Image above: Michael Johnson, Oceania high low, 2014

exhibitions list

Friday 27 December 2019 Elysium Arctic, Maritime Museum, Sydney
Hot, high Summer Friday morning, ever present bushfire smoke haze – an outdoor photography exhibition, from the sublime to the catastrophic effects of climate change. “In 2015 a team of explorers, photographers and scientists sailed through the High Arctic of Svalbard, Greenland and Iceland to document their unique environments. Together they created Elysium Arctic, a series of artworks capturing the icons of the polar north – majestic icebergs and glaciers, playful wildlife and stunning views of land and sea. Elysium Arctic also records the devastating impact of climate change in the earth’s northernmost regions.”
Some images from the exhibition

Friday 13 December 2019 Jenny Kee and Linda Jackson: Step Into Paradise, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney
Colour blast – the unique, iconic, dynamic Jenny Kee and Linda Jackson – inspired by nature from the Central Desert to the Daintree Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef, and cultural connections. “This first in-depth survey captures the dynamic energy of their creative journey over four decades.”
Full Guide available at https://maas-guide.netlify.com/all








Thursday 5 December 2019 Lichtenstein to Warhol – The Kenneth Tyler Collection, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Always impressed and inspired by the NGA’s collection of post-war and contemporary American art, this exhibition adds to the understanding of the importance and the range of works in the collection. “Tyler was a pivotal master printer at the forefront of the American print renaissance. The NGA collection boasts the most comprehensive collection of post-War American art outside the United States. The collection includes over 7400 editioned prints, proofs, drawings, paper works, screens, multiples and illustrated books as well as a large collection of rare candid photography, film and audio. Works from the collection by major artists active in America in the post-war period in styles from Abstraction to Pop, from Minimalism to Maximalism. Artists include Josef and Anni Albers, Helen Frankenthaler, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Joan Mitchell, Robert Motherwell, Robert Rauschenberg, Donald Sultan, Andy Warhol, Frank Stella, Claes Oldenburg, Nancy Graves and David Hockney.”

 

Wednesday 4 December 2019 Steven Harvey: Unrendered room, Drill Hall Gallery, ANU, Canberra
Subtle tones, refined evocative landscape abstractions. Interesting use of acrylics and pigments on compressed cement in some of the works, “paintings that seem to codify space, light and the spirit of place into gridded abstract patchworks. With consistent thrift, Harvey’s work has continued to translate complex evocations into deceptively simple formulations.”

Installation views






Friday 29 November 2019 Tim Allen – Overlay, Defiance Gallery, Paddington, Sydney
Evolving expressionist, colours of the landscape, sense of scale in the works, from the photograph on the exhibition invitation his studio the size of an aircraft hangar.

Friday 15 November 2019 Cornelia Parker, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
Inspiring installations, found objects blown up and squashed, resurrected, suspended in time. Trying to find words to describe this experience – minimal, conceptual, stillness, energy, fleeting moments, subversive, dark undertones, abstract spatial presence, installations flood the space, volatile and sensitive. The exhibition “features over 40 artworks from across the artist’s career, including large-scale installations, embroideries, works on paper, video works, and a selection of small-scale sculptures and objects.”

Tuesday 5 November 20019 Sculpture by the Sea, Tamarama to Bondi, Sydney
What has been witnessed here in the twenty third year of this annual iconic international exhibition is the attempted assassination of a creative spirit. The local Council’s deliberate act, without prior consultation in destroying some of the main sites beggars belief, it has lost forever eight of the 10 best sites. Just why a creative team of landscape architects could not be engaged to design a practical solution for Marks Park for all users including this international arts event is beyond comprehension. There are probably enough sites to keep this unique exhibition going, but major sites have been flattened by a concrete utilitarian pathway, it is completely at odds with the location, not to mention the unbelievable outdoor gym in a prime location, unimaginable damage to what should be a world class heritage park. The exhibition may continue, but it would be completely understandable why it might not, the creative will of the founding director has probably been irreparably broken. This year the exhibition has been severely compromised but nevertheless an outstanding range of works “140 artists from 18 countries, 111 sculptures, 33 artists exhibiting for the first time”.

Sculpture Inside – small contemporary sculpture

Friday 1 November 2019 Robert Dickerson: Off the Canvas, and Wish you were here: landscapes from the collection, Newcastle Art Gallery, NSW
Leisurely train travel along the coast, jacarandas if full late Spring bloom bathed in blue smoke haze, very Whistleresque, only trouble the haze was caused by major bush fires on the north coast.
Robert Dickerson: Off the Canvas
Includes recent major donation of 40 paintings from the artist’s family plus 53 works from the gallery’s collection. Large impressive collection in its singularity and mix of works across the artist’s career. References/influences seem to leap out: Picasso’s blue period, the German expressionists, Munch, and Charles Blackman.

