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ART COLLECTOR

86
THE GLOBAL ISSUE + NATSIAA PICKS + ELISABETH CUMMINGS + JOHN STEZAKER + MORE
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21 NOV - 21 DEC 2018

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Image: James Geurts, Prime Meridian: International Date Line, 2018, neon light
Darryn
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31 October -
24 November 2018

Opening Preview:
Tuesday 30 October, 5-7pm

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26 LORNE ST / CNR KITCHENER ST & WELLESLEY ST AUCKLAND NZ
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JACQUI STOCKDALE
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JAKE WALKER
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Sydney +61 2 9380 9909
info@gallery9.com.au
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THE PLACE OF OUR SPIRIT

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OLSENGALLERY.COM Yaritji Young Tjala Tjukurpa (detail) acrylic on linen 198 x 152 cm Tjala Arts 2018
 CONT E NT S
THE GLOBAL ISSUE

ON THE COVER: Paul Yore, Happy Are Ye Poor, 2017. Mixed media
appliqué; found materials, iron-on printed fabric transfers, wool,
beads, sequins buttons, 230 x 207cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND
NEON PARC, MELBOURNE. PHOTO: DEVON ACKERMANN.

U PF RON T

29 52
NEWS & EVENTS BEHIND THE SCENES
News and views on the art world. How does international success effect an
Australian artist’s market back home?
34
IN THE WORKS 59
Visual Arts 101 with critic Edward Colless. SURVEY
What makes a collection memorable?
38
EXHIBITION 62
Everything you need to know about the CULTURAL CAPITAL
9th Asia Pacific Triennial. Carrie Miller and Andrew Frost discuss some
of the reasons people collect art.
44
ART FAIRS 70
The forthcoming art fairs on our calendars. ON THE COUCH
We speak to the curators, directors and
47 gallerists at the coalface of the global stage.
AGENDA
What happens to an artist when a gallery closes? 76
Ingrid Periz asks. NOT TO BE MISSED
The must-see exhibitions this quarter.
48
LIFECYCLE OF A COLLECTOR 88
Ideas for the collector who has already filled the IF I COULD HAVE…
house (and the beach house) with art. Curator Kate Britton presents the artwork on
her wish list.

9
 ART COLLECTOR
ARTISTS COLLECTING # 8 6 O CT - D E C 2 0 1 8

90 176
WHAT NOW? ART CENTRE:
Editor-In-Chief
Our writers speak to three established THE INNOVATORS
artists about their recent work. Susan Borham
Tjungu Palya Art Centre may be small, but its
influence is profound. Publisher
96 Beatrice Spence
WHAT NEXT? 182
We introduce the work of three Editor
artists for your radar.
DEALER: IMAGINE WHAT Camilla Wagstaff
YOU DESIRE
Hobart-based dealer Michael Bugelli on Assistant Editor
106 combining the old and the new. Kirsty Sier
CRITIC’S C HOICE
The artists who have recently captured
curator Francis McWhannell’s attention.
188 Art Director
Louise Summerton
COLLECTOR:
THE ART MACHINE
114 We roam through the five-level warehouse of
Senior Designer
Justine Scott
NATSIAA PICK OF THE CROP Peter Wilson and James Emmet – complete
Our wrap on some of the standout works from with its rotating moveable art racks. Interns
this year’s National Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Annie Tonkin, Rose Leake,
Islander Art Awards.
196 Zoe Zheng
PR EVIEWS
124 Three notable commercial gallery exhibitions
Associate Editors

GLOBAL WARMING Dr Alan Cholodenko

across Australia and New Zealand this quarter.
Local artists setting the world stage on fire. Dr Edward Colless
Michael Hutak
204
138 John Young
ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS Dr Rex Butler
BEING TIMELESS Recent exhibitions reviewed by our writers in Professor James Choo
Sasha Grishin discusses how Elisabeth 30 words or less.
Cummings has made her mark on Australian
Editorial Inquiries
painting forever.
208 Camilla Wagstaff

148 OFF THE WALL Subscription Inquiries

Tai Mitsuji explains why Daniel Buren’s recent
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exhibition at Carriageworks blew him away.
John Hurrell on the eerie photo-collages of artcollector.net.au/subscribe
John Stezaker.
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Lucinda Bennett delves into the bold, visceral
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168 Beatrice Spence
PERFECT STRANGENESS
Dawn Ng’s reflective practice touches a
chord in us all, Micheal Do writes.

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ISSN 1440-8902

10
 ART BASEL
MIAMI BEACH
V I N C E N T N A M AT J I R A
 Luke Willis Thompson
HOPKINSON MOSSMAN
Turner Prize 2018
Level 1
19 Putiki Street
Tate Britain
Arch Hill
Auckland 26 Sep 2018 — 06 Jan 2019

HOPKINSON MOSSMAN
Level 2
Ruth Buchanan
22 Garrett Street
Te Aro
Walters Prize 2018
Wellington
Auckland Art Gallery
’Œ’¥„ŽŒ
18 Aug 2018 — 20 Jan 2019

Nick Austin
Dane Mitchell
Ruth Buchanan
Fiona Connor New Zealand Pavilion
58th International
Bill Culbert
Oscar Enberg
Nicola Farquhar
Milli Jannides
Nicholas Mangan
Art Exhibition
Dane Mitchell
Tahi Moore
La Biennale di Venezia
Emma McIntyre
Oliver Perkins 11 May 2019 —
Peter Robinson
Renee So 24 Nov 2019
Shannon Te Ao
Luke Willis Thompson

hopkinsonmossman.com
Denis O’Connor | Echo’s Tree
26 October - 24 November 2018
Two Rooms 16 Putiki St Newton, Auckland, New Zealand | 64(9) 360 5900 | info@tworooms.co.nz | tworooms.co.nz
Denis O’Connor, Echo’s Tree, 2018, china clay on slate-capped tree stump. Photo: Haru Sameshima

Lucinda Bennett is the 2017 curatorial in-
tern at Dunedin Public Art Gallery prior to
which she was a curator at The University
of Auckland’s Window project space. She is
based in Aotearoa.
Kate Britton’s current curatorial concerns
centre around queer theory and practice, and
the dialogue between writing, text and con-
temporary art. She is a Sydney-based writer
and curator.
Dr Rex Butler’s research interests include
Australian art and art criticism, post-war
American art and critical theory. He is an art
historian and professor at Monash University
in Melbourne.
Laura Couttie is an independent writer, ed-
itor, curator and arts administrator based in
Melbourne.
Edward Colless lectures in critical and theo-
retical studies at the Victorian College of the
Arts, University of Melbourne. He is also the
editor of Art + Australia.
Dr Ashley Crawford is the author of a num-
ber of books on Australian art, including
Transformations: The Work of Sonia Payes
and Spray: The Work of Howard Arkley.
Ineke Dane is interested in overlaps between
architecture, politics, society and the envi-
ronment, and a progression towards seam-
lessness between art and life. She is a curator
currently based in Brisbane where she works
with the international studio Urban Art
Projects.
Micheal Do recently curated Soft Core, a
travelling exhibition for Casula Powerhouse
Arts Centre and Not Niwe, Not Nieuw, Not
Neu for 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian
Art in Sydney.
CONTRIBUTORS
Briony Downes has worked in the arts for more
than 20 years as a writer, actor and art theory
tutor, among other things.
Gina Fairley is the current the visual arts editor
for ArtsHub Australia.
Dr Andrew Frost is an art critic, broadcaster
and lecturer.
Professor Sasha Grishin has published 17 books
and more than 1,000 articles. He is an emeritus
of the school of literature, languages and linguis-
tics at the Australian National University.
Leonhard Hilzensauer is a photographer based
in Vienna.
Jesse Hunniford is a Tasmania-based photogra-
pher and videographer.
John Hurrell is the editor of EyeContact and is
a New Zealand-based writer, artist and curator.
Victoria Hynes has been a columnist for the
Sydney Morning Herald and written for numer-
ous Australian and international art magazines.
Based in Sydney, she is currently contributing
editor at Asian Art News magazine.
Paris Lettau is currently a sessional tutor in art
history at the University of Melbourne.
Jane Llewellyn, a former editor of Art Collector,
is based in Adelaide.
Jacquie Manning is a photographer based in
Sydney.
Louise Martin-Chew is a freelance arts writer.
Helen McKenzie conducts international art
tours for Art Collector subscribers and readers
and works out of Sydney as an art adviser and
freelance writer.
14
Francis McWhannell has contributed to a va-
riety of arts and culture magazines and web-
sites including Art News New Zealand, HOME
and Runway Conversations. He is based in New
Zealand and co-curated Project 18 as part of
this year’s Auckland Art Fair.
Joanna Mendelssohn is an art historian spe-
cialising in Australian art.
Carrie Miller is a freelance writer based in
Wollongong.
Tai Mitsuji holds a masters in art history from
the University of Oxford. He has contributed
to publications including Art and Australia,
Art Monthly Australasia, Art Guide Australia
and The Sydney Morning Herald. Based in
Sydney, he also works as a curator.
Andrew Nicholls is an artist, writer and cura-
tor based in Western Australia.
Jane O’Sullivan has written for publications
including the Australian Financial Review,
Artnet, Art Guide and Ocula. She is a former
editor of Art Collector.
Ingrid Periz writes about contemporary art
from her home outside Princeton, New Jersey.
Tan Walter is a photographer and creative di-
rector based in Singapore.
Coen Young is a Sydney-based artist.
CORRECTION: In issue 85 of Art Collector, we stated
that Anthea Polson Art was in Brisbane. In fact, Anthea
Polson Art is in Main Beach.
 Star kwhite is pleased to announce Fiona Pardington is represented in
Oceania at the Royal Academy of Ar ts 29 September — 10 December 2018
with 5 wor ks from the ser ies The Pressure of Sunlight Falling
this project has been suppor ted by Creative New Zealand

Image: Fiona Pardington Portrait of a life cast of Kakaley (painted), Solomon Islands, 2010
with thanks Musée de l’Homme (Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle), Paris

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

G R A H A M LAN G | IN N ERT IDES
14 N OV EM B E R - 9 D E C EMBER 2018

D E S PA R D GA L L E RY
L EVEL 1 • 1 5 C A S T R AY E SP L A N A D E
HOB A RT • TA S M A NI A • 7 0 0 0
P : 03 6 2 2 3 8 2 6 6
E : h o b a r t @ d e s p a rd - g a l l e r y. c o m . a u
w w w. desp ard - galle r y. c o m . a u
Force of Nature, 2018, oil on board, 122 x 91.5 cm
 MICHEILA PETERSFIELD | A World of M y Own
17 OCTOBER - 11 NOV EMBE R 2 0 1 8

D E S PA R D GA L L E RY
L E V E L 1 • 1 5 C AST R AY E SP L A N A D E
H O B A RT • TA S M A N I A • 7 0 0 0
P: 0 3 6 2 2 3 8 2 6 6
E : h o b a r t @ d e s p a rd - g a l l e r y. c o m . a u
www.desp a rd -g a l l e r y. c o m . a u
Birds, 2018, digital print on archival paper, 120 x 80 cm, edition of 5
 GRAHAM FLETCHER
Dark Paradise
18 October - 11 November 2018

Untitled (Mother, Child and Animal Figurine), 2018, oil on linen, 122 x 122cm (detail)
<U[P[SLKTHYRLYWLUVUWHWLYJT/_JT>MYHTL7OV[V!2HSSHU4HJ3LVK

18 SEP - 13 OCT 2018

SALOME TANUVASA
ALEXANDER McKENZIE
seen across water
15 November - 9 December 2018

more than many sparrows, 2018, oil on linen, 197 x 350 cm (detail)
 NARELLE AU- LISA ROET
TIO SALLY BOURKE PAUL SLOAN TIM
NADINE CHRISTENSEN STERLING JUSTINE VARGA SERA
JAMES DARLING & LESLEY WATERS AMY JOY WATSON PAUL YORE
FORWOOD JAMES DODD TONY NARELLE AUTIO SALLY BOURKE NADINE
GARIFALAKIS DAVID BOOTH [GHOSTPA- CHRISTENSEN JAMES DARLING & LESLEY
TROL] LUCAS GROGAN ILDIKO KOVACS JAN- FORWOOD JAMES DODD TONY GAR-
ET LAURENCE RICHARD LEWER WILLIAM MACK- IFALAKIS DAVID BOOTH [GHOSTPA-
INNON FIONA MCMONAGLE NANA OHNESORGE TROL] LUCAS GRO- GAN ILDIKO KOVACS
TRENT PARKE ELVIS RICHARDSON LISA ROET PAUL JANET LAURENCE RICHARD LEWER
SLOAN TIM STERLING JUSTINE VARGA WILLIAM MACKINNON FIONA MCMONAGLE
SERA WATERS AMY JOY NANA OHNESORGE TRENT PARKE ELVIS
WATSON PAUL YORE RICHARDSON LISA ROET PAUL SLOAN TIM
NARELLE AUTIO SALLY STERLING JUSTINE VAR- GA SERA WATERS AMY
BOURKE NADINE CHRIS- JOY WATSON PAUL YORE NARELLE AUTIO SALLY
TENSEN JAMES DARLING BOURKE NADINE CHRIS- TENSEN JAMES DARLING
& LESLEY FORWOOD & LESLEY FORWOOD JAMES DODD TONY GAR-
JAMES DODD TONY GAR- IFALAKIS DAVID BOOTH [GHOSTPATROL] LUCAS
IFALAKIS DAVID BOOTH GROGAN ILDIKO KO- VACS JANET LAURENCE
[GHOSTPATROL] LUCAS RICHARD LEWER WILLIAM MACKINNON FIONA MC-
GROGAN ILDIKO KOVACS MONAGLE NANA OHNE- SORGE TRENT PARKE ELVIS
JANET LAURENCE RICH- RICHARDSON LISA ROET PAUL SLOAN TIM STER-
ARD LEWER WILLIAM LING JUSTINE VARGA SERA WATERS AMY JOY WAT-
MACKINNON FIONA MC- SON PAUL YORE NARELLE AUTIO SALLY BOURKE
MONAGLE NANA OHNE- NADINE CHRISTENSEN JAMES DARLING & LESLEY
SORGE TRENT PARKE FORWOOD JAMES DODD TONY GARIFALAKIS DAVID
ELVIS RICHARDSON LISA BOOTH [GHOSTPATROL] LUCAS GROGAN ILDIKO
ROET PAUL SLOAN TIM KOVACS JANET LAURENCE RICHARD LEWER WILLIAM
STERLING JUSTINE VAR- MACKINNON FIONA MC- MONAGLE NANA OHNE-
GA SERA WATERS AMY SORGE TRENT PARKE ELVIS RICHARDSON LISA ROET
JOY WATSON PAUL YORE PAUL SLOAN TIM STER- LING JUSTINE VARGA SERA
NARELLE AUTIO SALLY WATERS AMY JOY WAT- SON PAUL YORE NARELLE
BOURKE NADINE CHRIS- AUTIO SALLY BOURKE NADINE CHRISTENSEN
TENSEN JAMES DARLING JAMES DARLING & LESLEY FORWOOD JAMES DODD
& LESLEY FORWOOD TONY GARIFALAKIS DAVID BOOTH [GHOSTPATROL]
JAMES DODD TONY GAR- LUCAS GROGAN ILDIKO KOVACS JANET LAURENCE
IFALAKIS DAVID BOOTH RICHARD LEWER WILLIAM MACKINNON FIONA MC-
[GHOSTPATROL] LUCAS MONAGLE NANA OHNE- SORGE TRENT PARKE
GROGAN ILDIKO KOVACS ELVIS RICHARDSON LISA ROET PAUL SLOAN TIM
JANET LAURENCE RICH- STERLING JUSTINE VAR- GA SERA WATERS AMY
ARD LEWER WILLIAM JOY WATSON PAUL YORE NARELLE AUTIO SALLY
MACKINNON FIONA MC- BOURKE NADINE CHRIS- TENSEN JAMES DARLING
MONAGLE NANA OHNE- & LESLEY FORWOOD JAMES DODD TONY
SORGE TRENT PARKE GARIFALAKIS DAVID BOOTH [GHOSTPATROL]
ELVIS RICHARDSON LISA LUCAS GROGAN IL- DIKO KOVACS JANET
ROET PAUL SLOAN TIM LAURENCE RICH- ARD LEWER WILLIAM
STERLING JUSTINE VAR- MACKINNON FIONA MCMONAGLE NANA
GA SERA WATERS AMY OHNESORGE TRENT PARKE ELVIS RICH-
JOY WATSON PAUL YORE ARDSON LISA ROET PAUL SLOAN TIM
NARELLE AUTIO SALLY STERLING JUSTINE VARGA SERA WATERS
BOURKE NADINE CHRIS- AMY JOY WATSON PAUL YORE NARELLE
TENSEN JAMES DARLING & AUTIO SALLY BOURKE NADINE CHRISTENSEN
LESLEY FORWOOD JAMES DODD TONY GARIFALAKIS DAVID JAMES DARLING & LESLEY FORWOOD JAMES
BOOTH [GHOSTPATROL] LUCAS GROGAN ILDIKO KOVACS JANET DODD TONY GARIFALAKIS DAVID
LAURENCE RICHARD LEWER WILLIAM MACKINNON FIONA MC- BOOT H [ G H O S T PATROL]
MONAGLE NANA OHNESORGE TRENT PARKE ELVIS RICHARDSON LUCAS GROGAN

DECADE
C E L E B R AT I N G T E N Y E A R S

20 N OV E M B E R - 12 D E C E M B E R
T 08 8331 8000 E mail@hugomichellgallery.com W hugomichellgallery.com
CEARA METLIKOVEC MAYA

FOX JENSEN
OCT / NOV 2018
 FIONA LOWRY
The ties that bind
18 October - 11 November 2018

Sometimes your a stranger to me, 2018, acrylic on canvas, 210 x 260 cm

 Nicholas Harding, Wilpena Wattle and Scrub, 2018, oil on linen, 183 x 245cm

NICHOLAS HARDING
NEW PAINTINGS
17 NOVEMBER - 8 DECEMBER

SOPHIEGANNONGALLERY.COM.AU
Arriving in the East End, 2018, Oil on canvas, 240 x 180cm

JAMES DRINKWATER
Looking For Urchins and Louis Ferrari
11 Oct – 3 Nov

12 – 14 Meagher Street nandahobbs.com

Chippendale \ NSW \ 2008 info@nandahobbs.com
NOVEMBER – DECEMBER

Christopher Pease, Target 3, 2018, (detail), oil on canvas, 155x290cm

170-174 ABBOTSFORD ST, NORTH MELBOURNE

+61 3 9329 1860 WWW.GALLERYSMITH.COM.AU GALLERYSMITH_ GALLERYSMITH
 UPFRONT | NEWS + EVENTS

THE OLD AND THE NEW

What’s in store for this year’s iteration of the annual TARNANTHI festival.
WORDS: JANE LLEWELLYN

Installation view of TARNANTHI: Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2017.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND ART GALLERY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA, ADELAIDE. PHOTO: SAUL STEED.

TARNANTHI, the Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA)’s
annual festival celebrating Indigenous contemporary art,
will this year focus on master bark painter John Mawurnd-
jul through the major touring exhibition, I am the old and the
new. Tarnanthi alternates between an expansive city-wide
festival one year, followed by a focus exhibition the next, as
well as the annual art fair at Tandanya.
I am the Old and New, which presents stories central to Kun-
injku culture, was co-curated by the AGSA, Sydney’s Museum
of Contemporary Art (MCA), Mawurndjul and Maningrida
Arts & Culture, and is the culmination of three years of work.
“It’s a really amazing project because we’ve been led by the
artists and we’re working with Mawurndjul in his first lan-
guage of Kuninjku, so we’re able to share his journey through
his country in his words,” says artistic director Nici Cumpston.
The exhibition celebrates Mawurndjul’s 40-year ca-
reer as an artist and in particular his mastery of rarrk
(cross-hatching) and his depiction of Djang (sacred sites).
On display are a large number of his bark paintings along
with a series of etchings, his hollow log coffins and a suite
of mimih – the tall, skinny, mischievous spirits that live
in the rocky country. “Just to see the fineness of the rar-
rk in the paintings and the way he creates the shimmery
powerful effect is quite phenomenal. It’s also incredible
to see so many paintings at once, it’s really powerful,”
says Cumpston.

29
 U P F RUOPN
FTR O| N N
T E| WASG E
+ NEDVAE N T S

“It’s a really amazing project because we’ve been led by the artists and we’re working with Mawurndjul
in his first language of Kuninjku, so we’re able to share his journey through his country in his words.”
NICI CUMPSTON

Installation view of John Mawurndjul: I am the old and the new, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2018. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND MCA, SYDNEY. PHOTO: JESSICA MAURER

Created especially to accompany the

exhibition is a website, johnmawurndjul.
com. Here visitors can learn Kuninjku and
travel through country visiting significant
sites. “It’s fantastic you can travel through
country and go to all of the different sites
and hear how to pronounce their names. In
some cases, there is footage of Mawurndjul
talking about a place or talking about a par-
ticular painting that relates to it,” explains
Cumpston.
In addition to the major exhibition at
AGSA is the art fair at Tandanya, held on
the opening weekend. With 46 Art Centres
participating, the fair allows collectors and
art enthusiasts the opportunity to purchase
artworks directly from the artists, with
work available from $50 to $5,000.

JOHN MAWURNDJUL: I AM THE OLD AND

THE NEW SHOWS AT TARNANTHI, ART
GALLERY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA FROM 26
OCTOBER 2018 TO 28 JANUARY 2019.
TARNANTHI ART FAIR IS HELD AT THE
TANDANYA NATIONAL ABORIGINAL
Installation view of TARNANTHI: Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art, Art Gallery of South Australia, CULTURAL INSTITUTE FROM 26–28
Adelaide, 2017. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND ART GALLERY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA, ADELAIDE. PHOTO: SAUL STEED. OCTOBER 2018.

30
 WILLIAM KENTRIDGE

Untitled (Drawing from Wozzeck 8) (detail), 2016 charcoal and red pencil on Hahnemuhle paper 53.2 x 78.2 cm

Right Into Her Arms

drawings • sculpture • woodcuts • kinetic model theatre installation

Opening Reception for the Artist Saturday October 6

KARYN TAYLOR

SANDERSON.CO.NZ
 Todd Fuller
Convicts and Queens:
a passionate history of Australia
5 TO 22 DECEMBER, 2018

MAY
409b George Street Todd Fuller, 1872, 2018, digital video, 10:00 mins, edition of 8
Wa t e r l o o N S W 2 0 1 7 Cinematographer: Emma Conroy
www.mayspace.com.au Producer: Tyler Hawkins

SPACE info@mayspace.com.au
t.+61 2 9318 1122
Actors: Ian Roberts, Brandy Martignago
Composition: Paul Smith
 U P F RON T | I N T H E WOR K S

IN THE WORKS
Visual arts 101: lessons in influential artworks and their significance.
WORDS: EDWARD COLLESS

BACK IN THE PREHISTORY of the World Wide Web, in a 1969
interview in Playboy, the media theorist Marshall McLuhan
prophesied that electronic media –  which he called an exten-
sion of the human central nervous system – could soon create a
“universality of consciousness”, and that one should “expect to
see the coming decades transform the planet into an art form”.
We have certainly witnessed daunting vectors of terraforming
since McLuhan’s prophecy; although whether climate change,
the geopolitics of globalisation, and the platform capitalism of
the Web 2.0 could be called art forms might be arguable. But
in 2002, with no less oracular insight, the international bio-art
syndicate SymbioticA (among other feats, known for growing
Stelarc’s grafted third ear) produced, or activated, an experi-
mental work of art that invoked the darker 21st-century glob-
al dimension of information technology. In a small crypt-like
basement room at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image
in Melbourne, two articulated robotic arms – driven by elec-
trical and hydraulic musculature that theatrically clicked and
huffed – nervously stretched and contracted across a clinical
slab to draw abstract doodles on a large sheet of paper. These
enigmatic sketches looked as if they could have been done in
Kandinsky’s studio; or, alternatively, by a child in kindergarten.
Guiding these squiggles was something very strange, and still
today quite disturbing to consider. Sensors recorded the pres-
ence and movement of human traffic in the room, the signals
of which were transmitted by internet to a neuro-engineering
laboratory in Atlanta in the USA, where they were fired into a
vat containing a cultured biomass of nerve cells. Behaving like a
brain, this organ then reacted to the electrical stimuli, sending
its own electrical impulses in real time response back to the
room in Melbourne, where these triggered movements in the
device’s insect-like limbs. The drawings were in fact intimate
and specific portraits of the gallery visitors who, entering the
room, encountered the sensory organs of a planetary-scaled
nervous system. It may have had a rudimentary brain, but this
bio-cybernetic artist (SymbioticA called it “semi-living”) was
evidently observant.
Was it also sentient? Did it have any consciousness of its servi-
tude as a ghost in the shell, of its imprisonment as an entertain-
ment to the gallery visitors? Was the art it produced merely like
the gestures of a Ouija board in which we playfully entertain a
voice from the “other side”, or like a Rorschach blot in which we
therapeutically confess to our unconscious wishes? Perhaps those
marks were the scribbling of an interred Dalek-like neuronal or-
ganism gone mad. Or, more threatening and promising, the early
steps of an AI’s infantile stage when learning to communicate with
the world: messages in the arcane language of an altogether exotic
creature, signalling the incarnation of a new species.
It’s appropriate to revisit this extraordinary work of art today
with the 200th anniversary of the publication of Mary Shel-
ley’s Frankenstein. The aesthetic as well as ethical quandaries of
Shelley’s Promethean gothic hero are vividly resurrected in this
work, as is the pathos of his vivisected and re-animated crea-
ture. (The brain of the work, for instance, had to be terminated
after the exhibition, by turning off the life-support mechanism
that fed it.) But perhaps the most beguiling visionary aspect of
SymbioticA’s work is embedded in its strange title: MEART.
That monstrous hybrid of “meat”, and “art” also contains “me”.
Could this not be a premonition of the tentacular cyborgian
sprawl of social media with its ubiquitous sensory organs track-
ing every human movement, and paying us off in the global cur-
rency of the selfie?

34
 U P F RON T | I N T H E WOR K S

Guy Ben-Ary, Phil Gamblen, Oron Catts, Steve Potter and Douglas Bakkum, MEART, 2002. Installation view. COURTESY: THE ARTISTS. PHOTO: PHIL GAMBLEN.

