Calendar
Calendar
The HUM calendar features exhibitions & events by New Zealand arts practitioners working or living abroad.
Sam Rountree-Williams and Matt Arbuckle, Lazar!
Haydens Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
04 August —
03 September 2022
Haydens Gallery is pleased to present LAZAR! an exhibition which fuses together conspiracy theories on extra-terrestrials, secret studies of anti-gravitational elements, and the aesthetics of American modernism and minimalist art that influenced popular depictions of speculative fiction. This exhibition features the work of Aotearoa artists Sam Rountree-Williams and Matt Arbuckle.
Haydens Gallery is pleased to present LAZAR! an exhibition which fuses together conspiracy theories on extra-terrestrials, secret studies of anti-gravitational elements, and the aesthetics of American modernism and minimalist art that influenced popular depictions of speculative fiction. This exhibition features the work of Aotearoa artists Sam Rountree-Williams and Matt Arbuckle.
FAFSWAG Arts Collective, Asia TOPA Radar
The Substation, Naarm Melbourne, Australia
6.30PM — 9.00PM
27 March 2024
From playlists to performances, exhibitions, books and internet deep dives, Asia TOPA Radar brings together artists from across the Asia-Pacific for an evening of creativity, community and good times.
March's event features three leading artists and collectives: Queer Indigenous collective FAFSWAG (Aotearoa New Zealand), an iconic ensemble with a shapeshifting practice that bends genres and artforms; Melbourne artists Mindy Meng Wang & Monica Lim, a duo who share Chinese heritage and experiment across contemporary and traditional music and sound; and dance artist and producer Efren Pamilacan, whose practice traverses cultural and social spheres including hip-hop culture, underground dance culture and contemporary art.
This edition of Asia TOPA Radar is specially curated to coincide with FAFSWAG’s exhibition Alteration, which is on display during the event, presented as part of PHOTO 2024.
From playlists to performances, exhibitions, books and internet deep dives, Asia TOPA Radar brings together artists from across the Asia-Pacific for an evening of creativity, community and good times.
March's event features three leading artists and collectives: Queer Indigenous collective FAFSWAG (Aotearoa New Zealand), an iconic ensemble with a shapeshifting practice that bends genres and artforms; Melbourne artists Mindy Meng Wang & Monica Lim, a duo who share Chinese heritage and experiment across contemporary and traditional music and sound; and dance artist and producer Efren Pamilacan, whose practice traverses cultural and social spheres including hip-hop culture, underground dance culture and contemporary art.
This edition of Asia TOPA Radar is specially curated to coincide with FAFSWAG’s exhibition Alteration, which is on display during the event, presented as part of PHOTO 2024.
PHOTO 2024: International Festival of Photography
various venues across Naarm Melbourne, Australia
01 March —
24 March 2024
Taking place every two years in Naarm Melbourne and cities across regional Victoria, the festival addresses the major issues of our time in a programme of free exhibitions, outdoor displays and artist commissions, as well as awards, talks, workshops, tours and film screenings. Presenting ideas critical to contemporary photographic discourse, PHOTO International Festival of Photography encourages the public to engage with and think about photography and visual culture in new and inspiring ways.
Participating artists from Aotearoa New Zealand in PHOTO 2024 - The Future Is Shaped by Those Who Can See It include Amrita Hepi, Angela Tiatia, FAFSWAG Arts Collective and Fiona Amundsen.
Taking place every two years in Naarm Melbourne and cities across regional Victoria, the festival addresses the major issues of our time in a programme of free exhibitions, outdoor displays and artist commissions, as well as awards, talks, workshops, tours and film screenings. Presenting ideas critical to contemporary photographic discourse, PHOTO International Festival of Photography encourages the public to engage with and think about photography and visual culture in new and inspiring ways.
Participating artists from Aotearoa New Zealand in PHOTO 2024 - The Future Is Shaped by Those Who Can See It include Amrita Hepi, Angela Tiatia, FAFSWAG Arts Collective and Fiona Amundsen.
Alicia Frankovich, Spaces of Life
1301SW, Melbourne, Australia
03 February —
09 March 2024
Titled Spaces of Life, this exhibition renders tangible the dystopian future big tech is marching us toward. A complex exhibition, where each element points to disruption, where things have gone awry, deviating from the expected course. Decommissioned fridges housing 3D-printed and resin forms of life, both human and non-human, sit absent of the soft hum of power.
While salvaged Tesla airbags from scraped cars, here provide no soft cushioning, rather one eerily breathes on the floor like a lung, gently inflating and deflating — clinging to life — while another is cast in resin like a cryogenic carcass. Many of the objects within this exhibition appear as cocoons lacking life, Sci-Fi and otherworldly, they appear as though frozen in time, a futile attempt to prolong and sustain their existence, waiting for Musk and his cronies to reincarnate them on a distant planet. This overarching presence of big tech idealism embodies an attempt to capture and recreate life on another planet amidst our forthcoming economic, environmental and social crisis.
Titled Spaces of Life, this exhibition renders tangible the dystopian future big tech is marching us toward. A complex exhibition, where each element points to disruption, where things have gone awry, deviating from the expected course. Decommissioned fridges housing 3D-printed and resin forms of life, both human and non-human, sit absent of the soft hum of power.