Installation views











Wish you were here: landscapes from the collection
Scale of the works captivates, expressive, paint texture, light, some relatively unknown artists other familiar long established artists, always good to see works otherwise unknown.

Friday 25 October 2019 Paddington Art Prize, Menzies Art Brands, Kensington, Sydney
Finalists
The exhibition worth an annual visit for the range of works by both emerging and established artists, this year 52 finalists. A “national acquisitive prize for a painting inspired by the Australian landscape, now in its 18^th year”. Unfortunately, unlike last year, the criteria for selecting the finalists, and a description of why the winners were selected has not been published.

Some installation views

 

Friday 18 October 2019 Primavera 2019 – Young Australian Artists, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
The MCA’s annual exhibition of young Australian artists aged 35 and under.
“Since 1992, the Primavera series has showcased the works of artists in the early stages of their career. Each year, a curator is invited to select artists from across Australia that they feel represent current trends and styles emerging in the next generation. Many artists featured in Primavera have gone on to exhibit nationally and internationally, such as Shaun Gladwell, Mikala Dwyer, Rebecca Baumann, Jonathan Jones and Jess Johnson. Primavera 2019 will be the 28th edition of the exhibition and curated by Sydney artist Mitch Cairns.”
A couple of standouts this year
Rosina Gunjarrwanga – classical rarrk painting, reminiscent of the work of John Mawurndjul. “Rosina Gunjarrwanga is a painter and sculptor whose work is grounded in Kuninjku cosmological belief systems. Through her practice, Gunjarrwanga refines the Wakwak (crow Djang) design that originated in the Mardayin ceremony and communicates to her clan, community and broader audiences the resilience and constancy of her culture”.  

Coen Young – mirror paintings – possibilities endless “dissolve the space that is shared between the artwork and the audience. Made with amongst other things, photographic processing agents (silver nitrate), they move between figuration and abstraction by responding to the viewers’ physical presence and the exhibition context.”

Friday 18 October 2019 Guan Wei – MCA collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
An observation about art with impact, in this case a family with two young children walk into an exhibition and they all go ‘oh wow’, that is the impact the art of Guan Wei seems to have on all generations. Refined, elegant narrative and for the adults a serious message about the violence of war in a sublime landscape. Paper War – classical brushwork with contemporary angst of conflict, militarism. Feng Shui – wonder, imaginative narrative, mythological, harmonious, evocative.

Wednesday 16 October 2019 Kaldor Public Art Projects – half a century in the public eye, AGNSW
“Created by British artist Michael Landy, this exhibition surveys the rich history of Kaldor Public Art Projects using artworks, archival materials and reconstructions of past projects. The first organisation of its type anywhere in the world, Kaldor Public Art Projects has helped redefine the boundaries for public art in the 21st century and has had a profound influence on the way that Australians have experienced contemporary art.” Only a brief encounter is possible with the projects spanning 50 years, unless you make many return visits. With 34 separate booths in an archival format, containing press clippings (but who wants to stand around reading headlines and newspaper articles on walls), photos, some video, somehow the experience fails to make an impact, ‘unless of you were there’ as the saying goes, to see the original works over the decades the presentations would be meaningful. An interesting archive, a treasure trove of memorabilia from each project, an exceptional educational collection, a great resource for art students, artists, and curators to be mined for ideas about developments in contemporary art practice. The 1984 An Australian Accent project (artists Mike Parr, Imants Tillers, Ken Unsworth) has plenty of memorabilia, press clippings, photos of people but no actual images of the artworks, or the installation, you have to go to the Kaldor website for this.
Some images from the Kaldor website

Kaldor Public Art Project 8, 1984 An Australian Accent – artists Mike Parr, Imants Tillers, Ken Unsworth

 Kaldor Public Art Project 32 Wiradjuri/Kamilaroi artist Jonathan Jones presented barrangal dyara (skin and bones), a vast sculptural installation stretching across 20,000 square-metres of the Royal Botanic Gardens

Thursday 3 October 2019 Bill Brown – The Abstract One, and Kevin Connor – Select Painting, Sculpture, Works on paper 1964 – 2012, Defiance Gallery at Mary Place, Paddington, Sydney
Another inspiring double-header from a gallery that always delivers on quality.
Bill Brown – The Abstract One
Calligraphic layers, mature works, forty years of artistic endeavour, colour interaction with depth.
“I have employed the strategy of ‘form and variation’: which not only allows for an imaginative lateral development of the formal properties of an image, but also enables a deeper penetration into the subjective, the metaphoric, and to the shadow side of the psyche. When I am in the Abstract stream, I am operating within a trust and a faith that is about a connectedness to history and to the dynamics of form, compositional balance and harmony.”

