> the inaugural $10,000 non-acquisitive william and winifred bowness photography prize
> Winner announced: Thursday 24 August, 6:30pm
>Finalist exhibition: 25 August to 12 November 2006

>Download mga media release (PDF)
>Download more info on Renato Grome (PDF)

>Alfred gregory; photographs from everest to africa

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

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

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

Bowness Prize winner announced

> $10,000 non-acquisitive william and winifred bowness
photography prize

Announced: Friday 07 September, 6:30pm, 2007
| > FINALIST EXHIBITION: 07 September to 11 November, 2007

Queensland artist Ray Cook has been awarded the $10,000 William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize for 2007 – one of Australia's most pretigious annual photographic awards.

The winner of the William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize for 2007 is the Brisbane-based artist, Ray Cook .
His submission to the competition, a giclee print titled For God sake, somebody throw a pie (2006), shows a tragic male figure posing in his boxer shorts. The staging of the shot against a drop sheet is suggestive of traditional portraiture, but other elements within the image evoke conventions of comedy, farce and the absurd. He is clearly in some sort of pickle, sporting a clown's red nose and an anti-lick dog collar, but it is difficult to know whether we should laugh or cry.

The Prize, which was presented at the MGA on Friday 07 September at 6:30pm, was established to promote excellence in photography and will provide an opportunity to view and engage with some of the most interesting contemporary work produced over the past year.

Cook lives in Brisbane and is currently completing a Doctorate at Griffith University, Queensland College of Art. Recent exhibitions have included Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, and Australian Centre of Photography, Sydney.

Entries opened in March 2007 and closed on 25 May, 2007. All still photo-based media including analogue and digital photography were considered. After attracting 320 entries from around the country, the judges selected 45 works by artists which showcase the strength and diversity of contemporary Australian photography.

The judges for this year's prize (Pat Brassington, Alison Englis and Stephen Zagala) were impressed by how the work combines a curious complexity with forthright simplicity. While many contemporary photographers picture their subjects in states of self-absorbed reflection, Cook's figure stares back at the camera as though he wants something more from us as viewers. The title of the work, and the flourish of attention-drawing stars, imply that he is a dummy target in some kind of carnival sideshow, but perhaps his predicament is more universal.

2007WINNER:
Ray COOK
For God sake, somebody throw a pie 2006
archival giclee print
Reproduced courtesy of the artist

> Media enquiries:

Mark Hislop
Communications Coordinator
Monash Gallery of Art
860 Ferntree Gully Road
Wheelers Hill Victoria 3150
T: 03 9562 1569
M: 0411 964 382
E:markh@monash.vic.gov.au

Jason Smith - New MGA Director

Monash Gallery of Art is very pleased to announce the appointment of
Jason Smith to the position of Gallery Director. Jason will commence on September 3, 2007.

Jason is a highly regarded arts professional and a national authority on 20th and 21st century art. For the past 10 years, he has held the position of Curator, Contemporary Australian and International Art at the National Gallery of Victoria.

He has been the curator for 35 exhibitions of contemporary Australian and international art including the major survey exhibitions Louise Bourgeois ; Rosslynd Piggott-Suspended Breath; Peter Booth: Human / Nature; Gwyn Hanssen Pigott: A Survey 1955-2005 , and Howard Arkley . Significant historical and thematic exhibitions include Fieldwork: Australian Art 1968-2002 (the inaugural exhibition for The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia); World_Rush: 4 artists (the inaugural exhibition for the reopening of NGV International); Living Together is Easy: 12 artists from Australia and Japan; 2004: Australian Culture Now and 2006 Contemporary Commonwealth .

In his role as Curator of Contemporary Art, Jason acquired for the NGV collection the works of more than 150 artists. Jason is the author of numerous exhibition catalogues and museum collection publications, and he regularly contributes to a range of contemporary art journals.

