Indholdsfortegnelse for February 2024 i Art Almanac

Art Almanac|February 2024

Letter from the Editor

We seldom pre-select the themes for our issues. Sometimes the issues tell us themselves during production, and this issue is one of them. Art is creative, obviously. It is unpredictable, transforming, renewing. Here, exhibitions inform us of matters past and present; they predict and create future worlds, and above all, they ask us to think. Some look inward to discover, acknowledge or celebrate history and tradition, culture and identity. All are appreciated for their style, technique, and beauty. We hope you enjoy this extensive guide and somewhat mini archive of art on view this month in the 2024 Australian art calendar.…

1 min

Art Almanac|February 2024

Melbourne Art Fair

From 22 to 25 February, the now annual Melbourne Art Fair (MAF) will transform the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre into a microcosm of the nation's contemporary art scene, showcasing the work of artists from sixty leading commercial galleries and Indigenous art centres across Australia alongside a broader program of large-scale installations, video works, performances, and conversations responding to this year's theme: ‘Ketherba/Together’, a Boon Wurrung word used to express togetherness, difference and hope for the future. Participating galleries include: Melbourne's Alcaston Gallery, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Arts Projects Australia, Blackartprojects, cbOne, Charles Nodrum Gallery, Daine Singer, Jacob Hoerner Galleries, James Makin Gallery, Kalli Rolfe Contemporary Art, MARS Gallery, Neon Parc, Niagara Galleries, Nicholas Thompson Gallery, Sophie Gannon Gallery, Sutton Gallery, Tolarno Galleries, Vivien Anderson Gallery, and William Mora Galleries, who…

3 min

Art Almanac|February 2024

Blood, sweat and tears

More than two years in the making, Sydney artist Alex Seton has finally completed a new contemporary sculptural commission for the Australian War Memorial's Sculpture Garden that will be unveiled in a public dedication ceremony on the Memorial lawns in Canberra at 9.30am on 22 February. Titled For Every Drop Shed in Anguish, the commemorative sculpture is a far cry from the traditional heroic war statue. Instead, Seton has created a delicate field of eighteen marble droplets to convey the tears of Australian military personnel and their families. The Memorial's Project Manager and Senior Curator of Art, Anthea Gunn, said the artwork captures the complexities of suffering and war: “It is a public acknowledgement and point of connection to all who have suffered as a consequence of service. The colours…

artisan 45 King Street, Bowen Hills 4006. H Tues–Fri 10.00 to 5.00, Sat 10.00 to 4.00. Closed Sun–Mon. FireWorks Gallery 9/31 Thompson Street, Bowen Hills 4006. T (07) 3216-1250. E art@fireworksgallery.com.au W www.fireworksgallery.com.au H Tues–Fri 10.00 to 6.00, Sat 10.00 to 5.00 or by appt. Feb 8 to March 16 Yellow Meadow group exhibition. Also, Motherline II: Abie Loy Kemarre & Margaret Loy Pula. Griffith University Art Museum 226 Grey Street, South Bank 4101. T (07) 3735-7414. E artmuseum@griffith.edu.au W www.griffith.edu.au/art-museum H Tues–Sat 11.00 to 4.00. Closed public hols and exhibition installation periods. Institute of Modern Art Ground Floor, Judith Wright Arts Centre, 420 Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley 4006. H Tues–Sun 10.00 to 5.00, Thurs 10.00 to 8.00. Jan Manton Art 54 Vernon Terrace, Teneriffe 4005. E info@janmantonart.com W janmantonart.com H Tues–Fri 10.00 to…

6 min

Art Almanac|February 2024

Editor's choice

Heidi Axelsen and Hugo Moline The Dance of the Remediators The Lock-Up Until 11 February 2024 New South Wales The Dance of the Remediators is a site-specific exhibition by Newcastle-based artists and collaborators Heidi Axelsen and Hugo Moline. It is an archive of a possible future; a materialised dream sequence recalling coal's long photosynthetic memory. This work prototypes earnest and absurd devices, gentle megastructures, and everyday actions, for remaking the world through care, play, wonder and hope. The Dance of the Remediators tells an imaginative story about a future Newcastle where children have risen to the challenge posed by the climate crisis. In this fictional narrative, the children conspire to dismantle coal infrastructure. The Lock-Up serves as their headquarters, where they can reside and take refuge in cubby house structures…

1 min

Art Almanac|February 2024

MONA FOMA

MONA FOMA wrangles over 500 artists and performers from TextaQueen to Queens of the Stone Age in seventeen days of confessed “summer mayhem” across Tasmania's nipaluna/Hobart and Launceston, from 15 February to 2 March. Highlights include Nigerian multi-sensory artist Emeka Ogboh, who continues his global conversation on migration and belonging with Boats, an immersive work revolving around gin; Australian multi-disciplinary artist Justin Shoulder's performance work Anito draws on the Philippine folk tale of the balete tree (Ficus Indica), the dwelling place for supernatural beings, and creates his own future space of storytelling with elaborately costumed performers transforming into “creatures”: hybrids between animal, plant, human and machine; and Taiwanese visual artist Yahon Chang uses a human-size brush on a vast floor canvas to create his work, a performance that combines calligraphy,…

