A virtual reunion

 Ex Votive Offerings, (RHS above), recently seen in In the company of Morris at the Art Gallery of Ballarat, is reunited here with its companion pieces, Ladies Glisten and Spillage, if only digitally. All three works were created for the 2002-2003 Arts Victoria Touring Victoria exhibition Common Thread that also featured works by Catherine Pilgrim and Shane Jones - a happy and rewarding exhibiting experience if ever there was one.

Originally intended as linocuts, the prints were transferred onto silk screens by Rebecca Mayo after the size in the Chinese silk rejected the block printing ink. 

L-R top:
Ladies Glisten, 2002, Screen print, artificial pearls, hand stitching on sized Chinese silk laid onto interfacing, 120 x 40 cm. Collection: Art Gallery of Ballarat;

Spillage, 2002, Screen print, buttons, hand stitching on sized Chinese silk laid onto interfacing, 120 x 40 cm. Collection: LaTrobe University, Bendigo;

Ex Votive Offerings, 2002, Screen print, needle threaders, hand stitching on sized Chinese silk laid onto interfacing, 120 x 40 cm. Collection: Art Gallery of Ballarat.

FIGURATION at APW Gallery

My linocut, Untitled, 2000, (pictured above), is among the works selected for the group exhibition, Figuration, at the Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne. 

Back in 2020, I was awarded the APW George Collie Memorial Print Award, along with one of my printmaking Muses, the late Barbara Hanrahan, so I was delighted to find my work hanging alongside her etching, Lovers with Angels, 1990.

Unfortunately, I’ve almost come to feel that the award never really happened. The 2020 George Collie Memorial Print Award Ceremony and accompanying exhibition subsequently became buried ever deeper by the ongoing pandemic - but fortunately, not without trace. All going well, the exhibition and ceremony will finally proceed this year, albeit in a slightly different format. Further information will follow when I’m more certain of times, dates and other details. 

Meanwhile Figuration is on exhibit at the APW Gallery from Saturday 5 February 2022 to Saturday 12 March 2022. 

The show features work by Davida Allen, Brook Andrew, Benjamin Armstrong, Del Kathryn Barton, Martin Bell, Arthur Boyd, Jazmina Cininas, Noel Counihan, Heri Dono, Emily Floyd, Graham Fransella, Shaun Gladwell, Barbara Hanrahan, Richard Harding, Julie Harman, Euan Heng, Shane Jones, Lily Karadada, William Kelly, Deborah Klein, Richard Lewer, Sian Marlow, Laith McGregor, Lewis Miller, Chris O’Doherty (aka Reg Mombassa), Emmet O'Dwyer, Geoffrey Ricardo, Robert Rooney, Gareth Sansom, Pijaju Peter Skipper, Jeffrey Smart, Mervyn Street, Thornton Walker, Judy Watson, and Peter Wegner. 

Apologies for the reflections - they were impossible to avoid, particularly in the installation view directly above. Click on images for a clearer view. 

Figuration

Australian Print Workshop Gallery
210 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, Victoria 3065
T: (03) 9419 5466  E: contact@australianprintworkshop.com
Gallery hours: Tuesday to Saturday 10am-5pm

HipCat Gallery

Chocolate argus Winged Woman, 2010, linocut 32 x 32 cm, ed. 30. Photo credit: Tim Gresham

In an exciting new venture, artist and master printer Lawrence Finn has initiated HipCat Gallery, an exhibition space that is dedicated to contemporary Australian printmaking. The gallery is part of HipCat Printery, a custom printing and artist access studio located five minutes from historic Trentham in Wombat State Forest. 

Shane Jones and I visited HipCat for the first time last Sunday during the Daylesford Macedon Ranges Open Studios program. That’s Shane in the above photo, centre, alongside Lawrence and his goat, the regal Princess Leia. 

HipCat Gallery’s inaugural group show will be opened by David Frazer. I’m delighted to be part of it, along with David, Damon Kowasky, Dianne Longley, Hyun Ju Kim and Lawrence Finn. Chocolate Argus Winged Woman, pictured top, is one of two linocuts I have in the show. 

The opening event is this coming Saturday, 5 May at 3 pm.