposite that of
Karl Wiebke, with three works each. Anderson
said, It was one of the most beautiful spaces,
and Teresa was very pleased and proud to see
her work there. Co-curator of the exhibition,
Hannah Mathews said, Her work has a distinct
position and approach to landscape that is shaped
by her experience and culture as an Indigenous
woman. Sometimes made with other women in
her family, Bakers paintings express an elaborate
relationship to Country, with female perspectives
and songlines. Her landscapes are sometimes
shaped by spirits and other times by machines. The
dynamism captured in her works is compelling.
For Mathews, Bakers palette and composition are
also very powerful. You can get lost in the paint;
her works are vibrant and rich, they generously
welcome you into the stories of her Country.
TERESA BAKER SHOWS AT VIVIEN ANDERSON
GALLERY, MELBOURNE IN ASSOCIATION WITH
TJUNGU PALYA, SOUTH AUSTRALIA FROM
15 NOVEMBER - 9 DECEMBER, 2017.
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ARTISTS
PROFILE
HANNAH MATHEWS
Senior Curator
Monash University Museum of
Art (MUMA), Melbourne
I had the pleasure of encountering Teresa
Bakers work for the first time last year through
my role as Senior Curator at Monash University
Museum of Art (MUMA). One of her paintings
had entered the Monash Collection and I was
absolutely taken with the power of its palette
and composition. There was something so en-
ergetic and affirming about it. Its a quality I
see in many of her works. Bakers paintings
hold a sense of resolution, determination and
admiration for the land and its stories. The
work is also powerfully female. Mathews in-
cluded Teresa in the solo projects Painting. More
Painting at the Australian Centre for Contem-
porary Art (ACCA) and witnessed one couple
returning again and again to stand in front of
Bakers paintings over several hours. They were
held by the painting's energy and its ability to
vibrate through her choice of tonal range and
dot and line work. According to the curator,
Baker is of critical importance as her paintings
depict a relationship to land that is informed
not only by her culture but by her position as
an Indigenous woman. She captures the land
in its beauty but also in its transformation
through dreaming stories (Malilu) and interac-
tions with the man-made. Her paintings seem
to hold the past and future in both hands and
I think this quality sets her work apart from
much landscape painting, Indigenous and non-
Indigenous.
3.
Emma ONeill
HER HEROINE IS THE EMU WOMAN, FROM THE NARRATIVE
MALILUNYA, WHO SHAPE-SHIFTS INTO WATER AND
THUNDERS THROUGH THE SUBTERRANEAN CAVE SYSTEM
UNDERNEATH HER COUNTRY TO AVOID CAPTURE BY TRICKY
MEN. HER COMPOSITIONS ARE SO DYNAMIC, SHE EXPLORES
POWER THROUGH PAINT AND MOVEMENT.
142
1. // Teresa Baker.
2. // Teresa Baker, Minyma Malilunya, 2017.
Synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 150 x 120cm.
3. // Teresa Baker, Minyma Malilunya, 2017
(triptych detail) Synthetic polymer paint on
canvas, 200 x 120cm, 200 x 360cm overall.
4. // Teresa Baker, Minyma Malilunya, 2017.
Synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 300 x 200cm.
Finalist Wynne Prize Art Gallery of NSW, 2017.
PHOTO: SIMON ANDERSON PHOTOGRAPHY. COURTESY OF
THE ARTIST AND VIVIEN ANDERSON GALLERY, MELBOURNE
VIVIEN ANDERSON
Director
VIVIEN ANDERSON GALLERY, Melbourne
In 2011, I exhibited Teresa Baker as part of a larger
group exhibition of Tjungu Palya women artists.
It was apparent then that her compositions were
constructed quite differently from the other artists,
who chose freer use of colour and application of
paint. Teresa works within a one or two colour
range, she engineers her composition to show
the key elements of the narrative. says Vivien
Anderson, director of the eponymous Melbourne
gallery. Anderson was surprised by how confident
first time collectors were at her last solo exhibition
in 2015. That said her supporters are equally split
between experienced private and institutional
collectors who recognise the originality in Teresas
work and newbies, taking their first leap of faith.
The forthcoming solo show at Andersons gallery
will be priced from $5,000 - $25,000. The exhibition
is much anticipated given the artists award as a
finalist in this years Wynne Prize at the Art Gallery
of New South Wales and her participation in Painting
More Painting in 2016 at the Australian Centre for
Contemporary Art (ACCA), which pretty much
cemented the respect she has from mainstream
curators. While Bakers work is already highly
coveted, Anderson believes the artist will continue
on a steady trajectory, At this stage, her output
is enough to assure her participation in major art
prizes and selected commissioned exhibitions and
a solo every two years. Her own self-realisation as
an artist is solid, she feels no pressure, she is sure of
her own accomplishments.
VIVIEN ANDERSON Emma ONeill
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 ARTISTS
PROFILE

Tess Maunder on how Nike Savvas

bends the rules of optical perception.
Portrait by Zan Wimberley.

N
ike Savvas is a senior Australian
artist, based between Sydney and
London. She is well known for her
large-scale, immersive, colourful,
participatory installations that
have been staged both in Austra-
lia and internationally. Recent ca-
reer highlights include her solo
exhibition Rally, at the Art Gallery
of New South Wales, Sydney, in 2014, her solo
Liberty and Anarchy, at Leeds Art Gallery, UK,
from 2012-2013, and her work is included in
collections including Victoria & Albert Museum,
the British Library, the Tate Gallery Library Art
Gallery of New South Wales and Auckland Art
Gallery, among others.
In addition to important museum exhibitions
and collections, Savvas has also produced several
respected public art projects, often site-respon-
sive in nature. Yet, as an artist, she keeps us on
our toes, once we think we know Savvas, she
re-positions herself again as an artist to keep
things fresh and exciting. On this, she says, I
like to surprise people, to be mercurial. I dont
like to be categorised. As soon as people start
deciding what my works about or classifying it,
I will do something completely different to turn
it on its head.
Indeed, Savvas actively employs surprise as
a strategy in her practice. Conceptually, Savvas
positions herself as a democratic artist, because
of her interest in the role of the viewer in her
work. Her upcoming exhibition Living on a Promise
opens at ARC ONE Gallery on the 24 October
this year. This exhibition will focus on the age
of uncertainty, a timely subject. Savvas wishes to
bring attention to the viewers relationship with
perception, and how it might shift and change
in response to an environment. She says, The
show is about the constructive and changing
perceptions of the individual. Its highly optical
and works with colours that play off each other. It

ELEVATED
is extraordinary, what you can produce in the lab
when experimenting, and placing one colour next
to the other, working with all sorts of perceptual

FREQUENCIES
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ARTISTS
PROFILE

1. // Nike Savvas, Living on a Promise (A1), 2017.

Carbon fibre, acrylic paint, aluminium, Editionof 4,
52 x 40.5 x 40.5cm. PHOTO: ZAN WIMBERLEY
2 & 3. // Nike Savvas, Liberty and Anarchy, 2012.
Installation view, Leeds Art Gallery, UK.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND ARC ONE GALLERY, MELBOURNE.

effects. The pieces in the show are deliberately

small in scale but theyre huge in effect because
of the optical play that they create.
The upcoming show at ARC ONE Gallery,
the artist explains, will consist of a number
of standalone works that optically activate the
space within striated lines of vertical colour.
The suite of work builds on the Savvas in-depth
archival research at The Museum of Modern
Art, New York focusing on the historical ex-
hibition famous for its staging of Op Art, The
Responsive Eye held in 1965. The exhibition also
draws from complex mathematical equations,
systems of logic, perception based optics and
colour frequencies. It will be an immersive ex-
perience that seeks to dismantle the perceptual
register of the viewer.
Besides Savvas upcoming ARC ONE exhi-
bition, the practitioner has recently been an-
nounced as a participating artist for the next
Adelaide Biennial Divided Worlds, curated by Erica
Green. The exhibition opens in March 2018 and
features the work of 30 Australian artists such
as Daniel Boyd, Emily Floyd and Lindy Lee,
working across photography, painting, sculp-
ture, installation and the moving image. Beyond
this, I am confident that Savvas will continue to
inspire critical thinking, immersive experiences
and thoughtful engagement all while keeping
us on our toes.

NIKE SAVVAS LIVING ON A PROMISE WILL

EXHIBIT AT ARC ONE GALLERY, MELBOURNE
FROM 24 OCTOBER 25 NOVEMBER, 2017.

SAVVAS WORKS CONVEY

A PLAYFULNESS AND
RADIANCE, MAKING THEM
SIMPLY UPLIFTING AND
JOYFUL TO LIVE WITH.
1.
SUZANNE HAMPEL

146 w w w.ar t c ol l e c t or.n e t .au

 I LIKE TO SURPRISE PEOPLE, TO
BE MERCURIAL. I DONT LIKE TO BE
CATEGORISED. AS SOON AS PEOPLE
START DECIDING WHAT MY WORKS
ABOUT OR CLASSIFYING IT, I WILL DO
SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT
2.
TO TURN IT ON ITS HEAD.NIKE SAVVAS

3.