Kevin Connor – Select Painting, Sculpture, Works on paper 1964 – 2012
Streetscapes, figures – over the decades hasn’t lost any of the distinctive style, vigour and impact. “Since his first exhibition in 1962, Kevin Connor has held more than 60 solo shows throughout his life.”

Thursday 26 September 2019 River on the Brink: Inside the Murray – Darling Basin, S H Ervin Gallery, Sydney
Twenty four artists, powerful works which hit the mark – the environmental catastrophe in the Murray-Darling Basin. The crisis due to industrial agricultural greed, incompetence, total mismanagement. “The water held captive by commercial interests must be released to rejuvenate the rivers, and bring life back into the Basin. Nothing short of a Royal Commission will get to the bottom of this national disaster”.
River on the Brink – eCatalogue

Wednesday 4 & Friday 20 September 2019 Ken Unsworth: Marquettes and Small Sculptures, Wollongong Art Gallery
Excellent survey of Unsworth’s sculptures, coupled with two informative floor talks about Unsworth’s career, which greatly enhanced understanding of the works.
See summary of associated talks at 2019 Art References
Wednesday 4 September 2019 Floor talk Anthony Bond, curator
Friday 20 September 2019 In conversation Anthony Bond and Ken Unsworth
“The exhibition celebrates 40 years since Nike was built on the corner of Burelli and Keira streets. The exhibition includes 30 small sculptures and marquettes for public artwork including the model from which Nike was developed in 1978 – 1980. There are also photographs and video of solo performances from 1975 and 1977 relating to the small sculptures and marquettes, and videos of more recent performances.”
Some of the sculptures in the exhibition

Sunday 15 September 2019 Sydney Contemporary 2019, Carriageworks
As in previous years, a good opportunity to see a range of artists’ works that I would not otherwise come across. The art fair is a valuable introduction to some new and established artists “over 90 galleries, 16 new galleries, seven galleries from Asia, more than 400 artists”. A small selection.

Friday 13 September 2019 THEN, White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney
As always with this gallery, challenging and confronting works, commentary on contemporary China. “The gallery’s tenth anniversary exhibition presents works by more than 60 artists, all produced during the first ten years of Judith Neilson’s private collection (2000-2010)”.

Friday 30 August 2019 Guo Jian – Living the Dream, Defiance Gallery Mary Place, Paddington, Sydney
No matter the provocative titles for some of the works, although important, the inheritance of traditional Chinese landscape sensibility the main definitive aspect of the works, blend of modern issues and the traditional gives the works ‘the something else’.
“Guo Jian, and his art, are products of the last fifty years of violence and tumultuousness in China, from the Cultural Revolution in the 1960’s and 70s, to the Sino-Vietnam war at the beginning of the 80’s, and through to the horrors of the Tiananmen Square incident”
A selection

Friday 16 August 2019 Jo Bertini Land of the Shining Stone – Painting from the Deserts of New Mexico, Arthouse Gallery, Rushcutters Bay, Sydney
Compelling colours, light, movement, line, contrast – evocative works with presence. An artist “devoted to an understanding of the relationship between light, colour and topography in the desert. Jo Bertini has made beautiful sense of a desert with an entirely different character but the same harsh and enduring core.  Making sense of a desert does not mean revealing a vista or path through its topography. It is more about engaging with colour and light to reveal the desert’s complexity, without a single cause or effect – where the most fragile plant seems secure and where a hawk casts its imperious gaze at the passing traveller.”

Sunday 11 August 2019 Monet: Impression Sunrise, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Picked the wrong time to see this exhibition, a Sunday morning in the exhibition’s final weeks. Even though the entry was managed there were just too many people to view the works in any coherent sequence. There was a range of works by Monet (about 15 on loan from Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris). What was most interesting about the exhibition was the curation of works from other collections in Australia, NZ and the Tate, the influences and artist surrounding Monet. Works by other artist included:
Bonington , Boudin , Corot , Courbet , Daubigny , Delacroix , Jongkind , Morisot , Quost , Sisley, Turner, Whistler , Wright. “The works reveal the formative characteristics of Impressionism—depiction of light, purer colour and capturing the momentary view – by a new generation of artists who abandoned their studios for the world outside.” Worth the ticket price to see Turner’s Stormy sea with dolphins and Inverary Pier, Loch Fyne: Morning.
A selection

Saturday 10 August 2019 Ildiko Kovacs – The DNA of Colour, Drill Hall Gallery, Canberra
Interesting colour interactions but the works somehow lacking depth, motifs seem to be repeated ad nauseam when viewed en masse. The line rather than the roller paintings more interesting. From the online gallery site: “We follow the action of the artist’s body and arm via the movement of the loaded paint roller as it layers and weaves relationships in time and space, curling, overlapping or intertwining lines like twin strands of an unravelling double helix of DNA code. Her recent paintings of 2018 use graphite pencil to deeply inscribe linear patterns into lustrous hues of oil paint.” Perhaps it’s time to throw away the roller.

