DRAWING STRENGTH

Shane Jones and I each have an artwork and sketchbook in the group show DRAWING STRENGTH in the Barn Gallery at Montsalvat Arts Centre. We’re delighted with curator Jo Lane’s placement of our drawings, in a charming alcove flanking an oversized fireplace. Despite being part of the main gallery, the area feels quite self-contained, as if we are in our very own room. My concertina format sketchbook sits in front of the fireplace. Shane’s book, opened in the view below to sketches of our cat Alice, is grouped with other sketchbooks at the opposite end of the gallery.

DRAWING STRENGTH runs from November 17, 2018 - January 6, 2019.

Prelude

Prelude (2018, linocut with chine-collé, 20 x 15 cm, edition: 20, printed by Simon White) is my contribution to IMPRESSIONS 2018, the Australian Print Workshop’s biennial fundraising exhibition.

It’s a great show, arguably their best yet, and an absolute must for lovers of print.

IMPRESSIONS 2018 artists include: Greg Alexander, Penny Algar, Rick Amor, Brook Andrew, Stephen Armstrong, Rosalind Atkins, Susan Baran, Elizabeth Barnett, Alexis Beckett, Martin Bell, Kathy Boyle, Matthew Broughton, Peter Brown, Rob Brown, Peter Burgess, Kate Butler, Violeta Capovska, Lauren Carter, Raymond Carter, Jon Cattapan, Civil, Peter D Cole, Dianne Colk, Fabiana Comas, Timothy Cook, Warren Cooke, Brendan Cooper, Marisa Corral, Vicki Couzens, Beth Croce, Suzanne Danaher, Aleks Danko, Yvonne Day, Ex De Medici, David De Roach, Chris De Rosa, Clive Dickson, Louise Donovan, Graeme Drendel, Lesley Duxbury, Peter Ellis, Farimah Eshraghi, Kasia Fabijanska, Michael Fitzgerald, Angela Foley, Julie Forrester, Graham Fransella, Alex Game, Zoe Geyer, Shaun Gladwell, Janet Goldman, Kate Gorringe-Smith, Kaye Green, Andrew Gunnell, Gracia Haby &, Louise Jennison, Fred Hagstrom, Liam Haley, Richard Harding, Vicki Harman, Greg Harrison, Anton Hasell, Katherine Hattam, Jarmila Hava, Carolyn Hawkins, Euan Heng, Judy Holding, Alex Hotchin, Kate Hudson, Kyoko Imazu, Chris Ingham, Callum Jackson, Robyn Jackson, Georgia Janetzki, Shane Jones, Gina Kalabishis, Andrew Keall, Roslyn Kean, William Kelly, Hyun-Ju Kim, Luke Duncan King, Martin King, Jenny Kitchener, Barbie Kjar, Deborah Klein, Hertha Kluge-Pott, Helen Kocis-Edwards, Damon Kowarsky, Tim Lane, Jo Lankester, Georgia Laughton, Christine Lawry, Libby Letcher, Bruno Leti, Kevin Lincoln, Sorcha Mackenzie, Nina Magee, Margaret Manchee, Harley Manifold, Marion Manifold, Jennifer Marshall, Marie Mason, Terry Matassoni, George Matoulas, Malini Maunsell, Tommy May, Annalise Mayer, Janice McBride, David McCall, Stephen McCarthy, John McClumpha, Sarah McConnell, Danni McGrath, Laith McGregor, Paula McLoughlin, Justin McShane, Robert Mihajlovski, Lewis Miller, Louise Minahan, Allan Mitelman, Simon Moore, Hannah Murray, Janice Murray, Tom Nicholson, Liz Norris, Chris O’doherty, (Aka Reg Mombassa), Peter O’doherty, Emmet O’dwyer, Glenda Orr, Allison Orton, Laura Osborne, Jan Palethorpe, Margaret Parker, Larry Parkinson, Jon Paton, Patricia Piccinini, Kate Piekutowski, Brian Pieper, Catherine Pilgrim, Jaime Powell, Jutta Pryor, Stephanie Rampton, Julia Reed, Michael Rigg, Lisa Roet, Jennifer Rogers, Georgina Ross, Caroline Rothwell, Kate Ryan, Gwen Scott, Marianne Sebetti, Jan Senbergs, Simon Sherrin, Julia Silvester, Andrew Sinclair, Melissa Smith, Jennifer Smyth, Anne Spudvilas, Ruth Stanton, Anne Starling, Lisa Stebbing, Mervyn Street, Deb Tate, Deb Taylor, Andrew Taylor, Georgia Thorpe, Gera Tonge, Wayne Viney, Anne Virgo, Susan Wald, Deborah Walker, Thornton Walker, Lee Ward, Judy Watson, Louise Weaver, Peter Wegner, Sophie Westerman, Simon White, John Wolseley, Amanda Woodmansey, Chiara Zeta, and Kate Zizys.

