> Media enquiries:
Communications Coordinator
Mark Hislop
T: +61 3 8544 0500
F: +61 3 9562 2433
M: 0411 964 382
E: markh@monash.vic.gov.au
Jon Lewis
Kiribati: putting a face on climate change
Opening: 3.00pm Saturday 13 February 2010
WILBOW GALLERY
> 12 February TO 11 April 2010
Australian photographer and a founder of Greenpeace Australia Jon Lewis will this weekend speak at MGA in response to his latest exhibition. Kiribati: putting a face to climate change, on display at MGA until 11 April, takes on the big issue of our time: climate change.
The Republic of Kiribati consists of 33 atolls and is situated in the Equatorial Pacific. It is a country under threat of storm surges, salination of fresh water, unpredictable weather and tidal increases. The environmental impacts of climate change are contributing to the country’s physical demise – tragically, it is slowly and surely going down.
In this series of 46 photographs taken over the past two years Jon Lewis portrays the people of Kiribati living literally on the very edge, as the most vulnerable of peoples. Their vibrant social system and culture are confronted daily by the irreversible effects of climate change. It is predicted that the nation of Kiribati has only 30-40 years left.
Shaune Lakin, Director of MGA states, “Jon Lewis presents a very real picture of a small Pacific nation facing the most serious environmental issue of our time. Lewis’ photographs are at once intimate and challenging: they raise serious questions about the responsibilities of developed countries such as Australia in the climate change debate.”
Jon Lewis first exhibited in 1974. He was a member of Sydney's "Yellow House" in the early 70's, went on to make experimental video with "Bush Video", and in 1977 was a founder of Greenpeace Australia, which led a successful campaign to end the slaughter of whales in this country. Lewis has since become one of Australia’s leading documentary photographers, perhaps best known for his images of Bondi Beach and the Outback.
Jon Lewis
Abaro Mud Kid-Tarawa 2009
ink-jet print
courtesy of the artist
Pasifika communities showcase their culture at MGA
Opening: 3.00pm Saturday 12 Febuary 2010
SPECIAL EXHIBITIONS GALLERY
> 12 February TO 11 April 2010
>Download media release
Talking Tapa: Pasifika Bark Cloth in Queensland is a travelling exhibition that showcases Pacific Islander heritage. With a growing number of Pacific Islanders settling in Australia and an increasing awareness of Australia's Pacific neighbours, i t is timely that a major exhibition of tapa (bark cloth) has been developed and will be touring across Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria in 2009/2011.
Tapa is synonymous with the Pacific Islands. With the increasing number of Pacific Islander peoples coming to live in Queensland it now appears regularly in meeting halls, at performances, weddings and funerals and in the homes of these relatively new migrants to our shores.
In the exhibition, Fijian wedding outfits vie with Papuan New Guinean ceremonial skirts and cloaks and unusual tapa clothing from Wallis and Futuna. Very large Tongan pieces serve many functions and have been passed from family to family, depending on needs within the Pacific Diaspora. Loincloths and headdresses from the Solomon Islands and bark cloth lengths from Erromongo, Vanuatu remind us of those ‘blackbirded' labour recruits of yesteryear, whose descendants now form a significant community in Queensland.
While most tapa is made from the inner bark (bast) of the paper mulberry tree, fig and breadfruit are also represented in this exhibition. The oldest bark cloth in the show is from Futuna Island and dates from the 1860s, whilst the latest was acquired in the Solomons in September 2008. Tapa decoration draws on clan and family patterning, the spirit world, the plant, bird, animal and fish kingdoms, abstract and geometric designs, as well as historical events and representations.
Talking Tapa offers an opportunity to view traditional and contemporary Pasifika design and to learn more about Australia's Pacific neighbours and migrant communities. There is a comprehensive 88 page full-colour catalogue and extensive didactic panels that draw on the cultural knowledge of Pasifika communities and scholarly research to place each work in its social and historical context.
Talking Tapa is a national travelling exhibition presented by Brisbane Multicultural Arts Centre, curated by Joan G Winter and toured by Museum and Gallery Services Queensland. This exhibition is supported by Visions of Australia, an Australian Government Program supporting touring exhibitions by providing funding assistance for the development and touring of Australian cultural material across Australia. This project is also proudly funded by Queensland Government's Gambling Community Benefit Fund and Brisbane City Council.
image:
Suluni Vakamau
Traditional female wedding attire/set
Three-piece set made by Nainasa Kacimaiwai Nayau village, Lau Province, acquired from the makers at the Melanesian Arts and Culture Festival, Fiji, 2006
Mannequin dressed by Jiowana Dau Miles
On loan from the collection of Dr Susan Cochrane
Sean Davey and Emmanuel Onom Mel
8 Mile: photographs from the margins of Port Moresby
Opening: 3.00pm Saturday 30 January 2010
FOCUS GALLERY
>28 January to 28 February 2010
>16 March to 11 April 2010 (extended season)
Monash Gallery of Art begins 2010 with Pasifika: three Oceanic encounters. Pasifica runs from February-April 2010 and focuses attention on our Pacific neighbours.
Pasifika begins with a photographic collaboration between Sean Davey and Emmanuel Onom Mel.
Sean and Emmanuel’s exhibition portrays life in the small community of 8 Mile Settlement, located just outside Port Moresby, PNG. Over the past few years, Sean has visited 8 Mile, photographing it and teaching its residents how to take photographs. Emmanuel has also documented his community: together, Sean’s black-and-white and Emmanuel’s colour photographs produce a compellingly gritty picture of contemporary life in PNG.
