the art life

This tribute to Brian Dunlop has been released by Eva Breuer Gallery:


Brian Dunlop (1938-2009, Untitled (Self-Portrait) 1985
Lithograph 12/20, 32.5 x 31.5 cm.

"It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Brian Dunlop (1938-2009) one of Australia’s greatest painters and a dear friend. Brian died yesterday morning, 9 December, in Melbourne after a long battle with a congenital heart condition. He was 71.

"An artist of great sensibility, of great intellect and virtuosity, Brian was an exceptional professional; sought after by collectors, revered by his colleagues, and loved by all who knew him. The body of work he leaves behind includes some of the most important figurative paintings produced in Australia. The best of Brian’s works exude a poetic vulnerability and sensuality, perhaps seen in a silent pause or the lift of a curtain in the breeze. For many years Brian restricted his range of subject matter to the interior with window, often including a figure or still life. In these works "The room represents the mind, the windows the eyes looking out, curtains are the eyelids. A window is the division between inner and outer, spiritual and worldly. The figure later stood in the doorway, the threshold; then she ventured outside into the landscape." Whether painting the figure or the landscape, overpowering everything in Brian’s work is light. In April reflecting on his latest compositions he wrote, “The correct balance can be pure energy.”

"Having inherited his love of painting and drawing from his father, Brian won a scholarship to study at the National Art School from which he graduated at the end of the 1950’s. There was a strong tendency towards abstraction in Sydney at that stage and it wasn’t until he reached Rome some years later that Brian found his ‘true’ way. “Justin O’brien had looked at sketches and drawings I had done in Rome and said that they were more 'true to you' than the abstract work. He said 'Keep doing them, and they will evolve', so I did.”

"Brian had an insatiable appetite for the history of art, particularly European art, as a practising painter. “I have also always liked what I regard as the true American tradition which includes a deep respect for nature and wilderness and social comment (Frederick Church, Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins, Edward Hopper and Andrew Wyeth).” Of continuing interest to him were artists as different as Piero della Francesco (he had seen all his paintings), Vermeer and Braque. After working for twenty years in and near Port Fairy on the south west coast of Victoria, Brian had recently moved to Beechworth, where he painted his last exhibition.

"Brian was part of the gallery family for more than 15 years. Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones. We farewell him with the greatest respect."

Labels: obits, press releases

Brad Miller initially developed augment_me during a research residency at Artspace in 2004. As part of that research, he interviewed a number of young people about identity and materialism, leading to further research on the self in relation to additions or supplements. It seems that the self must be augmented, must be adorned and the reason the self must be augmented is that it is seen as inadequate for the tasks at hand. Thus began the process of materialising a critique of desire and augmentation using his own self as the locus of concern.

augment_me is comprised of a responsive database of images, sound and videos, accumulated over the past 8 years. Forming sequences in response to audience movement and position, these data ‘moments’ are animated by the augment_me software according to a set of rules applied to a live video camera feed, and then sequentially embedded into a strip of images presented horizontally. These ‘moments’ and their aggregation track relationships with people, places and moments of the everyday, intrinsically measuring change or transformation to produce a kind of memory machine — an attempt at resisting external ideas of what might be augmented.

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

Labels: new media, press releases

The Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) present Focus on Hopper’s America, a film season examining a period of rapid social and political change in the United States and the parallel artistic transformation in which Dennis Hopper played a key role.

The program coincides with Dennis Hopper and the New Hollywood, a major exhibition at ACMI which looks at a formative era for film and art in America through Dennis Hopper’s life and work.

The corresponding film program is a complex archaeology of interlocking films, designed as a series of cinematic experiences that also provides a contextual backdrop to the exhibition.

“We’ve curated this season to be a stand-alone investigation into an enormously creative period in America and the powerful social and political change that shaped its art and its artists,” said ACMI Film Programmer, Kristy Matheson.

“It also enhances the experience of exhibition goers by allowing them to further appreciate the environment, the artistic influences and the works of one of Hollywood’s greatest and most controversial exports.”

Presented in three parts, Focus on Hopper’s America, is a program of rare and rarely seen works of new restorations, including features, documentaries and shorts (some staring, directed or produced by the man himself) that includes four Australian Premiere’s, three of which are direct from Cannes International Film Festival 2009.

More info here

Labels: cinema, press releases, public galleries

Examining the legacy of Charles Darwin on the 150th anniversary of the publication of his famed work, On the Origin of Species Opening 6-8pm, Thursday 19 November No RSVP required

The exhibition will be opened by Roger McDonald, author of Mr Darwin’s Shooter, recipient of numerous literary awards including the 2006 Miles Franklin Award and alumnus of the University of Sydney.

