MIRROR IMAGE: Prints from Whitehorse Art Collection

 In the lead-up to the opening of the relief printmaking exhibition, Irrepressible at Whitehorse Artspace, Mirror Image: Prints from Whitehorse Art Collection, is currently on view at Box Hill Town Hall in the All Nations Foyer, adjacent to Whitehorse Artspace. It will be exhibited in tandem with Irrepressible for the majority of its run. 

My two-colour linocut Anon, 1998, pictured here, is one of the featured works in Mirror Image. Anon was originally commissioned as a Member Print by the Print Council of Australia. Prints from the edition were subsequently acquired by several Australian public galleries. Across the years, Anon has been curated into a number of exhibitions, but this will be the first I’ve had the opportunity to visit. I look forward to reconnecting with the linocut, a key work from the Knots and Braids series, after so many years. 

Mirror Image opened on 7 March and runs to 2 May, 2026. 

Irrepressible opens on 21 March and runs to 16 May, 2026.

Your invitation to UNSOLVED HISTORIES

Attached is your very own invitation to UNSOLVED HISTORIES, my upcoming solo exhibition at The Old Butchers Shop Gallery, Ballarat.

Opening reception: Saturday, 4 May from 2-4 pm

UNSOLVED HISTORIES
Old Butcher’s Shop Gallery 
112 Seymour Street
Soldiers Hill
Ballarat Vic 3350

I’d love to see you at the opening celebration. But if you can’t join us, I’ll be sitting the exhibition throughout its run and do hope you’ll stop by and say hello. 

The gallery is open weekends from 12-4 pm; otherwise by appointment.

UNSOLVED HISTORIES continues to Sunday, 26 May.

BLUE PERIOD

Three of my paintings, including Recollection, 2021, have been selected for BLUE PERIOD, an upcoming exhibition at One Star Gallery curated by Katy Beale and Mariella Del Conte. 

Scroll down for your invitation to BLUE PERIOD. Click on the invitation for a clearer view..

Exhibiting artists:

Amanda Florence, Andrée Van Schaik, Ann Holt, Anne Algar, Astrid Munday, Camilla Gold, Camille Hannah, Clare Larman, Deborah Amon-Cotter, Deborah Klein, Deborah Walker, Jane Burton, Jaqui Stockdale, Jessica Kritzer, Katrina Beale, Linda Gibbs, Lisa Barmby, Lisa Walker, Marion Harper, Melody Woodnutt, Mimi Kelly, Mina Young, Moya Delany, Rhonda Dredge, Sarah Faulkner, Sonia Payes, Tina Douglas, Tiffany Titshall, Victoria Hartcup, Wendy Morrissey, Xanthe Waite. 

BLUE PERIOD

OPENING FRIDAY DEC 1st 6-9 pm

One Star Gallery

301-303 Victoria Street

West Melbourne 3003

Exhibition dates:

November 30 - December 17

Hours: Th-Fri 3-7 pm, Sat 1-7pm, Sun 1-5 pm

Or by appointment ph. 0432 357537

Pictured top: Recollection, 2021, diptych, acrylic on canvas, 20 x 15 cm (top panel); 17.5 x 12.5 cm (bottom panel).

Vine

Pictured top: Vine, 2023, linocut with Chine collé, 20 x 15 cm, edition: 40. From a series of relief prints celebrating the work of British Arts and Crafts designer and maker, May Morris.

In keeping with the present transitional season, the tattoo is based on a detail (pictured above) from her magnificent embroidered panel Autumn and Winter, 1895-1900 (pictured below). 

Photo credit for image 3: Andy Scott via Wikimedia Commons:

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:May_Morris_Embroidery,_Autumn_and_Winter.

An Invitation to THREADS

Seven of my paintings have been included in THREADS, ‘the stories we weave', an exhibition at Coal Creek Community Park and Museum exploring the theme of women and textiles/fibre arts.

Please join us for the official opening of THREADS on Thursday, 9 March, 6.30 - 8.30 pm.

Click on invitation to enlarge 

Deborah Klein, Primavera ll, 2021, diptych, acrylic on canvas,
37.5 x 15 cm, part of THREADS at Coal Creek Community 
Park and Museum, 6 March - 1 May, 2023

THREADS will showcase artworks and objects from the South Gippsland Shire Council and Coal Creek collections, together with works by contemporary artists and makers. 