>Download media release (PDF)

Finalists announced

2007 William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize

>Download Terms & Conditions (PDF)

>Download media release (PDF)

> Winner announced:
6.30pm 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

> Media enquiries:

Mark Hislop
Communications Coordinator
Monash Gallery of Art
860 Ferntree Gully Road
Wheelers Hill Victoria 3150
T: 03 9562 1569
M: 0411 964 382
E:markh@monash.vic.gov.au

Lee Miller's War

>Download media release (PDF)

> lee miller's war
07 JULYto 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.”

Lee Miller
Liberated prisoners in bunks, Dachau, Germany, 1945
© Lee Miller Archives, England 2007
All rights reserved.

Seduce

> renato grome: seduce
25 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

images:
TOP
Renato Grome
Calm 2006
Type C photograph
Reproduced courtesy of the artist and Sandra Byron McMahon Gallery, Sydney

BOTTOM
Renato Grome
Virtue 2006
Type C photograph
Reproduced courtesy of the artist and Sandra Byron McMahon Gallery, Sydney

Falling through days

> link to: 2007 William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize

> Download2007 ENTRY FORM and TERMS AND CONDITIONS

> Karina grundy: patterns
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

image:
Karina GRUNDY
Night Passion 2, 2006
75x100 cm
Lambda Print

CALL FOR ENTRIES

2007 William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize

$10,000 non-acquisitive

The Monash Gallery of Art (MGA) invites photographers to submit works in competition for the 2007 William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize, to be awarded to the most outstanding photographic work as determined by the selection panel.

The William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize has been initiated by Mr Bill Bowness in honour of his late parents. Mr Bowness is the Chairman of the MGA Committee of Management .

Established to promote excellence in photography, the Prize and exhibition will provide an opportunity to view and engage with some of the most interesting contemporary work produced over the past year.

All entries will be assessed by a selection panel comprising:
 Ms Jane Scott; Director, Monash Gallery of Art
 Dr Alison Inglis;trustee MGA Foundation
 Pat Brassington: photomedia artist

Important dates:

> Closing date for entries
Friday 25 May 2007

> Shortlist of finalists announced
Friday 13 July 2007

> Finalists to deliver original work
No later than Friday 10 August 2007

> Announcement and opening of exhibition
Friday 7 September 2007

> Exhibition dates
8 September to 11 November 2007

> Finalists’ works to be collected
No later than Sunday 9 December 2007

image:
2006 WINNER:
Kathy MACKEY
Reliquary: Portrait 1 2006
from the series Reliquary
digital print
Reproduced courtesy of the artist and Lorraine Pilgrim, Brisbane

A Private Collection

> 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 .

image:
Lloyd Rees
Razorback, New South Wales c.1957(n.d.)
39.5 x 49.5 cm
oil on panel
The Holmes à Court Collection,Heytesbury
Licensed by VISCOPY, Australia.

Patterns

> Eva COLLINS: Patterns
04 MAY to 24 JUNE, 2007

ARTIST'S STATEMENT

We often glimpse interesting scenes from the window of a moving car or whilst running to catch a tram. We never know when these images will appear, but we do know that they will disappear – often too soon, as either we have to move on or the moment has passed.

Photography freezes these precious moments and in doing so allows us to appreciate their powerful impact.

Patterns captivate us with their visual rhythms. Often they are not intentionally created but are accidental configurations of elements adding an unexpected dimension to our visual experience.

They present a segment of reality in a graphic and abstract way, rather than in a strictly literal manner.There is a sense of discovery when we look beyond the obvious.

Seeing these configurations is like finding gems in the most unlikely places.

Eva Collins

Eva COLLINS
Bridge 2006
type C photograph
Reproduced courtesy of the artist

Gardens (1997 - 2007)

> link to: 2007 William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize

> Christopher Köller:Gardens (1997 - 2007)
04 APRIL to 13 MAY, 2007

catalogue essay
Nanette carter

The exhibition Gardens 1997-2007 is a sampling of Christopher Köller's photographs of gardens taken over the past 10 years with a $7.00 plastic Diana camera.

