For Auld Lang Syne

As another bittersweet year hurtles to a close, step inside my studio for auld lang syne.

We may be more than halfway through the twelve days of Christmas with a new year fast approaching, but in the studio, time stands still.  

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 

NICHOLAS BUILDING UP LATE 2022 - a Melbourne Art Fair Satellite Event

The group show, ATTUNED, is part of an exciting Melbourne Art Fair satellite event: a nocturnal viewing of selected Melbourne art spaces. Among them are the galleries in the Nicholas Building, including Stephen Mclaughlan Gallery. Visit the link below and scroll down for the listing under ALL EVENTS. Click on the image for further information. (It’s the ninth item, third row from the top):

https://melbourneartfair.com.au/2022-program/.

The special viewing at Stephen Mclaughlan Gallery will take place on the evening of Wednesday February 16, from 6 - 8 pm, the night before Melbourne Art Fair commences its 4 day run. 

Pictured top is an overview of my nine drawings that are part of ATTUNED. Directly above is a still life snapped in Stephen’s gallery, with the event details captured on his laptop. 

ATTUNED artists comprise Laszlo Romer, Jenny Loft, Felicity Spear, Elizabeth Banfield, Peter Rowe, Irene Barberis, Callum Jackson and myself. 

Your invitation to UP LATE 2022 GALLERY NIGHT at the Nicholas Building is below: 

Click on images for enlarged views.

The gallery’s daytime hours are below:

ATTUNED - current to February 26

Curated by Stephen Mclaughlan 

Stephen Mclaughlan Gallery

ABN 93 265 950 324

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 to Friday 1pm-5pm. Saturday 11am-5pm.

& by appointment

THE WAY AHEAD

Given its title, The Way Ahead seems an appropriate image for the first day of the first month of a brand new year. 

The work is from a suite of nine drawings that will shortly debut in Attuned, a group show curated by Stephen McLaughlan at Stephen McLaughlan Gallery, Melbourne. 

Pictured top: The Way Ahead, pigmented drawing ink and gouache on Khadi paper, 15.5 x 11 cm.

Attuned, the first show for the year at Stephen McLaughlan Gallery, runs from January 19 - February 5, 2022. Further details are below, including a list of exhibiting artists. 

Jazz age memories

I’m delighted to learn that two of my early, rarely seen relief prints, Jazz age memories and Sunny Sunday afternoon (not pictured), both 1985, are now part of the permanent collection at Geelong Gallery, thanks to the generosity of donors Conrad O'Donohue and Rosemarie Kiss.

Both works were made shortly after I graduated from art school and are a continuation and development of the still lifes and interiors on which I was primarily focused in my final year of undergraduate study. The subject matter was drawn from my immediate surroundings. When I began the series, I was living in an early 1940s apartment in Westbury Street, St Kilda East. 

As shown in the following photos, snapped in the living room of our house in Ballarat, the Art Deco clock and vase, together with the wind-up gramophone and record cabinet are still treasured possessions. All were purchased in London, where I was based for most of the 1970s - the clock, vase and gramophone cabinet at Portobello Road Market and the gramophone at an antiques fair in Alexandra Palace. I remember the gramophone came complete with a scratchy 78 rpm record on the turntable - Mel Torme’s classic recording of Rodgers and Hart’s Mountain Greenery, which I love to this day. I wouldn’t have paid more than a few pounds for any of these objects, but purely for the precious memories they hold, each and every one is priceless. 

The two ceramic sculptures seen in the preceding three photos are by Melbourne-based artist, David Pearson. Aside from a fragmentary view of Untitled 17, Shane Jones’s surrealist  glove painting directly above, top right, remaining artworks are by me. Click on images for a clearer view.

Pictured top: Deborah Klein, Jazz age memories, 1985, linocut on handmade paper; edition 4/25. Geelong Gallery, Gift of Conrad O’Donohue and Rosemarie Kiss, 2010. © Courtesy of the artist.

A time for farewells

One Way (pictured above) is one of several drawings that had their genesis during a particularly productive residency at The Art Vault in Mildura in 2017. Little did I know, it would be my last ever residency there, as this unique, irreplaceable gallery is currently in the process of closing down. The Art Vault has been a big part of my life; I’ll miss it very much, as will countless others, especially the many other artists they nurtured and encouraged. 

Navigator, pictured left in the following view, is a more recent work and Chainmail on its right, was also completed during the 2017 Art Vault residency. 

It seems this is a time for farewells. All three works are part of my solo show, Backstories at Stephen McLaughlan Gallery which is coming out of lockdown to see out its final two days this coming weekend, 30 - 31 October. 

Photo credit for the above installation views at Stephen McLaughlan Gallery: Kathryn Ryan and Julie Keating. All works are ink and gouache on Khadi paper, 15.5 x 11 cm.

BACKSTORIES

Stephen McLaughlan Gallery

Level 8, Room 16, 37 Swanston Street

MELBOURNE 3000

Special viewing times:

Saturday October 30: 11 am - 5 pm

Sunday October 31: 1 - 5 pm

BACKSTORIES: another teaser

 

Pictured above: another BACKSTORIES teaser. Photomontage by Stephen McLaughlan; click on image for a clearer view. 

All going well, the next time we see the work will be in the flesh at Stephen McLaughlan Gallery. Stay tuned for updates. 

Exhibition preparation

Pictured below: making  a list and checking it twice… part of the seemingly endless preparation for a solo exhibition.

Top row: Shell Tattoo, Shield Bug Tattooed Woman and Looking Forward. Bottom row: Swan Song and Beekeeper. All works are pigmented drawing ink and gouache on Khadi paper.

Meanwhile, under the table, Alice is in bubblewrap heaven.