35
Patju Presley, Kumpukura 2017, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 137 x 140 cm

PATJU
PRESLEY
in association with Spinifex Arts Project
www.vivienandersongallery.com
28 November – 16 December 2018
 EXHIBITION

THE 9TH ASIA PACIFIC TRIENNIAL OF

CONTEMPORARY ART 38
Since its first iteration 25 years ago, the Asia Pacific Triennial has attracted more than 3 million
visitors. Here’s what you need to know about the hotly anticipated forthcoming exhibition.
WOR D S : LOU I S E M A RT I N - C H E W

39
 EXHIBITION

THE QUEENSLAND ART Gallery of Modern Art’s signa-

ture exhibition, The Asia Pacific Triennial (APT), is back
this year in its ninth iteration with a glorious clash of ma-
“Among the many voices are displacement
terials and media in its presentation of new work from
a multiplicity of cultures. This year’s newcomers include
stories, personal and universal narratives,
the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Autonomous Re- work about the sea and the islands, and
gion of Bougainville and the Solomon Islands, and Laos
– with a depth of focus on artists from Bangladesh and the movement of people.” ZARA STANHOPE
the Pacific.
There is also the greatest representation of First Nation
artists yet seen in a Triennial, including Australia’s Jona-
than Jones and New Zealand’s Lisa Reihana. Amidst this
cacophony of aesthetics (81 artists from 30 countries),
the narratives of women emerge most strongly, with their
stories of innovating tradition, matriarchal cultures, the
impact of digital media on spirituality, the agency of the
body and the vulnerability of the natural environment.
Also evident are ideas about utopias and dystopias, alter-
native concepts of wealth, and shifting ideas of labour,
with materials and techniques that are new and exotic
and ancient.
It is the ability of APT9 to weave the personal and polit-
ical into vibrant cultural forms that curatorial manager of
Asian and Pacific Art Zara Stanhope sees as key, togeth-
er with an increasingly urgent environmental commen-
tary. “Among the many voices are displacement stories,
personal  and universal narratives, work about the sea
and the islands, and the movement of people,” she says.
“There is a softness too, which offers a way to engage.”
One of the most astonishing works in this APT is Ai-
sha Khalid’s monumental Water has never feared the fire
(2018), titled from the words of 13th-century Persian
poet Rumi. Born in 1972 in Lahore, Pakistan, Khalid is
best known for her traditional miniature painting style,
which she has taken into social and political commentary,
and has garnered a strong international collector follow-
ing. The work she is creating for the exhibition reflects
the recent direction of her practice into large-scale tap-
estries using thousands of gold and silver-plated pins.
Made on three hanging structures measuring more than
five metres high, its design is based on the quadrilater-
al garden layout of the Charbagh (four gardens in Urdu).
Curator Tarun Nagesh describes its unique qualities: “It
shimmers and appears from a distance like fabric. When
you get closer you get a sense of something quite rigid,
strong and sharp.” Lahore is noted for the vitality of its
artists, and Khalid’s work offers a commentary on the
role of textiles and techniques associated with growing
up in Pakistan.

PREVIOUS SPREAD: Monira Al Qadiri, Alien Technology, 2014, detail.

COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND QUEENSLAND ART GALLERY OF MODERN
ART, BRISBANE.
RIGHT: Elizabeth Watsi Saman, preparing Tsinsu, Women’s Wealth
workshop, Nazareth Rehabilitation Centre, 2017, Chabai, Autonomous
Region of Bougainville.
COURTESY: WOMEN’S WEALTH, CHABAI. PHOTO: RUTH MCDOUGALL.

40
41
 EXHIBITION

The old ways are also subject matter for Monira Al Qa-
diri, who was born in Dakar in 1983 and lives and works
in Berlin. Yet her interests take the old into the new, with
the current oil mining industry juxtaposed with the ear-
lier pearl-diving that dominated the Gulf. A four-sided
video installation called Diver (2018) takes these ideas
into an immersive presence. Conjuring the atmosphere
of a huge aquarium, a group of synchronised swimmers
wear diachronic suits that mimic both the aesthetic of oil
film and the surface of pearls. Their movements echo the
repetitive movements of divers while the soundtrack is a
contemporary remix of traditional Kuwaiti diving songs.
A sculpture called Alien Technology, also rendered in
diachronic colours, draws on the industrial forms of the
mining industry yet appears strangely organic. Curator
Ellie Buttrose said that Al Qadiri’s work highlights that
“wealth is generated from this hidden aesthetic. Mass in-
dustrial forms are given a beautiful surface.”
The APT’s impact on drawing new work from the
region is evidenced by two women’s projects involving
weaving from the Marshall Islands – JAKI-ED PROJECT
– and Women’s Wealth from the Autonomous Region of
Bougainville (which also involves artists from the Sol-
omon Islands and Australia). Curator Ruth McDougall
is proud that both projects have an ability to convey
“the richness of those cultural practices and a better un-
derstanding of that place. Some operate with shell and
woven valuables that articulate a different economy, a
relationship economy that continues.” For her, these
artworks from the Pacific engage audiences in different
ways of understanding and being in the world, a sensi-
bility that has laid at the heart of every APT.
THE 9TH ASIA PACIFIC TRIENNIAL OF CONTEMPORARY ART
SHOWS AT THE QUEENSLAND ART GALLERY | GALLERY OF
MODERN ART FROM 24 NOVEMBER 2018 TO 28 APRIL 2019.

Aisha Khalid, Water has never feared the fire, 2018, detail. Fabric, gold-plated and steel pins, triptych: 492.75 x 167.65cm; 492.75 x 83.8cm;
492.75 x 83.8cm. Commissioned for APT9. The Kenneth and Yasuko Myer Collection of Contemporary Asian Art.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND QUEENSLAND ART GALLERY OF MODERN ART, BRISBANE.

42
Wattle and Box, Spring Creek, 2018, oil on board, 86 x 91 cm (detail) Sunrise, 2018, oil paint and graphite on plywood, 90 x 60 cm (detail)

AJ TAYLOR ILDIKO KOVACS

Impromptu New Ground
20 September - 14 October 2018

FAIREST OF
THEM ALL
The international art fairs you should
have on your radar this quarter.
WORDS: HELEN MCKENZIE
PARIS PHOTO
Grand Palais
Public Days: 8–11 November 2018
Claire Monneraye – who joined Agence
France-Muséums in January this year as ex-
hibition manager after many years as a cura-
tor with the Australian Centre for Photogra-
phy in Melbourne – says Paris Photo is “most
definitely one of the premier photographic
fairs in the world. It is also one of the most
commercially successful.” The selection of
the 250 galleries into the fair is a delicate
balance, as organisers wish to present to visi-
tors “a rare opportunity to revisit the classics
and discover new works”, notes Monner-
aye. “Paris Photo does not happen in a silo.
During the fair, the city is booming with
alternative propositions by independent or-
ganisers that cater for an audience eager to
see a different offering.”
Monneraye makes special mention of Syd-
ney’s now-closed Stills Gallery, which attend-
ed Paris Photo over many years, and in her
view “no doubt contributed to a better knowl-
edge of Australian contemporary photogra-
phy here; [the gallery showed Australian pho-
tographers including] Trent Parke, Patrick
Pound, Pat Brassington, Ricky Maynard and
Justine Varga, amongst many others. I have
fond memories of seeing audiences discover-
ing the amazing work of James Tylor.”
U P F R O N T | A R T FA I R S
Delphine Diallo, Highness - Hybrid I, 2011.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND FISHEYE GALLERY, PARIS.
44
Installation view of Take Ninagawa
gallery, Art Basel Miami Beach, 2017.
COURTESY: ART BASEL, MIAMI
ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH
Miami Beach Convention Center
VIP: 5 December 2018
Vernissage: 6 December 2018
Public days: 6–9 December 2018
There would be little point heading to New
York to see art while Art Basel Miami Beach
is in swing. 93 of New York’s top galleries will
be in Miami. Known as the most important
art fair for the Americas, galleries all over the
world vie for the chance to show their artists
here. Auckland Gallerist Sarah Hopkinson
says the fair has its own character, quite dif-
ferent from sister fairs Art Basel Hong Kong
and Art Basel: “In Miami, people are drink-
ing pina coladas, wearing brightly coloured
clothes and bathing suits.” Melbourne’s This
Is No Fantasy will attend the fair this year
with a presentation by Vincent Namatjira,
becoming the first Australian gallery to pres-
ent a solo at the fair (read more on page 130
of this issue).
There’s plenty going on around the fair, too.
Geoff Newton of Melbourne’s Neon Parc has
had four shows at NADA Miami, a fair focusing
on emerging art held at the same time as Basel.
“It’s a terrific place to perhaps break an emerg-
ing, or established artist into a totally new mar-
ket,” he says. “Miami is generally very good for
sales, it is the time of year when New Yorkers
are travelling south to party and spend money.”

FRIEZE LONDON
Regent’s Park
VIP: 3 October 2018
Preview: 4 October 2018
Public Days: 5–7 October
Frieze London is is a must-attend for art
scholars, connoisseurs, collectors and inter-
ested general public. What makes Frieze dif-
ferent from other art fairs is the combination
of old works and new; ancient and modern.
The first Frieze London opened in 2003 as
U P F R O N T | A R T FA I R S
a showcase for the best in contemporary Installation view of Focus, Frieze London, 2017.
art from the UK and Europe’s top galleries.
COURTESY: FRIEZE LONDON, UK. PHOTO: MARK BLOWER.
Frieze Masters was established in 2011, of-
fering visitors the chance to view and pur-
chase museum quality works from the old
masters.
Also on the program this year is Frieze
Sculpture, featuring work by 25 artists from
five continents. There is much to see and a
host of talks and events for art enthusiasts.
Auckland collector Sonja Hawkins says
Frieze London “is enormous; a serious art
overload, but also fascinating.”
45
 /(21$5'%52:1
APOPHORIA7+(:$<2)1(*$7,21
“The only thing I know, is that which I do not”

$QGUHZ%DNHU$UW'HDOHU
%URRNHV6WUHHW ‡ %RZHQ+LOOV4OG
 ‡ 
LQIR#DQGUHZEDNHUFRP ‡ ZZZDQGUHZEDNHUFRP

With the imminent closure of one of Australia’s oldest premiere galleries,
we ask: what happens to an artist when their gallery closes?
OVER THE DECADES that Frank Watters
and Geoffrey Legge ran Sydney’s Watters
Gallery, the gallery established a reputation
for long-term commitments to artists and a
reluctance to see art in commercial terms.
The gallery’s impending closure after 54 years
will leave its stable of forty-something artists
and artist estates temporarily homeless.
When I ask Watters what had been done
to establish artists elsewhere he was reticent.
“Sorry that I can’t be very helpful. We de-
liberately gave a long notice of the gallery’s
intention to close so that our artists would
have time to explore options. Of course, we
are available as a sounding board and can ad-
vise where possible. I am very much averse
to galleries directing their artists.”
The Watters artists to whom I spoke had
nothing but praise for the gallery’s approach
and for the nature of its support which can be
summed up in two words: freedom and trust.
Euan Macleod explained: “You were given
security to work the way you wanted... the
work came first. If you didn’t sell anything for
the whole time it didn’t matter.” Ian Howard,
joining the gallery with a hand shake contract
in 1971, echoed him. “Watters has been an
incredibly supportive institution, never los-
ing faith in their artists. I have never been a
great seller from my exhibitions. They just
believed in me and my work.”
When a gallery closes, its artists’ existing
relationships with other galleries can be vital.
Macleod, who shows with Niagara Galleries
in Melbourne, has long maintained relation-
ships with New Zealand’s Bowen in Welling-
ton, and Christchurch’s PG gallery 192. How-
ard, with a career in tertiary art education,
will not be looking for another gallery, but he
does have connections with Charles Nodrum
Gallery in Melbourne and the Woolloongab-
U P F RON T | AGE N DA
MOVING ON
WORDS: INGRID PERIZ
ba Gallery in Brisbane. Fellow Watters paint-
er Mostyn Bramley-Moore, represented in
Queensland by Andrew Baker, is working
on a forthcoming solo show in Paris. Several
Watters artists will be showing with a Dar-
linghurst gallery that, for reasons of loyal-
ty to Watters and Legge, will not officially
confirm its new representation until Wat-
ters Gallery closes in December. Painter Joe
Frost will now be represented by Liverpool
Street Gallery.
“Most galleries typically have
around 20 artists and ten shows
per year. One show, every two
years. That’s a long time between
drinks. When a gallery closes,
there isn’t always another one to
take up the artists.”
ADAM SIMS
Sometimes artists understand they have
outgrown a gallery relationship. When Stills
Gallery closed in July 2017 after 17 years,
Sydney-based photographer and video art-
ist Merilyn Fairskye told me: “For a while I
had been thinking it was time for me to move
along. I wasn’t such a good fit with the com-
mercial side of the business, since my artistic
concerns had been getting increasingly dys-
topic over the last several years. Stills’ cli-
ents wanted something less gloomy on their
walls, and who could blame them?” Although
currently without gallery representation, she
notes that “work gets out and about in dif-
ferent ways.” (Fairskye’s work was included
47
in Sydney’s recent National Art-Part One, on
view at the National Art School.)
For artists dependent on gallery represen-
tation for sales, closures can be extremely
difficult, particularly given what Liverpool
Street Gallery’s Adam Sims called “the chang-
ing ecology of the Australian gallery system”,
where there has been a steep contraction in
the number of galleries since the 2008 GFC.
“Most galleries typically have around 20 art-
ists and 10 shows per year. One show, every
two years. That’s a long time between drinks.
When a gallery closes, there isn’t always an-
other one to take up the artists.”
More than one artist compared the relation-
ship between artist and gallery to a romantic
or familial one. Closures can feel like divorce,
particularly when the gallery director chooses
a new venture. Christine Abrahams Gallery
closed after 25 years when Guy Abrahams
decided to study climate change, and Sherman
Galleries closed when Gene Sherman estab-
lished her own philanthropic foundation.
Sherman offered her artists meetings, full
documentation, and complete copies of in-
dividual archives. “Simply a hand stretched
out to see whether they wanted our initial in-
volvement in planning their next profession-
al move. Nothing directional of course,” she
recalls. “All in all, it was an emotional time.
21 years of intensive partnering for many of
them had led to friendships and deep work-
ing relationships.” Janet Laurence was one
of Sherman’s artists, moving to Breenspace,
which closed in 2013. Now she is happily
with Sydney dealer Dominik Mersch (as
well as ARC ONE in Melbourne, Hugo Mi-
chell Gallery in Adelaide and numerous in-
ternational galleries). Her take might be sal-
utary: “Every gallery is so different. You miss
what you think you should have.” Q
 U P F RON T | L I F E C YC L E OF A C OL L E C TOR

EXPANDED
COLLECTING
Ready to take your collector journey to the next
level? Introducing expanded collecting.
WORDS: TAI MITSUJI

“WHEN YOU TALK about a collector, most

people think about someone who buys paint-
ings for their house and buys works for their
beach house, and then they are kind of done,”
observes Sebastian Goldspink, curator and
director of Sydney gallery Alaska Projects.
But what happens next? What happens after
this collector has filled both their houses? Ac-
cording the Goldspink, it is not the end of the
story, but the beginning of one – a story that
is built upon the idea of “expanded collecting”.
Expanded collecting is the practice of sup-
porting artists more broadly, rather than sim-
ply purchasing their finished work. It is an idea
that ruptures our entrenched notion of art col-
lecting, by taking the relationship between the
collector and the creative beyond the transac- yacht, let alone a yachting team – the urge to work. “I’m very conscious of the autonomy of
tional. “It’s for those collectors that do stuff dif- be in the boat is understandable. And that is artists to create whatever they want from the
ferently,” explains Goldspink. “It’s somewhere exactly what expanded collecting provides: resources and inspirations they choose,” he
between philanthropy and collection. It’s not it takes one on the artistic voyage and trans- explains. “As a non-artist I’d be very hesitant
just about giving money to a project, it’s about forms them into a mariner. to get involved in any aspect of the creation of
being personally involved.” And this notion One of the notable sailors that Goldspink their work”. Bradley’s comments raise an inter-
of involvement is absolutely key – a fact that points to is collector Clinton Bradley. “I’d esting issue regarding the tension that exists
Goldspink illustrates through analogy. describe my collecting style as very closely between supporting an artist and encroaching
Goldspink describes an über-wealthy Amer- focused on an artist’s practice as opposed to on their freedom; a concern that tends not to
ican industrialist, who owns a team that regu- specific works or outcomes,” Bradley explains. affect traditional forms of collecting.
larly competes in the Sydney to Hobart yacht “I’m equally interested in the process and jour- Expanded collecting is more about support-
race. When asked about his ownership, the in- ney of how the work was gestated, as well as ing an artistic vision – rather than usurping
dustrialist purportedly explained: “I could buy the actual work itself.” Indeed, Bradley will of- it. Programs such as Art Incubator – founded
a baseball team and I would have the best seats ten travel overseas to support the work of the by collectors Teresa and Andre Biet – reflect
in the house. But with a yachting team they artists that he collects – most recently attend- these attempts to provide broader profession-
need people whose job is essentially just to ing the opening of Agatha Gothe-Snape’s solo al and financial support, and fill the void left
run from one side of the boat to the other for exhibition at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, by government funding. Art Incubator’s ap-
weight, and I can do that. By buying a yachting and participating in a performance by her and proach is many-pronged and includes finan-
team, I’m in the boat.” While the analogy feels Anna John. Yet he is quick to qualify his status cial support as well as mentoring, exhibitions
alien in its detail – most people cannot buy a as a participant rather than a co-author of the and aid in securing acquisitions and further

48
 FROM LEFT: Artist Michiko Tsuda and collector Clinton
Bradley participating in Anna John and Agatha Gothe
It’s somewhere between philanthropy and collection. It’s not just Snape’s performance BRUSHING AND BREATHING
SCORE, 2017. COURTESY: CLINTON BRADLEY.
about giving money to a project, it’s about being personally involved.” Installation view of Matt Bromhead’s Art Incubator-
supported exhibition Longline, Galerie pompom, Sydney.
SE BA S TIA N GOL DSPINK COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND GALERIE POMPOM, SYDNEY.
PHOTO: DOCQMENT

exposure. “The purchase of a completed art-
work is not significantly different from com-
missioning a piece, and I do not believe in
influencing the artists in any way,” explains
Teresa. “I don’t see what Art Incubator does
as supporting the creation of a piece of art –
it’s about assisting individuals to develop their
careers.” Art Incubator’s concerns transcend
the transactional and go to the heart of why
supporting art remains critical – as Biet ob-
serves: “The importance of visual art goes way
beyond its aesthetic appeal – it can play an in-
valuable role in shaping society”.
Exposing new art to new audiences was
also the impetus for 3:33 Art Projects – a pro-
gram which looks to redefine the traditional
gallery model by literally bringing art to the
people, and transforming commercial hubs
into vibrant galleries. “The aim is to provide
artists … with exposure,” explains, its prin-
cipal, collector Max Germanos. “I wanted
to break down the barriers between the art
world and the business world.” But, more
than that, Germanos’ initiative was prompted
by the unshakable sense that Australian art-
ists were not getting the recognition that they
deserved. “So, in 2012, whilst working for
Bank of America Merrill Lynch, I approached
[CEO] Kevin Skelton and convinced the
bank to remove its own art collection to host
and celebrate individual art exhibitions,” he
recounts.
Even in retrospect, this seems like a bold
move – yet perhaps that’s what artists need
today: bold moves and strong support. Indeed,
talking with all of the collectors one sees the
importance in taking art beyond a fast trans-
action – and the pleasure in not only watching
the yacht, but also helping to sail it. Q

49
KEN WHISSON
25 SEPTEMBER - 20 OCTOBER, 2018

T +61 3 9429 3666

W www.niagaragalleries.com.au
 IN ASSOCIATION WITH
ARTISTS OF AMPILATWATJA

MY
COUNTRY
GROUP EXHIBITION BY THE
ARTISTS OF AMPILATWATJA.
10 November - 8 December 2018

Lilly Kemarre Morton, My Country Antarrengeny, 91cm x 61cm

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
 MODERN
LEXICON
Decoding contemporary
artspeak for the discerning reader
YOUR GUIDE: ANDREW FROST

CRACKER
In a rare instance where a word used in tradi-
tional art circles has migrated into contemporary
art speak, the seemingly innocuous cracker is a
conceptual Trojan horse. Deriving from English
slang, cracker is used to describe a fine example of
something, or an attractive person, usually a woman.
In the art world, it’s now common to hear some-
one describe a painting as being a real cracker!
– meaning simply that the artwork in question is
very good. But the word also comes with the im-
plicit understanding that the qualities that make
this work a cracker are self-evident. Where the
values or meaning of a work of contemporary art
often requires an explanation, a cracker will in-
variably be a painting that unashamedly embraces
traditional art values as the artist goes full Marga-
ret Olley (i.e., the artist is “one of us” or “one of
them” depending on where you stand). While the
weight of tradition often adds substance to a work
of art, cracker also has another potential meaning:
when pulled apart the work …makes a sharp noise
and releases a small novelty.

LIKE
In an era where the act of simply liking something
has become monetised, saying that you like an
artwork is both a brave and foolhardy position.
Simply, to like is to find agreeable, enjoyable, or
satisfactory. While being a mildly positive affir-
mation or preference, to profess a like is also to
wish or want something, as in “I’d like to purchase
that work of art”. As to whether you will or won’t
follow through on your like is another question,
suggesting that, in the art world, the word is often
used as meaningless filler or to signify the speak-
er’s uncertainty.
 UPFRONT | BEHIND THE SCENES

IS GLOBAL SUCCESS
A GOLDEN TICKET?
What effect does international success have on
the Australian artist’s market back home?
WORDS: JANE O’SULLIVAN

WE LIKE TO THINK that Australian artists no lon-
ger have to move to London or New York if they
want to develop an international market for their
work. The internet has changed all that, and the rise
of art fairs. It’s true that you don’t have to look far to
find Australian artists in major international exhibi-
tions, or who are achieving international sales, but
it’s not so clear what such success actually means
for them, especially back home.
These days, there are any number of efforts to
measure artist performance in the international
market, from pay-to-view reports by companies
like Artnet and ArtTactic, to rankings like Kunst-
kompass in Germany. These metrics track different
things, but a common concern is where artists ex-
hibit; an artist’s career is considered to depend on
the reputations of the people or organisations they
work with. This is a complicated issue, but for now
it’s enough to foreground that international access
and relationships remain critical for Australian artists.
Some context is important. Oceania and Africa
combined made up only one per cent of the global
auction market in 2016, according to TEFAF’s an-
nual art market report. This figure doesn’t tell the
whole story, due to the lack of transparency around
the primary market and private sales, but it does
give an indication of the size of the Australian mar-
ket. One factor is our small population. Another is
our history of under-pricing relative to overseas
markets.
Sydney dealer Dominik Mersch says this price
difference can have a significant impact. He works
with a number of artists who exhibit overseas,
among them Janet Laurence, Nike Savvas and Tim
Johnson, and also represents international artists
like Clemens Krauss and Elger Esser. He says he
has no option but to set the same prices as overseas.
“It has to be. It’s a global market,” he says. As a hy-
pothetical, he adds: “You can’t have collectors buy
work in New York for 30 per cent more than in Aus-
tralia because that would flow. People would buy it
here for less money and trade it back in the USA.”
So do some local collectors baulk at these higher
prices? The short answer is yes. That’s not to say
collectors don’t want artists to succeed overseas –
Mersch reveals that it was in fact collectors who
helped Laurence fund a major climate change proj-
ect in Paris – but sales of new work can suffer when
prices rise. Collector support can also wain if an art-
ist moves overseas.
“It boils down to that question: Do you want to
make it internationally or do you want to make it
in Australia? I think it’s very hard to achieve both,”
Mersch says. He agrees that art fairs have become a
good way to generate “short term” awareness; but
says that if an artist wants to stay on the radars of
collectors and curators, they must have a “physical
presence” in that market.
It’s not like that for everyone. Melbourne painter
Michael Staniak developed his international ca-
reer after a New York curator saw pictures of his
work online and invited him into a group exhibi-
tion. “From that exhibition I had a few more doors
open, which lead to representation with my Los An-
geles gallery, Steve Turner,” he says. Since then, his
work has been sold in major day auctions in New
York and London, and his work has been exhibit-
ed in Vienna, Brussels and many art fairs around
the world. “Initially, this  definitely piqued some
interest from a few Australian collectors who were
previously unfamiliar with my work. I still have a
couple of great supporters locally, but it is the in-
ternational  viewership that has been consistently
growing,” he says.
To begin with, Staniak didn’t do much travel but
he does say that is changing. He continues to exhib-
it here and is represented by Station in Melbourne.
He too sets prices globally. “I have hardly seen an
Australian artist living here, with little international
exhibiting experience, come close to the prices set
by international artists, despite a great local exhibi-
tion history and notoriety. So, I would say we are a
worlds apart, by distance and by some other market
forces. The quality of work is not the issue.”

Michael Staniak, Oxide painting 025, 2018. Casting compound, iron oxide and
acrylic on board, steel frame. 161.2 x 121.2cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST.

53
heather b. swann
i let my body fall into a rhythm
october 11 - 21, 2018

buoy arts center tokyo

november 21 - 25, 2018

ian potter museum of art, university of melbourne

michael bugelli gallery

subscribe to mailing list
www.michaelbugelligallery.com

Heather B. Swann Butterfly Kiss (detail) 2018, linen, wire, silk, wood, installation dimensions variable
 john kirsten
young coelho

20 NOVEMBER
TO
15 DECEMBER

philip
bacon
galleries
2 ARTHUR STREET,
FORTITUDE VALLEY,
BRISBANE
10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
TUESDAY TO SATURDAY
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Tjulyata Martha McDonald Napaltjarri

Martha with ‘Warlukuritji’ acrylic on linen 152 x 122cm

October 5 - 27 2018
www.raftartspace.com.au
WEST
SAMARA ADAMSON-
PINCZEWSKI
LOUISE BLYTON

END
ELIZABETH BODEY
TERRI BROOKS
ANNA CAIONE

ART
MAGDA CEBOKLI
TRACEY COUTTS
ROZ ESPLIN

SPACE
JENNIFER GOODMAN
FIONA HALSE
MELINDA HARPER
ELEANOR HART
SHELLEY JARDINE
WENDY KELLY
ROBIN KINGSTON
REBECCA MONAGHAN
SUZANNE MOSS
CATHY MUHLING
VANESSA OTER
FRAN O’NEILL
LINDY PATTERSON
LINDA PICKERING
WILMA TABACCO
Curated by Anna Prifti

Artwork detail: Fiona Halse ‘IAM2’ 2018, 170x200cm, mixed media on canvas

OF COLOUR & LIGHT 2018

Biennial of Victorian Women Abstract Artists
Opening October 6th, 2-5 pm. Guest Speaker Kate Nodrum at 3pm
Exhibition dates Oct 5-27th
H: Wed-Fri 11am-4pm Sat 10am-3pm
185 Rosslyn Street, Melbourne VIC 3003
westendartspace@gmail.com
westendartspace.com.au
 U P F RO N T | S U RV E Y

WE ASKED...
WHAT MAKES A COLLECTION
MEMORABLE?
Surprise met by utter absorption: a “what is that?” and then not being able to let it go! I like
either utter diversity of approach and media, or the opposite: the sense of a collector with a
particular and quite distinctive, even quirky interest. In both cases you want order and chaos,
demonstration of care but also of happily letting things fray at the edges.
MARK AMERY, CRITIC, EDITOR AND BROADCASTER

Q
For me, art collections are created through momentum and moment. At times you collect
more actively, while at others it might be more about capturing a single moment – a place,
a person, a bowl-me-over beauty moment. What I find interesting are the nuances that sit across
and between these works. Simply people are complex, and like a library of books, an art collection
can equally unveil one’s personality. The more eclectic the better. 
GINA FAIRLEY, WRITER, CURATOR AND EDITOR

Q
What always sticks with me are the unexpected links between works that I never would have expected
to see together. Also, the contrast between a particular work and the environment it ends up in:
industrial sculpture in the domestic realm, rough and dirty work in slick contemporary spaces, a double
entendre in the family home.
REBECCA GALLO, ARTIST AND WRITER

Q
For me, it’s one that demonstrates risk-taking, knowing where to pare back, or when to say “no”.
INEKE DANE, CURATOR AND WRITER

Q
When it reflects the changing tastes of the collector – and the collector buys work with love and passion,
not caring if the artist is well known or not. The collection then becomes an extension of their true self.
JOANNA MENDELSSOHN, ART HISTORIAN AND WRITER

Q
Idiosyncractic choices and an ability to run your own race, independent of fashion and democracy.
A sense of fun and disregard of the serious.
LOUISE MARTIN-CHEW, ARTS WRITER

Q
Uniqueness, eccentricity and absurdity.
ANDREW FROST, ART CRITIC, LECTURER AND BROADCASTER

Q
Money is probably the short answer to this question! But the long answer is
more interesting. Truly memorable collections are about discovery – they reflect the
collector’s eye, the growth of their appreciation and education, the directions they
have taken and an indication of where they might go next.
HELEN MCKENZIE, ARTS WRITER

Q
Maybe it’s a reflection of my fondness for order over chaos, but I love a collection with
a tight focus. A dominant theme consistently running through works that initially appear
disparate yet are inextricably linked in an unexpected way.
BRIONY DOWNES, ARTS WRITER

Q
Artworks in a memorable collection reveal individually and collectively the way the generative
human mind works, providing access and understanding to key aspects of a sense-based, creative mind;
engaging intuition, risk taking, divergent thinking, playfulness, collaboration, imagination and invention.
In this way, an art collection can act as an intellectual and aesthetic service station – fuelling up the
innovation of viewers who seek benefits from the encounter.
SUE GARDINER, ARTS WRITER AND COLLECTION DIRECTOR

59
 Yurnangurnu Nola Campbell, All of Patjarr. Acrylic on Canvas, 101.6 x 121.9cm. Courtesy: The Artist and Warakurna Artists, WA.

