MATTHEW ALLEN

MEETINGS ALONG THE EDGE
6 - 22 DECEMBER

Meetings Along the Edge will be Matthew Allen's second solo exhibition at Sullivan+Strumpf. Recently completing the Australia Council’s residential studio at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, this Sydney-based, emerging artist creates paintings that have a formal 'emptiness', unconfined by form or shape. Allen's paintings are open surfaces where the material, fluid paint, presents itself in a moment of action across the surface of the canvas. Through soft gradations of tone, paint is presented without artifice or handling to highlight it's material nature. These paintings aim to engage the viewer in a sustained state of seeing, a moment of ontological give and take between subject and object.

Through Allen's treatment of paint, colour is brought to the fore. As the artist states "My work is concerned with the breath of colour experience available within painting. I am interested in the viewers subjective engagement with the “colour-space", which is grounded in the painted object. "

SULLIVAN+ STRUMPF 2013

22 JANUARY - 16 FEBRUARY 2013

Sullivan+Strumpf will open 2013 with the exciting annual group show. The exhibition will feature new works by all Sullivan+Strumpf artists as well as introducing works by three new artists to the gallery. Watch this space for the exciting announcements.

KATE SHAW

NIGHTINGALE
23 FEBRUARY - 16 MARCH 2013
 

“These works are about the surface and the void... (they) map an irrational geography. Shaw's is a topology of time, and one whose perspective simultaneously pushes and pulls the viewer.” Isobel Phillip, The Art Life

Kate Shaw's paintings are an interpretation of and meditation on the natural environment which take on the idea of a composite landscape. In her upcoming exhibition each of the landscapes depict a site where nuclear testing has occurred. The materiality of Shaw's painting mimics the physical forms and patterns that occur in the natural world effectively collapsing time and space like strata layers of rock. These incongruous shapes of flecks and drips of paint crowd the image, yet it remains strangely empty.

TEXTAQUEEN

SELF-PORTRAITS
23 FEBRUARY - 16 MARCH 2013

“TextaQueen adopts the tradition of the classical salon nude and “recon-texta-ualises” it with drawings done with the humble texta.” Claudia Rowe, ABC TV Sunday Arts 

TextaQueen's nude portraits, predominately of women, are executed in the humble and unforgiving 'texta' and felt-tip pen on paper. In this new body of work to be presented at Sullivan+Strumpf in February 2013, Texta turns the mirror, concentrating exclusively on a series of self-portraits - allowing an exploration of the personal evolution of identity, incorporating graphic elements into largely fictional metaphorical inner narratives.

CONGRATULATIONS

Alasdair Macintyre has won the Rio Tinto Alcan Martin Hanson Memorial Awards - Sculpture Section, with his work The Massacre of the Anchorhead Jawas by Imperial Stormtroopers, Dune Sea, Tatooine, at the GLADSTONE REGIONAL ART GALLERY MUSEUM, QLD on exhibition between 10 NOVEMBER - 6 DECEMBER 2012.

Alasdair Macintyre has also been invited to partake in Redcliff City Art Gallery's annual acquisitive prize, highlighting 15 artists with work or personal connection to the Moreton Bay Region.

On exhibition 5 DECEMBER 2012 - 19 JANUARY 2013

Congratulations to all our finalists in the 2012 Gold Coast Art Prize

MARC DE JONG

MICHAEL LINDEMAN

JOANNA LAMB

The exhibition will run from 8 DECEMBER 2012 – 3 FEBRUARY 2013 and the winner will be announced on Friday 7 December at Gold Coast City Gallery.

GO SEE

ALEXANDER SETON
LOOK CLOSELY NOW
Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery
26 OCTOBER - 9 DECEMBER 2012

ALEXANDER SETON`S work SIX MORE
Australian War Memorial, Canberra 
30 OCTOBER 2012 - 31 JANUARY 2013

SAM LEACH, eX DE MEDICI & JUAN FORD
THE RAPTURE OF DEATH
Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale
10 NOVEMBER 2012 - 20 JANUARY 2013

TONY ALBERT
MAKING CHANGE 
National Museum of China, Beijing, China
8 NOVEMBER - 16 DECEMBER 2012 

DARREN SYLVESTER & LAITH MCGREGOR
GERTRUDE STUDIOS EXHIBITION
Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne
18 NOVEMBER - 16 DECEMBER 2012. 

JUDY MILLAR
PARTNER DANCE: GIFTS FROM THE PATRONS
Auckland Art Gallery, NZ
1 DECEMBER 2012 - 1 APRIL 2013. 

KATE SHAW
INSPIRING ARTISTS: RECIPIENTS OF THE PAT CORRIGAN ARTISTS' GRANT
Maitland Regional Art Gallery
Until 17 FEBRUARY 2013

READ

JUDY MILLAR`S exhibition publication Der Regenbogen Loop soon at the gallery, sold with a limited edition screen-print (edition of 80) for $250. NOW TAKING ORDERS.

WATCH

CLICK HERE TO WATCH SYDNEY BALL 
IN CONVERSATION WITH ANNE LOXLEY
(Curator C3 West, MCA, Sydney)

SYDNEY BALL

INFINEX II
13 NOVEMBER - 1 DECEMBER 2012

The series emphasise the colour, the process and the event. Everything in the construction is an interplay of shapes and colours; the clarification of the idea is achieved through the physical reality of material and can be defined as architectural geometry in space; their handling is never disguised"

Sydney Ball 2012

Infinex II is the latest installment in Sydney Ball's exploration of colour, form and structure. This series references the famous Modular work from the sixties which the Sydney Morning Herald art critic Bruce James has described, "... as a series of geometries so sumptuous and grand as to leave the spectator breathless.”

In this latest exhibition painted canvases are configured into dynamic architectural forms that actively play with the negative space of the wall. The geometric assemblages are an arresting combination of eye-popping colours and crisp, resilient shapes. 

These new works demonstrate Ball' s to be a committed and adventurous contemporary artist whose past work is augmented by the presence of the new. At the age of 79 and with over 60 solo exhibitions to his name Ball' s considerable body of work secures him a place as not only one of the great patriarchs of Australian modernism but also as an inspiring senior contemporary artist. 

Sydney Ball, who is widely considered a pioneer in Australian Abstraction, was born in Adelaide in 1933. Ball's long and impressive career has had a formidable impact on Australian art. Definitively a colourist, Ball spent his formative years living and studying in New York at the Art Students League under Theodoros Stamos, one of the 'Irascible eighteen', which also included Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock. 

Ball's oeuvre is expansive and diverse with each series marked by a monumental and dynamic change. Yet all share the prerogative to investigate the possibilities of colour and form; from the lyrical abstraction that defines his Stain paintings to the architectonic coloured forms of his famed Modular works. 

Ball has exhibited extensively in Australia and overseas. Recent solo exhibitions include Sydney Ball - The Colour Paintings 1963 - 2007 which toured Penrith Regional Gallery and the Lewers Bequest, 2008, McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Part, Melbourne, 2009, and The Anne and Gordon Samstag Museum of Art, Adelaide, 2009 and Survey Paintings 1985-86, Wollongong City Art Gallery, 1987. Ball was also notably included in the historic Australian exhibition The Field, held at both the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne and the Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney, in 1968.