Emmanuel photographs the real conditions of life in and around his home in 8 Mile. A self-acknowledged ‘bad boy’ with a criminal past, he presents a remarkably sensitive portrayal of a community that struggles with basic amenities. Families are forced to spend hours each day collecting and transporting water to use for drinking, cooking and washing, and crime, alcohol and drugs are common.
Sean is a Cairns-based photographer who is forging creative ties with the region, through project–based creative workshops. Sean describes himself as a ‘welcome outsider’ in the community and sees his project with Emmanuel as an exchange. He continues to visit 8 Mile, photographing and supporting the ongoing creative endeavours of Emmanuel and 8 Mile’s other photographers. The creative space that he has fostered between Emmanuel and himself not only serves to highlight the cultural difference, but it also looks to construct new possibilities for our collective future.
Sean Davey
Emmanuel Onom Mel (detail) 2009
silver gelatin print
courtesy of the artist
Paul Dunn: imagined communities
Opening: 3.00pm Saturday 19 December 2009
>17 December 2009-7 Febuary 2010
Melbourne's hot urban planning issues are on the agenda in MGA's current exhibition that interrogates cultural definitions of community as defined in the billboards that advertise new housing estates on the city's fringe.
Paul Dunn's imagined communities presents 24 photographs that examine the idea of community as embodied in advertising signage for new housing developments in growth corridors in outer Melbourne and Victoria.
In these colour photographs taken over 7 years Dunn isolates large roadside billboards promoting housing estates such as Caroline Springs , and Sanctuary Lakes. Selling 'ready-made' concepts of social cohesion and homogeneity the billboards promise social values a world away from the diverse realities of contemporary communities.
" Imagined communities is a powerful study of paradox; class is dead; and community is sameness. Subliminal billboards whisper that tolerance and equality have been abandoned with a dialogue of community, inclusion, place and prestige. Here you can be yourself, get away from it all." states Kate Driscoll lecturer in Global Studies, Social Science & Planning at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
Dunn's images beautifully capture messages which belie the complexity of our communities and our lives. " The dark secrets of housing debt, of schools too far, of loneliness, of the realities of sameness and choice are ominous shadows, looming around the pools of light." states Driscoll.
Paul Dunn
Caroline Springs, Victoria 2002
ink-jet print
courtesy of the artist
Building as muse: the creative collaboration of Max Dupain and Harry Seidler
Curated by Sandra Byron
with opening remarks by architectural photographer John Gollings
3.00pm Saturday 19 December 2009
Exhibition dates: 17 Dec 2009-7 Feb 2010
Monash Gallery of Art is this summer celebrating two of the icons of twentieth century Australian culture: the photographer Max Dupain and the eminent architect Harry Seidler. The gallery's latest exhibition Building as muse charts the forty-year long collaboration between Dupain and Seidler.
There have been few creative collaborations between an architect and photographer as significant, enduring and intimate as that of Seidler and Dupain. Building as muse highlights the importance of Seidler's work in the development of Dupain's unparalleled career as a photographer and illustrates the impact of Dupain's photographic vision on Seidler's architecture.
This extraordinary exhibition gives Melbourne audiences a wonderful opportunity to explore the development of a unique visual language between Seidler and Dupain. Harry Seidler was a major figure in modern architecture internationally who played a pivotal role in the establishment of post-war modern design in Australia. Max Dupain, arguably Australia's best-known photographer, embraced a modernist style in his photography during the 1930s and went on to specialise in architectural work, with Seidler becoming a major and constant client throughout his prolific career.
Building as muse features a broad range of projects including a number of award winning domestic buildings like Rose Seidler House through to influential Sydney commercial projects like Australia Square and The MLC Centre . Other significant sites include key government projects like the Australian Embassy, Paris and the Trade Government Offices, Canberra .
As MGA Director Shaune Lakin notes: "MGA has a special relationship with each of these men. Harry Seidler designed the gallery, and Max Dupain photographed Seidler's original model - photographs which are now held in the MGA collection. Dupain and Seidler are among the key figures in Australia's cultural history, and they play a prominent role in the life of MGA as a building and a collection. We are honoured to showcase their work in this important exhibition."Max Dupain
Waks 1st House, Northbridge, NSW 1949-51
gelatin silver print
Courtesy of Max Dupain & Associates and Harry Seidler & Associates
Robert Ashton:photographs from the edge
>10 December 2009-24 January 2010
Over the next four months, Monash Gallery of Art's focus will squarely be on the big question of our time: the environment and man's impact on it.
The forthcoming exhibition Photographs from the edge is a record of photographer Robert Ashton's forty year fascination with the edge of our continent. The line where the land meets the water.
Monash Gallery of Art is proud to present Photographs from the edge , which includes 32 of Ashton's most intriguing beach photographs.
As MGA Curator Stephen Zagala states, "Robert Ashton is one of Melbourne's great documentary photographers. For Ashton the beach is a place of strange beauty. It is a place where life as we know it teeters on the edge: between earth and ocean; the known and the unknown; human habitation and the forces of nature."
In this exquisite series of photographs Ashton records a fragile and everchanging environment. His pictures reveal the "traces" made by man in the coastal landscape, and raise questions of our own behaviour and relationship to the environment.