In the manner of a compulsive collector, Köller has travelled to a number of famous gardens and sought out all kinds of gardens wherever he happened to be. From the autumn haze in the medieval cloister garden of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, to the surrealist topiary framing Sleeping Beauty's Castle at Paris Disneyland and the dreamy seclusion of the octagonal pond at Edna Walling's Mawarra in the Dandenongs, Köller has created a series of images inspired by the work of gardeners and the art of garden designers.

In a range of weather conditions, seasons and times of day, Köller has revealed both the important views and obscure elements of famous and historic gardens.

The borrowed landscape of the Edo-period garden at the Imperial Villa of Shugakuin and the weird flattened pile of sand in the raked Zen garden of Ginkakuji in Kyoto are honoured. The 18 th century garden design by Henry Hoare 11 as the setting for a great Palladian-influenced villa Stourhead , in Wiltshire, incorporates a picturesque view framed by a classical pavilion across its lake. But with its cool colours, the soft light of an overcast day and silhouetted solitary figure braving the icy day, it is a view that engenders introspection as much as admiration for Hoare's great plan. While at Montacute House in Somerset, it's a random hail of orange across the green landscape that Köller has selected, rather than its quirky Elizabethan topiary or the iconic snow-bitten hedge design from the 1940s.

Some of Köller's images are of less well-known and obscure gardens, such as Fox in the Morning , a family garden outside Ararat, where garden flowers and fruit trees merge into native bush. One photograph shows zoomorphic strelizias illuminated against shadowy foliage in a Los Angeles street, while another shows a whirling web of summer flowering from the main street of the Tasmanian hamlet of Stanley - a bizarre and hallucinatory image stolen from obscurity.

In certain photographs in this series, a picturesque setting or the conjunction of architecture and garden is revealed as an important aspect of the design. Drifts of summer flowers at Highfield House on Tasmania's north-west coast are anchored by the majestic splendour of the Nut. The shadowed stretch of open ground of the garden of a Borromeo family villa on Isole Madre looks out to glassy Lake Maggiore and the foothills of the Alps. In the photograph of the garden at Kyoto's Kinkakuji temple, the former imperial pavilion glows otherworldly in its setting of dark and sober pine trees.

Köller has enthusiastically explored the peculiarities and faults of his chosen camera here. Light surging through the Diana 's primitive frame window, imprinting the dots and numbers of the film's backing paper onto the film, is transformed into suggestions of a mystic and obsessive fetish with numbers and symbols. The camera's tendency to allow the film to wind loosely onto the spool, which results in ‘fogging' - evidenced as a bleeding of red, yellow and white onto the film, is turned by Köller into a premonition of strange events.

The Diana 's failure to face the sun directly, results in a golden arc of flare that implies something supernatural has happened among a patch of dried native grasses in the Parc André Citroen in Paris. Its less than perfect plastic lens which joins out-of focus sections together in a swirling haze, has been used by Köller to imbue even simple cottage gardens with an animist sense of the natural world alive with spiritual presence. Another feature of the camera's faulty mechanism - ‘vignetting' – the darkening edges around certain photographs, pulls us into these gardens and in a tunnel-like effect draws us down and along into their spaces.

All of the spaces rendered by the Diana are strangely ambiguous, caused either by the realities of producing a piece of machinery to turn a profit at $7.00, or by negligent manufacture. Either way, the result is a world that is both like the one we see around us and at the same time strangely distant and nostalgic.

Some of Köller's photographs like those from Sunday Reed's garden at Heide with its abundant late spring blooms and Shugakuin 's autumnal tree with its kinetically-charged limbs juggling the electric orange globes of persimmon provoke a visceral pleasure. Their rich and brilliant colours provide an immediate gratification. In other photographs, it's intriguing abstract shapes as in Heide 's splendid artichoke or the elegant leaves and aerial roots of the pandanus in the wintergarden of the Parc André Citroen , that create another kind of aesthetic satisfaction.