Guest speaker Chris Darwin, the great, great grandson of Charles Darwin will speak about his famous ancestor and his work as an Ambassador of Bush Heritage Australia.

Labels: art museums, exhibitions, press releases

The University of Melbourne Art History program in conjunction with the School of Culture and Communications and the Fine Arts Network invite you to attend a free public lecture by Dr Amelia Douglas, Recipient of 2009 Chancellor's Prize for Excellence in the PhD, University of Melbourne.

What is at stake in the making and recording of history, and what does it mean for a contemporary artist to work as an historiographer? The contemporary French artist Pierre Huyghe is well-known for his multi-faceted works that operate in the gaps between history and story. In this lecture, Hugyhe’s practice is shown to facilitate a new model of contemporary history. History as a discursive concept is pliable; its meaning shifts depending on contexts. In presenting an historiographic reading of Huyghe’s practice, this lecture reflects upon how the coalescence of story and history may be a key factor in pulling together the diverse strands of Australian and international art histories.

Pierre Huyghe is one of the most significant artists of the 21st century. His work – encompassing film, architecture, situations, installations and events – has been shown at the TATE Modern, Centre Pompidou, the Guggenheim Museum, the Musée d'art moderne de la ville de Paris, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image and recently at the Biennale of Sydney (2008), where Huyghe transformed the Opera House into a tropical rainforest. This lecture focuses on a few of Huyghe's major works, including A Journey That Wasn't (2005) and Streamside Day Follies (2003) and will include clips from several of Huyghe's works not previously exhibited in Australia, courtesy of Marian Goodman Gallery, New York and Paris.

Dr Amelia Douglas is a lecturer, editor, curator and writer with a research focus on time-based contemporary art. Her prior projects include Assistant Curator, Australian Centre for the Moving Image 2008-09; guest speaker, 'Andreas Gursky', NGV International 2009; guest lecturer, 'Perspectives in Radical Art', School of Creative Arts, 2008-09; tutor, art history and curatorship, University of Melbourne, 2005-08. She is a founding co-editor of emaj; member UNmagazine editorial committee; co-curator Found Sound: The Experimental Instrument Project; board member Bus Projects; and contributor to numerous critical forums (ACMI, Conical, GCAS), exhibition catalogues (Craft Victoria, Blindside, Experimenta Media Arts, RMIT First Site, George Paton Gallery), and arts journals including Broadsheet, UNmagazine, SPEECH and The Open Space (New York). She is currently managing red gallery contemporary art space in Melbourne.

Public lecture presented by the University of Melbourne Art History program in conjunction with the School of Culture and Communications and the Fine Arts Network.

Labels: press releases

"We're launching the 2009 FBi 94.5 and Time Out Sydney SMAC [Sydney Music Arts and Culture] Awards this coming WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 21 at gbk, Gallery Barry Keldoulis in Waterloo from 6-8pm. The finalists for 'Best Artist' will be on display at gbk - and the rest of the category nominations will be announced on the night. So come on down, bring your friends, have a beer and celebrate the work of some of the finest creative minds in Sydney!"

Labels: art prize, exhibitions, press releases

random image


Random Acts of Elevator Music are preparing their itinerary and plan to bring productivity-raising muzaktronica to as many city office buildings as possible in Sydney and Melbourne. Let us know if you want to experience these soothing oscillations and melodies in your elevator! Email cityfreqs@akm.net.au or tweet to twitter.com/cityfreqs and we'll put your building on our itinerary. Leave a mobile number or email address and you’ll receive notification of when Random Acts of Elevator Music are about to come your way (and we won’t tell your supervisor that you gave us the inside tip…)


Random Acts of Elevator Music are back in 2009, performing live muzaktronica during office hours in buildings throughout the Sydney and Melbourne CBDs, helping to increase productivity in workplaces everywhere. Random Acts of Elevator Music is the latest project from City Frequencies, a collaboration between Matt Adair and Nick Wilson, who work together on sound projects within the metropolitan environment.

For further information visit: www.akm.net.au/cityfreqs & www.twitter.com/cityfreqs

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body.

Labels: press releases

Sydney arts community rallies to save one of the city’s most important venues for emerging and experimental art

Recently named by Creative Sydney as one of the cities’ top ‘Creative Catalysts’, Firstdraft Gallery - Sydney’s oldest Artist-Run Initiative, has been giving big breaks to budding artists since 1986. Some of Australia’s top young artists got their start at Firstdraft. Now we need your help.