Installation viewsFriday 2 August 2019 Dick Watkins -Pain / Bread, Liverpool Street Gallery, Sydney
Thought it time to look again, the last Dick Watkins exhibition I saw was back in 2007. Abstract expressionist, calligraphic, gestural energy blast, colour and light, masterworks. “He works from not only what he knows about art from his intense study over five decades of Picasso and Pollock in particular, but from a vocabulary of his own painterly solutions.”

Wednesday 31 July 2019 Wirrimanu art from Balgo, AGNSW
Spatially dynamic, pointillist textural colour fields, formidable sense of place and connection to country – sublime

Some installation viewsFriday 26 July 2019 Shaun Gladwell: Pacific Unknown, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
Immersive perpetual motion video installations, a portal into what is familiar and yet other-worldly landscapes. Iconic slow motion images that stay vivid in memory. “Pacific Undertow spans two decades of the artist’s practice. It brings together different media to trace Gladwell’s obsessions with colonial and art histories, forms of everyday urban performance, and mortality.” Storm Sequence, 2000 – first major video work, rhythmic slow motion skateboarding, Bondi Beach with storm approaching. Approach to Mundi Mundi, 2007, made around the Broken Hill area, NSW. BMX Channel, 2013, freestyle, flatland bike riding in an evocative landscape.
Reference:
Shaun Gladwell: Pacific Undertow is a playful exercise in artistic rule-breaking, Joanna Mendelssohn, The Conversation, 8 August 2019

Some still shots from the videos

Friday 19 July 2019 Lockhart Legends, Kate Owen Gallery, Rozelle, Sydney
Some classics from the Lockhart River region North Queensland including works by Rosella Namok, Fiona Omeenyo, Samantha Hobson. Lyrical, expressionist, abstraction, all about connection to country, elemental. “Action painting, gestural, atmospheric with mood and emotion, the ‘Sand beach’ people where art and culture reflect deep understanding of the environment and its seasonal moods” Reference: Our Way Contemporary Aboriginal Art from Lockhart River, Sally Butler 2007

Friday 12 July 2019 James Drinkwater the sea calls me by name, Newcastle Art Gallery
Slow train travel from Sydney, virtually every stop along the Central Coast conurbation, wattle in full bloom, and time for spotting the ever adaptable wildlife – egrets coming into Woy Woy, black swans and a soaring sea eagle near Dora Creek, wallaby on the way into Awaba. Arrived at the exhibition full of anticipation. Found a lot of hard work and energy in this exhibition, prolific young artist in his early thirties, sculpture, ceramics, painting, vivid maybe a bit repetitive when seen en masse, but there is still plenty of time for evolution. “A growing reputation as an abstract painter who immerses himself in the environment of the places he paints exploring the connections between art, cultural and personal histories.”

Friday 12 July 2019 Virginia Cuppaidge – nature of abstraction, Newcastle Art Gallery
“A survey of the last forty plus years work. Four distinct periods including: The Geometric series (1972-onwards), Skyspace series (1980-1984), The Nature of painting series (1980s-90s), New York and Australia (1990s onwards). Mastery of light, balance, colour and form.” Minimalist abstracts, a refreshing tonic.

Friday 5 July 2019 Peter Godwin – Mask, Music and Studio, Defiance Gallery at Mary Place, Paddington, Sydney
Evolving colour abstraction, with echoes of interiors, landscape, and Chinese calligraphy.

Friday 5 July 2019 Reflections of a Fading Sky – group show,  Arthouse Gallery, Rushcutters Bay, Sydney
Impressive range of “work celebrating the Australian landscape and the artists who paint it.”
A selection

Saturday 29 June 2019 Michael Armitage: The Promised Land, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
Life experience driving painterly expression, subtle, the figurative, narrative works capture the context of and issues around life in Kenya, including mass gatherings of people at political rallies and demonstrations in the works titled The Fourth Estate and The Promised Land, descriptions of possessed women in Tanzania in Anthill. “His paintings are grounded in the social fabric and political dynamics of his homeland”.