While salvaged Tesla airbags from scraped cars, here provide no soft cushioning, rather one eerily breathes on the floor like a lung, gently inflating and deflating — clinging to life — while another is cast in resin like a cryogenic carcass. Many of the objects within this exhibition appear as cocoons lacking life, Sci-Fi and otherworldly, they appear as though frozen in time, a futile attempt to prolong and sustain their existence, waiting for Musk and his cronies to reincarnate them on a distant planet. This overarching presence of big tech idealism embodies an attempt to capture and recreate life on another planet amidst our forthcoming economic, environmental and social crisis.
FAFSWAG Arts Collective, Queer PHOTO: Alteration
The Substation, Melbourne, Australia
27 January —
24 March 2024
Queer PHOTO: Alteration meets at the intersections of cultural archival practices, digital technology and queer Indigenous storytelling, presenting a glimpse into the shapeshifting practice of FAFSWAG, an Aotearoa-based queer Polynesian arts collective.
Compiling a decade of artistic output, with two years of co-design, co-curation, research and production, this show presents a mixed media archival exhibition of significant works from the collective from 2013 to now. Contemplating ancestry and legacy, reclaiming stolen narratives, speculating fictional futures, and redefining the cultural image of queer Pacific bodies living on stolen land, Alteration seeks to break down predictable, fixed colonial narratives.
Featuring 17 artists, 14 exhibitions, 30 interactive events and 7 locations, Queer PHOTO is a multi-pronged programme transforming iconic venues and the streets of west Melbourne into a gallery of accessible and highly visible visual artworks from LGBTQIA+ artists.
Queer PHOTO: Alteration meets at the intersections of cultural archival practices, digital technology and queer Indigenous storytelling, presenting a glimpse into the shapeshifting practice of FAFSWAG, an Aotearoa-based queer Polynesian arts collective.
Compiling a decade of artistic output, with two years of co-design, co-curation, research and production, this show presents a mixed media archival exhibition of significant works from the collective from 2013 to now. Contemplating ancestry and legacy, reclaiming stolen narratives, speculating fictional futures, and redefining the cultural image of queer Pacific bodies living on stolen land, Alteration seeks to break down predictable, fixed colonial narratives.
Featuring 17 artists, 14 exhibitions, 30 interactive events and 7 locations, Queer PHOTO is a multi-pronged programme transforming iconic venues and the streets of west Melbourne into a gallery of accessible and highly visible visual artworks from LGBTQIA+ artists.
Richard Lewer, NGV Triennial
NGV International, Melbourne, Australia
03 December 2023 —
07 April 2024
Through twelve paintings, Richard Lewer (b. 1970 Aotearoa New Zealand) examines the creation story of Adam and Eve, central to Abrahamic religions. Particular to Christianity is how this story of the original human couple also represents the concept of ‘original sin’ and ‘the fall of man’.
The story has served as a source of inspiration and commentary by artists throughout the history of Western art. Lewer’s series sits in association with the Carved retable of the Passion of Christ, also known as the Antwerp altarpiece (c. 1511–20) – created as a didactic edifice for the contemplation by the faithful. The associationof this significant historical work with Lewer’s series is indicative of how people have always and continue to look to biblical stories for self-examination and understanding of their contemporary world.
Through twelve paintings, Richard Lewer (b. 1970 Aotearoa New Zealand) examines the creation story of Adam and Eve, central to Abrahamic religions. Particular to Christianity is how this story of the original human couple also represents the concept of ‘original sin’ and ‘the fall of man’.
The story has served as a source of inspiration and commentary by artists throughout the history of Western art. Lewer’s series sits in association with the Carved retable of the Passion of Christ, also known as the Antwerp altarpiece (c. 1511–20) – created as a didactic edifice for the contemplation by the faithful. The associationof this significant historical work with Lewer’s series is indicative of how people have always and continue to look to biblical stories for self-examination and understanding of their contemporary world.
Brian Fuata, Overshare Video Festival
Testing Grounds Emporium, Melbourne, Australia
07 October —
22 October 2023
Curated by Garden Reflexxx and recess, Overshare is a 16-day screen festival and playground. It features workshops, 16mm film screenings, movie gossip, and a selection of hand-picked films. Included in this year's event is Aotearoa artist Brian Fuata's Positivity: a perffilm, a reiteration of Negativity: a ten-minute performance film edited from three ten-minute improvisations.
The content of the performances is derived from a short clip Fuata took on his smartphone of a gardener killing a castor oil plant in his backyard. In the video the gardener works to clear the ground of plant matter, until the plant itself is stripped bare. From behind the camera Fuata calls, “Arrgghh, I’m naked.” His off-camera laughter is met with a non-response from the gardener so that he adds, “That was the plant speaking.” The gardener shakes the naked plant and exits the frame. In Negativity, Fuata uses a seemingly mundane scene to allow the plant’s subjectivity to emerge from a place of human negation. In Positivity, Fuata’s aforementioned reappropriating of human negation takes new form – a double take – as if it imply the only way to grow is up. It doesn’t end with a ghost; it ends with a ghost carrying a video camera.
Curated by Garden Reflexxx and recess, Overshare is a 16-day screen festival and playground. It features workshops, 16mm film screenings, movie gossip, and a selection of hand-picked films. Included in this year's event is Aotearoa artist Brian Fuata's Positivity: a perffilm, a reiteration of Negativity: a ten-minute performance film edited from three ten-minute improvisations.
The content of the performances is derived from a short clip Fuata took on his smartphone of a gardener killing a castor oil plant in his backyard. In the video the gardener works to clear the ground of plant matter, until the plant itself is stripped bare. From behind the camera Fuata calls, “Arrgghh, I’m naked.” His off-camera laughter is met with a non-response from the gardener so that he adds, “That was the plant speaking.” The gardener shakes the naked plant and exits the frame. In Negativity, Fuata uses a seemingly mundane scene to allow the plant’s subjectivity to emerge from a place of human negation. In Positivity, Fuata’s aforementioned reappropriating of human negation takes new form – a double take – as if it imply the only way to grow is up. It doesn’t end with a ghost; it ends with a ghost carrying a video camera.