There is always something about the viewpoint and technique in Köller's garden series that makes viewers feel that they are lifted out of their everyday perspective; we are forced to re-orient ourselves according to an unfamiliar system. It is seeing anew, in the manner of another species. We are required to slow down, to stop, to wonder at the construction of the world we're shown.

Like the garden designers and gardeners who inspire him, Köller returns us to the natural world for contemplation and renewal.

Nanette Carter is a lecturer in design history and theory in the Faculty of Design, Swinburne University of Technology.

image:
Christopher Köller
Disneyland, Paris 1998
Type C Print.
Reproduced courtesy of Christopher Koller and M.33

2007 Fundraising
Preview Exhibition
Dinner & Auction

Preview exhibition:
>01 March to 31 March 2007

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

>Link to Auction info

>Link to 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 atwww.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

image:
Polixeni Papapetrou
She saw two girls and a boy #1 1966, 2006
from the series Haunted Country
pigment ink print, printed by Les Walkling
75 x 75 cm
edition 1/6
Represented by Nellie Castan Gallery Melbourne; Stills Gallery Sydney;
Johnston Gallery, Perth
est. $1,500 - $2,000

CALL FOR ENTRIES

2007 William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize

$10,000 non-acquisitive

> Download2007 ENTRY FORM and TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Important dates:

> Closing date for entries Friday 25 May 2007

> Shortlist of finalists announced Friday 13 July 2007

> Finalists to deliver original work no later than Friday 10 August 2007

> Announcement and opening of exhibition Friday 7 September 2007

> Exhibition dates 8 September to 11 November 2007

> Finalists’ works to be collected no later than Sunday 9 December 2007

2006 WINNER:
Kathy MACKEY
Reliquary: Portrait 1 2006
from the series Reliquary
digital print
Reproduced courtesy of the artist and Lorraine Pilgrim, Brisbane

Fight

> Stephen Dupont : fight
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.

Stephen DUPONT
Manpower and Apollo-The Gambia 1997
type C photograph
Reproduced courtesy of the artist

Light on the Landscape

> Travis McHarg : Light on the landscape
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.

Travis McHARG
Spencer Valley 1985
gelatin silver photograph
Reproduced courtesy of the artist

Sights Unseen

> 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

IMAGE:
Michael RILEY
Untitled (Cow)
from the series Cloud 2000
inkjet print on banner paper
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection

Community Spirit

> Michael Coyne: community spirit
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.

Celebrating Australian women photographers

> 2006 big night out
Wednesday 4 October 2006, 7:00pm

Monash Gallery of Art (MGA) will highlight the importance of female artists
at the Big Night Out fundraising dinner on Wednesday 4 October from
7:00pm.

All funds raised at this special event will assist the Gallery to acquire works by women photoartists for MGA's permanent collection.

The Big Night Out will be officially opened by special guest speaker, Deborah Thomas who will discuss her high-powered career as the Editor-in-chief of The Australian Women's Weekly...

IMAGE:
Robyn Stacey
Fruit and Sky II 2003
from the series The Collector's Nature
type C photograph
Purchased 2005, through funds raised at the 2005 Big Night Out
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection
Image courtesy of Robyn Stacey and Stills Gallery (Sydney)

Bowness Prize winner announced

> $10,000 non-acquisitive william and winifred bowness
photography prize

Announced: Thursday 24 August, 6:30pm
| > FINALIST EXHIBITION: 25 August to 12 November

Queensland artist Kathy Mackey has been awarded the inaugural $10,000 William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize – one of Australia's youngest annual awards.

The Prize, which was presented at the MGA on Thursday 24 August at 6:30pm, was established to promote excellence in photography and will provide an opportunity to view and engage with some of the most interesting contemporary work produced over the past year.

Kathy Mackey was awarded the Prize for her photograph, titled Reliquary: Portrait 1. Born in Brisbane in 1961, Mackey has exhibited widely in group and solo shows since 1998. She is currently completing her PhD in visual arts practice at Griffith University.

