WILBOW GALLERY

MGA Collection: Holding on, letting go

> Exhibition Dates:
13 June to 24 August, 2008

Over the last decade the MGA has established a reputation for having one of the most significant public collections of photography in the country. Consequently, the presentation of work from this collection is now a priority of the exhibition program in the Wilbow Gallery.

Holding on, letting go is a selection of MGA photographs that employ prehensile symbolism. From the nurturing of family and friends to the accumulation and sharing of property, we continually define our place in the world through processes of holding on and letting go. This exhibition explores that aspect of the human condition through a range of imagery, with a special emphasis on Indigenous Australia, in recognition of NAIDOC week (6—13 July 2008).

WILBOW GALLERY

William Yang: Claiming China

> Exhibition Dates:
29 August to 12 October, 2008

William Yang is an internationally celebrated photographer and performer whose work has covered a wide range of subjects, but always with an eye on issues of identity and cultural history. Yang is descended from 19th century Chinese immigrants, and was raised as an assimilated Australian, with his Chinese heritage unacknowledged and suppressed, yet a heritage of which he is immensely proud and that he examines in much of his work. In this exhibition Yang presents a series of poignant and sometimes humorous images with diaristic text, reflecting on and the process of 'reclaiming' his Chinese heritage, and his experience as an Australian gay man. William Yang's observations are laced with a dry wit and an acute sensitivity to the environments in which he finds himself.

William Yang is represented by STILLS Gallery, Sydney

SPECIAL EXHIBITIONS GALLERY

Simon Obarzanek

> Exhibition Dates:
22 May to 13 July, 2008

The MGA is pleased to present the first survey exhibition of the Melbourne-based photographer Simon Obarzanek.

Over recent years Obarzanek has gained a significant reputation in the art world for his conceptually driven photographic series, which explore the expressive potential of isolated human forms. His early work was primarily concerned with portraiture, but he countered the traditional conventions of that genre by privileging anonymity and the formal qualities of the visage over a psychological interest in the sitter's personality. In his more recent series, Obarzanek withdraws from the facial close-up to work with the human figure in space. Throughout his practice there is a recurring treatment of the human form as a sensitive membrane, which harnesses and expresses the elemental forces of existence.

This survey will include four complete series of works, including 80 faces (parts of which have been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London) and Obarzanek's as-yet-unseen project, Unititled Movement (which will subsequently feature at the 2008 Melbourne Art Fair).

WILBOW GALLERY

EastLink: The art of urban design and construction

AN EXHIBITION OF COMMISSIONED PHOTOGRAPHY BY
GEORGE APOSTOLIDIS, JEAN MARC LA ROQUE, CRAIG MOODIE,
AND INDUSTRIAL PHOTOGRAPHY FROM THE MGA COLLECTION

> Exhibition Dates:
11 April to 08 June, 2008

This exhibition examines the rise of the motorway in recent urban development, and the way it has transformed our sense of travel, time, distance, landscape and design.

The spectacular architecture of the recent EastLink project - reproduced in large scale photographs - are placed in historical context of works from the MGA collection that examine the built environment of the late 20th Century.

Comprising over 70 works this exhibition includes commissioned photographs of the EastLink project from the Heaven Pictures team of George Apostolides, Jean Marc LaRoque, and Craig Moodie, complimented by iconic works from photographers such as Mark Strizic, David Moore, Wolfgang Seivers and Callum Morton.

FOCUS GALLERY

Nathan MILLER: Notes from the Mississippi Delta

Exhibition dates: 02 May to 08 June, 2008

BOOK LAUNCH AND EXHIBITION OPENING
to be opened by
Jason Smith
Director, MGA
3.00pm Saturday 04 May, 2008

Notes from the Mississippi Delta reveals Miller as an astute observer of the culture. Musicians, juke joints, barbershops and the expansive landscape of the Delta are recorded in Miller's extensive travels through “the Land where the Blues began

Legendary bluesmen Big Jack Johnson, T-Model Ford and drummer Sam Carr play in juke joints and clubs such as “Ground Zero” and “Reds” in Clarksdale. Images of local barbershops, Sunday church gatherings, roadside memorials and elegant natural vistas portray a community and culture that Miller has deep respect and affinity with. Miller records his experiences in a range of extraordinary images that he describes as “ visual notes of a traveller with a camera passing through”.

