Author Archives: Brenda May Gallery

Now accepting proposals for Brenda May Annex 2014

Brenda May Gallery is now accepting exhibition proposals for 2014 from professional, practicing artists for the Brenda May Annex (BMA) 8/2 Danks Street, Waterloo 2017. Each exhibition for 2014 will be required to run for four weeks, coinciding with the Brenda May Gallery exhibition calendar. Preference will be given to interstate artists and those working in installation and/or video. Please note that the exhibitions by successful applicants will be curated, promoted, hung and supervised by the Gallery. Unlike other rental spaces, BMA provides an opportunity for artists to gain direct feedback regarding their work while fostering a relationship with a Gallery that maintains a long history of supporting emerging artists.

HIRE FEES WILL INCLUDE

Supervision by the Brenda May Gallery staff during opening hours.
Curatorial direction and consultation.
Professional installation including access to plinths and shelves as needed.
A digital invitation, produced and sent to our extensive email list.
Promotion in our email newsletter and our social media outlets (Facebook, Twitter & Pinterest).
A blog post feature and listing on our website.
Standard printed catalogue and c/v.

Download the PDF application HERE.

James Guppy, Waratah Lahy, Nicole Welch – Closing 25 May 2013

The current solo exhibitions by JAMES GUPPY, WARATAH LAHY and NICOLE WELCH will be on view until Saturday 25th of May. Want to know more? Take a moment to ‘like‘ us on Facebook to see all of the fun stuff and extras, from photos of Gemma the Gallery dog and #flashbackfriday, to previews of events and upcoming shows.

For the first time, James Guppy has decided to show the intimate and sometimes provocative photographs behind his mythical narrative paintings of the last few years. These photographic scenes are carefully constructed in collaboration with his wife Trude who fabricates the garments and headdresses. MUDWORKS provides an interesting peek into the artist’s studio and a greater insight into Guppy’s process.

Referencing the time spent at her recent residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, awarded by The Australia Council, Waratah Lahy’s new series of paintings investigates the overlooked. The work continues her recent departure from kitsch imagery and Australiana, the mainstay of her oeuvre and instead she took the opportunity to reflect on the quiet corners and fractured viewpoints experienced during her time in Paris.

The atmospheric landscape photographs by Nicole Welch in her Illumination series are a testament to her creativity and ingenuity. The images are achieved through an unwieldy process of transporting a crystal chandelier, mounted on a crane and powered by a generator, out in the bush surrounding Hill End, NSW. Setting up many hours before in the selected location, awaiting a tiny window of opportunity at either sunrise or sunset, Welch hoists the illuminated chandelier into the landscape or spotlights a cliff face to construct each frame.

James Guppy, Waratah Lahy, Nicole Welch – Opening 7 May 2013

Please join us for opening drinks with the Artists
Saturday 11 May 4-6pm

▶ JAMES GUPPY
“few years ago my practice went through an important change as, rather than referencing the images of others, I began working from my own photographs.. Friends became models to indulge my story-making impulses. Rich and unexpected things came out of these sessions and the photographs became an important part of my process… Although technically different, thematically they are a continuation of my visual obsessions.”

▶ WARATAH LAHY
“I am attracted to hidden things: not just things that are well hidden, but things that are more subtly obscured, disguised in plain sight… I am taking time to paint moments and places that deserve more than a cursory glance, more than passing attention.”

▶ NICOLE WELCH
“The Illumination works began when I was an artist-in-residence at Hill End in 2010. The archetypal Australian landscape that I encountered was overwhelmingly felt, along with the colonial histories imbued within. My ancestry is strongly connected to this region, dating back to pre-1850 when my ancestors arrived to secure pastoral leases on ‘uncharted’ land”

The exhibitions by James Guppy and Nicole Welch are part of the HeadOn Photo Festival.

guppy_lahy_welch

Now Accepting Proposals for ‘Art + Science’

Brenda May Gallery is seeking proposals from professional practising artists in Australia and New Zealand for the curated group exhibition ‘Art + Science′.

‘Art + Science’ – October 2013

The faculties of art and science are inextricably connected. Images are used to illustrate experiments and discoveries, and scientific ideas have influenced artistic movements, such as Impressionism and the Renaissance. Photography’s original scientific categorisation is another example of this relationship involving inspiration, cross-pollination and the rethinking of disciplinary boundaries.

‘Art + Science’ aims to explore and examine these multifaceted connections.

Proposals for this show must be received by Friday 26 July 2013.
Artwork to be delivered to the Gallery by Friday 27 September 2013.

Submissions should be posted directly to the Gallery (email submissions and proposals sent by registered post will not be accepted) and should include a CD of recent work and images in support of the proposal, an up to date C/V and a single page outline stating which exhibition you are submitting for and the nature of the work you are proposing. Please no powerpoint or keynote files.