Robert Ashton was the Assistant Director of Brummels Gallery of Photography (1974-81), the first gallery in Australia dedicated to exhibiting photographs. His photographs are held in the National Gallery of Australia, the Victorian, New South Wales and Tasmanian state galleries, and many private and municipal collections in Australia, USA and Europe. Today, he lives on the Victorian coastline, where he makes furniture and continues his photographic practice.
Robert Ashton
Tin man 2008
ink-jet print
courtesy of the artist
Paul Knight wins
2009 William and Winifred Bowness Photography prize
The artist Paul Knight has won Australia's most prestigious photographic award, the $20 000 William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize for 2009.
Knight's photograph 14 months # 01 was selected by the eminent judging panel as the standout work among the more than 2 000 photographs submitted for this year's prize.
After a rigorous selection process, judges Anne Ferran, Helen Ennis and MGA Director Shaune Lakin chose Knight's intimate portrayal of a man and woman because of its visual purity and tremendous empathy for its subject .
Knight is one of Australia's most significant young photographers. His work is represented in many public collections, including the National Gallery of Victoria, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, and Monash Gallery of Art. He is represented by Neon Parc.
The prize, presented at the MGA on Thursday 26 November at 7:00pm, is a wonderful opportunity to view some of the most important Australian photography produced over the past year.
Established in 2006 to promote excellence in photography, the annual non-acquisitive William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize is an initiative of the MGA Foundation . It has quickly become Australia's most important photography prize.
Shaune Lakin, Director of MGA, said of the winning work: "The field of finalists for this year's prize was incredibly competitive. However, in the end, Paul's photograph stood out. It is a beautifully composed study of intimacy. It is a sensitive and wonderfully controlled picture which reduces photography to its essentials and reminds us that photography can give us insights into the world and ourselves. Knight has given us a picture of real people, one loaded with empathy and love. Strangely, in the act of looking at this small photograph, we too become intimate with its subject. It's a tremendous achievement."
In recognition of the strength of this year's field, the judges made three honorable mentions: Siri Hayes, Simon Terrill and Christian Thompson were commended for their fine entries.
Winner - 2009 William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize
Paul Knight
born Australia 1976
14 months # 01 2008
chromogenic print
90 x 75 cm
courtesy of the artist and Neon Parc, Melbourne
Vin Ryan : tree game
|
28 October to 6 December 2009
For over four years, artist Vin Ryan has been drawing trees around his Sunshine home in Melbourne's western suburbs. Over this period, Ryan has produced a beautifully rendered portrait of his neighbourhood.
But Ryan does not draw just any trees. He is interested in those trees that have been shaped by council and power company workers. We've all seen these trees. They have vast gaps cut into them, to make way for power lines or access to somewhere else. For Ryan, these tree-sculptures are a form of banal topiary.
Ryan eliminates background streets, fences and wires. His meticulously drawn trees are transformed into fantastical silhouettes, absurd found objects or Rorschach inkblots.
Tree game , a survey of Ryan's touching drawings, is now on display at MGA. Together, Ryan's drawings reveal a lot about our approach to nature, especially in the suburbs. They tell us that while we are happy to have nature in our suburbs, it shouldn't "get in the way".
Vin Ryan is available for interview and can be contacted through MGA. Images available on request from MGA.
image:
Vin Ryan
Red tree, Sunshine 2008
pencil on paper
110 x 130 cm
BEVERLEY VEASEY: habitats
16 September-25 October 2009
Scientists predict that global warming will cause a mass extinction of plant and animal life. By 2050,
25% of all animals and plants could be lost to the effects of climate change. In this climate, zoos may well remain the safest place for animals.
For her latest exhibition Habitats, photographer Beverley Veasey has photographed the spaces we create for animals in zoos. This exhibition, now on display at MGA, provides an intriguing insight into our relationship with the natural world.
Across fourteen black-and-white photographs Veasey depicts empty animal enclosures found in zoos and aquariums around the world. Veasey's photographs show our efforts to replicate nature in zoos. We see fake rocks and logs; fluorescent lighting; and painted backgrounds that more closely resemble crude theatre sets than jungles.
Literally drained of their colour, these images intrinsically question the impact of human habitation on animals and their habitats. The spaces they show seem like tawdry motel rooms that only the most desperate would call 'home'. The viewer can only ponder what animal would reside in each of these spaces, and reflect on the impact that humans are having on the bio-diversity of the planet.
Throughout her photographic career Veasey has made wry and gentle observations on the relations of humans to the world around them. Her previous work shows animals floating in other-worldly spaces, detached from the vitality of their natural environments. Veasey's work has often drawn attention to the uncertain plight of animals in the face of our refusal to acknowledge fully the impacts of human activity on the natural world.
image:Beverley Veasey
Untitled #9 2008
chromogenic print
courtesy of the artist and Stills Gallery (Sydney), Dickerson Gallery (Melbourne) and Hugo Michell Gallery (Adelaide).
2009 William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize
>Download media release
$20 000 non-acquisitive prize
$1,000 people's choice award.
>Exhibition dates: 9 November to 13 December 2009
>Announcement of winner and people's choice award:
26 November 2009
Some of Australia's most important photographers have been selected as finalists for MGA's 2009 $20,000 William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize .
From 2,000 photographs submitted by 450 entrants, the judging panel has short listed 50 photographs for this year's prize . In contention are photographs by many of the country's best-known photographers as well as emerging artists. One of these finalists will win the $20,000 prize.
