Farewell to Louis

On Wednesday evening, 12 July, in an elegant Victorian house in East Melbourne, Shane Jones and I were privileged to be among the crowd of admirers invited to bid farewell to retiring CEO of The Johnston Collection, Louis Le Vaillant.

Unlike some of the artists who were in attendance, I only had the pleasure of working with Louis once, back in 2018, in the four-person exhibition, From the Bower/Patterns of Collecting at the Johnston Collection, but it is high on my list of most memorable exhibiting experiences. Sadly, fellow Bower artists Carole Wilson and Loris Button were unable to join us, but I was thrilled to reunite with Bower artist, Louise Saxton. 

Unfortunately the top image is all I have to show for what was a hugely enjoyable evening, but I’ve managed to unearth a handful of photos, snapped in 2018 when we were in the process of planning the installation of Patterns of Collecting at the Johnston Collection, with expert advice and assistance from Louis. 

Pictured below, L-R, are Loris Button, Carole Wilson, Louis Le Vaillant and Louise Saxton. 

Pictured below: Loris Button, Louis Le Vaillant and TJC museum guides.

As the incomparable Louis journeys onwards in search of new adventures, (full to overflowing, we sincerely trust, with donkeys and cats), he will be sorely missed by all of us who were lucky enough to work with him.

Istoria: History, Story, Tale, A Goldfields Printmakers Survey Exhibition

I’m delighted to be part of Istoria: History, Story, Tale, A Goldfields Printmakers Survey Exhibition at Arc Yinnar, opening on Saturday, 24 June.

Memory 14 and Memory 40, my works in Istoria, explore the historic connection between the Victorian Goldfields and China during the gold rushes, a period of Australian history from which Chinese women were all but absent. 

… The word history refers to all time preceding this very moment and everything that 'really' happened up to now. The distinctions may be much messier than that of course and as printmakers - people who use visual imagery to imaginatively convey meaning - we make full use of the freedom afforded by mark-making, to play with the way a picture tells a thousand stories, histories or tales.

- Excerpt from Istoria, exhibition essay by Dr. Loris Button.

Istoria: History, Story, Tale

A Goldfields Printmakers Survey Exhibition

Opening address by Gippsland printmaker Jenny Peterson

2pm, Saturday, 24 June

Arc Yinnar  

19 - 23 Main Street 

Yinnar, Vic 3839

Telephone: 03 5163 1310

http://arcyinnar.org.au

The exhibition runs to Sunday, 23 July

Pictured from top, 1-3:

Memory 14,  Phemograph, (archival pigment print), 32.5 x 24.2 cm

Memory 40, Phemograph, (archival pigment print), 28 x 21.4 cm

Invitation to Istoria with list of participating artists

New hang at the Art Gallery of Ballarat

As 2018 was drawing to a close, curator Julie McLaren and her crack team undertook the mammoth task of rehanging the staircase area overlooking the foyer of the Art Gallery of Ballarat. I'm a long-time advocate of the salon-style hang, both for aesthetic and practical reasons (Shane Jones and I employ it extensively in our Melbourne and Ballarat homes and studios), and find the finished result, highlighted in this post, quite stunning.

The installation focuses entirely on figurative works. I'm honoured to have my painting Vorticist 2 (pictured above, top row, fourth from right) included, particularly as it is surrounded by so many works from the collection that I hugely admire. Among them is former From the Bower colleague Loris Button's poignant self-portrait The artist in her middle years: Memento 1, 1995 (pictured above, third row from top, second left).

Vorticist 2 was first exhibited in the solo show Tease (2004) at Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne. In 2008 it was part of the touring survey show Deborah Klein: Out of the Past 1995 - 2007 and the work is featured in the standard school text book Art Detective by Michelle Stockley (2017).

When Vorticist 2 was acquired back in 2005, I never dreamed that one day I would be living in Ballarat and, as Shane and I tentatively start the slow, complex process of cutting ties with Melbourne, that we’d come to regard it as home.

Vorticist 2, 2004, oil and acrylic on linen, 122 x 91 cm. Collection: Art Gallery of Ballarat.