Paper Works II – Closing 4 May 2013

Despite the curatorial limitations requiring the works to be crafted using paper, Paper Works II is remarkably diverse. Along a shelf is Mylyn Nguyen’s collection of glass jars and vessels, where only upon closer examination the extraordinarily lifelike daddy long-legs spiders that appear to have been captured and confined, reveal themselves as intricately cut inanimate, painted paper. Melinda Le Guay’s ‘Furl’ embodies the fragile and diaphanous nature of tissue paper, whilst contrasting this quality with the strength and composition provided by the frames she has crafted using agapanthus stalks.

Where some works present the delicacy of paper, others showcase the strength of the medium or reflect the contact with paper unavoidable in daily life. Trudy Moore’s remarkable rubbing, that is also simultaneously a paper sculpture, manages to hold its form without any supports. Providing a participatory factor are both Tammie Castle’s ‘Home is Where the Heart is’, inviting visitors to share a memory of home on a postcard, and also Chris Bold’s ‘What Happens Here Then’, which streams from the front of the building and into the Gallery, recording the footsteps of visitors.

Trudy Moore, ‘Chair with Light Switch’

“I use paper and charcoal to take large-scale, sculptural rubbings of objects and architecture. Through this work I am exploring a space between drawing and sculpture and considering notions of transition, fragility and memory in relation to personal human experience.

The empty, fragile, three-dimensional rubbings suggest notions of absence and presence, whilst also dealing with ideas of artifice and illusion. The techniques I employ to manipulate the paper indicate an expenditure of physical energy, illustrating both force and support and creating a tension between resistance and collapse.”

Trudy Moore, April 2013

Trudy Moore, ‘Chair with Light Switch’ 2013, charcoal on paper, 185 x 165 x 230cm. Currently on view as part of Paper Works II until 4 May 2013.

Tracey Clement, ‘Target: Ratus Ratus’

“The target is an almost irresistible graphic image; all those concentric rings create a mesmerising visual vortex, drawing the eye dead centre, sucking you in. No wonder the target is a perennial favourite of both pop artists and marketing gurus.

The target is also an iconic symbol of man-made violence. My targets are part of my ongoing project which explores the toxic legacy of the Enlightenment: the dangerous notion that it is both possible and desirable to dominate nature.

Using a razor blade, I’ve the ‘drawn’ the outline of rats onto ready-made targets, then allowed them to spiral out. Breaching the picture plane and occupying 3D space, these creatures embody nature’s vitality and patient omnipotence.

And, obviously, the association of man with vermin in this work is not coincidental. Like vermin, we devour. We proliferate without regard for the consequences. We are out of control and are causing damage. This is indisputable. What is up for discussion is, What are we going to do about it?”

Tracey Clement, 2013

Tracey Clement, ‘Target: Ratus Ratus’ 2010, paper, pins, foam core, 125 x 71.5 x 4.5cm. Currently on view as part of Paper Works II until 4 May 2013.

Mylyn Nguyen, ‘Daddy Long Legs’

Daddy Long Legs, 2013

“I am a champion at catching flying flies in mid air with a plastic cup, a whisperer to ants and a rescuer of spiders with my trusty glass jar and customized flattened lid for easy slide under spider action. But dare I admit that I have not always been the defender of bug, creepy crawly or wriggling thing. For my very first memory of meeting a spider, with no hesitation, I stuck my little index finger out, pointed and aimed and pop… a very flat and very dead, itty bitty red spider. If only the end of recess bell rung a second earlier.

Karma, I think has placed its finger on me and now no ant, no mosquito and certainly no spider have met my deadly index finger after that fateful day.”

Mylyn Nguyen, April 2013

Mylyn Nguyen, ‘Daddy Long Legs’ (installation view) 2013, watercolour + ink on paper, found glasses. Currently on view as part of Paper Works II until 4 May 2013.

Brenda May Annex: Manfred Krautschneider

Manfred Krautschneider
Suburban Reflections
16 April to 4 May 2013

“My photographs of reflections don’t mirror reality, but transform it, tending toward the surreal. The ‘Suburban Reflection’ series began when I captured well-known modern art motifs in the subtle distortions of the streetscape reflected on imperfect window glass and awnings. In these works, I invite the viewer to see the world from a different perspective.

Flat glass (flotation process) is a 1950′s invention. In the past, reflections on glass would be quite distorted. This understanding led me to hypothesise that Surrealism and Cubism may actually have been inspired by direct observation of reflections in uneven glass, and the superimpositions seen on and through glass via multiple reflections.

The new ‘Series 3′ presents more extensively distorted and layered reflections of the streetscape. I have found a fascinating series of contemporary images. Some elements of these images are ephemeral and the prints retain my struggle to capture the details, as the image as a whole takes over. Successfully holding the border between recognition and abstraction, these works transform suburbia into transcendent objects of contemplation, and psychologically charged premonitions.

Their meaning flickers at the edge of our consciousness with unexpected energy, as if imprinted with the activity of the subconscious mind. We are surrounded by reflections in our daily lives, but usually choose to ignore them, lest they speak to us of the unacknowledged, or invite us to ponder how much lies beyond the surface of things.

Note: This series of photos were taken in South East Queensland and Melbourne in 2012, and have not been manipulated.”

Brenda May Gallery Blog

Australian contemporary art gallery