Firstdraft lives in a building that has been served with a compulsory Council fire order. In the coming weeks and months, we must undertake significant renovations to our much-loved space in order to keep our doors open to the public.

Firstdraft will be rebuilding, rewiring and providing disabled access to our 3 galleries and 2 studios. And for that we need money we don’t have. Imagine if Firstdraft were to close... future biennale stars, gallery curators and the next generation of up-and-coming artists may not get the start they need.

That’s where you come in. Firstdraft is holding an emergency fundraiser auction at the gallery on Thursday 3 September 2009 to raise $20,000 for the cause. Former Firstdraft directors and artists, as well as fellow galleries, are rushing to donate artworks for auction in support of one of Sydney’s most important venues for emerging and experimental art. The auction will be hosted by Elizabeth Ann Macgregor, Director, Museum of Contemporary Art.

We need your support too. Come along and snap up some killer bargains. Tell your friends. Get involved! Every dollar raised will go to keeping alive a space that has added to the cultural vibrancy and creative spirit of Sydney for over two decades.

Who: works have been generously donated by artists and galleries such as: Del Kathryn Barton, Mike Parr, David Griggs, Lauren Brincat, Christopher Hanrahan, Sarah Goffman, Simon Kennedy, Brett East, Tom Polo, Agatha Gothe-Snape, Michaela Gleave, Mikala Dwyer, Helen Hyatt-Johnston, Jake Walker, Christine Cornish, Jessica Maurer, Rachel Scott, Mitch Cairns, Penelope Benton, Jess Oliveri, Sonny Day, Rod Jacka, Lionel Bawden, Jumaadi, Will French, Kate Scardifield, Tom Polo, Shane Haseman, Gallery 9, Gallery 4a, Breenspace, Stills gallery, Anna Schwartz gallery and Kaliman gallery, plus many more to come.

Labels: fund raisers, press releases

Labels: press releases

This much anticipated exhibition is a vivid display of Vickers’ unique visual language and growing mastery over a variety of media. From intimate drawings and photographs to a spectacular chandelier installation of LED lights, bones, and toffee, The Light at the End of the Tunnel is a Train draws you into a world of fragility, undulating flux and the beautiful death.



“If you think you know what you are looking at you think you are in control; you are in control of the visual field, the enfolding and unfolding space, and the restrictive possibilities of the physical body to impact your presence and identity. Play with that certainty and the world you inhabit becomes a mysterious and compelling space of unrecognisable fluidity and (in) tense doubt…

Vickers tests our capacity for accurate observation and self-justifying empirical verification. The truth-value of the work and our own identity is partly at stake… what we expect to see, what we see, and what is real. Any thought to embrace ethereality and sensuality as an escape from the vicissitudes or the temporal transitions of the real is depleted by the inviting and complex ambiguity mobilized through Vickers’ presentation of this new body of work”.

Excerpts from catalogue essay by Gary Sangster (former Curator at The New Museum of Contemporary Art in NYC; Director, the Contemporary Museum, in Baltimore; currently based in Sydney, at the College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales).

Labels: press releases

Oh Industry comprises a new performance video by Daniel Mudie Cunningham alongside The Jodie Foster Archive, a body of performance work about celebrity and fandom, which began in 1996 and was completed in 2008. Filmed during an artist residency at Newington Armory, the new work Oh Industry, mashes popular culture depictions of naval, military and factory labour with the amusements and distractions of early 20th century modern life. Bette Midler’s performance of the song ‘Oh Industry’ from Beaches (1988) and references to the popular motion picture serial The Perils of Pauline (1914) intersect with conveyor belt choreography to suggest how the machine age and its class structures were shaped during the rise of modernity and industrialisation.

Daniel Mudie Cunningham is a Sydney based artist, curator and writer whose work primarily negotiates the queering of visual histories, popular cultures and oppositional identity politics. Cunningham’s art practice incorporates performance, video and installation. His practice is profiled at www.danielmcunningham.com

image: Daniel Mudie Cunningham, Oh Industry, 2009, HDV video, 16:9, 4 min 11 sec.

The Project was assisted by a grant from the New South Wales Government – Arts NSW, through a program administered by the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA)





Mel Curtiss’s new work, made for MOP Projects, repeats her interest in the “spatial turn” currently re-energising fields as diverse as architecture, urban studies, geography, sociology, and social theory. The territory explored in this work concerns the cinematic nature of architecture and the dynamic relationship between space and identity.