IMPRESSIONS 2018
Australian Print Workshop Gallery
210 Gertrude Street,
Fitzroy, Vic.

Gallery hours: 10 - 5 Tuesday to Saturday

The exhibition runs to 16 February 2019

Acquisition by National Gallery of Australia

Leaves of Absence, 2017, unbound artist book

31 archival pigment prints in Solander box

32.5 (H) x 25.5 (W) x 4 cm (D) edition: 10 plus one artist proof

In the midst of an exceptionally hectic period, I've received some marvellous news. My artist book LEAVES OF ABSENCE has been acquired for the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Australia.

For additional information and page views, visit Moth Woman Press HERE.

Page view from Leaves of Absence

A PASSION FOR TAPESTRY: opening night

Red Comb #2 (2007) based on a detail from my painting 8 Women (2005) wool and cotton, 15 x 16 cm
Woven by Cheryl Thornton 

A PASSION FOR TAPESTRY, which opened last night at the Australian Tapestry Workshop, comprises 18 small tapestries from the private collection of Tuppy Cole, all of them acquired from the ATW. The exhibition includes Red Comb #1, woven by Rebecca Moulton (fourth image below). For a clearer view of Red Comb #1 sans reflections, go HERE.

Revisiting Red Comb #2, woven by Cheryl Thornton

An unexpected surprise was the accompanying exhibition of tapestries from the workshop’s collection, including Red Comb #2, woven by ATW master weaver Cheryl Thornton (pictured top). I was thrilled to see this little gem again. I admire Cheryl’s work enormously and it’s well represented in both shows.

L-R: Cheryl Thornton and I outside the Australian Tapestry Workshop in 2007

Pictured with Red Comb #1, woven by Rebecca Moulton

The red comb tapestries were commissioned by the ATW in 2007 and are based on individual panels from my multi-panelled painting 8 Women (2005). In the intervening years, life has come to imitate art. My own locks are now the same shade as the intricately woven hair in both tapestries.

As the following photos will hopefully attest, a visit to the Australian Tapestry Workshop is highly recommended.

Opening address by Antonia Syme, Director of the Australian Tapestry Workshop. On the right (holding the bouquet of
flowers) is tapestry collector Tuppy Cole

Centre, left: ATW Director Antonia Syme, centre. Far right: ATW weaver Chris Cochius with Shane Jones

Photo credit for Red Comb #2: Viki Petherbridge. The photos of me (taken on an angle to avoid reflections) are by Shane Jones.

The exhibitions continue to 1 February, 2019.

A PASSION FOR TAPESTRY 
Australian Tapestry Workshop
262 - 266 Park Street,
South Melbourne VIC 3205

Gallery hours: Tuesday - Friday, 10am - 5pm

Moth Women land at The Lost Ones Contemporary Art Gallery

It's just occurred to me that I'm involved in no less than four group shows opening this week. (The others are at the Australian Tapestry Workshop, Montasalvat Arts Centre and the Australian Print Workshop).

I'm particularly excited to be part of Buy Art: Buy Local, opening on Thursday night, 15 November, at the Lost Ones Contemporary Art Gallery in Ballarat. I have eleven works in the show, all of them featuring the masked moth women that have been a huge part of my personal mythology for several years, inspiring fairy tales, prints, paintings, drawings, zines and artist books.