Daniel von Sturmer, Electric Light (facts/figures/haydens)
Haydens, Melbourne, Australia
23 September —
07 October 2023
Electric light (facts/figures) continues Daniel von Sturmer’s investigation into light as a powerful and fluid material. The installation involves a programmed intelligent light which projects custom drawn geometric shapes: a square, a circle, lines and grids (the "figures") that extend or warp within different galleries or environments (interacting with the "facts" of the space).
The work uses technology as an active generator of images and encounters within the gallery space, and brings the apparatus into play as a kind of character in the unfolding drama. Expanding on static light works of Michel Verjux, Barbara Kasten and others, the work engages directly with architectural propositions inherent within the spaces, as well as the overlooked and forgotten artefacts of use such as abandoned hooks, isolated bollards, or plumbing work unsuccessfully hidden in gallery white paint.
Electric light (facts/figures) continues Daniel von Sturmer’s investigation into light as a powerful and fluid material. The installation involves a programmed intelligent light which projects custom drawn geometric shapes: a square, a circle, lines and grids (the "figures") that extend or warp within different galleries or environments (interacting with the "facts" of the space).
The work uses technology as an active generator of images and encounters within the gallery space, and brings the apparatus into play as a kind of character in the unfolding drama. Expanding on static light works of Michel Verjux, Barbara Kasten and others, the work engages directly with architectural propositions inherent within the spaces, as well as the overlooked and forgotten artefacts of use such as abandoned hooks, isolated bollards, or plumbing work unsuccessfully hidden in gallery white paint.
Tamsen Hopkinson, James Nguyen: Open Glossary
Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, Australia
16 September —
19 November 2023
Open Glossary is a new exhibition which sees James Nguyen collaborate with Tamsen Hopkinson, Budi Sudarto, Kate ten Buuren and Chris Xu on a multi-lingual installation presented across ACCA’s gallery spaces. Born in Vietnam and based in Naarm Melbourne, James Nguyen’s interdisciplinary practice examines strategies of decolonisation, while also interrogating the politics of family history, language, displacement and diaspora.
Open Glossary probes the language and terminologies that permeate contemporary art and society more widely. Nguyen and collaborators present dynamic installations, videos, performances and events that foster multi-lingual conversations on a range of contemporary issues, including Land Rights and Indigenous Constitutional Recognition, gender diversity and sexual identity, and the linguistic links and spiritual connections of Southeast Asia, First Nations Australian and Moana neighbours.
Open Glossary is a new exhibition which sees James Nguyen collaborate with Tamsen Hopkinson, Budi Sudarto, Kate ten Buuren and Chris Xu on a multi-lingual installation presented across ACCA’s gallery spaces. Born in Vietnam and based in Naarm Melbourne, James Nguyen’s interdisciplinary practice examines strategies of decolonisation, while also interrogating the politics of family history, language, displacement and diaspora.
Open Glossary probes the language and terminologies that permeate contemporary art and society more widely. Nguyen and collaborators present dynamic installations, videos, performances and events that foster multi-lingual conversations on a range of contemporary issues, including Land Rights and Indigenous Constitutional Recognition, gender diversity and sexual identity, and the linguistic links and spiritual connections of Southeast Asia, First Nations Australian and Moana neighbours.
Angela Tiatia, The Dark Current
ACMI, Melbourne, Australia
05 September —
12 November 2023
Spanning three years and filmed in four countries, Angela Tiatia's new video work, The Dark Current is her most ambitious project to date. For the first time, using a combination of videogame software and carefully crafted live-action scenes, Tiatia lays bare her own image-making through unscripted scenes, blurring the line between reality and fantasy. The resulting work is a dream-like visual poem that skims the beautiful yet murky surface of Pacific myth-making to arrive at a hopeful vision for the future.
Spanning three years and filmed in four countries, Angela Tiatia's new video work, The Dark Current is her most ambitious project to date. For the first time, using a combination of videogame software and carefully crafted live-action scenes, Tiatia lays bare her own image-making through unscripted scenes, blurring the line between reality and fantasy. The resulting work is a dream-like visual poem that skims the beautiful yet murky surface of Pacific myth-making to arrive at a hopeful vision for the future.
Alicia Frankovich and Yvonne Todd, Art Forum
University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
24 August —
07 September 2023
Art Forum is the Victorian College of the Arts’ series of weekly talks by leading artists and curators. Providing a rich insight into their work and its relationship with the world, each guest speaker shares the themes, processes and ideas that drive their practice.
On 24 August, Yvonne Todd (based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland) is Art Forum's guest speaker, while on 7 September, Alicia Frankovich (based in Naarm Melbourne) presents a public lecture on campus. Art Forum talks take place at the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, from from 12:15 pm—1:15 pm and are free to attend. They are also available online via Zoom webinar (registration is required).
Art Forum is the Victorian College of the Arts’ series of weekly talks by leading artists and curators. Providing a rich insight into their work and its relationship with the world, each guest speaker shares the themes, processes and ideas that drive their practice.
On 24 August, Yvonne Todd (based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland) is Art Forum's guest speaker, while on 7 September, Alicia Frankovich (based in Naarm Melbourne) presents a public lecture on campus. Art Forum talks take place at the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, from from 12:15 pm—1:15 pm and are free to attend. They are also available online via Zoom webinar (registration is required).