NEXT AT SULLIVAN+STRUMPF

MATTHEW ALLEN
MEETINGS ALONG THE EDGE
6 - 22 DECEMBER 2012

Meetings Along the Edge will be Matthew Allen's second solo exhibition at Sullivan + Strumpf. Recently completing a residency in Paris, this young, emerging artist creates paintings that have a formal 'emptiness', unconfined by form or shape. Allen's paintings are open surfaces where the material, fluid paint, presents itself in a moment of action across the surface of the canvas. Through soft gradations of tone, paint is presented without artifice or handling to highlight it's material nature. These paintings aim to engage the viewer in a sustained state of seeing, a moment of ontological give and take between subject and object.

Through Allen's treatment of paint, colour is brought to the fore. As the artist states "My work is concerned with the breath of colour experience available within painting. I am interested in the viewers subjective engagement with the “colour-space", which is grounded in the painted object

CONGRATULATIONS

Congratulations to all our finalists in the 2012 Gold Coast Art Prize

MICHAEL LINDEMAN
MARC DE JONG
JOANNA LAMB

The exhibition will run from 8 DECEMBER 2012 – 3 FEBRUARY 2013 and the winner will be announced on Friday 7 December at Gold Coast City Gallery.

ALASDAIR MACINTYRE is a finalist in the  Rio Tinto Alcan Martin Hanson Memorial Art Awards. The exhibition will run from 10 NOVEMBER - 6 DECEMBER 2012 at Gladstone Regional Art Gallery Museum. 

DARREN SYLVESTER is a finalist in the Bowness Photography Prize. The exhibition is on until 18 NOVEMBER 2012 at Monash Art Gallery, Victoria.

GO SEE

ALEXANDER SETON

LOOK CLOSLY NOW
Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery

26 OCTOBER - 9 DECEMBER 2012

ALEXANDER SETON´S work Six More
Australian War Memorial, Canberra 
30 OCTOBER 2012 - 31 JANUARY 2013

eX DE MEDICI,  SAM LEACH & JUAN FORD
THE RAPTURE OF DEATH
Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale
10 NOVEMBER 2012 - 20 JANUARY 2013

JUDY MILLAR
CONTACT: ARTISTS FOR AOREAROA/NEW ZEALAND
Frankfurter Kunstverein, Germany
4 OCTOBER - 21 NOVEMBER 2012

TONY ALBERT
MAKING CHANGE 
National Museum of China, Beijing, China
8 NOVEMBER - 16 DECEMBER 2012 

ALASDAIR MACINTYRE, DARREN SYLVESTER,  JOANNA LAMB, 
PENNY BYRNE & MARC DE JONG 
FISHER'S GHOST ART AWARD
Campbelltown Arts Centre until 29 NOVEMBER 2012.

DARREN SYLVESTER & LAITH MCGREGOR
GERTRUDE STUDIOS EXHIBITION
Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne
18 NOVEMBER - 16 DECEMBER 2012. 

WATCH

ABC NEWS interview with ALEXANDER SETON on the unveiling of his work Six More at the Australian War Memorial on 5th NOVEMBER 2012 

CLICK HERE TO WATCH

SAM JINKS

TIME MACHINE
16 OCTOBER - 3 NOVEMBER 2012

Sam Jinks' sculptural work sustains the briefest and often most private moments in time. Emotional vulnerability is both the subject and result of his work and moves audiences in a way not expected from contemporary art. For Jinks, his works are not literal representations, but are based on the combination of different stages of life. He includes elements both old and new; an antique style plinth supports an up-scaled embryo and in another work a couple lying together presents an allegory using the the dog-headed figure, describing the irrational aspects of human relationships. 

Jinks uses these themes of old and new to suggest unrealized potential: the figures are frozen in time, simultaneously at the beginning and end of life. This can be interpreted either as a melancholy reflection of loss, or as the experience of generations standing together with the awareness of life cycles and different stages of development. His hyper-real sculptures have been described as 'poignantly beautiful' as his works create a dialogue on both a technical and emotional level through a strong sensitivity to detail. Created from silicone, fiberglass, resin, calcium carbonate and human hair these works contain a profound sense of the vulnerability and are remarkable in their striking portrayal of the human condition.

Jinks' work can be found in various public collections that include: McClelland Gallery + Sculpture Park, Victoria, Australia, Shepparton Art Gallery, Victoria, Australia and Museo Escultura Figurativa Internacional Contemporaenea (MEFIC), Portugal, in addition to various private collections within Australia and internationally.
 

MICHAEL LINDEMAN

SKELETON MAKES GOOD
16 OCTOBER - 3 NOVEMBER 2012

Michael Lindeman's exhibition Skeleton Makes Good is part of a project that operates parallel to recent conceptual text based paintings, offering paintings for sale, an example of which won the AGNSW Sulman Prize in 2010. Both projects are derived from published newspaper advertisements and aim to replicate the printing process with a hard-edged aesthetic. However, the paintings in Skeleton Makes Good occupy a space on the opposite end of the visual spectrum, relying on colour, form and other aesthetic hooks often employed by mass advertising.

This exhibition sees a collection of paintings that act as the disembodied soul of commercial advertising, a haunted parody of the built-in obsolescence of consumer culture. The large-scale, satirical deconstructions in the exhibition are a type of anti advertising and consumption through the removal of all text and imagery present in the original advertisements. The intended message is neutralised, sabotaged.

By stripping bare all signifiers from the appropriated advertisements, the paintings in Skeleton Makes Good emerge as ghostly and enigmatic post-painterly abstractions. They are exercises in delineated areas of colour that emphasise the flatness of the painting surface, a type of reverse expressionism.

The original colourful advertisements, which the paintings in Skeleton Makes Good are based on, often create a sense of celebration and joy utilising balloons, streamers, fireworks etc. The odd and deadpan paintings in the exhibition aim to subvert this strategy, inventing a deflated, empty environment.

Skeleton Makes Good is a humorous, deconstructivist approach to the sublime, a mutated aesthetic language that is semi familiar, assembled with a dose of conceptual value and a smile.

NEXT AT SSFA

SYDNEY BALL
INFINEX II
13 NOVEMBER - 1 DECEMBER 2012

Following from Sydney Ball's iconic and highly acclaimed Modular series of 1968-69 Infinex II is the latest installment in Ball's exploration of colour, form and structure.

In the latest exhibition smaller painted canvases are configured into dynamic architectural forms that actively play with the negative space of the wall. The geometric assemblages are an arresting combination of eye-popping colours and crisp resilient shapes.

With these new works Ball's re-exploration of the Modular series reflects the practice of a committed and adventurous artist whose past work is augmented by the presence of the new. At the age of 79 and with over 60 solo exhibitions to his name Ball's considerable body of work secures him a place as not only one of the great patriarchs of Australian modernism but also as an inspiring senior contemporary artist.

NEXT AT SSFA

MATTHEW ALLEN
MEETINGS ALONG THE EDGE

6 - 22 DECEMBER 2012

Meetings Along the Edge will be Matthew Allen's second solo exhibition at Sullivan + Strumpf. A young, emerging artist Allen creates paintings that have a formal 'emptiness', unconfined by form or shape. Allen’s paintings are open surfaces where the material, fluid paint, presents itself in a moment of action across the surface of the canvas. Through soft gradations of tone, paint is presented without artifice or handling to highlight it's material nature. These paintings aim to engage the viewer in a sustained state of seeing, a moment of ontological give and take between subject and object. 