Purchase artwork from over seventy Indigenous

9-11 August 2019
owned community Art Centres, whilst being in an
exciting program of traditional dance, workshops,
Darwin Convention Centre
film, fashion and music. www.daaf.com.au
 Phenotype 2018 oil on canvas 92 x 92 cm

King Street Gallery

on William

TELLY TU’U 10am – 6pm Tuesday – Saturday

177 William St Darlinghurst NSW 2010 Australia
T: 61 2 9360 9727 E: art@kingstreetgallery.com
6 November – 1 December 2018 www.kingstreetgallery.com.au
 U P F RO N T | C U LT U R A L C A P I TA L

WHY DO
PEOPLE COLLECT?
To contribute to general knowledge? Or your own general ego?
In the second of this three-part series, Carrie Miller and Andrew Frost
explore some more of the reasons people collect art.
ILLUSTRATIONS: COEN YOUNG

SO CI AL S TATU S

THERE COMES A time when every collector
must decide whether it’s a good idea to own a
work by a [well-known photographer]. Everyone
else seems to have at least one, sometimes more
than a few, so it seems like a good time to get in
on the market. The photographs of this particular
artist have proven resilient at auction, with no ap-
preciable drop in price in close to 20 years, and a
few of the artist’s most famous images are setting
record prices. And then there’s the added bonus
of enhanced social status… want to take look at
my latest acquisitions?
Like most investments, owning art by well-
known artists is a sure way to climb the social
ladder. A nicely rounded collection will impress
other collectors you might happen to invite to
your home for an elegant dinner. It’d be even
sweeter if the works you have on your walls are
highly desirable. The simple economics of desire
dictate that those who own the most desirable
objects are the winners, but the balance between
simple satisfaction in your acquisitions, and an
immodest pride, can be tricky.
Faking indifference to what you own is a quick
and easy route to losing social status. Fellow col-
lectors – and even curious onlookers like the guy
who has come around to fix the pool filter – can
spot a phoney baloney fake modesty almost im-
mediately. If you’re so indifferent to your collec-
tion, why do you even bother to hang it in your
home when it’s a more advantageous tax arrange-
ment to keep it all safely secured offsite? On the
other hand, an actual modesty and privacy about
your collection prompts the question – what’s the
point? Imagine you invested all your spare cash
buying art – and supporting artists – but never
telling anyone about that until you’re in your 80s,
and then the only time you tell anyone about it is
for a documentary about you and your husband’s
collection of conceptual art? It beggar’s belief.
As we’ve noted before [see Quest for Immortal-
ity] donating your collection to a public gallery or
museum is a sure-fire way to get your name added
to the inscriptions chiselled into the architrave.
Those are the special donors who thought so little
about the wellbeing of their shareholders, employ-
ees, family and descendants [in that order] that
they decided to give away millions of dollars of
art for little more than their name on the museum
wing and entry to every black tie event that will
Fellow collectors – and even curious
onlookers like the guy who has come
around to fix the pool filter – can
spot a phoney baloney fake modesty
almost immediately.
ever be held in it. While this pinnacle of social sta-
tus in the art world belongs to a select few, there’s
no reason you shouldn’t start planning early.
Imagine you’re one of those fabled internet
millionaires from the late 1990s who came into
the market loaded with cash and ready to buy.
Now remember that time you went to that art-
ist-run space in Chinatown and you saw early
works by [well known Australian painter] and
you bought the lot instead of humming and haw-
ing about the fact they were $200 each. Now
fast-forward 25 years and imagine you’re stand-
ing in your own private collection of [well known
Australian painter]’s work. HOW YOU LIKE ME
NOW WORLD?!!!
Andrew Frost

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U P F RO N T | C U LT U R A L C A P I TA L

63
 U P F RO N T | C U LT U R A L C A P I TA L
THE URGE TO GAI N AND
DISSEM I NATE KNOW LEDGE
Not everyone appreciates art’s pedagogical val-
ue. As one person put it on an online discussion
board: “Whenever I look at a piece of art… I
just think it’s ugly and it shows that the artist is
lazy. Stuff like that makes me think an artist is
just bullshitting about their art having a special
meaning.”
These days, the belief that art is a unique re-
pository for cultural knowledge seems as archaic
as having a domestic library stocked with leath-
er-bound books. This wasn’t always the case. An
appreciation of art was once considered integral to
the type of cultivation of the mind nobly pursued
by the intelligentsia.
There is a rare breed of contemporary art col-
lectors who remain faithful to this higher pursuit,
both as an individual desire for intellectual refine-
ment as well as for the social good. Not only are
they committed to the development of a personal
collection of critically significant work, they un-
derstand themselves as custodians of the knowl-
edge these cultural products hold. They feel an
almost moral obligation to disseminate this knowl-
edge through various philanthropic endeavours, as
if the future of human civilization depends on it.
Such collectors realise these lofty goals by div-
ing into the deep end of the contemporary art
world. Most people who acquire art for invest-
ment purposes will enjoy procuring the glossy
monographs that accompany the exhibitions of
leading artists. But they will remain unread on
the coffee tables of their beach houses. Collec-
tors concerned with the value of art as a special
form of knowledge will absorb as much infor-
mation as they can get their hands on about the
artists they collect, educating themselves about
the conceptual motivations of the work and its
64
relationship to the broader socio-political con-
cerns of contemporary culture.
This takes a lot of psychological stamina. At the
beginning of this pursuit, it involves bearing pas-
sive witness to long and excruciatingly pretentious
conversations about the philosophical possibilities
and limitations of post-colonial identities. Only the
most committed collectors survive these intellectu-
al posturings. Over time, they will get a gist of the
insiders’ lexicon and become confident enough to
throw around terms like “Husserlian intentionali-
ty” as casually as “send the bill to my office”.
Over time, they will get a gist of the
insiders’ lexicon and become confident
enough to throw around terms like
“Husserlian intentionality” as casually
as “send the bill to my office”.
It also involves a lot more than tolerating tepid
wine at a relentless schedule of exhibition open-
ings. It requires the cultivation of relationships not
only with artists, gallerists and museum directors,
but art critics and scholars. And it requires a strong
constitution for the antagonism of others who
now see you as a pretentious wanker. Of course,
as a result of reading The Cambridge Companion to
Nietzsche, you have come to identify this antipa-
thy as a form of ressentiment – a hostile projection
of another’s own inferiority. This will provide you
with the necessary comfort to continue on your
noble path.
Carrie Miller
U P F RO N T | C U LT U R A L C A P I TA L

65
U P F RO N T | C U LT U R A L C A P I TA L

66
 U P F RO N T | C U LT U R A L C A P I TA L
EG O ENLARGEM ENT
It has always been a part of art collecting that
the collector who wants to enlarge their ego will
always purchase the most expensive art, or the
most obscure, or the largest, or the oldest, or
the rarest, or the best examples by artists that
everyone else wants to collect. But with the top
10 most expensive paintings at auction current-
ly starting at $172.5 million USD and going all
the way up to $450 million USD, getting in at
the true top end of the market is now the sole
preserve of Russian oligarchs, Gulf state princes
or faceless corporations. So, what’s left for the
run-of-the-mill everyday collector with a few
lazy million to invest in art?
There are some options to gratify the ego.
One could collect in depth, buying all the best
work of a single artist, until you are the collector
known for having the work of that certain artist.
You can go so far as to rearrange the house so
to feature all the artist’s signature works where
hapless visitors to the foyer of your suburban
ranch will literally run into your taste. Imagine
– early examples of the adolescent style, those
one or two works that won big prizes, half of the
last exhibition and the entirety of the one be-
fore. Your name will become synonymous with
that artist, and for good or ill, like they say in
Texas hold ‘em, you’re ALL IN.
Another way to build your art ego is have all
the work on a particular subject, theme or move-
ment. No one ever dreamed that Australian art
would have its own notable examples of Unex-
ceptionalism, yet you’re the collector who has
them all, from the lesser known fringe artists to
prime examples of the three or four best known
67
artists who dabbled in the style before moving
on to their mature work. Your name will be syn-
onymous with the unexceptional.
The key to true collector ego boosting is to be
recognised for whatever it is you collect. You
could pay for the publication of a fine book on
your collection, or you could arrange an exhibi-
tion of your collection in an obliging regional gal-
lery, art school or lesser museum, or even better,
if you’re on the board of a major museum, you
The key to true collector ego
boosting is to be recognised for
whatever it is you collect.
could get your collection shown there, boost its
potential resale value and then have a sweet tax
write off when you donate the whole thing [see
The Quest for Immortality].
Or you could collect art in a way that has not
be done before, such as becoming a pioneer of
collecting the new art of Internalism, where the
art that you commission from leading Internalist
artists is literally installed inside your chest cavity.
You’d carry it around inside you, and although no
one would really know it’s there, the door in your
chest could swing open so passers-by could look
inside at your beating innards and the decorative
baubles that hang there like a mad woman’s Xmas
tree. No such thing actually exists, obviously.
Well, not yet anyway, but imagine being the first!
Andrew Frost
PAULNACHE
PRESENTS

SCOTT GARDINER
#THEDEPTHSANDTHESHALLOWS @PAULNACHE

T H E GLOBAL COUCH
In our annual global issue, we speak to the region’s key international players about
where Australian and New Zealand art currently sits on the world stage.
WHAT’S THE GENERAL PERCEPTION
OF AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND
CONTEMPORARY ART ON THE WORLD
STAGE?
Alexie Glass-Kantor: Australia is generally re-
garded as punching above its weight in terms of
its momentum and capacity to produce oppor-
tunities for representation of Australian artists
internationally. Increasingly, Australian and New
Zealand art is perceived internationally to be
more ambitious and more open-ended.
Barry Keldoulis: It’s difficult to generalise –
there are pockets of acknowledgement and ap-
preciation – however in the broadest sense you
could say there is an abundance of ignorance.
This is perhaps not surprising when you realise
our international tourism advertising is all furry
animals and beaches, so many are surprised to
find that we have any culture at all, let alone a
vibrant, visual arts scene!
Brook Andrew: I think generally, people are
increasingly fascinated and curious about Aus-
tralia, especially that the Euro-USA art scene is
realising that the complexity of Australia is not a
one-dimensional, “ex-colonial” convict state.
Rachel Kent: There is definitely interest and
curiosity, but sometimes a  limited knowledge
beyond the “big names”, or a limited awareness
of  contemporary Australian  Indigenous prac-
tice. For visitors  who come to Australia to  en-
gage in art and culture, there is a real deepening
of awareness of the breadth and diversity of prac-
tice here. There is also a realisation of the incred-
ible variety, power of Indigenous practice – and,
I think, a sense of awe.
Roslyn Oxley: When collectors and curators do
come to Australia and New Zealand, they’re very
impressed with the calibre of our artists, many
are curated into international shows. But the
major problems remain: Australia is a long way
away from the epicentre of art, and our popula-
tions are relatively small and isolated. It makes it
much more difficult for artists to sustain an inter-
national practice.
Tim Olsen: There are certainly pockets of peo-
ple who say that Australian contemporary artists
possess enormous talent, and those pockets are
ON THE COUCH
MODERATOR: CAMILLA WAGSTAFF
growing. Generally, however, there is a misplaced
sense that we’re not a culturally rich country and
that we don’t have anything pertinent to say ar-
tistically. Our art is often enjoyed until the word
Australia is mentioned, and suddenly the whole
perception shifts.
WHAT DO WE AS AN ARTS COMMUNI-
TY DO WELL WITH REGARDS TO THE
PROMOTION OF AUSTRALIAN AND NEW
ZEALAND ART INTERNATIONALLY?
AGK: We’re not backwards about coming for-
wards. We may be a couple of islands off the back
of Antarctica, but we have a huge amount of cul-
tural production here.
We are a region that is at a deficit in terms of its
geographical location. I don’t think the internet
changed the ability of our artists to reach out; it
didn’t change the way that people collect or think
about art. What we do well here is we mobilise,
because we know that nothing can be taken for
granted from this position.
BK: Our state institutions’ engagement with
not only international artists, but also curators,
help focus attention our way. And we should not
forget the valiant efforts of our private galleries
that have international ambition for their artists
and participate in art fairs and do gallery swaps
around the globe.
RK: Partnerships, collaborations and exchanges
between institutions in Australia and abroad –
no matter how big or small – are incredibly valu-
able in offering opportunities to artists. In giving
much-needed exposure, they also help to gener-
ate future opportunities.  well supported, especially financially, something
RO: Art fairs offer an excellent platform for many
Australian galleries to promote the work of their
artists overseas. We’ve been going to internation-
al art fairs since 1990. The benefit here is that you
see the same audience and build a stronger fol-
lowing and you’re on a more intimate basis with
collectors, curators and international galleries.
TO: I think our art market is becoming much
more courageous in how it interacts with the in-
ternational art world – participating in more fairs
and biennales, exhibiting across old and new
markets, creating more experimental works.
70
I would also argue that the internet has made
our artists output more internationally accessible
and educated a lot of people that Australia has
the capacity to be a global thinker.
Ursula Sullivan: Individual gallery owners have
fronted the costs of international exposure for
their artists at art fairs, which have begun many
conversations with curators and collectors. Indi-
vidual artists are often funded with residencies,
which is great, but one gallery serves many art-
ists, so I feel the work they have done in this area
has been exponential.
WHAT COULD WE BE DOING BETTER?
AGK: For Australia and New Zealand to be taken
seriously on an international platform, we have
to be more agile, less focused on the end game,
and more focused on the process. We also need
to invest in emerging artists. If you can’t gain
momentum at the beginning of your career, then
you’re not going to gain it at the end. As an artist,
you have to build resilience early, and the ability
to be mobile. That can come at personal and fi-
nancial expense, but you to make yourself avail-
able to working outside your local context.
BK: We could get over our own cultural cringe!
We need to take advantage of the demise of the
idea of the lone art capital of the world and be
more confident of the quality of the work pro-
duced here.
BA: Artists need to travel. I think we need to con-
nect more with Asia, the way in which South and
Central America is connected to North America.
Asia has a very healthy arts community and is
we need to look at more closely.
Natalie King: I think that state and federal gov-
ernments need to strategically align their prior-
ities and provide a collective vision for interna-
tional alliances and affiliations with a correlation
of creative objectives.
RK: Invitational programs that bring internation-
al curators and critics  to our shores can be in-
credibly helpful – it might be a curator research-
ing Venice, Documenta or a biennale-type event.
Rhana Devenport: There is no question there
exists a different momentum when artists choose
 ON THE COUCH

Barry Keldoulis: Director, Alexie Glass-Kantor: Executive

Sydney Contemporary director, Artspace Sydney and curator,
Art Basel Hong Kong

Rhana Devenport: Director, Art

Gallery of South Australia and former
director, Auckland Art Gallery
Joanna Strumpf and Ursula Sullivan:
Co-Directors, Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney
and Singapore Roslyn Oxley: Director,
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney

71
 ON THE COUCH

Rachel Kent: Chief Curator, Museum of

Contemporary Art Australia

Tim Olsen: Director, Olsen Gallery,

Sydney and Olsen Gruin, New York

Natalie King:
g Curator ffor the Australian
PPavilion
ili att the
th 57th Venice
V i Biennale
Bi l

Brook Andrew: Artist and Artistic Director

off tthe 22nd
22 Biennale
al off SSyydneyy

72

to study abroad. The influence and guidance of
astute and generous teachers at art schools in
Australasia is pivotal in this process.
RO: I think one of the really big issues is transport
– it’s a real killer. A lot of artists send work over-
seas that’s not completely finished to make easi-
er to transport. You can’t take a huge Australian
sculpture to Paris and London without spending
an astronomical amount. If we can get sponsor-
ship for transport, we could have it all happening
in a much bigger way.
TO: Hopefully by what I’m doing in New York,
where I’m integrating Australian and internation-
al art without emphasising its geographic origins,
will make a difference. It’s going to take some
Larry Gagosian or Jay Jopling to take an artist
from Australia and show that it can be done. I’ve
got Gagosian’s curators coming into my gallery
and showing an interest in artists from some of
our recent exhibitions. I’d hate to think that I’d
brought an artist all the way to New York to be
poached by Gagosian – I mean, I’d be disappoint-
ed in one sense and flattered in another.
Joanna Strumpf: Participation is key. Being a
part of the rest of the world. Australia can live in
a bit of a bubble and be very defensive about how
world class we might be. The world class conver-
sation is really not necessary.
WHO ARE THE KEY LOCAL ARTSITS
WORKING ON THE INTERNATIONAL
STAGE TODAY?
AGK: It would be really reductive to try and sug-
gest that there’s a type of practice that adapts well
to an international stage. I don’t believe you make
work you think is going to appeal to a different
type of audience or market because really, as an
artist, or an institution, you need to be agile and
open to iterative ways in which you might work.
But of course, there are local artists that we see
regularly in major international platforms: people
like Simon Denny, Patricia Piccinini, Angelica
Mesiti. Or someone like David Noonan, work-
ing and living in London, also creating project
opportunities for emerging curators and artists.
BA: Andrew Rewald is a Berlin-based artist who
works with grassroots communities and perforce
and mixes this with his chef skills. He works
across platforms to expand further on how per-
formance and art can comment on social change,
the environment and history.  occur around making things more accessible.
FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT VISIT ARTCOLLECTOR.NET.AU/GLOBALCOUCH2018.
ON THE COUCH
Mel O’Callahan is a video, performance and
sculpture artist based in Paris. Her work is ded-
icated to often extraordinary stories of the world
from remote cultures working with traditional
practices to ideologies of protest.
NK: In 2016, Patricia Piccinini had the highest at-
tended exhibition in the world at Centro Cultural
Banco do Brasil in Brazil, which is a phenomenal
accomplishment.
RK: I’m really looking forward to seeing what
Angelica Mesiti will produce for the next Venice
Biennale. There is a universal language inherent
in the work, a kind of communication that cuts
across barriers.
RD: Lisa Reihana – whom I curated for the Bien-
nale Arte 2017 in Venice – is about to be seen at
the Royal Academy in London. Simon Denny is
based in Berlin and had a solo exhibition at PS1 in
New York in 2015. Luke Willis Thompson won
the Auckland Art Gallery’s Walters Prize in 2014
with a disarmingly intimate and transactional
performative work. Zac Langdon-Pole lives in
Darmdstadt and Berlin.
RO: Tracey Moffatt, Bill Henson, Brook An-
drew, Bill Culbert and Patricia Piccinini, to
name a few. Tracey is arguably Australia’s most
well-known artist, both nationally and interna-
tionally. She is certainly one of the few Austra-
lian artists to have established a global market.
US: Lindy Lee is an obvious choice, with multiple
projects happening in New York, China and the
Middle East. Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran is busy
too, with projects in Singapore and India, and
numerous collectors being based in Europe. Sam
Jinks has had many works in the Netherlands,
Denmark, Mexico, Spain, America, and a solo
show in Taiwan. All of these artists have demon-
strated a commitment to obsessive excellence in
their practice and international opportunities.
PAROCHIALISM HAS ALWAYS BEEN AN
ISSUE IN THE AUSTRALIAN ART WORLD –
DO YOU THINK THIS IS CHANGING?
AGK: In his 1974 essay in Art Forum, Terry Smith
said that Australia has a Parochialism Problem.
What we’ve seen between now and then is the rise
and fall of the notion of globalisation; in which the
edges were going to become the centre and the
centre the edges. And we thought that there was
going to be a decentralisation program that would
73
But what we’ve acutally seen is that there’s
more information, more knowledge, more con-
tent, more history than we can ever comprehend.
We’ve seen that every edge has its depth, its con-
text. The edges are not the centre, there are still
clusterfucks of power that exist in the art world,
because of economy, market forces, critical mass
around population and geography that simply
make them more accessible.
But what we have also found is that we have
new currents that move underneath the kind of
dominant narratives of art history and say “fuck
you”: feminist art histories and practices, people
of cultural linguistic diversity, Indigenous, First
Nations. I don’t think Australian art is parochial,
because what we have is a breadth and guts of
practice that’s actually doing something substan-
tially different than we were doing 40 years ago.
What we have is a really remarkable continent
with a really incredible history. We have incredi-
ble stories that remain to be told in contemporary
ways about the intersection of indigenous and
non-indigenous artists.
If Australia was only one city, right? The size of
New York state, the size of Seoul (that’s what our
population is) – if we had every museum, every
not-for-profit, every commercial gallery, every
artist studio, every art fair, everything we pro-
duce as one city, we’d be one of the most fuck off
cultural cities in the world!
RK: I am not interested in parochialism as it is lim-
iting, nor the centre/periphery debate. The mar-
gins are the new centre, and as Okwui Enwezor
wrote in his essay for the 7th Gwangju Biennale
(2007), there is an opening up of cultural seams
and artistic production scattered in the near and
far flung corners of the globe. Artists have orient-
ed themselves not towards centres, but towards
a more transversal process of linkages, networks
and diverse communities of practice.
TO: I think it’s the attitude of Australians to talk
about being Australian too early in the conver-
sation. When you talk to an American or a Ger-
man, a long conversation about art precedes any
reference to nationality. In the days when art was
more about provincial themes, like French im-
pressionism, the idea of being French was very
much a part of the conversation. Contemporary
art is a global conversation, and thinking on such
a level that your place, your habitat, isn’t there un-
til the end. Q
C O LV I L L E G A L L E R Y

Empire Day. Oil on linen, 84 x 102cm

Stephen Lees
Ether and Earth
12 – 31 October

Also Representing
Matthew Armstrong, Julia Castiglioni Bradshaw, Corrine Costello, Richard Dunlop,
Kylie Elkington, Ruth Frost, Paul Gundry, Jane James, Milan Milojevic, Anne Mestiz,
Ian Parry, Chen Ping, Anna Sabadini, Paul Snell, Suze van der Beek, Luke Wagner

91A Salamanca Place, Hobart 7000 Tasmania P +61 362 244 088 M 0419 292 626
E info@colvillegallery.com.au W www.colvillegallery.com.au OPENING HOURS 10am to 5pm daily
 children playing c1968 oil on canvas 174 x 138 cm

charles blackman
survey and retrospective exhibition of Marina Mirage, Seaworld Drive,
paintings, drawings & sculptures Main Beach, Q 4217 Ph: 07 5561 1166
November 24 to November 30, 2018 www.antheapolsonart.com.au
 UPFRONT

NOT TO
BE MISSED
The exhibitions you won’t want to
miss in the coming months.

WILLIAM KENTRIDGE: RIGHT INTO HER ARMS

Annandale Galleries, Sydney
6 October – December 2018

There are a very select number of living artists whose works almost
feel un-ownable. One gets the sense that these pieces cannot be bought
or sold for personal display, but instead belong in large institutions,
perpetually touring shows, or the occasional biennale. William Ken-
tridge is one of them.
The legendary South African artist’s forthcoming show Right Into Her
Arms, presented at Sydney’s Annandale Galleries, is both a partial re-
jection and acceptance of this idea. Indeed, talking with co-director Bill
Gregory about the show, it almost feels like we are referring to the up-
coming exhibition of Kentridge’s work at the Art Gallery of New South
Wales, rather than a commercial gallery. The wide cross-section of prints,
drawings, sculptures and film are, of course, for sale, yet the exhibition
itself defies the typical conditions of a commercially facing show, as it
surrenders precious gallery real estate in order to contextualise the work.
The opera Lulu, which Kentridge directed at the Metropolitan Opera in
New York, for instance, is scheduled to play continuously throughout the
duration of the exhibition, alongside Right Into Her Arms (2016), a kinet-
ic model theatre developed by Kentridge during the operatic production.
This context is important. “I think what is different about this show is
that the works come out of the theatre and opera now,” explains Gregory.
“The work is reflecting those interests as he assimilates those experienc-
es into his other practices.” In fact, the influence of Kentridge’s recent
forays into the theatre transcend his artworks’ themes and extend to the
attitude that underpins them. “If you have an exhibition of abstract paint-
ing and it doesn’t go well – nothing sells – you can put them away and
say ‘they didn’t understand’ or ‘I was ahead of my time’. In theatre, if you
have a bad review on Tuesday you’re shut down on Saturday,” observes
Gregory. “You need to have an empathy with your audience, which [Ken-
tridge] does.” Indeed, despite his renown, Gregory recalls the artist fret-
ting about one of his films being too long, to which the gallery director
responded, “I just watched it twice and I didn’t even notice the time”.
Tai Mitsuji

76
 William Kentridge, Right Into Her Arms, 2016. Model theatre with projected images, drawings and props. HD video, software and circuitry, electronic
components, wood, steel, cardboard, found paper and found objects, 300 x 244 x 125cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND ANNANDALE GALLERIES, SYDNEY.

77
 UPFRONT | NOT TO BE MISSED

PRIMAVERA
Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
9 November 2018 – 3 February 2019

Why is identity important today? That’s the question asked by
curator Megan Robson in the Museum of Contemporary Art’s
annual Primavera showcase of young artists. The responses she
gathers range across gender, culture, history and politics. Two
video works by Caroline Garcia take on clichés of exotic femi-
ninity. Garcia has sampled dance routines from Hollywood mov-
ies, looking for scenes with cultural dances or dancers. She then
inserts herself into these routines via green screen, as a way to
interrogate and reauthor these constructions of cultural identi-
ty. The second of these videos is a new work made for Primave-
ra which concentrates on depictions of black- or yellowface and
whitewashing.

Jason Phu, love in all its facets exists in hell. chlamydia, gonorrhea & syphilis ring my bell, 2017. Installation view, UNSW Galleries.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST. PHOTO: DOCUMENT PHOTOGRAPHY.

78
 UPFRONT | NOT TO BE MISSED

Spence Messih looks at a different sort of cultural scaffolding.
Messih presents three new sculptures premised on the idea that archi-
tecture can shape our ideas and identity. Two of the works in Primave-
ra will be placed over a sandpit covered in snail tracks, hinting at what
Messih has called the “soft life” beneath these hard, utilitarian forms.
Jason Phu draws on stories from his community, family, friends and
the Sydney art world for a photographic installation that also includes
props and references to other artists’ work.
Also included in Primavera is Ryan Presley, with work from his Blood
Money series placing Indigenous heroes on banknotes, as well as Hoda
Afshar, Hayley Millar-Baker, Phuong Ngo and Andrew Tenison.
Jane O’Sullivan

Hoda Afshar, Untitled #7, 2016, from the series Behold, 2016. COURTESY: THE ARTIST.