As Shelley Ritter, Director of the Delta Blues Museum, Mississippi states: “ Perhaps what is so striking about these images is their freshness. This is what he came to see and it is almost as though he is surprised to have found it. So surprised – and delighted even that he documented his experience as a validation of sorts. Almost a “aha” moment of “Yes, the blues is real”.

> link: Melbourne Blues Appreciation Society

> Zooming In: Artists's talk

DATE: Saturday, 17 May
TIME:   3.00pm
VENUE:   MGA
COST:     FREE
Bookings ph: 03 - 9562 1569

SPECIAL EXHIBITIONS GALLERY

In a different light:artists portrayed

> Exhibition Dates:
29 February to 18 May, 2008
Opening: 3.00pm Saturday 01 March, 2008

Including works by:
Anne Zahalka, Greg Weight, Gary Willis,David Moore, Joyce Evans, Sonia Payes, Jeff Busby, Rodrick McNicol, Christopher Köller, Francis Reiss, Elizabeth Gilliam, Mark Ivan Hinderaker, Brendan Hennessy, Olive Cotton, Lewis Morley, Michael Coyne, Dr. Geoffrey Smith, Lionel Lindsay.

In a different light: artists portrayed is an exhibition that mines the MGA collection of many enigmatic portraits. It demonstrates the enduring power of photographic portraiture in Australia. From the early twentieth century to the present day, artists have focused the camera lens on their peers to offer an insight into identities in the visual, literary and performing arts that often remain hidden behind their work, or in the sanctuary of their studios. Photographic portraits of artists provide us with important historical visual record of the person behind the work of art. And often they are tantalising and fascinating images of the intriguing creative beings we call artists.

> WIDE ANGLES : Artists and Curators talk portraiture
Speakers include: Brook Andrew (artist), Christopher Chapman (Curator, National Portrait Gallery), Rod McNicol (artist), Sonya Payes (artist), Jason Smith (Director, MGA)

DATE: Friday, 18 April TIME:   3.00 - 5.00pm
VENUE:   MGA COST:     FREE Bookings essential: 03 - 9562 1569

WILBOW GALLERY

10th Annual Fundraising Dinner & Auction

> Dinner & Auction Saturday 05 APRIL, 2008

>Preview Exhibition 29 February to 05 April 2008

Join us for a gala evening of fabulous entertainment, fine dining, and exceptional photo-based art

Bookings essential ph +61 3 9562 1569

Twenty of Australia's most collectible photographers have
demonstrated the importance of the MGA as a unique
public gallery by generously donating their works to the

10 th Annual Fundraising Auction.

Whilst the Preview Exhibition is a chance to see some of the best contemporary photography chosen by the artists themselves, the MGA has organised a range of wonderful auction items to support the gallery including:
?A visit to di Stasio Vineyard (for 10 guests) with it's remarkable architecture and extraordinary collection of Bill Henson cut-screen photographic work:
?Sit for a photographic portrait by Sonia Payes:

?Work with MGA Director Jason Smith as you select works from the permanent collection for display in the Wilbow Gallery:

?Go behind the scenes at the NGV and explore its state-of-the-art storage facilities and conservation laboratories: and,
?A cocktail party for 20 of your friends at the MGA. Includes food and champagne and a guided tour of the exhibition by MGA Director Jason Smith.

Participating artists:
Brook Andrew, Pat Brassington , Andrew Browne, Ray Cook, Rennie Ellis, John Gollings, Ponch Hawkes, Ian Hill, Mark Kimber, Georgia Metaxas, Deborah Paauwe, Polixeni Papapetrou, Rosslynd Piggott, Scott Redford, David Rosetzky, Julie Rrap , Matthew Sleeth, Mark Strizic, Judith Wright

FOCUS GALLERY

Angela LYNKUSHKA
Now that I am a man I can go to war

Exhibition dates: 29 February, 2008 to 27 April, 2008

to be opened by
Jason Smith
Director, MGA
3.00pm Saturday 01 March, 2008

Angela Lynkushka's photography is a collaboration between the subject, the medium and the artist. Believing in the transformative power of the photograph Lynkushka turns the camera onto young men that she has known over many years. The results are a revealing and intimate portrayal of the relationship between the photographer and her subject.

Angela Lynkushka works in the genre of documentary photography, chronicling contemporary Australian life; recording people in their environment and culture.