Wednesday 26 June 2019 Jeffrey Smart – constructed world, AGNSW, Sydney
Master of stillness. Metaphysical: mind and matter. Realist, abstractionist, surrealist mix, “meticulously crafted paintings”, influenced by Cezanne (post-impressionism) and Piero della Francesca (perspective), I would add de Chirico, Goya (Stilts), and Drysdale to the mix.

Some art references and connections

Friday 21 June 2019 Joe Frost – Phantasms, Liverpool Street Gallery, Sydney
On a bright clear morning wind like ice needles in your face, just the right time for an uplifting “blend of both the abstract and the figurative”. Dry brushwork, depth, structure in strong evocative works.

Wednesday 12 June 2019 Walking with gods, Art Gallery NSW
Interesting stunning wide range of sculptures from the collection, should of course be on permanent display but for the space problem. “Mapping moments in time, key dynastic changes, stylistic evolutions and geographic wanderings, a journey through 2000 years of figurative sculpture, from Afghanistan to Indonesia, from the 1st to the 21st centuries, key deities and historical figures.” Difficult to view in peace and quiet with The Propeller Group’s The living need light, the dead need music video installation with loud soundtrack in the centre room, a complete distraction
A small sample

Friday 7 June 2019 Colours & Shapes of NSW, NSW Parliament House, Sydney
Cold, wet, windblown, winter morning, the best antidote a shot of abstract expressionist colour. Works by Alejandra Sieder, Charlie Olsson, Marisabel Gonzalez and Michelle Olsson, “four Sydney based artists, who have collaborated to produce a range of outstanding pieces celebrating Sydney and regional NSW. All works are different yet complimentary in common theme. They combine an abstract exploration with an explosion of uninhibited artistic concept by showing the vibrancy and life of outback NSW and coastal cosmopolitan Sydney.”

Friday 31 May 2019 Paintings from the Collection, State Library of NSW, Sydney
Worth return visits, on each visit discovering a couple of gems, not masterpieces but of their time with a sense of place. “More than 300 of the 1,200 paintings in the collection, two main genres: landscape studies and portraits. Landscapes directly influenced by European models which reflect the developing tastes and training of painters and their patrons as they gradually adjusted to the new world. Portraits initially of colonial officials, moving onto members of prominent families, aspirational emancipated convicts and finally literary and society figures.

Friday 31 May 2019  World Press Photo Exhibition , State Library NSW, Sydney
On a bright, clear, cold, last day of Autumn brought crashing back down to earth with visual reality shock in this exhibition, a documentary on contemporary life. “World’s best photojournalism, over 150 powerful and evocative single images and photo stories from across the globe covering news, contemporary issues, people , daily life, sport, portraits, nature, and the environment.”

Brett Stirton (South Africa), Petronella Chigumbura (30) a member of an all-female anti-poaching unit, Zimbabwe

Daniele Volpel (Italy), The living-room of an abandoned home in San Miguel Los Lotes, Guatemala after the eruption of Volcan de Fuego

Mario Cruz (Portugal),A child who collects recyclable material lies on a mattress surrounded by garbage floating on the Pasig River, Manila, Philippines

Jasper Doest (Netherlands), A Caribbean flamingo inspects the improvised socks created to help heal its severe foot lesions, at the Fundashon Dieren Onderwijs Cariben, Curacao

John T. Pedersen (Norway), Boxer Moreen Ajambo (30) trains at the Rhino boxing club in Kampala, Uganda

Finbarr O’Reilly (Canada/UK), Outfits by designer Adama Paris, in the Medina neighbourhood of the Senegalese capital Dakar

Pieter Ten Hoopen (Netherlands/Sweden), Central American migrants heading to the US border, Rio Novillero near Tapanatepec, Mexico

Wednesday 29 May 2019 Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes 2019, AGNSW, Sydney
There is always a danger in reading reviews before the show and having too many preconceived ideas about the experience. In this case one measured and one negative review. This year no problem in agreeing with the negative. “This is one of the poorest Archibalds in living memory”. The Archibald is more forgettable than usual, as is the Sulman. The Wynne however less so – Sylvia Ken’s Seven Sisters cosmic, magical,Tjungkara Ken’s Seven Sisters palette immediately evoking memory of place from field trips in Central Australia.
References:
Archibald Prize 2019, John McDonald, Sydney Morning Herald, 23 May 2019
The zen of portraiture: Tony Costa wins the 2019 Archibald Prize, Joanna Mendelssohn, The Conversation, 10 May 2019
Puckish charm and no politicians: the 2019 Archibald Prize, Joanna Mendelssohn, The Conversation, 3 May 2019

Friday 17 May 2019 Salon des Refusés 2019, S.H Ervin Gallery, Sydney
Visit to des refuses this year before the main event to see who is out, comparisons always interesting. Usual round-up of familiar suspects, good to see variety but still mystified by the selection process. A small selection.