Exhibiting alongside these will be works by the Coal Creek Spinners invited artists Sarah Parkes, Cresside Collette and Deborah Klein.

Some preview images, snapped by curator Rachel Jones, are below.

THREADS The Stories We Weave

Coal Creek Community Park and Museum 

Hours: Friday - Monday, 10 am - 4 pm

The exhibition runs from 6 March - 1 May 2023.

Fellow Travellers

Anon, a linocut I made in 1998, has been curated into the exhibition Fellow Travellers at Latrobe Regional Gallery, Morwell, Vic.

Fellow Travellers: Prints from the LRG Collection

26 November 2022 – 12 February 2023
Gallery 5 & 6

 

Artists: Rashida Abdel-Aziz, Marita Anderson, Rosalind Atkins & Ex de Medici, Helen Burkhardt, Caroline Durre, Rodney Forbes, Sue Fraser, Kaye Green, Juli Haas, Euan Heng, Kees Hos, Carolyn Jones, Tim Jones, Helen Kavanagh, Kat Kershaw, Deborah Klein, Stewart MacFarlane, John Ryrie, Liz Tyler, Bonnie Quirk, Brian Robinson, Judy Watson, Yvonne Watson, Kate Zizys. Guest Curator: Jenny Peterson.

Local printmaking stalwart, Jenny Peterson has trawled through Latrobe Regional Gallery’s print collection to create a show looking at comradery and collaboration among mainly Gippsland artists.

- From LRG website.

Fellow Travellers for me also refers to the many printmakers in the contemporary Australian art scene. We tend to communicate and collaborate in our varied practices. In the teaching and learning space of art school and the community press environment, collaboration around ideas and development of print exchanges and projects can flourish.

Many of the prints in the LRG collection have been acquired from the Print Council of Australia through their annual commission program. Over the years several Gippsland artist prints were acquired through this process. 

- Excerpt from Guest Curator Jenny Peterson’s essay, Print Council of Australia online, 29 November 2022. The full essay is here: https://www.printcouncil.org.au/fellow-travellers/

In 2009, Anon was exhibited in …a thousand words at Tweed River Art Gallery. Curated by Susi Muddiman and Gayle McDermott, the exhibition comprised works selected from the archive of the Print Council of Australia. My Blog Post of February 20, 2009, …a thousand words at Tweed River Gallery, NSW, includes a short essay about Anon. You can read it HERE.

Anon is the second of my prints to be included in the LRG summer program. The other work, A Man, a Woman and a Duck, 1996, is part of In our own time, curated by Gabriella Duffy, also current to 12 February. (See previous post). 

Image top: Deborah Klein, Anon, 1998, two-colour linocut printed from three blocks on Japanese mending tissue stitched onto brown oriental paper, 57.5 x 38 cm. Ed. 55. Print Council of Australia Commission Print, 1998. Collection: Latrobe Regional Gallery, Vic. 

Behind the scenes

My last post featured developmental views of the lino block for Horn Poppy, one of several linocuts inspired by the works of British Arts and Crafts artist and designer, May Morris. 

Now scroll down to see the behind-the-scenes drama that threatened its very completion, namely, the battle of the studio chair. Fortunately a peaceful compromise was eventually reached. 

Pictured below: Alice B. Cat.

Horn Poppy

Kicking off the working year: a linocut in progress, part of a series begun in 2022, draws inspiration from Horn Poppy, a wallpaper design by May Morris for Morris & Co., circa 1885. (Page view above, left).

A recurring motif in the prolific Morris’s work, the horned poppy was often incorporated into her embroidery designs. 

In September 2022, the first two works in the series were exhibited in the Goldfields Printmakers show, The Printmakers’ Garden of Imagination at Newstead Arts Hub, Newstead, Vic, and at IMPACT 12, the international printmaking symposium, in Bristol, UK. They can be viewed HERE.

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.

Vestibule exhibit at Queenscliff Gallery

 

A sweeping view of the imaginative new hang of my paintings in the vestibule at Queenscliff Gallery. Click on the bottom right corner of the video screen for an enlarged view.

Credit for footage and photos: Soula Mantalvanos. 

 

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!