Recent projects have included a photographic collection of Gippsland Aboriginal Elders commissioned by the State Library of Victoria. The exhibition Dreaming in English, a Portrait of the Melbourne Jewish Community 1989 - 2006, shown in the Beth Hatefutsoth Museum of the Jewish Diaspora, Tel Aviv.

FOCUS GALLERY

Bryan DAWE
Interval

Exhibition dates: 07 December, 2007 to 24 February, 2008

to be opened by
Jason Smith
Director, MGA
3.00pm Sunday 09 December, 2007

Known to many as one of Australia's leading political satirists, Bryan Dawe exhibits a new series of photographic works that reveal a fascination with theatrical conventions of the cabaret.

Dawe's photographs are constructed in the studio. Using female models, and digital projections Dawe recreates the ambience of the cabaret , in a new series of works that are erotic and mysterious.

In an age of ubiquitous digital production of images, Dawe's work is intriguingly technically hand-crafted and studio based - no digital manipulation here! Rhythmic forms, projected light and makeup echo theatrical codes resulting in dynamic and powerful photographs.

Using his own paintings as projections, Dawe builds an elaborate studio process layered with transparency and movement to produce the final works. As critic Robert Nelson noted in The Age, Dawe's projected images “curve around the figure, upsetting the organic integrity of the body, just as the regularity of the machined surfaces is perverted by the warp of the flesh”

Aptly titled Interval Dawe's exhibition suggests a conscious engagement with themes of light, time and technology that extends his fascination with the Dada and Surrealism movements of the 20 th century. Elements of chance , that inspired many artists in these earlier periods are integral to Dawe's studio methods and result in a revelatory new series of works.

More information at
http://www.bryandawe.com.au/index.html

Proudly supported by

WILBOW GALLERY

Alfred GREGORY
Photographs from Everest to Africa

Exhibition dates: 02 November, 2007 to 24 February, 2008

to be opened by
Lincoln Hall
6.30pm Wednesday 14 November, 2007

On June 2nd, 1953 the world heard that Mt Everest had finally been conquered. It was a British-led team that made it to the summit of the world's highest mountain, and images of the triumphant Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were flashed around the world.

Those pictures were taken by Alfred "Greg" Gregory, the expedition's official stills photographer, and constitute part of a remarkable exhibition Alfred Gregory: Photographs from Everest to Africa at Monash Gallery of Art

Including more than 50 photographs, with significant images from the Monash Gallery of Art Collection, this exhibition spans a lifetime of photography practice and travel to some of the world's great wilderness areas.

This exhibition coincides with the launch of the book, Alfred Gregory: Photographs from Everest to Africa . In this stunning book, more than 100 images from Alfred Gregory's lifetime of photography are bought together for the first time. This Penguin Lantern publication is available from Monash Gallery of Art Bookshop. Signed copies will be available on the night.

Proudly supported by

SPECIAL EXHIBITIONS GALLERY

Focus: Photography & War 1945~2006

16 November, 2007 to 24 February, 2008

6.30pm, Thursday 15, November, 2007

To be opened by
Nola Anderson
Assistant Director National Collection,
Australian War Memorial

For 150 years photographs have helped define Australia's military history, and the Australian War Memorial holds some of the most powerful images of our time at war.

Hundreds of these photos, taken by some of the world's best war photographers, can now be seen in a special exhibition and a new book by the Memorial.

The exhibition Focus: photography & war 1945-2006, captures the horror and humanity of military and peacekeeping actions over a turbulent 60-year period, via the lenses of 15 official and freelance photographers.

The book, Contact : photographs from the Australian War Memorial collection, spans almost 150 years of Australia's military history, and is the most comprehensive work to date surveying what is one of the world's most extensive photographic archives.

Contact is available at the Australian War Memorial bookshop from 8 December. 2006. RRP $49.95.

Georgia Metaxas: lower your ears

>12 OCTOBER - 02 DECEMBER 2007

Opening: 3.00pm Sunday 14 OCTOBER, 2007

Since its inception, photography has been used as a tool for classification and identification, attempting to coolly and objectively catalogue objects and events, which are often loaded with social and political undercurrents. Metaxas' images of hairdressing clearly belong to this documentary tradition of photography, with their full-frontal perspective and the absence of any embellishment or interpretation. Capturing portraits of the sitters before, during an after the event, she records each individual's transformation in a straightforward way. But this systematic documentation also illuminates something more obscure, in the odd kind of physical intimacy that is shared between strangers in a hairdresser's chair.