Through Allen's treatment of paint, colour is brought to the fore. As the artist states “My work is concerned with the breath of colour experience available within painting. I am interested in the viewers subjective engagement with the  “colour-space”, which is grounded in the painted object

CONGRATULATIONS

Congratulations to all our finalists in the 2012 Fisher's Ghost Prize

ALASDAIR MACINTYRE
DARREN SYLVESTER
JOANNA LAMB
PENNY BYRNE
MARC DE JONG

The exhibition will run from 27 OCTOBER - 29 NOVEMBER with the winner being announced on FRIDAY 2 NOVEMBER at Campbelltown Arts Centre

DARREN SYLVESTER is a finalist in the 2012 Bowness Photography Prize at Monash Art Gallery, Victoria. The exhibition will run from 4 OCTOBER - 18 NOVEMBER 2012.

JUAN FORD has been awarded an Australia Council New Work Grant in the Established category

JUAN FORD'S Portrait of Hon. John Brumby was recently unveiled at Parliament House, Victoria.

KATE SHAW is a recipient of the Pat Corrigan Artists' Grant, Maitland Regional Art Gallery, Maitland

GO SEE

TONY ALBERT
The Future's Not What It Used To Be curated by Deborah Smith
Chapter Gallery, Cardiff, Wales
20 SEPTEMBER - 4 NOVEMBER 2012

ALEXANDER SETON
Look Closely Now
Lake Maquarie City Art Gallery
26 OCTOBER - 9 DECEMBER 2012

PENNY BYRNE & JUAN FORD
Made to Last
La Trobe Regional Gallery, Victoria,
21 SEPTEMBER - 28 OCTOBER 2012

JUDY MILLAR
Contact: Artists for Aotearoa/New Zealand
Frankfurter Kunstverein
4 OCTOBER - 21 NOVEMBER 2011

DARREN SYLVESTER

13 SEPTEMBER - 6 OCTOBER 2012

Darren Sylvester's multidisciplinary practice involves photography, video, sculpture, music production and performance - late last year he published his first book of photographs Compass Point. This year he will be presenting new works comprising of a suite of constructed photographs and various sculptures. In 2013 Sylvester will participate in the Art Gallery of New South Wales Balnaves Project.

This presentation will focus on a series of four polished bronze masks based on the imaginary ancient tribe-like designs invented by pharmaceutical companies for moisturizing and whitening masks, as in Alpha Arbutin. Another work, Space Blanket, is a large scale sculpture that, whilst resembling a quilted bedspread, is made from the same materials as an astronaut spacesuit designed for protection against anything in the universe - in essence the ultimate security blanket.

Around the walls will be a series of large format photographs; portraits that fabricate the use of telepathy for influence over others - something we inherently all do - in love, in faith and in dreaming.

This exhibition plays out our varying sympathies to natures complexity - as humans, our limitations and attempts with technology to control our destiny means we have little choice but to hold true many beliefs and superstitions about our own importance. Through cosmetics we aim to extend life, through space exploration we aim to understand it and in projecting thoughts we want something to look after us.

ALASDAIR MACINTYRE

EMPIRE
13 SEPTEMBER - 6 OCTOBER 2012

Alasdair Macintyre's upcoming exhibition Empire follows on from his highly successful 2011 exhibition Dinky Di, which was acquired in its entirety by Gold Coast City Art Gallery.

Empire continues his investigations into the nature of visual representation and the elemental doctrines of totalitarianism within a fictional fascist state, referencing artists as diverse as Jacques Louis David, Manet, Goya and Edward Hopper.

Featuring Star Wars figures, a continuation of his childhood fascination, the exhibition will consist of several 'diorama' style three dimensional artworks that will reflect an Orwellian style re-writing of visual art history through the filter of totalitarianism, also reflecting the modern day notion of "spin", while keeping within Macintyre's interest in historical visual representation.

Through embracing familiar figures of pop culture, in particular representatives of the 'dark side', Macintyre reflects on ideas of contemporary cultural symbolism. As a lecturer of Art History, Macintyre has a great interest in the role of the artist in significant political and social events from history. Of particular interest is the relationship that the Neo Classical painter Jacques Louis David and the Emperor Napoleon shared during the time following the storming of the Bastille in 1789 and into the era of the Napoleonic wars.

The use of technically refined and gifted artists as a tool of major propaganda is a significant aspect of Macintyre's analysis, as are the methods of visual representation used during the revolution in Russia in the early part of the 20th Century and the modern day 'Occupy' movement.

NEXT AT SSFA

SAM JINKS
16 OCTOBER - 3 NOVEMBER 2012

Sam Jinks’ first solo exhibition with the gallery will present a selection of artworks that examine the human condition and life cycle. His hyper-real sculptures have been described as 'poignantly beautiful' as his works create a dialogue on both a technical and emotional level through a strong sensitivity to detail. Created from silicone, fiberglass, resin, calcium carbonate and human hair these works contain a profound sense of the vulnerability and are remarkable in their striking portrayal of the human condition.

Jinks' work can be found in the various public collections that include: McClelland Gallery + Sculpture Park, Victoria, Australia, Shepparton Art Gallery, Victoria, Australia and Museo Escultura Figurativa Internacional Contemporánea (MEFIC), Portugal, in addition to various private collections within Australia and internationally.

NEXT AT SSFA

MICHAEL LINDEMAN
SKELETON MAKES GOOD
16 OCTOBER - 3 NOVEMBER 2012

Michael Lindeman’s upcoming exhibition Skeleton Makes Good is part of a project that operates parallel with recent conceptual text based paintings, offering paintings for sale, an example of which won the AGNSW Sulman Prize in 2010.

By stripping bare all signifiers from appropriated advertisements, the paintings in Skeleton Makes Good emerge as ghostly and enigmatic post-painterly abstractions.  They are exercises in delineated areas of colour that emphasize the flatness of the painting surface, a type of reverse expressionism. 

Both projects are derived from published newspaper advertisements and aim to replicate the printing process with a hard-edged aesthetic.  However, the paintings in Skeleton Makes Good occupy a space on the opposite end of the visual spectrum, relying on colour, form and other aesthetic hooks often employed by mass advertising.  

CONGRATULATIONS

TONY ALBERT on the tremendous success of his current exhibition FAMILY. FAMILY is Tony`s first exhibition in Australia for 3 years and he has recently been involved in the 3rd Indigenous Triennial at the National Gallery of Australia and is currently working on a project A Projected Future for the AGNSW Level 2 space in 2013.

LAITH MCGRGEOR on winning the National works on Paper Prize, Mornington Peninsular Gallery, 26 August – 7 October 2012

DARREN SYLVESTER is a finalist in the 2012 Bowness Photography Prize with a work from his upcoming exhibition with the work Your Heart Never Lied. 

JOANNA LAMB is a finalist in the Bankwest Art Prize, Western Australia, announcement of prize of Wednesday 14 November

GO SEE

DARREN SYLVESTER
My Favorite Things
Artist Talk
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Wednesday 26 September 2012, 6.30 Talk ,7.30pm Drinks and discussion with the artist

As part of the Carol Jerrems: photographic artist Forum
Saturday 8 September
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

JUAN FORD
Signal 8: STORM 
Cat St Gallery, Hong Kong
9th Aug - 10th Sep 2012.

