REVEAL

It has been brought to my attention (thank you, Dr. Carole Wilson) that my drawing Red Gown, 2003, has been included in this all too brief exhibition at Post Office Gallery Ballarat, alongside works by the illustrious artists listed below.

The exhibition is timed to coincide with the AMaGA National Conference 2024, held this week across several iconic Ballarat venues. Accordingly, the gallery has extended its opening hours for the run of the conference.

The image and following text are from Federation University Australia’s website.

REVEAL: WORKS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION

WED 18 SEP - SAT 21 SEP 2024

Dean BOWEN. Jon CAMPBELL. Antoinetta COVINO-BEEHRE. Rebecca GRIEG. Dale HICKEY.  Robert JACKS. Cody JOY. Deborah KLEIN. Bruno LETI. Lewis MILLER. Sally MILLER. Vera MOLLER. Josh MUIR.  John R. NEESON. Arron OLLINGTON. Lin ONUS. Wendy STAVRIANOS. Guy STUART. Noela STRATFORD. Barbara WEIR. Deborah WILLIAMS

Federation University’s Cultural Collection includes the Art Collection of over 2000 high-quality works of art, and its Historical Collection, stored and coordinated through the Mount Helen campus and the State Library of Victoria’s Ballarat Off Site Store (BOSS).

While the earliest works in the Permanent Art Collection are associated with Ballarat Technical Art School, Ballarat Teachers’ College is recognised for its concerted and determined approach to growing the Art Collection, later enhanced by generous gifts through the Cultural Gifts Program.

Covering most periods of Australian Art, including contemporary Australian prints, ceramics, design, painting and sculpture, the Art Collection predominantly features renowned Australian artists, as well as the work of staff and students associated with Federation University and its predecessor institutions.

The University’s Permanent Art Collection contributes to the intellectual and cultural enrichment of its student body, staff and the broader community, while also providing a rich and valuable resource for research.

Showcasing select works from the Art Collection, this exhibition celebrates twenty-one significant Australian artists whose work traces unseen relationships and draws on diverse lived experiences while responding to a myriad of subjects and ideas.

Image: Deborah KLEIN, Red Gown, 2003, oil pastel on paper, H 90 x W 74.5 cm

REVEAL: WORKS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION

POST OFFICE GALLERY

Federation University Australia 

NE corner of Sturt and Lydiard Street Nth 

BALLARAT VIC 3350

Extended opening hours:

Wednesday 18 September: 12.30-5 pm

Thursday 19 September: 12.30-5 pm

Friday 20 September: 12.30-5 pm

Saturday 21 September: 12.30-3.30 pm

Common thread

 

One of my favourite textiles by May Morris is Maids of Honour. Over the past few years the version of her embroidery featured in this post has piqued my imagination to the extent that it became the source of inspiration for a drawing, a small painting (the study for a larger work currently in progress) and most recently, a linocut (pictured top).

Recently I discovered a remarkable connection between Maids of Honour and the artist Marie Spartali Stillman, whose work appears next to mine on the poster for the upcoming exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Ballarat: Pre-Raphaelites Drawings & Watercolours and In the Company of Morris. 

On re-reading the exhibition catalogue, May Morris Arts & Crafts Designer, I noticed for the first time that the embroidery, now in the collection of Kelmscott Manor, was previously owned by Marie Spartali Stillman.

Pictured above, 1-5: 

Deborah Klein, Maid of Honour 2, 2023, linocut with Chine collé, 15 x 10 cm, Ed. 40.

Deborah Klein, Maid of Honour, 2020, ink, gouache watercolour and water soluble graphite, 42 x 30 cm. Private collection.

Deborah Klein, Maid of Honour (study), 2023, acrylic on canvas on board 10 x 10 cm. Currently part of the exhibition One Hundred Faces at Playing in the Attic, running until late May. 

Poster for the joint exhibitions Pre-Raphaelites Drawings & Watercolours and In the Company of Morris at the Art Gallery of Ballarat. The exhibitions open this Saturday, 20 May, and run to 6 August.

Maids of Honour, c. 1890, coloured silks on silk, designed and embroidered by May Morris. Collection: Kelmscott Manor, given by Frances Stillman. (Page view from May Morris Arts & Crafts Designer).