This group hang extends an invitation to engage with the works, both singly and collectively, something not all salon-style arrangements successfully achieve. It's virtually impossible to do the new installation justice here, or to more than suggest the myriad of connections and dialogues between works that it instigates.

The staircase area is directly opposite the main entrance to the Art Gallery of Ballarat, providing a tantalising indication of what is in store. On several occasions I've spoken to past visitors who admit they've never climbed the staircase to the second level, which is where some of the finest works in the collection, as well as some terrific curated shows, are displayed. I've no doubt that this striking new hang will lead all but the chronically uncurious irresistibly upwards and onwards.

To read a short essay on the history of the salon-style hang, visit the Polk Museum of Art HERE.

Admiring the new hang at the Art Gallery of Ballarat. Photo credit: Shane Jones

View from the top of the stairs (left)

View from the top of the stairs (right)

A list of the above works, section by section, follows directly. Click on individual pages for a clearer view.

PATTERNS OF COLLECTING at The Johnston Collection: Final Walk-and-Talk

Pictured above and below are two works from a series of watercolour miniatures made especially for PATTERNS OF COLLECTING/From the Bower at The Johnston Collection.

To learn about these and other works in the show, join me and fellow Bower artist Louise Saxton at The Johnston Collection Museum for an informal walk-and-talk, tomorrow, 13 September from 10 - 11.30 am. Bookings, which are essential, can be made through The Johnston Collection HERE.

This will be the last special Bower Event before the show ends on 18 September.

Photos by Tim Gresham.

WALK-AND-TALK WITH THE BOWER ARTISTS

Installation view: The Daughter of Time by Deborah Klein and Urn by Carole Wilson in the upstairs dressing room at
Fairhall Exhibition House, The Johnston Collection, East Melbourne. Photo credit: Tim Gresham.

Directly following are details of the remaining walk-and-talk events with the Bower artists/collectors before our show PATTERNS OF COLLECTING/FROM THE BOWER AT THE JOHNSTON COLLECTION concludes its long run on 18 September. Some events are booked out, so do check the link below. 

Thursday 9 August 2018 | 6.00 pm – 7.30 pm with Carole Wilson & Loris Button
Saturday 11 August 2018 | 10.00 am – 11.30 am with Carole Wilson & Deborah Klein
Thursday 13 September 2018 | 10.00 am – 11.30 am with Deborah Klein & Louise Saxton

For further information about the above, or to book a house tour during the run of the show, go HERE: 

Cross-continental events

Memory 1, phemograph, 2017, edition: 20, part of
A DARING LOVE AFFAIR WITH HER OWN SHADOW at Gallery 125, York, WA

Several of my works are part of a group show at Gallery 152 in York, Western Australia that opened yesterday, July 21. Curated by Leonie Oakes, it has a deliciously intriguing title: A DARING LOVE AFFAIR WITH HER OWN SHADOW.

Exhibiting artists are: Heather Shimmen, Jill Ansell, Rachel McKenzie, Lana de Jaga, Deborah Klein and Natasha Rowell.

The exhibition runs until Sunday, 26 August. https://www.instagram.com/p/BlecCl9j9l_/

Meanwhile, on the other side of the continent, the four Bower artists - Louise Saxton, myself, Carole Wilson and Loris Button - took part in Study Day 2018 at The Johnston Collection. The topic under discussion was PRIVATE COLLECTIONS/PUBLIC SPACES - THE VALUE OF ART & EPHEMERA. (See also yesterday’s post). We’re pictured below in front of our combined collections installation. 

L - R: Louise Saxton, myself, Carole Wilson and Loris Button. Photo credit: Warren Dowley

The Bower artists. Photo credit: Warren Dowley

Directly below, Carole Wilson introduces our visual presentation. Impeccably compiled by Loris Button, it included highlights of the show's previous iterations at Warrnambool Art Gallery and The Art Gallery of Ballarat.

