Innehållsförteckning för July/August 2023 från Art Guide Australia

In the last year or so, dance and choreography have infiltrated museums and galleries, with stunning performances that expand the historical preference for static artworks. The image on our cover attests to this—it’s a recent performance by Shelley Lasica, who moves ahead of a procession of collaborators. Lasica is a foremost Australian artist in this field, and features in our long-form article by Erin Brannigan that looks at the history of dance and contemporary art in this country, while understanding the triumphs and challenges of today, and what it means to bring performing bodies into the white cube. In other ways, the notion of an embodied experience is central to Keerray Woorroong Gunditjmara woman Vicki Couzens’s work. In my interview with Couzens, who has worked in the Aboriginal community for…

Flower Powah Alice Lang QUT Art Museum On now—1 October Alice Lang draws unlikely elements together: puff paint, usually used for craft, with a psychedelic and protest movement aesthetic; marbled paper; slang and swear words; smiley faces on ceramic ‘dad bod’ torsos; and a beaded curtain made from novelty male genitalia straws. It looks compelling, colourful, low-tech and vibrant, and packs a feminist punch that emerges from the swirling patterns, floppy surfaces and intense colour. With artworks that appear decorative, Lang delivers a message about gender stereotyping, body politics and the double standards that have existed for so long within patriarchal power structures. As a recent painting of Lang’s suspended from the ceiling at QUT Art Museum suggests in its text, cut out from marbled puff paint, “NEVER AGAIN”. Lang…

Choose Love Nicola Moss Arthouse Gallery 6 July—22 July In June 2022, Gold Coast-based artist Nicola Moss spent two weeks in London. It was the height of the English summer, and the urban green spaces were resplendent. Making the most of the warm weather, Moss walked through the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Chelsea Physics Garden, Hyde Park and The Regent’s Park. “These London gardens and parks inspired a feeling of well-being,” she says. “With everything that is happening in the world it felt good to find places that could inspire a feeling of love.” Immersing herself in nature is a priority for Moss, and it’s a key influence on her practice. Directly inspired by the plants and gardens she saw in London, Moss’s new paintings are flooded with “many shades…

Landscape paintings Angus Gardner Gallery 9 16 August—9 September At Angus Gardner’s Brunswick studio in Melbourne, the ceramics kiln shares space with materials for painting and drawing. For Gardner, clear lines between the three practices blur. His new body of work emphasises this: the fired and partly glazed ceramic sculptures are also paintings, with the various components having a sketch-like quality. Gardner has long been interested in transitional zones and when he’s deep in working, he says he flows between mediums without distinction. With eight sculptures and eight paintings at Gallery 9, he explores relationships between two and three dimensions. “For me, it is a loop,” says Gardner. “In the past, the relationship has been a little bit linear, looking for elements in the paintings—forms, colours and relationships to texture—and…

As an artist who scrutinises power structures, Chantal Fraser was intrigued when she first saw a satiric illustration portraying capitalism as a pyramid. Published in 1911 by Industrial Worker magazine, the picture shows multitudes of working folk and children on the lowest level, with a tiny clutch of rulers and royalty at the summit. What would happen, Fraser asks, if the pyramid were inverted, if the workers ascended? The diagram is one departure point for the Brisbane-based artist’s solo show The Ascending, which partly investigates how authority and power are represented by adornments. In using glittering adornment unexpectedly—on welding masks, gloves, safety goggles, hard hats or pot lids re-purposed as shields—she aims at re-centring societal expectations. Exquisitely, Fraser has used rhinestones to encrust an entire room of such objects in…

16albermarle www.16albermarle.com 16 Albermarle Street, Newtown, NSW 2042 [Map 7] 02 9550 1517 or 0433 020 237 Thu to Sat 11am–5pm, or by appointment. 10 June—22 July แผ่นดิน/Tanah/Land: Surajate Tongchua and Maryanto An exhibition presenting two artists whose work engages with landscape and place in very different ways. Chiang Mai-based Surajate Tongchua contrasts the massive forms of mountains with clouds and freeform linear outlines. But on closer inspection the mountains have words collaged onto their bulky slopes, mostly the word lying, endlessly repeated. Passionate about politics and his country, Tongchua uses the power of mountains to comment on the doubtful legitimacy of the Thai government. Yogyakarta artist Maryanto employs scraperboard technique, drawing and embroidery to create works exploring the consequences of human interaction with the undeveloped Indonesian landscape in agriculture,…