Artificial Flower

  

Pictured top: last Wednesday’s surprise encounter with one of my drawings of old: Artificial Flower, 1999, water soluble pastel and oil pastel on paper, currently on view at Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne, in WORKS ON PAPER 2023. To my left, from top: Adrienne Gaha’s Nymph Cronulla Beach, 2008, screen print and Steve Cox’s Weasel,  2002, watercolour.

The gallery’s annual summer group exhibition runs from 7 December 2022 - 25 February, 2023.

Thanks to Shane Jones for the first photo.

Swan Hill Print & Drawing Acquisitive Awards 2022

My drawing, The Needlewoman (2022, pigmented drawing ink and watercolour, 76.5 x 56 cm) is a finalist in the Swan Hill Print & Drawing Acquisitive Awards 2022, opening tonight.

Artist Statement:

Women’s hidden histories are a primary focus of my work and one of its dominant motifs is the ‘figure seen from behind’, or Rückenfigur. A perpetual outsider, she invites us to share her journey, learn her story and see the world through her eyes. 

Like several recent works, including those featured in our previous blog post, my subject’s tattoo is based on a fragment of a needlework pattern designed by May Morris.

There are some wonderful artists in this show (including a couple of my fellow Goldfields Printmakers). It’s an honour to be counted among them.

The exhibition runs to 20 November.

Photo credit top image: Tim Gresham.

Swan Hill Print and Drawing Award finalist

 

The Needlewoman, 2022, pigmented drawing ink and watercolour, 76.5 x 56 cm, has been shortlisted for the 2022 Swan Hill Print & Drawing Acquisitive Awards at Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery.

The work is pictured here, all packed and ready for delivery to the good folk at Creative Framing Gallery. (Thank you, Shane Jones, for the loan of the box). 

Umpteen hours over a long period of time have gone into the development of this drawing. In fact, more than once I nearly gave up on it. Along the way, it even acquired a new title. Its inclusion in the award means a great deal. It will also be a huge relief to have the work safely under glass so I can no longer fiddle with it!

Rückenfigur in ARTIST PROFILE

 

Waiting, 2021, 35(h) x 12.5(w) Diptych, acrylic on canvas

Photo credit: Tim Gresham 

I’m delighted to learn that an article on my solo exhibition, opening tomorrow at Queenscliff Gallery, has been published in Issue #59 of ARTIST PROFILE magazine:

Deborah Klein's recent body of work, "Rückenfigur," explores the textures, techniques, and teachings that structure hidden histories of women's presence in art – both as creators and as subjects. The work represents a return to, and reflexive appraisal of, one of the artist's enduring themes: the (feminine) figure seen from behind.

In an artist’s statement accompanying the exhibition of this body of work at Queenscliff Gallery, Klein writes that the show “addresses a particularly divisive period in our history, when our state of disconnection – from ourselves, from each other and from the natural world – seems greater than ever before.” Her work’s engagement with ideas of disconnection is certainly timely, and well rounded, coming as it does after years of physical distancing from each other, continual environmental crisis, and new digitally-mediated patterns of social engagement which can leave us deeply isolated – by ourselves or in our echo chambers – just as readily as they can connect us. The disconnections which Klein’s work traces, however, are also historical; taking women as her object of fascination, Klein has spent decades asking how women have been obscured, forgotten, or written over in (art) history…

To read the full article, go here: https://artistprofile.com.au/deborah-klein/

Little Girl Blue, 2021, 15.5(h) x 11(w)cm, pigmented drawing ink and gouache 

Rückenfigur runs from June 23 - July 10, 2022.  

Gallery hours: 10 am - 4 pm. Closed Tuesdays.

QUEENSCLIFF GALLERY 

P 03 4202 0942 | A 81 Hesse Street Queenscliff VIC 3225 

World Oceans Day

In acknowledgment of World Oceans Day, which falls today:

Image: Deborah KLEIN, Not Drowning, 1996, oil pastel 76 x 56.5 cm. Courtesy of the artist. Collection: Grafton Regional Gallery, NSW. Acquired with funds from the Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award, 1996. 

Documenting the Documentation

An important part of being an artist is getting your work professionally documented. My partner Shane Jones and I have been using the services of photographer Tim Gresham for many years, in my case, for nigh on three decades. Fortunately for us, Tim also moved to Ballarat in recent years, although he still has numerous clients in Melbourne. 