1 min

Art Almanac|February 2024

The lost printmakers

Melbourne's Print Guild Gallery opened in 1984 as a permanent exhibition space for printmakers with consigned work. Fifty years later, an enormous amount of work has come through their doors; however, with limited gallery space, they were stored off-site in a building recently sold and cleared. Three hundred and fifty folios were moved out (to owner Margie's front room), and the challenging task of locating and contacting the artists to return work began. Old addresses and redundant landlines led the hunt online and to social media. Around 200 artists have been found. Gratitude and amazement greeted the returned forgotten work of younger selves, and others were happy to have work rehomed; sadly, some had passed. One hundred and fifty printmakers still need to be found; please spread the word. See…

Dogwood Crossing, Miles 81 Murilla Street, Miles 4415. T (07) 4628-5330. E dogwood.crossing@wdrc.qld.gov.au W www.dogwoodcrossing.com Free entry. H Mon–Fri 9.00 to 12.30 and 1.30 to 5.00, Sat 9.00 to 12.00. Closed Sun. Feb 10 to March 16 John Mullins Memorial Art Gallery: Persona: 50 Years of Photography – Amy Carkeek, Joachim Froese, Joe Ruckli, Marian Drew, Renata Buziak, Russell Shakespeare, and Swade Ferguson. An exploration of half a century of photographic teaching and learning at the Queensland College of Art and Design, Griffith University. Feb 10 to March 16 Curved Wall: Untitled by the Marburg and District Art Society – a diverse exhibition of artworks created by the members of the Art Group in 2023 and 2024. Grassland Art Gallery 30 Arthur Street, Tambo 4478. T (07) 4621-6600. E admin@grasslandgallery.com.au W…

1 min

Art Almanac|February 2024

Perth Festival

Art news Returning to Western Australia's capital, from 9 February to 3 March, Perth Festival brings a range of art, performances, and activities to the city – this year, under the theme of ‘Ngaangk’ – our star, the sun and also the Noongar term for mother. Ideas of light and perception punctuate this year's visual arts program. Across galleries and site-specific projects, artists ask audiences to consider sustainability, growth and nourishment, and the tension between heat's creative and destructive power. From an empty shopping arcade transformed into an otherworldly realm to intimate glass works illuminating a catastrophic global narrative, artists look outwards and deep within to bring challenging human stories into the direct light of day and acknowledge Ngaangk's effect on the natural environment. Highlights include Wetland by Linda Tegg,…

1 min

Art Almanac|February 2024

Flinders Fringe

The 2024 Flinders Fringe program includes a lineup of artists, performers and entertainers delivering cabaret, jazz, singalongs, exhibitions, literary lunches, First Nations workshops, sculpture, nature walks, ocean dancing, the chance to paint a wooden shorebird and much more at various venues across Flinders in Melbourne's Mornington Peninsula from 23 to 25 February. A visual art highlight is Australian-Colombian artist Joshua Searle's two exhibitions curated by Emily McCulloch Childs: STOLEN GOLD in monochrome at Cook Street Collective from 19 February to 10 March and STOLEN GOLD at Flinders Hotel Quarters from 8 to 25 February – Searle examines and unpacks preColumbian artefacts encountered through texts held in museum collections (including the British Museum) as a means to further understand his own diasporic history and identity. flindersfringe.com.au…

1 min

Art Almanac|February 2024

A Sun Dance

The National Gallery of Australia presents a new performance commission by artist Rochelle Haley. At the core of the work is a relationship between dancer, sunlight, and architecture. Conceived in relation to the design of the original National Gallery building, shafts of sunlight streaming through architectural forms provide changing sets for dance over the course of a single day – 24 February. Three cycles marked by morning, midday and afternoon sun provide opportunities for audiences to orientate themselves within the structure of the work. The performance, developed over different seasons, draws influence from the feel of sun on skin; the temporal passage of sun to earth; the geometries of the architecture; the hum of the building; and architect Col Madigan's observation of light “dancing” through the gallery. nga.gov.au/exhibitions/a-sun-dance…

Caloundra Regional Gallery 22 Omrah Avenue, Caloundra 4551. H Tues–Fri 10.00 to 4.00, Sat–Sun 10.00 to 2.00. Closed public hols and exhibition changeovers. Montville Art Gallery 138 Main Street, Montville 4560. H Daily 10.00 to 5.00. Noosa Regional Gallery Level 1, 9 Pelican Street, Riverside, Tewantin 4565. T (07) 5329-6145. E gallery@noosa.qld.gov.au W www.noosaregionalgallery.com.au H Tues–Fri 10.00 to 4.00, Sat–Sun 10.00 to 3.00. Closed Mon, public hols and during exhibition changeover. To Feb 18 The light fades but the gods remain by Bill Henson is a major exhibition commissioned by the Museum of Australian Photography (MAPh) showcasing two key series by Henson, one of Australia's most eminent artists. Exploring the suburb of Glen Waverley where he grew up, Henson explores the notion of home, intensifying the everyday to a point…

1 min