The short-listed artists are:
Donna Bailey , Del Kathryn Barton , Polly Borland , Jane Burton , Elaine Campaner , Maria Fernanda Cardoso , Rebecca Dagnall , Stephen David , Tamara Dean , Marion Drew , Rozalind Drummond , Stephen Dupont , Cherine Fahd , Hayden Fowler , Janina Green , Renato Grome , Siri Hayes , Rebecca Ann Hobbs , Christopher Holt , Diego Ibanez , Sophie Kahn , Ash Keating , Ingvar Kenne , Paul Knight , Bronek Kozka , Todd Anderson Kunert , Owen Leong , Sean Loughrey , Todd McMillan , Georgia Metaxas , Julie Millowick , Sarah Mosca , Harry Nankin , Conor O'Brien , Simon O'Dwyer , Paul Ogier , Sanja Pahoki , Polixeni Papapetrou , Debra Phillips , Izabela Pluta , Helen Pynor , Troy Ruffels , Rebecca Shanahan , Glenn Sloggett , Michal Teague , Simon Terrill , Christian Thompson , Stephanie Valentin , Lyndal Walker , Anne Zahalka .
Established in 2006 to promote excellence in photography, the annual non-acquisitive William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize is an initiative of the MGA Foundation . It has quickly become Australia's most important photography prize. This year, finalists will be exhibited at MGA from 6 November to 13 December 2009 ; the winner of the prize and the recipient of the $1,000 people's choice award will be announced at MGA on 26 November 2009 .
Shaune Lakin, Director of MGA and one of the judges, commented on the selection process: "The judging panel was this year faced with a very competitive field of entries. The panel was impressed with the range and diversity of entries, including images from the country's finest photojournalists, emerging photographers and some of our best-known photographic artists. It was a real delight to see works that both challenged and engaged us."
Geoff Lake, Chair of the MGA Foundation, noted the significance of the prize to MGA and to the Australian photographic community: "The prize is one of the highlights of our year and provides a key opportunity for emerging, as well as established artists, to participate in one Australia's leading photographic galleries. At $20,000, it is also one of the country's most valuable art prizes.
The judging panel comprised:
Helen Ennis is Associate Professor of Art Theory and Associate Head, Undergraduate, at the Australian National University School of Art, and Australia's best known photographic curator.
Anne Ferran is one of Australia's leading contemporary photographers. She is currently Senior Lecturer in Photomedia at Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney
Shaune Lakin, Director of MGA.
BRUTAL TENDER HUMAN ANIMAL:
Roger Ballen photography
Opening: 3.00pm Saturday 5 September 2009
>to be opened by Dr Shaune Lakin, Director MGA
Internationally renowned photographer Roger Ballen has produced some of the most controversial images of our times. Brutal, tender, human, animal: Roger Ballen photography is Melbourne's only opportunity to experience the work of this award-winning photographer, and to view the extraordinary images that have placed Ballen at the centre of contemporary photography.
MGA is the exclusive Victorian venue for this major survey exhibition. Presenting over 70 gelatin silver photographs made between 1983 and 2007, Brutal , tender, human, animal: Roger Ballen photography includes some of the most compelling and confronting images of our time.
Shaune Lakin, Director of the MGA states "Roger Ballen is one of the world's most important photographers. As with all great works of art, Ballen's photographs are at once beautiful and challenging: they raise serious questions about ethics and social responsibility, class and race. This is a rare opportunity to see some of the most powerful images produced in our life-time."
The American-born Ballen's photographs document his experience of South African fringe-dwellers. A geologist by training, Ballen began to photograph the houses and townsfolk he met while looking for potential mining sites in the 1970s. These travels took Ballen into the poor rural areas known as dorps . Struck by the isolated character of these places, which were for the most part invisible to those living in cities or larger towns, Ballen began to document the dorps , and in doing so produced some of the most extraordinary social records of the twentieth century.
Ballen has said of this work, "It's not possible to take good pictures if you don't have an understanding and empathy with your subjects. I've always felt a real closeness towards my subjects and have had a very good relationship with them over the years."
However, Ballen has been accused by critics of exploiting his fringe-dwelling subjects and their situation. Brutal, tender, human, animal: Roger Ballen photography will given Melbourne audiences the opportunity to consider Ballen's pictures and judge for themselves whether the artist is indeed brutal or tender.
Ballen was born in 1950 in New York. Ballen has received awards including Best photographic book of the year at the PhotoEspana festival in Madrid and Photographer of the year at the inaugural Rencontres de la photographie d'Arles in France in 2002. His photographs have been exhibited at venues around the world, including the Galleria d'Arte Moderna di Bologna, Gagosian Gallery in New York, and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
Brutal, tender, human, animal: Roger Ballen photography was curated by Robert Cook of the Art Gallery of Western Australia and has also been shown in Perth and Canberra.
AGWA exhibition supporters: Wesfarmers Arts-Principal Partner, 303, The Sunday Times , IFAC, Channel Seven Perth, Mirvac Hotels & Resorts, Ernst & Young : Wesfarmers Arts-Principal Partner, 303, The Sunday Times , IFAC, Channel Seven Perth, Mirvac Hotels & Resorts, Ernst & Young.
image:Roger Ballen
Brian with pet pig 1998
gelatin silver print
© Roger Ballen
4 weeks to deadline
2009 William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize
>Download media release
$20 000 non-acquisitive prize
$1,000 people's choice award.
Entry forms are available from www.mga.org.au
_________________________________________
This highly anticipated competition has already received
entries from across the nation.
