A live, outdoor drawing performance this Friday (Feb 19) is one of the many awesome things happening at the Newcastle Art Gallery in February. With three new exhibitions also hitting the gallery this month, it’s the perfect time to visit our regional arts hub.
During the live drawing performance ‘A line in the night’, Newcastle Art Gallery will become the canvas for artist Kellie O’Dempsey and musician Mick Dick to collaborate and respond to sound and the immediate environment. O’Dempsey will use light and colour to create a new digital drawing work on the external Gallery wall.
The three exhibitions that commence this month will run at the Gallery through early May. Details are below.
A DIRTY BUSINESS: Devine, Styan and Tilley
20 February – 15 May 2016
A Dirty Business is a collaborative exhibition by local artists Andy Devine, Andrew Styan and Peter Tilley that explores the role of coal mining in contemporary Australia and in a local context. Devine and Tilley have a long history of working together to create three dimensional collages assembled from paintings, printing plates and objects either found or made. Although outwardly simple, these works of art are richly symbolic and capable of multiple interpretations.
Digital installation artist Andrew Styan streams live media to visualise the movements of coal ships in Newcastle harbour exploring the danger of coal in a mediated world.
With images set in local and industrial landscapes, combined with personal and political narratives, this exhibition is both entrenched in and excavated from Newcastle and the Hunter Valley. Works in the exhibition include paintings, sculpture, installations and prints.
JOHN PEART – HOMAGE
On now through 1 May 2016
John Peart (1945 – 2013), winner of the 1997 Wynne Prize and the 2000 Sulman Prize, has earned a reputation as one of Australia’s great modernists. Drawing on Newcastle Art Gallery’s own collection, this exhibition pays homage to Peart and showcases the diversity of his practice, featuring 18 works across a range of media, including collage, paper, paintings and tapestry.
Homage reflects the Gallery’s on-going commitment to collecting the works and celebrating the careers of artists over successive decades. A highlight is the newly acquired tapestry Figures and grounds from 1988, gifted by Orica Limited, Melbourne in 2014.
JUST DRAW
On now through 1 May 2016
Just Draw celebrates drawing and its many possibilities: installation, kinetics, multimedia, performance, robotics and sculpture. Exhibition curators Todd Fuller and Lisa Woolfe present Australian artists who leverage the possibilities of this deceptively simple medium. Drawing offers a conceptual wonderland allowing the practitioner to meander through a broad spectrum of ideas and concepts. From artists whose work could be described as a contemporary take on a classical methodology, to those who nudge the definition of ‘drawing’ beyond the realm of ‘marks on paper’. This survey considers artists’ works which are so much more than just drawing.
For more information visit the Newcastle Art Gallery’s website.