As Mackey explains, Reliquary: Portrait 1 “is one of a series of portraits of young women, juxtaposing the potential vulnerability and liminal nature of human skin with metallic objects and reflective surfaces. The mirroring action that is intentionally set up takes us back to the ‘gaze' and to the status of the actor versus the spectator. Studies of medieval reliquary extend the notion of portraiture as to include objects associated with the subject, further informing the position of the self in terms of how one sees the image as a representation of the artist, the sitter or the viewer”...

2006 WINNER:
Kathy MACKEY
Reliquary: Portrait 1 2006
from the series Reliquary
digital print
Reproduced courtesy of the artist and Lorraine Pilgrim, Brisbane

Big, bold and brand new!
Bowness Prize showcases strength and diversity of Australian contemporary photography

> the inaugural $10,000 non-acquisitive william and winifred bowness photography prize
> Winner announced: Thursday 24 August, 6:30pm
>Finalist exhibition: 25 August to 12 November 2006

The MGA is proud to present one of Australia's youngest annual awards: the $10,000 non-acquisitive William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize .

Established to promote excellence in photography, the annual Prize will provide an opportunity to view and engage with some of the most interesting contemporary work produced over the past year...

Heavenly visions

> the passing of light: emmanuel santos
25 August to 12 November 2006

Drawing inspiration from the Renaissance period, Melbourne-based photographer Emmanuel Santos presents an illuminating and theatrical series of angels and biblical visions in the previously unseen exhibition, The Passing of Light.

For over a decade, Santos has researched sacred texts to present a conceptual interpretation of legends and myths surrounding the ephemeral domains of the divine. The 35 photographs presented in The Passing of Light draw on the holy scriptures of the Bible, the Torah, and the Koran...

IMAGE:
Emmanuel SANTOS
Zarobi descending 2006
lambda print
Reproduced courtesy of the artist

Botanical footprints in a haunted landscape

> traces of memory: julie millowick
25 August to 10 November 2006 (date changed!)

Seductive, poetic, delicate, intimate and haunting… Julie Millowick's most recent body of work, Traces of Memory, is a meditation on time, place, and the botanical evidence of our colonial era.

Traces of Memory features 16 works that combine both old and new photographic techniques such as the photogram alongside a computer-generated composition. Millowick utilises the photogram, a technique from the infancy of the photographic medium, to poignantly represent heritage. A photogram is a photographic image made without a camera by placing an object directly onto light-sensitive material, such as photographic paper, and then exposing it to light. The result is a shadow or silhouette of the object. Millowick also digitally recomposes a contemporary landscape to enable the viewer to reflect on the botanical traces left behind from the thousands of people who flocked to the gold rush.

Millowick resides in the small central Victorian community of Fryerstown, which was the epicentre of the Victorian gold rush during the 1850's. Fryerstown and its surrounds have also proven to be a major inspiration for Traces of Memory with the landscape evoking stories of the colonial gardens established to remedy a hostile and wretched environment...

IMAGE:
Julie MILLOWICK
Traces of Memory - Oxalis (detail) 2005
photogram and archival inkjet print on silver rag paper
Reproduced courtesy of the artist

ConnectEast sponsorship drives visitor numbers at the MGA

The MGA has witnessed a 10% jump in patronage after the first year of a sponsorship deal with ConnectEast. The partnership worth $200,000 over 5 years has allowed the MGA to remove its admission fee, giving a free visit to 60,800 people to the gallery since 1 July 2005...

Rubber duckies, you're the ones...
that make going to the MGA so much fun!

> new addition to sculpture park

Australian ducks often fly north for winter but the MGA has seen three giant rubber ducks land in our park and settle in for a long-term lease on the lake!

Mom and the two kids – Demographically Oz by Australian sculptor David Doyle is the new addition to the MGA's sculpture park. Made from fibreglass and measuring around two metres in height, Mom and the two kids – Demographically Oz was a finalist entry in The Helen Lempriere National Sculpture Award in 2001...