Shaune Lakin, Director of MGA states: "The strong interest we've received already this year suggests the prize has become an established event in the cultural calendar."
The Bowness Photography Prize attracts a range of work from photographers across the country. There are no
thematic restrictions and the competition is open to all analogue and digital photography.
"It is interesting to see that entries this year are coming in from a broad cross section of photographers -
ranging from documentary photographers to fashion and nature photographers, as well as strong representation from contemporary artists. It shows the broad appeal the prize across the country," stated Dr Lakin
This year the judging panel comprises:
Helen Ennis is Australia's most important and widely known curator and historian of photography. Helen is
currently Senior Lecturer in Art Theory and Associate Head, Undergraduate, at the Australian National
University School of Art, and a freelance curator.
Anne Ferran is one of Australia's leading contemporary photographers, whose work is part of the MGA
collection. Anne has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally since the 1980s, and is highly
regarded as an artist, academic and writer. She is currently Senior Lecturer in Photomedia at Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney.
Shaune Lakin, Director of MGA. Shaune is one of Australia's leading photographic curators and scholars.
Shaune has significant experience with two of the country's most important cultural institutions: formerly as
Senior Curator of Photographs at the Australian War Memorial and Curator of International Painting and
Sculpture at the National Gallery of Australia.
The annual William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize is an initiative of the MGA Foundation. The MGA
Foundation seeks to attract a range of support with the aim of expanding and enriching the MGA permanent collection.
Louis Porter : Australian colour
>5 August - 13 September, 2009
> Opening: 3.00pm Saturday 8 August 2009
From Altona to Hoppers Crossing, Deer Park to Thornbury, Louis Porter has traversed the urban landscape of greater Melbourne and Victoria, capturing colourful and uncanny moments with his camera.
Australian colour presents a series of ink-jet prints, individually titled after the places where each image was shot. Exploring the character of contemporary Australia in the context of parking lots, industrial estates, shopping precincts and residential cul-de-sacs, Porter ' s photographs re-imagined our everyday environment as a dreamscape, full of quirky possibilities and kooky coincidences.
Porter has described these works as "portraying familiar scenes that just aren't right".
Art critic and writer Ashley Crawford says "Porter photographs suburbia like an antipodean David Lynch"
As a recent immigrant to Australia, Porter's photographs might be thought of as the visual diary of someone exploring a strange new land. As such, he is able to draw our attention to things that might otherwise go by unnoticed. The photographs describe his route and take the viewer on a journey that is punctuated by colourful encounters with the everyday. His pace is pedestrian and his viewpoint is street-level, but his sense of imagination is super-natural.
In North Fitzroy (2008) the green bonnet of an iconic Aussie muscle car nuzzles into a flourish of garden shrubbery. It's a strange collision of opposites, which somehow finds harmony in the vivid green that traverses the organic and the machine-made surfaces. Other images similarly evoke an un-natural kind of ecology which might inspire new approaches to sustainable living in contemporary Australia.
Louis Porter was born in the north of England in 1977 and has been based in Melbourne, Australia since 2001. His work has been exhibited in Australia, England , Canada and Austria.Louis Porter
North Fitzroy 2008
ink-jetprint
courtesy of the artist
presentation/representation: photography from Germany
>2 July - 30 August 2009
>Opening: 3.00pm Saturday 4 July 2009
with opening remarks by
Professor Claudia Terstappen
Faculty of Art & Design
Monash University
Laurenz Berges, Albrecht Fuchs, Karin Geiger, Claus Goedicke, Uschi Huber, Matthias Koch, Wiebke Loeper, Nicola Meitzner, Peter Piller, Heidi Specker
This international touring exhibition was developed by the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (ifa) in Germany and is presented in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut Australien.
MGA is hosting the important international exhibition presentation/representation: photography from Germany , which brings to Melbourne the work of ten of Germany's best contemporary photographers.
presentation/representation is curated by Thomas Weski (curator of Andreas Gursky recently seen at the National Gallery of Victoria), and covers the work of the generation of German photographers that has followed the now-legendary Kunstakademie Düsseldorf generation of Gursky, Thomas Ruff, Thomas Struth and Candida Höfer. For the artists in presentation/representation , including Matthias Koch, Laurenz Berges and Heidi Specker, photography is a medium that has its own language and characteristics, and their work collectively explores the limits of the medium.
Shaune Lakin, Director of the MGA states "MGA is thrilled to present presentation/representation and to bring to the people of Melbourne such an important survey of contemporary German photography. As well as providing a comprehensive survey of German practice, the exhibition will complement the experience of those who saw Weski's wonderful Gursky exhibition at NGV. We are also delighted to host participating artist Matthias Koch."
Koch will be presenting a series of public programs including an artist talk, student tutorial and a field trip exploring the industrial suburban sites close to the gallery. (See below for details) "With his critical interest in landscape, architecture and history, Koch will provide some wonderful insights into our local landscape for participants in these programs", notes Dr Lakin.
MGA's Education and public programs coordinator Stephanie Richter says: "This is a great opportunity for students and Melbourne audiences to meet one of Germany's most celebrated contemporary photographers and to participate in the busy schedule of talks, tutorials and field trips with Matthias"
Wiebke Loeper
To the sisters of Carl Möglin 2005
chromogenic print
from the series: To the sisters of Carl Möglin
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, Germany, 2007
David Hempenstall: Camp Slayer
> 1 July - 2 August, 2009
> Opening: 3.00pm Saturday 4 July2009
Monash Gallery of Art is pleased to present David Hempenstall: Camp Slayer .