Wednesday 15 May 2019 The Legacy of Duchamp, AGNSW, Sydney Sometimes it’s the associated works, the sideshow to the main event (The essential Duchamp exhibition) that is just as interesting. In this case works from the AGNSW collection otherwise usually unseen and unknown, good to see the works on display. “The physical world, realm of ideas” including conceptual, minimal, abstract, word and image, art signs with “embedded vernacular”.

Friday 10 May 2019 Kaldor Public Art Project 34 – Asad Raza Absorption, The Clothing Store, Carriageworks, Sydney
“Developed in consultation with biologists and environmental scientists, the project comprises an installation with organic elements that mediate interactions within the space. A number of Australian artists and scientists invited to develop interventions of their own within the space, which may take the form of installations, performances or experiments. Through this process, the work will evolve over the exhibiting period.” A mix of art and science, the soil mixture from many different places, created by a soil scientist. On the morning of my visit there was one person raking over a vast expanse of tonnes of soil, on the floor of a large heritage listed railway workshop shed, an otherwise vast empty space. It’s difficult to come to terms with some conceptual art and what the artist is on about. In a search for context, hunting for works from the past. In this case it brought to mind land art, an art movement that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s fostered by environmentalism, to capture the physicality of the site and the cultural meaning of the site, although in this case it seems to be connected more to what is in the soil rather than location. I had a nagging memory of something I had seen somewhere before and checked back through some art references, and found a high degree of similarity with Walter de Maria, New York Earth Room, 1977, although in this case it relates to art and science. In the end its ‘what you make of it’, art in the eye of the beholder although this work is challenging, when you arrive there seems to be nothing happening, you must read the artist’s statement before contemplation of what is in the end an indoor field of soil.

Wednesday 8 May 2019 The essential Duchamp, AGNSW, Sydney
Always compelled to see originals where possible, face-to-face, a whole new level of appreciation of iconic works, as in this exhibition. The context and imagination that triggered a new approach to creating art. A true revolutionary, “defined by intellect and invention, charged with eroticism and wit” Duchamp set the scene for conceptual art in the early 20^th century. The works so familiar now but incredibly radical for the time. Leap from Portrait of Dr Dumouchel (1910) to Nude Descending a Staircase (1912) to Bride (2013), then to the ready-mades: Hat rack (1917), Fountain (1917), Bicycle wheel (1913), Bottlerack (1914). Duchamp believed art should challenge the popular saying ‘stupid as a painter’ i.e. that painters only translate what they see and that painting is not an intellectual activity, rather that retinal vetting is to do with the brain, he wanted to move away from the retinal meaning as context, to perception, the creative act, artist as the medium and the spectator the creator.
References:
A conversation with Marcel Duchamp, 1956 – interview from NBC Wisdom series
Seeing desire: Marcel Duchamp’s Étant donnés (Speaker: Dr Jaime Tsai, Art History, National Art School), 12 September 2018, The Hidden Language of Art: Symbol and Illusion AGNSW lecture series 2018

 

 

 

 

Installation views

 

Friday 26 April 2019, HOT BLOOD, White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney
Confronting, explicit from the traditional to Mao’s late reign of terror to the contemporary impact of self-harm and yet all this is counterbalanced by conceptual ingenuity of the new wave artists. The exhibition “introduces 23 artists who are not afraid to take risks. Playful, irreverent – and sometimes downright subversive – they explore subjects ranging from sexual desire and bodily frailty to spiritual ecstasy and the need for human connection”.

 

 

Friday 19 April 2019 The National 2019 – New Australian Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
References, correlations, comparisons, completely unrelated artists working in their own milieu, but somehow there is artistic interconnections everywhere, from Miro to the Surrealists and abstract expressionists, to Guston and Albers.

 

 

Reference: In Abdul-Rahman Abdullah’s Pretty Beach, a fever of stingrays becomes a meditation on suffering, Ted Snell, The Conversation, 18 April 2019

Installation views
Works by Daisy Japulija, Sonia Kurarra, Ms Uhl, Tigila Nada Rawlins

Friday 12 April 2019 The National 2019 – New Australian Art, Carriageworks, Sydney
This venue has scale, large works can soar, no chance of being hemmed in, or falling victim to pristine white walls, window light, or clean crisp surroundings. The industrial setting works for this exhibition of some of the best Australian contemporary art.
A small selection.