MAP 1 VICTORIA 1 Ararat Gallery TAMA 2 Art Gallery of Ballarat 3 Arts Space Wodonga 4 Benalla Art Gallery 5 Bendigo Art Gallery 6 Castlemaine Art Gallery 7 Central Goldfields Art Gallery 8 Cusack & Cusack 9 East Gippsland Art Gallery 10 Everywhen Artspace 11 Geelong Art Space 12 Geelong Gallery 13 Gippsland Art Gallery 14 Hamilton Art Gallery 15 Horsham Regional Gallery 16 Latrobe Regional Gallery 17 La Trobe Art Institute 18 Maffra Exhibition Space 19 Mildura Arts Centre 20 Platform Arts 21 QDOS Art Gallery 22 Post Off ice Gallery Art Academy 23 RACV Goldfields Resort 24 Salt Contemporary Art 25 Shepparton Art Museum 26 Silver Leaf Art Box 27 Stockroom Gallery 28 Swan Hill Regional Gallery 29 Switchback Gallery 30 Wangaratta Art Gallery 31 Warrnambool Art…

CLOTHILDE BULLEN is a Wardandi, Kaniyang and Badimaya woman and senior curator and head of Indigenous Programs at the Art Gallery of Western Australia. Previously, Clothilde spent nearly five years as the senior curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art. She is co-chair of Indigenous Voices, a critical writing and mentoring project for First Nations writers, a board member of the International Association of Art Critics (Australia), and the chair of the board of the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA). BRIONY DOWNES is an arts writer based in Hobart. She has worked in the arts industry for over 20 years as a writer, actor, gallery assistant, art theory tutor and fine art framer. Most recently, she spent time studying art history…

Simone Douglas Artereal Gallery 6 July—29 July Simone Douglas uses installation, photography, sculpture, and video to create durational, and often site-specific, art in ‘slow time’. Her works are formed over months, using light drawings and alchemical processes to create something like a landscape, attending to what she describes as “the sublimity of light, water, and immensity in dynamic intensity”. Her solo exhibition at Artereal features works from four different ongoing series: An Ocean in Your Hand, Sanctuary, Another Ocean, and Parallel Infinities. Douglas currently resides in New York but uses her homeland, Australia, as a major source of inspiration, with locality playing an important role. This can be seen in Ice Boat, a forthcoming sculpture made entirely of ice which she has been testing in New York. Douglas describes how…

Esperanto Newell Harry Murray Art Museum Albury (MAMA) 28 July—26 November Newell Harry’s largest solo project to date, Esperanto, is named after the somewhat optimistic international language created in the 1880s. Likewise, Harry’s exhibition draws on multiple sources and ideas, including archival material contained in his Sul Mare installation at last year’s Istanbul Biennial. As Murray Art Museum Albury’s acting director and curator Michael Moran says, Harry’s overarching interest is in an interconnected web of ideas. In this instance, linkages across Australia and the Pacific are explored, with layered narratives and histories on politics, trade, museums, migration and family. The Australian-born artist of South African and Mauritian descent is combining a re-imagining of Sul Mare with other pieces drawn from public and private collections, plus a new photographic commission. It’s…

Colour in Practice Art Collective WA Albany Town Hall 28 July—2 September Colour often takes centre stage in abstract art. With nothing to hide behind, it becomes precise, focused and intentional. Even more so with minimal abstraction. For Colour in Practice, four abstract artists from Western Australia are placing their work in conversation, hosted by Art Collective WA in the Albany Town Hall. The location is key for curator and director Felicity Johnson, who describes, “a long history of abstraction, both formal and informal in Western Australia”. She continues, “Perhaps the isolation and the unique sparse landscapes with huge swathes of sky have influenced artists, resulting in a proportionally larger number of abstract artists here.” Featuring painters Cathy Blanchflower, Helen Smith and Michele Theunissen, and installation artist Jennifer Cochrane, the…