Amrita Hepi, Straight torque, twin series
Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
19 August —
23 September 2023
Straight torque, twin series is a solo show by interdisciplinary artist Amrita Hepi (Bundjulung/Ngāpuhi) that uses linguistic mechanisms, specifically homophones, as a framing device.
Homophones (morning/mourning, blew/blue, I’ll/aisle/isle) are defined as words sharing identical pronunciation but possessing distinct meanings. By pointedly using the paradoxical nature of the English language to develop a visual dialect, Hepi’s work elicits a spectrum of effects, ranging from frustration and failure, to delight and the absurdity of our collective reality.
Capturing moments of intimacy against the backdrop of her birthplace, ‘Townsville’, these fabricated vignettes feature Hepi's younger, but strikingly similar-looking, sister, who serves as a visual and conceptual companion. A doppelgänger, or homophone, both intertwined, and simultaneously, other. Presented in a high gloss finish, these eerie, fictionalised scenes confront the onlooker with the complex dynamic of the multiple and the singular.
Straight torque, twin series is a solo show by interdisciplinary artist Amrita Hepi (Bundjulung/Ngāpuhi) that uses linguistic mechanisms, specifically homophones, as a framing device.
Homophones (morning/mourning, blew/blue, I’ll/aisle/isle) are defined as words sharing identical pronunciation but possessing distinct meanings. By pointedly using the paradoxical nature of the English language to develop a visual dialect, Hepi’s work elicits a spectrum of effects, ranging from frustration and failure, to delight and the absurdity of our collective reality.
Capturing moments of intimacy against the backdrop of her birthplace, ‘Townsville’, these fabricated vignettes feature Hepi's younger, but strikingly similar-looking, sister, who serves as a visual and conceptual companion. A doppelgänger, or homophone, both intertwined, and simultaneously, other. Presented in a high gloss finish, these eerie, fictionalised scenes confront the onlooker with the complex dynamic of the multiple and the singular.
Tim Wagg, Interior
Haydens, Melbourne, Australia
19 August —
16 September 2023
Interior is a new series of eight works by Aotearoa New Zealand-based artist Tim Wagg. In this exhibition, medium-format photographs are framed within a silhouette, conveying Wagg’s interest in how domestic spaces come to reflect various aspects of time, place, and the aspirations of those who occupy them.
Housed in slim black aluminium frames, these works depict domestic spaces from Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland held within silhouettes of people sourced from Wagg’s personal archive of phone snapshots and screenshots. Describing these figures, Wagg explains, “There is something ghostly about simplifying these images into silhouettes; they are at once so familiar and so ambiguous.” Despite the hollow nature of silhouette, these spectral forms evoke assumptions, allowing viewers to project their own desires and interpretations onto these simple lines and the unpopulated rooms they frame.
Interior is a new series of eight works by Aotearoa New Zealand-based artist Tim Wagg. In this exhibition, medium-format photographs are framed within a silhouette, conveying Wagg’s interest in how domestic spaces come to reflect various aspects of time, place, and the aspirations of those who occupy them.
Housed in slim black aluminium frames, these works depict domestic spaces from Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland held within silhouettes of people sourced from Wagg’s personal archive of phone snapshots and screenshots. Describing these figures, Wagg explains, “There is something ghostly about simplifying these images into silhouettes; they are at once so familiar and so ambiguous.” Despite the hollow nature of silhouette, these spectral forms evoke assumptions, allowing viewers to project their own desires and interpretations onto these simple lines and the unpopulated rooms they frame.
Seung Yul Oh, Orbit
101 Collins St, Melbourne, Australia
15 August 2023 —
15 August 2028
Orbit (2023) is a newly commissioned sculpture project by Seung Yul Oh consisting of a pair of 6.5m high mirror-polish bronze infinity symbols, which cantilever over the Collins Street entrance of the 101 Collins lobby. These two large-scale sculptures articulate the central ceiling space, highlighting its grand vastness, while embracing the viewer in a nurturing but also comic and slightly unnerving way. Coated in lush liquid mirror polish, Orbit captures and mimics the movement of people in the space, at once reflecting the bodies of the viewers while they simultaneously dematerialise and become part of it.
Orbit is one of five projects commissioned by Curator Emily Cormack destined to join the permanent collection of the 101 Collins Street initiative.
Orbit (2023) is a newly commissioned sculpture project by Seung Yul Oh consisting of a pair of 6.5m high mirror-polish bronze infinity symbols, which cantilever over the Collins Street entrance of the 101 Collins lobby. These two large-scale sculptures articulate the central ceiling space, highlighting its grand vastness, while embracing the viewer in a nurturing but also comic and slightly unnerving way. Coated in lush liquid mirror polish, Orbit captures and mimics the movement of people in the space, at once reflecting the bodies of the viewers while they simultaneously dematerialise and become part of it.
Orbit is one of five projects commissioned by Curator Emily Cormack destined to join the permanent collection of the 101 Collins Street initiative.
Lisa Walker and Aphra Cheesman, JILL: A True Story of a Clever Jeweller | Commonplaceness
Gallery Funaki, Melbourne, Australia
26 July —
26 August 2023
Gallery Funaki presents two exhibitions by contemporary jewellery artists from Aotearoa: JILL: A True Story of a Clever Jeweller by Lisa Walker, and Commonplaceness by Aphra Cheesman.