 

 

Wednesday 10 April 2019  The National 2019 – New Australian Art, AGNSW
Koji Ryui, TOT 2018-19
An aesthetic where natural and found objects and simplicity combine, where less is more, an uplifting experience. The objects ‘are humble, nondescript and domestic’. He ‘upends and transcends the material conditions of a particular thing’
Installation views

Friday 5 April 2019 The Whiteley at 20: Twenty Years of the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship, S.H Ervin Gallery, Sydney
Features works of the 20 scholarship winning artists. ‘Established in 1999 to provide young painters with the opportunity to travel to Paris and Europe to develop their artistic practice.’ Pick a judge, pick a protégé, noticeable high degree of correlation between judge’s art practice and the scholarship recipient’s approach, different judge each year so there has been a diverse range of recipients. The works strong, fresh, alive with potential.Installation views

 

 

 

 

Friday 29 March 2019 Wildlife Photographer of the Year, Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney
This annual exhibition always delivers artistic thought provoking images.
‘On loan from the Natural History Museum in London, the exhibition features 100 extraordinary images that celebrate the diversity of the natural world, from intimate animal portraits to astonishing wild landscapes. Wildlife Photographer of the Year is the most prestigious photography event of its kind, running for more than 50 years. It has a pivotal role in providing a global platform to showcase the natural world’s most powerful and challenging imagery.’

 

 

 

 

Saturday 16 March 2019 Janet Laurence – After Nature, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
Ethereal, cosmic, the interconnection of all living things, but look closer at the plant and animal specimens in the transparent boxes, a much darker challenging reality check, the natural world on life support.
Installation views
Theatre of Trees, 2018-19
Deep breathing: Resuscitation for the Reef, 2015-16/2019
Heart Shock (After Nature), 2008/2019

Friday 8 March 2019 Love & Desire Pre-Raphaelite Masterpieces from the Tate , National Gallery of Australia
‘40 of the Tate’s most famous and best-loved works, alongside 40 loans from other British and Australian collections. With masterpieces such as John Everett Millais’ Ophelia, 1851–52, and William Holman Hunt’s The Awakening conscience, 1853.’
Over familiarity with the picturesque Victorian era made me less inclined to visit this exhibition, but then surprised by an experience to remember, seductive gleaming jewels, the narratives and symbolism in the paintings full of life.

 

 

 

 

Thursday 7 March 2019 Hassall Collection, Drill Hall Gallery, ANU
Another exceptional exhibition at this gallery, part of the Hassall collection of Australian art. A collector who really knew what he was doing. A rare convergence of some of the country’s best art, by well-known and until now obscure artists, works by Ralph Balson, Nyapanyapan Yunupingu, Ian Fairweather, Tony Tuckson, Emily Kame Kngwarreye, George Tjungurrayi, Harry Tjutjuna, Robert Klippel, Leo Loomans, Michael Buzacott, Tiger Palpatja, Nonggirrnga Marawili, Janangoo Butcher Cherel, John Peart, Jon Molvig, Kwiny Tjampawa, Ken Whisson, Rerrkirrwanga Munungurr, Rhonda and Susannah Hamlyn, Roy Jackson, Timothy Cook, Wakartu Cory Surprise, Wawiriya Burton.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some installation views

Wednesday 27 February 2019 Judy Watson- the edge of memory, AGNSW
A moment of extreme contrast while contemplating works in this exhibition, close by outrageous frivolity with a message in the Queer Art After Hours event, drag queens dancing to loud disco beat. Place packed so no time to linger but with regular visits to this exhibition each week over the past month, each experience revealed more depth in the works. Pigment soaked canvasses, Judy Watson works intuitively through listening to oral histories, travelling into country, and research of official records.
‘The whisperings of the past are central to the work of Aboriginal artist Judy Watson, who is interested in the indelible stain left on country by past events. Watson poignantly unveils hidden histories while tracing her matrilineal connection to country, the Waanyi lands of north-west Queensland. Her works play a significant role in remembering and illuminating aspects of our past that we often fail or refuse to see.’

 

Some installation views

Wednesday 13 February 2019 Heaven and earth in Chinese art: treasures from the National Palace Museum, Taipei, AGNSW
Features 87 treasures from the National Palace Museum, Taipei. Awe inspiring masterpieces I have only until now read about in many books on Chinese art. Including works from the Song (960-1279), Yuan (1279-1368), Ming (1368-1644), and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. ‘Scholar recluses painted landscapes for self-cultivation, noble loneliness of freedom from vulgarity.’