The figure of the whore as urban flâneuse, posturing at the intersection of “streetwalker” and “street”, drives an aesthetic of “re-use” and “making do” in a mixed-media installation that is at least one part road movie. Curtiss poaches diverse cultural terrains to re-write material and
social spaces constituted by discourses of pathology and pollution.

Mel Curtiss is an Adelaide artist whose multi-disciplinary approach, while it is rooted in sculpture and installation, often pursues connection with spaces and communities outside of the gallery. Curtiss primarily explores her interests in the production of space and hierarchical dualism.

Image: Escort Red, digital scan of found cigarette box, Mel Curtiss 2009

The Project was assisted by a grant from the South Australian Government - Ministry for the Arts, through a program administered by Arts SA.

Labels: press releases

In a world which is crumbling under economic pressures the questions of identity through material worth are being challenged by both Eastern and Western cultures. The ever-present struggles of uniqueness and homogeneity are observed by a range of artists born in the Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Thailand, Southern Italy and Australia for the creation of the camouflage exhibition.

Painting, installation and digital media are used to explore the rich tapestry of response to life circumstance, in this exhibition, opening Friday, July 17th 2009, at Project Contemporary Artspace Gallery in Wollongong, a centre dedicated to providing opportunities for emerging, innovative and experimental artists.

The concept of camouflage is the focus for this group of artists. Presenting their examinations of the structures, contradictions and complexities of cultural belonging.

Labels: press releases

Kate Carr is a sound artist who describes her practice as ‘emo glitch pop meets droney soundscapes’. She has released work internationally on Pertin-nce (Canada), Retinascan (Germany) and 442 (Australia). Adrian Elmer of Cyclic Defrost said of her recordings: ‘the sound is so transfixing and hypnotic that I am consistently sucked in to deeper emotional attachments to it.’


Covering the Mirrors documents a resistance, a reversal; where each ‘roadside memorial’ undermines the (non-) nature of the motorway space.

The proliferation of non-space seems perversely natural; airports, freeways, shopping centres, stations and hubs appear at each turn and beyond every turn off. These vast areas designed for functionality,supposed progress, in fact programmatically efface ‘the local’ with its community interests and historical presence; this leaves empty meaningless space in abundance.

Contrary to intent the ‘universal network’ actually isolates the individual by atomizing the community. It does this through an expanding ‘grid’ of interstitial non-spaces that affects all aspects of daily life – from our environment through to our emotions. No longer are these in-between zones mere links; they are fast-forming generic centres, places in and of themselves – that control and re-order the social experience.

Yet the presence of roadside memorials somehow resists this deterritorialization. As the visual markers carry with them a sacred significance and a small piece of history, which once situated in monotonous space they activate a subversion of the spatial homogenization. Suddenly these non-spaces are filled with meaning. These shrines with their folk rituals and cult following hint at a growing social dissent – as an emergent material culture they tap into an underlying collective impulse to reclaim lost space.

Taking the roadside memorial as his starting point, Neuman uses a variety of lens-based media, and techniques that span from appropriation to documentary to the staged, to critically respond to physical and cultural changes in the Australian landscape.

Labels: music, press releases

Labels: charity auctions, press releases

"Anybody who wants to understand what hip hop is all about needs to see a film called Style Wars." -KRS-One






Legendary hip-hop documentary and timeless film classic Style Wars (1983) is coming to the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) this July as part of the First Look program.

Shot in NYC in the early 1980s, Tony Silver and photographer Henry Chalfant's groundbreaking film documented the new language of hip hop - graffiti, rap, breakdance. Bringing subway battles between artists and civic guardians to the fore, Style Wars gives voice to some of New York's legendary writers including Kase 2, Skeme, Seen UA, Cap, Mare 139 and Dondi. A precursor to both Wild Style and Beat Street, Silver's film is vivid, legendary and a rare big screen event.

Labels: cinema, press releases

Labels: press releases

The Art Gallery of NSW opens a major new show this Thursday [June 4] called Intensely Dutch. The gallery's publicity calls the show "uncompromising, confronting, optimistic" as it looks at 15 of the most important Dutch artists of the post WW2 period. As the blurb says:

"A new young generation of Dutch artists took to modernity as never before. For them it was a time of renewal. Bright colour, impasto and vigorous handling were particular features of the work of many post-war Dutch artists. This exhibition presents the art of fifteen of the most important Dutch artists of the post-war period, including those associated with the CoBrA movement (Karel Appel, Constant, Corneille and Lucebert) and art informel (Jaap Wagemaker, Jan J Schoonhoven and Bram Bogart) and those who preceded them, like Bram van Velde and Willem de Kooning, who rose to prominence internationally post-war..."