David Hempenstall takes us on a private tour inside Camp Slayer, a US military base in Iraq. Comprising 165 unique Polaroid photographs, the series presents an elaborate record of the base established by US military units in a former Iraqi government palace and amusement complex near the Baghdad airport.
Shaune Lakin, Director of MGA writes that: "These small-scale Polaroid photographs are truly compelling. Hempenstall shocks us with his attention to detail -- the small things that describe a personal response to a very harsh military environment. And as American troops withdraw from Iraq, it is a perfect time for us to consider the Coalition's occupation of the country and its legacy."
During 2005-06 David Hempenstall lived and worked on Camp Slayer. Working for the US State Department, he was photographed mass grave sites under investigation by the Iraqi High Tribunal.
Hempenstall's photographs of Camp Slayer were taken during his recreation time. In contrast to the heroic sensationalism that characterises many press images of Baghdad's recent military occupation, Hempenstall's Polaroids provide us with a perspective that is both intimate and experimental. They present a picture of the war and the occupation very different to that found in the media and in military public relations.
MGA curator Stephen Zagala says "Viewed together, this series of photographic fragments seems to allude to a bigger picture - the idea of war itself -that is both too complex and horrific to comprehend and to picture clearly."
David Hempenstall is available for interview.Images available on request from MGA.
David Hempenstall
Camp Slayer, Baghdad 30/9/05(from the series Camp Slayer) 2005
dye diffusion transfer print
courtesy of the artist
David Hempenstall
Camp Slayer, Baghdad 8/10/05 #4(from the series Camp Slayer) 2005
dye diffusion transfer print
courtesy of the artist
Beyond visibility: light and dust
to be opened by
Rupert Myer AM
Chairman, National Gallery of Australia
3.00pm Sunday 17 May 2009
Exhibition dates: 13 May-28 June 2009
David Callow's exhibition 40 000 + 40 presents a series of twenty-three portraits of Indigenous Australians.
David has had 20 years experience as a documentary photographer and since 1997 has worked extensively in the Northern Territory in some of Australia's most remote communities. Making up to 6 visits a year Callow has developed strong ties to the region and with this exhibition has produced a remarkable series of portraits that focus on the strength, humour and vitality of the individuals in these communities.
The exhibition title refers to the 1967 referendum, held to change the Australian Constitution. The referendum ensured that the Federal Government could now include and make law for all Australians, black and white without discrimination, and that all Australians would be counted as one and recognised officially in any future census.
As David has written of these photographs: "People will see what they want to see in these photographs. I just needed to put a face to this debate and to shift our focus back to these very real people and their communities."
Rupert Myer AM, Chairman, National Gallery of Australia, has travelled with David to remote communities and says," I immediately recognised in David's photographs his ability to portray an extraordinary range of personalities. David's portraiture shows a deep respect for, understanding of and connection with the individuals and communities of the Northern Territory and as with all good photography his work draws out the vitality, humour and individuality of his subjects".
David's photograph of Cathy Freeman's triumphant moment at the 1994 Commonwealth Games has become an iconic image for our times.
In 2001 David received the World press photo gold medal for his work on the Sydney Olympics.David Callow
Sarah Entata,Titjikala 2007
chromogenic print
courtesy of the artist
Beyond visibility: light and dust
to be opened byDr Tanya Hill, Curator (Astronomy), Melbourne Planetarium
3.00pm Saturday 9 May 2009
Exhibition dates: 8 May-28 June 2009
MGA is proud to present Beyond visibility: light and dust, an exhibition that attempts to illuminate the otherwise imperceptible visions in the night sky
Bringing together the work of Felicity Spear, David Malin and Gulumbu Yunupingu the exhibition creates an environment that explores human efforts to make pictures of whatever lies beyond Earth's atmosphere.
Dr Shaune Lakin, MGA Director said: " In this International Year of Astronomy , Beyond visibility: light and dust explores an aspect of the environment that many of us simply do not see - the cosmos.
" Drawing on the history of human efforts to make pictures of whatever lies beyond Earth's atmosphere, the exhibition demonstrates that images of space have indeed led to a greater appreciation of the cosmos, while also reminding us that technological developments have shaped these images."
One of the key works in the exhibition is an installation comprising an extraordinary series of Gulumbu Yunupingu's poles encrusted with painted stars of the Milky Way; an important customary and ancestral story for the Gumatj people of north-eastern Arnhem Land.
Felicity Spear's interest in the ways that mapping, observational technologies and the practices of astronomy have informed our view of nature and space have been pivotal in the developing this exhibition.
MGA Curator Stephen Zagala says of Spear's works,"these speculative mapping projects offer an impression of order and clarity in the universe. Spear uses them to create sublime miasmas of abstract form."
David Malin's pioneering astronomical photographs involve gargantuan contractions of time and space. Malin's images frame and compose the unruly expanses of the sky, revealing shapes, textures and colours that are true to nature and yet have never been seen. They reveal a part of the natural world that is beyond unaided vision, yet is entirely real and relevant to our existence.
Together, these works show us how various systems of knowledge have sought to make sense of and incorporate the stars and space into knowledge. They also demonstrate how the cosmos remains a source of wonder and the marvellous.
Images available on request from MGA.