Sub12
Substation Gallery, Newport VIC

MATTHEW ALLEN
Contemporary Visions
Beers Lambert Contemporary, London
16 Aug – 30 Sep 2012

GO SEE

PENNY BYRNE
Artist Talk iPROTEST
Linden Centre for Contemporary Art
Wednesday 12th Sep

PENNY BYRNE
Making the keynote address titled Diverging Practice, Shifting Grounds, Cross Disciplines at The Australian Ceramics Triennale Subversive Clay in Adelaide
Monday 1 Oct 2012
Triennale Dates 28 Sep – 1 Oct 2012

PENNY BYRNE & SAM LEACH
Haunts & Follies, Linden Centre for Contemporary Art, 26 Ackland Street, St Kilda
Saturday 4 August - Sunday, 16th September 2012

PENNY BYRNE & JUAN FORD
Made to Last
La Trobe Regional Gallery, Victoria,
21 September – 28 October 2012

JUDY MILLAR
Contact: Artists for Aotearoa/New Zealand
Frankfurter Kunstverein
4 October - 21 November 2011

READ

Publication of JUDY MILLAR catalogue for The Rainbow Loop exhibition by Kerber Verlag, Germany in September 2012.

Haunts & Follies review in the Sydney Morning Herald Wednesday 15 August 2012 by Robert Nelson

TONY ALBERT'S exhibition Family review by Tim Elliott in the Spectrum Sydney Morning Herald Saturday 18 August 2012

TONY ALBERT

FAMILY
14 AUGUST - 8 SEPTEMBER 2012

FAMILY at Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney, marks Tony Albert's return to the Australian commercial gallery circuit after a three-year hiatus during which the young artist focused on large-scale international commissions and exhibitions abroad. Invading the entire ground floor of Sullivan+Strumpf's large Zetland premises, FAMILY premieres Albert's impressive Rearranging Our History (2002-11), the second in a trilogy of wall installations developed over the past decade, alongside works from his ongoing Be Deadly project and a series of new collages on aluminium. The exhibition also includes a monumental painting by the late Arthur Pambegan, Jr., created as part of a collaborative project between Albert and the senior artist from Aurukun, Cape York, before his passing in late 2010.

FAMILY's central theme is one that runs throughout Albert's practice: positivity in the face of adversity, the importance of family - both biological and extended - and an exploration of "difference" at a moment in human history when we are most globally connected.

Comprised of ninety-seven reclaimed oil-on-velvet paintings and stretching more than eleven meters long, Rearranging Our History's salon hang mimics domestic walls decorated by family portraits. The installation, however, shows images of Aboriginal representation, ranging from honourable "tribesmen", noble women and sad children to nature scenes of koalas, kangaroos, and kookaburras. Using red and white paint, Albert counters these original velvet paintings with symbols and text in an effort "to give voices back to the men, women, and children who have been dispossessed and disadvantaged." At the center of the piece is a passage lifted from Kofi Annan's 2001 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, and dotted throughout the work are quotes from Martin Luther King, Jr., former prime minister Kevin Rudd's 2008 apology to the Aboriginal people of Australia, and even lyrics from OutKast's ever popular 2003 song, Hey Ya!. Familial word s such as "father" and "mother" are also translated into Girramay, the language of Albert's family in Far North Queensland. It's clear that the voices Albert wishes to return to these stereotyped people are not only diverse but also deeply informed by and engaged with the world at large. For Albert, "Aboriginal issues have long been echoed throughout the world by people in similar positions, and we have shared in each other's struggles. The issues I make art about, including oppression in many forms, are global. Even when the source material is local, they are part of a connected global conversation."

FAMILY also features works from Albert's ongoing Be Deadly project. Initially exhibited at the 2011 Cairns Indigenous Art Fair under the auspices of Griffith University, subsequently included in Variable Truth at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney, and later this year to appear in The Future's Not What It Used To Be at Chapter in Cardiff, Wales, Be Deadly is another instance where Albert deftly fuses the local and the global. The project began with the development of a poster in the political style of Redback Graphix (operating in Sydney between 1980 and 1994) with "BE DEADLY" emblazoned above the smiling faces of three children stylized from photographs of Albert's young cousins. The poster's black, red, and yellow message is simple: it encourages young Aboriginal people to stand together, be positive, and believe in themselves as "deadly", colloquially understood across Australia to mean "amazing", "great", and "the best". The poster is foremost an artwork for schools and children, as during his own childhood, Albert says, "it would have been great to have a poster like Be Deadly in the classroom that spoke in our language and celebrated people that we recognized in ourselves. When my sister and I were growing up in the suburbs of Brisbane, we often felt invisible. At school we were taught that an Englishman named Captain Cook discovered Australia and that Aboriginal people lived in the desert. It was very confusing to us as our history lessons never agreed with what we learnt at home of who we were, where we came from, and what it really meant to be Aboriginal."

Alongside the posters, which are tiled to the walls of the Sullivan+Strumpf gallery, FAMILY also includes a unique collage that incorporates the Be Deadly design as well as the title statement translated into numerous other languages, including Tibetan, Maori, and Indonesian, which Albert garnered from his international artist friends, respectively, Gonkar Gyatso, Shane Cotton, and Eko Nugroho. The process of translation is an important strategy throughout Albert's practice, and demonstrates his commitment to communicating his ideas, concerns, and messages to a wide audience. Significantly, the reoccurrence of multiple languages also recognises Albert's firm belief that equality cannot be achieved by attempting to create "sameness", but rather through the recognition and understanding of "difference". For Albert, "difference" is central to our humanity.

The idea of the extended family also resonates throughout Albert's artistic practice, particularly with his collaborative projects such as Pay Attention (2009-10), the twenty-five-meter-long text piece that features twenty-six different artists' works and was recently exhibited at the National Gallery of Australia as part of unDisclosed, the 2012 National Indigenous Art Triennial. In FAMILY, the collaborative aspect of Albert's practice is represented by the inclusion of an incredible six-meter-long masterpiece by the late Arthur Pambegan, Jr. The two artists first met in Brisbane in 2003 at the Queensland Art Gallery's Story Place: Indigenous Art of Cape York and the Rainforest. Over the years, they developed a strong relationship and were both welcomed into each other's families. Pambegan's work in FAMILY is titled Ngamp yotam ma kee antan (2010), which translates from Wik-Mungkan, one of the languages Pambegan spoke in his hometown of Aurukun in Far North Queensland's Cape York region, to mean "Working together to achieve a common goal". The work was created as part of Albert and Pambegan's Old Man, Young Man project (2009-ongoing) that set out to record their artistic and personal conversations and to explore how the ideas and art of a young man and an old man from two very different cultures could intersect and connect. Following Pambegan's sad passing in late 2010, the project was suspended for a period of mourning. In October 2011, Albert returned to Aurukun and, with the blessing of Pambegan's family, is continuing the project in honour of the late artist's legacy. Pambegan's inclusion in FAMILY is especially poignant as it highlights Albert's sincere hope that we may work together to pass on to the next generation the compassion, the ability, and the openness to acknowledge and to embrace difference. For an extended family to exist across borders, cultures, colours, and generations - such is the legacy Albert wishes to share and the future he seeks to create.

NEXT AT S+S

DARREN SYLVESTER
13 SEPTEMBER - 6 OCTOBER 2012

Darren Sylvester's multidisciplinary practice involves photography, video, sculpture, music production and performance - late last year he published his first book of photographs Compass Point. This year he will be presenting new works comprising of a suite of constructed photographs and various sculptures. 

