Exhibitions
November
150 years
An exhibition of new works from Ben Quilty.
Through Quilty’s ominous and heterogeneous approach in 150 years each work invites us to participate in a critical discussion. The same Quilty who explored the spiritual hollowness of contemporary masculinity in paintings of passed-out mates is present here, yet these themes are refracted through the decades since, through experience, a global and pervasive uncertainty, and a tangible level of disillusionment. In an age of authoritarian revival, Quilty’s decades-long interrogation of masculinity is gaining momentum.
Recently dubbed a ‘critical citizen’ by curator Lisa Slade, Quilty’s new work at Tolarno more explicitly depicts a self- critical citizen. In this case Self may not necessarily connote oneself, but one’s milieu, an individual splattered, dispersed throughout their socio-cultural plane. The artist – as well as a few family members and friends – are present in the landscape of the Rorschach, in the abstract works, and of course in Santa himself.
Download the 150 Years exhibition essay by Milena Stojanovska.
Image: Ben Quilty After the Pink Dress (Self Portrait) 2019, oil on linen, 265 x 202 cm
November
Chromatic Balance
A new series of unique sculptures including Panelworks, Shoeforms and a centrepice Scooter/Stag.
July
Colony
Christopher Langton‘s new large scale installation takes ideas from science fiction about space colonisation – imagining space cities surrounded by asteroids, meteorites and other celestial bodies – and organisms from the microscopic world of viruses, bacteria and fungi.
Click to download the exhibition essay by Sophie Knezic.
July
Sydney Contemporary
Tolarno Galleries presents Amos Gebhardt‘s Night Horse at Sydney Contemporary art fair, Carriageworks, 12 – 15 September 2019.
Amos Gebhardt is an artist whose works have a cinematic scale, challenging normative notions of humanness by examining intersections between culture, nature and the body. Gebhardt maps both human and non-human narratives using techniques of collage, dance, slow motion and time lapse to frame large scale, multi-screen video installations and photographs.
The new photography series Night Horse examines the powerful currents between horses as they negotiate consent and desire during mating season. The work places the viewer inside the kinetic swirl of the herd where hooves, flicking tails, and outstretched limbs offer an intimate encounter across the species divide. The horses move from solid, muscular shapes to traces of light that merge with the dusty atmosphere. The photographs thus progress towards a presence beyond the body, to a thinness of form that suggests the ephemeral nature of being.
Amos Gebhardt will also present a lecture as part of the Writing and Concepts series, 4.30pm Sunday 15 September as part of Talks Contemporary at Carriageworks.
July
Reversible Rotation
Tolarno Galleries, in association with Martin Browne Contemporary, is pleased to announce the Australian Premiere of teamLab: Reversible Rotation. Presented in association with Melbourne International Arts Festival 2 – 20 October 2019.
From their frenetic hive of a base in Tokyo, this sprawling assembly of thinkers and dreamers create immersive works of breathtaking imagination—sculptures of light whose radiance seems to pass through your very body. Given how intensely teamLab works at the cutting edge of technology and futurism, it can be surprising to experience how grounded the collective’s practice is in the natural world, and indeed how their goal is to transcend the boundaries between humans and nature, and between oneself and the world.
In this exhibition four screen works will take over Tolarno Galleries. More information via Melbourne International Arts Festival.
Image: Enso – Cold Light, 2018. Digital Work, Single channel, Continuous Loop
May
skyground
A new Rosemary Laing series, shot on location in New Zealand.
Rosemary Laing was the recipient of the Kenneth Myer Alpine Artist Retreat program courtesy of Whare Kea Lodge and Chalet, Lake Wanaka and Mt Aspiring, New Zealand.
Image:
ROSEMARY LAING
where to from here #1 2019
archival pigment print
118 x 213 cm (framed size)
edition of 8
April
Mixed Emotions
Dan Moynihan’s newest solo exhibition, following The Least I Could Do (2016). Moynihan also has a new mirrored brick commission Public Display of Reflection on view at Lyon Housemuseum until 21 July.
Image: Dan Moynihan Work in Progress (detail) 2006-2007, adhesive stickers and paint, dimensions variable.
March
Dice Abstracts
Tim Maguire’s new series of prints, Dice Abstracts, premiered at Tim Maguire | Mixing Numbers: A Survey of Prints and Video 2003–2018 at Maitland Regional Art Gallery in November 2018. Drawing on imagery from his 1980s early works – simple landscape elements such as points of light on darkness, horizons, bands of light and reflection – Maguire devised the Dice Abstracts concept.
These simple elements were initially drawn in charcoal on textured paper and scanned. Using the throw of dice, the elements can be combined randomly to determine the base image, its horizontal/vertical orientation and positive/negative nature. Repeated three times – one throw for each of the three primary colours red, blue and yellow – the three coloured images are combined digitally. In total, there are 13,824 possible Dice Abstracts. In the parameters of Maguire’s project, each potential iteration can only be printed once.
Tim Maguire and Dorian Ford will collaborate on the performance To the Surface at Melbourne Recital Centre on Thursday 23 May, combining Maguire’s ambient, meditative video projections with Ford’s improvised jazz for piano.
Image: Tim Maguire AU526-551-312 2018, 112 x 112 cm paper size, archival pigment ink on paper
December
2019
December
The Passengers
Peter Atkins’ new project is a series of small-scale paintings that relate to his Metro Tunnel public commission entitled RAILway for Melbourne’s City Square, installed along Swanston Street un til October 2019.
The Passengers explores our collective social, cultural and personal narratives through the abstracted, obsolete designs of suburban train tickets issued between 1920 and the late 1980s by distilling and stripping away unnecessary details, focusing instead on the beautiful abstraction underneath. What is revealed is an extremely evocative collection of abstracted forms and colours that represent a complicated and fascinating visual coded language that is particular to Melbourne.
The Passengers continue Peter’s interest in appropriating and deconstructing what he terms readymade abstraction from the real world and amplifying those almost nothing moments…
Pictured: The Passengers 2018 installation view, acrylic on board, 40 x 22 cm each