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ARTISTS
PROFILE
RACHEL KENT
Chief Curator
Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
Rachel Kent first encountered the work of Nike
Savvas in the 1990s, through her exhibitions at
Sydney independent spaces and at Roslyn Oxley9
Gallery in Paddington. She recalls, in particular
her anodised aluminium and styrene installations
from that period, and some of the early X-Ray works.
I have followed Savvas career since and wrote for her
2012 monographic publication Nike Savvas; Full of
Love Full of Wonder by Black Dog Publishing, London.
Savvas work has always been about colour, light
and movement a sense of vibrant opticality and I
find this endlessly compelling, both visually and psy-
chologically. There is a long global history of artists
who have explored the transformative qualities of
colour, and of movement. Through her works, Savvas
combines a strong awareness of art history, as well
as an engagement with popular culture, from street
carnivals to decorations and buntings.
Kent recalls the artists two major commissioned
works at the Art Gallery of NSW in recent years her
vast, room-scale installation of multiple, tiny vibrat-
ing spheres called Atomic: full of love, full of wonder in
4.
148
2005; and recently, her suspended work in the main
entry foyer, called Rally, which comprised around
60,000 sewn strips of coloured bunting, suspended
from the foyer ceiling (2014). I saw both projects
and remember well how visitors responded to them,
with surprise, joy and of course wonder. There was
a real sense of play in these works as well as spatial
awareness and public engagement.
The curator emphasises the artists significance
in the broader Australian cultural landscape,
particularly, in terms of her engagement with
light, colour and kinetic practice, creating gallery
works, museum commissions and large-scale public
installations. As she moves regularly between Sydney
and the UK, where she completed her studies and
exhibits regularly, her reputation extends beyond
local shores and she is part of a wider global dialogue.
To see Australian artists positioned centrally in
this dialogue is very important, and in turn draws
attention to the work of local practitioners by
international curators and museums.
Emma ONeill
SUZANNE HAMPEL
Director
ARC ONE Gallery, Melbourne
The upcoming exhibition at ARC ONE Gallery in
Melbourne will feature, six magical sculptures of
the same dimensions and price. Each work will be
priced at $18,000, says ARC ONE Gallery director
Suzanne Hampel. It has been more than a decade
since Hampel first sighted the work of Nike Savvas
at ACCA in the 2005 show Atomic: Full of Love, Full
of Wonder and found herself mesmerised, Nike
immediately stood out as an artist with an excep-
tional vision and capacity to activate space and
immerse an audience.
Since then, the artists exhibiting career has
developed internationally in tandem with a con-
tinued presence in Australia with numerous sig-
nificant shows in London, Cologne, Dusseldorf
and Amsterdam. Her dynamic installations and
commissions have attracted much local and world-
wide attention. Such commissions include Epic
8000, Nike Town, San Francisco; Rally Art Gallery
of New South Wales; Everlasting, Docklands, Mel-
bourne; Colours are the Country, Macquarie Group,
Sydney; and Reverie, Southbank Centre, London.
The artist has also garnered the Jury Prize (Gold
Medal) at the 11th Triennial of India, Delhi and
various Fellowship Awards. Most recently she has
received a grant to produce a large installation in
the Art Gallery of South Australia for the 2018
Adelaide Biennial.
According to Hampel, Savvas works convey
a playfulness and radiance, making them simply
uplifting and joyful to live with. She employs a
vivid palette and repeated geometric forms in her
practice, which resonates with collectors both
in Australia and abroad who love contemporary
manifestations of colour, light and geometry, either
in spectacular installations or sculptural works.
Emma ONeill
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 SAVVAS WORK HAS ALWAYS BEEN ABOUT COLOUR, LIGHT
4. // Nike Savvas, Liberty and Anarchy, 2012.
Installation view, Leeds Art Gallery, UK. AND MOVEMENT A SENSE OF VIBRANT OPTICALITY
5. // Nike Savvas, Rally, 2014. Plastic bunting,
wire rigging, electric fans, dimensions variable. AND I FIND THIS ENDLESSLY COMPELLING, BOTH
Installation view, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND ARC ONE GALLERY, MELBOURNE.
VISUALLY AND PSYCHOLOGICALLY. RACHEL KENT

5.

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 hobart
77 salamanca place hobart
Michaye Boulter tasmania 7000 australia
t +61 3 6223 7895

29.12.17 29.01.18 handmark.com.au

BRIAN ROBINSON

Brian Robinson, By virtue of this act I hereby take possession of this land. Linocut, 72.3 x 45cm.

115 Hay Street Subiaco WA 6008 +61 8 9388 2899

art@mossensongalleries.com.au www.mossensongalleries.com.au
VICTOR RUBIN

Poesie - Figures of the Field 2017

Opening: November 25, 2017

2 MONCUR STREET WOOLLAHRA NSW 2025 +61 2 9363 5616

www.fmelasgallery.com.au art@fmelasgallery.com.au
30th ANNIVERSARY OF WARLAYIRTI ARTISTS A LEADING ART CENTRE LOCATED IN WIRRIMANU, BALGO, W.A.

Imelda Guguman, Winpurpurla, 2017.

Many of Australia's most acclaimed Indigenous artists come from this region including Sunfly Tjampitjin,
Wimmitji Tjampitjin, Boxer Milner, Eubena Nampitjin and Elizabeth Nyumi. Artists such as Helicopter Tjuungurrayi,
Pauline Sunfly, Mirriam Baadjo and Imelda Gugaman continue this vibrant artistic legacy today.

WARLAYIRTI ARTISTS 0407 1234 78 (08) 9168 8960 PMB 20 BALGO via Halls Creek WA 6770 balgoart.org.au
154 w w w.ar t c ol l e c t or.n e t .au

TRAVERSING
WORLDS
Tracey Clement explores how John Walsh bridges the divide
between the realms of fantasy and reality and of past and present
with compelling verisimilitude. Portrait by Chad Alexander.
w w w. ar tcol l e ctor. n e t. au
ARTISTS
DOSSIER
G
azing at a painting by John Walsh is like teetering
on the edge of an event horizon. Once you are
enveloped in one of the Wellington-based artists
scenes the laws of classical physics no longer
apply. Walsh seems able to conjure up images
from the multiverse, an infinite zone of possibility
in which conventional notions of both space and
time become meaningless.
Take for example his small 2017 painting on
paper, Flying Moa. In this work Walsh pictures a world where
long extinct flightless birds take to the sky. Its a work of pure
fantasy, steeped in myth and magic. Yet, simultaneously, his
streaky turquoise and teal landscape is firmly tethered to the
actual physical presence of the wild weather and dense bush
of New Zealand. It is incontrovertibly a portrait of place, a
picture of reality.
This ability to bridge the divide between two worlds (fact
and fiction, fantasy and reality) with compelling verisimilitude
is Walshs great strength as a painter. It is tempting (if
somewhat simplistic) to attribute this facility to the fact
that Walsh himself comes from two very different cultural
traditions. He is of Maori (Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti) and Irish-
New Zealand decent. Real life, of course, is more complex,
as Walsh explains.
Growing up in my small East Coast community of Uawa
[Tolaga Bay] these influences werent analysed. They were
just there, constant and normal, he says. Those formative
years have never left me. I naturally fell into the Maori arts
movement, it politicised and polarised, but I could never deny
who I was. I was never pure enough to be fully in one camp or
the other. This has had its difficulties and great freedoms.
Born in 1954, Walsh describes himself as one of those
kids who could draw. He enrolled to study art at Ilam in
Christchurch, but didnt complete the course. Art school
wasnt for me, he recalls, I was probably too young. Back
home in Uawa, he gained valuable experience working with
his father painting houses. I learned a lot about how paint
works from those years, he says, brush work, quality, care,
etc. And he taught himself to paint portraits in the style of
the well-known New Zealand painter Charles Frederick
Goldie (1870-1947). Eventually I decided I didnt want
a future of copying, so I experimented until I realised my
sketchy preliminary painting was my thing, he explains. I
was almost 40.
Walshs signature sketchy style reflects his fast-paced
fluid working method. The artist may start with an idea, but
he doesnt use working drawings. Instead, Walsh leaves space
for chance and improvisation. Someone once described it
as jazz painting, he says. We all have our different skills,
experiences and concerns, and the way I work they all find
their way onto the canvas whether theyre there with the initial
idea or not. I might start with an idea, a very loose idea, and
155
ARTISTS
DOSSIER
it evolves with the marks, the colours, composition
and adventure. Its quite a quick process so its all
engrossing.
The paintings themselves may happen fast,
but, as mentioned earlier, the end results seem
to tell stories that defy a linear sense of time. In
Walshs work past, present and future all appear
to hold sway. In State Asset, 2012, he presents a
landscape of vertiginous misty mountain peaks
and roaring waterfalls, primeval and pristine. It
could also be a current advertisement for New
Zealand tourism. After all, purity is the state asset.
But take a closer look and it becomes clear that
the scenic waterfalls are coming from melting
1.
156
glaciers. This painting documents global warm-
ing in action. It is sublime in the true sense of
the word, both terrible and beautiful. Walsh is a
subtle artist with something to say. As he puts it,
Life on earth is becoming critical and everyone
is gradually waking up to this.
In Migrating Koru, 2003, huge dinosaurs with
human heads and tails that resemble the spiral
of an unfurling fern (the koru of the title) stride
across a watery mythic landscape. This painting
captures the fantastical edge that Walsh is so adept
at evoking. Yet here too he speaks to contemporary
reality. I mix old stories, gods and other beings
with current issues, its all seamless and sensible
to me, he says. Cultural difference in this age of
homogenised big business is important. It gives
connection to the other, to hope.
John Walsh says he is storyteller at heart, even
if only to himself. Mine is a particular history
with its own cultural influences, loves and hurts,
he explains, I dont expect viewers to understand
everything I do. But, having said that, he also
acknowledges that art is a unique and powerful
medium for getting a message across. Circum-
stances change, and you either roll with them or
take a stand, he says. Different parts of the brain
are activated when making and viewing art. Painting
is visual communication.
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I NATURALLY FELL INTO THE MAORI ARTS
MOVEMENT, IT POLITICISED AND POLARISED, BUT
I COULD NEVER DENY WHO I WAS. I WAS NEVER
PURE ENOUGH TO BE FULLY IN ONE CAMP OR THE 1. // John Walsh, State Asset, 2012,

OTHER. THIS HAS HAD ITS DIFFICULTIES AND Oil on canvas, 137 x 183 x 3.3cm.
2. // John Walsh, Flying Moa, 2017,
Oil on fortified paper, 35 x 45cm.
GREAT FREEDOMS. JOHN WALSH COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND PAULNACHE, GISBORNE.

2.