In the first two shots, Tim prepares to photograph my reworked drawing Visible Mending in his Ballarat studio. My protagonist’s body decoration is based on an embroidery design by May Morris, doyenne of the British Arts and Crafts movement.

Tim Gresham is also one of Australia’s most accomplished tapestry weavers and he still works part-time at the renowned Australian Tapestry Workshop. To the left of my drawing (third view below) is one of Tim’s exquisite woven tapestries. At the photo session I was struck by the remarkable synchronicity between our two works. Their connection is purely serendipitous, yet it’s almost as if one was made in response to the other.

Surprise package: WAMA Art Prize 2021 catalogue

Last year my drawing Swan Song 2 was a finalist in the inaugural exhibition, WAMA Art Prize Works on Paper 2021. 

WAMA (Where Art Meets Nature) is adjacent to the heritage listed Grampians/Gariwerd and is dedicated to “inspiring, educating and stimulating” our vital connection with nature. 

This week an unexpected surprise arrived in the mail from WAMA Foundation: two copies of the WAMA Art Prize 2021 catalogue. The show attracted some amazing entries and I’ve enjoyed revisiting all the works via the pages of this handsome publication, pictured below. (Cover art: Melissa Smith’s prize winning work, Listen Deeply - Lake Sorell). 

Thank you for the catalogues, WAMA Foundation, and for all that you do.

Last days of ATTUNED

After a very long run, this coming Saturday sees the final day of ATTUNED at Stephen Mclaughlan Gallery. Among the exhibits is the above drawing, aptly titled Nevermore.

ATTUNED features works by Laszlo Romer, Jenny Loft, Felicity Spear, Elizabeth Banfield, Peter Rowe, Irene Barberis, Callum Jackson and myself. 

I’ve loved being part of this show, but all good things must end. The exhibition may soon be nevermore, but I’m looking forward to exploring fresh fields.

Top: Nevermore (ink and gouache on Khadi paper, 16 x 11 cm)

Above: Fresh Fields (ink and gouache on Khadi paper, 16 x 11 cm)

ATTUNED 

Curated by Stephen McLaughlan

Stephen McLaughlan Gallery 

Level 8 Room 16 Nicholas Building 37 Swanston Street Melbourne 3000

(On the corner of Flinders Lane)

T: 0407 317 323     E: st73599@bigpond.net.au 

www.stephenmclaughlangallery.com.au

Gallery Hours: 

Wednesday - Friday 1 - 5 pm

Saturday 11 - 5 pm

- or by appointment 

ATTUNED ends on Saturday, 26 February, at 5 pm.

Opening soon: ATTUNED

Explorer, pigmented drawing ink and gouache on Khadi paper, 16 x 11 cm, is part of ATTUNED, a group show curated by Stephen McLaughlan for the first exhibition of 2022 at Stephen McLaughlan Gallery, Melbourne.

ATTUNED opens on January 19, with an artist celebration on Saturday, February 5 from 2-4 pm.

👉Please note: the exhibition has been extended to February 26. Directly below is an updated invitation, including gallery hours and a list of all participating artists. 

Attuned

 

I’m delighted to have been curated by Stephen McLaughlan into the forthcoming group exhibition, Attuned. The show runs from January 19 - February 5, which, although it’s not until next year, is not so very far away. 

Pictured above: Songstress, pigmented drawing ink and gouache on Khadi paper, 15.5 x 11 cm, one of my works that will be part of Attuned at Stephen McLaughlan Gallery in 2022.

Last days of BACKSTORIES

 

Pictured above: Mimic (Snake Tattoo), 2019, pigmented drawing ink and gouache on Khadi paper, 21 x 15 cm, followed below by an installation view of the work as part of my current solo show, Backstories, at Stephen McLaughlan Gallery.

The symbolism of the snake is multi-faceted. Historically, snakes and serpents are representative of the creative life force. The snake is a signifier of transformation, healing, fertility, rebirth and immortality, based primarily upon its ability to shed its skin.

Backstories has been in lockdown since early August, but as of next weekend, October 30 - 31, it will reopen for a final viewing opportunity. Huge thanks to Stephen McLaughlan for making this happen, and for his elegant invitation design for the special viewing. (See previous post).