28pp catalogue available on request from MGA
Felicity Spaer
Deep filed 2005/07
(from the series Sleeping with knives 2007/09)
ink-jet prints
7 panels, each 350 x 110 cm
edition one of five
courtesy of Stephen McLaughlan Gallery,
Melbourne, and Fermynwoods Contemporary Art Gallery, UK
Entries now open
2009 William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize
$20 000 non-acquisitive prize
The MGA Foundation is pleased to announce the opening of entries for 2009 William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize.
The prize for 2009 will be $20,000 for a single photographic work by an Australian photographer.
Judging panel announced
2009 William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize
>Download media release(PDF)
The MGA Foundation is pleased to announce the judging panel for the 2009 William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize . The prize for 2009 will be $20,000 for a single photographic work by an Australian photographer.
The judging panel comprises:
Helen Ennis is Australia's most important and widely known curator and historian of photography. Helen is currently Senior Lecturer in Art Theory and Associate Head, Undergraduate, at the Australian National University School of Art, and a freelance curator.
Anne Ferran is one of Australia's leading contemporary photographers, whose work is part of the MGA collection. Anne has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally since the 1980s, and is highly regarded as an artist, academic and writer.Anne is Senior Lecturer in
Photomedia at Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney
Shaune Lakin, Director of MGA. Shaune is one of Australia's leading photographic curators and scholars. Shaune has significant experience with two of the country's most important cultural institutions: formerly as Senior Curator of Photographs at the Australian War Memorial and Curator of International Painting and Sculpture at the National Gallery of Australia.
Helen Ennis said "I'm thrilled to be asked to judge this years prize. It's a prestigous prize for Australian photographers and a great opportunity to engage with some of the most interesting contemporary work produced over the past year."
The annual William and Wini fred Bowness Photography Prize is an initiative of the MGA Foundation. Established to attract a range of support with the aim of expanding and enrich ing the MGA permanent collection, the MGA Foundation is an initiative of the MGA and is governed by an independent Board of Trustees.
Established in 2006 the William and Wini fred Bowness Photography Prize is one of Australia's most anticipated awards for photography. Attracting over 350 entries last year the competition is open to all Australian photographers.
Shaune Lakin states "Thanks to the generousity of the MGA Foundation the $20 000 prize money will ensure a highly competitive and invigorating survey of photographic practice in Australia today.''
For complete judges biographies please contact Monash Gallery of Art
The MGA Foundation now offers a greater scope for philanthropic support to ensure the future of the arts. For more information about the MGA Foundation please contact Monash Gallery of Art
Julie Shiels:sleeper
1 April 2009 - 10 May, 2009
to be opened by Dr Shaune Lakin, Director MGA
3.00 PM SATURDAY 4 April, 2009
Sleeper, Julie Shiels' new exhibition at Monash Gallery of Art is the culmination of a four-year project in which she has used discarded mattresses found on the streets of Melbourne as source material for her art.
The mattresses are used in a range of ways. Shiels fashions pyjamas from the upholstery, documents the array of weapons found secreted in the stuffing and in the series Bedtime stories binds their ornate fabrics into artist's books.
Shiels has a long-established interest the residual potency of abandoned objects. 'I wanted to reveal the beauty in something that is commonplace' says Julie. 'And in the process I have transformed one intimate object into another.'
In the series Sunday best her garments provoke contradictory impulses. 'They are functional items' she says 'yet they will probably never be used. They look comfortable, but their origins are discomforting. They are art and they are rubbish, useful and useless, precious yet trash'.
In her observation of the detritus of our daily lives, mattresses were the most common dumped item that Shiels encountered in her local environment. They quickly became a meaningful source from which to build a remarkable exhibition that explores abandonment and redemption and investigates the nature of fear, both real and imagined.
In his catalogue essay Jason Smith, Director of Heide Museum of Modern Art states ' Sleeper reminds us why artists undertake the mysterious, compulsive acts they do to externalise their visions and contemplations of the world we inhabit: they tell us it is necessary to look again, to not deny some of the terrors of the everyday, and to see strange beauty and seek solace in some simple (and not so simple) things.
Julie Shiels is available for interview and can be contact on 0417 588 172
Images available on request from MGA.
Julie Shiels
Untitled 2007/09
(from the series Sleeping with knives 2007/09)
ink jet print
2009 Fundraising preview exhibition, dinner & auction
Preview exhibition:
13 March to 28 March 2009
Fundraising Dinner & Auction:
7.00pm Saturday 28 March 2009
Twenty-three of Australia's most significant emerging, mid-career and senior artists have demonstrated the importance of MGA as a unique public gallery by generously donating their works to MGA's Fundraising Auction.
On Saturday 28 March 2009, MGA will host its 11th annual Fundraising Dinner and Auction, a gala evening of fabulous entertainment, fine dining and exceptional photo-based art. Photographic works by Australia's most collectible contemporary artists will be auctioned including Del Kathryn Barton, 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 ensure the continued growth of MGA as one of Australia's leading public galleries along with the sustained development and conservation of the MGA collection - recognised as one of the Australia's finest.
Shaune Lakin, the Director of MGA, said, "The response from artists to this year's Fundraising auction has been extraordinary. Our commitment to supporting Australian photography is extensive and the reciprocal support shown by artists reinforces our commitment to the development of Australian photography."
One of the highlights this year is an exquisite work by Del Kathryn Barton. Voted as one of the country's most collectable artists, and the 2008 Archibald Prize winner, Del Kathryn Barton is known for emotionally charged figurative paintings and this photographic worK is sure to be highly sought after.