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ARTISTS
DOSSIER

MARK HUTCHINS-POND
Contemporary Art Curator
Pa- taka Art + Museum, Porirua City

Since closing the doors of his eponymous Wellington

gallery in 2013, Mark Hutchins-Pond has worked as
Contemporary Art Curator at Pa-taka Art + Museum
in Porirua City, New Zealand. Last year he curated
Matakite, a rich survey of painter John Walshs most
significant works from the decade spanning 2006
to 2016. Hutchins-Pond writes that the exhibition
was titled with the name Ma-ori give to a visionary,
one with second sight who perceives life in trans-
lucent, overlapping layers of time and space. This
feels an appropriate entre into the densely layered
both materially and philosophically paintings
of John Walsh. With their distinctive scrubby
brushwork, aqueous blue-green palette and softly
glowing surfaces, Walshs paintings have a distinctly
ethereal mood. Hutchins-Pond describes the works
as painted dreams which seem to want to recon-
nect with an ancient, less complicated existence, a
time when humans were intrinsically connected to
natural and supernatural forces. In these works, it
is not only the material qualities which render them
dreamlike: as Hutchins-Pond tells us, nothing is
quite as it seems. Walsh presents ideas for viewers to
explore, often working through them on the canvas. 3.
His language is endearing, intriguing, poetic, sensu-
ous and mysterious. Contemporary issues are pre-
sented by ancient beings who come with their own
stories while older issues are presented by sweet
HUTCHINS-POND DESCRIBES THE WORKS AS PAINTED
young lovers. Furthermore, by gesturing towards
both Ma-ori and Irish myths and evoking the sensory DREAMS WHICH SEEM TO WANT TO RECONNECT WITH AN
qualities of the New Zealand landscape, Walshs
mystical vistas manage to speak to a multitude of ANCIENT, LESS COMPLICATED EXISTENCE, A TIME WHEN
viewers; the eerie settings for his densely layered
narratives are usually non-specific yet strangely HUMANS WERE INTRINSICALLY CONNECTED TO NATURAL
familiar.
Lucinda Bennett AND SUPERNATURAL FORCES.
158 w w w.ar t c ol l e c t or.n e t .au
 WALSH HAS CONTINUED TO EXPLORE THE SAME
OR SIMILAR NARRATIVES OF MAORI MYTHOLOGY,
SIGNIFICANT HISTORICAL EVENTS OFTEN CAUGHT
ONLY IN THE VERBAL MAORI HISTORY AND WHAT I
REFER TO AS HIS DREAMTIME PAINTINGS.
3. // John Walsh, First Star, 2017.
Oil on canvas, 155 x 100cm.
4. // John Walsh, Mariner, 2017.
Oil on canvas.
5. // John Walsh, That Guy, 2017.
Oil on canvas.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND GOW
4.
LANGSFORD, AUCKLAND.
5.
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JOHN GOW
JOHN GOW
Director
Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland
I first saw Johns work in a show at the City Gallery,
Wellington called Parihaka. The gallery had reached
out to a cross section of artists to make Parihaka
based paintings. Says John Gow, co-director of
Gow Langsford Gallery, who was stopped in his
tracks at the sight of John Walshs two contributions
to the show. The impact of encountering these
works led me to call Walsh and ask if he would like
representation in Auckland. As a result, we have now
represented John for the past 16 years.
The works in the Parihaka show were of a larger
scale than I had seen before measuring at around
80 x 120 cm. Gow continues. Prior to these, I was
only aware of Walsh working in a small scale. As time
has evolved John has made a series of very major
works some measuring up to 5 metres in length. The
artist has continued to explore the same or similar
narratives of Maori mythology, significant historical
events often caught only in the verbal Maori history
and what I refer to as his dreamtime paintings.
The forthcoming show at Gow Langsford, will
showcase works priced from NZD $7,500 up to
$55,000. Walsh has a wide group of collectors who
support his practice. This along with museums
(particularly Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington)
tends to be his client base. There is usually keen
competition for the key works in his exhibitions. I
know I have my eye on one work in this collection.
Of its appearance on the secondary market, the
director says People seem to hold on to Walshs
work so not a lot hits the secondary market, notes
Gow, however When it does, the works are usually
well supported at auction or sold again by Gow
Langsford Gallery.
Emma ONeill
159
ARTISTS
DOSSIER
MATT NACHE
Director
PAULNACHE, Gisborne
PAULNACHE operates globally out of home
town Gisborne, the heart of the North Islands
East Coast region. Walsh's roots are in Uawa,
Tolaga Bay a small coastal village further up the
coast. The region lies beyond New Zealand's
main arterial roots and maintains its own heart-
beat, mix of modern tribal and bi-culturalisms,
a place where forgotten spirits still move among
communities.
PAULNACHE director Matt Nache had long
admired John Walsh's work when he approached
him after seeing his survey exhibition Flying Solo
at the Dowse Art Museum in 2009. Although
he emerged with a group of contemporary New
Zealand/Maori artists around the turn of this
century, his work always stood alone, says Nache.
Now living in Wellington the artist consistently
returns to exhibit in Gisborne, happy to keep in
touch with his home community and be part of
the PAULNACHE enterprise.
Of his practice Nache says, Walsh is an icon-
6.
160
ic storyteller who paints a soon-to-be forgotten
New Zealand, melding it with the present and an
unknown future folding time into deft brush-
strokes. He has become known for depicting myth-
ical figures in swathes of teal and azure landscapes,
seascapes and dreamscapes that mirror essences
of Aotearoa New Zealand. He incorporates my-
thologies and fables of his dual European, mostly
Irish and Maori heritage and has them articulate
concerns of today."
Though his work is inextricably linked to home,
Nache stresses its universal power. When I took
his work to Hong Kong, it wasnt to carve out a
slice of New Zealand abroad it was to give his
work greater international context. The display
of two 3 metre loose canvases, Pare To My Place
and Marakihau, floated like islands emitting a
gravitational pull amid the international crowd."
In my time I have rarely encountered works
that carry so much emotive power. Those who are
drawn to Walshs art have empathy for place, race
and culture and the collectors who acquire his
work rarely stop at one as each piece adds layers
to an overarching and mysterious narrative that
only the artist knows. Walsh does little to explain
this narrative with words, he stands back, doesn't
give much away and lets the stories unfurl them-
selves giving viewers a chance to see something
all their own. These tales reveal themselves anew
each time we fall into their depths.
It is the combination of this intuitive storytell-
ing with the artists technical prowess that bring
the works to life. I see a current trend
in Australian painting of expressionistic heavily
applied paint, Walshs use of pulled back oils make
his work comparable on some levels to that of
Sidney Nolan.
Nache believes Walshs rise will only continue,
As an artist, he is a sleeping giant or the world
is slowly awakening to him. It is a great honour
to work with him.
Emma ONeill
w w w.ar t c ol l e c t or.n e t .au
WALSH IS AN ICONIC STORYTELLER WHO PAINTS
A FORGOTTEN JURASSIC NEW ZEALAND, MELDING 6. // John Walsh, Pare To My Place,
2017. Oil on canvas, 156 x 308cm,

IT WITH THE PRESENT AND AN UNKNOWN FUTURE Private Collection, New Zealand.

7. // John Walsh, Pare O Tane, 2008.

Oil on board, 90 x 150cm. Private

FOLDING TIME INTO DEFT BRUSHSTROKES. Collection, New Zealand

COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND PAULNACHE, GISBORNE.

M AT T NACHE

7.

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ARTISTS
DOSSIER
TIMELINE
1954 1970s
Born in
Tolaga Bay,
New Zealand
1973-74
Attended University of
Canterbury School of Fine
Arts, Christchurch
1976-78
Produced Goldie-esque
portraits of identities from
Tolaga Bay and East Coast
communities which were
exhibited at the Academy
of Fine Arts Wellington and
the Gisborne Museum and
Arts Centre
1978-80
Produces large scale work
Portrait of Tolaga Bay, a
project initiated by Walsh
and supported by the
Maori and South Paciic
Arts Council, and the
Department of Maori Affairs
1978-80 // Portrait of Uawa 2002 // Kaihautu, 2002.
Tolaga Bay. 1978-80. Oil on Oil on canvas, 140 x 196cm.
ten panels 366 x 1829cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST
COLLECTIONS: New Zealand Post, Auckland The Wallace Arts Trust Collection, Auckland Art Associates Collection, Auckland
1 62
1980s
1983
Commissioned to paint new
works for the meeting house
Rongopai, at Waituhi, Gisborne
1984
Produced new artwork of the
historical and contemporary
community at Tokomaru Bay on
the East Coast of New Zealand
1985
Produced new art work in the
meeting house Waho-Te-Rangi at
Whangara on the East Coast
1986-8
Commissioned by Gisborne
District Council to paint four
murals
1987-89
Took a position teaching at
Tairawhiti Polytechnic in
Gisborne. Was a founding
member of the Gisborne arts
cooperative The Flying Moas
1989
New work commissioned by the
Pathinder International Mural
Project, New York City, and
for the foyer of the Ministry of
Agriculture and Fisheries Head
Ofice, Wellington
2003 // Te Puku o Hauiti,
2003. Oil on board,
145 x 122.5cm.
1990s
1990-1993
Appointed exhibitions oficer
at the Gisborne Museum
and Arts Centre. Regional
representative for the Maori
Artists and Writers collective
Nga Puna Waihanga
1992
Participates in the national
Maori arts survey Taikaka at
the National Art Gallery in
Wellington.
Waiapu Community Arts
Council commissions a
historical painting by Walsh
in Tolaga Bay
1993
Appointed as curator of
contemporary Ma-ori art at
the National Art Gallery,
Wellington (now Museum
of New Zealand Te Papa
Tongarewa)
2005 // Yes, but one at a time
please, and where are the
Aunties, 2005. Oil on board,
89 x 119cm.
2000s
2000
Walsh Childrens book Nanny Mango is published
by Te Papa Press.
Participates in Wananga 2000 group exhibition at
Gisborne Museum and Arts Centre
2001
Begins representation by Gow Langsford Gallery,
Auckland and exhibits every year in either solo or
group shows
Participates in multiple group shows including
Purangiaho: A Survey of Contemporary Maori Art,
Auckland Art Gallery, Te Maunga Taranaki: Views
of the Mountain, The Govett-Brewster Art Gallery,
New Plymouth and Parihaka, the Art of Passive
Resistance City Gallery, Wellington
2002-3
Participates in group exhibition This Other World
at Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt
Solo show at Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland
2003
2006 // Wiremu passes over the
peak of nesting manaia, 2006.
Oil on canvas, 140 x 200.5cm
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND GOW
LANGSFORD GALLERY, AUCKLAND.
w w w.ar t c ol l e c t or.n e t .au
 2005 2010s 2014
Exhibits in a
Travels to Gallipoli alongside artists Stanley Palmer
group exhibition
at Sydneys
2011
Contributes new works to two group exhibitions;
and Michael Shepherd and Australian artists to
produce work for Your Friend the Enemy group
Martin Browne Imagining the Pacific at City Gallery, Wellington exhibition that tours Australia and New Zealand
Contemporary
alongside John
and Between Earth and Sky at Page Blackie
Gallery, Wellington 2015
Pule and Sofia Solo exhibition Gallipoli opens at Aucklands
Tekela-Smith
2012 Gow Langsford Gallery commemorating the
centenary of the World War I Gallipoli campaign
I Cant Stop Loving You solo show at Gow