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday 6 February 2019 Masters of Modern Art from the Hermitage, AGNSW
In the early 20^th century, two collectors Sergey Shchukin and Ivan Morozov, had brilliant instinct and the money lode to amass avant-garde modern art, then the Russian revolution, nationalisation of the collection, and the actions of a dictator locked the works away for the better part of half a century. A small but significant sample of the works are in the AGNSW exhibition, like meeting old friends after a lifetime of correspondence through art books, DVDs but finally meeting in person for the first time. An exhibition where you don’t want to leave, to be able to remain in dialogue with the greats of modern art, Cezanne, Picasso, Matisse, Kandinsky, Bonnard, etc.

Installation views

Wednesday 30 January 2019 Brett Whiteley – drawing is everything, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney
The central place of drawing in all his works not to be underestimated, with many influences melded into some exceptional works, ironically appropriation and creative imitation (van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso, Auerbach, Bacon to name a few), secured his place as an original.

Installation views

Friday 25 January 2019 Arthur Boyd – Landscape of the Soul, National Art School, Sydney
Great to get the opportunity to view rarely seen works from the Bundanon collection. Boyd’s paintings always intriguing. Broad range: naturalistic, narrative, fantastic, biblical, mythological, landscapes of the imagination ‘the landscape and the imagination have married, that a psychological, intellectual, cultural and almost mystical exchange has taken place’ (reference: The Artist & The River – Arthur Boyd and the Shoalhaven, Sandra McGrath, 1982), encompasses symbols, facts, fantasy, the ideal, the natural, light, and order (reference Landscape into Art, Kenneth Clark 1949, history of western landscape painting).

 

 

 

Friday 18 January 2019 On Sharks and Humanity, Maritime Museum, Sydney
On a sweltering high summer Friday morning, refuge and immersion in some shark art, the ‘social, cultural, biological, and political issues related to shark and marine conservation’. Works from the Top End a stand out, but no photography allowed.

Wednesday 16 January 2019 Akira Isogawa, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney
Gestural abstraction in wearable soft sculpture. Artistic maestro with cloth, beads, and print on range of fabrics.

Wednesday 16 January 2019 Supernatural, White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney
This gallery always delivers exceptional exhibitions, another gripping, confronting experience of contemporary Chinese art. In part statement about the continuing unfolding catastrophic environmental disaster, rivers polluted with chemicals, landscapes blighted with plastic, the air choked with smog, a grim outlook for the future, and yet a glimmer of hope in the long tradition of reverence for the landscape as imagined in some of the works . Supernatural is a ‘voyage through earthly and unearthly realms, a journey through this re-imagined landscape of the 21^st century by China’s post-Mao artistic avant-garde’.

Friday 11 January 2019 Destination Sydney Re-imagined, S. H. Ervin Gallery – Jeffrey Smart, Nicholas Harding, Wendy Sharpe
Third part of a collaboration with two other Sydney public galleries, Manly Art Gallery & Museum (see 2018 exhibition post 11/12/2018) and Mosman Art gallery (see below).
Jeffrey Smart – master of stillness, Drysdale influence
Nicholas Harding – early works a reminder of Kossoff
Wendy Sharpe – expressionist colour extraordinaire

Friday 4 January 2019 Destination Sydney: Re-imagined, Mosman Art Gallery – Michael Johnson, Roy de Maistre, Robert Klippel
This exhibition part of a collaboration with two other Sydney public galleries, Manly Art Gallery & Museum (see 2018 exhibition post 11/12/2018) and S.H. Ervin Gallery, ‘responding to the important influence of Sydney as subject and theme’. Features rarely seen works, great theme for an exhibition, hopefully to continue into the future, an opportunity to renew knowledge and appreciation of the country’s artists past and present. Some comments excerpts from the catalogue.
Michael Johnson – lifelong reaction against conventional representation and traditional use of light and shadow. Used underpainting and over painting, the colour underneath the colour and the colour, the contraction and expansion of energy within a colour over the colour. Looking at colour as an abstract form, colour as a mobile energy. Moved to London in 1959. Returned to Australia in the late 1970s and reintroduced tactility and gesture into his work.
Roy de Maistre – relocation in 1930 from Sydney to London with its proximity to European and contemporary art movements transformed his art from representation to abstraction. His formative years in Australian modernism, in the inter-war period, away from naturalist and impressionist produced the earliest examples of Australian abstraction, an unreserved colourist.
Robert Klippel – first Australian modern abstractionist sculptor. For him abstraction always has a foothold in the observable world of lived reality, concept of abstraction as the simplified and reductionist stripping down of colours and complex forms to the barest and most essential elements of visual information, concise. An autodidact, artistic quest from the ordinary to the extraordinary, to materialise an idea rather than mimic an appearance.