Emily is doing a talk on art & words at the exhibition opening for ‘Forming Words’, Thursday 3 March 6pm, Pan Gallery, Northcote Pottery.
Text on ceramics has a long and rich history, from ancient pictograms scratched on clay tablets to provocative works from the conceptual art movement of the 60s and 70s. Forming Words is an exhibition designed to explore and articulate ideas within this popular movement in ceramic practice.
Ceramic art has the ability to communicate without words, through touch, sight and use, making the decision to incorporate text a deliberate and potentially provocative choice. Eight Australian ceramicists exhibit works that explore how the written word furthers our appreciation of a three dimensional artwork, merging text and form to convey a cohesive idea.
Exhibiting artists: Jane Walton, Connie Lichti, Kylie Johnson, Mel Robson, Jan Downes, Ingrid Tufts, Wendy Hadfield-Smith, Sarit Cohen
This coming weekend we will be presenting a curators' exhibition preview, opening drinks and an illustrated talk entitled Mythology, Mark Making and Colour in Indigenous Art.
They will introduce audiences to our current exhibition Salt Water to Salt Contemporary: Exploring the theme of water in Indigenous Art. The exhibition features works from around Australia by more than 35 artists as diverse as Rosella Namok, Djirrirra Wunungmurra, Claude Carter, Janine McAullay Bott, Billy Black, Tuppy Goodwin, Candy Nakamarra, Jorna Napurrula Nelson and many others whose works engage with the hugely significant theme of water and its representation in art.
Please join us for
Curators' Exhibition Preview & Talk: Saturday January 22, 5pm
Followed by opening drinks: 6pm
Illustrated Talk: Mythology, Mark Making and Colour: Sunday January 23, 2.30pm
Given our current exhibition theme Salt Water to Salt Contemporary: Exploring the theme of water in Indigenous Art, we believe it is especially appropriate for us to raise funds for flood relief and are donating this evocative ‘Water Dreaming’ painting by Western Desert artist Maisie Campbell Napaltjarri for a silent auction. The entire proceeds of the auction will be donated to assist those affected by floods.
Titled ‘Kapi Tjukurrpa (Water Dreaming) the 112 x 35.5 cm painting by this talented Pintupi artist depicts women’s water sites of Napaltjarri’s salt water country.
More than 35 works from around Australia have been selected to represent the significance of water – and how this is represented in art – by Australia’s Indigenous population in the latest McCulloch’s exhibition to be held at Salt Contemporary. Water, from drought to floods, is one of the key environmental issues in Australia today, and water dreaming paintings have been some of the most significant Indigenous art ever made.
This exhibition consists of contemporary works from coastal and desert regions throughout Australia that dynamically represent this theme.
Artists include Rosella Namok, Samantha Hobson, Janine McAullay Bott, Billy Missi, Debra Nakamarra, Adam Gibbs Tjapaltjarri, Morris Jackson Tjampitjinpa, Yalti Napangati, Ngoia Pollard Napaltjarri, Lorna Brown Napanangka, Candy Nakamarra, Kukula McDonald, Ormay Nangala Gallagher, Joy Nangala Brown, Djirrirra Wunungmurra, Billy Black, Johnny Pascoe, Menga Munungurr, Peter Girirrkirirr, Yalmakany Marawili, Claude Carter, Joylene Reid, Maisie Campbell, Mike Williams, Molly Tjami, Nara Tjami, Tilau Nangala and Tuppy Goodwin.
2010 proved a busy year for us with a great variety of art activities. These included the publication of the book Outersite: RMIT art in public space in partnership with RMIT; the curating/presenting of six exhibitions around Australia and accompanying lectures and talks; presentation of other lecture series including for the NGV Guides and Monash Gallery of Art: opening exhibitions including for Singapore’s newly established Australasian Art Projects; attendances at art fairs in Darwin and Cairns and the publication and popular reception of our two art diaries for 2011 – McCulloch’s Australian Art Diary and our first release McCulloch’s Contemporary Aboriginal Art Diary.