2006
Langsford Gallery, Auckland
2016
Your Friend the Enemy group show tours
2013 to Pa-taka Art + Museum, Porirua
Exhibits two solo Survey exhibition Matakite at Pa-taka Museum,
shows at Gow Porirua curated by Mark Hutchins-Pond
Langsford Gallery, A Mua - The Future, PAULNACHE, Gisborne
Auckland and Page
Blackie Gallery,
Wellington
John Walsh and John
Pule, PAULNACHE,
Gisborne

2007-8
Residency in Antarctica
Begins representation by Page Blackie
gallery, Wellington and show every year
in either solo or group shows

2008
Collaborates with John Pule to create
a work that is acquired by the Wallace
Arts Trust, Auckland, New Zealand
2017
2009 National Bank, PAULNACHE, Gisborne
Survey exhibition Flying Solo - Paintings by John Walsh, John Walsh, PAULNACHE booth F11, Art Central, Hong Kong
TheNewDowse, Lower Hutt, James Wallace Arts Trust Gallery.
Begins representation by PAULNACHE, Gisborne and shows
every year in either solo or group shows

2008 // John Pule and John Walsh,
Untitled, 2008. Oil and ink on
canvas, 200 x 200cm. Collection of
the Wallace Arts Trust, Auckland,
New Zealand. COURTESY: THE ARTIST
AND PAULNACHE, GISBORNE.
2009 // Marakihau, circa
2007. Oil on canvas,
110 x 240cm. COURTESY:
THE ARTIST AND GOW
LANGSFORD GALLERY, AUCKLAND.
2013 // John Walsh on the cover of
Art New Zealand Magazine.
COURTESY: ART NEW ZEALAND.
// The Devil, Out Recruiting, 2013. Oil
on board, 25.5 x 37.5cm. COURTESY: THE
ARTIST AND GOW LANGSFORD GALLERY, AUCKLAND.
2015 // HMS Queen Elizabeth
firing on turkish positions during
the Dardanelles bombardment,
2017. Oil on board, 90 x 120cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND GOW
LANGSFORD GALLERY, AUCKLAND.
2017 // John Walsh with
PAULNACHE, Art Central
Hong Kong, March 2017.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND
PAULNACHE, GISBORNE.

w w w. ar tcol l e ctor. n e t. au 163

Grace Robinya, North of Twenty Mile, 2017. Acrylic on linen, 660 x 660mm

TANGENTYERE ARTISTS GALLERY

AND STUDIO
R E P R E S E N T I N G A L I C E S P R I N G S TOW N C A M P A RT I S T S

Tangentyere Artists is an Aboriginal owned and run not-for-proit Art Centre

in Alice Springs. We support new, emerging and established artists through our
studio, outreach program and gallery. We also work with Indigenous artists
visiting town from remote communities, offering Aboriginal artists a safe place
where they can sit down to paint.
16 Fogarty Street, Alice Springs NT 0870 08 8951 4232
arts@tangentyere.org.au www.tangentyereartists.org.au
www.facebook.com/tangentyere.artists/
www.instagram.com/tangentyereartists/
Donovan Gilbert, Honey Ant Dreaming Story (detail), 2015. Acrylic on canvas board. 61 x 91.5cm.
C O U R T E S Y : T H E A R T I S T A N D T J U K U R B A A R T G A L L E R Y, W I L U N A .

Tjukurba Art Gallery has officially re-opened to the

public after 12 months of extensive renovations.

Visit our exhibition space or website for a vibrant selection

of locally-created artwork from the Birriliburu, the clan of
Martu people specific to the Wiluna region.

Scotia Street, Wiluna, Western Australia

w w w. t j u k u r b a g a l l e r y. c o m . a u ( 0 8 ) 9 9 8 1 8 0 0 0
 IACA is the peak body supporting Indigenous art centres across far
north Queensland and the Torres Strait. We support culturally strong
best practice Indigenous art enterprises.

www.iaca.com.au

Ba g u, Va rio us Girring un Artists. Ima g e : Girring un Ab o rig ina l Art Ce ntre

Darnley Island
Indige nous Art Ce ntre Allianc e me mbe rs:
Badu Island Mua Island 1. Badu Art Centre / Badhulgaw Kuthinaw Mudh - Badu Island
2. Bana Yirriji Art and Cultural Centre - Wujal Wujal
Thursday Island 3. Erub Arts - Darnley Island
4. Girringun Aboriginal Art Centre - Cardwell
5. HopeVale Arts and Culture Centre
6. Lockhart River Art Centre
7. Mornington Island Art
Western Cape York
8. Moa Arts / Ngalmun Lagau Minaral - Mua Island
Lockhart River
9. Pormpuraaw Art and Culture Centre
Aurukun
10. Weinum Arts - Western Cape York
11. Wik and Kugu Art Centre - Aurukun
Pormpuraaw
12. Yalanji Arts - Mossman Gorge
HopeVale
13. Yarrabah Arts and Cultural Precinct
Wujal Wujal 14. Gab Titui Cultural Centre - Thursday Island
Mornington Island
Mossman

Yarrabah

Cardwell

IACA programs and events receive inancial assistance from the Queensland Government through Arts Queenslands Backing Indigenous Arts initiative and
from the Federal Governments Ministry for the Arts through the Indigenous Visual Arts Industry Support program. IACA supports the Indigenous Art Code.
ARTISTS
CRITIC'S CHOICE

CRITICS CHOICE
Curator and writer Emily russels, Paris and Los Angeles: global cities that host vastly international populations.
Nathan traverses the Atlantic Diverse demographics lend themselves to a colourful contemporary art scene, and the
to hone in on three bustling five creators selected below offer a glimpse into the bustling cultural lives of these three
contemporary art hubs in the cosmopolitan hubs. While the artists might be seen to share nothing but a time period,
and are a veritable smorgasbord of practices, styles, and personalities, there is nonetheless
global edition of Critics Choice.
something powerfully humanistic about each of their approaches to art making a
focus on the things we as living beings share and the poignant truths of ours past, present
and future. In a modern world increasingly consumed by plasma screens and advanced
technology, such work offers a welcome, and reassuring, respite.

CHRISTINA QUARLES

Working with trompe loeil, transparency

and opacity, the LA-based painter Christina
Quarles employs ambiguity as her collab-
orator. Her loosely figurative paintings are
fluid tangles of image within image, human
form overlayed on human form, and even a
second look is not enough to decipher what
exactly is taking place. This, of course, is
intentional: Quarles is not interested in ob-
jectivity, or in narrative. Instead, her work
explores the subjective nature of reality and
of perception, and plays with the unreliable
nature of our assumptions. Although her vi-
brantly coloured canvases often feature bodies
engaged in various activities and relationships,
the stories that they tell, from the attributes
of the represented characters to their roles
or genders, are always unclear. In Quarless
work, visual boundaries between figure and
ground, outline and interior, man and woman
are flexible; she encourages us to consider
that such flexibility may exist outside of her
paintings, as well. 1.

168 w w w.ar t c ol l e c t or.n e t .au

 HAROLD ANCART

Harold Ancart of Brussells makes paintings

that defy categorisation, oozing seamlessly
between abstraction and figuration. His can-
vases seem to draw from various sources,
combining the ambiguous narrative logic of
a James Rosenquist with the dynamic forms
and colours of the Expressionists, from Arnold
Kirchner to Clyfford Still. Ancart often works
in large format, creating mural-sized canvases
that dwarf the viewer and yet they are filled
with organic forms that feel familiar, or that
we think we recognise, and this brings them
to ground. At times, his compositions seem
to plumb the microcosmic or primordial, of-
fering a close-up glimpse of the veins of a leaf
or single-celled organism, while others have a
scope that seems much broader, containing
visions of the universe. Colour-wise, Ancart is
courageous, combining caustic hues with more
natural and muted tones. A good painter in
todays technology-saturated world is hard to
find: Ancart stands out for his ability to put pig-
ment to canvas in surprising, ever-fresher ways.

1. // Christina Quarles, Floored,2017.

Acrylic on canvas, 101.6 x 127cm.
COURTESY THE ARTIST.

2. // Harold Ancart, Untitled, 2016.

Oil stick and color pencil on canvas,
artist's frame, 268.6 x 215.3 x 6cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND DAVID KORDANSKY
2.
GALLERY, LOS ANGELES

w w w. ar tcol l e ctor. n e t. au 169

ARTISTS
CRITIC'S CHOICE

JEAN-MARIE APPRIOU

Parisian Jean-Marie Apprious rough-hewn objects and

installations reflect moments from the story of humanity,
incorporating references to our shared history that range from
the cultural to the sociological and even the scientific. Often
starting with a foundation of metals, ceramic and glass, Appriou
works in a manner similar to that of an alchemist, combining
and manipulating his materials through techniques that include
glass blowing and foundry. While his set of technical skills is
exemplary, he is always more interested in imperfection than
in polish, and the surfaces of his works bear the marks of their
making: while they represent something we can all understand and
appreciate, they are also shaped by the hand of the individual; they
thereby embody both objective and subjective realities. Integrating
motifs that draw on subjects as varied as Renaissance artwork,
Greek mythology and space exploration, Apprious artworks are
symbolic totems to human triumph, failure, and development,
paying homage to the range of experiences that occupy that vast
and varied spectrum. 3.

3. // Jean-Marie Appriou, Installation view:

Abalon, 2017. COURTESY THE ARTIST AND C L E A R I N G,
NEW YORK / BRUSSELS.

4. // Ann Veronica Janssens, Untitled, 2015.

7 spotlights, artificial haze, dimensions variable
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND BORTOLAMI GALLERY, NEW YORK.

5. // Lucy McKenzie, Shell Light, 2015. Shell,

light-bulb, cable, 12 x 22 x 15cm. COURTESY THE
ARTIST AND GALERIE BUCHHOLZ, BERLIN/COLOGNE/NEW YORK.

ANN VERONICA JANSSENS

English-born artist Ann Veronica Janssens is best known for

her work with light, which she conceives as a sculptural material
and uses to explore the possibilities of sensory phenomena,
including translucence and opacity. The Brussels-based artist
shares these concerns with the California Light and Space artists,
and yet her specific approach to her craft is absolutely original.
She has described her motivating concern as an infatuation with
matter, and a desire to use light to penetrate the architecture of
the spaces around us through perceptual distortions and optical
illusions. Often, her works employ materials that refract, reflect
or otherwise manipulate light from glitter to mist, water, and
paraffin oil playing with space and negative space to challenge
viewers perceptions. And yet she seems to be a romantic, above
all; the overarching sensation her works leave you with is one
4. of wonder, childlike awe at the simple beauty of simple things.