Keen eyes around Melbourne will recognise Olana Janfa’s artworks in different places across the city. From the colourful basketball court at Fitzroy’s Atherton Gardens to a clothing collaboration with local fashion designer Obus, Janfa’s eye-catching images have become part of his adoptive city’s fabric. The self-taught artist has come a long way since his humble beginnings: he had never picked up a brush before 2018, when he was inspired to start painting after being struck by an artwork he saw while on holiday in Byron Bay. Janfa started out by trying to recreate Ethiopian Orthodox Church imagery from his childhood, and from there his practice bloomed. “When I started, it was for fun—I wasn’t looking for a style. I just loved it,” he says. Born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Janfa…

Your first art love? Growing up, we didn’t go to many places outside of the usual, but we did go to art galleries, libraries, and parks—as they were free and accessible. So, my first art love was the art gallery itself, and the free activities and workshops for children they provided. Access has a big impact, and I’m grateful for these spaces in providing that. Best time of day to create? I try to mostly work usual day hours, but I find my most productive times are when it’s quiet and everyone is sleeping. The stillness allows for uninterrupted space to think, work and focus. You work between painting, video, poetry, and performance—did you think you’d have a multidisciplinary practice, or did that evolve instinctually? It’s funny, as my father…

The outer edges of Sally Anderson’s paintings reveal multiple layers of canvas, the evidence of past works painted over yet still present deep within. Integral to how Anderson works, this layering connects to ideas of containment and the action of being physically held. “This could refer to a mother carrying her baby, being restricted to the home, a vessel holding flowers, frames, windows or pools,” she says. Anderson’s layered canvases also serve as physical markers of multiple experiences. Motherhood, femininity, domesticity, memory, and place are all major influences on her practice. On the surface, Anderson’s paintings depict abstract views of the ocean or landscape, often from the perspective of looking out open windows. Expressive angular brushstrokes of interiors contrast with the flowing lines of the landscape and water. On occasion,…

19 Karen Contemporary Artspace www.19karen.com.au 19 Karen Avenue, Mermaid Beach, Gold Coast, QLD 4218 [Map 13] 07 5554 5019 Tues to Thurs 10am–5pm, Fri and Sat 10am–2pm. Mini Solo Shows Showcasing a small body of work from a selection of Australian and International artists. Opening 4 October Mini Solo Show 4 Amber Kingi (AUS), Caitlyn Taylor (AUS), Joaquin Valdez Macher (USA), Ju Schnee (Austria), Nector (Colombia), Sean Edward Whelan (AUS), Silas (Netherlands) Above and Below Gallery www.aboveandbelowgallery.com.au Shop 12a, Port of Airlie, 33 Port Drive, Airlie Beach QLD 4802 [Map 14] 0419 941 162 Weds to Sat 9am–4pm, Sun 9am–1pm. See our website for latest information. Above and Below Gallery is the home of Whitsunday photographer, Brooke Miles. The gallery hosts a rolling exhibition year round featuring natures precious landscape…

Bett Gallery www.bettgallery.com.au Level 1, 65 Murray Street, Hobart, TAS 7000 03 6231 6511 Mon to Fri 10am–5.30pm, Sat 10am–4pm. 7 July–29 July Kunanyi - a botanical journey Lynne Uptin 4 August–26 August No More Than What You See Ricky Maynard Contemporary Art Tasmania www.contemporaryarttasmania.org 27 Tasma Street, North Hobart TAS 7000 [Map 17] 03 6231 0445 Wed to Sat, noon–5pm. 9 June–1 July Greed/Rakus/Geirig Tisna Sanjaya 15 July–19 August Gift Trilogy Willoh Weiland Colville Gallery www.colvillegallery.com.au 15 Castray Esplanade, Battery Point, TAS 7004 [Map 17] 03 6224 4088 Daily 10am–5pm. 11 July–31 July New Works Ian Parry 15 August–31 August The Three Capes Leanne Halls Devonport Regional Gallery www.paranapleartscentre.com.au paranaple arts centre, 145 Rooke Street, Devonport, TAS 7310 03 6420 2900 Mon to Fri 9am–5pm, Sat and pub hols…

