2024
Corinne Loxton I Into The Desert
19 November - 21 December, 2024
The Red Centre holds a unique position in the psyche and mythology of all Australians. This exhibition enables you to journey with me as I connect with and explore the majesty and extremes of the desert.
Deserts have long been spaces of encounter and challenge, places that seem limitless through which we experience our own physical and metaphysical limits. In the desert wilderness we can inhabit solitude and silence, connecting with ourselves, others, nature and the path of dreaming.
I made the plein air paintings in this exhibition while on a 3-week residency in the Red Centre in April 2024. As I immersed in the environment of the MacDonnell Ranges, I was able to connect profoundly with the landscape, exploring the desert’s mystical, sacred and environmental significance.
At a time of unprecedented focus on what it means to be an Australian inhabiting this land, when the impacts of climate change are being felt across both urban and non-urban communities, where people are experiencing less connection with nature, greater social and physical isolation and increased reliance on technology, my paintings invite a reconsideration of the importance of the Central deserts.
Eric Löbbecke | Letters for a Lover
22 October - 16 November, 2024
THE PROFUNDITY OF MY PATERNAL GRANDPARENT’S WARTIME LOVE STORY
When we lose a significant other along the way without answers for their disappearance, emotions are mixed and unrequited.
My grandmother escaped the advancing Russian army in Silesia during WWII. She and the four children moved in with her brother in Vienna. Her husband’s homecoming never eventuated, so she contributed money towards the restoration of the suburb’s Rochuskirche’s Bell. According to my father, she walked to mass every morning to hear the bell, a memory of her husband.
I’m interested in tapping into these feelings, investigating this liminal state visually through an iterative multidisciplinary artistic approach. My methodology is increasingly nuanced these days, with the use of sculpture in different mediums, reflecting a visceral response from its inception. It evolves through a series of 2D mark making processes to extract an ethereal response.
In essence I want the multi medium approach to bring the viewers empathetically to the unravelling emotional narrative and sometimes this process may not necessarily manifest beauty, and may provoke other responses deeply questioning our humanity.
My grandfather’s wartime disappearance has been my focus for the past 10 months, and I have documented it on my Socials, especially instagram.
I have produced ten sculptures and numerous digitally painted works I call my sketches which I then use for the final stage of the process to compose the exhibited oil paintings on canvas.
Letters for a lover is my latest body of “work in progress” and a continuation of my fascination and response to “Random Thoughts” within a liminal poetic state of existence.
Jane Gerrish I Sequel
24 September - 19 October 2024
Set in the South of France, between 1938 and 1954, Sequel takes the viewer on an intimate behind-the-scenes tour. Entering their studios and homes, we observe masters Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and his young partner, artist Françoise Gilot. Seduced by the dazzling light, Matisse had resided in Nice since 1921, moving to Vence in 1943. In 1946 Picasso and Gilot arrived in nearby Antibes, setting up their first home together. At 77, Matisse was twelve years older than Picasso and fifty-two years senior to Gilot, who was just 25. Already acquainted with Matisse in Paris, Picasso took Gilot to visit, and the two immediately struck up their own independent friendship. For both men, women collaborated as their working partners, and were pivotal in their practices. Matisse’s long standing Russian model, Lydia Délectorskaya managed his studios and homes, and during his ‘cut-outs chapter’, other female assistants were engaged for the laborious work of pinning his paper assemblages to the walls. Against the backdrop of motherhood and a volatile relationship with Picasso, Gilot was his model and muse, while still managing to maintain her own art practice. She was forty years his junior. Collecting each other’s work, debating ideas and sharing subjects, the three artists met regularly. For each one, the work of this period demonstrates their spirit of curiosity, experimentation and reinvention. In 1941, recovering from a serious operation, Matisse had begged his doctors for more time to complete his life’s work. Surviving another 13 years, in 1948 he moved from his home, Villa La Rêve in Vence, to the Hôtel Régina in Nice. Here he continued with his groundbreaking cut-outs series, “drawing with scissors”, his painting practice diminishing. Bedridden and wearing an iron corset, he directed studio assistants with a bamboo rod, drawing on the walls with charcoal attached to its tip. Flooding the studios with colour, playful paper stencils proliferated, evoking lagoons and sea creatures seen by Matisse in Tahiti many years earlier. He often referred to this fruitful period as his “second life”, or sequel
Edward Inchbold I Brand New People
28 August - 21 September 2024
Usually by the time a canvas is up and I’m preparing my palette, the images have started. Like a projector’s started and going. I get images the rest of the time - pictures in my head, the same as anyone. But the imagery when I’m about to step up and paint and the ones that happen in the painting come on stronger. Maybe I'm just paying more attention at the easel. They make me feel certain ways. And it is that growing feeling and the sensations that come in the wake of imagery that are the reason I paint. Even what I paint. Some days I even see a way forward. Some days the feeling of painting is so overwhelming that I want to cry out and stop going. Then I try to go further and further again. But standing at a painting and landing blows is just another way of thinking things through. It’s when I have gone beyond thinking, when I’m really possessed by something outside of it - that is where the work seems to happen
Judy Holding | Palimpsest
30 August - 24 August 2024
The works in this show portray the marks and sounds of the ancient Australian landscape made by those who have lived and travelled here forever. These marks, from the delicate ochre rock paintings and engravings of the Arnhem Land Plateau to the huge, destructive scars left by Industry in both the NT and the Goldfields of Victoria, continue to be accumulated layer upon layer. Watching over all this activity have been the great survivors, our birds. The songbirds and parrots evolved here 45 million years ago. 1. ‘Parrots and songbirds are far and away the world’s most intelligent birds and Australia gave the world both ‘ From the earliest known cave paintings to the journals of the artists on the First Fleet, birds have been a constant source of inspiration and fascination. The early European images were not just mere decoration but were used as political images to remind those in power in Europe of the tiny Colony the other side of the world and the possibilities there. 1.Tim Low, “Where song began - Australia’s birds and how they changed the world “ p.128, published by Viking, an imprint of Penguin Books, 2014
Yvonne Boag | Yvonne Boag
9 July - 27 July 2024
I exist in, with and between, the shapes and colours in my paintings. Surrounded by nature, I move between them in the landscape or, through their resonance, in my mind. Situations, experiences and movement are the subjects of my work described through my own language, symbol and colour.