79
 UPFRONT | NOT TO BE MISSED

MARTIN KING: RECESS

Gallerysmith, North Melbourne
11 October – 10 November 2018

FROM LEFT: Martin King, black thursday diaries VI. Etching, relief etching, wax, hard cover book and ribbon, 55 x 38cm.
Martin King, black thursday diaries I. Etching, relief etching, watercolour, wax, hard cover book and ribbon, 44 x 27cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND GALLERYSMITH, MELBOURNE

Martin King is a printmaker with an obsession with Australian flora and
fauna and the interactions and histories of human interaction with our
environment. As senior printer at the Australian Print Workshop, King
spends much of his time at the inner-city studio where the workshop
is based. But, given half-a-day’s notice, he will be packing his swag and
billy and heading for the bush. His obsession with nature makes his latest
creative shift all the more curious.
“I will be focusing on William Strutt’s painting Black Thursday, Feb-
ruary 6, 1851,” King says of his coming show presented by Melbourne’s
Gallerysmith. “I will be investigating the native flora and fauna in Strutt’s
iconic painting to create a body of work that reinterprets his iconogra-
phy in the light of contemporary thinking and critique in science, art,
politics and philosophy of the environment and the value of nature.”
King recently completed a residency at the State Library of Victoria,
where he used its resources to investigate aspects of the flora and fauna in
Strutt’s painting, which will form the basis of a more traditional suite of
etchings. “The etchings will read as allegories of contemporary attitudes
towards nature, contrasted with how the natural environment has been
viewed historically in Australia,” he says.
But where the printmaker will surprise many of his followers will be
in his sudden utilisation of new technologies. “A significant creative out-
come will be the immersive virtual reality environment that I will build,
allowing viewers to enter Strutt’s painting and explore the various ele-
ments of native flora and fauna,” he says with palpable enthusiasm. “I
have recently worked with an immersive VR team on a project and ex-
hibition naturophilia at Melbourne University and I will have access to
specialised technology to build an immersive VR environment.”
Ashley Crawford

80
 UPFRONT | NOT TO BE MISSED

DECADE
Hugo Michell Gallery, Adelaide
20 November – 12 December 2018

Justine Varga, Corrosive, 2016–18. Chromogenic print, 141.5 x 114.5cm.

COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND HUGO MICHELL GALLERY, ADELAIDE.

After starting out assisting Paul Greenaway at art fairs followed by a stint
working for Jan Minchin at Tolarno Galleries, Hugo Michell decided to
go it alone in 2008 and start his own gallery. Fast forward 10 years and
Michell has built an impressive stable of local and interstate artists, in-
cluding Richard Lewer, Ildiko Kovacs, Trent Parke, Janet Laurence,
Tony Garifalakis, Lisa Roet and Justine Varga, to name just a few.
“I am incredibly humbled to be celebrating the 10th year of Hugo Mi-
chell Gallery,” says Michell. “In a tough climate, we have been lucky to
grow each year, building our client base and our relationships with artists.”
To celebrate the 10-year milestone, the gallery will host the exhibition
Decade. The final show for the year highlights the impressive artists Mi-
chell has on the books, many of whom have been with him since the
beginning. “I feel extremely lucky to work with the group of artists we do
and am in awe of all of their achievements. I am also very grateful for the
support of our wonderful clients,” states Michell.
In a time when commercial galleries are facing an uncertain future
with artists looking for other ways to promote their work, Michell is
still focused on the bricks and mortar model. His philosophy is sim-
ple: “The team at Hugo Michell Gallery love what we do, are passionate
about the Australian contemporary art scene, and look to the future
with enthusiasm.”
Jane Llewellyn

81
 UPFRONT | NOT TO BE MISSED

POSSIBLE DREAM THEORY #2

Galerie pompom, Sydney
14 November – 16 December 2018

Emily Parsons-Lord, I’ve always had hot hands, 2017. Gallium, mdf, electrical heating element. Installation view, Artspace, Sydney.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND GALERIE POMPOM, SYDNEY. PHOTO: ZAN WIMBERLEY.

Over many years, Galerie pompom and its antecedent MOP Projects have been
proponents of the curated group show as a mode of presenting art that is dynam-
ic, egalitarian and generative. Such exhibitions are a way of giving emerging and
unrepresented artists exposure in a reputable gallery space, says MOP and pom-
pom founder (and frequent curator) George Adams, especially with “the decline
of the ARI as we knew it” over the last few years.
Continuing this trend is Possible Dream Theory #2, conceived by Adams and
co-curator Helen Shelley. The exhibition brings a group of artists with diverse
practices into what Adams calls a “random but also calculated situation” to ex-
plore dream states, the blurred lines between reality and fiction, and the unset-
tling of identities that take places within them. “In reality, do we subconsciously
believe that what we dream is reality or is it fiction?” Adams asks.
Exploring this idea is a group of artists whose work spans a cornucopia of photog-
raphy, painting, installation, performance and sculptural practices. With artists Polly
Borland, Matthew Harris, Drew Connor Holland, Laura Moore, nova Milne, Emily
Parsons-Lord, Philjames, and Kenny Pittock contributing, Possible Dream Theory #2
promises to be equal parts fever dream, wet dream, space dream and cheese dream.
Kate Britton

82
 UPFRONT | NOT TO BE MISSED

PATJU PRESLEY
Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne
28 November – 15 December 2018

Patju Presley, Yupa. Acrylic on linen, 110 x 85cm.

COURTESY: THE ARTIST, SPINIFEX ARTS PROJECT, WA AND VIVIEN ANDERSON GALLERY, MELBOURNE.

There is colour and shimmering movement in Patju Presley’s dotted paint-
ings, which evoke his relationship with country throughout the Great Vic-
toria Desert. It also reflects his shimmering personality. “It seems the co-
lour comes from within his being,” says Brian Hallett from Spinifex Arts
Project. “He carries an innate optimism and gregarious positivity, with a
feeling that he quite possibly could ‘have it all’, and maybe he does.”
Born in the desert in the 1940s, Presley was living a traditional lifestyle un-
til he and his family were “cleared” from the area prior to the British atomic
tests in the 1950s. He was educated at Ernabella mission, where he became a
pastor and, according to Hallett, continues to walk “the comfortable dual road
of Culture and Christianity that many of his peers also accompany with ease”.
He was one of the early male painters at Irrunytju Arts and has exhibited
since the early 2000s. Working in recent years with Spinifex Arts Project and
living in Tjuntjuntjara, his painting conveys deep understanding of his cul-
ture, with guidance from the Tjukurpa (Dreaming), the Aboriginal creation
beings that shaped the landscape and endure in its features.
Presley’s compositions shimmer with a sense of movement like
grasses across the red desert. He paints the places of the emus that
came across the desert, with his song line and Tjukurpa moving in
a west-east direction. This is Presley’s his first solo exhibition since
2007, and offers exceptional and unique paintings of Country.
Louise Martin-Chew

83
 Blue Cotton Dress 2017, f0il on linen, 142 x 109cm Image: Ian Hill

PRUDENCE FLINT the wake

16 November – 8 December 2018 Contemporary Art T: 03 6231 6511

Level 1/65 Murray Street Hobart E: info@bettgallery.com.au
Tasmania Australia 7000 www.bettgallery.com.au
new perspective.
new plymouth.
new zealand.

42 Queen Street Open seven days:

New Plymouth 10am – 5pm
Aotearoa New Zealand

govettbrewster.com
 BATHURST REGIONAL ART GALLERY 12 OCTOBER - 9 DECEMBER 2018
LOOKING FORWARD —
—
GOODY BARRETT
PEGGY PATRICK
a selection of Jirrawun Arts works
from the collections of Geoffrey

— —
—
RAMMEY RAMSEY
FREDDIE TIMMS
Hassall & Helene Teichmann

LOOKING BACK
— PADDY BEDFORD a Bathurst Regional Art Gallery exhibition with
— curatorial assistance by Robert Hirschmann
RUSTY PETERS
— PHYLLIS THOMAS
contemporary works from the east kimberley — WITH PETER EVE www.bathurstart.com.au

RUSTY PETERS, Three Nyawana in Yariny Country 2016, natural earth pigment on linen, 150 x 150 cm. © Rusty Peters/Copyright Agency, 2018. Collection of Geoffrey Hassall
 U P F R O N T | I F I C O U L D H AV E

I F I COU LD H AV E …
Writer and curator Kate Britton selects 10 works from commercial gallery
stockrooms that she would take home tomorrow if she could.

THIS PAGE TOP ROW: Judy Watson, Tipping
Point, 2012. Pigment, pencil, and acrylic on canvas,
212 x 154cm. $21,000. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND
MILANI GALLERY, BRISBANE.
Kylie Banyard, Confetti Dance, 2017. Oil and acrylic
on canvas, 152.5 x 122.5cm. $4,200. COURTESY: THE
ARTIST AND GALERIE POMPOM, SYDNEY.
Jenny Watson, Young Magpie, 2018. Acrylic,
Japanese pigments, haberdashery on rabbit skin
glue primed Belgian linen, 270 × 203.5cm. $POA.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND ROSLYN OXLEY9, SYDNEY.
BOTTOM ROW: Taloi Havini and Stuart
Miller, Lillian, Daantania Nasioi Region,
2009. Inkjet print, edition of 10,
80 x 120cm. $4,400. COURTESY: THE
ARTIST AND ANDREW BAKER ART DEALER,
BRISBANE.
Polly Borland, Not Good at Human,
2016. Tapestry, 95 x 77cm.
$24,200. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND
SULLIVAN+STRUMPF, SYDNEY AND
SINGAPORE.

88
U P F R O N T | I F I C O U L D H AV E
THIS PAGE CLOCKWISE FROM TOP:
Nell, Mother and Child #2, 2017. Hand-blown
glass, metal stool, 91.8 x 39.4 x 38.1cm. $7,000.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND STATION, MELBOURNE.
Julie Gough, Kidnap Co-ordinates, 2008.
Tasmanian oak, cuttlefish bones, black crow
shells, 9 panels each measuring 46 x 73.4 x
5cm. $15,000.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND BETT GALLERY, HOBART.
89
Shirley Purdie, Garlooroony Doo Wirrirril (The
Rainbow Serpent and the Lorikeets), 2013.
Natural ochre and pigment on canvas, 100 x
140cm. $7,800. COURTESY: THE ARTIST, WARMUN
ART CENTRE, WA AND ALCASTON GALLERY,
MELBOURNE.
Sally Mulda, Piggley Wiggley, 2014. Acrylic
on linen, 88 x 180cm. $3,950. COURTESY: THE
ARTIST, TANGENTYERE ARTISTS, NT AND RAFT
ARTSPACE, NT.
Nora Wompi, Warla Tuu, 2013. Acrylic on
canvas, 46 x 61cm. $1,200. COURTESY: THE
ARTIST AND YAAMA GANU, MOREE.

WH AT NOW?
Our writers sit down with three established artists
to talk about their most recent work.
Tell us about your upcoming exhibition at
Neon Parc.
Alongside a selection of recent textile works, I
will be showing a large collection of works on
paper from the past 10 years, the bulk of which
have never seen the light of day. So, I am par-
ticularly excited about unearthing that body of
work.
You have been exhibiting consistently
for 10 years now. How has your practice
changed or evolved over that time?
I developed my visual language quite rapidly at
the outset of my exhibiting career, and my work
exuded a playful naïveté, even a utopian opti-
mism. Now that I have grasped more thoroughly
the parameters and limitations of my practice,
the work has become more speculative and
coded. I am enjoying this transitional process,
even though it is partly a reaction against past
failures. Generally, I have been grappling with
the inherent futility of attempting to sustain an
art practice in this cynical and nihilistic cultural
climate.
Can you explain your process of making
work for an exhibition?
I have a rather reptilian work ethic – I will work
in bursts of vigorous activity after spending a
lot of time brooding in hibernation. I general-
ly work in several stages, roughly figuring out
compositions and then re-working forms many
times over before fixing everything down. Final-
ly, each work goes through a few layered stages
of surface embellishment before it is complete.
There is a lot of religious symbology in your
work. Were you raised in a religious family?
I was raised in a Catholic household, but I re-
jected the coercive, doctrinal aspects of institu-
W H AT N OW
PAUL YORE
ABOVE: Paul Yore, Protest or Die (reverse side), 2017.
Mixed media, appliqué; found materials, wool, beads,
sequins buttons, 245 x 194cm.
Paul Yore, The Treachery of Images, 2017.
RIGHT:
Mixed media appliqué; found materials, wool,
beads, sequins buttons. 245 x 194cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND NEON PARC, MELBOURNE.
PHOTO: DEVON ACKERMANN.
90
tional Christianity in my teens. I borrow a lot of
themes and images from that tradition, because
it is a site where the personal and universal co-
exist. Catholicism and its material culture dom-
inated Western art history for the better part of
500 years, so a personal acquaintance with the
inner workings of this belief system has helped
me understand the mechanics of representation.
You seem to have a bowerbird-like ten-
dency for collecting. What types of things
are you attracted to?
I am enticed, perhaps against my better judg-
ment, to the gigantic toxic discharge of synthet-
ic obsolescence that seems to ooze endlessly
from every corner of our godforsaken culture.
For me, throwaway material – junk – is dynami-
cally queer by virtue of its inherent repugnance
or marginality, and its volatile transmutability.
What do you think are the most important
issues facing us today?
Action on climate change, safeguarding biodi-
versity and generally reducing human impact on
the rest of nature are vital. Toppling capitalism
altogether and replacing it with an anarchistic
form of collectivism would, I believe, give hu-
manity a chance of meaningfully existing on this
planet into the future. The old systems of hierar-
chical domination have doomed us.
Given our current situation, why is art im-
portant?
To paraphrase Terence McKenna, art is what
distinguishes us from machines.
Laura Couttie
PAUL YORE SHOWS AT NEON PARC,
BRUNSWICK, FROM 26 OCTOBER TO
22 DECEMBER 2018.
W H AT N OW

91

ABOVE: Tony Lloyd, Pink Mountains. Oil on linen, 30 x 40cm. RIGHT: Tony Lloyd, Asteroid and Mountain. Oil on linen, 40 x 30cm.
What can we expect from your forthcoming
show Interglacial?
Last year, I hiked through the Swiss Alps looking
for new landscapes to paint. I climbed thousands
of metres, walked scores of kilometres and took
gigabytes of photographs. All the superlative
things that have been said about mountains are
quite true, that their vastness is humbling, that
they have a sense of the numinous, and that they
are the embodiment of the sublime. The paint-
ings in this exhibition have come out of that time.
I have been painting mountain landscapes for
nearly 10 years. This exhibition is by far the rich-
est and most diverse I have done. The inspiration
I took from this trip has taken my work to a new
level. This will be my first solo exhibition in my
home town of Melbourne in more than five years.
It’s also my first exhibition at MARS Gallery, and
I can’t wait to see my work in that spacious and
bright front gallery.
To describe your painting as realist seems
somewhat misleading. The style may border
on the realist, but the content borders more
on the surrealist. How would you describe
your approach?
I know immediately when I have found an image
I need to paint. I trust my instincts when I find
W H AT N OW
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND MARS GALLERY, MELBOURNE.
TONY LLOYD
an image that intrigues me. The inexpressible at-
traction to the image is the question that drives
the painting, and the finished painting is the most
articulate answer I can give to that question. In
the process of painting, the image is pulled apart
and put back together. The painting develops a
personality that is quite different from the orig-
inal photograph.
Popular culture infuses your work. You’ve
often referred to writer H.P. Lovecraft in
your works for instance. Science fiction
(and space travel) have often cropped up.
What other cultural items do you take as
inspiration?
For me, a painting is a portal into another dimen-
sion. The best works of art open up new dimen-
sions each time you look at them. I paint land-
scapes that are pregnant with narrative potential.
The image must be specific enough to provoke a
line of thought but have the potential to generate
multiple interpretations and imaginings.
I rarely put figures in my paintings because I
don’t want the viewer to feel they are watching
someone else’s story, I want them to have the
experience of standing in the landscape, and to
ask themselves, “Why am I here?” “Where am I
going?” “What is about to happen?”
92
Both travel and nature are major prompts
for you. How do they inform your painting?
Exploring new terrains is very important to me.
It has been my privilege to participate in a num-
ber of Residencies in Landscape organised by cu-
rator Steve Eland. Over the past few years I have
travelled with artists through various parts of
Australia, China and Tibet. In western China and
Tibet, they revere mountains like gods. Humans
are utterly insignificant in these landscapes and
the mountains themselves are in constant move-
ment. I remember the terror of seeing a landslide
while driving, suddenly it was raining boulders
on the road in front of our vehicle.
While hiking on a moraine at the base of the
Eiger in Switzerland, I heard the sound of an av-
alanche directly above me. It was deafening, like
thunder to the power of 10. There is something
sublime about mountains, there is a complex feel-
ing you get in their presence, it is a mingling of
awe, beauty, fear and fascination. There is a sense
of the numinous when you are in the presence of
an object so large that you can’t see it in its entire-
ty unless you are kilometres away.
TONY LLOYD’S INTERGLACIAL SHOWS
AT MARS GALLERY, MELBOURNE, FROM
25 OCTOBER TO 24 NOVEMBER 2018.
W H AT N OW

93

Your earliest paintings were quite faithful to
form, but over the past 15 years you’ve honed
a signature style that oscillates between ab-
straction and figuration, often hovering in
between. How do you know when to stop –
what tells you a work is complete?
Whether figurative or abstract, it makes no dif-
ference to me. I don’t set out to arrive at one or
the other. Form, however, is always there. Both
abstraction and figuration provide solutions for
me at different times. It comes down to location;
place drives the whole thing. One can only re-
spond to life when confronted by it; we seldom
know we exist until our existence is textured by
an event. As far as the act of painting goes I nev-
er really know where I am going to be beached.
I’m just following a series of impulses, moving
between the gears of what I see then what I feel.  It’s true the works are like documents – journal
In the past you’ve worked with sculpture and
found materials, and you completed a large-
scale commission with Melbourne’s Monash
University engineers – Walking with Giants
– that’s now permanently in the Monash col-
lection. Can you see yourself collaborating in
that way again? Can you see a time where
you would only work in sculpture?
I can’t see a time when I wouldn’t be painting,
but as time goes on I find myself making more
W H AT N OW
JAMES DRINKWATER
and more sculpture. I look at more sculpture
today than I do pictures and furthermore I find
more solutions to my paintings by referencing
three-dimensional works. I have all this figura-
tive sculpture in my studio on dollies, so I can just
wheel them out and work directly from them. I
can’t bear the idea of selling one, because I’m not
finished with them, they provide too much to let
them go.
Your work is riddled with intimacy, micro
or macro. The completed body is more like
an essay – one long love letter (to a memo-
ry, person, place or time) broken into parts,
accompanied by a poem. Will you continue
this with your next series? What can we ex-
pect?
entries, snapshots – unashamedly romantic be-
cause that’s how I view the world, enthusiasm
is the lens I’ve chosen. They are also letters to
my heroes and conversations with those I love. I
have written a poem for this new body of work,
not because I thought I should, it sounds trite but
when the poems come about they sort of just
happen to me. It’s a way to decode my world, to
reduce it.
This new series is called Looking for Urchins
and Louis Ferrari. Captain Louis Ferrari is my
94
maternal grandfather, an enigma of my child-
hood. He was an Italian doctor who went to Hi-
roshima to serve just after the bomb. He was ex-
posed to radiation whilst there and died back in
Newcastle shortly after. My mum was 11. After
his death she would go to his wardrobe and im-
merse herself in his clothing, they smelt of tobac-
co, of aftershave, of him. It just breaks my heart.
His wife Marie Ferrari was the matron at the
hospital on Newcastle beach and their lives were
orientated around the sea and places that I now
inhabit. The most meaningful thing I do with my
children and [my wife, artist] Lottie [Consalvo]
is explore the rock pools, looking for crabs, oc-
topi, anything. Sometimes we find an urchin, it’s
like I find a piece of him. Life is beautiful but it’s
also tragic, sharp and complex.  
Imagine you’re 80 and looking back on
your life’s work. What do you hope to have
achieved through painting and art? 
Honesty. That I’ve adequately celebrated the
ones that I love and that I’ve had a meaningful
conversation with art history, one of value.
JAMES DRINKWATER’S LOOKING FOR
URCHINS AND LOUIS FERRARI SHOWS AT
NANDA\HOBBS CONTEMPORARY, SYDNEY,
FROM 11 OCTOBER TO 3 NOVEMBER 2018.
W H AT N OW OPPOSITE FROM RIGHT: James Drinkwater,
The Sea Calls me by Name, 2018. Oil on canvas,
240 x 180cm.
James Drinkwater, Girl in Park under the Fort,
2018. Oil on canvas, 240 x 180cm.
THIS PAGE: James Drinkwater, Hester in The
French Polynesia, 2017. Corten steel and
enamel, 240 x 1,300 x 800cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND NANDA\HOBBS
CONTEMPORARY, SYDNEY. PHOTO: DEAN BELETICH.

95
98

Spence Messih, Psychic sex, 2017. Glass, sand, steel, wire,
225 x 225 x 210cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST. PHOTO: FIONA SUSANTO.
W H AT N E X T
W H AT
N E XT ?
Three artists you should
make a point of having
on your radar.
SPENCE MESSIH
WHY PAY ATTENTION?
Spence Messih is an artist firmly on curatorial and
institutional radars. They were a 2017 finalist in the
NSW Visual Art Emerging Fellowship, and in the last
two years have been included in notable exhibitions
such as the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art’s
Unfinished Business: Perspectives on Art and Feminism
(2017), Artspace Sydney’s Superposition of three types
(2017), and Wayfind at Melbourne’s West Space, as
part of Next Wave 2018. A return to exhibition practice
after more than a year’s hiatus, Messih’s 2017 solo THE
LOOK BACK at Alaska Projects in Sydney was a sign of
things to come – thoughtful, restrained, and critically
well-received.
WHAT DO THEY DO?
Messih’s practice uses sculpture, installation, photogra-
phy and text to explore the potential of forms and ma-
terials to communicate trans(gender) experience.
WHAT’S GOING ON?
Drawing on the languages of abstraction and minimal-
ism, Messih investigates the physical, systemic and
psychological structures that try – and often fail – to
support us. Recent work has seen utilitarian materials
such as steel in dialogue with sand, tile mosaic, glass,
and text, creating work that is at once inviting and im-
penetrable.
THE ARTIST SAYS…
“The new series [to be exhibited at the Museum of
Contemporary Art’s Primavera 2018] challenges the
notion that representation is synonymous with vis-
ibility.  It disputes the implication that this visibility
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SPE NCE MESSIH (CONTI NU ED)

should be experienced as an inherently pro-
ductive force for those being represented.
Through language, form and material the series
explores how cis-heteronormative power struc-
tures  feel  on a bodily level and how they fun-
damentally intend to keep certain bodies on the
outside […] The works demand silent direction
and coercion, secretly orienting bodies. The
hard steel structures interrogate care and safe-
ty and suggest power structures that make soft
lives hard to live.”
SEE IT AT…
Upcoming projects include The moan echoes,
a collaboration with Archie Barry alongside
Power & Imagination at the National Gallery of
Australia; group show In a world of wounds at
Artbank; a solo at Bus Projects, Melbourne, and
split-solo at Auto Italia in London; and Primave-
ra 2018: Young Australian Artists at the Museum
of Contemporary Art. Work for these projects
has evolved out of a recent research trip to nu-
merous queer archives in North America, tak-
ing both conceptual and material inspiration
from histories of trans masculine people such
as Lou Sullivan and Reed Erickson.
Kate Britton

BELOW: Spence Messih, You move (on the other side of), 2017. Steel, testosterone gel, dimensions variable. COURTESY: THE ARTIST. PHOTO: DOCUMENT PHOTOGRAPHY.

OPPOSITE: Spence Messih, River beneath the river (I & II), 2017. Cyanotype on 300gsm arches coldpress watercolour paper, 56 x 76cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND ARTBANK, SYDNEY.

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FROM LEFT: Salome Tanuvasa, Untitled 1, 2018. Marker pen on paper, 117 x 84cm. Salome Tanuvasa, Untitled 5, 2018. Marker pen on paper 121 x 82cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND TIM MELVILLE GALLERY, AUCKLAND. PHOTO: KALLAN MACLEOD.
WHY PAY ATTENTION?
Even before graduating from her MFA at Elam
School of Fine Arts in 2014, Auckland-based
multidisciplinary artist Salome Tanuvasa was
garnering notice for her playful work, most of-
ten made in response to her surroundings. In
particular, her 2012 film Expensive Moments,
first shown in This Must Be The Place at St Paul
Street Gallery, went on to be reshown at Auck-
land’s Ozlyn gallery and then again for a solo
exhibition at Gaffa Gallery in Sydney. Her most
recent work has primarily resided in the (ex-
pansive) realm of drawing. Sometimes penned
small on paper, other times swept large across
a wall, Tanuvasa’s gestural drawings have been
shown in numerous galleries across Aotearoa
– including at her Auckland dealer gallery Tim
Melville, where she first exhibited in early 2018
and will be showing again in September.
W H AT N E X T
SALOME TANUVASA
WHAT DOES SHE DO?
Made within a strict set of environmental re-
straints dictated by her hectic schedule as a
fulltime working mother and artist, Tanuvasa’s
drawings are frank records of her immediate
environment – of the humble materials at hand
(paper, card, giftwrap, pens), and the snatched
time they are made within.
Yet they also transcend the conditions of
their making; they feel surprisingly calm and
are refreshingly candid, made up of clean, de-
liberate gestures that seem to be trying to tell
you something.
WHAT’S GOING ON?
They really are trying to tell you something.
For her upcoming exhibition at Tim Melville
Gallery, Tanuvasa will be employing her elo-
quent, linear visual language to approach the
102
idea of language itself, and to consider the ways
in which verbal and visual languages can create
meaning and convey experiences of living.
THE ARTIST SAYS…
“To explore the idea of language, I draw from the
rhythmic action of writing, and from the phenom-
enology of direct experiences that allow me to
play in the area of how meaning is formed. There
is a series of decisions happening when making
my works, because of my scarce time, and the
many roles I play… I am constantly in conversation
with myself about what materials and actions can
be appreciated.”
SEE IT AT…
Tanuvasa’s exhibition untitled exhibits at Tim Mel-
ville Gallery, Auckland, until 13 October 2018.
Lucinda Bennett
 W H AT N E X T

Salome Tanuvasa, Untitled 6, 2018. Fabric pen on calico, brass eyelet, dimensions variable.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND TIM MELVILLE GALLERY, AUCKLAND. PHOTO: KALLAN MACLEOD.

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ABOVE FROM LEFT: Scott Gardiner, Thresholds (blue/brown), 2018. Acrylic on paper/collage, 40 x 30cm.
Scott Gardiner, The depths and the shallows 5, 2018. Arcrylic on paper/collage, 40 x 30cm.
OPPOSITE: Scott Gardiner, Thresholds #2, 2018, detail. Synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 230 x 180cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND PAULNACHE, GISBORNE.