Art Collective WA www.artcollectivewa.com.au 2/565 Hay Street, Cathedral Square, Perth, WA 6000 [Map 19] 08 9325 7237 Wed to Fri 11am–4pm, Sat 12pm–4pm, or by appointment. See our website for latest information. Until 22 July Embed Susan Roux An expansive installation that reveals landscapes reshaped over time, not sentimentally but in an otherworldly way, as if to mislead the eye. The obsessive and repetitive working process includes stitching, puncturing, folding, marking, and wounding paper aiming to connect viewers with their mind, body and senses. Until 22 July Syndicate 5 + 1 Survey Linde Ivimey Linde Ivimey presents two bodies of work in Perth – a sculpture exhibition that surveys the last 15 years of practice, alongside a set of life-sized sculptures commissioned for The Syndicate, a group of Western Australian…

The Australian Women’s Weekly: 90 Years of an Australian Icon Bendigo Art Gallery On now—27 August Seeing a copy of The Australian Women’s Weekly magazine might initially recall retro knitting patterns, budget meal planners and quirky birthday cakes. While these elements have remained a staple in the magazine for over 90 years, the AWW has also consistently reported on world affairs, sexual health and international fashion, providing readers with a lifeline to the outside world in pre-digital times. In an exhibition tracing the impact the AWW has had on the Australian psyche, curator Lauren Ellis has brought together collections of photographs, vintage clothing, memorabilia and personal items from former AWW staff, to shine a light on personal stories and the inner workings of the magazine. Behind-the-scenes photographs from Ita Buttrose’s…

Lisa Sammut: a circular logic Canberra Glassworks 26 July—8 October Lisa Sammut has found working in the unfamiliar medium of glass an interesting challenge, with the results visible throughout a circular logic at Canberra Glassworks. As she says, “It’s really made me reconsider the way I work.” Sammut’s 10-decade practice spans sculpture, light, video and installation, often with kinetic components. She’s exhibited in The National: New Australian Art, was a finalist in the 2021 Ramsay Art Prize, and is also currently showing in a group exhibition at Buxton Contemporary. Earlier this year, she was invited to undertake a residency with Canberra Glassworks, selected for her interest in how glass could carry the translucent optical qualities of her work. “The idea was to activate the material in a different way,” explains…

Belonging: Memory and Loss Alison McDonald Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts 7 July—13 August Alison McDonald has moved house 26 times. Not only does such an experience produce uncertainty and displacement, it also leaves an indelible imprint on one’s psyche—and it is this lasting sense of loss and impermanence that Townsville-based McDonald explores in Belonging: Memory and Loss. The show uses three principal materials for its diverse sculptures: donated wooden parquetry, donated keys, and anodised aluminium that once held household staples such as sugar or flour—with each material related to moving. As McDonald says, “Moving has been part of my existence since I was very young—sometimes exciting, other times terrifying and sad.” Over the course of this peripatetic life, McDonald has had to shed possessions, and has mourned the loss of…

New Works Ian Parry Colville Gallery 11—31 July Ian Parry’s art is an incisive complication of the term ‘abstract’. While the Tasmanian artist has described his approach as such—clearly seen through his use of amorphous shapes, swelling patterns and juxtaposition of colour—Parry’s paintings are foremost an interpretation of environment. The artist, who is a descendent of seafarers, renders impressions of the ocean and sky; the horizon is often integral. “These paintings continue to look at water and sky, the intangible and shifting elements,” says Parry of his latest exhibition at Colville Gallery. “They are painted in the southernmost region of Tasmania, which is more an event than a landscape—a silent movie free of the chattering of humanity.” Parry sees his work in a tradition of “silent paintings”, citing the influence…

For almost 40 years, Keerray Woorroong Gunditjmara woman Vicki Couzens has worked in the Aboriginal community, profoundly changing the cultural landscape around her. In 1999, Couzens attended a workshop at Melbourne Museum and encountered the Lake Condah possum skin cloak. After this experience, and along with others, Couzens set about revitalising the practice of creating the cloaks, culminating in their appearance at the 2006 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony—and being exhibited at galleries Australia-wide. It’s just one example of how Couzens reclaims Aboriginal cultural practices and knowledges. Couzens has sat on various organisation boards, is undertaking a PhD in language revitalisation, and also creates “artworks”—although this term is contested in our interview. Ahead of Couzens’s sound and image installation for nightshifts at Buxton Contemporary, created with Robert Bundle, we talk about…