“The simple act of having a haircut makes you feel better about yourself and how you appear to others. I found the transformation of the sitters as it revealed itself to me a fascinating one. By documenting this process, I aim to cast the viewers gaze back to these individuals, unflinchingly, but not without empathy.”

Hairstyles are often used to signal cultural, social and ethnic identity. Although men and women have the same hair, hairstyles tend to conform to cultural standards of gender, varying with current fashion trends, often being used to determine social status. A haircut evokes questions of physical and social transformation; from unkempt to kempt; from homeless to participatory citizen; from outsider to insider.

Working in a social documentary context over several years, Metaxas is known for her work on issues of identity and belonging. Although these themes are still integral to her work, a recent shift has found her exploring a broader notion of ritual, examining the more universal aspects of life. The haircuts are in keeping with this and allow the transformation of the simple haircut into a dramatic event.

Metaxas has a considered approach and is deliberate about her use of uniform lighting and backgrounds in each image. The background in this case is a ping-pong table found in the room at the time of shooting, so, even though a controlled environment is established, the moment has a candid quality. They are pictures not just of rituals, but of real-life. Inspired by photographers such as Dianne Arbus, Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans, the images also reference the photographic archive of Dr. Barnardo.

“The subjects and the methodology of my work evolve from encounters I have in my personal and professional life, much of which involves members of society that I feel are often under or misrepresented within the broader cultural context. Often I am drawn to rituals cultural and personal. For me ritual is an ideal vehicle to explore the human condition.”

By presenting the subjects wrapped in the barber's apron, devoid of other social indicators such as clothes or accessories; and by using only the barest of photographic devices, Metaxas aims to strip the portraits back to their essential elements. The camera is unflinching, stationed at eye-level in place of the mirror.

2007 William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize

> Winner announced:
6.30 pm Friday 07 SEPTEMBER, 2007

> Exhibition on display:
Friday 07 SEPTEMBER to Sunday 11 NOVEMBER 2007

Finalists 2007

Zoe Ali, Robert Ashton, Donna Bailey, Adrian Baljeu, Magdalena Bors,
Chris Budgeon, Jane Burton, Peta Carlin, Danica Chappell, Bindi Cole,
Ray Cook, Simon Cuthbert, Penelope Davis. Sean Davey, Damian Dillon
Rozalind Drum mond, Rachael Duncan, Joyce Evans, Cherine Fahd
Farrell & Parkin, Jackie Felstead, Jerry Galea, Tim Handfield
Andrew Hazewinkel, Petrina Hicks, Rebekah Hughes, Danny Huynh
Mark Kimber, Daniel Kolieb, Christopher Köller, Cathy Laudenbach
Kirsty Lillico, Sally Mannall, Vanila Netto, Simon Obarzanek
Deborah Paau we, Scott Redford, Simon Strong, Darren Sylvester
David Tatnall, Lisa Tomasetti, Michelle Tran, Beverley Veasey
Tamara Voninski, Lyndal Walker

Australian Rules:
around the grounds

>07 SEPTEMBER – 28 OCTOBER 2007

In this era of footall professionalism, where the analysis of matches, coaches and players extends the parameters of the code into seemingly ever-expanding levels of complexity, the MGA has brought together photographers who capture the action away from the media spotlight. Australian rules: around the grounds features the work of five photographers who are represented in the MGA's permanent collection: Donna Bailey, Paul Dunn, Rennie Ellis, Grant Hobson and Jesse Marlow .

With images of hopeful young indigenous players training in the desert, to cheer squad stalwarts supporting their teams under drizzling Melbourne skies, this exhibition provides a range of perspectives on the sport and its social contexts. Connecting the world of footy with the raw emotion and eccentric personalities of the game, these photographers grasp the wider social significance of the game and reveal the passion, spirit and vitality of local communities.

Grant Hobson explores the nature of Australian masculinity and mateship through his sublime images of amateur footballers. Paul Dunn has worked closely with the Collingwood Cheer Squad, documenting their participation in the passionate theatre of spectatorship. Jesse Marlow's exploration of football in the Northern Territory celebrates the importance of the game to Indigenous Australians. Donna Bailey exposes the unmediated passion for the game found in the faces of her son's under-twelves team. And Rennie Ellis captures the style and culture of football in the 1970s.