Photo credit for Mimic: the artist

Photo credit for installation view: Kathryn Ryan/Julie Keating

Click on images for a clearer view.

BACKSTORIES 

Stephen McLaughlan Gallery

Level 8 Room 16 Nicholas Building 37 Swanston Street Melbourne 3000

(On the corner of Flinders Lane)

T: 0407 317 323     E: st73599@bigpond.net.au 

www.stephenmclaughlangallery.com.au

Gallery Hours: 

Saturday October 30: 11 am - 5 pm

Sunday October 31: 1 - 5 pm

WAMA Art Prize Finalist

This afternoon I had an unexpectedly pleasant surprise. My drawing, Swan Song 2, is a finalist in the inaugural WAMA Art Prize Works on Paper Award: Where Art Meets Nature. I had assumed my entry was unsuccessful, because aside from initial acknowledgment of the entry form, I received no further correspondence from WAMA*. Only 40 finalists were selected from over 500 entries, so I’m still in a state of numb but happy disbelief. Felicitations to the prize winners, including overall winner Melissa Smith and all the other finalists. 

Many thanks to Arts & Culture Ballarat for tagging me in their Facebook post about the WAMA Art Prize today, otherwise I might never have known that my work had been shortlisted.*

The finalists’ works are on the WAMA website, where you can also vote for the People's Choice Award.

*(I’ve since had a phone call from WAMA. It seems an email informing me of my selection was sent last week. This isn’t the first time I’ve had problems with emails; very possibly it landed in my junk mail). 

Pictured top: Swan Song 2, 2021, pigmented drawing ink, watercolour and acrylic on paper, 76h x 56w cm. Photo credit: Tim Gresham.

ARTIST CELEBRATION TODAY

We finally made it! 

Pictured above: Shell Tattoo, 2019, pigmented drawing ink and gouache on Khadi paper, 21 x 15 cm, part of my solo show, ‘Backstories’ at Stephen McLaughlan Gallery. If you’re free, join us for the Artist Celebration today from 1 - 5 pm. 

The exhibition continues to 7 August. 

Lockdown, Day 1

 

I’ve posted this work before. Ironically, it was in post-lockdown, November 2020, when our part of the world was just beginning to open up, as it will again.

In the light of current events, it feels appropriate to repost it. Stay safe and positive, everyone.

On Day 1 of the 5-day lockdown, I’m still hoping my solo show, Backstories, will open on Saturday, 24 July from 2-4 pm, as originally planned. Thank you so much to the many people who have sent their good wishes and messages of support.

I will keep you posted about any changes if lockdown is extended. 

Pictured top: Looking Forward, 2020, ink and gouache on Khadi paper, 21 x 15 cm.

Extended dates for INTO ME SEE

Some positive post-lockdown news: the group show INTO ME SEE has been extended to Saturday 19 June 2021. 

Venue: The One Star Gallery, 301-303 Victoria Street, West Melbourne 3003

Gallery hours: Wednesday-Friday 3-7 pm and Saturday 1-7 pm

To learn more about the exhibition, go HERE and HERE.

INTO ME SEE was curated by Mariella Del Conte. For further information, visit the The One Star Gallery on Instagram HERE or on Facebook HERE. 

Pictured above LHS, top: detail of my painting New Horizon, 2020, acrylic on canvas. LHS, bottom: detail of my drawing Maid of Honour, 2020, watercolour, water soluble graphite and pigmented drawing ink. Click on the image for a clearer view. 

INTO ME SEE (Part 2)

Following directly from my last post is a preview of the two works that are part of the upcoming exhibition, INTO ME SEE at The One Star Gallery in West Melbourne.

The construct of INTO ME SEE (scroll down to read the exhibition brief, or click HERE) underpins much of my own work, which focuses primarily on women’s hidden histories. One of its dominant motifs is the ‘figure seen from behind’, or Rückenfigur. A perpetual outsider, the Rückenfigur reflects a mood of quietude and isolation. Like the protagonist of New Horizon, 2020, pictured top, (1) she invites us to share her journey, learn her story and see the world through her eyes, to the extent that we become as one with her. 