Backstories, my solo show at Stephen McLaughlan Gallery, runs from 21 July - 7 August.

Drawings for BACKSTORIES

A marathon signing session (top), followed by a trip to the framer (below) brings me another step closer to Backstories, my upcoming solo show at Stephen McLaughlan Gallery, Melbourne. The exhibition, which opens on 15 April, will comprise paintings and small works on paper.

Shane Jones and framer Jo at Omnus Framers, Melbourne

Another New Year's Eve

At the start of 2019, the painting in the top left-hand corner above was on my easel. I wondered then, as we all do when another year has just lurched to a close, what the coming year would bring. If only I'd known.

The images above are not my "best nine"; rather they are a random selection of some of the works undertaken during 2019. It was a surprisingly productive year. Given the unexpected direction our lives took, I still can't believe I managed any studio time at all.

Most years are a roller coaster ride and this one was no exception. I hope it has ended on a positive note for you, as it has for Shane, Alice and I. 

AMONGST US Opening Event

Before the week runs away entirely, here are handful of highlights from last Saturday’s memorable opening of AMONGST US, an exhibition of figurative works on paper by Rachel Derum, Philip Faulks, Rona Green, Greg Harrison, Bill Hay and Deborah Klein at The Art Vault, Mildura.

That's me above with a selection of my Homo-insecta watercolours, snapped by Rachel Derum prior to our artist talk with Philip Faulks.

An installation view of all six watercolours is directly below:

Below, L-R: Julie Chambers, Director of the Art Vault, Philip, myself and Rachel present our talk in front of works by Philip Faulks. 

Following view, L-R: Philip, myself and Rachel with a selection of works by exhibition curator, Rona Green. (Photo credit for images 3 & 4: Shane Jones).

Thanks so much to Julie and Kevin, the peerless Art Vault team and everyone who came. We had an absolute ball and can’t wait to return.

AMONGST US

The Art Vault 

43 Deakin Avenue

Mildura VIC 3500

(03)5022 0013

www.theartvault.com.au

Opening hours: Monday 10 am - 2 pm; 

Wednesday - Friday 10 am - 5 pm; 

Saturday 10 am - 3 pm

The exhibition runs to 7 October 2019

Adventures in Melbourne

Between 2 - 18 August, most roads led to MIFF venues, although my stimulating and productive Melbourne stay also set me on an unexpected path with a new series of works on paper. A recent bout of flu, from which I'm just emerging, has delayed this last post about my recent adventures in Melbourne, my first as a visitor, rather than as a resident.

The Plenary, situated on Melbourne's Docklands, was a first-time (and hopefully, last time) venue.  

The Plenary had all the charm of an airport lounge. Nobody I spoke to enjoyed going there.
Still, I'm rather proud of this early evening shot, taken after an afternoon of screenings.

English born director and screenwriter Peter Strickland was a MIFF guest and was
a refreshingly warm, engaging and down-to-earth speaker. I saw several of his films,
and by comparison, found the plots curiously distancing and off-putting and felt little sympathy
 - or any sense of connection for that matter - with his characters.

Below are 15 of my favourite films. (I tried unsuccessfully to limit the list to ten and could easily have added more):

God Exists, Her Name is Petrunya

Jinpa

Honeyland 

The Nightingale

And Then We Danced

House of Hummingbird

Ghost Town Anthology

Stitches

A Regular Woman

Ghost Tropic

Vai

Papicha

The Juniper Tree

Talking About Trees

The Swallows of Kabul

Complete details of the above can be found on my MIFF 2019 schedule HERE. I made several alterations to it during the course of the film festival: subtracting, adding and switching session times. An annoying fault in the MIFF app is that not all the changes are reflected in the final list. Adding further confusion, a special MIFF screening I attended late last year is also listed. Nevertheless, it's a record of sorts and I’m still thinking about many of the films I did see. The MIFF Travelling Showcase heads to Ballarat soon, and I hope to catch up with some that I missed.

My MIFF was sandwiched between two noteworthy theatrical events: the dazzling Everything’s Coming Up Sondheim  at Chapel Off Chapel on August 2 and Sunday in the Park With George at the Lawler Theatre, which we saw shortly after MIFF had ended. Stephen Sondheim’s Pulitzer Prize winning musical drama, inspired by the pointillist artist George Seurat and his masterwork, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte, could not have been better served than by Watch This, the Melbourne-based company that specialises in his work. To my mind, no one does Sondheim better. Watch This finds the heart in his work like no other company I've seen. The entire cast, led by Nick Simpson-Deeks as George (pictured below) and Vidya Makan as Dot, his model, muse and lover, were sublime, as was every aspect of the production, which we saw twice. Over the years, I've seen other versions of Sunday in the Park With George, but this is the first time I've been moved to tears. On both occasions, I noticed several others discreetly dabbing their eyes. The sold-out Melbourne season was all too short. An interview with Sunday's co-director and Watch This founder Sonya Suares, is HERE. To read a review, go HERE.

Another highlight of my Melbourne sojourn was the Alexander Calder exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria, which I caught just before it ended its long run. I absolutely loved this show and only wish I'd had a chance to visit earlier. Calder's sculptures and the mobiles with which he is most closely associated were well represented, but I was particularly enamoured of his wire sculptures.

The small hotel where I lived and worked for the duration of MIFF is nestled directly behind the grand, historic Windsor Hotel. On one particularly memorable occasion, Shane came to Melbourne for the day and took me out to dinner there. He is pictured below, admiring one of the paintings in the hotel's elegant foyer.

Directly below is an overview of the worktable in my hotel room at the close of MIFF. I'm continuing with the drawings back in Ballarat and will post updates in the near future.