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Public programs and other events

> YOUNG FOOTY FANATICS

DATE : Saturday 08 SEPTEMBER
TIME: 2 - 4pm Suitable for 5-12 yrs old

After a short tour focussing on images of AFL cheer squads in the exhibition Australian Rules: around the grounds , children will respond by making their own flags, banners, floggers and placards. Children are encouraged to come wearing their finest footy regalia in support of their team. A selection of works will go on display in the Community Exhibition Space.

> ARTISTS' FLOOR TALKS: 2pm, 28 OCTOBER, 2007

DATE : Sunday 28 OCTOBER
TIME: 2pm

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Lee Miller's War

> 07 JULY to 02 SEPTEMBER, 2007

Lee Miller's War comes to Monash Gallery of Art from the Lee Miller Archives in England and presents 110 photographs by one of the world's most influential and remarkable photographers.

Lee Miller's War presents works created during 1944-45 when Miller visited hospitals in Normandy and travelled through Germany, France, Austria, Hungary and Romania, as an official war correspondent for Vogue . Her unflinching documentation and commentary of what she witnessed shocked and educated the world to the horrors and futility of war.

These photographs were first published in Vogue in 1945-46 and represent a unique achievement in fashion publishing that has rarely been seen since. The uncompromising images by Miller were published under Alex Kroll's editorial vision. The strong content combined with striking magazine layouts produced a Surrealistic vision of what many saw as a confounded and irrational war.

Anthony Penrose says of Miller's photographs in Lee Miller's War 1944-45 , “They show war ravaged cities, buildings and landscapes, but above all they portray war-resilient people – soldiers, leaders, medics, evacuees, prisoners of war, the villains and heroes.”

Renato Grome: Seduce

> 23 AUGUST to 30 SEPTEMBER, 2007

Renato Grome's works are striking in their simplicity and saturated colour, depicting highly sexualized flora – orchids, cacti and other flowers in his signature bold style.

His works are modern day mandalas; deceptively simple, bold, graphic works which are a unique fusion of inspiration derived from sources as diverse as classical and surrealist painting, contemporary advertising campaigns, fine art photography and the natural world,” says his Gallerist Sandra Byron, of Byron McMahon Gallery.

In the ubiquitous age of digital production of images, Renato Grome's artwork is intriguingly technically hand crafted traditional photography - in reversal - and not digitally manipulated. His process has evolved from many years of working with natural light and light absorption techniques, but when (frequently) asked by his viewers and collectors, Grome says that, “the process of creating this work engenders mystique, and like a magician or master chef, I'm not able to reveal my processes, that would ruin the experience for the viewer.”

Melbourne: 29th August to 23 September, 2007
Metro 5 Gallery, Melbourne 1214 High Street Armadale Vic 3143
(03) 9500 8511 www.metro5gallery.com.au
Tuesday to Friday 10am to 5.30pm
Saturday & Sunday 11am to 5 pm

Sydney: 22 August to 22 September 2007
Byron McMahon Gallery, 88 George St, Redfern, NSW 2016.
Tuesday-Saturday 11-5pm, www.byronmcmahongallery.com.au

Rome:  25th October to 8th December, 2007
Lipanje Puntin Arte Contemporanea, 10 Via di Montoro,Roma 00186, Italy www.lipanjepuntin.com

Karina Grundy: Falling through days

>28 JUNE to 18 AUGUST, 2007

Titled Falling Through Days , Karina Grundy's new exhibition is a portrait of the contemporary Australian family. She has an eye for the social political barb, satirical comment and the ordinariness of the everyday.

Grundy's photographs are staged in a studio setting supported by the most basic furniture ensembles – as if nothing else matters. Family members encounter each other in various domestic scenarios, seemingly cut off from the world and struggling with their identity in spite of conflicting loyalties and passions. These works are theatrical in mode - we suspend any disbelief and are prepared to go with her - ensuing an empathy with the subjects and scenarios.

Grundy sees this process as a strategy to examine the role of women in contemporary society and the place of storytelling as conduit for knowledge and entertainment in our culture. As Karina says, “ The generational divide between my mother, grandmother and me is such that child-rearing advice and story-telling is often outdated….. this breakdown of such a valuable female community and role modelling greatly affects the majority of urban women”

Grundy's tableaux compositions about parenting ask us to pause and reflect on experiences that are common to many of us but often go unacknowledged in mainstream media and social discourse

Painted Porcelain :
Decorated British Ceramics 1750 - 1850

A Geelong Gallery travelling exhibition

> 18 MAY to 01 JULY, 2007

Focussing on the painterly tradition of porcelain decora tion, t his exhibition represents 21 major porcelain manufac turers from the late 18th and early 19th centu ries. The works vary in shape and style, from simple blue and white teapots to ornately decorated and gilded plates and vases.