This presentation will focus on a series of four polished bronze masks based on imaginary ancient tribe-like designs invented by pharmaceutical companies for moisturizing and whitening masks, as in Alpha Arbutin. Another work, Space Blanket, is a large scale sculpture that, whilst resembling a sleeping bag, is made from the same materials as an astronaut spacesuit designed for protection against anything in the universe.

Around the walls will be a series of large format photographs; portraits that fabricate the use of telepathy for influence over others - something we inherently all do - in love, in faith, in dreaming. These bright swirled images will create a psychedelic mood over the sculptures.

This exhibition plays out our varying sympathies to natures complexity - as humans, our limitations and attempts with technology mean we have little choice but to hold true the many beliefs and superstitions about our own importance.

NEXT AT S+S

ALASDAIR MACINTYRE
EMPIRE
13 SEPTEMBER - 6 OCTOBER 2012

Alasdair Macintyre's upcoming exhibitionI follows on from his highly successful 2011 exhibition Dinky Di, which was collected in its entirety by Gold Coast City Art Gallery.

Empire continues his investigations into the nature of visual representation and the elemental doctrines of totalitarianism within a fictional fascist state. Featuring Star Wars figures, a continuation of his childhood fascination, the exhibition will consist of several 'diorama' style three dimensional artworks that will reflect an Orwellian style re-writing of visual art history through the filter of totalitarianism, also reflecting the modern day notion of "spin", while keeping within Macintyre`s interest in historical visual representation.

Through embracing familiar figures of pop culture, in particular representatives of the 'dark side', Macintyre reflects on ideas of contemporary cultural symbolism. This exhibition will again reflect his academic work as a lecturer of Art History this time focusing on the role of artists in significant political and social events from history and their relationship to power and propaganda.

CONGRATULATIONS

SYDNEY BALL has been awarded an Honorary Award "Doctor of the University" (DUniv.) by the University of South Australia. An official award ceremony will take place in March/April 2013. 

EX DE MEDICI'S well received solo exhibition Ton of Bricks at Melbourne Art Fair, saw a body of 12 works focusing on the dichotomous relationship between Iran`s contemporary and ancient cultures in response to her recent travels through the country. 

LAITH MCGRGEOR is a finalist in the National works on Paper Prize, Mornington Peninsular Gallery, 26 August - 7 October 2012 and the Paul Guest Prize, Bendigo Art Gallery, 14 July - 26 August 2012.

GO SEE

PENNY BYRNE
On a bus near you in the ACT as part of her exhibition at the Museum of Australian Democracy, which has been extended until November.

PENNY BYRNE & SAM LEACH
Haunts & Follies, Linden Centre for Contemporary Art, 26 Ackland Street, St Kilda, Saturday 4 August 2012 - Sunday 16 September

SAM LEACH
Friday August 17 2012, 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM

Talks about the crossing the divide between science and art as part of National Science week at Dechaineux Lecture Theatre, Centre for the Arts, Hunter Street, Hobart.

GO SEE

TONY ALBERT, LAITH MCGREGOR, EX DE MEDICI, JUDY MILLAR, DARREN SYLVESTER & PENNY BYRNE in

LIKE
curated by Toni Bailey at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre
20 July – 28 August 2012

MATTHEW ALLEN
Contemporary Visions
Beers Lambert Contemporary, London
16 August – 30 September 2012

TEXTAQUEEN
q t p o c m o n t r e a l 2 0 1 2
articule artist-run centre, Montreal, CANADA
August 10 - 19 2012

MARC DE JONG: LNDSCP(S)

10 JULY - 4 AUGUST 2012

A series of mesmerizing pixilated paintings, LNDSCP(S) surveys the Australian landscape in all its forms - from Rivergum a homage to Namatjira and the Hermannsburg School - to the ubiquitous urban landscapes of Shoefiti 2 and Traffic. (left)

De Jong appropriates a range of images collected from the internet, television and newspapers and he has referred to his creative output as 'media dreaming' and 'culture jamming'. Once gathered, he then reprocesses these pixilated images,"His almost anachronistic process of hand-making a digital image of an analog event reclaims the material presence for what would otherwise be ignored or passed over in easy familiarity." 1. In these intricate paintings, de Jong is opposing the short-term values of what he calls "the global media flux of the instant".

1. Ingrid Periz, “Spamocracy” Australian Art Collector, 2008.

NEXT AT SSFA

EX DE MEDICI: TON OF BRICKS
MELBOURNE ART FAIR
1 - 5 AUGUST 2012
STAND E19

eX de Medici's solo exhibition Ton of Bricks will see a new body of work created in response to her recent travels through Iran. 

The works journey through the diverse social history of Iran. Underneath their beauteous aesthetic an orchestration of violence and destruction is composed using the imagery of nuclear warfare, firearms and militaria wreathed by culturally charged decorative symbolism. In Spy (Tehran/Qom), an enlarged Iranian ant sits on a background pattern that has been sourced from the embellished ceiling of the famous Mosque of Fatima, Qom, the site in which Mohammed`s daughter Fatima, the mother of Muslim Shi'a practice, is interred. 

As in de Medici's magnum opus, Cure for Pain 2011, these works continue her interest in natural history. Having worked extensively with CSIRO;s entomology collection, de Medici continues to present intricate studies of ants, scorpions, flora and scientific representations of deadly gases used in chemical warfare, creating, as Jenny McFarland wrote in 2011, "a world governed by chaos, a world in which simple solutions cannot be constructed and meaning is not offered as a reward" 1.

1.Dr Jenny McFarlane Cure for Pain Sullivan + Strumpf Catalogue Essay, May 2011

NEXT AT SSFA

DARREN SYLVESTER: VIP PHOTO
12 JULY - 12 AUGUST 2012

Sullivan + Strumpf is pleased to present Darren Sylvester at VIP ART FAIR PHOTO between July 12 - August 12, 2012 an international art fair held exclusively online.

Sylvester, well-known for his narrative-driven photography, is continually expanding his increasingly multi-disciplinary approach that incorporates the mediums of video, sculpture and more recently, performing and recording music as a solo musician. His photographs are highly choreographed and precise compositions, they are striking and direct. The meticulous consideration of the image presents his subjects in a highly controlled environment to create a visually impacting image that is constructed without unnecessary visual interference.

Further information and online registration will be forwarded later this week.

www.vipartfair.com

CONGRATULATIONS

KATE SHAW is a finalist in the Artists Wanted Art Takes, Time Square, New York as well as the John Fries Memorial prize and has been recently acquired by Rockhampton Regional Art Gallery. 

GO SEE

SYDNEY BALL
On show now in the exhibition Contemporary at the AGNSW is Sydney Ball's large painting Infinex #4, acquired from his last exhibition, Sydney Ball: Infinex at Sullivan + Strumpf. 