Lisa Walker's practice has, over 30 years, reconfigured the landscape of contemporary jewellery. A freewheeling journey of material and conceptual discovery, the combination of freedom and trust in her own path has provided some of the most confounding, inquiring, joyous and essential works in the field. Now, in the flourishing of mid-career, Walker brings a suite of pieces to Funaki that revel in the maturity and sophistication that such success brings.
Aphra Cheesman's practice includes contemporary jewellery, objects, drawing, video and sculpture. Her research examines our complex relationships with commonplace materials and objects, often considered in relation to the cycles of capitalism and other economic, social, political and environmental systems. Cheesman's work is often situated within the overlooked and in-between moments of everyday life, and she has a daily practice of observing and collecting from which her research and creative works often evolve.
Gallery Funaki presents two exhibitions by contemporary jewellery artists from Aotearoa: JILL: A True Story of a Clever Jeweller by Lisa Walker, and Commonplaceness by Aphra Cheesman.
Lisa Walker's practice has, over 30 years, reconfigured the landscape of contemporary jewellery. A freewheeling journey of material and conceptual discovery, the combination of freedom and trust in her own path has provided some of the most confounding, inquiring, joyous and essential works in the field. Now, in the flourishing of mid-career, Walker brings a suite of pieces to Funaki that revel in the maturity and sophistication that such success brings.
Aphra Cheesman's practice includes contemporary jewellery, objects, drawing, video and sculpture. Her research examines our complex relationships with commonplace materials and objects, often considered in relation to the cycles of capitalism and other economic, social, political and environmental systems. Cheesman's work is often situated within the overlooked and in-between moments of everyday life, and she has a daily practice of observing and collecting from which her research and creative works often evolve.
Christoper Duncan, Evangeline Riddiford-Graham and Victoria Wynne-Jones, never together
FUTURES, Melbourne, Australia
20 July —
19 August 2023
FUTURES presents never together, the second exhibition in a series by curator Victoria Wynne-Jones (Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland) entitled Resources of the Social Imagination, which looks at ways in which narrative pleasure might engage with contemporary art.
An attempt is made to realise a space for imagining and to evoke the feeling one has when one has spent the whole day reading a novel and then goes out in the evening to an exhibition opening, still buzzing with its words. never together unfolds in relation to Helen Garner’s short story In Paris, a fictive episode that lays bare contrasting approaches to the way in which one cares for oneself and for others, through the acts of labour of preparing and cooking food. In the process, it investigates the banality of daily life, the vicissitudes of intense inter-personal relationships, concepts of nourishment and vegetal perspectives.
Featuring entirely new works made especially for this exhibition, highlights include a series of small magical realist paintings by Matilda Davis, audio works by Evangeline Riddiford-Graham (Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland) consisting of readings of original poetry, and a textile work as tablecloth woven by Christopher Duncan (Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland).
FUTURES presents never together, the second exhibition in a series by curator Victoria Wynne-Jones (Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland) entitled Resources of the Social Imagination, which looks at ways in which narrative pleasure might engage with contemporary art.
An attempt is made to realise a space for imagining and to evoke the feeling one has when one has spent the whole day reading a novel and then goes out in the evening to an exhibition opening, still buzzing with its words. never together unfolds in relation to Helen Garner’s short story In Paris, a fictive episode that lays bare contrasting approaches to the way in which one cares for oneself and for others, through the acts of labour of preparing and cooking food. In the process, it investigates the banality of daily life, the vicissitudes of intense inter-personal relationships, concepts of nourishment and vegetal perspectives.
Featuring entirely new works made especially for this exhibition, highlights include a series of small magical realist paintings by Matilda Davis, audio works by Evangeline Riddiford-Graham (Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland) consisting of readings of original poetry, and a textile work as tablecloth woven by Christopher Duncan (Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland).
Renee Cosgrave, Pink Heat
Haydens, Melbourne, Australia
08 July —
05 August 2023
Taking its title from one of Mikala Dwyer’s nail polish monochromes of the 1990s, Pink Heat is an exhibition that explores colour as a way of being in and understanding the world. Paintings by three artists of different generations (Mikala Dwyer, Renee Cosgrave and Madeline Simm) comes together here to reveal the ways abstraction can hold and emanate joy, memory, and connection. Curated by Emma Nixon.
Taking its title from one of Mikala Dwyer’s nail polish monochromes of the 1990s, Pink Heat is an exhibition that explores colour as a way of being in and understanding the world. Paintings by three artists of different generations (Mikala Dwyer, Renee Cosgrave and Madeline Simm) comes together here to reveal the ways abstraction can hold and emanate joy, memory, and connection. Curated by Emma Nixon.
Yona Lee, Wall, floor and ceiling
Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, Australia
24 June —
27 August 2023
Wall, floor and ceiling is a new ensemble of sculptural works developed by South Korean-born, Aotearoa-based artist Yona Lee.
The artist is known for her site-responsive stainless-steel sculptures and installations that question notions of place and transit, migration and belonging, public realm and private space. It could be suggested that Lee's project for Gertrude riffs on the oft-noted quote of revered Swiss architect Le Corbusier—"A house is a machine for living in".
Wall, floor and ceiling takes form as a reductive presentation of three distinct sculptural works, one presented on the wall, one on the floor and one affixed to the ceiling. These forms play with the notion of functionality familiar within Lee’s practice, exalting seemingly commonplace forms within domestic or industrial environments and rendering their functionality almost perfunctory. Of importance to the artist is a questioning as to how objects within a space may create their own interactions between each component, and the spaces in which they are presented.
Wall, floor and ceiling is a new ensemble of sculptural works developed by South Korean-born, Aotearoa-based artist Yona Lee.