Lloyd Rees: A Private Collection

> 04 MAY to 01 JULY, 2007

Lloyd Rees: A Private Collection features work from one of Australia's most respected artists of the 20th century. The exhibition includes drawings, paintings and lithographs from The Holmes à Court Collection and focuses on highly regarded prints that Rees pro duced in his last years with master printmaker Fred Genis.This exhibition is most notable for the inclusion of a number of early pencil drawings that Rees produced in the 1930s when he was a prominent member of the Northwood Group that included fellow artist Roland Wakelin.
Lloyd Rees: A Private Collection includes 37 works ranging from the 1920s to some of the last works produced by the artist in the 1980s. Twenty-seven lithographs from the Caloola suite, the Sandy Bay set and a Tribute to Llight suite will feature along-side paintings and drawings selected from one of Australia's most important private collections .

Eva Collins : Patterns

> 04 MAY to 24 JUNE, 2007

Eva Collins explores her interest with nature's patterns through photographs that capture the often unnoticed abstractions in our natural and built environments. These elegant configurations withdraw from their worldly references and ask the viewer to engage with the formal rythms of the photographic image.

Gardens (1997 - 2007) : Christopher Köller

> 04 APRIL to 13 MAY, 2007

Gardens(1997—2007) is an exhibition of photographic images from Köller’s 10 year fascination with gardens. Since 1996 Köller has been using a plastic toy camera - a Diana - and large format colour film to produce strange and unpredictable images in locations such as Kyoto Japan, Lake Maggiore in Italy, and Ararat in rural Victoria. This exhibition will feature Köller’s photographs of gardens as being sites of repose, reverie and recreation. Being an avid admirer of Bonsai and having spent over 20 years visiting Japan, including a studio residency in 2004, Köller has a strong affinity with Japanese gardens. For Köller the garden becomes a place of light and shadow, distorted colours and shifting perspectives. His technique of using the toy camera distorts the image just enough to carry the viewer into a fictional dream-like space of the imagination, and in doing so links the act of observation to the strange imagined worlds of childhood.

FIGHT: Stephen Dupont

> 01 MARCH to 29 APRIL, 2007

Fight explores the world of traditional wrestling through the photographic works of Stephen Dupont. Dupont has earned an international reputation as a photographer who captures the human dignity of his subjects often in the world’s trouble spots of Angola, Rwanda, Burundi and Afganistan. Drawn to places of conflict and with an eye for compassion, Dupont photographs both the moments of beauty and devastation in life. Robert McFarlane has described his works as “...remarkable for their blend of humanity and composition”.
Travelling across eight countries Dupont documented wrestling culture ranging from the tribal warriors of The Gambia, to the masked Latino superstars of Mexico. His journey began in India in 1993 and has seen him document the rituals, celebrations and lifestyles that surround wrestling in all its forms. However it was not a subject Dupont had planned to pursue. “I was drawn into it in 1993 when I came across an article and photo essay about a traditional Hindu wrestling school in Old Dehli. Intrigued I payed a visit to the school ...... and (they) led me on the first steps of a compelling journey into the private world of traditional wrestling”
Wrestling is one of the worlds oldest sports mixing tradition and technique. These photographs combine images of raw physical contact with cultural forms of ritual, religion and folklore.The images give valuable insight into the people, culture and communities that have existed for hundreds of years, yet are fast dissappearing from our globalised world.

Light on the Landscape; Travis McHarg

> 01 MARCH to 29 APRIL, 2007

From the Todd River to Simpson's Gap and Alice Springs, Travis McHarg uses medium format film to render the Australian landscape with an acute observational awareness.

Travis McHarg spent most of the 1970s and 80s living in Central Australia and working with Health and Aboriginal Affairs administration. During this time he studied photography at the Community College of Central Australia and recorded his surroundings with modest fixed lens cameras, developing his own prints in “….. home laundries when the sun had gone down ”. Light on the Landscape features 30 works that span 35 years of photographic practice and range in subject from the landscapes of the Northern Territory to those of rural Victoria, Tasmania and New South Wales.