IMAGE:
David DOYLE
Mom and the two kids - Demographically Oz 2001
fibreglass and marine grade paint finish
On loan courtesy of David Doyle

Finalists announced

> Download media release (PDF)
> CV: Matthew Sleeth (PDF)
> MGA interview with Matthew Sleeth (PDF)

> the inaugural william and winifred bowness photography prize

The shortlist for one of Australia's youngest annual awards, the William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize, was officially announced today.

After attracting 320 entries from around the country, the judges selected 41 works by 42 emerging and established artists, which showcase the vitality and excellence in Australian photography today.

The shortlisted artists to feature in the inaugural Prize exhibition include:
Mireille Astore (NSW)
Greta Anderson (NSW)
Carol Barroso (NSW)
Colin Batrouney (VIC)
Fox Black (NSW)
Jules Boag and Rita Lazauskas (NSW)
Katie Breckon (VIC)
Andrew Browne (VIC)
Jane Burton (VIC)
James Calder (VIC)
David Callow (VIC)
Andrew Chapman (VIC)
Andrew Curtis (VIC)
Karen Donnelly (NSW)
Anne Ferran (NSW)
Joachim Froese (QLD)
Ruth Frost (TAS)
Silvi Glattauer (VIC)
Marie Green (NSW)
Fida Haq (NSW)
Petrina Hicks (NSW)
Fassih Keiso (VIC)
Daniel Kolieb (VIC)
Alison Langley (VIC)
Geoffrey Lea (TAS)
Kathy Mackey (QLD)
David Marks (VIC)
Melissa McVeigh (VIC)
Sophie Nowicka (VIC)
Simon Obarzanek (VIC)
Sonia Payes (VIC)
Sue Pedley (NSW)
Liss Ralston (VIC)
Toby Richardson (SA)
Margot Seares (ACT)
Glenn Sloggett (VIC)
Walter Stahl (QLD)
Angela Tarlinton (NSW)
Simon Terrill (VIC)
Beverley Veasey (NSW)
Anne Zahalka (NSW)...

> Winner to be announced: Thursday 24 August 2006, 6:30pm
> Exhibition on display: Friday 25 August to Sunday 12 November 2006

In the Frame

> matthew sleeth: pictured
23 June to 20 August 2006

The MGA is proud to be the first venue to present Pictured, the new series of work by one of Australia's foremost contemporary photographers, Matthew Sleeth.

This exhibition will feature 12 large colour images that explore vernacular photography and how we write our personal visual histories. By representing the act of photographing and being photographed, Pictured looks at what we choose to remember and celebrate about our lives in addition to how we wish to present ourselves. This series is also a study of the way vernacular photography is practiced as a social ritual and how people mediate direct experience viea the act of taking pictures...

IMAGE:
Matthew SLEETH
Untitled #13 [Sydney]
from the series Pictured, 2004-2006
type C photographs
Represented by Josef Lebovic Gallery (Sydney) and Jan Manton Art (Brisbane)

Trash transformed to treasure

> Download media release (PDF)
> 5 quick facts about Tim Webster (PDF)
> 8 quick facts about the Queen Vic (PDF)
> Q&A: Tim Webster (PDF)

> the new alchemists:
New Zealand National Art Awards for Artworks in Reclaimed Materials
23 June to 20 August 2006

Plastic pill bottles that form a crucible, shopping bags rolled into balls or shredded and knitted into brochures, illuminated china teacups and twirling ballerinas...

The New Alchemists touring awards exhibition showcases the diversity and inventiveness of New Zealand artists who have created object art from the disposables of everyday life...

IMAGE:
Premier Award
Tony BOND
Pharmunculus
plastic pill bottles
Reproduced courtesy of the artist and Professional Arts Services (Christchurch)

To market to market...

> to buy a fat pig: tim webster
23 June to 20 August 2006

The Queen Victoria Market is a quintessential part of Melbourne's heritage.

In this unique exhibition, documentary photographer, Tim Webster, presents an authentic insight into the vibrant, thriving, cosmopolitan emporium that is the Queen Victoria Market.

To Buy a Fat Pig features 40 colour photographs that reflect a deep respect for an institution that has endeared itself to Melbournians for over 125 years...