The artist is known for her site-responsive stainless-steel sculptures and installations that question notions of place and transit, migration and belonging, public realm and private space. It could be suggested that Lee's project for Gertrude riffs on the oft-noted quote of revered Swiss architect Le Corbusier—"A house is a machine for living in".
Wall, floor and ceiling takes form as a reductive presentation of three distinct sculptural works, one presented on the wall, one on the floor and one affixed to the ceiling. These forms play with the notion of functionality familiar within Lee’s practice, exalting seemingly commonplace forms within domestic or industrial environments and rendering their functionality almost perfunctory. Of importance to the artist is a questioning as to how objects within a space may create their own interactions between each component, and the spaces in which they are presented.
Susan Te Kahurangi King, Unison
West Space, Melbourne, Australia
17 June —
12 August 2023
Drawing from West Space’s 30-year story, Unison re-presents the work of key figures from our programme, alongside practices from artists based locally, interstate and in Aotearoa New Zealand, who have yet to be contextualised within Naarm Melbourne's arts ecology.
Underpinned by the idea that people are creative before they are artists, Unison positions the work of contemporary artists and art spaces within a conversation that extends beyond art history, reflecting upon the organisation’s past to consider the shifting identity and responsibilities of artist-led initiatives today.
Against the ambient uncertainty pervading the realities of artists and artistic organisations across the continent, each of the contributions to Unison embody a proactive attitude towards time, resources and creativity, one that challenges the social and economic conditions under which contemporary cultural production feels possible. Their work speaks directly and poetically to the question, “How do we want to spend our time creatively today?”
Drawing from West Space’s 30-year story, Unison re-presents the work of key figures from our programme, alongside practices from artists based locally, interstate and in Aotearoa New Zealand, who have yet to be contextualised within Naarm Melbourne's arts ecology.
Underpinned by the idea that people are creative before they are artists, Unison positions the work of contemporary artists and art spaces within a conversation that extends beyond art history, reflecting upon the organisation’s past to consider the shifting identity and responsibilities of artist-led initiatives today.
Against the ambient uncertainty pervading the realities of artists and artistic organisations across the continent, each of the contributions to Unison embody a proactive attitude towards time, resources and creativity, one that challenges the social and economic conditions under which contemporary cultural production feels possible. Their work speaks directly and poetically to the question, “How do we want to spend our time creatively today?”
Jade Hadfield, MIRROR: New views on photography
State Library Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
19 May 2023 —
28 January 2024
Great photography can hold up a mirror to the world and reflect our innermost thoughts and feelings. MIRROR: New views on photography showcases over 140 photographs from the State Collection, alongside creative responses from emerging and established Victorian storytellers to tell fascinating tales of Victoria through a contemporary lens.
Curated by Jade Hadfield (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Whatua), the exhibition combines the photos of Rennie Ellis, Viva Gibb, Helmut Newton and more, with the words, performance and sounds of Alice Skye, Christos Tsiolkas, Jason Tamiru, Walter Kadiki and other storytellers to produce new narratives of Victorian people and places. The photographs are displayed as immersive large-scale projections on the walls of the Library’s Victoria Gallery, offering striking imagery alongside contemporary creative and critical responses.
Great photography can hold up a mirror to the world and reflect our innermost thoughts and feelings. MIRROR: New views on photography showcases over 140 photographs from the State Collection, alongside creative responses from emerging and established Victorian storytellers to tell fascinating tales of Victoria through a contemporary lens.
Curated by Jade Hadfield (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Whatua), the exhibition combines the photos of Rennie Ellis, Viva Gibb, Helmut Newton and more, with the words, performance and sounds of Alice Skye, Christos Tsiolkas, Jason Tamiru, Walter Kadiki and other storytellers to produce new narratives of Victorian people and places. The photographs are displayed as immersive large-scale projections on the walls of the Library’s Victoria Gallery, offering striking imagery alongside contemporary creative and critical responses.
Tamsen Hopkinson, Ming Ranginui, Shiraz Sadikeen, Shannon Te Ao, Octopus 23: THE FIELD
Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, Australia
15 April —
11 June 2023
THE FIELD is an exhibition curated by Melbourne-based Aotearoa artist and curator Tamsen Hopkinson (Ngāti Kahungunu ki Te Wairoa, Ngāti Pāhauwera) that considers ideas of value and navigation.
Using the International Systems of Units (SI) as a framework, this exhibition addresses capital, culture industry influence and its current role in contemporary practice. THE FIELD is a meditation on luminous intensity, reflection and aftereffect, with particular significance around the colour silver. The SI comprises a coherent system of units of measurement starting with seven base units: length (metre), time (second), amount of substance (mole), electric current (ampere), temperature (kelvin), mass (kg) and luminous intensity (candela).
Through a range of contemporary practice across Aotearoa and Australia, participating artists examine the complexities of how we assign value, and how we navigate the systems and structures that influence these values. Participating artists from Aotearoa include Ming Ranginui (Te Ati Haunui-a-Pāpārangi), Shiraz Sadikeen, and Shannon Te Ao (Ngāti Tūwharetoa).
THE FIELD is an exhibition curated by Melbourne-based Aotearoa artist and curator Tamsen Hopkinson (Ngāti Kahungunu ki Te Wairoa, Ngāti Pāhauwera) that considers ideas of value and navigation.