170 w w w.ar t c ol l e c t or.n e t .au

 LUCY MCKENZIE

The Brussels-based, Scottish-born Lucy McKenzie has led many

lives, and her work as an artist is a tour de force of shape-shifting
and trompe loeil. A former adult model, she attended art school and
began painting, and was immediately recognized for her talent. In
the decades since, she has continually sought new channels for her
creative output, often eliding the distinction between fine art and
everything else. Besides exhibiting her work in museum and gallery
exhibitions around the world, she has also created a bar, a record
label, and a fashion-and-design line, operating in collaboration as a
creative brand rather than as a single producer. When she does make
fine art, though, she has a sharp critical eye, and her works offer inci-
sive commentary on sociological and anthropological realities. They
often employ the vocabulary of propaganda, drawing their graphic
nature and communicative strategies from a range of references
that includes Eastern European wartime murals, commercials, or
Pop-music advertising.

5.

w w w. ar tcol l e ctor. n e t. au 171

 13 O CTOB ER 10 DECEMB ER 2017 TA M W O R T H R E G I O N A L G A L L E R Y

OPEN HOUSE
3rd Tamworth Textile Triennial 2017 Curated by Glenn Barkley

Tamworth Regional Gallery Ema Shin Devoted Body, 2017. Photo Oleksandr Pogorilyi
466 Peel Street Tamworth
Free Admission
Tuesday Friday 10am 5pm
Saturday Sunday 10am 4pm
tamworthregionalgallery.com.au Visions of Australia
1.
 COLLECTING
COLLECTOR

ARTKEEPER:
BRIAN
TUCKER
Do remote artists get ripped off by
the art centres that sell their work?
No, says collector Brian Tucker. He
knows because he is their auditor.
Alison Kubler talks to the art world
accountant about his own collection.
Photography by Damien OMara.

B
rian Tucker needs little introduction
in his home town of Brisbane. He is
best known as the accountant to artists
and creatives whose artworks feature
prominently on his office walls, making
for surely one of the most pleasurable
tax time experiences for visiting clients.
An avid collector and generous donor,
his collecting has pulled focus in recent
years more rigorously on indigenous
art, informed in part by his professional work across
those communities. The passion started Tucker says,
years ago when I lectured on Professional Practice
at the old Queensland College of Art and I went to the
end-of-year graduating students exhibition, to support
them, more than out of an interest in acquiring art. I
did, though, like one work on display and after some
to-ing and fro-ing trying to get the artist to come up
with a price, bought my first work. I thought to myself
this is interesting so started going to student shows,
and exhibitions of (mostly) emerging artists and that
whole process introduced me to art generally, and
contemporary art particularly. I saw collecting art as
a way to satisfy several needs: to enrich my own life,
to help (even in a meagre way) artists, and to let them
know that what they were doing was important.

175
 2.
I SAW COLLECTING ART AS A WAY TO SATISFY SEVERAL NEEDS: TO ENRICH MY
OWN LIFE, TO HELP (EVEN IN A MEAGRE WAY) ARTISTS, AND TO LET THEM KNOW
THAT WHAT THEY WERE DOING WAS IMPORTANT.
And what of his interest in Indigenous art? I
really became interested in Indigenous art when
I started auditing a couple of art centres on the
APY Lands. Before that I had no real knowledge
or understanding of the world of Indigenous Art. I
now audit about 40 art centres across the Central
and Western Desert regions, to Arnhem Land, the
Tiwi Islands, Kimberley and Pilbara, and from very
remote Communities such as Tjuntjuntjara in
Western Australias Spinifex Country, to Baluk Arts
on the Mornington Peninsula. The breadth of styles
is quite astonishing, from the familiar dot paintings
of Central Australia, to the carvings and weavings
of the Top End, to very contemporary photography
and drawing from younger Indigenous artists and
176
BRIAN TUCKER
designers. Its very exciting! Tuckers enthusiasm
is infectious, but Indigenous art can present a few
challenges to a new collector.
Tucker admits Because Ive been going to
those communities for many years now Ive
come to know the artists quite well, and come
to appreciate the extent to which the story behind
the imagery is so important, particularly for
those senior men and women. As they grow older,
and more frail, I see in the rawness of their work,
a sense that these old people know their time is
drawing to a close but there are things they still
have to say through their art, and the urgency of
that telling is reflected in the lack of any subtlety
3.
in colour or brush-strokes.
w w w.ar t c ol l e c t or.n e t .au
 COLLECTING
COLLECTOR

1. // Brian Tucker.
2. // Billy Cooley, Wanampi Desert
Snake, Maruku Arts.
3. // Emma Lindsay, Hunter/hunted
(pheasant, Queensland Museum),
2015. Oil on linen, 60 x 76cm.
4. // Declan Apuatimi, Munupi Arts.
5. // The office stockroom.
6. // Mary Pan, Tjala Arts.
PHOTOGRAPHY: DAMIEN O'MARA.

Herewith Tuckers advice

to fledgling collectors:
Dont rush into it. If you havent

1 bought anything yet, but feel youd

like to, start going to exhibitions to
get a broad perspective of what art is all
about, and to places that dont usually do
selling shows, for the same reason.

You will have probably heard a lot

2 of stories about Indigenous artists

being poorly treated, works not
being painted by the artist whose name
is on the canvas, and dealers making
huge profits at the artists expense. Do
yourself a favour, acquire from art centres
or from galleries and dealers that only
represent art centres and (a) there is no
question about authenticity and (b) you
know the artist is getting their rightful
share of what youve paid. I can say that
with confidence because thats one of the
4. 5. auditors jobs!

You should also tackle exhibitions

3 of works from a variety of genres;

contemporary, traditional,
photography, prints, ceramics and
sculpture.

People say that when you go to an

4 exhibition you fall in love with a

particular piece; two comments:
first, its actually the work that has fallen
for you, it makes eye contact and says
Brian, take me home with you, I will
make you happy forever and second,
after a while you will actually know,
very quickly, when you enter a gallery,
whether you are likely to be a buyer or
not.

Pace yourself, dont expect to become

5 an expert overnight Im not, by any

means, after 30 years but I do now
have a clear sense of what appeals and
what doesnt.

You only need to ask two questions:

6 Do I like it? and Can I afford it? And

if you answered yes to the first youll
work out a way to say yes to the second!

6.

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Photograph taken at Artistree
 GHOST NET ART

Above: Lorenzo Ketchell with giant ghost net sculptures Below left: Hands freeing a ghost net turtle Below right: Ghost Nets of the Ocean Catalogue All images courtesy Erub Arts and Lynnette Grifiths

ERUB ARTS
torres strait
For ghost net sales and enquiries contact
Diann Lui, centre manager
T 07 4090 0827
manager@erubarts.com.au
Follow us on facebook or erubarts.com.au

To purchase the catalogue & receive a free DVD of

Erubs ghost net story, direct enquiries to Erub Arts.

Large and small-scale ghost net sculptures, ghost net merchandise, Ghost Nets of the Ocean catalogue, digitally printed fabric and garments
Also available: wood-fired ceramic sculptures, screen-printed fabrics, lino prints and large charcoal works on paper
O N V I E W AT T H E A R T G A L L E RY O F S O U T H A U S T R A L I A
w w w.ar t c ol l e c t or.n e t .au

GLOBAL
SENSIBILITY
Jane ONeill talks to Ian Geraghty
and Peter Maddison, co-directors of
-f-i-l-t-e-r-, about how they are embracing
the challenges faced by outward looking
collectors. Portrait by Maja Baska.
w w w. ar tcol l e ctor. n e t. au
COLLECTING
DEALER
T
he experience of living in London and visiting art exhibitions
to discover entirely new ecologies of galleries and artists has
informed the recently opened gallery -f-i-l-t-e-r- in Sydney.
Moving to Australia in the late nineties, Ian Geraghty ob-
served that international artists were visible in large institu-
tional exhibitions and art bookshops but were largely absent
from the commercial gallery scene. In partnership with art
collector and businessman Peter Maddison, this is a gap
that -f-i-l-t-e-r- now aims to fill.
Geraghty founded Grey Matter Contemporary Art in Sydney (1999-
2001) and brings his experience as a practicing artist, arts writer and
curator (in both Australia and the UK) to this new commercial venture.
He is probably not the first gallerist to wish for a stable of blue chip
international artists, but most others stumble at the first hurdle of ex-
orbitant freight costs. -f-i-l-t-e-r- embraces these challenges with a canny
combination of imagination and practicality. In addition to the display
of fine art editions and sculptural objects in its Surry Hills gallery, -f-i-
l-t-e-r- recognizes the potential for social media and the distribution of
catalogues online. The gallery also reaches a broader audience in their
presence at art fairs within Australia. A clearly stated aim of the project is
to constantly interrogate the structure of galleries, art fairs and auction
houses in order to develop stimulating new models.
Many of the represented artists include Young British Artists including
Tracey Emin, Jake and Dinos Chapman and Damien Hirst. Valuable
connections forged by Geraghty during his time in the UK have facili-
tated the representation of these major artists. Indeed, the presence of
a curator specializing in this era of contemporary British art is an asset
for both collectors and institutions. The gallery is also working towards
the expansion of networks with fine art publishers and dealers in Los
Angeles and New York.
Included in the role call of represented artists is Brian Eno, a well-
known experimental composer whose connection with Sydney lies in his
position as inaugural artistic director of the Vivid Festival. A sequence
of etchings based on a series of lightbox works pulse with colour, pro-
viding a window onto the broader cultural legacy of a generous and
experimental thinker. Another surprise is the small signed lithograph
by Mir. Originally an invitation card for an exhibition in Nice in 1957,
Le Chien is an elegant example of the artists facility with line and colour.
The high volume of print-based works infuses the gallery with a strong
Pop aesthetic. A high-key series of prints by Michael Craig-Martin
consists of reductive compositions of everyday objects such as a credit
card, electric toothbrush or takeaway coffee cup. Another highlight is
the Pebbles series by Julian Opie, a suite of tactile wall sculptures cut
by laser in aluminum.
A defining feature of -f-i-l-t-e-r- is the provision of books and supporting
background material to provide a context for the works. Visitors to the
gallery, whether students or collectors, can be assured of the opportunity
to see work in a supported context. Geraghty admits to being pleasantly
surprised at the recent Sydney Contemporary art fair. Assuming that
his role was to introduce the work of the -f-i-l-t-e-r- artists, he found
Australian audiences well-versed in international contemporary art.
The gallery is ambitious in the aim to integrate international artists
within realms beyond private collections too, such as the public and
corporate art sectors. This new model provides a welcome opportunity
for satellite exhibitions to accompany larger institutional survey shows.
It is a promising step forward towards a truly international sensibility
within the Australian art landscape.
181
COLLECTING
DEALER

Program highlights
Running from November 2017 to February
2018, will be an exhibition featuring
predominantly UK artists including Rachel
Whiteread, Gavin Turk, Tracey Emin,
Damien Hirst and Gary Hume.
In 2018-19, visitors can expect to see solo and
duo exhibitions featuring Antony Gormley,
Brian Eno, Cornelia Parker, Julian Opie,
Tracey Emin, Michael Craig-Martin, Peter
Blake and Damien Hirst. In addition to these,
-f-i-l-t-e-r- will be hosting shows and special
launches by a selection of leading US artists yet
to be announced.
1.
Emma O'Neill

2. 3.