The paintings in this exhibition begin with Mount Guemgan in North Korea and the DMZ between North and South Korea. Then they move across Australia from Sydney through Yass then the Hay plain and eventually to Adelaide where the final work in this exhibition “Knowing Yourself” originates.
Holly Guinness | The Imari Plate
11 June - 6 July 2024
In her inaugural solo exhibition, Holly Guinness presents a charming series of small – scale artworks, meticulously drawn in coloured pencil on paper. Each piece offers viewers a familiar glimpse into into the world of fruit and vegetables viewed from an aerial perspective. Central to the collection of the three plates depicted is “The Imari Plate” a title inspired by Holly’s own 18th century Arita ware plate, distinguished by its iconic blue and white motif. The plate reflects Holly’s personal connection to history and tradition infusing the exhibition with a sense of nostalgia. Drawing from her background as a paper conservator, Holly demonstrates her attention to detail and love of colour. Each artwork is a testament to her exceptional skill, with every luscious curve of a ripe apple and intricate pattern of a pears skin rendered with precision and care. Through her delicate drawings, Holly invites viewers to rediscover the beauty and complexity of nature, celebrating the inherent artistry found in everyday objects. “The Imari Plate” is a celebration of Holly’s artistic talent and her ability to evoke a sense of wonder and appreciation for the world around us. Through her thoughtful compositions and skilful execution, she invites you to pause and contemplate the beauty that surrounds them, finding joy in the simple pleasures of everyday life.
Emerging Artists I Jane Alexander, Julie Nicolson, Fiona Verity
30 April - 8 June 2024
Various paintings and screen prints from three new artists
Merran Esson | Remembering Merran
2 April - 27 April 2024
A retrospective of Merran's work.
Judith White | Romance and Realism
5 March - 28 March 2024
This selection of drawings, are examples of work produced in situ often forming the basis for a series of paintings. They help me to find an intrinsic connection with a subject. I often work on prepared paper utilising a mixed media approach to Plein-air work. This fits my painting practice more effectively. Villa le Rêve, the house where Matisse lived in Vence, has studio space for artist’s to stay and work. I had an opportunity to be able to work there for an extended period. The drawings attempt to capture a strong feeling I had of the spirit of Matisse still in the house, despite the huge flow of tourists and artists over the decades. In the dining room of the house, there was a photograph of Matisse coming through the front gates of the garden with a walking stick, heavy coat and hat, smoking a small cigar. I’ve overlayed this image in drawings looking out from the doors and windows of the 2nd floor, where I had a studio space. The palm trees growing in front of the house often feature in some of Matisse’s drawings; now they have grown, looming through the windows and towering over the façade. Over a 3 year period, I worked regularly in a small rented house in the coastal town of Red Rock, near Grafton NSW. I travelled there whenever I could get away, working for 2-3 weeks. The locals loved fishing in the estuary and I would see them on my walks and be able to stop and draw. People fishing are remarkably good at standing still, giving me plenty of time to work. In the New England/Bathurst landscapes I’m playing with the romantic sensibility of travel through a landscape; the winding road pulling you through the space. I would work by the side of the road gathering as much information as possible and then finish an idea in the studio. A ‘romantic landscape wouldn’t be complete without the input of a compelling sky and horizon line
Annabel Butler, Janet Dawson, Rod Holdaway, Judy Holding, Kerrie Leishman, Corinne Loxton, Ian Marr | The Summer Show 2024
6 February- 1 March 2024
A collection of paintings that convey the feeling of summer.