Using the International Systems of Units (SI) as a framework, this exhibition addresses capital, culture industry influence and its current role in contemporary practice. THE FIELD is a meditation on luminous intensity, reflection and aftereffect, with particular significance around the colour silver. The SI comprises a coherent system of units of measurement starting with seven base units: length (metre), time (second), amount of substance (mole), electric current (ampere), temperature (kelvin), mass (kg) and luminous intensity (candela).
Through a range of contemporary practice across Aotearoa and Australia, participating artists examine the complexities of how we assign value, and how we navigate the systems and structures that influence these values. Participating artists from Aotearoa include Ming Ranginui (Te Ati Haunui-a-Pāpārangi), Shiraz Sadikeen, and Shannon Te Ao (Ngāti Tūwharetoa).
Len Lye, Gordon Walters
1301SW, Melbourne, Australia
11 April —
13 May 2023
This exhibition brings together two distinct yet kindred approaches to artmaking. Renowned for their abstract and material innovation of the Modernist era, Len Lye and Gordon Walters drew from an eclectic combination of local and international forms and ideas. Both artists shared a fascination with the world they inhabited, seeing each travelling and exhibiting extensively, and leaving a lasting impact internationally—especially in Great Britain and North America.
Looking deeply at cultural traditions and the natural environment, much of Lye and Walters’ work references moments found in nature, reinterpreting and expressing its motifs and “energy”. For Lye, he wanted to visualise or “personify” the liveliness of nature, such as thunder lightning, and atomic particles, while nature was represented in Walter’s famed rendition of the Koru and the ever-present horizon lines of his abstract landscapes.
This exhibition brings together two distinct yet kindred approaches to artmaking. Renowned for their abstract and material innovation of the Modernist era, Len Lye and Gordon Walters drew from an eclectic combination of local and international forms and ideas. Both artists shared a fascination with the world they inhabited, seeing each travelling and exhibiting extensively, and leaving a lasting impact internationally—especially in Great Britain and North America.
Looking deeply at cultural traditions and the natural environment, much of Lye and Walters’ work references moments found in nature, reinterpreting and expressing its motifs and “energy”. For Lye, he wanted to visualise or “personify” the liveliness of nature, such as thunder lightning, and atomic particles, while nature was represented in Walter’s famed rendition of the Koru and the ever-present horizon lines of his abstract landscapes.
Alicia Frankovich, Rich in World/Poor in World
The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Melbourne, Australia
01 April —
22 April 2023
Born in Aotearoa New Zealand and currently based in Naarm Melbourne, Australia, Alicia Frankovich is an artist working across sculpture, performance, video, photography and the format of the exhibition itself. Her work engages living human and non-human entities to reveal the limits of how we understand notions of nature.
For Melbourne Now, Frankovich presents a new live work that explores our current climate emergency from queer and wild perspectives. Rich in World/Poor in World comprises scenes that describe our current experience, suggesting possible futures while engaging with our present, through utopian and dystopian affect. In her choreographies, difference is celebrated using movement and gesture with a corps of both trained and untrained dancers. The work moves from a contemporary re-imagining of Noah’s Ark to a toddler’s play area, to a stampede, crowd or swarm.
Through Rich in World/Poor in World we experience the artist’s speculations, and the possibilities—and impossibilities—of maintaining human life here on Earth. Performance dates: Sat 1 Apr, 2pm, Sat 8 Apr, 2pm, Sat 15 Apr, 2pm and Sat 22 Apr, 2pm.
Born in Aotearoa New Zealand and currently based in Naarm Melbourne, Australia, Alicia Frankovich is an artist working across sculpture, performance, video, photography and the format of the exhibition itself. Her work engages living human and non-human entities to reveal the limits of how we understand notions of nature.
For Melbourne Now, Frankovich presents a new live work that explores our current climate emergency from queer and wild perspectives. Rich in World/Poor in World comprises scenes that describe our current experience, suggesting possible futures while engaging with our present, through utopian and dystopian affect. In her choreographies, difference is celebrated using movement and gesture with a corps of both trained and untrained dancers. The work moves from a contemporary re-imagining of Noah’s Ark to a toddler’s play area, to a stampede, crowd or swarm.
Through Rich in World/Poor in World we experience the artist’s speculations, and the possibilities—and impossibilities—of maintaining human life here on Earth. Performance dates: Sat 1 Apr, 2pm, Sat 8 Apr, 2pm, Sat 15 Apr, 2pm and Sat 22 Apr, 2pm.
Dan Arps, Celestial Poetics
Greenhouse-Offsite, Melbourne, Australia
04 March —
14 April 2023
Group show curated by Liam Denny, featuring work by Bronte Stolz, Dan Arps, Joshua Stevens, Liam Denny, Lucina Lane, and Tara Denny.
Group show curated by Liam Denny, featuring work by Bronte Stolz, Dan Arps, Joshua Stevens, Liam Denny, Lucina Lane, and Tara Denny.
Dane Mitchell, Gertrude Studio residency
Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, Australia
01 February 2023 —
01 February 2025
Dane Mitchell is one of sixteen artists accepted into the 2023/24 Gertrude Studio Program. Respected nationally and internationally, Gertrude’s unique studio-exhibition model supports outstanding artists at pivotal moments in their careers. The two-year Gertrude Studio Program has been at the core of the organisation since its founding nearly four decades ago.
Dane Mitchell is one of sixteen artists accepted into the 2023/24 Gertrude Studio Program. Respected nationally and internationally, Gertrude’s unique studio-exhibition model supports outstanding artists at pivotal moments in their careers. The two-year Gertrude Studio Program has been at the core of the organisation since its founding nearly four decades ago.