JUAN FORD
Revealed: inside the private collections of South Australia 
SAMSTAG MUSEUM, ADELAIDE
22 June - 22 July 2012

JUAN FORD
KRAUSE GALLERY, NEW YORK
JULY - AUGUST 2012

TEXTAQUEEN
q t p o c m o n t r é a l 2 0 1 2
ARTICULE ARTIST-RUN CENTRE, MONTREAL
August 10 - 19, 2012

GO SEE

KATE SHAW

Mangae by Korean Women’s Arts Society Sydney
FOUNTAIN COURT GALLERY, NSW PARLIAMENT HOUSE, SYDNEY
4th - 28th July 2012

Flowers for You 
STEPHAN STOYANOV GALLERY, NEW YORK
27th June - 12th August

Destination: Here and Destination: Now
BLINDSIDE, MELBOURNE 
2 - 8 August 2012

Space Oddity
S CUBE, LAGUNA BEACH, CALIFORNIA
Until 6 August 2012

GO SEE

PENNY BYRNE
Life is a Riot 
ALBURY LIBRARY MUSEUM
Until 21 July 2012

SAM JINKS, SAM LEACH & LAITH MCGREGOR
Animal/Human 
UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND ART MUSEUM, BRISBANE
Until 22 Jul 2012

TONY ALBERT
UNDISCLOSED - 2nd National Indigenous Art Triennial
NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA, CANBERRA 
Until 22 July 2012

READ

 LAITH MCGREGOR
 ART MONTHLY

SYDNEY BALL 
AUSTRALIAN ART COLLECTOR

7 - 30 JUNE 2012

MATTHEW ALLEN
SYDNEY BALL
MARC DE JONG
SAM LEACH
DANE LOVETT
MICHAEL LINDEMAN
ALASDAIR MACINTYRE
JUDY MILLAR
KATE SHAW
DARREN SYLVESTER

SAM LEACH: THE CIVILISING PROCESS

VOLTA8 BASEL, SWITZERLAND
11 - 16 JUNE, 2012

STAND B22

> View Exhibition Video

Sam Leach's current body of work is underpinned by his ongoing exploration of the history of science, technology and philosophy and how this has shaped the way humans have perceived their surrounding environment. This exhibition The Civilising Process consists of an interconnected series of meticulous oil and resin on wood paintings and large canvases. Specifically, the project aims to connect the aesthetic legacy of early humanism found in Cornelius van Dalem's 16th century artwork Landscape with the Birth of Civilsation with the anti-humanism theories of Jakob von Uexhall and the notion of the umwelt (the world perception on non-human animals).

Leach assesses how reality has been perceived and produced historically, contesting ontological hierarchies. By questioning the culture of science and the modern dualist philosophy of man vs. nature in particular, Leach invokes a discourse about how new scientific knowledge constantly changes the relationship between humans and non-human animals.

MARC DE JONG: LNDSCP(S)

10 JUNE - 4 AUGUST 2012

LNDSCP(S) surveys the Australian landscape in all its forms - from Rivergum a homage to Namatjira and the Hermannsburg School - to the ubiquitous urban landscapes of Shoefiti 2 and Supermarket. 

De Jong appropriates a range of images collected from the internet, television and newspapers and he has referred to his creative output as 'media dreaming' and 'culture jamming'. Once gathered, he then reprocesses these pixilated images, using a traditional painting technique that is intricate and labour intensive - "His almost anachronistic process of hand-making a digital image of an analog event reclaims the material presence for what would otherwise be ignored or passed over in easy familiarity." 1. In these works, de Jong is opposing the short-term values of what he calls "the global media flux of the instant". 

1. Ingrid Periz, `Spamocracy` Australian Art Collector, 2008.

EX DE MEDICI: TON OF BRICKS

MELBOURNE ART FAIR

1 - 5 AUGUST 2012

eX de Medici's solo exhibition Ton of Bricks will see a new body of work created in response to her recent travels through Iran. 

The works journey through the diverse social history of Iran. Underneath their beauteous aesthetic an orchestration of violence and destruction is composed using the imagery of nuclear warfare, firearms and militaria wreathed by culturally charged decorative symbolism. In Spy (Tehran/Qom) (detail left), an enlarged Iranian ant sits on a background pattern that has been sourced from the embellished ceiling of the famous Mosque of Fatima, Qom, the site in which Mohammed's daughter Fatima, the mother of Muslim Shi`a practice, is interred. 

As in de Medici's magnum opus, Cure for Pain 2011, these works continue her interest in natural history. Having worked extensively with CSIRO's entomology collection, de Medici continues to present intricate studies of ants, scorpions, flora and scientific representations of deadly gases used in chemical warfare, creating, as Jenny McFarland wrote in 2011, "a world governed by chaos, a world in which simple solutions cannot be constructed and meaning is not offered as a reward"1.

1.Dr Jenny McFarlane Cure for Pain Sullivan + Strumpf Catalogue Essay, May 2011

CONGRATULATIONS

TONY ALBERT - on his commission for the Australian War Memorial as Official Artist attached to North West Mobile Force (NORFORCE) based in the Northern Territory. Albert is the first indigenous artist to be appointed as official artist by the AWM. 

JUAN FORD - on his inclusion in The Cosmopolitain Stranger: Hotel de Immigrantes 2 (image left, an exhibition that is part of Manifesta 9 (the European Biennale) in Hasselt, Belgium. 2 June - 30 September 2012

CONGRATULATIONS

ALEXANDER SETON - on a most successful show at ARTHK12. His installation, Elegy on Resistance (installation left), was very well received, with works going to collections throughout the Asia and the US and interest from collectors and curators worldwide. The centerpiece, Soloist was widely publicized, turning up everywhere from the South China Morning Post to the Sydney Morning Herald. Seton will be in residence at OMI International Arts Centre, New York in July, with the assistance of Art OMI, Australia. 

MATTHEW ALLEN will be taking up residence at the Australia Council Studio, Paris from 12 June - 12 September

LAITH MCGREGOR will be taking up residence at the Australia Council Studio, Barcelona from 9 July to 1 October 2012.

GO SEE

JUAN FORD
THE SLEEP OF REASON 
La Trobe University Visual Art Space, Bendigo
Until 17 June 2012

ALASDAIR MACINTYRE
ART ON ART
Gold Coast City Art Gallery
Until 24 June 2012

ALEXANDER SETON & TONY ALBERT
VARIABLE TRUTH
Gallery 4A, Centre for Contemporary Asian Art
Until 14 Jul 2012

SAM JINKS, SAM LEACH & LAITH MCGREGOR
ANIMAL/HUMAN 
University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane 
Until 22 Jul 2012

TONY ALBERT
unDISCLOSED - 2nd National Indigenous Art Triennial
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Until 22 July 2012

JUDY MILLAR

Judy Millar, a distinguished and internationally acclaimed artist and New Zealand's 2009 Venice Biennale representative, will have her first Australian exhibition  in a decade at Sullivan + Strumpf between 1 - 26 May 2012. Millar's exhibition The Split Ferryman will extend central aspects of her painting practice with a body of work that represent the intense physicality of the artist and her work.

Through the processes of erasure, wiping and scraping paint as well as incorporating various printing techniques Millar creates her 'embodied paintings'. Her work engages the relationship between the immediacy of the artistic gesture in the studio and its condensation via translation into digital or screen-printed imagery, creating over-sized images of clarity and authority.

NEXT AT SSFA

ALEXANDER SETON
ELEGY ON RESISTANCE

ARTHK12
17 - 20 MAY 2012
STAND 3X19

In Alexander Seton's first international solo show, at ArtHK12 this coming May, the artist will present an installation of a series of white marble hooded jerseys or 'hoodies'. The exhibition, titled Elegy on Resistance, is a reflective visual poem on themes of identification, isolation, privacy trust and control.