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1. // Tracey Emin, No Time, 2010. Soft
ground etching on 300gsm Somerset Tub
sized paper, 32 x 36cm. Edition of 100.
Signed, numbered and dated in pencil by
the artist on front. PUBLISHER: COUNTER EDITIONS,
LONDON. PRODUCER: PAUPERS PRESS, LONDON. IMAGE
COURTESY THE ARTIST AND COUNTER EDITIONS, LONDON
4.
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2. // Howard Hodgkin, Autumn Sky,
2015-6. Hand-painted carborundum relief
from one plate on Velin Cuve BFK Rives
Tan paper, 40 x 40cm. Edition of 30.
Signed, numbered and dated in pencil.
IMAGE COURTESY: ALAN CRISTEA GALLERY, LONDON.
3. // Michael Craig-Martin, Objects
of Our Time (Memory Stick), 2014.
Screenprint on 410gsm Somerset
Satin paper, 50 x 50cm. Edition of 50.
Signed and numbered in pencil on verso.
IMAGE COURTESY: ALAN CRISTEA GALLERY, LONDON.
4. // Peter Blake, Silver heart on gold
(metal flake), 2017. Signed and
numbered, vacuum formed plastic, paint.
69 x 69 x 10cm. Edition of 15.
COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND PAUL STOLPER GALLERY,
LONDON 2017. PHOTO: MIKE ABRAHAMS.
183
 Art Collector 4-22 Oct
Precipice
Annika romeyn

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melinda heal
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CENTRES
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AND HOW TO ETHICALLY COLLECT
INDIGENOUS ART
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Art Collector s biennial Guide to Indigenous Art Centres

is a much-loved resource for those interested in ethically
www.anca.net.au
sourcing Indigenous art from around Australia. 1 rosevear pl
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Purchase yours online at www.artcollector.net.au/subscribe

Cover: Beyula Puntungka Napanangka, Kalinykalinypa, 2017. Acrylic on linen, 122 x 157cm
The artist, image courtesy Papunya Tjupi Arts (Desart member) and Raft Artspace.
Image: Annika Romeyn Solace (detail) 2017 watercolour on paper 150cm x100cm.

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184 w w w.ar t c ol l e c t or.n e t .au

Christina McLean (L) Pathways #3 Earthenware clay, with underglaze and sgrafto decoration 40cm x 24cm (R) Pathways #1 Earthenware clay, with underglaze and sgrafto decoration 48cm x 25cm
COLLECTING
ART CENTRE

1.

ERUB ARTS
Hayley Megan French takes a
closer look at the collaborative
approach at Erub Arts - an art
centre on the edge of the Great
Barrier Reef.

H
1. // Florence Gutchen, Squid
2. // Nancy Kiwat, Spotted squid
PHOTO: LYNNETTE GRIFFITHS. COURTESY: THE
ARTISTS AND ERUB ARTS, DARNLEY ISLAND.
ome to approximately 400 Erubam Le (people from Erub), the centrality of
the ocean is embedded in all aspects of culture on the tropical volcanic island
of Erub, home to Erub Arts. Also known as Darnley Island, Erub is one of 22
inhabited islands in the Torres Strait, on the edge of the Great Barrier Reef.
Erub Arts, founded on an intergenerational and intercultural approach, became
the first incorporated Indigenous art centre in the Torres Strait in 2008.
After its inception as a craft group called Ekkilau in the early 1990s, the
centre was reformed as Erub Arts in 2008 by long-term managers Diann Lui and Lyn-
nette Griffiths. The pair has supported artists to bring to life and make anew traditional
artmaking techniques. Artists work across printmaking, ceramics, jewellery, weaving
and textile works.
But the sheer scope and reach of their major collaborative project: Au Karem ira
Lamar Lu / Ghost Nets of the Ocean speaks not only to the urgency of the message of
marine conservation they are sharing, but also to the significance of their underlying

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 COLLECTING
ART CENTRE

2.
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COLLECTING
ART CENTRE

THE SHEER SCOPE AND REACH OF THEIR MAJOR

COLLABORATICE PROJECT: AU KAREM IRA LAMAR
LU / GHOST NETS OF THE OCEAN SPEAKS NOT ONLT
TO THE URGENCY OF THE MESSAGE OF MARINE
CONSERVATON, BUT ALSO TO THE SIGNIFICANCE OF
THEIR UNDERLYING COLLABORATIVE ETHOS.

3. 4.

collaborative ethos. Works are developed by and between the Erub artists: Ethel Charlie, 3. // Giant squid artwork.
Solomon Charlie, Rachel Emma Gela, Sarah-Dawn Gela, Florence Gutchen, Lavinia 4. // Jellyfish installation at the Asian
Ketchell, Lorenzo Ketchell, Nancy Kiwat, Nancy Naawi, Racy Oui-Pitt, Alma Sailor, Civilisations Museum in Singapore.
Ellarose Savage, Jimmy J. Thaiday, Jimmy K. Thaiday and non-Indigenous artists Mari- 5. // Marion Gaemers, Coral.
on Gaemers and Lynnette Griffiths. The project enacts our interconnectedness across the PHOTO: LYNNETTE GRIFFITHS. COURTESY: THE
ARTISTS AND ERUB ARTS, DARNLEY ISLAND.
oceans, working with museums, galleries and curators world-wide, and reaching new makers
through artist-led workshops.
Australian audiences can experience the latest iteration of Ghost Nets of the Ocean at Tarnanthi
Festival this October. Over the next year, Erub Arts will also exhibit Ghost Net works in group Art Collector magazine takes a clear editorial
shows: The Boomerang Effect: The Aboriginal Arts in Australia at the Muse dethnographie de position on ethically sourcing Indigenous art. We
Genve (19 May 2017 7 January 2018) and Aboriginal Art. Dreaming Territory, Fondation consistently advise our readers that high quality Indigenous
Pierre Arnaud, Switzerland (1 December 2017 20 May 2018); and create a major installation art can be purchased from many outlets across Australia
in the Maritime Museum in Sydney. This project continues to swell as Erub Arts will travel but the best way to be certain a work for their collections
to New Caledonia later this year to create work with artists from Lifou for the 2018 Asia has been ethically sourced, is if it has been purchased
Pacific Triennial. from one of the many Indigenous artist-owned,
community-based art centres across Australia, where one
THE EXHIBITION AU KAREM IRA LAMAR LU / GHOST NETS OF THE OCEAN WILL OPEN AT exists for the region, or from galleries that source their
THE ART GALLERY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA FOR THE TARNANTHI FESTIVAL, 13 OCTOBER artwork from these centres.
2017 UNTIL 28 JANUARY 2018.

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COLLECTING
IN MY CITY

COLLECTING ART IN MY CITY

Writers from across the globe give us the lowdown on collecting trends in three
contemporary art hotspots that you should consider in your travel plans.

LOS ANGELES:
OCULAR DOMINATION

I
n the past five years, Los Angeles has become
known for its Walmart-sized collections of
bombastic, technicoloured sculptures, that assert
ocular domination and sentimentality about the
America that wasnt, most recently demonstrated
in the opening of the Broad Museum, and the
Marciano Art Foundation. Eschewing this trend,
John Morace and Tom Kennedy are collectors
whose thoughtfulness around being a custodian of
both objects and ideas, exemplifies how collecting
is a practice in its own right. Starting at an early age,
Morace has maintained long friendships with artists
who prioritise rigour and ideas over sensation, and
draws pleasure from the sometimes complicated
responsibility of owning something. Speaking to the
conceptual impetus behind his acquisitions, which
include the discombobulating gestures of artists
such as Pierre Huyghe and Trisha Donnelly, he
ruminates, Its changed over the years, originally it
was about trying to claw my way to the surface, into
consciousness, into reality which many not even
exist anymore and looking for these people who
might know something about the world that I did
not know.... and then as I went on it became more
complicated.... you realize there is money in the field,
its inevitably a part of it.
Morace maintains that the responsibility extends
to the prescient purchases of artists such as David
Wojnarowicz. Morace knew Wojnarowicz personally
and acquired his work 35 years ago, when, partly due
to the content, no institution would touch this. The
artist passed away in 1992, and his career included
heartbreaking performances that centered around
AIDS activism, one of which was censored from an
exhibition at the Smithsonian as recently as 2010.
He will be the subject of a survey exhibition at the
Whitney Museum in 2018. Morace describes the
purchase occurring in a climate of intellectual panic
in America. As these moments of crisis continue to
occur in America, and indeed internationally, Morace
1. is acutely aware that the responsibility of preserving

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 2.

1. // Sanya Kantarovsky, Sky Alliance, 2015.

LOS ANGELES, A TRAFFIC TOWN WITH A HUMAN Oil, pastel, watercolour, and oil stick on linen,
119.38 x 88.9 x 3.81cm.

PROBLEM, IS A PLACE THAT DOESNT LEND ITSELF 2. // Portia Zvavahera, I Can Feel It in My Eyes
[20], 2015-2017. Oil-based printing ink and oil
bar on canvas, framed 205.1 x 239.4 x 6.4cm.
TO SPONTANEOUS SOCIAL INTERACTIONS. COURTESY: THE ARTISTS.