Primavera I

 

Primavera I, 2021, diptych, acrylic on canvas, 37 x 15 cm, recently debuted in Rückenfigur at Queenscliff Gallery. It’s one of several paintings in the show that take their inspiration from my late Auntie Eileen’s doily collection. This group of works are particularly close to my heart and will be the focus of a forthcoming post. 

For those unable to catch Rückenfigur IRL, you can view it in 3D HERE.

Photo credit: Tim Gresham.

APW George Collie Memorial Print Exhibition - an update

 

This morning’s activity before today’s road trip to Melbourne: packing the last of my works for the imminent APW George Collie Memorial Print Award Exhibition at the Australian Print Workshop. Pictured top: Sister Act, 2000, colour relief print, 64 x 74 cm.

Huge thanks to my partner Shane Jones for his invaluable assistance.

The exhibition, which was originally scheduled for 2020, was postponed due to ongoing COVID lockdowns. It will finally take place in early August. Further information, including dates and times, will be announced shortly.

Lady in Waiting

Lady in Waiting, 2022, diptych, acrylic on canvas, 55.5 x 22.5 cm

Photo credit: Tim Gresham 

Many years ago, I inherited a swag of vintage doilies from my late aunt, Eileen Klein. I had no real use for them, but didn’t have the heart to take them to the thrift shop. For as many years again, they languished in various drawers and cupboards in the flats and houses I’ve inhabited over the decades. Lately, however, they’ve taken on a new life. In Lady in Waiting, 2022 (pictured top) and several other paintings in Rückenfigur, my upcoming solo show at Queenscliff Gallery, they’ve become the basis for my protagonists’ decorative collars and shawls. 

A couple of developmental views are below:

Lady in Waiting nearing completion, May 2022

Progress view of Lady in Waiting with doily and Hans Holbein postcards, April 2022

Images on the postcards pictured above: A Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling, Jane Seymour and Portrait of a Woman from Southern Germany by Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543). Holbein’s work has been a source of inspiration since my late teens when my mother presented me with a book of his drawings as a birthday gift.

Rückenfigur opens at Queenscliff Gallery on June 23 and runs to July 10, 2022.

The Opening Event is on Sunday June 26 from 2 - 4 pm.

Queenscliff Gallery 

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

For further information, including an invitation to Rückenfigur, scroll down to my previous post.

Your invitation to RÜCKENFIGUR

  

Attached is an invitation to Rückenfigur, my upcoming solo show at Queenscliff Gallery.

The representation of the feminine personae has long been a subject of art history. The female visage has featured in various depictions in this history – obscured, averted, deformed, glorified, domesticised, dehumanised. In her latest exhibition, artist Deborah Klein builds on this artistic canon of the feminine, offering us the idea of Rückenfigur – "the figure seen from behind.”

Weaving together sewing iconography derived primarily from handmade doilies inherited from her late Aunt Eileen, and motifs of knots and braids, Klein stitches together a story that is as complex as the knots that she depicts; a story of the perpetual outsider where our current state of disconnection – from ourselves, each other and the natural world – is rendered palpable.

- Queenscliff Gallery

The Opening Event is on Sunday June 26 from 2 - 4 pm. I do hope you can join us.

Rückenfigur runs from Jun 23 – Jul 10, 2022.

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

Queenscliff Gallery 

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

STRAIT-LACED: progress views

Pictured above on the table easel (along with two strands of synthetic hair): Strait-laced, 2022, diptych, acrylic on canvas, 55 x 22.5 cm, a painting in progress, with still a way to go. 

An earlier progress view is below:

World Poetry Day

In honour of World Poetry Day which falls today, the Art Gallery of Ballarat has published a poem written by local poet and concert pianist Bronwyn Blaiklock in response to my painting, Vorticist II, 2004.

To read Bronwyn’s poem, Entanglement, visit the AGB’s Facebook Page HERE or their Instagram Page HERE.

Bronwyn’s poem is a fine example of ekphrastic poetry. For those who are unfamiliar with the form, an ekphrastic poem is one that has been inspired by a work of art. For more about ekphrastic poetry, go HERE. 

Image: Deborah Klein, Vorticist II, 2004. Oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas. Purchased with funds from the Colin Hicks Caldwell Bequest, 2005. Collection of the Art Gallery of Ballarat. © Deborah Klein

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.