The Rückenfigur addresses a particularly divisive time in our history, when our state of disconnection - from ourselves, from each other and from the natural world - seems greater than ever before. 

My drawing Maid of Honour, 2020, pictured above, (2) alludes to the centuries-long tradition of women stitching their stories onto fabric in place of ink and paper. The pattern on the anonymous subject’s elaborately tattooed back draws parallels between the tattoo and embroidery needle. It is based on a detail from Maids of Honour, an embroidery pattern designed by May Morris (1862-1938). Morris, who characteristically drew her inspiration directly from nature, was a significant contributor to the Arts and Crafts Movement, a prolific embroiderer, textile, wallpaper and jewellery designer and educator. Even now, however, her designs are sometimes attributed to her more famous father, William Morris. 

INTO ME SEE is curated by Mariella Del Conte. Exhibiting artists are: Camilla Gold, Deborah Klein, Deborah Walker, Georgia Janetzki, Heidi Yardley, Jane Burton, Jenny Watson, Katrina Beale, Lisa Barmby, Lisa Roet, Mina Young, Polly Borland, Sophia Hewson, Susan Wyers, Victoria Hartcup, Edwina Preston and Anna White.

Opening night: Thursday, 20 May, 6 - 8 pm

The One Star Gallery, 301-303 Victoria Street, West Melbourne, 3003

Gallery hours: 3 - 7 pm Monday - Friday, or by appointment: 0432357537

Email: onestargallery@gmail.com

Instagram: @onestarlounge and Mariella Del Conte: @salonhang

INTO ME SEE runs from 19 May - 12 June

*

Pictured  from top: 

(1) New Horizon, 2020, acrylic on canvas, 50.8 x 50.8 cm 

(2) Maid of Honour, 2020, ink, watercolour and water soluble graphite on Khadi paper, 42 x 30 cm 

(3) Mick Harvey, AKA Neo Arts, co-founder (with Katrina Beale) of The One Star Gallery, pictured here with exhibition curator Mariella Del Conte as they begin the installation of INTO ME SEE. My two works are in the foreground. In the background, L-R, are works by Deborah Walker and Heidi Yardley. Mick Harvey’s Instagram page is HERE.

Swan Song - a progress view

On the drawing board, above right, is my current work in progress, Swan Song (ink, gouache, water soluble graphite and watercolour, 76.5 x 56 cm). The small study on the left, a finished work in its own right, was made in my tiny Melbourne hotel room last August between screenings at the 2019 Melbourne International Film Festival. Shane and I had recently sold our respective houses in Melbourne and Ballarat after buying a house in Ballarat East, the first home we’ve owned together. At this watershed time, we were awaiting settlement and Ballarat was very much on my mind. As its title implies, Swan Song marks an ending, without which there can be no new beginnings. 

The black swan is a personal signifier for home, initially associated with childhood visits with my parents to the Melbourne Botanical Gardens from our family home in nearby St.Kilda. Nowadays I can’t see a swan without thinking of the black swans on Ballarat’s Lake Wendouree.

Maid of Honour, 2020 Swan Hill Print and Drawing Award finalist

One of my recent drawings, Maid of Honour (2020, ink, gouache, watercolour and water soluble graphite, 42 x 30 cm) is a finalist in the 2020 Swan Hill Print and Drawing Awards.

The tattoo is based on a fragment from Maids of Honour (reproduced in the book below, left*), an embroidery designed by May Morris (1862 - 1938), the younger daughter of William and Jane Morris. At age 23, May Morris assumed charge of the Morris & Co. embroidery department and was responsible for creating some of the company’s most iconic textiles and wallpaper designs. 

Earlier progress views are below. I enjoyed working on this drawing immensely, but if truth be told, I had help.

The pattern on my subject's back was a particular challenge, even with Alice's assistance. 

Maid of Honour is one of 56 works shortlisted for the 2020 Swan Hill Print and Drawing Awards. The exhibition will officially open on Friday, 4 September at 7 pm, when the award winners will be announced.

*May Morris - Arts and Crafts Designer, Anna Mason, Jan Marsh, Jenny Lister, Rowan Bain and Hanne Faurby. With contributions by Alice McEwan and Catherine White. Foreword by Lynne Hulse. 

Thames and Hudson/V&A Publishing 2017