EQUILIBRIUM

My linocut A Man, a Woman and a Duck, an older work that brings back more happy memories than I can count, has been included in  EQUILIBRIUM - WORKS FROM THE LATROBE REGIONAL GALLERY COLLECTION at Latrobe Regional Gallery. 

The exhibition showcases aquatically-themed works drawn from the LRG Collection, ranging from the traditional to the allegorical.

A Man, a Woman and a Duck, 1996, linocut, 30.5 x 40.5 cm, is an absurdist, affectionate,  semi-autobiographical homage to my hometown, the Melbourne seaside suburb of St. Kilda, from which I sometimes suspect the umbilical cord was never fully severed. 

Featured Artists 

Rashida Abdel-Aziz/Julie Adams/Jennifer Aitken/Marita Anderson/Clarice Beckett/Violet Biram/Marion Borgelt/Lynne Boyd/Deborah Cocks/Pauline Delaney/Caroline Durré/Lesley Duxbury/Anne Dybka/Susan Faraday/Kaye L. Green/Eileen Gordon/Juli Haas/Fiona Hall/Treahna Hamm/Anne Hand/Edith Hughston/Margaret Johnston/Carolyn Jones/Deborah Klein/ Vee Labson/Mandy Martin/Kim McDonald/Mary Meyer/Tracey Moffatt/Jan Murray/Jill Noble/Penny Ormerod/Jacki Parry/Susan Purdy/Louisa Riggall/Christian Clare Robertson/Margi Sheppard/Sophia Szilagyi/Jessie Traill/Louisa Waters/Vanessa White

EQUILIBRIUM - WORKS FROM THE LATROBE REGIONAL GALLERY COLLECTION 

LATROBE REGIONAL GALLERY

138 Commercial Road
Morwell, Victoria 3840, Australia
P: +61 3 5128 5700
lrg@latrobe.vic.gov.au

Opening Hours:
Daily 10am to 4pm

EQUILIBRIUM opened on July 5 and continues to October 19.

Photo credit: Tim Gresham. 

Early linocuts at Gippsland Art Gallery

Many thanks to Lesley Duxbury for these photos of two of my early linocuts, currently on exhibit at Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale, one of my favourite regional galleries.

Pictured top: Sometimes Jenny took long and lonely walks along the long and lonely beach, 1988, from the Pirate Jenny Prints suite of linocuts (1987-88). The point of departure for the work was the titular character in The Threepenny Opera, a jazz-influenced opera by Bertolt Brecht (book and lyrics) and Kurt Weill (music). It premiered at Theater am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin in 1928. Ostensibly set in Victorian London, the opera is a savage satire of Germany’s Weimar Republic. In this series, I took Jenny out of London/Berlin and placed her in the red light district of my home town, St Kilda. (It has been done since, in 2010, as a theatre production with the great Paul Capsis as Pirate Jenny, but as far as I know, I was the first to do it)! 

Most of the works in the Pirate Jenny suite owe a debt to German Expressionism, in the case of this work, the German Expressionist film The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, 1920, (Dir. Robert Wiene). 

The second linocut, the absurdist A Man, a Woman and a Duck, 1996, also set on St Kilda beach, is a more playful and affectionate homage to my home town. (Image 2, second from top).

Second view, top: Susan Fraser, One, two, slide, Back, two, slide, 2013, linocut. 

All works: Collection Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale.

I understand the works will be on view for three months.

A visit to Latrobe Regional Gallery

   

On Friday afternoon Shane Jones and I spent some quiet quality time at Latrobe Regional Gallery exploring the summer exhibitions prior to the evening’s lively celebratory event. 

It has been a long time since I last visited the gallery - much longer than I realised. The last occasion was in 2009 when I gave an artist talk in connection with the The enchanted forest: new gothic storytellers, a group exhibition curated by Jazmina Cininas that toured extensively throughout 2008-2009. It showed at LRG from 21 February - 19 April, 2009. 

Image 1 (top): On Friday afternoon alongside my linocut Anon, 1998, in Fellow Travellers, an exhibition guest-curated by Jenny Peterson. Image 2, directly  above: With my linocut A Man, a Woman and a Duck, 1996 in the exhibition In our own time, curated by LRG Assistant Curator, Gabriella Duffy. (Photo credit: Shane Jones).

Some installation views follow. I had every intention of taking more, but over the course of the evening, we met so many lovely people, the time had flown by before we knew it - rather like the last 14 years.

The above exhibitions (which opened last November) are highly recommended, but do make haste. They finish their run on February 12.  

There are two superb exhibitions in the ground floor galleries. In Gallery 3 is Observatorium, mixed media works by Josephine Jakobi (running to April 9). In Galleries 1 and 2 is the touring show Looking Glass: large works on canvas by Waanyi artist, Judy Watson and sculptures by Kokatha and Nukunu glass artist, Yhonnie Scarce, running to 26 March.