In addition to the show the AGNSW are also hosting a forum and a lecture:

Labels: forums, press releases, public lectures

Labels: performance art, press releases

Seaworthy is known for his wonderfully fragile guitar, field recordings and electronics. His performances are captivating and highly prized. Seaworthy's latest release on the American 12K label is described as stark and melancholic - Serial Space and High Reflections will be a great place to experience this performance.

Kusum is currently studying in Melbourne, and recently carried out a four city tour of Japan where she performed her developing extreme vocal style. Recently described as being massaged while punched in the stomach, this performance should not be missed (don't blink).

Onani are Daryl Prondoso and Nic Warnock who after playing around with a tonal/drone style decided they just wanted to play some caveman shit. Influenced by Chrome, Hawkwind, Brainbombs, Throbbing Gristle and Prince, Onani play heavy psych guitar, blown-out synth over chopped and screwed rhythmic loops.

Labels: music, press releases

Please join us for a collaborative improvised performance by Pia van Gelder (Sydney) on original Voice Mask with some members of her Orchestra of Machines together with James Hullick (Melb) on robotic sound sculptures and instrumental automata. This will be the first collaboration between Pia and James and it's bound to be a stunner. All welcome!





PIA VAN GELDER is a Sydney-based electronic artist. In constructing her orchestra of machines and instruments for generating audio and video signals she uses a variety of materials including solenoids, contact microphones, cello-tape, reconstructed records, cassette tapes, guitar pedals, micro-controllers, general household refuse, pieces of two-by-four, midi-controllers, sensors, samplers, surveillance cameras, her mouth, nose, feet and hands. Her work currently involves sample-based live improvisation in collaboration with musician Eden Falk in their group Praying Hands and a solo project called Voice Mask, an audio instrument for vocal performance. She is the Overlord for Dorkbot_Sydney, a regular meet-up for 'people doing strange things with electricity'. www.piavangelder.com

JAMES HULLICK is a Melbourne-based composer, vocalist, pianist and sound artist who makes installations, sonic constructions and midi-controlled robotics. His sound works have been presented in Asia, North America, Australia and Europe for a variety of ensembles. Most recently he directed the multimedia experience/sonic performance The Nis, performed at 45 Downstairs, Melbourne, in partnership with Footscray Community Arts Centre and the Amplified Elephants. He is currently researching the phenomenon of 'Recursion' for his PhD at RMIT. www.jameshullick.com




Click on image to enlarge
Dear friend,

On May 22 the exhibition There Goes The Neighbourhood will open at Performance Space, Sydney. The book There Goes The Neighbourhood: Redfern and the Politics of Urban Space will be launched on the same night with an opening speech by Gary Foley. Both these projects have been organised by You Are Here a Sydney based art collective initiated by Keg de Souza and myself.

There Goes the Neighbourhood was the ironic chorus to the 1992 Body Count song which lamented the invasion of the once poor (and Black) into the neighbourhood of the rich (and white). But an alternative destruction of “The Neighbourhood” can happen when the poor get pushed out of their local community as part of the process of gentrification. This issue is particularly relevant for the suburb of Redfern, an inner city suburb of Sydney which has been home for a large working class and Indigenous community, and which is undergoing a process of rapid development and change. There Goes the Neighborhood is an exhibition, residency, discussion and publishing project for May 2009. The central element of this project will be an exploration of the politics of urban space. It will explore the complex life of cities and how the phenomenon of gentrification is altering the relationship between democracy and demography around the world.

A small number of Australian and international artists have been invited to participate in the project including: Brenda L Croft (Australia), 16beaver (USA), Daniel Boyd (Australia), Temporary Services (USA), Jakob Jakobsen (Denmark), Lisa Kelly (Australia), SquatSpace (Australia), Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro (Germany/Australia), Evil Brothers (Ned and Tom Sevil, Australia), You Are Here (Keg de Souza and Zanny Begg, Australia), Michael Rakowitz (USA), Miklos Erhardt and Little Warsaw (Hungary), Bijari (Brazil), Democracia (Spain) and a re-enactment of Allan Kaprow's Push and Pull: A Furniture Comedy for Hans Hofmann 1963 (with thanks to the Allan Kaprow Estate).

Labels: exhibitions, press releases