Seton's work explores the tension and often the contradiction of using marble carving, a traditional skill, to explore contemporary themes and ideas, particularly of our digital world. The detailed rendering of the folds, the surface of the puckered material, and the way the garments fall flimsily over the coat hangers draws us in. Yet when up close to the work we discover the embodied central figure is hollow and absent from the intricately carved form. The passive figure tries to find a sequestered space under which a right to anonymity and privacy still exist, serving to ask the greater reflective question, 'In what am I participating?'

NEXT AT SSFA

SAM LEACH
THE CIVILIZING PROCESS

VOLTA8, Basil, Switzerland
11 - 16 JUNE 2012

Sullivan + Strumpf are pleased to announce that Sam Leach's upcoming exhibition The Civilizing Process will be presented at VOLTA8, Basel's cutting edge art fair for new and emerging art, between 11-16 June 2012.

The Civilizing Process will consist of a multi-paneled and interconnected series of works underpinned by Leach's exploration of the history of science, technology and philosophy and his analysis of how these concepts change the relationship between humans and non-human animals. Specifically, Leach's project aims to invoke a discussion of options by connecting the aesthetic legacy of early humanism found in Cornelius van Dalem's 16th century artwork with the anti-humanism theories of Jakob von Uexhall.

CONGRATULATIONS

Tony Albert's major collaborative work Pay Attention Mother Fuckers (2009-2010) will be exhibited as part of the 2012 National Indigenous Art Triennial at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra between 11 May - 22 July 2012, followed by a national tour.

Juan Ford is participating in The Cosmopolitain Stranger: Hotel de Immigrantes 2, curated by Koen Vanmechelen and DTomas Wendland, in Hasselt, Belgium. Part of Manifesta 9 (the European Biennale) Manifesta is the only itinerant European biennial of contemporary art, together with events such as the biennial of Venice and the Documenta in Kassel, Manifesta is one of the foremost art events of Europe.

Michael Lindeman has been shortlisted in the Alice Art Prize 2012.  The Alice Art Prize is an acquisitive award of $25,000 and will be announced on Friday 11 May 2012. 

Kate Shaw and Juan Ford have both been shortlisted in Rockhampton Art Gallery’s invitational Gold Award. The shortlist consists of 8 artists with the winner being drawn on Friday 1st June and a prize of $50,000. 

GO SEE

Sam Jink's first survey exhibition Sam Jinks: Body in Time at the Shepparton Art Museum, Victoria. This survey will fill the entire ground floor of SAM.

Judy Millar's solo show Der Regenbogen Loop at the renowned Museum Gegenstandsfreier Kunst in Otterndorf Germany between 14 April  - 14 June 2012.

Alasdair Macintyre's Art on Art at Gold Coast City Gallery 12 May - 24 June 2012 presenting the galleries major acquisition of works by Alasdair McIntyre from his 2011 solo exhibition Dinky Di at Sullivan+Strumpf.

Alasdair Macintyre's solo exhibition Ways of Seeing at Albury Art Gallery curated by David Smith. The exhibition showcases works from 2004 to the present and runs from the 29 March – 25 May 2012. 

Laith McGregor’s solo exhibition at Gertrude Contemporary, Fitzroy, Victoria, between 20 April – 26 May 2012 exhibiting works that reflect his multi-disciplinary practice including drawing, painting, video and sculpture. 

Penny Byrne’s upcoming solo exhibition, Life is a Riot, at Albury Library Museum curated by Kim Ciancio & Jules Boag. The exhibition showcases a number of works from her 2011 show Plausible Deniability. The exhibition runs from 24th March until 21st July 2012 at the Albury Library Museum

Juan Ford’s ambition installation The Sleep of Reason at La Trobe University Visual Arts Space, Bendigo, Victoria from 10 May – 17 June 2012

Juan Ford's portrait of The Hon. John Brumby, Premier of Victoria, to be hung in Queen's Hall, at Victorian Parliament House. 

DANE LOVETT: FORKING IN THE RIVER OF TIME

27 MARCH - 21 APRIL 2012

Dane Lovett`s still-life paintings hark back to the familiar. They are delicate observations of remnants from music and popular culture in which private histories collide with universal stories. On a stark background domestic plants nest around forgotten and outdated technology; stacks of copied CDs, piles of old LPs, and home recorded cassette tapes. We question if these objects belong as they float between being both personal and universal. This transient state is further reiterated in his handling of the material where washes of colour on the canvas, on close inspection, are loose and gestural yet from afar appear controlled and precise. 

LEAH EMERY: IN & OUT

27 MARCH - 21 APRIL 2012

In Leah Emery’s work, the feminine and domestic craft of needlework collides playfully with the pornographic images that she references. The beauty of the woven colours, patterns and texture of the cross-stitched surface conflict with the nature of the image itself. In an attempt to decipher the obscured image we are drawn in closer, eyes moving across the pixilated surface, suddenly, we become engrossed by the happenings within the work. In this new body of work vintage porn is cross-stitched into tiny, cinematic-like panels. The more explicit the imagery the greater the pull between Emery’s subject and the medium, resulting in a beautiful clash of sensibilities.

NEXT AT SSFA

JUDY MILLAR: THE SPLIT FERRYMAN

1 - 26 MAY 2012

Major international artist and New Zealand's 2009 Venice Biennale representative, Judy Millar, will have her first Australian exhibition at Sullivan + Strumpf between 1 - 26 May 2012. Millar's exhibition The Split Ferryman will extend central aspects of her painting practice with a body of work that represents the intense physicality of the artist and her work. 

Through the processes of erasure, wiping and scraping paint as well as incorporating various printing techniques Millar creates her 'embodied painting'. Her work engages the relationship between the immediacy of the artistic gesture in the studio and its condensation via translation into digital or screen-printed imagery, creating over-sized images of clarity and authority. 

CONGRATULATIONS

Congratulations to all our finalists in the 2012 AGNSW Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes. Winners announced Friday 30 March 2012.

Archibald
Juan Ford

Wynne
Juan Ford
Kate Shaw
Michael Lindeman

Sulman
Dane Lovett
Marc de Jong

CONGRATULATIONS

Congratulations to Penny Byrne who has been shortlisted for the Eran Svigos Award for Best Visual Artist for her work in The Art of the Possible! In the Adelaide Fringe Awards

GO SEE

Alasdair Macintyre's solo exhibition Ways of Seeing at Albury Art Gallery curated by David Smith. The exhibition showcases works from 2004 to the present and runs from the 29 March – 25 May 2012. 

Penny Byrne’s upcoming solo exhibition, Life is a Riot, at Albury Library Museum curated by Kim Ciancio & Jules Boag. The exhibition showcases a number of works from her 2011 show Plausible Deniability and runs from 24 March until 21 July 2012 at the Albury Library Museum

Alasdair Macintyre and Penny Byrne`s sculptural works will feature in the Penrith Regional Gallery’s show Hello Dollies. The exhibition presents a range of artworks by accomplished artists who depict, subvert and manipulate the various forms which `dollies` manifest. The exhibition is currently showing and runs through to 22 April 2012 

GO SEE

Darren Sylvester’s exhibition of four polished bronze sculptures at Studio 12, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne. Polished to create a sense of modern allure they resemble golden death masks, eyes and mouths frozen open in horror, recalling all the attempts through the ages for a more beautiful life. The exhibition runs from Saturday 17 March through to 7 April 2012.

Judy Millar’s solo show Der Regenbogen Loop at the renowned Museum Gegenstandsfreier Kunst in Otterndorf Germany between 14 April – 14 June 2012. 