McHarg uses twin reflex cameras, black and white film, and the darkroom - the traditional tenants of photography - to capture the most abstract element of the natural world, light. McHarg states that for him “ photography is not about taking pictures of things but recording the effect of light ”. The result is a record of the landscape in extraordinary detail, depth of field and tonal range.

Travis McHarg grew up in Wandin Yallock, a fruit-growing district east of Melbourne. He won the Caltex NT Art Prize and has works in public collections in the Northern Territory.

2007 Fundraising
Preview Exhibition
Dinner & Auction

Preview exhibition:
>01 MARCH to 31 MARCH 2007

Fundraising Dinner & Auction:
>01 MARCH to 31 MARCH 2007

>On-Line Preview Exhibition


Twenty-three of Australia's most significant emerging, mid-career and senior artists have demonstrated the importance of Monash Gallery of Art (MGA) as a unique public gallery by generously donating their works to MGA's Fundraising Auction.

On Saturday 31 March 2007 , the MGA will host its 9 th annual Fundraising Dinner and Auction, a gala evening of fabulous entertainment, fine dining and exceptional photo-based art. Roger McElroy , of NKM, Nevil Keating McElroy LTD , will then auction works by some of Australia's most collectible contemporary photo artists including Jane Burton , Bill Henson , Robyn Stacey , Polixeni Papapetrou , Matthew Sleeth and many, many more!

Since 1999, the Fundraising Dinner and Auction has become a significant feature of the Gallery's event calendar. All funds raised will ensure the continued growth of MGA as one of Australia's leading public galleries along with the sustained development and conservation of a photography collection that is recognized as one of the Nation's finest.

Jane Scott, the Director of MGA, said, “The 2007 Fundraising Dinner and Auction promises to be an exciting evening, with great entertainment, food and art by some of Australia's best known and loved photographers. All the works have been professionally framed and provide guests with an exclusive, unique and affordable buying opportunity.”

A preview exhibition of donated works to be auctioned will be on display at the MGA between 01 March
to 31 March 2007. Absentee bids will also be available for those who are unable to attend this special event but wish to support the MGA. An online preview is available at: www.mga.org.au .

Tickets: $120 per person

Auction items include works by:

Andrew Chapman Susan Fereday Polixeni Papapetrou David Tatnall John Cato Jo Daniell Bill Henson Matthew Sleeth Kathy Mackey Mark Strizic Tim Webster Troy Innocent Ian Hill Ponch Hawkes Robyn Stacey Andrew Seward Jesse Marlow Julie Millowick Stephen Dupont Lisa Tomasetti Donna Bailey Alfred Gregory Jane Burton

Michael Riley: sights unseen

> 16 NOVEMBER 2006 to 25 FEBRUARY 2007

Michael Riley (1960-2004) was one of the most important contemporary Indigenous visual artists of the past two decades. His contribution to the contemporary Indigenous and broader Australian visual arts industry was substantial and his film and video work challenged non-Indigenous perceptions of Indigenous experience, particularly among the most disenfranchised communities in the eastern region of Australia.

Michael Riley: sights unseen will reveal the prolific talents of a quiet observer whose photomedia, video and film continues to have a profound effect on Australia’s contemporary representation and comprehension of Indigenous Australia. The exhibition will draw together a comprehensive body of work, charting the vision and experience of one of the country’s most significant visual artists, chronicling a period of intense cultural development and achievement.

This special exhibition will not only profile Riley’s most recognised photomedia, films and video work, but will also present some images previously unseen in the public domain.

A NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA TRAVELLING EXHIBITION

Community Spirit: Michael Coyne

> 16 NOVEMBER 2006 to 25 FEBRUARY 2007

Internationally renowned photographer Michael Coyne has captured wars, revolutions and significant international events in a career spanning over 30 years.

After documenting people living in villages in different countries around the world, Coyne was interested in capturing the essence of an Australian country town that was big enough to be independent yet small enough for everyone to know their neighbour. After significant research, Coyne decided to document Numurkah, a town with a population of 5,000 in northern Victoria.

In Numurkah, Lakes and Roses, Coyne explores the multifaceted concept of ‘community' with its sense of place and belonging, identity, participation, fellowship and its gatherings and traditional events.

From the main street to the family lounge room, from the debutante and B&S balls to the sporting ground and the agricultural show, Coyne has captured a candid portrait of daily life in this rural town nestled between Shepparton and Cobram.