WHY PAY ATTENTION?
A multiple finalist in the prestigious Wallace Art
Awards in New Zealand and a regular participant
at the Auckland Art Fair, Kiwi artist Scott Gar-
diner has just returned to his homeland after a
two-year stint in Australia to stage a major show
for PAULNACHE Gallery in Gisborne. Having
exhibited in Sri Lanka, Berlin and Auckland in
recent years, he has just been picked up by Gal-
erie pompom in Sydney where he will present
his first solo exhibition there in 2019.
WHAT DOES HE DO?
Gardiner creates evocative multimedia works
on canvas incorporating pigment, ink prints,
acrylics, gloss and matt varnish to produce col-
lage-like abstract compositions that reveal his
passion for the sea. The picture surface is dom-
inated by photorealist ocean imagery overlaid
SCOT T GARDINER
with bold geometric forms, creating an uneasy
alliance between lyrical realism and hard-edge
abstraction. In his latest series of large-scale
paintings, the artist has replaced much of the
wave imagery with gestural line work, suggest-
ing the rhythmic waves through painterly brush
strokes.
WHAT’S GOING ON?
Gardiner is exploring the juxtaposition be-
tween solid abstract forms that represent hu-
man logic and rationality and the flow of light
and motion across the surface of water. For this
keen surfer, the ocean has always been the cen-
tral theme of his work, promoting an environ-
mental consciousness as well as loosely evoking
our universal search for meaning.
THE ARTIST SAYS…
“This new body of work has seen my focus shift
from the oceans depths to the boundary between
land and sea… As a surfer this notion of ‘crossing
the threshold’ is a reality encountered on a regular
basis, leaving the safety of the land for the cold and
unpredictable embrace of the sea is often a heady
mix of fear and exhilaration, satiating a desire for
adventure while longing for safety... Making art,
like entering a tumultuous, lonely ocean requires
the desire and ability to set aside our fears, cast off
the shackles of uncertainty and cross the thresh-
old into the unknown.”
SEE IT AT. . . 
Gardiner’s The Depths And The Shallows shows at
PAULNACHE, Gisborne from 17 October to 17
November 2018. Q
Victoria Hynes

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105
 12 – 14 July 2O19
Opening night 11 July
ciaf.com.au
1Oth ANNIVERSARY AUSTRALIA’S PREMIER INDIGENOUS ART FAIR

This project is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland’s Backing Indigenous Arts initiative, which aims to build a stronger, more sustainable and ethical Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander arts industry in the State.

Cairns Indigenous Art Fair Limited is assisted by the Australian Government Supported through the Australian Government’s Daisy Hamlot, Gudar Acrylic on canvas
through the Australia Council, It’s arts funding and advisory body. Indigenous Visual Arts Industry Support Programme.
CRITIC’S CHOICE

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CRITIC’S CHOICE

CRITIC’S
CHOICE
Independent writer and curator Francis McWhannell
selects five artists with a commitment to
community and compassion.

THESE FIVE ARTISTS from Aotearoa New Zealand span different gen-
erations and backgrounds and employ diverse media in their respective
practices. They were initially chosen for the simple reason that their works
caught my attention and refused to let go. However, points of commonality
are discernible when one looks a little closer.
The artists all make work that is distinctly poetic and emotionally potent.
All explore politics of identity, variously touching on questions of feminism,
indigeneity, and queerness. Perhaps most importantly, all honour and speak
to the communities with which they are associated, opening up spaces for
all who encounter their works to engage in compassionate reflection.

MAUREEN LANDER
Maureen Lander creates subtle and intricate installations that grow out of
raranga (traditional Ma-ori weaving) and centre on indigenous materials,
including harakeke (New Zealand flax) and pa-ngao (golden sand sedge).
Her current exhibition, Flat-Pack Whakapapa, at Te Uru Waita-kere Con-
temporary Gallery in Ta-maki Makaurau Auckland, explores the relationship
between raranga, whakapapa (genealogy), and whanaungatanga (kinship).
Strands of fibre become strands of DNA. Kete (baskets or ‘kits’) under
construction are bodies growing. Kit-Set Whanaungatanga (2017) is a col-
laborative work, its network of forms reflecting the ties developed between
the weavers, as well as the interconnection of kindred individuals more
broadly. The flat-pack of the exhibition title alludes to whakapapa as a pro-
cess of stacking flat, or layering; to the ability of the works to be packed
down and reinstalled; and to the notion that humans are mobile entities,
capable of reconfiguring ourselves in unfamiliar contexts, while retaining
deep ties to our homes and ancestors.

Installation view of Maureen Lander and her collaborators’ Kit-Set Whanaungatanga, 2017.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND THE DOWSE ART MUSEUM, LOWER HUTT. PHOTO: MARK TANTRUM.

107
 CRITIC’S CHOICE

ANA ITI
The recent work of Ana Iti suggests an intertwining of human and natural histories,
genealogy and geology. Only fools are lonely (2018) takes the form of a jetty-like
ramp composed of a wooden frame and a grid of hand-cut, unglazed tiles. This
rises gently from the floor as if emerging from another realm. The clay evokes
Papatu-a-nuku, the earth mother and a first ancestor. It is aggregate – composed of
countless particles in fluent union – and physically ancient, ground into being over
aeons. It is also the substance of pottery, an art form known to the Polynesian fore-
bears of Ma- ori, no longer practised when Ma- ori arrived in Aotearoa, but learned by
Iti in a process of reconnection.
At the same time, the installation relates to one by Shona Rapira Davies in the
centre of Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, in which structures of glazed tiles me-
morialise a stream and pa- (Ma- ori settlement) once found there but disrupted by the
arrival of colonising Pa- keha- (Europeans).

Installation view of Ana Iti’s Only fools are lonely, 2018 in The earth looks upon us / Ko Papatu-a-nuku te matua o te tangata, Adam Art Gallery Te Pa-taka Toi, Wellington.
Cedar, hand-cut and fired clay tiles. 1,000 x 200 x 100cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND THE ADAM ART GALLERY TE PA-TAKA TOI, WELLINGTON. PHOTO: SHAUN MATTHEWS.

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 CRITIC’S CHOICE

Paul Johns, It is, 2017. Neon and acrylic, 115 x 115 x 12.5cm.
Paul Johns, Was that a man or a woman. Yes, 2018. Neon and acrylic, 24 x 126 x 7cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND NADENE MILNE GALLERY, ARROWTOWN AND CHRISTCHURCH.

PAUL JOHNS
Paul Johns has long been interested in identities that are ambiguous, multiple, and fluid. In the early
1970s, he produced some of the first work in New Zealand to look at transsexuality, a subject that
was taboo and often conflated with homosexuality, then illegal.
His recent work Was that a man or a woman. Yes (2018) comprises a horizontal neon bar with bent
ends: a straight line with kinks, a spectrum with indefinite termini, perhaps a new marker of non-bi-
nary gender. The device appears again in It is (2017), doubled and arranged into a glowing form that is
reminiscent both of a crucifix, and of an inverted pink triangle: a symbol of homosexuality reclaimed
from Nazi usage. The work may thus be understood to allude to the mistreatment of queer people at
the hands of churches and states. More importantly, the form represents a variation on the right-fac-
ing swastika. This connects the work with Jainism, a non-theistic religion of special significance to the
artist, which promotes non-injury and embraces notions of the mutable and the manifold.

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 CRITIC’S CHOICE

Fiona Clark, Peter and Jenny, 1988. From the publication Living with AIDS (1988), 2018.
Published by Michael Lett, Auckland.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND MICHAEL LETT, AUCKLAND.

FIONA CLARK
In 1988, Fiona Clark took a series of photographs of people living with AIDS in
Aotearoa. These were placed into two albums and annotated by the people involved,
in a process of combining images and personal accounts used by the artist on several
occasions. With her Auckland dealer, Michael Lett, Clark has turned the albums into
books, painstakingly recreating their internal appearance.
Bound elegantly in blue papers stamped with neat gold lettering, Living with AIDS
(1988) (2018) faintly recalls 20th-century facsimiles published by the likes of the Na-
tional Library of New Zealand of texts deemed “historically important”, such as ac-
counts of European voyages of exploration. Clark’s publication ensures that the AIDS
crisis of the 1980s and 1990s – which so disproportionately affected marginalised com-
munities, including queer people and sex workers – is given its proper place in the
record, paying tribute not only to those who appear in its pages, but to all who were and
are affected by this terrible moment.

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 CRITIC’S CHOICE

Luca Nicholas, Grindr Study #14, 2017. Hand-coloured hard-ground and soft-ground etching
and chine-collé on paper, edition of 10 + 2 AP, 69.5 x 50cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST.

LUCA NICHOLAS
Luca Nicholas cribs self-portraits from gay dating and hook-up apps. Using the unfor-
giving – and today uncommon – medium of etching, he produces works that eloquent-
ly unite the coexistent senses of community and isolation, intimacy and distance that
mark many encounters on such platforms.
The prints evoke the careful staging of the photographs by their makers, in order to
present their bodies and domestic spaces in the best possible light, as well as the an-
swering process enacted by viewers of tempering expectation, attempting to imagine
physicality and psychology alike by way of limited cues. They exhort us to consider
the intricacies inherent in our changing relationships with our bodies and the bodies
of others. The nude or semi-nude selfie becomes a marker of a moment that might
sometimes appear cavalier and self-indulgent, but that is in truth characterised by a
tangle of complex behaviours – to which we must relate and respond with commen-
surate complexity. Q

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 2 0 1 9

S A M

S T A G

ANNOUNCING THE 2019 ANNE & GORDON SAMSTAG

INTERNATIONAL VISUAL ARTS SCHOLARSHIPS_
The University of South Australia congratulates our 2019
Samstag Scholars Georgia Saxelby (NSW) and Elyas Alavi (SA)

DISCOVER MORE ABOUT SAMSTAG

SCHOLARSHIPS, CONTACT_
T 08 8302 0870
W unisa.edu.au/samstagmuseum
E samstagmuseum@unisa.edu.au

Image: Georgia SAXELBY, Lullaby (still from video performance), 2017, in collaboration with Viva Soudan and Bailey Nolan. Photo: Kristin Adair.
 Two artists, two completely different approaches, one abiding passion —
to depict the natural bounty to be found in northern Australia.

Until 3 March 2019

Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory
FREE ENTRY
magnt.net.au

Distant glimpses … 2017 (details), John Wolseley; National Museum of Australia.

Darwirr, 2014 (detail), Mulkun Wirrpanda; donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program by Wayne and Vicki McGeoch.
 N AT S I A A

NATSIAA PICK
OF THE CROP
Our writers select their standout works from this year’s
National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards.

GUNYBI GANAMBARR
Each year, the National Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Awards are known for captur-
ing the dynamism at the heart of Indigenous
art. And yet again, the overall winning work
has the scale, ambition and scope – together
with extraordinary innovation of medium and
technique – that typify contemporary Indig-
enous practice. Gunybi Ganambarr, born
1973, has worked with Buku-Larrnggay Mul-
ka Art Centre since 2001. As a Yolngu man,
he is subject to unwritten but firm and ancient
conventions about how to portray culture.
His winning work Buku portrays a ceremony
during which Yirritja ancestors come togeth-
er, created on aluminium with a Dremel tool.
Buku’s Coordinator Will Stubbs tells me that
Gananbarr’s ability is outstanding. In his prac-
tice he uses “the stuff that white people have
chucked on his land, and natural media as well.
There are more than a dozen areas in which he
has been the first artist to make a new style of
doing things without offending the law. He is
able to represent the law with authority in a
creative, innovative way.”
Ganambarr’s first solo exhibition at
Sydney’s Annandale Galleries in 2009
sold out and it was after that he began to
work with found materials. In 2011, he
won the West Australian Indigenous Art
Award and received the Myer Foundation
Creative Fellowship. He was part of the
National Gallery of Australia’s Indigenous
Art Triennial in 2012. His previous work
as a carpenter informs his skills, with in-
dustrial materials like metal and glass of-
fering surfaces that attract him for their
enduring qualities.
The judges found Buku compelling in
more ways than one. Director of the Ian
Potter Museum of Art at the University
of Melbourne, Kelly Gellatly, said the
judging panel kept returning to this work,
both for its command of scale and the
rigour of technique within that scale. She
noted Ganambarr’s “incredible command
of materials and the beautiful movement
across the work”.
Louise Martin-Chew

Gunybi Ganambarr, Buyku, 2018, detail. Etching on aluminium board, 300 x 300cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST, BUKU LARRNGGAY MULKA CENTRE, YIRRKALA AND MAGNT, DARWIN.

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WUKUN WANAMBI
In 1997, when Wukun Wanambi began paint-
ing, it quickly became clear he would not re-
main an amateur for long. After just one year,
his artistic efforts had already garnered at-
tention and seen him win the NATSIAA Bark
Painting Award. Two decades later in 2018,
the artist found himself standing in the same
position, accepting a different prize: the Tels-
tra Wandjuk Marika Memorial 3D Award. His
original accolade suggested that he was an ar-
tistic force to be reckoned with, and his sub-
sequent oeuvre has confirmed that fact – with
many of Wanambi’s works finding their way
into some of Australia’s most prominent public
collections. Indeed, his offering at this year’s
award, Destiny (2018), strongly suggests that
this demand will only continue to grow.
Destiny is made up of three painted stringy-
bark trunks and a video installation that proj-
ects a large school of small fish onto the floor
space between the poles. In the work, the
fish circle in an expanding and contracting
whirlpool that hypnotises the viewer. This
movement is further echoed by the paintings
on the poles, which similarly illustrate fish,
swimming up and down the contours of the
stringybark. “If you’re sitting on the beach
and you dive your mind into the water, you
can actually see the fish and how they rotate –
but not a lot of people do that,” he says. “They
only see the surface of the water, they never
dive in.” With Wanambi’s work, we do.
Wukun Wanambi, Destiny, 2018. Natural pigments on Stringybark pole and video, 280 x 200 x 200cm.
Tai Mitsuji COURTESY: THE ARTIST, BUKU LARRNGGAY MULKA CENTRE, YIRRKALA AND MAGNT, DARWIN.

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NYAPARU
(WILLIAM)
GARDINER
One of the star artists to recently emerge from
South Hedland’s Spinifex Hill Studios, Nyap-
aru (William) Gardiner is a two-time NAT-
SIAA exhibitor, well-known for his haunting
autobiographical figurative paintings. Born in
1943 in the Western Desert, and growing up
in Port Hedland where he now resides, Gar-
diner’s work draws upon his memories of
working on pastoral stations throughout the
remote Pilbara, following the infamous 1946
Pilbara Aboriginal Strike. This was a pivotal
historical moment for Aboriginal Australia,
and one with little photographic documenta-
tion. Gardiner’s works, painted from memory,
provide a powerful link to this tumultuous
time, when Aboriginal people’s human rights
were for the first time acknowledged in the
nation’s north-western frontier.
Gardiner’s exceptional drawing skills lend
his works their fragile beauty, whether lov-
ingly depicting the horses he worked with for
much of his life, or through his lanky human
figures, most frequently male family members
and fellow pastoral workers. His NATSIAA
work is a monochromatic portrait of a brother
with whom Gardiner worked on Shelley Sta-
tion, an Aboriginal-run sheep station estab-
lished in 1975 by a collective of those involved
in the 1946 strike. Like much of Gardiner’s re-
cent portraits, the unnamed brother is almost
ghost-like, meeting the viewer’s gaze with
enigmatic gravitas.
Nyaparu (William) Gardiner, Brother of mine, 2018, detail. Synthetic polymer paint on linen, 91 x 61cm.
Andrew Nicholls COURTESY: THE ARTIST, SPINIFEX HILL STUDIOS, WA AND MAGNT, DARWIN.

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Born around 1950 in the remote Northern
Territory and living in numerous communi-
ties near the tri-state border, Niningka Lewis
is renowned as one of central Australia’s most
diverse and imaginative senior artists. Now
based at Ernabella, she is known for her figu-
rative paintings depicting desert life, as well
as her wood carvings, ceramics, tjanpi fibre
sculptures and basketry.
Since the early 1990s the Tjanpi Desert
Weaving movement has represented a unique-
NININGKA LEWIS
ly empowering presence across central Aus-
tralia. Initially providing income and cultural
agency to women in remote communities
during an era when the Aboriginal art scene
was dominated by male painters, it grew to
become one of contemporary Aboriginal art’s
most compelling and inventive mediums. Lew-
is is particularly recognised as a Tjanpi innova-
tor. She was one of the first artists to introduce
the incorporation of raffia into the practice,
and is also credited with making the first life-
sized grass sculpture of a human figure.
Lewis’ strident Tjanpi coat of arms pulls no
punches in assertively reclaiming sovereignty,
transforming the staid, bureaucratic, two-di-
mensional crest into a dynamically wonky
sculptural form through the use of bush ma-
terials. Displaying all the technique, ingenui-
ty and wit that one would expect from one of
Tjanpi’s leading names, the work already feels
like a new Tjanpi icon.
Andrew Nicholls

Niningka Lewis, Australian Coat of Arms; we were there and we are here, 2017. Tjanpi (wild harvested grass), raffia, emu feathers, wool, nylon, 68 x 80 x 40cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST, TJANPI DESERT WEAVERS, ALICE SPRINGS AND MAGNT, DARWIN.

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Patrina Liyadurrkitj Mununggurr, Dhunupa’kum nhuna wanda (Straightening your mind), 2018. Digital film, 1min 33sec.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST, THE MULKA PROJECT, YIRRKALA AND MAGNT, DARWIN.

PATRINA LIYADURRKITJ MUNUNGGURR

At this year’s NATSIAAs, Patrina Liyadu-
rrkitj Mununggurr’s video work totally
mesmerised the viewer over the course of
93 short seconds. Her piece, Dhunupa’kum
nhuna wanda (Straightening your mind), not
only captivated gallery-goers, but also the
judges, who awarded her the Telstra Multime-
dia Award. Indeed, while the Yirrkala-based
artist’s practice is still relatively young, her
work’s artistic maturity and gravitas rendered
this fact immaterial.
The prize-winning film depicted Munung-
gurr methodically crushing and blending piec-
es of gapan (white clay) into paste, before she
slowly painted this mixture over her limbs and
face. The stunning close-up shots of the art-
ist’s hands, busy at work, infused the flat work
with a tactile tangibility – the viewer felt as if
they could almost reach into the monitor and
the scene. The audience was further drawn
into the work by the chanting of the artist’s fa-
ther and brother, whose voices sang with great
strength in the background.
But Mununggurr’s film transcended its own
aesthetic and aural potency, as the artist de-
scribed how the work held deeper cultural sig-
nificance. “White clay is important for us, ev-
ery time we put it on our skin and face it makes
us strong,” Mununggurr explains. “In Yirrkala …
you can just go down to the beach to get [the
clay].” It seemed that with a single powerful
gesture, the artist was both symbolically and
literally painting herself with the land.
Tai Mitsuji

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 N AT S I A A

PETER MUNGKURI
Peter Mungkuri’s striking work Ngura took
out this year’s Telstra General Painting
Award. An elder from the Anangu Pitjantjat-
jara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands, Mungkuri
was born around 1946 in the bushland near
Mimili, first seeing white men during his
childhood. His intimate knowledge of Coun-
try, his Ngura, is expressed in this poetic and
detailed evocation of place. 
Mungkuri’s painterly style is unique, de-
picting trees at the heart of Anangu culture.
From a central spiral, branches reach to coun-
try using red and black ink and a sensitive lin-
earity. It expresses, according to Mungkuri,
“This land, my home, where it all started. I’ve
got good knowledge of horses, stockmen, and
the Country. These things, everything, is my
memory – my knowledge. I like to paint the
memories of my Country.”
The judges noted the painting’s compelling
composition, “with its multiple perspectives
and shifting pictorial planes… passages of time
and space which speak of the artist’s experi-
ence of Ngura, his custodial inheritance, and
his responsibilities to care for his homeland.”
Mungkuri has been exhibiting his work
consistently since 2010. “Peter is a prolific
artist and dedicated mentor to the young men
of Indulkana and the APY Lands,” notes Iwan-
tja Arts manager Beth Conway. “A passionate
leader, Peter’s artwork reflects his reverence
to culture, the history of the Yankunytjatjara
people and their land.”
Louise Martin-Chew

Peter Mungkuri, Ngura (Country), 2018, detail.

Ink and synthetic polymer paint on linen, 243 x 198cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST, IWANTJA ARTS, SA
AND MAGNT, DARWIN.

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121
 GLOBAL

GLOBA L
WAR M I NG
We present five local artists who have recently been
heating up the world stage.

Patricia Piccinini, The Couple, detail. Silicone, hair, fibreglass, sheets, 42 x 168 x 65cm. Installation
view, Curious Affection, QAGOMA, Brisbane, 2018.

PATRICIA PICCININI

There are few artists who are as attuned to the acoustics of our times as Patricia Piccinini.
Over the past 25 years, Piccinini has interrogated the murk of modern life through sculpture,
painting, drawing and video, exploring issues of biological manipulation, environmental deg-
radation and the limits of human empathy. Her approach is almost Shakespearean, seamlessly
shepherding her audiences through different registers: from pathos, to comedy, to the most
profound meditations on morality, suffering, public responsibility, and how these subjects
might relate in the future.
In recognising the importance of Piccinini’s practice, earlier this year the Queensland Art Gallery I
Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) devoted an entire level to a solo presentation of her work in Cu-
rious Affection – making it the largest single artist exhibition in the gallery’s history. She tells me that
these opportunities to realise her vision in a proper scale are important. “My artworks pose questions
about some of the most pressing issues of our time. I want people to enjoy them, be tested by them,
fall in love with them and hopefully come to a conclusion about some of these issues.”

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Patricia Piccinini, The Observer, detail. Silicone,

fibreglass, steel, human hair, clothing, chairs, 220 x
140 x 48cm. Installation view, Pulsanti, Abdulmecid
Mansion / Arter, Istanbul, 2017.

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Patricia Piccinini, The Long Awaited, 2008. Silicone, fibreglass, human hair, plywood, leather, clothing, 152 x 80 x 92cm.
Installation view, Pulsanti, Abdulmecid Mansion / Arter, Istanbul, 2017.

The success of Curious Affection follows Piccinini’s global 2016 Brazillian blockbuster, Patricia
Piccinini: Consciousness, which saw 444,425 visitors through the doors, making it the most popular
contemporary art exhibition worldwide and the second most visited exhibition globally in that year.
“That exhibition really resonated with people. I’m so grateful for that,” says the artist. Her response
is telling of her generous approach to art making and the art world. As an art student, Piccinini, along
with fellow art students, began an artist run space in Collingwood called The Basement. It would
be through co-operating a gallery that she would develop an intrinsic understanding of artist-led
practice, audience and also how art can bring different people together. This sentiment has always
underscored Piccinini’s practice.
In conversation, Piccinini hints at some of the projects she is working on. She has just returned
from a field trip to Queensland to research Australian environments for an exhibition in 2019 at
Cairns Regional Gallery. “It’s important to be well-researched in developing any project,” she tells

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Patricia Piccinini, Kindred. Silicone, fibreglass, hair, 103 x 95 x 128cm. Installation view, Curious
Affection, QAGOMA, Brisbane, 2018.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST, ROSLYN OXLEY9 GALLERY, SYDNEY AND TOLARNO GALLERIES, MELBOURNE.:

me. “I’m always interested in pushing the boundaries of my knowledge, and this always feeds the
work.” This project will also coincide with an international exhibition of works from the QAGOMA
exhibition at Denmark’s Arken Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen. Opportunities like this are
major wins for Australian artists and the boarder arts community. “Ultimately, my work explores
global issues that cross borders, cultures and times. The opportunity to have dialogue with different
people across the globe is core to what I do as an artist.”
This is most inspiring about Piccinini. More than an artist, she has a unique ability to draw people
together and connect disparate threads. As we enter into her world, for a few precious moments,
we’re reminded of the common fears, desires and hopes that bind us. This uncanny power, to unite
with such powerful spectacle, is the inspiration that drives Piccinini onto the next big thing. Without
revealing too much, 2019 will be her biggest and most important year yet.
Micheal Do

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Dane Mitchell, Remedies for Remembering (Al) and Forgetting (NaCl), 2016. Homeopathic remedy, bulk liquid containers,
spray pumps. Installation view, Sydney Biennale, AGNSW, Sydney.

DANE MITCHELL

Part of smelling a violet is ceasing to smell at all, just for a moment. A slight sweetness in the air
before the scent receptors are desensitised by ionones present in the flower’s chemical make-
up. When the nerves recover, the violet fragrance returns, all the sweeter for having slipped
away, until it disappears once more…
How curious, for ephemerality to be explained by a molecule, for a feeling of loss to be chemically
induced at the top of a ladder in an empty gallery. And yet this curious blend of science, poetry, and
perfumery is entirely characteristic of the work of Auckland-based artist Dane Mitchell, whose
name will be familiar to many as New Zealand’s representative at the forthcoming Venice Beinnale.
Another distinct characteristic of Mitchell’s work is the way it is often barely there, with many of his
preferred materials being slight or formless: air, gas, dust, suggestion. Mitchell sits within a lineage
of artists who have employed invisible materials to create new possibilities for sculpture, charging
these materials in some way to give the viewer a sensory experience, to trigger some reaction, to
probe their imagination.
Mitchell’s work requires bodies in order to be activated (does a gallery smell like loss if your scent
receptors are alive and well in another room?). Luckily, there will be no shortage of opportunities
for bodies to experience his work over the next 18 months, wherever they are in the world. His solo
exhibition Iris, Iris, Iris at Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, has recently closed but has just reopened in his
hometown at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki. He has another solo exhibition currently open at
the Institut d’art Contemporain in Lyon and will also show work in the forthcoming Thailand Bien-
nale, at Christopher Grimes Gallery in Los Angeles and at Belgium’s PLAY Kortrijk 2018.
Lucinda Bennett

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Dane Mitchell, Weight of the World, 2014. Scales, 45 x 35 x 40cm. Installation view, Institut
d’art contemporain, Villeurbanne/Rhône-Alpes.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND HOPKINSON MOSSMAN, AUCKLAND AND WELLINGTON.

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Heather B. Swann, I will not remember your name, 2018. Wood, modelling compound, shellac, dimensions variable.

HEATHER B. SWANN

FOR THE PAST YEAR, Heather B. Swann has been working with Asialink and the BUoY Arts
Centre in Tokyo to produce I let my body fall into a rhythm, a large-scale exhibition blending
visual art with performance. A self-confessed “haberdashery nut”, Swann creates highly
detailed work with layers of fabric and intricate handstitched elements that can take months
to complete. Describing her pieces as “performance tools”, in 2016 Swann presented Nervous,
a multidisciplinary installation at the National Gallery of Australia featuring her distinctively
unsettling Banksia Men.
Since then, Swann has maintained a rigorous travel regime, crisscrossing the globe for
residencies, exhibitions and collaborations. Naples, London and Tokyo have been frequent
stops and as a result, many of her recent works have been site-specific, or created with the
suitcase in mind. Referencing two works included in I let my body fall into a rhythm, Swann
explains: “The wire hoops of  Awkwardo  are all individually shaped into their structures of

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LOW RES

FROM LEFT: Heather B. Swann, The letter that never came, 2017. Wood, glass, ceramic, ink, dimensions variable.
Heather B. Swann, Awkwardo, detail, 2018. Wire, cotton, silk, modelling compound, 160 x 132 x 45cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST, MICHAEL BUGELLI GALLERY, HOBART AND BUOY ARTS CENTRE, TOKYO.

tapes, cotton, silk and velvet, allowing each piece to collapse like a concertina.”
Part of the eight-month Australia now Japan program, I let my body fall into a rhythm is set in a
former Japanese bathhouse. Incorporating elements of the original interior – old baths, signage,
water – Swann presents a mix of wearable sculptural pieces, sound works and performance, each
linked by the themes of “waiting, the absurd and the melancholy”.
Similar to the performative elements seen in Nervous, at select points during I let my body fall into
a rhythm, actor Riki Takeda and soprano Astrid Connelly will perform wearing Swann’s imposing
structures made from black silk and covered in glass eyes or white doll-like heads made of cork.
Layered with meaning, Swann acknowledges the influence of surrealism and intense emotional
states on her work, concluding: “I embrace enigma and a darkness that leaves room for mystery.” I
let my body fall into a rhythm shows at BUoY Arts Centre, Tokyo, until 21 October 2018.
Briony Downes

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Vincent Namatjira, Bob Hawke, Paul Keating, John Howard, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull, 2016.
Acrylic on canvas, 91 x 67cm each. Installation view, TarraWarra Biennial 2016: Endless Circulation.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND THIS IS NO FANTASY, MELBOURNE. PHOTO: ANDREW CURTIS.