The hand-painted miniature plaster masks pictured above have seldom been exhibited. I couldn't be more delighted that their return appearance is in this superb gallery, and in such fine company. For me, the icing on the cake is to be regarded as a local artist in this town I've come to call home.

A selection of linocuts, including these, are also part of the show:

Birthana cleis Moth Mask, 2009, hand coloured linocut, 15 x 15 cm, ed. 30

Scoliocma bioclora Moth Mask, 2009, hand coloured linocut, 15 x 15 cm, ed. 30

Agathia pisina Moth Mask, 2009, hand coloured linocut, 15 x 15 cm, ed. 30

Thalaina macfarlandi Moth Mask, 2009, hand coloured linocut, 15 x 15 cm, ed. 30

The following is from the gallery's latest newsletter:

Buy Art : Buy Local is a celebration of the energies, efforts and activities of practising artists in the Ballarat region. 

A curated group of artists have been invited to show their works, with a focus on pieces that can be purchased, gifted or collected. 

The Lost Ones Contemporary Art Gallery firmly believes in the importance of financial reward for the production of quality artwork. Without creative thinking, or art production, we are lost as a society. Without valuing the energies and efforts that creative people place into their artworks, we devalue ourselves.

We welcome the chance to celebrate the talents and skills of Ballarat’s fine artists, and we also welcome the opportunity for others to invest, share and give art to others. Art is not an elite sport. 

Artists participating in the Buy Art : Buy Local exhibition include: Kim Anderson , Tiffany Titshall, Deborah Klein, Deb Weston, Kate Wise, Jon Paley, Tas Wansbrough, Pauline O’Shannessy-Dowling, Alec Robinson, Claire Blake and Lisa Anderson

Photo credit for all images: Tim Gresham.

Buy Art: Buy Local

The Lost Ones Contemporary Art Gallery

14 Camp Street

Ballarat Central 3350

Victoria

Join us for a celebratory drink on Opening Night, Thursday, 15 November, from 6 - 8 pm

The exhibition runs from 14 November - 23 December

DRAWING STRENGTH: the sketchbook component

Non-portrait Sketchbook (detail 1)

Previewed above and below is my diminutive concertina sketchbook, delivered this very day to the Barn Gallery at Montsalvat Arts Centre in anticipation of DRAWING STRENGTH, a drawing-centred exhibition curated by Jo Lane.

Non-portrait sketchbook 1 (detail 2)

Here is the book in its entirety:

Non-portrait sketchbook 1, 2018, 15 x 10 cm (closed); 15 x 78 cm (open), ink, gouache and watercolour on rag paper 

That’s Shane Jones below, dropping off his drawing and sketchbook. From the work we saw today, it’s clear that drawing, in all its guises, is very much alive and kicking.

DRAWING STRENGTH opens this coming Saturday, November 17 and runs until Sunday, January 6, 2019.

For further information, go here: http://deborahklein.blogspot.com/2018/10/drawing-strength-at-montsalvat.html?m=0

Biblio Art Prize Part 2: Opening night

At the launch of Biblio Art 2018 with my shortlisted entry, Bell Jar
Photo credit: Shane Jones

The 10th Annual Biblio Art Prize, co-ordinated by Blarney Books & Art, opened last Saturday evening, November 3, to a packed house. Two of my works were finalists: Bell Jar, an archival pigment print inspired by Sylvia Plath's novel The Bell Jar and the Frankenstein-inspired Progeny, a unique artist book (pictured in situ third from top). I was delighted when the latter received a Highly Commended Award from judges Justine Hyde (Director, Library Services, State Library of Victoria) and Vanessa Gerrans (Director, Warrnambool Art Gallery). 

The Biblio Art Prize was awarded to Mandy Gunn for her superb work, Pillars of Wisdom.

For detailed views of Progeny, scroll down to my previous post. For selected views of the exhibition launch, visit Moth Woman Press HERE.

Bell Jar, 2018, archival pigment print, 42.5 x 32 cm,
edition no. 1/10

Installation view of my artist book Progeny in the Biblio Art Prize 2018 at Blarney Books & Art