Frida Kahlo was three years old when the Mexican Revolution began in 1910, but throughout her life she often said she was born in 1910 in order to directly, and symbolically, associate herself with the revolution. Of course, she did not know that the cultural impact of her life and work would stand so impermeable that she needn’t align herself with other moments of significance—and that her work, alongside that of Mexican modernists, would be its own revolution. Kahlo is almost indisputable. You would be hard-pressed to find a detractor. There are those that find her omnipresence in arts and culture saturating, but that’s hardly a criticism of the woman or her work. And honestly, I really did try to not make this article a love letter to her, mainly…

ACAE Gallery www.acaearts.com.au Australasian Cultural Arts Exchange 82A Wellington Street, Collingwood, VIC 3066 [Map 3] 0406 711 378 Tue to Sun 10am–5pm. 22 July–3 September Cen Yunyang Based in Jingdezhen, China, Cen Yunyang presents her first Australian solo exhibition since graduating from the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne. Yunyang is a contemporary visual artist with years of experience producing works in the form of installation, video and performance. Through a culturally hybrid point of view, her work embeds commentary on social issues into everyday objects and behaviours, focusing on the absurdity and weakness of the modern state of mind. ACMI www.acmi.net.au Fed Square, Melbourne, VIC 3000 [Map 2] 03 8663 2200 Open daily 10am–5pm. 5 April—1 October Goddess: Power, Glamour, Rebellion Curated by Bethan Johnson Alcaston Gallery www.alcastongallery.com.au 84…

Aarwun Gallery aarwungallery.com.au 11 Federation Square, Gold Creek, Nicholls, ACT 2913 [Map 16] 0499 107 887 Daily 10am–4.30pm and by appointment in the evening. See our website for latest information. 5 August–27 August Luminescence Alice Pulvers, Lucy Pulvers, Sophie Pulvers Artists Shed www.artistshed.com.au 1–3/88 Wollongong Street (lower), Fyshwick, ACT 2609 0418 237 766 Tues to Sat 9am–5pm, Sun 10am–4pm. 1 July—1 August Paintings of France To coincide with the Tour de France. Some of the painters at the Artists Shed have connections or have travelled to France. For some fun we would focus on some wonderful French scenes. Some of the exhibiting artists are Jenny Mossard, Diana Reid-Rowland and Margaret Hadfield. Award winning artist Margaret Hadfield is the principal artist and owner of this enterprising art space. Artist Shed is…

Adelaide Contemporary Experimental www.ace.gallery Lion Arts Centre, North Terrace (West End) Kaurna Yarta, Adelaide, SA 5000 [Map 18] 08 8211 7505 Tue to Sat 11am–4pm. See our website for latest information. 10 June–12 August ROCKAMORA Kaspar Schmidt Mumm Art Gallery of South Australia www.agsa.sa.gov.au Kaurna Country North Terrace, Adelaide, SA 5000 08 8207 7000 Daily 10am–5pm. Free entry. See our website for latest information. 24 June—17 September Frida & Diego: Love & Revolution Iconic works by two of the most influential and loved artists of the twentieth century – Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera – feature in this Australian exclusive exhibition, alongside works by key Mexican contemporaries. Tickets available online. 27 May—27 August Ramsay Art Prize Held every two years, the $100,000 acquisitive Ramsay Art Prize invites submissions from Australian…

Araluen Arts Centre, Mparntwe www.araluenartscentre.nt.gov.au 61 Larapinta Drive, Alice Springs, NT 0870 08 8951 1122 Daily 10am–4pm. See our website for latest information. 27 May—13 August Suspended Moment Frances Barrett, Sally Rees, Giselle Stanborough with Katthy Cavaliere Suspended Moment brings together new works by artists Frances Barrett, Sally Rees and Giselle Stanborough – the three recipients of Suspended Moment: The Katthy Cavaliere Fellowship. Established in the name of Italian-born, Australian artist Katthy Cavaliere (1972–2012), the fellowship was a one-off opportunity that provided support to Australian women artists working at the nexus of performance and installation. Curated by Daniel Mudie Cunningham, Suspended Moment contextualises key works by Cavaliere alongside the fellowship artists who benefited from her enduring legacy. Suspended Moment is a touring exhibition from the Museums & Galleries of NSW…