Vincent Namatjira, Welcome to Indulkana, 2018. Acrylic on canvas, 122 x 304cm.

COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND THIS IS NO FANTASY, MELBOURNE. PHOTO: JANELLE LOW.

VINCENT NAMATJIRA

Vincent Namatjira’s story is an all-too-familiar one for Indigenous Australians; that of removal from his
home as a child, disconnection from language, culture and family to grow up thousands of kilometres
away, surrounded by strangers. By the time he was able to return to Country – the illustrious artistic
community of Hermannsburg in the Central Desert – he was an adult, and surprised to learn of his
connection to one of Australia’s most famous artists, his great grandfather Albert Namatjira.
This difficult beginning spawned an artistic practice bent on interrogating the society that perpetrated
this violence. Namatjira’s bold, irreverent painterly style, applied to subjects like Captain Cook, a myriad of
British royals, Australian politicians, his family and himself, has garnered fans the world over. Off the back
of recognition in Australia through exhibition, prizes, fairs and acquisitions, Namatjira’s practice has gained
traction internationally, including with the British Museum, which has acquired a number of his works over
the last five years, and curated him into the major exhibition Indigenous Australia: Enduring Civilisation.
In December, following presentations in London, across Germany and Hong Kong over the last few
years, the artist will become the first Australian Indigenous artist to have a solo show at Art Basel Miami
Beach. This is not only a first for the artist; it is the first time an Australian gallery – Melbourne’s This Is
No Fantasy – has presented a solo at the prestigious fair; an achievement that would surely make Namat-
jira’s great-grandfather proud.
Kate Britton

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Vincent Namatjira, The Queen and Me, 2016, detail. Acrylic on canvas, 91 x 122cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND THE BRITISH MUSEUM, LONDON.

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Julian Day, Together We Breathe, 2013. Performance documentation, Library of Birmingham, United Kingdom.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND DOMINIK MERSCH GALLERY, SYDNEY. PHOTO: GETHIN THOMAS.

JULIAN DAY

Artist, composer, writer and broadcaster Julian Day has been quietly building an internation-
al reputation for some time, particularly across the USA, UK and Germany. “Patience is the
strongest virtue you can develop,” he says of this success, which has been fuelled by a series of
residencies and grants, starting with the British Council in 2011 and bolstered by travel schol-
arships from the University of Sydney and Samstag Museum.
Over the last few years, his patience has paid off. A new work for performers, keyboards and
mirrors, LEFT LEFT RIGHT RIGHT, premiered at the Tate Modern earlier this year, fulfilling a long-
held dream. “I remember standing outside Tate Modern 10 years ago, vowing to one day present
work in its spaces,” says Day. “This year that dream came true.” Tate Modern is just the latest in a list
of dreams to come true for the multidisciplinary artist.
In the last few years Day has exhibited at London’s Whitechapel Gallery; the Centre for Per-
formance Research in New York; T Berlin; and the Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana. The
California-Pacific Triennial at Orange County Museum of Art was a particular highlight. “Working
at OCMA was an extraordinary experience. I spent four months in Southern California, getting to
know the local context [and] creating a sprawling work incorporating performance, installation,
scores and multi-channel video, the latter acquired by the museum.”
Up next for Day is an MFA at Colombia University’s School of Arts in New York. “My work is
deeply concerned with social and political issues,” he says. “I’m studying the complex social and
civic overlays of New York City as a way to better understand how we cooperate with one another,
form alliances and deal with conflict. It’s the perfect city for this – you get a good dose of it every
time you step into the subway.”
Kate Britton

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Julian Day, Common Ground, 2017. Performance documentation, Orange County Museum of Art, California.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND DOMINIK MERSCH GALLERY, SYDNEY. PHOTO: CHRISTOPHER WORMALD.

Julian Day, from the series Squaring the Circle, 2018. Julian Day, Hammer Action, 2015. Performance documentation,
Performance documentation, Brooklyn, New York.  Royal Academy of Music, United Kingdom.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND DOMINIK MERSCH GALLERY, SYDNEY . COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND DOMINIK MERSCH GALLERY, SYDNEY. PHOTO: CARL MASON.

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Julian Day, Together We Breathe, 2013. Performance documentation, Library of Birmingham, United Kingdom.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND DOMINIK MERSCH GALLERY, SYDNEY. PHOTO: GETHIN THOMAS.

JULIAN DAY

Artist, composer, writer and broadcaster Julian Day has been quietly building an internation-
al reputation for some time, particularly across the USA, UK and Germany. “Patience is the
strongest virtue you can develop,” he says of this success, which has been fuelled by a series of
residencies and grants, starting with the British Council in 2011 and bolstered by travel schol-
arships from the University of Sydney and Samstag Museum.
Over the last few years, his patience has paid off. A new work for performers, keyboards and
mirrors, LEFT LEFT RIGHT RIGHT, premiered at the Tate Modern earlier this year, fulfilling a long-
held dream. “I remember standing outside Tate Modern 10 years ago, vowing to one day present
work in its spaces,” says Day. “This year that dream came true.” Tate Modern is just the latest in a list
of dreams to come true for the multidisciplinary artist.
In the last few years Day has exhibited at London’s Whitechapel Gallery; the Centre for Per-
formance Research in New York; T Berlin; and the Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana. The
California-Pacific Triennial at Orange County Museum of Art was a particular highlight. “Working
at OCMA was an extraordinary experience. I spent four months in Southern California, getting to
know the local context [and] creating a sprawling work incorporating performance, installation,
scores and multi-channel video, the latter acquired by the museum.”
Up next for Day is an MFA at Colombia University’s School of Arts in New York. “My work is
deeply concerned with social and political issues,” he says. “I’m studying the complex social and
civic overlays of New York City as a way to better understand how we cooperate with one another,
form alliances and deal with conflict. It’s the perfect city for this – you get a good dose of it every
time you step into the subway.”
Kate Britton

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Julian Day, Common Ground, 2017. Performance documentation, Orange County Museum of Art, California.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND DOMINIK MERSCH GALLERY, SYDNEY. PHOTO: CHRISTOPHER WORMALD.

Julian Day, from the series Squaring the Circle, 2018. Julian Day, Hammer Action, 2015. Performance documentation,
Performance documentation, Brooklyn, New York.  Royal Academy of Music, United Kingdom.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND DOMINIK MERSCH GALLERY, SYDNEY . COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND DOMINIK MERSCH GALLERY, SYDNEY. PHOTO: CARL MASON.

135
March 29 – 31, 2019
Photograph taken at Asia Society Hong Kong Center
 COLLECTOR’S DOSSIER

BEING
TIMELESS
In her six-and-a-half-decade practice, Elisabeth
Cummings has become recognised as one of the
most important painters of her generation.
WORDS: SASHA GRISHIN
PHOTOGRAPHY: MICHAEL BRADFIELD

ELISABETH CUMMINGS IS an artist who has improved with age. Although she has
always been a competent painter, it is over the past few decades that she has real-
ly found her own voice. And her quiet, tonal paintings of landscapes and domestic
interiors have in turn attracted national attention and critical acclaim. Through her
distinctive, vibrant, yet intimate image of the Australian landscape, imbued with a
distinctly female sensibility, Cummings is increasingly regarded as one of the most
significant painters of her generation.
Cummings was born in Brisbane in 1934, the daughter of an architect and a teacher.
At the age of 19, Cummings moved to Sydney and studied at East Sydney Tech (now
the National Art School), which was at the time the leading art school in Sydney. Here
she came under the spell of artists John Passmore, Wallace Thornton, Godfrey Mill-
er and Ralph Balson. On being awarded the New South Wales Travelling Art Scholar-
ship in 1958, she spent the next decade in Europe, based mainly in Florence, but with
extended visits to France and England. In 1960, she spent a month at the School of
Vision in Salzburg studying with Oskar Kokoschka.
Cummings was back in Sydney in 1969, where she commenced teaching at East Syd-
ney Tech on a part-time basis, as well as at numerous other art schools – something
that she continued to do for the next 30 years. In 1970, she settled in Wedderburn – a
rural retreat outside Campbelltown on the Georges River south of Sydney – with a
group of other artists. Today she divides her time between Wedderburn and Sydney.
When asked about the artists whom she considers as having had an impact on
her development, the names Giorgio Morandi and Georges Braque she prefaces
with the words, “I adore”. Others to whom she pays homage include Australians Ian
Fairweather, Fred Williams, Ken Whisson, Clarice Beckett, Grace Cossington
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 COLLECTOR’S DOSSIER

ABOVE: Elisabeth Cummings, Arkaroola Morning, 2009. Etching, 48 x 63cm.

OPPOSITE: Elisabeth Cummings, Coffee or Tea, 2014. Monotype, 76 x 58.5cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND KING STREET GALLERY ON WILLIAM, SYDNEY.

“I think her broader relevance is really the fact that she has absolutely
no concern with being broadly relevant.” TERENCE MALOON

Smith, Dorrit Black and Grace Crowley, as well as Richard Dieben-
korn, Pierre Bonnard, Jean-Édouard Vuillard, Henri Matisse, Max
Beckmann, Frank Auerbach, Willem de Kooning and Arshile Gorky
in Europe and America.
In some of her earlier works, Cummings employed the lingua franca of
painters emerging out of East Sydney Tech in the 1950s, with their Pass-
more-inspired interpretations of Cézanne. Subsequently, in the 1970s,
Cummings eagerly embraced the French Intimist painters, Vuillard and
Bonnard, which was coupled with an awareness of the late painted interi-
ors of Cossington Smith. The results were charming and sensitive interi-
ors, with much in common with her sources.
But the best of Cummings’ paintings take the landscape as a point of
departure, which she interprets with confident, sweeping gestural marks
that negate the literalness of the image. Her earlier, heavily painted can-
vases subsequently gave way to a lightness of touch with a drier, scrappi-
er surface that could bring to mind a parallel with Fairweather. Many of
her works are memory paintings that grow of their own accord, with the
sketches and photographs acting as an aide memoir. When working in the
studio, she notes that, “the painting takes on a life of its own and dictates
the way it develops”.
Cummings is a free spirit who has created a very personal and intimate
relationship with the landscape that she has grown to understand from
the inside. This sense of excitement and intimacy is shared passionately
with her audience, perhaps more convincingly than with many other art-
ists. Her paintings, almost without exception, are beautifully structured,
highly personal, lyrical and often possess a touch of whimsy. Her work
breathes with freshness, energy and great visual resonance.
Although Cummings has been a very consistent artist, she has only
achieved widespread recognition in the past couple of decades. Her work
is well-represented in the collections of the Art Gallery of New South
Wales and the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra. Her best paint-
ings belong to her work from the past 25 years, along with some of her
spirited atmospheric monotypes. Her ceramics, made in collaboration
with Lino Alvarez, are rare, but are highly prized and frequently take the
form of small stage sets inhabited by little figures and are quite distinct
from her paintings and graphics.
In 2017, Sioux Garside curated a major survey exhibition of Cum-
mings’ paintings, graphics and ceramics that toured New South Wales
and Canberra. The catalogue is the most up-to-date account of her prac-
tice and the website of her gallery, King Street Gallery on William, con-
tains links to many of the publications associated with her art practice.
ELISABETH CUMMINGS EXHIBITS AT KING STREET GALLERY ON WILLIAM,
SYDNEY, FROM 6 NOVEMBER TO 1 DECEMBER 2018.

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142
 COLLECTOR’S DOSSIER

“As one of Australia’s

most significant
artists, who has been
producing work for
more than 65 years,
Elisabeth has made Elisabeth Cummings, 1998.
PHOTO: CALEV CARTER.
her mark in the OPPOSITE: Elisabeth Cummings, Grey

history of Australian interior, 1982. Oil on canvas, 99.5 x

80cm. Bathurst Regional Gallery.

painting.” COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND KING

STREET GALLERY ON WILLIAM, SYDNEY.

RANDI LINNEGAR

143

Her paintings, almost without exception, are beautifully structured,
highly personal, lyrical and often possess a touch of whimsy. Her work
breathes with freshness, energy and great visual resonance.
SASHA GRISHIN
RANDI LINNEGAR
Co-director, King Street Gallery
on William, Sydney
While Elisabeth Cummings has been represented by King
Street Gallery on William for more than two-and-a-half
decades, its co-director, Randi Linnegar, still describes her
work with the excitement of a new acquisition. “The beau-
ty, intellect and emotional strength of Elisabeth’s work are
what draws us to [it],” Linnegar says. “She is an artist who
is devoted to her practice beyond the demands or con-
cerns of trends, expectations and consumerism.” Yet, iron-
ically, it is this very attitude that has seen Cummings’ art
become highly demanded. “Elisabeth’s work is regularly
collected by an audience who have followed her for many,
many years,” Linnegar observes. “Most collectors hold on
to what they have acquired, as Elisabeth’s works can often
be difficult to access.” And it is easy to see why.
Cummings is held in some of Australia’s largest and
most significant collections, and just this past year had a
travelling survey exhibition of her work. Indeed, while all
art dealers have a vested interest in inflating their artist’s
standing, one gets the sense that for Linnegar the truth and
this imperative conveniently converge. “As one of Austra-
lia’s most significant artists, who has been producing work
for more than 65 years, Elisabeth has made her mark in the
history of Australian painting,” she explains. But the im-
pact of Cummings’ work is not confined to the past. “Elisa-
beth’s most recent exhibition will feature works on paper,
limited edition bronzes and a small number of paintings,”
Linnegar adds. It cannot be easy to produce new work
against the backdrop of such a significant pre-existing oeu-
vre, yet Cummings redoubtable efforts continue with no
sign of stopping. On and on. “Grounded in a visual style
and aesthetic that is timeless,” as Linnegar puts it.
Tai Mitsuji
COLLECTOR’S DOSSIER
TERENCE MALOON
Director, Drill Hall Gallery
and Art Critic
When Terence Maloon recalls his first impression of Elis-
abeth Cummings, he begins with a confession. “Elisabeth
is … I wouldn’t say a late bloomer, but her acceptance and
her success has come very late in her life,” he confides.
“She was this rather reticent self-effacing person who you
were charmed by, but not really prepared for the serious-
ness of her art.” But serious art was what Maloon found
when he collaborated with Cummings on her exhibition
Interior Landscapes at Drill Hall Gallery last year. “I was
really quite amazed at how wild [the artworks] were –
wild in the sense of daring, of unexpectedness and in the
sheer physical energy that went into her larger paintings,”
Maloon says. “And people loved the show with a passion
that we rarely see.” Both the crowds’ and Maloon’s enthu-
siasm was in many ways unsurprising, since each of Cum-
mings’ pieces carried with them the knowledge of more
than half a century of professional practice.
Yet when I ask Maloon about Cummings’ place in
the Australian cultural landscape, he paints a picture
of someone wholly unconcerned with such questions;
someone more invested in the substance of her work
than the optics of it. “I think her broader relevance is
really the fact that she has absolutely no concern with
being broadly relevant,” he explains. “She is so power-
fully driven by her passion for painting and her passion
for the landscape and her attunement to the bush en-
vironment.” Nonetheless, pausing to reflect upon her
artistic longevity, Maloon remarks, “She’s not a young
person, you might even say she’s an old person, and
to have such courage and to be able to unleash such an
amazing burst of energy is remarkable.”
Tai Mitsuji
144
 COLLECTOR’S DOSSIER

Elisabeth Cummings, Jean Luc, 2014. Monotype, 58 x 76cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND KING STREET GALLERY ON WILLIAM, SYDNEY.

145
 ARTISTS | COLLECTOR’S DOSSIER

TIMELINE
1930s–1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s
1934 1963 1972 1982
Born in Holds her first solo Wins the Portia Geach Portrait Prize, Sydney Holds her first solo show at Mori Gallery, Sydney,
Brisbane, exhibition in Australia at where she will exhibit again in 1984 and 1987
Queensland Johnstone Gallery, Brisbane
1974
Elisabeth at
Wedderburn
1953–57 1964
Attends National
Art School,
Sydney

1958–68
Is awarded the
NSW Travelling
Art Scholarship.
Lives and studies
in Italy and
France

1977

1965

1989

1969-2001
Teaches part time at The
National Art School, Sydney

1964 1965 1977 1982 1989

Elisabeth Cummings, Still Elisabeth Cummings, Elisabeth Cummings, Light on the gorge. Elisabeth Cummings, Grey Elisabeth Cummings,
Life. Oil on canvas, 74 x Venere pensione. Oil on canvas 76 x 91cm. interior. Oil on canvas, 99.5 Veranda morning. Oil on
51cm. Oil on canvas, 76 x Elisabeth Cummings, Minerva waterhole. x 80cm. canvas, 121.5 x 136.5cm.
91.5cm. Oil on canvas, 108 x 154.8cm.

146
 ARTISTS | COLLECTOR’S DOSSIER

1990s 2000s 2010s

1992 2011
Holds her first exhibition at King Street Gallery,
Sydney, where she has regularly exhibited since

1993
Is included in the Wynne Prize at the Art Gallery
of New South Wales, where she will be a finalist an
additional six times in the decades to come

1996
Wins the Mosman Art Prize, Sydney

2000
Wins the Fleurier Prize for Landscape, SA
2012
Luminous: Landscapes of
Elisabeth Cummings exhibits
2002 at SH Ervin Gallery, Sydney
Elisabeth Cummings &
Clara Hali exhibits at Orange
1997 Regional Gallery, NSW 2013
Cummings’ Survey Show (1965-1995) exhibits at Is included in the exhibition
Gold Coast City Art Gallery, QLD Australia at the British Royal
2002 Academy of Arts, London
Is included in the Archibald Prize at the Art Is featured on the cover of
Gallery of New South Wales, where she will be a Art Collector magazine issue 22
finalist again in 2000 2015
Elisabeth Cummings Hong
2006 Kong exhibits at the Nock Art
Lives and works in Wedderburn, NSW Foundation, Hong Kong

2017–18
A major survey exhibition of
Cummings’ work travels to Drill
Hall Gallery ANU, Canberra;
SH Ervin Gallery, Sydney; New
England Regional Art Gallery,
Armidale; Orange Regional Art
Gallery; Newcastle Art Gallery;
and Gold Coast Art Centre

1996 2006 2011

ALL IMAGES COURTESY:
THE ARTIST AND KING
Elisabeth Cummings, Elisabeth Cummings, The yellow jug. Oil on Elisabeth Cummings, Edge of STREET GALLERY ON
Across the gully. Oil on canvas, 70 x 90cm. Simpson Desert. Diptych, oil on WILLIAM, SYDNEY.
canvas, 114 x 149cm. Elisabeth Cummings, White cliffs. Oil on canvas, 150 x 300cm.
canvas, 60 x 70cm.

147
ARTIST PROFILE

148
 MONSTERS
IN MASKS
English artist John Stezaker brings his eerie photographic
collages to Australia and New Zealand in a series of
exhibitions hosted on both sides of the pond.
WORDS: JOHN HURRELL
PHOTOGRAPHY: CARLA BOREL
 ARTIST PROFILE
PHOTOGRAPHIC COLLAGE IS one of those methods so commonplace
that it is hard to imagine any artist attaining genuine distinction through it.
And yet John Stezaker is without a doubt an influential, much acclaimed
exponent, an English artist who since the mid 1970s has been investigat-
ing the juxtaposition of paired, cut-into, film photographs. He has become
famous for his use of a specific kind of vintage Hollywood film still – an-
tique publicity photographs of unknown actors on sets (usually made in
the decade before his birth) – also using Edwardian postcards that he
overlays intact. He likes to research various themes in parallel for long
periods, exploring archives where he has purchased photographs in bulk.
Stezaker is particularly well-known for his disturbing Marriage collages
where – although separated by straight edges – male and female portraits
are combined. The different eyes, nose and lip parts from two photo-
graphs are aligned across the divide. But these are not conventional sur-
realist collages. Stezaker makes minimal changes and does not trim away
contradictory remnants. He likes to leave those discordant scraps intact,
seeing their presence as a way of challenging the viewer. “The Marriage
pieces have nothing to do with the matching of images; they are to do
with the fact that they do not marry. That is the point,” the artist said in an
interview with curators Daniel Herrmann and Christophe Gallois. “Be-
cause when they don’t marry, the beholder has to participate in creating
the marriage.”
The artist is drawn to the compulsive images he creates – unsettling
collages that by various means exert an obsessive fascination – for reasons
unknown, but are linked to juxtaposition. “Creating the monstrous out
of the benign is not just tapping into something that is already there, but
usually the result of combining other images,” Stezaker muses in another
conversation with writer, curator and artist David Campany. “[This] al-
ways leads to a more extreme disjunction.”
In about a dozen ongoing projects, each has its own interpretative tem-
plate. These vary between the two poles of perception and conception.
BELOW FROM LEFT: John Stezaker, Double Shadow LII, 2015. Collage, 23.9 x 30.2cm. John Stezaker, Double Shadow XLII, 2015. Collage, 23 x 29.2cm.
OPPOSITE: John Stezaker, Betrayal (Film Portrait Collage) XIII, 2008. Collage, 26.7 x 23.2cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND THE APPROACH, LONDON.
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Some are about looking, the unconscious mind and mental associations,
while others are about tropes, the conscious mind, its use of logic, and
conventions of classification.
Last year, Robert Leonard, chief curator at the City Gallery Welling-
ton, organised an exhibition of 47 recent Stezaker works – including
collages, found mannequin hands and a film – that came to Wellington,
New Plymouth and Christchurch. John Stezaker: Lost World is now about
to open in Melbourne, and another new show of 25 collages – sparked
by a talk that Stezaker gave at Auckland’s Starkwhite in August last year
– is planned for the gallery in October.
Lost World features eight Masks, in which Stezaker has placed land-
scape postcards over actors’ faces so that the cliffs, bushes, clouds or
bridges disturbingly merge into profiles. The resulting physiognomies
look diseased or mutilated. In the Starkwhite show, titled John Stezaker:
Collages, there are only two of these, to be presented alongside a group
of small Biblical images: hybrid bearded men named after Jesus and
the Apostles, as well as works from an Aviary series of natural history
postcards.
The Aviary works see pairs of birds, illustrated in natural settings,
positioned against backdrops of heterosexual couples placed on their
sides. The painted animals – whether hovering in the sky or standing
on branches or in a woodland clearing – have coloured plumage that can
be decoded into species, gender and age. The sky is above and the earth
below, with no directional ambiguity – unlike the matching coloured
backdrops where parts of multi-gendered clothed bodies can be detect-
ed. Parallel narratives continue in confusion.
JOHN STEZAKER: COLLAGES SHOWS AT STARKWHITE, AUCK-
LAND, FROM 9 OCTOBER TO 3 NOVEMBER 2018. LOST WORLD
SHOWS AT THE CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY,
MELBOURNE, UNTIL 11 NOVEMBER 2018.
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“The Marriage pieces have nothing to do with

the matching of images; they are to do with the
fact that they do not marry. That is the point.”
JOHN STEZAKER

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ABOVE: John Stezaker, Night Mask I, 2011. Collage, 25.5 x 20.7cm

OPPOSITE: John Stezaker, Betrayal (Film Portrait Collage) XXI, 2013. Collage, 26.5 x 20.5 cm
COURTESY THE ARTIST AND THE APPROACH, LONDON.

JOHN MCCORMACK
Co-director, Starkwhite Gallery, Auckland

Auckland’s Starkwhite presents a suite of works by John Stezaker titled John Stezaker: Collages in
October/November. John McCormack, co-director of Starkwhite alongside Dominic Feuchs, says
that the show came out of a long admiration for Stezaker’s practice and for the recent touring ex-
hibition John Stezaker: Lost World. The opportunity to invite Stezaker to exhibit in Auckland came
about after the artist gave a well-attended public lecture at the gallery. Stezaker has a big following
in Auckland, and since Lost World went only to Wellington, New Plymouth and Christchurch,
Starkwhite wanted to offer Stezaker the chance to display new work in another New Zealand city.
“New Zealand has a good incoming international program, and so Starkwhite has an opportunity
here, like other galleries,” says McCormack. “We don’t want to focus solely on New Zealand artists,
and we already represent several artists from other places. We want to explore contemporary art
interests that sit between the public and private; between the museum and commercial sectors.”
25 collages for this show were selected by Stezaker and his London dealer, Jake Miller of The Ap-
proach. Thinking about the market, McCormack says: “Stezaker’s artworks are unique, their cost
is equitable with the prices of many New Zealand and Australian photographers. Given his high
international profile, price will not be an impediment for local collectors.” His remarkable images
will no doubt attract the response they deserve.

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ABOVE: John Stezaker, Mask CL, 2010. Collage, 25 x 19.9cm.

OPPOSITE: John Stezaker, Mask (Film Portrait Collage) CLXVIII, 2014. Collage, 25.3 x 20.7cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND THE APPROACH, LONDON

ROBERT LEONARD
Chief curator, City Gallery Wellington

“I love John Stezaker’s Masks,” says Robert Leonard, chief curator of the City Gallery Wellington. “In
curating  John Stezaker:  Lost World, they were my starting point. He takes old black-and-white head
shots and lays older scenic postcards over them, across the eyes, so they line up magically, in an uncan-
ny merger of face and place. This simple idea plays out in nuanced ways.
“Stezaker prefers showing the Masks as individuals, but I like seeing them en masse. It shows how
repetitious, perhaps compulsive, they are. Stezaker is drawn to particular genres of scenic postcard. He
returns to caves and rock arches, rivers and waterfalls, arched bridges and buildings. Is this his bent,
or are they simply the kinds of view that will interlock with faces? Is he imposing his will, or coaxing
out something latent in his sources?
“Stezaker talks about fascination, about being in thrall to the image, as if he were not in control but
akin to a medium – his sources speaking through him. But is that mere pretext? The question: ‘agency
or fascination?’ hangs over his whole project.
“The Masks also dance on a knife edge between life and death. Stezaker says masks are necessari-
ly morbid – being dead, inanimate faces worn over vital, animate ones. But, the faces Stezaker masks
are photos, already fixed. Paradoxically, by masking them with other dead images he breathes new life
into them. Beautiful people of yesteryear, long gone, are resurrected and reanimated, their faces caught
in metamorphosis. Petrifying, putrefying. Becoming, blooming.”

