MORRIS AND ME forum at the Art Gallery of Ballarat

Here are a few snaps from Morris and Me, last Saturday’s forum in the Oddie Gallery at the Art Gallery of Ballarat. It was such a pleasure to share the stage with Glenn Barkley and Kate Rohde, along with AGB curator Kiri Smart, who stepped in as facilitator at very short notice. 

We couldn’t have wished for a warmer reception. Several people I know travelled long distances to join us (and there was I thinking no one would come). I can’t begin to tell you how much it meant to see you there. In the second last photo below, I’m pictured with Melbourne painter Alicia Cornwell, with whom I went to art school in the 1980s. We’ve seen each other since then, but not in decades. In the final view, Glenn is pictured with his earthenware pot Morris of the ferns with parrot, 2023. 

Thanks a million to all of you who came and to Peter Freund, AGB Marketing and Public Programs Officer, and everyone else at the Art Gallery of Ballarat who helped make it happen.  

Photo credit for images 1-7: Shane Jones.

The forum Morris and Me took place at the Art Gallery of Ballarat on Saturday, 15 July. The joint exhibitions In the Company of Morris and Pre-Raphaelites Drawings and Watercolours from the Ashmolean  Museum, Oxford continue to Sunday, 6 August. 

Upcoming event: MORRIS AND ME

On Saturday 15 July at 2 pm, I’m taking part in a forum at the Art Gallery of Ballarat in which sculptor Kate Rohde, ceramicist Glenn Barkley and I will discuss the influence of William Morris on our works in the exhibition, In the Company of Morris. (See also Blog Post Tuesday, June 27).  

I’m a longtime admirer of William Morris, but am very possibly the only artist in the exhibition whose current work has been inspired by the work of his younger daughter, May Morris (although I’d dearly love to be proved wrong).

This morning the gallery shared details of the event on their social media pages:

The first of our featured In the Company of Morris artists is Ballarat-based painter and printmaker Deborah Klein who will be participating in our forum on Saturday 15 July titled – Morris and Me. Tickets are now available at

https://www.artgalleryofballarat.com.au/event/forum-morris-and-me….

To read the rest of the post, visit the Art Gallery of Ballarat’s Instagram Page HERE.

Image top: Deborah Klein in In the Company of Morris with Three Women, 2021, synthetic polymer paint on canvas. Purchased with funds from the Art Gallery of Ballarat Foundation, 2023. Photo by Tara Moore.

An Inspiring Legacy/Morris and Me

 

Kate Rohde’s sculptures Deer Sentinels 2022 and my triptych Three Women, 2021, are the centrefold in the Winter Issue (#7) of Untitled, the Art Gallery of Ballarat Association Magazine. 

The images of our works accompany An Inspiring Legacy, Art Gallery of Ballarat Director Louise Tegart’s article about William Morris and his enduring influence on the vast array of historic and contemporary artists in the current exhibition, In the Company of Morris. 

SAVE THE DATE

On Saturday, 15 July, from 2-3 pm, I’m joining Kate Rohde and ceramicist Glenn Barkley, whose work also features in the article, for Morris and Me, a panel discussion led by art curator Christopher Menz, about the influence of William Morris (and in my case, the work of his younger daughter, May Morris), on our respective practices.

Tickets to the event include entry to Pre-Raphaelites Drawings and Watercolours from the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford and In the Company of Morris. We do hope you can join us. 

Tickets can be purchased here: https://www.artgalleryofballarat.com.au/event/forum-morris-and-me