IMAGE:
Tim WEBSTER
Fish & arm, 2 November 2000
from the series The Market Project
archival inkjet print
Reproduced courtesy of the artist

> past releases

Legacy and unique vision of one of Australia's legendary photographers

> Download media release (PDF)
> Factsheet (Word)
> Public Programs in conjunction with David Moore: A Vision (PDF)
> Touring schedule - MGA travelling exhibition (Word)

> david moore: a vision, 1927-2003
7 April to 18 June 2006

The Monash Gallery of Art (MGA) is proud to present an important retrospective of one of Australia's legendary photographers that will tour nationally.

David Moore (1927-2003) is one of Australia's most significant and influential photographers. In a career spanning over 50 years, Moore produced many iconic images that have been imprinted on Australia's visual memory...

IMAGE:
David MOORE
Migrants arriving in Sydney -1966
gelatin silver photograph
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash collection
Reproduced courtesy of David Moore's family
(c) Estate of David Moore

Rich textures of desire and longing

> seeing in the dark: judy anderson
7 April to 18 June 2006

Emerging photomedia artist Judy Anderson explores relationships, intuition and desire in the exhibition, Seeing in the Dark. The photographic images and accompanying film examine how we might come into relationship with another, with the self, with a place or with a thought...

IMAGE:
Judy ANDERSON
A Place Opens 2004
digital print on cotton paper
Reproduced courtesy of the artist
and Art Galleries Schubert, Gold Coast

Fleeting moments

> light and landscape: warren langley and david hancock
7 April to 11 June 2006

World-renowned glass sculptor Warren Langley has, over the past six years, documented a series of installations using remote source lighting in environmental settings. From the wilds of the Scottish coastline, to castle ruins in Sweden, the canals of Amsterdam and the volcanic lakes of New Zealand, the project has amassed a large portfolio of images that address the transitory nature of light.

This exhibition specifically documents the Australian-based ventures, which have been collaboratively executed with friend and Australian photographer David Hancock, where sculptures made from fibre optic cables were erected amongst the natural landscape of the MacDonnell Ranges of Central Australia and captured on film at nightfall...

IMAGE:
Warren LANGLEY and David HANCOCK
Todd River Telegraph 2003
digital print to archival canvas
Reproduced courtesy of the artists

MGA Auction raises $36,000

> Download media release (Word)

Over 200 guests showed their support for one of Australia's leading public galleries on Saturday 1 April during Monash Gallery of Art's 8th annual Fundraising Dinner and Auction.

Around $36,000 was raised on the night through the auctioning of 27 artworks donated by some of Australia's best known and emerging contemporary photoartists and photographers. The top-selling auction item this year was a 1974 vintage print donated by one of Australia's “most collectible” photographers, Bill Henson, which went under the hammer for $5,500.

A unique charcoal sketch by Australia's favourite contemporary artist, Pro Hart was also auctioned only days after his passing. This highly sought after item was estimated to fetch around $700 - $800, however passionate bidding on the night caused it to ‘go through the ceiling' and soar to $4,500...

IMAGE:
Pro HART
Dragonfly, 2003
charcoal
85 x 105 cm
sketched on site on the occasion of the opening, Pro Hart: Retrospective, MGA
est. $700 - $800

Tribute for Pro Hart

> Download media release (Word)

Jane Scott, Director of the Monash Gallery of Art (MGA) and curator of the travelling exhibition, Pro Hart: Retrospective, pays tribute to one of Australia's most popular contemporary artists, Pro Hart who died today aged 77...

IMAGE:
Pro HART
Dragonfly 1967
oil on board

Tribute for architect, Harry Seidler

> Download media release (Word)

Jane Scott, Director of the Monash Gallery of Art (MGA) pays tribute to internationally-renowned architect, Harry Seidler who died today aged 82.

The MGA is a fine example of Seidler's architectural imagination and ideas, which incorporates both international style and organic elements that give the building a sculptural form in its own right...