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THE
TOOLS
OF
CHANGE
Kawita Vatanajyankur turns her own
body into a factory machine because this
is what labourers are turning into these
days. They work every second and they
have to be exactly right.
WORDS: JANE O’SULLIVAN
PHOTOGRAPHY: ATITTA VATANAJYANKUR
“AT FIRST, I always fail,” says Kawita Vatanajyankur about
the weeks of practice she needs to turn her body into differ-
ent tools and machines. Eventually she adjusts, she says. By
the time she makes the final works, which she exhibits as
videos and photographs, she appears strong and composed.
But the threat of failure is always there. Because how can a
human body survive as a machine?
Vatanajyankur’s new series, Performing Textiles, sees her
turn herself into machines used in the textile industry. Some
of these works were exhibited at Dunedin Art Gallery earlier
in the year. Since then, the series has expanded to six vid-
eos, longer than any she has made before. They are currently
in the Bangkok Art Biennale and will also be shown in Mel-
bourne with Alcaston Gallery in October.
In one of these new textile works, Vatanajyankur hangs up-
side down and dips herself in a vat of lurid red dye. Another
sees her leaping through a weaving loom to make fabric. (She
will also perform Shuttle live at the Bangkok Art Biennale.) In
Spinning Wheel, she spins head over heels, winding yarn.
“There are always elements of danger,” she says. “In Spin-
ning Wheel, I had the needle from the spinning wheel stick-
ing up from the ground, as a symbol that you have to contin-
ue and hold on as the machine. If you fall down, you get hurt
and that’s the reality.”
It mirrors the experience of labourers in the modern glob-
al economy, and for that matter, anyone who uses money.
“The human condition is about work and action and labour.
This is what it is now.” she says. “You have to work.”
Vatanajyankur’s interest in labour and identity developed
when she moved back to Bangkok, a few years after graduat-
ing from RMIT in Melbourne. She had spent 10 years living
in Australia and, as she puts it, had grown up as a teenager
and young woman in Australia. “When I came back to Thai-
land, I didn’t know anything anymore. It was as if I had to
grow up again as a Thai woman, to fit into the society,” she
says. Her uncertainty about cultural expectations led to a
body of work about domestic labour, which included a video
of herself as a dustpan and brush. It was, she says, less a com-
ment about Thai women than an act of questioning “if this is
what it should be, if this is what I should be, or not”.
This questioning approach has remained in her work –
one reason why her practice has drawn such different re-
sponses from audiences around the world. In Japan, she
says, women reacted to her machines by confessing feelings
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ABOVE: Kawita Vatanajyankur, Shuttle, 2018. Still from HD video, single channel, 3min 30sec, edition of 4 + 3AP.
OPPOSITE: Kawita Vatanajyankur, Dye, 2018 detail. Still from HD video, single channel, 7min 30sec, edition of 4 + 3AP.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST, NOVA CONTEMPORARY, BANGKOK, ALAMAK! PROJECT!/ CLEAR EDITION GALLERY, TOKYO AND
ALCASTON GALLERY, MELBOURNE. SERIES COMMISSIONED BY DUNEDIN PUBLIC ART GALLERY.

of inadequacy and the pressure to be better. In South America, audi-
ences were more concerned with gender objectification and, in Thai-
land, consumerism. “I try to have different layers that are connected
together so that once you look at it, it depends on your experience and
your life,” she says.
This early, domestic work also cemented her interest in everyday la-
bour. She went on to research industrial food production, visiting facto-
ries and interviewing the labourers who worked in them. “I started to be
interested in today’s consumer materialism,” she says. “I thought, how
could I turn myself into the machines or tools in the factories? Because
this is what people, the labourers nowadays, are turning into. They work
every second. It’s not just every day, it’s every second. They have to be
exactly right.” This sort of pressure is captured in works like Egg Holder
from 2016, where eggs fall into Vatanajyankur’s mouth. “I was like the
box holding the eggs in the factory,” says the artist.
Vatanajyankur then became aware, through family connections, of la-
bour exploitation in the fishing industry. “It’s a true form of slavery,” she
explains, describing conditions where labourers are effectively jailed on
boats. The media’s lack of interest in the issue has galvanised her as an
artist. She wants her work to make people consider their responsibilities
– for their own desires, and the labourers tasked with answering them.
Her current interest in the textile industry, also known for labour
abuses, began on a return visit to New Zealand. She drove around the
South Island in a campervan as part of a Dunedin Art Gallery residency.
She visited the farm where she’d lived for a few months as a teenager,
and then other wool-producing properties. She realised she knew little
of Thailand’s own textile producing regions, and more travel followed.
These new performances, like her earlier works, are executed with-
in clean, brightly coloured sets. The colours are very candy-like, like a
package of food, she says. “You don’t at first think that it’s going to be
quite violent, that it’s going to be confronting,” Vatanajyankur says. “I
think the colours represent the package… but the actions of my perfor-
mances are what’s really behind the thing.” Q
KAWITA VATANAJYANKUR’S NEW WORK IS EXHIBITED IN THE
BANGKOK ART BIENNALE UNTIL 3 FEBRUARY 2019, AND AT ALCASTON
GALLERY IN MELBOURNE, IN COLLABORATION WITH THE BIENNALE
AND ANTIDOTE, FROM 17 OCTOBER TO 10 NOVEMBER 2018.

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“I think the colours

represent the package…
but the actions of my
performances are what’s
really behind the thing.”
KAWITA VATANAJYANKUR

159
 “The human condition is about work and action and labour.
This is what it is now. You have to work.”
KAWITA VATANAJYANKUR

ABOVE: Kawita Vatanajyankur, Untangled, 2018. Still from HD video, single channel, 21min, edition of 4 + 3AP.
OPPOSITE: Kawita Vatanajyankur, Spinning Wheel, detail, 2018. Still from HD video, 2 channels, 5min 30sec, edition of 4 + 3AP.
 COURTESY: THE ARTIST, NOVA CONTEMPORARY, BANGKOK, ALAMAK! PROJECT!/ CLEAR EDITION GALLERY, TOKYO AND
ALCASTON GALLERY, MELBOURNE. SERIES COMMISSIONED BY DUNEDIN PUBLIC ART GALLERY.

BEVERLY KNIGHT APINAN POSHYANANDA

Director, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne Artistic director, Bangkok Art Biennale

“Alcaston Gallery has been exhibiting artists from the Asia Pacific region
since the early 1990s, and this will be the first time we will exhibit an artist
from Thailand,” says Alcaston’s director Beverly Knight. “My gallery manag-
er Glenn Manson drew my attention to Kawita Vatanajyankur and her agent
in Australia, Grace Partridge [artistic director of Antidote festival], about
two years ago. Kawita’s social commentary, sense of place, aesthetics and co-
lour was immediately appealing, together with the focus on subtle movement
in her videos that I thought would appeal to collectors in Alcaston Gallery’s
worldwide client base.
“The whole world for artists, galleries and collectors is now possible – not
a dream as it was before the internet; in fact, it is in the palm of the collector’s
hand. Kawita and Grace are exciting young professionals and we trust this
exhibition will delight and inspire other young women, as well as further the
pathway for Kawita to share her inspirational art.”
For the inaugural Bangkok Art Biennale, Apinan Poshyananda and his cu-
ratorial team have assembled more than 70 international artists, including
Kawita Vatanajyankur. The theme of the biennale is “Beyond Bliss”, an idea
Poshyananda links to hope. “Kawita’s latest video series on the body and fe-
male labour fit perfectly,” he says. “Her provocative work is a process of over-
coming prejudices and stereotypes.”
Vatanajyankur exhibits six works from her current series about textile pro-
duction. She will also perform Shuttle and exhibit the large weaving loom
used in this work. The installation will be shown alongside works by artists
Lee Bul, Heri Dono and Sara Favriau. “Kawita’s performance is most chal-
lenging as she pushes the limit of her body to extremity,” says Poshyananda.
“Quirky and seductive, the viewer is allured into her visual space, which is
manipulated and controlled by the artist. With her abundance of talent, there
was not much convincing needed for Bangkok Art Biennale selection.”
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THE INFINITE

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SKY
Andre Hermer asks what it means to make an image in the digital age.
His bold, intimate paintings are proof of the era’s material possibilities.
WORDS: LUCINDA BENNETT | PHOTOGRAPHY: LEONHARD HILZENSAUER

I FIRST ENCOUNTERED André Hemer’s work at the crest of the post-internet wave in the early
2010s. Naturally, I assumed Hemer himself was riding this wave, the iridescence of his paintings
reminding me of light catching on greasy fingerprints left on a phone screen, making rainbows from
the oily marks to highlight the clash of clammy flesh touching cool technology.
From his studio in Vienna, Hemer tells me I am not the first to have read his work in this post-in-
ternet context. Born in New Zealand in 1981, Hemer graduated from the University of Canterbury’s
Ilam School of Fine Arts in the 2003. His practice, he explains, developed at a time when “it was
considered very, very uncool to do anything with any kind of digital process. From about 2000 to
2006, it was the lamest duck in the room, and this annoyed me on a lot of levels because I thought,
here was this thing that was affecting our ways of seeing, making and looking… and people just saw
it as visual detritus.”
Using flatbed scanners and digital printers to produce his distinctive, multidimensional paint-
ings, Hemer often felt he was fighting against this perception of the digital as unfashionable
or cliché. That all changed very suddenly with the advent of post-internet practice in the mid-
2000s. “There was suddenly this welcoming of the internet; this interest in post-internet and a
desire to engage with it.” However, Hemer’s work sits just outside the post-internet bubble. He
explains: “I’m sort of caught between things. I’m on the older side of the post-internet move-
ment, and I think a lot of the work made at that time had no assurance of the materiality of tech-
nology, or no engagement with what was materialised. Everything was about the idea of these

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ABOVE: Installation view of Andre Hemer’s The Imagist & the Materialist, 2018. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND COMA GALLERY, SYDNEY. PHOTO: ANDREW BUTLER.
OPPOSITE: Andre Hemer, Evening sequence #1 (Tuesday, 17 July 2018 at 7-31 PM), 2018. Acrylic and pigment on canvas, 120 x 85cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND GOW LANGSFORD GALLERY, AUCKLAND.

digital objects, but no one was really interested in what the outcome
could be, or whether that outcome would be interesting at all.”
By contrast, Hemer’s paintings are proof of the material possibili-
ties offered by digital technologies – in particular, the idea of trans-
ference between materiality and form. Each work begins with various
painted objects made by Hemer, which he then scans and digitally
prints onto canvas. Perhaps somewhat ironically, it is through these
digital processes that his paintings come to record the ephemeral at-
mospheric conditions of the physical environments in which they are
made. “Each series of work is a combination of which objects I am us-
ing and where I am doing the scans – where in the world, and what are
the conditions. For example, is it a sunny day outside? Is it summer or
dusk light, is it a rainy day, is it snowing? Am I in New York, or Vienna,
or New Zealand?” These atmospheric conditions delineate the scope
of a series so that one exhibition might be made from just one set of
scans, made over a four-hour period on a certain date three months
prior. “They always have this lineage of a certain time and place, and
I’m sort of interested in working with that initial constraint, even if
it’s not apparent in the final work in a representational way.”
Of course, all of this forgets that Hemer is, first and foremost, a
painter. Atop each canvas, already layered with the scanned forms
of his painted objects, Hemer then makes new marks with paint and
plaster – thick, visceral daubs that sit atop the smooth picture surface
but are also amalgamated into the complexity of dematerialised ges-
tures beneath. In their final form, the paintings look dramatic from
far away. They seem to be built of grand gestures and stark, contrast-
ing colours – pale lathery pink on rich wet merlot, silky black over
creamy pearl. Up close, however, there is a pleasing tactility to them, a
familiarity in the way the smooth surface is interrupted by something
sensuous and coarse.
To talk to Hemer about his practice is primarily to talk process, for
in his work all conceptual concerns are almost indistinguishable from
the way a painting is made. But what are these paintings, once ma-
terialised? Numerous writers have employed the word “intimate” to
describe Hemer’s work, and I ask if he considers his paintings so. “In-
timacy is about a one-to-oneness, a first-hand experience of a thing,”
he tells me. “That is really what I always want to come back to in terms
of the way a painting gets materialised. It’s just trying to find a way
that work can be intimate.”
A N DR É H E M E R E X H I B I T S N E W WOR K AT G OW L A NG S FOR D
GA L L E RY, AUC K L A N D, F ROM 2 8 NOV E M B E R TO 2 2 DE C E M B E R 2 0 1 8 .

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“His range of scales means that there are also some very affordable pieces,
which is particularly attractive to new collectors.” ANNA JACKSON

ABOVE LEFT: Andre Hemer, Midnight Surfacing #1, 2017. Acrylic and pigment on canvas, 78.74 x 58.42cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND NEON PARC, MELBOURNE.
ABOVE RIGHT: Andre Hemer, Deep Surfacing NYC #12, 2017. Acrylic and pigment on canvas, 177.8 x 127cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND LUIS DE JESUS, LOS ANGELES.
OPPOSITE: Andre Hemer, After the rain #1 (Friday, 20 July 2018), 2018. Acrylic and pigment on canvas, 110 x 73cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND YAVUZ GALLERY, SINGAPORE.

ANNA JACKSON ALISON BARTLEY

Director, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Director, Bartley + Company Art, Wellington

“Gow Langsford Gallery has represented André since 2015, having fol-
lowed his practice closely for a number of years. The following year he
won two prestigious national awards: The Arts Foundation New Gener-
ation Award and the Paramount Award at the Wallace Art Awards. Al-
though his works deal with themes that are very current, namely the
often-fractious relationship between the digital and the material, it occu-
pies a new space both aesthetically and in its materiality.
Unlike many young artists, André edits his work rigorously and the net
result is an extremely high demand for the limited number of works. His
debut exhibition New Representation Part III (2016) sold out in minutes,
and we haven’t been able to keep up with the market interest since. His
range of scales means that there are also some very affordable pieces,
which is particularly attractive to new collectors. There is a growing wait-
list. Internationally, his reputation continues to gain momentum. He reg-
ularly shows at galleries and in art fairs in the USA, Europe and Asia, as
well as across Australasia.”
“Andre’s work makes me feel alive. Alive, curious, and stimulated. This
quality has been there since the beginning. I first showed his work in
2005 when he was completing his Masters at Canterbury University.
Even then his work was so fresh and different – his colours popped and
his titles made you laugh: The Little Painting that could (boom and bust
baby), A hot flush with every touch. There’s always been wit, irony and a
sense of excitement about the work.
Right from the beginning, his core question has been ‘what does it mean
to make an image in the digital era?’. He has explored that relatively nar-
row terrain, conceptually and materially, in great depth over a long time
now, and how he answers that question has obviously evolved. I am con-
stantly surprised that each new exhibition brings an expansion of ideas
and process. At the beginning, his project was a simple exploration of
mark making and the differences and similarities between hand and com-
puter-generated marks with his work always totally hand-painted. Now
there is an interweaving of the digital and the hand, with the boundaries
blurred. In the last couple of years, with his use of a scanner, the world
has entered to complicate what may have seemed like pure abstraction.
The sense of infinite sky and portals to other worlds in his paintings now is
very beautiful.” Q

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PERFECT
STRANGENESS
Dawn Ng’s practice compels us to come
face-to-face with what she believes truly
motivates us: the desire to belong.
WORDS: MICHEAL DO
PHOTOGRAPHY: TAN WALTER

IF OUR ERA of Trump, Brexit and populism has taught us any-

thing, it is that deep down, humanity is collective, dangerous and
deeply flawed. It seems almost natural to retreat into our own co-
coons, building borders and chambers that divide and separate.
But as with every rule, there is always an exception. And Singapor-
ean artist Dawn Ng knows this well. In her latest project, she has
opened herself to the world, revealing her most intimate thoughts,
memories, desires and fears to mesmerising results.
Ng’s Perfect Stranger (2017) began as an experiment following a
chance encounter with an Israeli psychologist whom she met after
delivering a talk at Singapore Art Museum. Over the course of a
year, this person, whom Ng shares no friends or acquaintances,
asked her probing questions. This conversation was distilled into
61 individual colour-soaked photographs laid across Ng’s pristine
studio floor. She admits: “I don’t think I knew where the work was
going whilst I was making it, but I knew I had to get to the end to
find out.”
Studying fine art and literature, Ng has always had a poetic sen-
sibility and commitment to narrative. Far from being an escape to
life, Ng believes that reading and writing are crucial dimensions to
life itself. Across each panel, aphorisms, anecdotes and elements
of their conversation have been inventively collapsed together to
create a rich and unfolding exchange between these two women.

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ABOVE: Dawn Ng, A Thing Of Beauty, Green, 2015. Photographed Installation, 116 x 153cm.
OPPOSITE: Dawn Ng, Inner Voice, 2017. Giclee print on archival paper, edition of 3 + 1AP, 117 x 87cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND SULLIVAN+STRUMPF, SYDNEY AND SINGAPORE.

Throughout these cinematic, dreamlike interactions, we get glimpses of inti-
macy, humour and fragility: Is something real just because it feels true... or when
I was five there was nothing I hated more than swim class... But never do these
haunting recollections enter the realm of cliché.
Together, the works read as a sea of delicious pastel colours swirling to-
gether in a chromatically stunning cocktail. It’s therefore no surprise that
Ng admits her interest in the light and space movement of the 1960s and
1970s. Central to this movement were the American West Coast artists
like James Turrell, John McCraken and Robert Irwin, who transformed
geometric shapes and light to create light-filled objects and experiences.
Ng, who has created interior projects, design and adverts in a former life,
has done the same. She describes Perfect Stranger as an ephemeral place
that “exists between sleep and unconsciousness, the gentle awakening to a
new beginning.” And you cannot help but feel as if you have entered into
another world.
In making these works, she admits that the narrative of the initial project
slightly drifted away, becoming something else. More than just a process
of documentation, Ng envisions the ensemble of colour-filled panels as a
refuge from the complexities and chaos of the outside world – a place for
self-reflection and discovery. When asked about the concept of a perfect
stranger she says: “Often when someone says they miss something, they
are alluding to a time, person or place. But in my understanding, what
they truly miss is a version of themselves which they can never get back to
again.” This feeling, one of longing, or perhaps hope, that we can find that
somebody who completes us, forms the motivation of her work. Ng wants
us to dig deeper, to sift through her archive to determine where and how
these desires form, and to what extent they’re self-projected and imagined.
As we navigate through her maze, we can’t help but spin narratives that
reflect a little bit of our own personal histories – seeing flickers of our own
intimate thoughts, memories, desires and fears. In doing so, we unlock a
deeper, more probing investigation of our own inner thoughts; something
that may reveal the knotty truths buried deep in our psyches. Ng’s prac-
tice reminds us of the importance of chance encounters, deep reading and
opening ourselves up to the strangeness of the world. Maybe then, in our
increasingly fractured and balkanised age, we’ll see a gradual thawing be-
tween people with different histories, origins and trajectories. There is of-
ten magic in the unknown, after all. Q
DAWN NG, PERFECT STRANGER, SHOWS AT SULLIVAN+STRUMPF,
SYDNEY, FROM 24 NOVEMBER TO 22 DECEMBER 2018.

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Dawn Ng, White, 2015. Installation for Dom Perignon’s Blanc de Blanc, 700 x 1,000cm.
OPPOSITE: Dawn Ng, Pinball, 2017. Giclee print on archival paper, edition of 3 + 1AP, 117 x 87cm..
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND SULLIVAN+STRUMPF, SYDNEY AND SINGAPORE.

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“His range of scales means that there are also some very affordable pieces,
which is particularly attractive to new collectors.” ANNA JACKSON

ABOVE: Dawn Ng, Walter, 2010. Inflatable, 600 x 400 cm / 700 x 1,000cm.
LEFT: Dawn Ng, Lucky Boy, 2017. Giclee print on archival paper, edition of 3 + 1AP, 117 x 87cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND SULLIVAN+STRUMPF, SYDNEY AND SINGAPORE.

URSULA SULLIVAN KHAIRUDDIN HORI

Co-director, Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney and Singapore Curatorial Director, Chan + Hori Contemporary, Singapore

“I first saw Dawn Ng’s work in the mad rush of Art Basel Hong Kong in
2013. But not until Sullivan+Strumpf began working in Singapore did I
think to reconnect with her. Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to
visit her studio as she was developing the Perfect Stranger series. As soon
as I saw these works, it was love at first sight. There was such a romance
to the works. The words in her panels were so tender, beautiful and con-
sidered.
The gradual movements of colour in each work first struck me. Dawn
meticulously assesses, monitors and then changes the hues as she creates
each panel. In a lot of ways, the works seem so effortless to make into
existence, but having watched Dawn work, that isn’t the case. Each panel
is a true labour to love. She nurtures each work, with time, care, and pre-
cision. These processes made me love the works more.
And there are so many aspects to Dawn’s practice. She’s not inhibited
by a specific medium. When I last visited her studio, she was working
with freezing coloured ice. Before that, she made blow up rabbits, and
photographs that read like essays of colour. She never limits herself and
has such a sense of freedom.
The world is getting smaller and I think culture is so much richer when
we embrace other cultures, change and ideas. It’s the right time for this
solo. I know there will be others in Sydney who will enjoy her works as
much as I do. Sydney is ready for Dawn Ng.”
“In the words of Oscar Wilde, ‘thought and language are to the artist instru-
ments of an art…’. Since the time of traditional Japanese, Arabic and Chinese
calligraphy, we find words, text and design, where often they would singu-
larly dominate most of their surface medium. These devices are indeed not
foreign apparatuses of artists. Dawn Ng’s biographic, confessional scripts fall
into this tradition – using text and phrases to emote and evoke the limits of
our imagination.
Like contemporary artists who also employ text and typography – includ-
ing Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Shirin Neshat, and Tracey Emin – Ng pro-
foundly signifies rites of passage associated with womanhood and motherhood.
But unlike these artists, Perfect Stranger forsakes slogans, protests or calls to ac-
tion, opting instead for the poetic. The words in her work are confessional – in-
tended as advice for her young daughter, a gift to be handed to her 35 years later.
Ng’s approach to creating these works reveals a fearless drive for clarity
through direct communication. She emotes what rings bells for the rest of us,
women, men, sons, daughters, fathers and mothers. Washed in illuminating ink
within the bounds of otherwise white surfaces of paper, Dawn Ng situates our
fragmented lives into frames of perpetual perspectives. This line of interlocu-
tion, between the personal, social, memories and the future, has been the main
subject in her journey. Each of them attentive to their immediate cultural envi-
ronments. Like the others, Perfect Stranger prompts its audience to come face
to face with words that impel introspective dialogues.”

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 ART CENTRE

THE
INNOVATORS
Tjungu Palya Art Centre shows us that the most amazing
things can often come in the smallest packages.
WORDS: ANDREW NICHOLLS

SINCE 2006, Tjungu Palya has represent-
ed artists from the tiny communities of
Kanpi, Nyapari and Watarru, on the Pit-
jantjatjara Lands, around 100 kilometres
south of Uluru. Described by manager
Benji Bradley as “a very small Art Centre
with a large cultural presence”, it is in fact
the smallest on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara
Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands. Nonethe-
less, it wields powerful influence and a
national reputation for high-quality work,
as well as a high level of innovation.
A case in point is the substantial com-
mercial and critical success of the Painting
on Country project, instigated by senior
law man Keith Stevens and curated by
Nici Cumpston for TARNANTHI in 2017.
A series of breathtaking, limited edition
photographic prints documenting ephem-
eral white pigment paintings at various sa-
cred sites on Country, the show typified
the Art Centre’s explorative approach to
facilitating connection with the land, and
intergenerational knowledge-sharing.
“When Anangu sit down on Country
we are happy,” Stevens states. “When I
am outside painting with my family, I feel
peaceful. You can see that in this project.”

ABOVE: Keith Stevens during the making of Painting On Country at Piltati Rockhole, 2016.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND TJUNGU PALYA, NYAPARI. PHOTO: LEOPOLD FIALA.

RIGHT: Bernard Tjalkuri, Tjitji Tjuta. Tutu on rock, inkjet print, 150 x 220cm, edition of 6.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND TJUNGU PALYA, NYAPARI. PHOTO: LEOPOLD FIALA.

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177
ART CENTRE

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ART CENTRE

“When Anangu sit

down on Country we
are happy. When I
am outside painting
with my family, I feel
peaceful. You can see
that in this project.”
KEITH STEVENS

Keith Stevens, Nyapari Tjukurpa. Tutu on rock, inkjet

print, 150 x 220cm, edition of 6.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND TJUNGU PALYA, NYAPARI.
PHOTO: LEOPOLD FIALA.

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 ART CENTRE

Teresa Baker, Minyma Mailiunya, 2017. Synthetic polymer on linen, 180 x 300cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST, TJUNGU PALYA, NYAPARI AND REDOT FINE ART, SINGAPORE. PHOTO: GIORGIO PILLA.

The series was acquired by the Art Gallery
of South Australia, and numerous interna-
tional collections, with only one set cur-
rently remaining unsold. Similarly, Ngayulu
Mantangka Walkatjunanyi (I am Drawing in
the Sand), a group exhibition of 36 works
on paper at Darwin’s Outstation Gallery in
mid-2017, saw senior artists explore the new
medium of ink drawing. The entire suite of
works was acquired by Artbank.
While expanding the practices of its senior
artists, this explorative approach has also al-
lowed younger artists to assert themselves.
Rising star Teresa Baker has established an
impressive profile in recent years, following
her inclusion in Melbourne’s Australian Centre
for Contemporary Art’s Painting. More Paint-
ing with a sell-out show at Vivien Anderson
Gallery. “Melbourne is a big city with beram-
pa tjuta (many whitefellas), but a lot of people
know about my paintings,” she observes. Baker
was one of three Tjungu Palya artists to travel
to Switzerland earlier this year for a survey of
collector Berengere Primat’s Aboriginal acqui-

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 ART CENTRE

Beryl Jimmy, Nyangatja Watarru, 2017. Synthetic polymer on linen, 180 x 200cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST, TJUNGU PALYA, NYAPARI AND RAFT ARTSPACE, CICCONE. PHOTO: DALLAS GOLD.

sitions, the trip highlighting the attention the
Art Centre has received from Europe in recent
years via the sale of numerous major works.
“I’m so happy that people in the cities want to
learn about Anangu and our tjukurpa (stories),”
says the artist.
Tjungu Palya’s innovation also extends to
its business model, recently streamlining its
output to focus exclusively on the creation of
fewer, but more culturally-potent, large-scale
works targeted at major prizes, acquisition by
institutions and international markets. It is a
strategy that “naturally leads to far lower pro-
duction than other Art Centres”, notes Bradley,
but “the benefits of this are numerous. Artists
have more time to be outside, looking after
Country and attending to cultural business.”
The approach seems to be paying off; 2017 was
an almost-sell-out year for the Tjungu Palya,
with 2018 proving equally as strong to date.
Tjungu Palya will show a series of nine mas-
terworks by the Art Centre’s leading artists at
Vivien Anderson Gallery, from 31 October to
24 November 2018. Q

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 DEALER PROFILE

IMAGINE
WHAT YOU
DESIRE
In one of the oldest Georgian
buildings in Australia, Hobart-based
dealer Michael Bugelli combines
the old world with the new.