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COLLECTING
IN MY CITY
3.
such important work shifts to the collector, until
the museums stop being reluctant to show it.
Whilst the contemporary artists that Morace
collects are nothing to be scoffed at, he stresses
the importance of contextualising them with
more established artists, early in their career.
Their legitimacy is bolstered by their visibility
in proximity to the canon, allowing the magical
properties that he himself experiences to be
shared with others. In the intimate context of his
home, a work by Frances Stark, now recognised
as an important LA-based educator, writer, and
artist, sat adjacent to the well-recognised abstract
expressionist sculptor David Smith; an important
piece by Marcel Duchamp, gives credibility to the
nearby work of young Vietnamese-born, Danish
artist Danh Vo-. Works snake up the staircase, like
an infographic tracking long relationships that
he has had with various LA-based artists, all of
which now receive international attention, such
as Laura Owens, Christopher Williams, Mike
Kelley, and Piero Golia.
Los Angeles, a traffic town with a human
192
problem, is a place that doesnt lend itself to 3. // Amalia Pica, In Praise of Listening,
spontaneous social interactions. Subsequently, 2016. Black granite, marble, silicone
the artistic community is more open to organising tubing Unique dimensions variable; black
granite, white marble: 10 x 10 x 21.
studio visits with one another. It cultivates a culture COURTESY THE ARTIST.
of intimacy and familiarity that might be absent
in the social petri-dishes of the Lower East Side, or
even Fitzroy. Its revealing of Moraces intelligence,
which is belied by genuine curiousity - artists
are the great educators for me I feel its a great AS THESE MOMENTS OF CRISIS
privilege to do a studio visit even with artists Im
not sure Im interested in. Recently he has been
CONTINUE TO OCCUR IN AMERICA,
visiting his longtime friend Richard Hawkins and
discussing the thinking of Artaud, whom Hawkins
AND INDEED INTERNATIONALLY,
based his most recent body of work around. Its a
communion of artist and patron that reveals all
MORACE IS ACUTELY AWARE
the chaotic tests and missteps that are absent from THAT THE RESPONSIBILITY OF
the clarity of the gallery. Artaud, who renounced
language in favour of an all-encompassing theatre PRESERVING SUCH IMPORTANT
made up of a spectrum of thought and gesture,
in order to understand the essence of human WORK SHIFTS TO THE COLLECTOR,
existence, could only approve.
UNTIL THE MUSEUMS STOP BEING
RELUCTANT TO SHOW IT.
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YOGYAKARTA: BUBBLING OVER
O
ften dubbed as Indonesias art mecca,
the city of Yogjakarta (Jogja) in Central
Java is renowned as the home for a huge
number of art centresranging from artist
studios, galleries and independent artist
led spacesoften connected through a shared
personal and professional network. Mantrijeron
area in the southern part of Jogja is where many
art centers are located. Among them is Cemeti
Institute for Art and Society (formerly Cemeti Art
House), one of the longest-running alternative art
galleries in Indonesia. Founded by artist couple
Mella Jaarsma and Nindityo Adipurnomo in
1988, Cemeti is notable for its contribution to
the development of contemporary art discourse
in the region. Another influential gallery in Jogja
is Ark Galerie, which represents acclaimed Asian
artists such as Jompet Kuswidananto, Melati
Suryodarmo and Bandung-based artist collective
Tromarama. Around the Nitiprayan area, SaRang
1.
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Building and Sangkring Art Space are galleries that
are active in housing exhibitions of local talents.
The polyphonic flair of Jogjas art scene reaches
its peak from May until June when ArtJog, an
annual contemporary art fair that has been
running since 2008, takes place. Unlike the
customary format of most art fairs, ArtJog takes
the mega exhibition format but supports artists
directly, instead of giving space to commercial
galleries. This arrangement has been made possible
by the broad spectrum of artists on the scene, from
the internationally lauded to those who are just
starting out. The artwork pricing is determined by
the artists together with Heri Pemad Art Manage-
ment, the organizer of ArtJog. This system is not
strange in an Indonesian context, since Indonesian
galleries rarely have exclusive contracts with artists.
ArtJog was established not so long after the art
market boom hit Indonesia in the second half the
2000s, when paintings by successful artists such 2.
1. // Ace Mart project preview. COURTESY:
ACE HOUSE COLLECTIVE
2. // I Nyoman Masriadi, King of
Lies, 2016. 200 x 200cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST.
3. // Agus Suwage, Fragmen Pustaka
#2 - After Egon Schiele, 2017.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST.
4. // ArtJog 2017 at Jogja National
Museum, Yogyakarta. PHOTO COURTESY
OF ARTJOG
193
COLLECTING
IN MY CITY
3.
as Agus Suwage, Putu Sutawijaya and Nyo-
man Masriadi, fetched hundreds of thousands
of dollars at Sothebys and Christies auction
houses in Hong Kong. The market gained
momentum so that at that time, even young
artists could sell their first paintings for more
than USD 1,000. ArtJog is mainly backed up
by demand of domestic collectors, although
overseas demand, particularly from neighboring
Asian countries such as China, Taiwan and Japan
is also increasing. Despite the slowing growth
of the art market in the past three years, ArtJog
continues to be one of the most anticipated
art fair in Asia.
ArtJog creates the moment when local artist
networks overlap with regional and international
collector bases, particularly from Southeast Asia.
Since 2015, an artist-run initiative called Ace
House capitalizes on this gathering by hosting
an annual event concurrent to ArtJog called Ace
Mart. Ace Mart is conceptualized as a mini-mar-
ket that sells emerging artists work where prices
range from USD 50 - 500 along with daily prod-
ucts such as shampoo or instant noodles. Ace
Marts witty gesture runs not to counter ArtJog,
194
since some of Ace Houses members also exhibit
their works at ArtJog. Instead, Ace Mart tries to
expand the art market platform for the smaller,
interconnected networks that run parallel to the
vibration that ArtJog brings to the local scene.
With each year, there is more of an overlap be-
tween the buyers at ArtJog and Ace Mart, as collec-
tors catch wind of the future art stars of the region.
Tom Tandio, president of the board of Young
Collectors for Art Stage based in Jakarta, is one of
the collectors who often joins the crowd at Ace Mart.
When Ace Mart is happening, many artists, curators
and collectors from outside the city would spend
some time to hang out at the Ace Houses space. For
Tandio, hanging out is a key activity in his process
of collecting and he believes that collecting is not
only a matter of achieving individual obsession, but
also an attempt to contribute and be part of the
local art community. Compared to the art market
platforms in Jakarta, Jogja sets itself apart because of
how the market and critical discourses overlap. All
in all, the vibe of Jogja is welcoming to anyone who
believes that the economy of the art market should
always be practiced beyond monetary transaction.
4.
Brigitta Isabella
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COLLECTING
IN MY CITY
SHANGHAI: A NEW FERVOUR
S
hanghai is the city of bravura private collections
and spectacular private museums. These
are supported by a state that has enshrined
provision of opportunity for emerging
creativity in its last two five year plans.
For Shanghai this policy had remarkable impact in
2013, marking a change to the viability and visibility
of art collecting. Inaugurated that year, 021 was a
home grown international Art Fair, spotlighting
galleries with a progressive take on the growth of a
SHANGHAIS COLLECTORS market for Chinese contemporary art; the opening of
the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone facilitated fluid
SHARE A ZEAL TO EXPOSE THE import and export regimes for art and antiquities; the
first Christies auction in mainland China, indicated
LOCAL PUBLIC TO NEW ART, the confidence of foreign institutions in exposing
OFTEN JUXTAPOSING CHINESE the local market to international tastes, as well as
drawing aspiring collectors into the open; and a new
ART WITH SPECTACULAR BLUE- Architecture Biennale flaunted a suite of audacious
new art museums, turning Shanghai into a world-
CHIP WORKS FROM ABROAD. class cultural destination. That year Shanghais
1.
196
Power Station of Art, China's only state museum
of contemporary art, staged a watershed exhibition,
Portrait of the Times. It was a manifesto for a 30-year
period that had seen a group of Chinese figurative
artists enjoying international fame; but, with an
emphasis on painting, it was the last exhibition of
this type. A growing schism, between traditional
tastes, dominated by the possibilities of domestic
ink paintings and crafts, and a new global outlook,
was highlighted in the conceptual emphasis of
subsequent exhibitions.
Chinas leading collectors have opened museums
in Shanghai. Wang Wei and Liu Yiqians Long
Museum has two locations, Budi Teks Yuz Museum
occupies a massive former aircraft hanger, Zheng
Haos HOW Museum opened this year, while Qiao
Zhibing, who offers glimpses of his tastes in his
stylish karaoke club, is about to open a museum
in six disused oil tanks. Discussing the motivation
for the project he comments, I started out simply
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 2.

1. // Long Museum 2014 2. // West Bund Art and Design 3. // Visitors at the opening of the
designed by Atelier Deshaus, Fair, bringing international galleries exhibition, Portrait of the Times,
wanting to decorate my clubs, but soon I wanted one of the spectacular new without a presence in mainland China at Shanghai Power Station of Art.
to increase the quality. private museums on the banks to Shanghai alongside an elite group PHOTO: ANDREW STOOKE.
Shanghais collectors share a zeal to expose the of the Huangpu. of galleries with a base in the city. COURTESY: ANDREW STOOKE.
local public to new art, often juxtaposing Chinese
art with spectacular blue-chip works from abroad.
Their integrity is admired, especially among younger
Shanghaies, who can be found patiently waiting in
snaking lines to see the installations at the Long
Museum, or to attend Photofairs Shanghai, where
gallerists remark, Its amazing how engaged people
are. Photography and media have particularly
gained traction, being still relatively affordable
and accessible for new collectors, as well as being
compelling for artists eschewing the older traditions
of Chinese art.
Shanghais commercial galleries are mainly
outposts of foreign interests or long established
with stable rosters of artists. Shanghai still has its
bargains and bargaining is still possible, prices can
be more fluid than in the transatlantic market. For
future investment it has been left to philanthropic
collectors and private foundations to foster dynamic
innovation and experiment and, since 2013, they
have. For collectors looking for potential, the artists
of the future will be found in the dark side galleries
and project rooms of the dazzling private museums.
Andrew Stooke 3.

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COLLECTING
FOR THE DIARY

FOR THE DIARY

Our writers present the
exhibitions that should be in
your diary this quarter.

1. // Camie Lyons, Strange Fruit, 2017.

Mixed media on paper, 76 x 56cm.
2. // Camie Lyons, Vibrant Youth, So
Green, 2017. Bronze, 44 x 59 x 32cm.
3. // Camie Lyons, Rapture, 2017.
Bronze, 63 x 49 x 28cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND OLSEN GALLERY,
1.
SYDNEY.