Works from artists such as Matthew Sleeth, Bill Henson, Sonia Payes, Martin Smith and David Stephenson will ensure the evening is a unique and exclusive opportunity to purchase important photographs and support the gallery in its future endeavors.
A preview exhibition of works to be auctioned will be on display at MGA between 13 March to 28 March 2009. 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/auction_preview_online_exh_2009.htm
Tickets: $120 per person
Auction items include works by:
Del Kathryn Barton, Paul Batt, Brenda L.Croft, John Gollings, Janina Green, Sharon Green, Alfred Gregory, Tim Handfield, Bill Henson, Rebecca Anne Hobbs, Mark Kimber, Bruno Leti, Georgia Metaxas, Nathan Miller, Derek O'Connor, Deborah Paauwe, Polixeni Papapetrou, Sonia Payes, Matthew Sleeth, Martin Smith, Robyn Stacey, David Stephenson, William Yang
Sonia Payes
born Australia 1956
Shaun Gladwell 2006
chromogenic print
50 x 78 cm
edition 2/10
courtesy of the artist and Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne
estimate: $2 500
Proudly supported by:
SNAPfest! 09 @ Oakleigh Community Festival
>Download info sheet (PDF)
12 - 6pm, Sunday, 15 March 2009
Photographers of all ages are encouraged to capture the flavour of Monash at this year's Oakleigh Community Festival, Warrawee Park, from noon until 6pm on Sunday 15 March .
Monash Gallery of Art invites photographers to participate in SNAPfest! 09. Pre-register with the City of Monash as a SNAPfest! 09 Official Photographer and come along and capture the Oakleigh Community Festival on the 15 March 2009. With only 100 places for SNAPfest! 09 Official photographers, make sure you register before the festival.
Snapfest! 09 official photographers will receive a free disposable camera at the Oakleigh Community Festival that is returned to the MGA stall at the end of the festival. Explore the festival and use your skill, creativity and imagination to capture the unique flavours of the festival.
Around 10,000 people are expected to attend the fifth annual festival, which will be the first event during the City of Monash's ' Celebrate our Cultural Diversity Week'
All SNAPfest! 09 official photographers will have their work displayed in a special exhibition at MGA's Community Exhibition Space from 28 April - 31 May 2009.
Ten of the official photographs will also be framed and presented to photographers.
One photographer will win a LOMO camera kit valued at $135.00
Janina Green: maid in Hong Kong
>Download media release(PDF)
Exhibition Dates:
12 February to 10 March 2009
Opening: 3.00pm Saturday 14 February 2009
Monash Gallery of Art is proud to present the exhibition Maid in Hong Kong by Janina Green. This exhibition provides a compelling study of international workers, taken by one of Melbourne's leading contemporary photographers.
Since 2003, Green has travelled to Hong Kong to research and photograph the lives of the city's large population of Filipino maids. These hard-working women gather in public spaces around the city as a reprieve from their domestic duties . Green photographs these women, fascinated by the study of femininity that such social gatherings of women affords.
Green's photographs are a moving witness to the global flow of workers. In Hong Kong, labour shortages and the breakdown of the extended family system have led to the demand for foreign servants -"the help". In Hong Kong the majority of foreign servants or maids come from the Philippines.
As with Green's previous work, the exhibition includes large black-and-white prints hand-coloured with pigmented inks. The process is time-consuming, delicate and a personal response to images of a resilient femininity in a fragmented world.
Image: Janina Green
Maid in Hong Kong
hand-coloured gelatin silver print
Courtesy of the artist and M.33
Balck & white : documenting Indigenous Australia
>Download media release(PDF)
Exhibition Dates:
12 February to 03 May 2009
Opening: 6.30pm Friday 13 February 2009
Monash Gallery of Art's latest exhibition Black & white: documenting Indigenous Australia surveys the history of photographers' efforts to document Indigenous Australians. Drawing primarily on material in the MGA Collection, this exhibition features 35 black-and-white photographs by some of Australia's best-known photographers, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous.
As we mark the anniversary of the Prime Minister's apology to the Stolen Generation, it is a good time to look at the ways Indigenous Australians have been depicted in the history of Australian photography.
Since the early days of the camera in this country Indigenous Australians have regularly been subjects for the country's photographers. These photographs have often informed our view of the lives and culture of Indigenous Australians.
Documentary photographs are generally black-and-white. Black-and-white photographs often present the world in a basic - black-and-white - way. Documentary photographs have often reduced the complex world and culture of Indigenous Australians in this way. Black & white presents a striking survey of black-and-white photographs of Indigenous Australians, including the efforts of Indigenous photographers to respond to the ways their people have been presented throughout the history of Australian photography.
Stephen Zagala, MGA Curator says " rather than rendering Australia's colonial history in stark, black-and-white terms, the prints in this exhibition lead the viewer through a grey history of uncertain encounters and ambiguous relationships. "Image:
Philip J. Pike
Untitled [portrait of Robert Tudawali as Marbuck from Jedda ] c.1954
gelatin silver print
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection
Donated by Richard King through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program 2008
| location | hours | FREE admission! |
| 860 Ferntree Gully Road |
Tue-Fri: 10am-5pm Sat-Sun: 12pm-5pm Mon & Public Holidays: closed |
 |
|
T: +61 3 9562 1569 • Fax +61 3 9562 2433 • E: mga@monash.vic.gov.au |
||
| © Monash Gallery of Art | ||