WORDS: BRIONY DOWNES

PHOTOGRAPHY: JESSE HUNNIFORD

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DEALER PROFILE

WHEN I ARRIVE at Ingle Hall, Michael Bugelli is

busy twisting the body of a spindly black sculpture,
adjusting the length so it stretches vertically from
ceiling to floor. He is prepping for a forthcoming ex-
hibition and the work is Heather B. Swann’s medita-
tion on Modernism, Figure that fills the space between
floor and ceiling, (2018).
Weaving my way along creaking floorboards
through a narrow corridor lined with books, Bugelli
reveals Ingle Hall was built in 1811 and is possibly
the oldest Georgian building in Australia. Once a
boarding facility, a coffee house and a printing muse-
um, Ingle Hall’s current incarnation is multi-purpose
– it is a home, gallery, studio and at times, a place for
artists to live and create work.
Bugelli has landed here in Hobart via the Gold
Coast, New York and London. After studying archi-
tecture at Bond University, he completed a stint of
work experience at the late Madeline Gins and Shu-
saku  Arakawa’s Foundation in New York, whose
practice he describes “as much poetry  or philoso-
phy  as  it was  building”, before moving to the UK
and taking up a position at design and antiques store
Howe London on Pimlico Road. Working primarily
with antique objects, Bugelli says Howe “gave me an
understanding and appreciation  of the relationship
between beautiful things and luxury markets; be-
tween antiquity and currency”.
For Bugelli, widening his focus to contemporary
art was a natural progression. “I really enjoy the jux-
taposition of old and new; the way you can create or
explore  the same  kinds of  feeling through antiques
as through contemporary art,” he explains. With its
historical architecture and constant ebb and flow of
artists, it is clear Ingle Hall is a perfect location for
Bugelli’s gallery practice.
Slowly building his commercial stable, Bugelli cur-
rently represents Jacobus Capone and Heather B.
Swann. In contrast to the white cubed space of a gal-
lery, Bugelli has chosen to embrace the character and

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 DEALER PROFILE

“I admit I am something of an

outsider, a bit of a newcomer in
the world of contemporary art,
but I always have a clear and
immediate response to works of
art – a yes or a no. When it’s a
yes, I am compelled to explore
and extend that feeling, and to
share it with others by moving the
work out into the world.”
MICHAEL BUGELLI

history of his home, displaying the work of his artists

within its nooks and crannies. “When architecture
or art or objects trigger feeling in me, I respond,” he
says. “It was very much the experience of living in
Ingle Hall, this extraordinary colonial building, with
all its stories, spaces and surfaces, that made me want
to occupy it and animate it in a special way.”
Bugelli continues: “I admit I am something of an
outsider, a bit of a newcomer in the world of con-
temporary art, but I always have a clear and imme-
diate response to works of art – a yes or a no. When
it’s a yes, I am compelled to explore and extend that
feeling, and to share it with others by moving the
work out into the world.”
When he engages his artists to create work for
an exhibition, Bugelli describes it as a residency of
sorts, as they are invited to work on-site and live
at Ingle Hall for the duration. When I visit, Swann
is there for 10 days and she regales me with how
an antique hat pin holder she gifted to Bugelli has
become the catalyst for new work. “Antique objects
are the platform we come together on,” she fondly
says. There is a mutual admiration between Swann
and Bugelli and it speaks of their ongoing and in-
dustrious exchange of ideas.
While Bugelli may be a newcomer to the com-
mercial gallery scene, he maintains a distinct vision
of blending the old with the new. He cites Sir John
Soane’s Museum in London as inspiration for its
“eclectic mix of antiquities, copies and the work
of Soane himself and his contemporaries”. Also
of influence is Jupiter Artland, a sculpture park
and contemporary art gallery set among the 100-
acre grounds of 19th-century manor, Bonnington
House in Scotland. “The owners Robert and Nicky
Wilson have commissioned major site-specific
works by contemporary artists including Andy
Goldsworthy and Christian Boltanski,” Bugelli
says. “In fact, the title of a Nathan Coley light and
text work installed there sums up my own quest -
Installation view of Heather B. Swann’s Luna, Michael Bugelli Gallery, Hobart, 2017.
You imagine what you desire.” Q COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND MICHAEL BUGELLI GALLERY, HOBART.

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DEALER PROFILE

185
 DEALER PROFILE

2 0 18/2019 DEA L ER H IGH L IGH T S

HEATHER B. SWANN
BUoY Arts Centre, Tokyo
October 2018

Heather B. Swann’s I let my body fall into a

rhythm exhibition is part of Japan’s Austra-
lia now Program and is a crossover between
art and performance. The show features
Swann’s frequent collaborator, soprano As-
trid Connelly, and will mark the launch of
Michael Bugelli Publishing. The inaugural
publication is dedicated to Swann’s practice
and Bugelli reveals: “I would like to make
books about my artists and collections – not
just exhibition catalogues, but  really  hand-
some and meaningful publications.” (Read
more about this exhibition on page 132.)

Heather B Swann, The Shoemaker, 2018. Leather,

cork, modelling compound, rubber, shellac, 21 x
76 x 40cm. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND MICHAEL
BUGELLI GALLERY, HOBART.

JACOBUS CAPONE
Auckland Art Fair, Auckland
May 2019

Bugelli will take Perth-based multi-disci-

plinary artist Jacobus Capone across the pond
next year for Auckland Art Fair 2019, held in
May. Known for his dedicated feats of endur-
ance, the artist’s recent work, Double Enigma,
documented the epic two-year process of
collecting water from extreme locations near
each polar cap through an evocative selection
of video, photography and installation. Most
recently Capone’s Wounds 1 & 2 (2018) –  a
work on paper made from glacial water and
white gouache – received a Highly Commend-
ed Award in the 2018 Hadley’s Art Prize.

Jacobus Capone, forewarning (act 1), 2018. Site-

specific performance, 78 degrees North. Inkjet
print on Canson rag photographique, 250 x 160cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND MICHAEL BUGELLI
GALLERY, HOBART.

186
 DEALER PROFILE

DETACHED CULTURAL
ORGANISATION
Old Mercury Building, Hobart
Ongoing

In the former office building adjoining Ingle

Hall, Bugelli is curating multiple new com-
missions and artworks. Destined to be a new
private museum housing the art collection of
the Detached Cultural Organisation, those
with keen eyes might have spotted Mike
Parr emerging and retreating into its bowels
before and after his 2018 Under the Bitumen
the Artist Dark Mofo performance. “We re-
fer to Detached as  TOMB  – which is an ac-
ronym for  The Old Mercury Building,” says
Bugelli. Due to be completed within the next
18 months, the museum will be a permanent
home for Patricia Piccinini and Peter Hen-
nessey’s installation, The Shadows Calling
(2015), and new large-scale commissions by
Brigita Ozolins (readers may be familiar with
her work Kryptos at David Walsh’s Museum
of Old and New Art) and collaborative duo
Mish Meijers and Tricky Walsh.

Brigita Ozolins, A Tasmanian Reading Room, 2018.

Tasmanian books, hand-painted map, soundscape,
wood, glass, mirror. Site-specific installation at TOMB,
Hobart, 2016–18. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND
MICHAEL BUGELLI GALLERY, HOBART.

HEATHER B. SWANN
Michael Bugelli Gallery
Ingle Hall, Hobart
June 2019

Swann’s 2017 solo exhibition Luna included The Letter that Never Came, a
sculptural work reflecting on Ingle Hall’s former use as a boarding house
for school boys. Created as a direct response to the history of the site,
Luna serves as a springboard for Swann’s next exhibition. For her 2019
show at Ingle Hall, Swann will again create a multidisciplinary exhibition
that includes a specially commissioned performance by Australian mezzo
soprano Lotte Betts-Dean.

Heather B Swann, Unforgettable (introversion vehicle for Timothy Hill), 2018. Wire, silk,
velvet, copper, performance documentation. COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND MICHAEL
BUGELLI GALLERY, HOBART

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 COLLECTOR PROFILE

THE ART
MACHINE
The double-sided, moveable art racks rotating throughout the
internal floors of Peter Wilson and James Emmett Sydney
warehouse tell but a part of a life story fuelled by art.
WORDS: HELEN MCKENZIE
PHOTOGRAPHY: JACQUIE MANNING

188
 James Emmett (left) and Peter Wilson (right) in their
Sydney home. Work on the wall behind, left: Stephen Bush,
Tupelo, 2010. Right: Stephen Bush, The Lure of Paris, 2017.

189
 COLLECTOR PROFILE

PETER WILSON AND his partner James Emmett are at the top of their respec-
tive fields in finance and the law. Professionally, they are busy and serious. Pri-
vately, they give their time to arts bodies and other not-for-profit organisations
where they think they can help. They also like to party, and their new home was
designed just for this purpose.
We roam over the five-level warehouse that Wilson and Emmett have convert-
ed into a remarkable home in one of Sydney’s edgiest inner suburbs. Their home
is high-tech; music, lighting and three video screening sites are controlled room-
by-room via a mobile phone. An internal elevator (installed at the insistence of
their mothers) complete with a padded blue leather interior and an Agatha Go-
the-Snape work connects the four-floor home. But certainly, the most arresting
feature of the property is the double-sided moveable art racks, four of them, that
rotate vertically through all internal floors.
The racks are variously described. Wilson says they are an “Art machine” while
Emmett, with a smile (and much to his partner’s chagrin) gives them the han-
dle: “The dumb curator.” The industrial looking contraption that owes its design
origins to the theatre stage is so cool, and so necessary. Wilson and Emmett are

LEFT: Alex Kosmas’ sculpture Silent Escape III, 2011, sits on the table.
ABOVE: Andre Hemer’s video work Sky Sculpture #4, 2018.
On the shelf above: Ben Edols and Kathy Elliott’s Reclining Leaf,
OPPOSITE PAGE LEFT:
2007. Below: Emma Varga’s Vibrant Red #14, 2008.
OPPOSITE PAGE MIDDLE: Kirsteen Pietersee’s Dead Reckoning, 2007.
OPPOSITE PAGE FAR RIGHT:On the shelf above: Caroline Rothwell’s Crop Seed (poppy),
2008. To the right: Emma Varga’s Ada Grey Shrub, 2014. Below: Ben Edols and Kathy
Elliott’s Hunter, 2012.

“The image we have – not just for our taste in art

but for our life generally – is from a novel by Stella
Gibbons. Two people from very different worlds
run away together and a wise old grandmother
says that they will be fine, because they have
puppy bones and will grow into each other.”
PETER WILSON

190
COLLECTOR PROFILE

191
 The racks are variously described. Wilson says
they are an “Art machine” while Emmett, with a
smile (and much to his partner’s chagrin) gives
them the handle: “The dumb curator.”

192
 COLLECTOR PROFILE

BELOW:In the foreground: Peter D. Cole’s The Nativity, 2011.

Behind: Peter D. Cole’s Sculpture, 1992.
Movable art racks rotate throughout the entire
OPPOSITE PAGE:
home. Featuring Stuart Fleming’s Meteor 8, 2010.

keen art collectors. They have been in their new digs for a year and
say they are ready for a rehang. Six large works by their friend Julian
Meagher wait bubble wrapped in storage, returned from loan for an
exhibition in Penrith.
After their three-year search across Surry Hills, East Sydney and
Chippendale for a suitable warehouse, the couple “lucked across this
place”, says Emmett. Architect Matthew Bennett, a friend from Em-
mett’s time at Harvard, was given the job. Wilson recalls their initial
brief to Bennett was indeed brief: “Room for guests and a party,” he
says. “And we had run out of wall space,” Emmett chips in. “We just
let him do what he wanted to do,” Wilson concludes. “It was such a
joyful process.”
Involvement with not-for-profit organisations is also a source of
joy for the two men. Wilson is Chair of Playwriting Australia and sits
on the boards of Belvoir Street Theatre Company, Women’s College,
The Sisters Of Mercy and Artspace. Emmett is Chair of National As-
sociation for the Visual Arts (NAVA), the peak body of Australia’s
visual arts sector.
Art is in abundance on the home front. “Painting, figurative work
and craft” are their go-tos according to Wilson; although glass, sculp-
ture and video art also feature. Two works by Stephen Bush have
pride of place in the sitting room. In the bedroom, an Alex Seton
sculpture and an Alexander McKenzie oil painting seem to peace-
fully converse. On one of the moveable racks is a salon hang of 12
works that includes fine portraits of Emmett’ grandmother and great
great aunt, hanging beside a portrait in pencil of Wilson as the devil.
Here also are two works Wilson bought as a “baby lawyer” – they
are by Peter D. Cole. In lieu of paying bonuses, the firm Wilson was
working for bought the works. The pair subsequently purchased two
sculptures by Cole. One, a nativity scene, was commissioned.
The commissioned nativity scene is a useful indicator of Emmett
and Wilson’s ability to compromise. “I love Christmas,” Emmett says.
“Left to my own devices the place would be decked with endless awful
decorations.” Wilson rolls his eyes at the thought and offers that the
work is the only acceptable decoration allowed in the house, and is
allowed out of the cupboard for just one month of the year. Which
brings the obvious question about how they have gone about selection
works for their collection. “The theoretical rule is we have to both
like it,” says Wilson. Barrister Emmett, in very legalese speech adds:
“There is a rarely exercised, no-questions-entitled, right to a veto.”
Emmett and Wilson have now been together for 19 years. “In a
very real sense, our aesthetic tastes grew into one another,” Emmett
offers. “The image we have – not just for our taste in art but for our
life generally – is from a novel by Stella Gibbons. Two people from
very different worlds run away together and a wise old grandmother
says that they will be fine, because they have puppy bones and will
grow into each other.” “I’m not sure that we had puppy bones,” says
Wilson with a smile. “But we were certainly puppies; like a Labrador
with big feet.” Q

193
 PICA EDITION
Iftar by Abdul-Rahman Abdullah
Photo: Alessandro Bianchetti
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During Ramadan
everybody is equalised by a
Abdul-Rahman Abdullah
Iftar, 2017
fundamental appreciation of
Concrete, fifteen 23.5 carat
sustenance and self control.
gold electroplated almonds
15 x 15 x 15 cm
Iftar marks the end of the
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when a handful of almonds
is all you want, because it’s
all you need.
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please contact PICA on (08) 9228 6300 or visit pica.org.au.
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 COMING SOON…

ON THE COVER: Marjory Accoom, Puunya: Hand Woven Baskets, 2017. Acrylic on canvas.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND LOCKHART RIVER ART CENTRE. PHOTO: MICHAEL MARZIC.
THE 2019 GUIDE TO
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EXHIBITION PREVIEWS

196
 EXHIBITION PREVIEWS

PREVIEWSThe exhibitions in our calendars for this quarter.

NICHOLAS HARDING: NEW PAINTINGS

17 November – 8 December, 2018
Sophie Gannon Gallery, Melbourne

Collectors will know Nicholas Harding for any number of reasons. It might
be for his huge, idiosyncratic pen or paint depictions of eastern Australia’s
scrubby bushland; it might be for the sheer scope of his representation, from
his placement in the collections of the country’s major galleries to his de-
cades of appearances in prizes such as the Archibald, Wynne, Dobell and
Sulman; or it might be for the irreverent artworld anecdotes he has been at
the centre of, such as the period during which he drew spur-of-the-moment
portraits of his fellow airline passengers on the sick bags in the seat in front.
Personally and professionally, it has been a year of reassessment and recali-
bration for Harding. Following his last solo exhibition at the National Portrait
Gallery last year, the artist returned to South Australia to gather more images
for new work, only to find the vegetation blackened and charred by bushfires.
It was during this trip that he discovered the lump in his neck that was soon
to be diagnosed as cancerous.
In November, the works that came of this period will be shown at Mel-
bourne’s Sophie Gannon Gallery. These new works, shown as part of a solo
exhibition appropriately called New Paintings, speak allegorically through
landscapes of mortality and regeneration. The burnt landscape, with its green
shoots persisting through the blackness, directly acknowledge Harding’s ill-
ness and subsequent recovery. Collectors can expect a suite of oil paintings
across a variety of scales, from more intimate observances of flora and fau-
na to large vistas set among the Flinders Ranges – all of which demonstrate
Harding’s characteristic eye for jumping textures and fine colour, but this
time with a pronounced undertone of triumph.
Kirsty Sier

Nicholas Harding, Wilpena Wren, 2018. Oil on linen, 56 x 56cm.

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 EXHIBITION PREVIEWS

Nicholas Harding, Wilpena Ringneck and Gum, 2018. Oil on linen, 56 x 56cm.

Nicholas Harding, Ringneck Parrot Feeding, 2018. Oil on linen, 56 x 56cm.

RIGHT: Nicholas Harding, Gum Wattle Light, 2018. Oil on linen, 112 x 107cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND SOPHIE GANNON GALLERY, MELBROUNE.

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EXHIBITION PREVIEWS

199
 EXHIBITION PREVIEWS

JOYCE CAMPBELL: THE REEF

Two Rooms, Auckland
Until 20 October 2018

Joyce Campbell, The Reef, 2018. Producton still.

COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND TWO ROOMS, AUCKLAND.

Interdisciplinary artist  Joyce Campbell’s most
recent work employs photographic and cinemat-
ic techniques to examine the collision of natural
and cultural systems. Her latest project, The Reef,
thoughtfully explores the relationship between two
dying forms: analogue film and climate-stressed
environments.
The moving image work reframes 16mm film
footage of waves breaking on an endangered Fijian
reef at dusk. Campbell has repurposed an optical
printer to degrade the surface of the film with grit
and sand, as it is scanned to high-resolution digital
video file.
As the image is captured over time, the film
becomes damaged to the point where it starts to
break down. The Reef becomes both a sort of eu-
logy of film on film, and a call for us to protect our
degrading natural environment – the foundation
upon which all technologies rise and fall.
Now spending her time between her home coun-
try of New Zealand and the USA, Campbell’s slew
of local and international exhibitions – and mul-
tiple commercial gallery representations at Two
Rooms in Auckland, McNamara Gallery in Wan-
ganui and Nadene Milne Gallery in Arrowtown
– are testament to a considered practice that, these

200
 EXHIBITION PREVIEWS

FIONA LOWRY: THE TIES THAT BIND

18 October – 11 November, 2018
Martine Browne Contemporary, Sydney

Fiona Lowry, Sometimes your a stranger to me. Acrylic on canvas, 210 x 260cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND MARTIN BROWNE CONTEMPORARY, SYDNEY.

There is something prophetic and far-reaching
about the work of Sydney-based painter Fiona
Lowry. Arguably best known for the portrait of
Penelope Seidler that won her the Archibald Prize
in 2014, the majority of Lowry’s subject matter is
less tied to the hard-and-fast realities of our waking
urban lives.
In her upcoming solo exhibition at Sydney’s Mar-
tin Browne Contemporary, Lowry will unearth a
body of new works that return to the subject mat-
ter on which she has staked her claim, the figure
in the landscape. Collectors will recognise the hazy,
sinister way in which her airbrushed figures shiv-
er across the canvas, and the melancholy juxtapo-
sition of physical intimacy and emotional distance
that Lowry deftly achieves with their composition.
This potent compression of conceptual layers
makes sense when the artist points out that one
of the foundational influences of her practice is
the 1972 film A Thief in the Night, a biblical tale of
rapture that imbues an idyllic landscape with dark
possibility. In these new works, beautiful bodies
and pastoral backdrops glisten with a strange mel-
ancholy. There is something not quite right within
these landscapes, something you can’t put your fin-
ger on, that lingers in the mind long after you step
back into the sunlight.
Kirsty Sier

201
 AUCTION NIGHT
THURSDAY 25TH OCTOBER
THE PARK MELBOURNE
36 LAKESIDE DRIVE,
ALBERT PARK
7PM - Registration & drinks
8PM - Auction
MC - Brian Nankervis
AUCTIONEER - Scott Livesey
Special Music Guests & DJ
EVENT TICKETS - $65 & $185 VIP
Drinks & canapés included in ticket price.
TICKETS AVAILABLE AT:
www.trybooking.com/WYLC
& www.akc.org.au

AKC presents our 25th Anniversary Art A Auction. 60 works EXHIBITION

by prominent Australian artists will g
go under the hammer. BRIGHTSPACE
children experiencing hardship the
Funds raised give chil Friday 19–Sunday 21 October, 2018
opportunity to participate in cultural, artistic, musical,
o
8 Martin St, St Kilda
sporting and educational activities.
GALLERY HOURS:
11AM–5PM

ABORIGINAL & OCEANIC

FINE ART AUCTION anca
australian national capital artists

10 October - 21 October 14 November - 2 December

Interspatial Walking Entanglements
Nyx Mathews Antonia Aitken
24 October - 11 November 5 December - 16 December
Mood Shifts At the Edge of Matter
Debra Jurss Christine Appleby, Riley
Beaumont, Mahala Hill, Merryn
Lloyd and Lucy Quinn

Rammey Ramsey, Untitled (My Country 127), 2007

Natural earth pigments and synthetic polymer paint on composition board
80 x 100 cm. Pre-sale estimate $6,000 - $8,000

27 NOVEMBER 2018 | 7pm

326 Oxford St, Paddington NSW 2021
Specialist: Adrian Newstead OAM adrian@cooeeart.com.au +61 (0)412 126 645
Administrator: Kathleen Roberts kathleen@cooeeart.com.au +61 (0)2 9300 9233

1 Rosevear Place Dickson ACT

Paddington | Bondi Beach www.anca.net.au
cooeeart.com.au Image: Nyx Mathews,‘Studies of elevation and containment (No.02)’,2017 29.5 x 5.5 x 17cm.
Paraffin wax,nickel silver,silver solder Photo Simon Cottrell
 ART COLLECTOR

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 REVIEWS

1 SENTENCE REVIEWS
The recent exhibitions that have caught the eyes of our writers… summed up in 30 words or less.

A provocative protest through

frosted glass, Rrap’s silent
portraits spoke loud and clear
to the ongoing gender issues
facing women today. 
CAMILLA WAGSTAFF 

JULIE RRAP: BLOW BACK

Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney 
7 June – 7 July 2018

Julie Rrap, Blow Back #16, 2018. Digital print and

hand-ground glass, 52 x 64cm. COURTESY THE
ARTIST AND ROSLYN OXLEY9 GALLERY, SYDNEY. 

A dark room divided

with dark wood
screens, the feeling
of a church where
words are worship
and communion is a
Don’t be fooled by the gentle title – McHaffie’s Sea Breeze was coal-skinned avocado,
a sharp, perfectly observed study of the everyday culture clashes taken from dirty
that make up life in suburban Melbourne. fingernailed hands.
LUCINDA BENNETT
JANE O’SULLIVAN

EVANGELINE RIDDIFORD
ROB MCHAFFIE: SEA BREEZE GRAHAM: LA BELLE DAME
Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney AVEC LES MAINS VERTES
16 June – 14 July 2018 RM Gallery, Auckland
6–23 June 2018
Rob McHaffie, Save our modernist heritage (Beaumaris Modern), 2018. Oil on linen, 77 x 61cm.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND DARREN KNIGHT GALLERY, SYDNEY

204
REVIEWS

The delicacy in Ivimey’s visceral

sculpted characters speaks to the
tenacious grip of life and the
vulnerability of threatened
species (and us all) as the
climate inexorably shifts.
LOUISE MARTIN-CHEW

LINDE IVIMEY: CONVERSATIONS

WITH A CATERPILLAR
Jan Murphy Gallery, Brisbane
21 August – 15 September 2018

Linde Ivimey, Conversations with a

caterpillar, 2018. Acrylic resin, natural fibre,
dyed cotton, cast and natural turkey and wallaby
bones, woven vertebrae, peacock feathers,
cabochon rubies, 122 x 56 x 54cm. COURTESY:
THE ARTIST AND JAN MURPHY GALLERY,
BRISBANE. PHOTO: JENNI CARTER.

205
 REVIEWS

Phu and Young make the point that you don’t have to shout to be heard; that sometimes,
softer approaches are equally powerful in reflecting upon otherness in Australia today.
GINA FAIRLEY

JASON PHU & JOHN YOUNG ZERUNGE: THE BURRANGONG AFFRAY Installation view of Jason Phu’s In the morning I wake the rooster. In the
afternoon I drive across the mountains & waters. At night I cut all my ties,
4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney, 2018. COURTESY: THE
29 June – 12 August 2018 ARTIST AND 4A, SYDNEY. PHOTO: DOCUMENT PHOTOGRAPHY.

This powerful multimedia show profiled the work of 16 The true message of every Nixon
Islamic Australian artists who gave voice to the struggles work (and the truth of seeing
experienced by contemporary Muslims in Australia, them) is “I was there”.
challenging stereotypes about Islam in the West. REX BUTLER
VICTORIA HYNES
JOHN NIXON: EPW:
ENOUGH ėţÿī KHALAS SELECTED PAINTINGS
UNSW Galleries, Sydney Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne
4 May – 14 July 2018. 5 July – 18 August 2018

206
 REVIEWS

Mangan’s exhibition presents an elegant

metaphor for collectivity as a social, political
and economic organism. A bug’s life.
PARIS LETTAU

NICHOLAS MANGAN: TERMITE ECONOMIES

Sutton Gallery, Melbourne
4 August – 1 September 2018

Installation view of Nicholas Mangan’s Termite Economies, Sutton Gallery, Melborune, 2018.
COURTESY: THE ARTIST AND SUTTON GALLERY, MELBOURNE. PHOTO: ANDREW CURTIS.

207
 O F F T H E WA L L

DA NIE L BUR E N

Installation view of Daniel Buren’s Comme un jeu d’enfant (Like Child’s Play), Carriageworks, Sydney, 2018. PHOTO: ZAN WIMBERLEY.

Daniel Buren’s recent exhibition Comme un jeu d’enfant transformed the

industrial halls of Carriageworks into a new kind of playground.
WORDS: TAI MITSUJI

DO YOU WALK differently in an art gal-
lery? I do. I think I always have. In the gallery
space, my steps are tentative, and my gait is
measured. No one ever demanded this of me,
yet the stark austerity of the white cube has
always silently implored it.
It was this feeling, this indelible sense of
propriety, that Daniel Buren’s latest exhi-
bition, Comme un jeu d’enfant (Like Child’s
Play), at Carriageworks managed to challenge
and ultimately rupture. The French concep-
tualist’s work transformed the strict space of
the grown up into the playful domain of the
child. Stepping into the gallery was like step-
ping into my youth, as I was immediately sur-
rounded by sets of wooden blocks that close-
ly resembled those that I had played with in
my younger days. However, unlike the pieces
that I used to pick up and throw, these blocks
towered above me.
The gallery was divided into symmetri-
cal halves. The first was completely white,
from the floor to the blocks to the walls – the
quintessential white cube – while the second
was a mix of colourful hues and punchy pas-
tels – a place that felt like one’s childhood
incarnated. The success of the work turned
on the carefully constructed nature of this
layout, which initially forced a gallery-goer
to tip-toe through the white, before jaunting
through the colour. It may sound like a sim-
ple proposition, yet the execution was flaw-
less. Because by simply changing the colour
palette, Buren seemed to be asking us why
we tread so lightly in the hallowed halls of
the gallery; he seemed to be asking us why
we don’t play.
Following the artist’s lead, I asked a nearby
gallery attendant whether I could touch the
blocks. She explained that they preferred that
we didn’t, so as to preserve the work’s colour.
This was, of course, rational and probably for
the best. Yet I could not help but feel satis-
faction when I spied a blackened foot print
on top of a bright blue block in the corner.
Breaking the rules of the gallery somehow
felt like the greatest affirmation of the work
that it housed. Finally, we were playing. Q

208
 Camilla Tadich
Missing
Traveller, 2018, oil on linen, 55 x 40 cm

1–20 December 2018

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

 MICHAEL
PAREKOWHAI

11 September - 6 October, 2018

Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery

8 Soudan Lane, Paddington NSW, 2021
(+61) 2 9331 1919 roslynoxley9.com.au