CAMIE LYONS
Out on a Limb
Olsen Gallery, Sydney
1-19 November, 2017

Olsen Gallery, Sydney will host a new collection

of works by Camie Lyons from 1-19 November.
Since her first exhibition 20 years ago, Australian
collectors have shown keen interest in Lyons
work. Her ethereal, organically shaped bronze
sculptures and works on paper are also found in
collections in Singapore, Hong Kong, New York,
France, Sweden and the UK. Lyons enjoys working
with bronze, she says it offers a huge range of co-
lour, from rich burnt honey, to blackened speckled
moss surfaces.
Lyons says her sculptures represent limbs twisted
and pushed to capture flex and tension experienced
by the body and mind when put under stress. The
work speaks of the body while in movement and
ephemeral thought processes.
Helen McKenzie 2.

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 3.

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 1. // Piotr akomy, Double Bedroom, 2017.
Body bag, ostrich eggs, insulation foam.
310 x 150 x 60cm Courtesy of the Sunday
Painter, London. COURTESY THE ARTIST AND
SUNDAY PAINTER, LONDON.

2.// Christopher L G Hill, wall, wall, wall,

nothing but wall, no entertainment, just
wall, 2016. Materials variable, dimensions
variable. Installation view at Westspace.
PHOTO: JAMES DEUTSCHER. COURTESY THE ARTISTS.

PIOTR AKOMY AND CHRISTOPHER L G HILL

Kingsize
Sydney, Sydney
25 October - 25 November, 2017

Sharing its name with the city is occupies, Sydney is

a gallery that promotes non-institutional modes of
art practice. It offers an expansive approach to exhi-
bitions and a welcome tendency towards the cross
pollination of Australian and international artists.
For their forthcoming collaboration, Christopher
L G Hill (Melbourne) and Piotr akomy (Poland)
explore the language of scale in relation to apartment
living. Incorporating references to the 1988 Polish
film Kingsajz as well as the more familiar precedent
of Le Corbusier, the exhibition investigates the power
structures inherent to the experience of life within
a box, with a view. The architectural focus reveals
both conceptual and visual overlaps between the art-
ists such as play with scale and the incorporation of
found objects. akomy works with a subdued palette
of greys to incorporate both organic and engineered
structures into his work. As an example of the idio-
syncratic dialogue between the artists, akomys 2017
Double Bedroom (originally consisting of a body bag
and ostrich eggs) will be specially reworked by Hill
for this exhibition. Here, papier mch dome hats,
crafted from cut-up poems, will replace the ostrich
eggs. Hill describes the way this kind of collaboration
ushers both unexpected solutions as well as delicate
compromises: challenges honed through friendship,
knowledge of each others practices, and the desire
not to exert a heavy authorial hand.
Jane ONeill 1.

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FOR THE DIARY

2.

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 1. // Gerwyn Davies, The Wall, 2017.
Archival inkjet print, 80 x 100cm.

2. // Gerwyn Davies, Beachball, 2017.

Archival inkjet print, 85 x 100cm.
Edition of 5.

3. // Gerwyn Davies, The Wall,2017.

Archival inkjet print, 80 x 100cm.
COURTESY THE ARTISTS AND GOULD GALLERIES,
MELBOURNE.

1.

GERWYN DAVIES
Heatwave
16 November - 9 December, 2017
Gould Galleries, Melbourne

Gould Galleries presents Heatwave, an exhibition

of Gerwyn Davies photography from 16
November, 2017. The new works highlight
the artists extraordinary ability to combine
photographic self-portraiture and costume
making.
Davies explains the impetus for the work is
to create hyperreal spaces that serve as digital
habitats for the material self and experiment
with the possibilities of how we may represent
ourselves through the photograph. Creating an
ongoing inventory of selves that are assembled,
worn and performed for the camera.
Colourful, captivating and humourous, Davies
says he is prioritising the excess and artifice of
Camp. Each work tells a story. Gerwyn says
through the layering act of dress, the body is
used as a platform for reinvention, concealing
it reveals new articulations of the self."
Helen McKenzie 2.

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 COLLECTING
FOR THE DIARY

3.

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 1.

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 COLLECTING
FOR THE DIARY

1. // Hamish Coleman,
Alibi, 2017. Oil on linen,
45.5 x 45.5cm.

2. // Hamish Coleman,
Good Witness, 2017.
Oil on linen, 23 x 23cm.

3. // Hamish Coleman,
Zip, 2017. Oil on linen,
71.5 x 71.5cm.
COURTESY THE ARTIST AND BARTLEY
2.
+ COMPANY, WELLINGTON.

HAMISH COLEMAN
Shot Silk
Bartley + Company, Wellington
1 November - 2 December, 2017

For his debut exhibition at Bartley + Company,

Hamish Coleman consolidates a painterly
approach to the frozen image. These paintings
are frozen in a number of respects; both in their
technical provenance as stills collected from
short films, and the way they conjure fossilized
states. For the artist, these isolated fragments
are vehicles through which new meanings can be
realised. The title for the exhibition takes cues
from the shimmering surface developed through
the use of interference paint, which, depending
on the rate it is handled, changes from silver to
vivid green, blue or red. We might compare the
delicate brushwork to Gerhard Richters, yet
Coleman reveals a diverse range of influences. He
cites the contained, cage like treatment of flesh
in Francis Bacons paintings as a preoccupation
in the development of these works, revealed in
the recurring motif of the hand. There is also an
immersion in the Minimal tradition: interspersed
amongst figurative works are monochromatic
hole paintings which emphasise the structure
of painting. These monochromes provide an
interlude between the figurative paintings, but
also display the great care with which Coleman
constructs his work. Shot Silk unveils an artist both
thoroughly engaged with the history of painting
and adaptable to the future.
3. Jane ONeill

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Art Collector

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Each visit will include a tour
of the exhibition conducted
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which visitors will be invited
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 MARCH MAY, 2018

BLACK AND WHITE

AND RED ALL OVER
This show will feature JAHMs collection of
black and white works mounted on blood
red gallery walls. The title of the exhibition is
the old well known newspaper joke and the
show aims to explore the role that black and
white plays, not only in artistic expression,
but also in our history and society. The
presence of polarities in todays discourse-
its either black or white as reflected in left
or right, rich and poor, secular and religious,
liberal and fundamentalist, critical and
popular- is eliminating the grey, as well as
the nuance and subtleties in between. This
exhibition will explore this phenomenon.

SEPTEMBER NOVEMBER, 2018 Todays world is saturated in images, to the extent that images are replacing text as the dominant

A PHOTOGRAPHIC form of communication and expression. Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, YouTube and Vimeo dominate
peoples attention.
PORTFOLIO OF LIFE Adrian Boddy is an architect, an academic and a professional photographer. He has spent a lifetime
photographing the world around him, with a strong focus on architecture, landscape and people.
This exhibition is a retrospective of Boddy's photographic history, presented as a visual dictionary. 12
still photographs and 12 screens will each represent a term that describes our world. Each screen will
scroll a selection of images providing a rich and immersive experience. The exhibition will celebrate both
the natural world and the world created by humans.

Top left: Top left:

Hannah Quinlivan, Strata no, 9-3, Hannah Qunilivan, Strata no, 9-3 Above left: Above right:
2012. Pastel, charcoal and Indian ink (white), 2012. Graphite on embossed Adrian Boddy, Palm Beach Adrian Boddy, The way we were,
on embossed Hahnemhle. COURTESY: THE Hahnemhle. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND House, 2010. Photograph. architecture student - 50 years ago.
ARTIST AND FLINDERS LANE GALLERY, MELBOURNE. FLINDERS LANE GALLERY, MELBOURNE. COURTESY: THE ARTIST. COURTESY: THE ARTIST.

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COLLECTING
OFF THE WALL
CHRISTOPHER HANRAHANS: A SETTING
Tai Mitsuji explains how the artist's minimal assemblages at
Sarah Cottier Gallery slowly unravels with precious reward.
I
f Christopher Hanrahans latest exhibition
A Setting were a song, it would be John Cages
433. Because just like Cages famous com-
position, which demanded 4 minutes and 33
seconds of silence, Hanrahans 23 sculptures
similarly hinged on absence and omission.
His sequence of wall-mounted works nonde-
scriptly dubbed Stand no. 1, Stand no. 2, Stand no. 3,
etcetera furnished viewers with little in the way
of concrete meaning. Instead, each of his pieces
possessed an abstract linearity that flirted with
conceptual legibility, but never truly committed
to it. Here, ambiguity had been embraced.
And while some might have fled the gallery in a
fit of frustration, muttering about artistic self-in-
dulgence, for those who stayed, the works slowly
unravelled. Hanging against stark white walls, Han-
rahans dark sculptures forced a viewer to trace their
outlines and take note of their nuances. Although
almost all the pieces consisted of a single metal band,
the emptiness of the room prompted an assessment
and reassessment of their subtle permutations. The
slightest shift in width, length or curvature screamed
for attention in the silent space. Moreover, their
sequential arrangement alluded to some underlying
schema that united the minimalist metal work. It
was almost as if many of the pieces were just that:
208
ABSENCE WAS NOT AN ARTISTIC
OVERSIGHT, BUT RATHER THE LYNCHPIN
THAT DROVE HEIGHTENED ENGAGEMENT.
pieces. They appeared like bits of armature that could
fit together and form some larger structure if only
one knew the design. The works carefully provoked
interest without ever truly satisfying it. Absence was
not an artistic oversight, but rather the lynchpin
that drove heightened engagement.
Yet while the works worked perfectly in the space,
one couldnt help but wonder whether their effect
would transfer elsewhere. That is, the strength of
their presence seemed to, at least in part, rest on the
sterility of their immediate surroundings. Would
they be lost outside the confines of the white cube?
Perhaps. But it would also be a loss to the person
who failed to stop and lend a moment to their ob-
servation. Rather than crying out for attention,
// Christopher Hanrahan, A Setting,
Hanrahans sculptures whispered their invitation. 2017. Installation view, Sarah Cottier
And for those willing to answer the call, they offered Gallery, Sydney. COURTESY THE ARTIST AND
subtle yet precious art. SARAH COTTIER GALLERY, SYDNEY
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 JO BERTINI COMMON GROUND
PAINTINGS FROM THE DESERTS OF INDIA AND NEW MEXICO

23 NOVEMBER 10 DECEMBER 2017

Jo Bertini, Indian Country, 2017, oil on canvas, 144 x 144 cm
Photography by Thomas Studer

7 JAMES STREET, WINDSOR www.marsgallery.com.au

 Imants Tillers, Burning land, 2016, Synthetic polymer paint, gouache on 54 canvas boards No. 99460 - 99513228.6 x 213.4cm

IMANTS TILLERS

3 November - 2 December, 2017

www.roslynoxley9.com.au