LAITH MCGRGEOR: OHNE TITEL (Them Listless Folk From Apocryphal)

28 February - 17 March 2012

Ohne Titel (Them Listless Folk from Apocryphal) will be McGregor’s largest solo show to date and will showcase his diverse practice, including paintings, drawings, video works and sculpture. McGregor’s works are exploring an in-between state, a place that does not exist, a grey area of the unknown. The body of work sits within a poetic sphere- with ghosts and lost souls wandering through the works. McGregor's work blends aspects of photorealism with memory, literature, art history, popular culture and the imagination. 

NEXT AT SSFA

LEAH EMERY
IN AND OUT

NEXT AT SSFA

DANE LOVETT
FORKING IN THE RIVER OF TIME

27 March - 21 April 2012

Dane Lovett's still-life paintings hark back to the familiar. They are delicate observations of remnants from music and popular culture in which private histories collide with universal stories. On a stark background domestic plants nest around forgotten and outdated technology; stacks of copied CDs, piles of old LPs, and home recorded cassette tapes. We question if these objects belong as they float between being both personal and universal. This transient state is further reiterated in his handling of the material where washes of colour on the canvas, on close inspection, are loose and gestural yet from afar appear controlled and precise.

CONGRATULATIONS

Art Omi Australia has awarded the 2012 Art Omi International Artists Residency to Alexander Seton. The Residency invites thirty artists from around the world to participate in a retreat at Omi, New York, for three weeks every July.

CONGRATULATIONS

Michael Lindeman’s works Semi-multicoloured Caucasian #2 and Semi-multicoloured Caucasian #3 have been acquired by Artbank. The works are an extension of Lindeman’s previous text-based canvases which conceptualize our exposure to advertising and challenge notions of artistic trade.

BOOK RELEASE

Darren Sylvester has released his first book Compass Point, about the Compass Point Studios complex in the Bahamas, where artists such as Grace Jones, AC/DC and Roxy Music recorded seminal albums. Coinciding with the launch of Sylvester`s book is the release of Flamingo, a lightjet print encapsulating the essence of this exotic location. Launch, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Fitzroy March 7 2012

Compass Point is available to order at SSFA
$55 + postage

GO SEE

Alastair Macintyre and Penny Byrne’s sculptural works will feature in the Penrith Regional Gallery’s show Hello Dollies. The exhibition presents a range of artworks by accomplished artists who depict, subvert and manipulate the varies forms which ‘dollies’ manifest. 11 Feb – 22 Apr.

Penny Byrne’s solo exhibition at the Albury Library Museum, Life is a Riot The exhibition, curated by Kim Ciancio & Jules Boag, will showcase a number of works from her 2011 show Plausible Deniability. 24 Mar - 22 Jul

GO SEE

McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park’s Double Vision show continues until 18 March. The exhibition explores notions of portraiture and the body and features works by artists Juan Ford, Sam Jinks and Alexander Seton. 

Marc De Jong will feature in Ground Up - Fundraising Art Exhibition at Damien Minton Gallery Annex Space. The exhibition acts as a fundraiser for the Ground Up Community Support Network. 8 -12 March 2012, to be opened by Dr Marie Bashir, Governor of NSW

February 2012

GROUP SHOW 2012

31 Jan – 19 Feb

Sullivan+Strumpf will open the new year with the annual group show. The exhibition will feature new works by all Sullivan+Strumpf artists and also introduces four new artists to the gallery; Judy Millar, Tony Albert, Sam Jinks and Leah Emery.

NEXT AT SSFA

LAITH MCGRGEOR
OHNE TITEL (Them listless folk from Apocryphal)

28 Feb – 17 March

In what will be McGregor’s largest exhibition to date, Ohne Titel (Them listless folk from Apocryphal), will showcase his diverse practice including paintings, drawings, video works and sculpture. McGregor is exploring an in-between state, a place that does not exist, a grey area of the unknown - Apocryphal. The body of work sits within a poetic sphere- with ghosts and lost souls wandering through the works.  McGregor's work blends aspects of photorealism with memory, literature, art history, popular culture and the imagination. 

CONGRATULATIONS

Laith McGregor has been awarded the Art & Australia / Credit Suisse Private Banking Contemporary Art Award. The award supports emerging artists through the publication of their works on Art & Australia’s back cover.

The Embassy of Australia Gallery in Washington DC, USA will showcase works by Australian artists including Juan Ford, Sam Leach and Michael Lindeman in the exhibition Lie of the Land: New Australian Landscapes. The project aims to display recent works that explore and complicate the character of Australia’s national landscape tradition. Lindeman received the Janet Holmes à Court Artist Grant, administered by NAVA,  to assist in the transport of works being exhibited in Washington.

Tony Albert’s installation A Collected History is in the Roundabout: Face to Face exhibition showing at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. The exhibition presents a global community that is often estranged and separated by national borders and cultural conflicts, yet remain united by the common goal of creative expression and international artistic exchange. Exhibition closes April 2012. Albert is also currently on residence at Artspace Sydney until Jun 2012.

Penny Byrne is a finalist in the Albury Art Prize at the Albury Art Gallery 27 Jan – 4 March 2012. Penny has also been accepted by the Associate Artist Residency Programme to partake in a London residency at Acme Studios as an Associate Artist in June. 

GO SEE

Penny Byrne will be participating in the National Visual Arts Education Conference 2012 held at the National Gallery of Australia and the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra.

Byrne's work is also included in the group show The Art of the Possible opening at  Jam Factory in Adelaide, 23 Feb, as part of the Adelaide Fringe Festival. Penny will also lead a discussion at  Jam Factory on 25 Feb 2012.

Byrne's solo touring exhibition, Commentariat touring show begins in Warrnambool 7 Feb. It continues until 26 June 2012.

Alexander Seton’s solo show Flags at the Lismore Regional Gallery continues until 29 Jan. This show explores the trappings of nationhood, presenting carved yet 'soft' hanging flags in marble which evoke the powerful and fragile sense of monument and tradition inherent in the flag.

Perspectives, a travelling exhibition from the Australian War Memorial, features works by eX de Medici and Jon Cattapan that record the activities of Australian peacekeepers in the Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste. Exhibiting at Artspace Mackay, 3 Feb – 25 March 2012

Sydney Ball is included in the current display Hard Edge and Colour Field Paintings and Sculpture at the Art Gallery of South Australia. The exhibition includes examples of his iconic Canto and Modular works. The show continues until mid 2012.

Kate Shaw’s works are currently being projected onto Brisbane’s William Jolly Bridge as part of the city’s William Jolly Bridge Creative Lighting Project, an ongoing initiative which will create an iconic centerpiece for the city.

Arlene TextaQueen will feature in the exhibition They’re a Queer Mob at Blak Dot Gallery. The show presents a vision of queer culture from non-western perspectives. Blak Dot Gallery, Brunswick, VIctoria 19 Jan – 5 Feb 2012

Double Vision, 5 Dec – 18 Mar 2012 at the McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park, features artists Juan Ford, Sam Jinks and Alexander Seton. The exhibition explores notions of portraiture and the body. Ford will also be included in Peter Burke’s curated project Pursuit to be exhibited at the India Art Fair, 26 – 29 Jan 2012, New Delhi.

Sam Leach furthers his exploration of the intersection between art, science and philosophy in his solo exhibition The Ecstasy of Infrastructure on view at TarraWarra Museum of Art. 19 Nov – 4 March 2012