Bower artist and curator Carole Wilson 

Bower artist Loris Button speaks of items from her private collection

The forum was one of numerous events, including an ongoing series of Walks-and-Talks, connected with our current exhibition/intervention PATTERNS OFCOLLECTING/From the Bower at the Johnston Collection, running until 18 September.

PATTERNS OF COLLECTING: Friends of the Johnston Collection Preview

Selected installation views of PATTERNS OF COLLECTING/From the Bower at The Johnston Collection, snapped on Monday evening just before guests arrived for the Friends of the Johnston Collection Preview (which we enjoyed very much) and shortly after it ended. Featured are collection items and artworks from and by myself, Carole Wilson, Loris Button and Louise Saxton. The most recent addition to the show is the ceramic Buddha, inherited many years ago from my Aunt Eileen and now installed in the Chinoiseries Room opposite Louise Saxton’s superb Buddha, painstakingly constructed from reclaimed needlework.

OPENING TODAY: PATTERNS OF COLLECTING/From the Bower at The Johnston Collection

FROM THE BOWER/Patterns of Collecting at The Johnston Collection opens today. 

In a series of specifically themed rooms, artworks and items from the bowers of myself and fellow artists Louise Saxton, Loris Button, Carole Wilson sit alongside corresponding artworks and items from the museum’s permanent collection. 

WALK & TALK WITH THE GUEST ARTISTS

Join PATTERNS OF COLLECTING guest artists for a Walk and Talk as we discuss our work and the inspiration and processes behind the exhibition. 

Tuesday 19 June 2018 | 10:00 am - 11.30 am
Wednesday 11 July 2018 | 10.00 am – 11.30 am
Thursday 9 August 2018 | 6.00 pm – 7.30 pm
Saturday 11 August 2018 | 10.00 am – 11.30 am
Thursday 13 September 2018 | 10.00 am – 11.30 am

The exhibition runs until Tuesday, 18 September.

Countdown to PATTERNS OF COLLECTING - From the Bower at the Johnston Collection

Pictured above and below are selected highlights of yesterday’s fruitful meeting at the Johnston Collection Museum with TJC Director/Curator Louis Le Vaillant and fellow From the Bower artists/collectors Carole Wilson, Loris Button and Louise Saxton.

The window below overlooks the garden and beyond it, the former house and studio of renowned colonial landscape artist, Eugene von Guerard.

The next time we’ll all there will be in just a few weeks, to install a markedly different version of our well-travelled exhibition, appropriately retitled PATTERNS OF COLLECTING - from the Bower at the Johnston Collection, opening in early June.

Last day of FROM THE BOWER

Spending time with family and friends last Sunday afternoon, 17 September, was a splendid way to celebrate the last day of From the bower: patterns of collecting at the Art Gallery of Ballarat (see previous post).

Pictured with James and Rosemarie Jones. (James is Shane's twin brother). Photo credit: Shane Jones.

L - R: Wil Gregory and Tim Jones

James Jones and Shane Jones. (I've only just recognised the irony, intentional or otherwise, of James's suggestion
that they be photographed with Doppelgänger)

It was great to see so many people streaming through the show, right up to the very end. I'd just taken a photo of my phemograph, Doppelgänger, so I could show it in situ to master printer Luke Ingram, who not only printed, but also framed the work, when, as if by magic, the man himself materialised.

Pictured with Doppelgänger and its printer and framer, Luke Ingram

Luke is also the printer of my unbound artist book, Leaves of Absence (see below) recently shortlisted for the Geelong Print Prize and Fremantle Print Award. I’m currently working with him on a series of works for Fallen Women, a forthcoming solo exhibition at Tacit contemporary art, scheduled for 29 November – 17 December. 

Luke Ingram pictured with Leaves of Absence

It was a memorable end to what has been a memorable experience in so many ways. Tomorrow my fellow artists, Carole Wilson, Loris Button, Louise Saxton and I face the mammoth task of dismantling and packing up. (I believe Louise has actually started today, due to the extra time and care required to pack her delicate sculpture, Porcelain Garden).

A post-show celebratory lunch, which will include our extraordinary exhibition and catalogue designer, Brenda Wellman, is planned for the very near future.