IMAGE:
Max DUPAIN
Concept Model - The Exhibitions Gallery, Harry Seidler and Associates n.d.
gelatin silver photograph

Call for entries

> Download media release (Word)
> Official site: The Inaugural W illiam and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize (HTML)

> the inaugural william and winifred bowness photography prize
$10,000 non-acquisitive prize

The Monash Gallery of Art (MGA) invites photographers to submit works in competition for the William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize, to be awarded to the most outstanding photographic work as determined by the selection panel.

The William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize has been initiated by Mr Bill Bowness in honour of his late parents. Mr Bowness is the Chairman of the MGA Committee of Management – a position which he has held for the past seven years...

Artists unite in support of MGA

> Download media release (Word)
> Auction catalogue (PDF)
> Online Preview Exhibition (HTML)

> 8th annual fundraising dinner and auction
Preview exhibition: 24 February to 31 March 2006
Fundraising Dinner: Saturday 01 April 2006, 7:00pm

On Saturday 1 April 2006, the MGA will host its 8th annual Fundraising Dinner and Auction, a gala evening of fabulous entertainment, fine dining and exceptional photo-based art.

Bryan Dawe, one of Australia's leading satirists and humourists, will make an appearance as the outrageous and hilarious Sir Murray Rivers QC (Retired). Network Ten celebrity, Mike Larkan will be MC on the night while the multi-talented Boris Conley from the Ennio Morricone Experience will perform cocktail piano. Roger McIlroy, Managing Director of Christie's Australia, will then auction works by some of Australia's most collectible contemporary photoartists including Jane Burton, Rose Farrell and George Parkin, Bill Henson, Deborah Paauwe, Polixeni Papapetrou, Matthew Sleeth and many, many more! A unique charcoal sketch, created at the MGA by Australia's favourite artist, Pro Hart, will also be auctioned...

IMAGE:
Christopher KÖLLER
from Zen Zen Chigau, 1984/2005
type C photograph
45 x 57 cm
A/P edition of 5
Represented by M33, Melbourne

Latest treasures from the MGA Collection

> recent acquisitions: photographs from the mga collection
24 February to 31 March 2006

Specialising in Australian photography, the Monash Gallery of Art Collection is recognised as one of the Nation's finest.

The Collection forms one of the core functions of the MGA's activities and plays a major role in the exhibition program, touring projects, education services, public programs and quality publications that enable audiences to access and engage with photography...

IMAGE:
Matthew SLEETH
Untitled #1 from Opfikon 1997
type C photograph
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash collection
Reproduced courtesy of M.33, Melbourne
and Josef Lebovic Gallery, Sydney

The cult of celebrity

> the dream factory: george kannavas
24 February to 31 March 2006

Melbourne-based artist, George Kannavas, has developed a reputation for his psycho-socially charged body of photography. In The Dream Factory Kannavas continues his study of human vulnerability and frailty with a subversive perspective on fame, celebrity and Hollywood...

IMAGE:
George KANNAVAS Rock Star 2004
from The Dream Factory
type C photograph
Reproduced courtesy of the artist

Temporary closure for MGA in February 2006

> refurbishment of air-conditioning system
30 January to 23 February 2006

In February 2006, the Monash Gallery of Art (MGA) will undergo a refurbishment of its air-conditioning system to enhance climate control of the exhibition spaces and to ensure the conservation of the collection is first-class...

An abstract perspective

> colour and movement: abstract painting from the collection of the Geelong Gallery
16 December 2005 to 29 January 2006

A Geelong Gallery exhibition.

Featuring works by 16 significant artists, this special exhibition from the Geelong Gallery will contrast the formal and painterly styles of abstraction that have emerged over the past three decades...

IMAGE:
Ian BURN Yellow/blue painting (second premiss) 1965
synthetic polymer paint on cotton duck
Geelong Gallery Collection
Gift of Ian Burn, 1979
Reproduced courtesy of the artist's estate and Geelong Gallery

Traditional weaving with a contemporary twist