SPECIAL EXHIBITIONS GALLERY

THE MGA COLLECTION: Tracey Moffatt

> 07 November 2008-01 February 2009

MGA is a leading public art museum holding a nationally significant collection of Australian photography. Among the Museum's recent acquisitions are two series of works by Tracey Moffatt, Up in the sky (1997) and Invocations (2000). These series were generously donated to the Collection through the Cultural Gifts Program in early 2008. They are a complement to the Moffatt series already held by MGA, Scarred for life (1994).

In celebration of this donation, MGA will be holding an exhibition incorporating all three of these series. The exhibition, The MGA Collection: Tracey Moffatt, will be displayed in the Special Exhibitions Gallery from 08 November 2008 to 25 January 2009.

Dr Shaune Lakin, Director of MGA states: "Tracey Moffatt is one of Australia's most internationally recognised photographers and MGA is delighted to be able to show the recent acquisitions alongside the Moffatt work we already have in the collection."

These three series by Moffatt are linked by their filmic references and the way they speak of the human psyche, dealing with emotions, memories, dreams, fears and the subconscious.

MGA Curator Stephen Zagala has said of these works: "They are significant images that challenge our perceptions and expectations of what photography can achieve."

Moffatt first came to public attention for her series of photographs, Something more (1989) and Scarred for life (1994). Moffatt has since gained a reputation both nationally and internationally as a significant contemporary artist and is particularly well known for her photography. Her works are held in major public collections.

>more information

FOCUS GALLERY

JOACHIM FROESE: Archive

>7 November, 2008-01 February 2009

MGA presents two series of works by the Brisbane-based photographer Joachim Froese, Archive and Portrait of my mother .

Portrait of my mother is the earliest of the works and documents Froese's mother's library. While visiting his mother in Germany in the last weeks of her life in 2006, Froese photographed her books as if they sat on a continuous bookshelf. Presented in the form of a panorama, the photographs circumnavigate the gallery wall like a chronological sequence. Froese has said that this work "shows an eclectic cross section of literature. But more than that it has become a manifestation of the woman my mother was, a metaphor for life and a diary of the time I spent with her - a portrait of my mother."

Archive is a deeply personal and autobiographical work and relates directly to the earlier Portrait of my mother . Archive  was made after the death of the artist's mother. Having sent a selection of his mother's library to Australia, Froese re-photographed piles of his mother'd books in Brisbane. Now in his possession, the books tell a different story to that suggested in Portrait of my mother , one that reveals as much about the artist as it does his mother.

Dr Shaune Lakin, Director of MGA, has said that "death has been a preoccupation of photography since its inception, and it has been the subject of Froese's work for some time now. We are looking forward to presenting these photographs that, even without depicting the artist's mother, provide an intimate and unusual insight into family relationships and the role that photography plays in family memory."

WILBOW GALLERY

THE MGA COLLECTION
BILL HENSON

>15 October - 16 November, 2008

Bill Henson is one of Australia's leading contemporary photographers. Over the past 30 years, Henson has claimed critical attention with his photographs that evoke moments of beauty within the brooding drama of cinematic tableaux.

This exhibition will provide the opportunity to view works from the MGA Collection dating from 1977-1992 including photographs from many of his most iconic series. MGA holds 30 works by the artist including a recent donation of 10 gelatin silver prints from 1977 making it one of the most significant public collections of the artist's work in Australia.

According to Dr Shaune Lakin, Director of MGA: "MGA has been collecting Henson's photographs for a number of years, and the artist is an active member of the MGA community. This exhibition will give our public a great opportunity to get to know the artist's work." said Dr Lakin.

As the exhibition curator Stephen Zagala notes: "MGA holds one of the largest collections of Henson's work in the country. The collection includes some of the artist's most iconic works from the 1980s and 1990s. It seems an appropriate time to give the public the opportunity to view these great photographs."

Henson grew up in Glen Waverley, and he has been a long-term supporter of the MGA.

To coincide with the exhibition the Friends of MGA present "Q & A with Bill Henson" on Thursday 23 October, 2008. The event is fully booked.

FOCUS GALLERY

Top Shots!

The inaugural exhibition of selected works by VCE Art and Studio Art students from Melbourne's Eastern and Southern Metropolitan Schools

> Exhibition Dates:
08 August - 14 September 2008

> Opening:
3pm Sunday 10 August, 2008
To be opened by Mr Chris Poulton, Head of Campus, Wesley College, Glen Waverley.

Participating schools:

Camberwell Girls Grammar School, Caulfield Grammar (Wheelers Hill Campus), Kingswood College, Melbourne Girls Grammar School, Mentone Girls' Grammar School, Methodist Ladies' College, Monbulk College, Mooroolbark Secondary College, Mordialloc College, Mount Waverley Secondary College, Noble Park Secondary College, Sandringham Secondary College, St. Margaret's School, The Knox School, The Peninsula School, Toorak College, Warrandyte High School

Monash Gallery of Art is pleased to announce an exhibition revealing the creative vitality of high school students from 17 schools in the local region.

The MGA has invited local schools to select one outstanding student to represent the school in this annual photographic exhibition. The Gallery holds one of the finest collections of photography in the country and delivers an education program to the regional school students interested in a career in Museum Studies, or as Arts professionals.

The education program has been hugely successful with record numbers of students ranging from primary to high school attending the gallery for tours of the exhibitions and facilities.

Top Shots! has been developed to provide further opportunities for students working in Photography at VCE Art and Studio Art levels to exhibit their work in one the the country's most recognised photographic galleries.

SPECIAL EXHIBITIONS GALLERY

LIVES AND TIMES

A SELECTION OF WORKS ON TOUR FROM THE VICTORIAN FOUNDATION FOR LIVING AUSTRALIAN ARTISTS

> Exhibition Dates:
17 July to 24 August, 2008

Nadine Christensen, Peter Graham, Brent Harris, Akira Isogawa, Tim Johnson, Peter Kennedy, Rosemary Laing, Clinton Nain, Walangkura Napanangka Pintupi, Bronwyn Oliver

Lives and Times: a selection of works from the Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists will showcase specially chosen works from the National Gallery of Victoria's Foundation for Living Australian Artists (VFLAA) collection.

The VFLAA was established in 2002, following the provision of funds from the Victorian Government, to enable the NGV to purchase contemporary art from living Australian artists for the State collection. The Foundation collects works in all media, by artists from across generations and a broad range of social and cultural backgrounds with the aim of supporting the Australian visual arts sector. These works are displayed at the NGV and made available to regional and outer-suburban public galleries through exhibition tours and loans.

The selection of works in Lives and Times reveals the vitality and dynamism of Australian contemporary art. The exhibition seeks to communicate, to the widest possible audience, something of the beauty, enigma and fragility of the world, and the various personal and public histories that reflect the times in which we live.

Lives and Times: a selection of works from the Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists is a touring exhibition from the NGV

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.