Ivan Lupi and Sara Cowdell, Not as simple as it sounds - Concerto
Testing Grounds, Melbourne, Australia
01 February —
11 February 2023
Not as simple as it sounds is a participatory device branching from historical events and functioning as a mournful/celebratory yet playful ‘opera’ divided in 11 happenings. Italian-born, Aotearoa-based performance artist Ivan Lupi offers an intimate yet powerful act of mourning dedicated to each one of the estimated 100,000 homosexuals who have been arrested, abused and killed during the Holocaust. The artist will repeatedly play a triangle instrument for eleven days, in order to reach 100,000 strikes and beyond. Audiences are invited to witness and participate in this event curated/produced by Melbourne-based New Zealander Sara Cowdell.
Not as simple as it sounds is a participatory device branching from historical events and functioning as a mournful/celebratory yet playful ‘opera’ divided in 11 happenings. Italian-born, Aotearoa-based performance artist Ivan Lupi offers an intimate yet powerful act of mourning dedicated to each one of the estimated 100,000 homosexuals who have been arrested, abused and killed during the Holocaust. The artist will repeatedly play a triangle instrument for eleven days, in order to reach 100,000 strikes and beyond. Audiences are invited to witness and participate in this event curated/produced by Melbourne-based New Zealander Sara Cowdell.
Fiona Pardington, Wairua o te hau
1301SW, Melbourne, Australia
12 November —
23 December 2022
Wairua o te hau is Fiona Pardington's debut exhibition in Melbourne and her first solo presentation in Australia in eight years. Pardington presents a series of new works continuing her relationship to image making and its ability to capture hidden things, death, beauty and history. Pardington has long mined the collections of natural history museums, seeing her capture significant objects of Māori heritage such as hei tiki (greenstone pendants), while this new collection focuses on the revered and now extinct huia bird and other birds of cultural significance. This investigation and documentation are an act of re-claiming, breathing new life into these now stagnant creatures to raise awareness of the importance of conservation and cultural history — a process interrogating death whilst celebrating collecting and preservation.
Wairua o te hau is Fiona Pardington's debut exhibition in Melbourne and her first solo presentation in Australia in eight years. Pardington presents a series of new works continuing her relationship to image making and its ability to capture hidden things, death, beauty and history. Pardington has long mined the collections of natural history museums, seeing her capture significant objects of Māori heritage such as hei tiki (greenstone pendants), while this new collection focuses on the revered and now extinct huia bird and other birds of cultural significance. This investigation and documentation are an act of re-claiming, breathing new life into these now stagnant creatures to raise awareness of the importance of conservation and cultural history — a process interrogating death whilst celebrating collecting and preservation.
Rea Burton and Meg Porteous, Birds
Neon Parc, Melbourne, Australia
21 October —
19 November 2022
Neon Parc presents Birds, a two-person exhibition of new work by Aotearoa-based artists Rea Burton and Meg Porteous. In Birds, Burton and Porteous use the city pigeon, which congregate outside the window of their shared studio, as a subject and muse for the exhibition. Burton and Porteous present these two bodies of work alongside a new, collaborative short film titled Nancy Treadler (2022), in which they position themselves as directors, casting pigeons and friends as talent in a theatrical mimicry of the art world the artists occupy.
Neon Parc presents Birds, a two-person exhibition of new work by Aotearoa-based artists Rea Burton and Meg Porteous. In Birds, Burton and Porteous use the city pigeon, which congregate outside the window of their shared studio, as a subject and muse for the exhibition. Burton and Porteous present these two bodies of work alongside a new, collaborative short film titled Nancy Treadler (2022), in which they position themselves as directors, casting pigeons and friends as talent in a theatrical mimicry of the art world the artists occupy.
Dan Arps, Parallel Universe
Neon Parc, Melbourne, Australia
07 October —
05 November 2022
Parallel Universe is an installation of new work by Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland-based Dan Arps that uses the formal language of suburban fencing to explore concepts of boundaries, porousity and neighbourliness. For Parallel Universe, Arps presents a suite of new, ambitious, yet understated sculptural works, examining the domestic ramparts that delineate between public and private spaces, and thus, become markers for the division of capital.
Parallel Universe is an installation of new work by Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland-based Dan Arps that uses the formal language of suburban fencing to explore concepts of boundaries, porousity and neighbourliness. For Parallel Universe, Arps presents a suite of new, ambitious, yet understated sculptural works, examining the domestic ramparts that delineate between public and private spaces, and thus, become markers for the division of capital.
Ella Sutherland, Speaker of the House
Futures Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
06 October —
05 November 2022
For Speaker of the House Sutherland has created a suite of robust and lively paintings in the tradition of hard-edge abstraction which think through the forms of politics and engage strategies of queering. The artist considers politics in an abstract manner, focussing on the systems by which decisions are recorded, collated and archived. Through this process, two characters emerge: the 'speaker' and the 'voter'. The design of paper ballots and parliamentary architecture is used by the artist as compositional devices which is interrupted with 'bad' data, shapes, numbers and forms; elements that relate to the more volatile participants active within this system.
For Speaker of the House Sutherland has created a suite of robust and lively paintings in the tradition of hard-edge abstraction which think through the forms of politics and engage strategies of queering. The artist considers politics in an abstract manner, focussing on the systems by which decisions are recorded, collated and archived. Through this process, two characters emerge: the 'speaker' and the 'voter'. The design of paper ballots and parliamentary architecture is used by the artist as compositional devices which is interrupted with 'bad' data, shapes, numbers and forms; elements that relate to the more volatile participants active within this system.