We’d like to thank all our colleagues, friends, clients and supporters and look forward to 2011 which is shaping up to be an equally busy year.
Our latest exhibition of more than 70 works is looking stunning on display in the historic Parks Victoria Mornington Peninsula property Coolart Wetlands & Homestead. Featuring more than 70 paintings, works on paper, barks, carvings, jewellery, fibre works and many other items on the theme of artists caring for the lands it runs until November 14.
‘Living the Land’ has been created by the McCullochs to celebrate Coolart’s important role as a bird sanctuary, wetlands and indigenous flora and fauna park.
Featuring works from around Australia by leading artists including Ningura Napurrula, Ronnie Tjampitjinpa, Billy Missi, Jack Britten, Minnie Pwerle and many others as well as exciting new works from Papunya, Yuendumu, APY Lands, Kintore, the Kimberley, Arnhem Land, Queensland and Mornington Peninsula indigenous artists. Plus jewellery, scarves, cushions, innovative sculptures and fibre works.
‘Divas on the Cusp’ features a selection of works by 20 women artists of the vast and varied regions of the central, eastern and western desert. Co-curated by Jan Sinclair of Jive Art and Susan McCulloch, curator, art writer and publisher of ‘McCulloch’s Encyclopedia of Australian Art’, the exhibition features the work of artists who clearly demonstrate the polish and promise of future success.
It is an exciting time in Aboriginal art as the first generation of female artists begins to make way for the new. Standards are high and competition to stand out is intense for the next generation. As the Aboriginal art movement has matured, the well respected and well known founding generation of female artists has encouraged, and in some cases tutored, the following generation to tell their stories in compellingly new and different ways.
Shane and Neil are attending a two day workshop: `Songlines' – a major research project lead by Diana to gather information on songlines of the western and southern deserts. Artists from the APY Lands will also be attending the workshop and launch. Further information Diana James E: diana.james@anu.edu.au.
We are currently preparing some exciting new exhibitions of Indigenous art: ‘Living the Land’ at Coolart, the historical homestead and wetlands in Somers, in our local Mornington Peninsula, and ‘Divas on the Cusp’: an exhibition of emerging Indigenous women artists, guest curated by Susan McCulloch, at Noosa’s Jive Gallery.
Living the Land: an exhibition celebrating Indigenous artists care of the country will be held at Coolart Wetlands & Homestead, Somers, Victoria on Saturday Oct 30-Nov 14, 2010.
Featuring 70+ works from around Australia by leading artists including Ningura Napurrula, Ronnie Tjampitjinpa, Billy Missi, Jack Britten, Minnie Pwerle and many others as well as exciting new works from Papunya, Yuendumu, APY Lands, Kintore, the Kimberley, Arnhem Land, Queensland and Mornington Peninsula indigenous artists. Plus beads, scarves, cushions, innovative sculptures and fibre works.
‘Living the Land’ has been created by the McCullochs to celebrate Coolart’s important role as a bird sanctuary, wetlands and indigenous flora and fauna park.
Care of the country is an ongoing and engaging process for Australia’s Indigenous people. Land management includes physical management such as clearing of waterholes, care of habitat, pest control and plant management. Many Indigenous people, especially those of an older generation and those who live on their lands through the holding of native title, are active ethno-botanists.
Integral also to Indigenous care of the land are the ceremonies, song cycles, and stories of creation ancestors responsible for creating the land – its mountains, rocks, waterholes, underground water systems and the rainfall that sustains growth.
It is the images of these ceremonies that are at the heart of contemporary Aboriginal art.
A talk, ‘Living the Land: artists care of the country’, will explain the relationship of art to country in more detail.
Susan McCulloch guest curates with Jive Art + Design in an exciting exhibition exploring the up and coming emerging talent from women artists across Indigenous Australia.
Text on ceramics has a long and rich history, from ancient pictograms scratched on clay tablets to provocative works from the conceptual art movement of the 60s and 70s. Forming Words is an exhibition designed to explore and articulate ideas within this popular movement in ceramic practice.
