Fertile Ground Opening

As promised, here are a few photos of the opening of my exhibition, Fertile Ground, at Maitland Regional Art Gallery on 18th July. I was in Maitland for the week installing with the MRAG Dream Team who impressed me with their professionalism and respectful handling of my work. Their attention to detail and ensuring everything was just right was laudable, so I am confident my exhibition is in safe hands for the duration. The acting Director, Bridget Uren, was so enthusiastic about my work, I could often hear her explaining details about it to VIP's whilst I continued putting the finishing touches on things in the adjacent galleries.

View of the G1 & G2 galleries

View of 'generate' series of works in G3

Back wall of G2, 'transmorphing' and 'Phaeoceros spores'

G2 view of 'I think...', 'Europa 1 &2' and 'Net Returns'  foreground

It was also a great pleasure to meet the amazing Patrick Corrigan in person, who was showing 'Power and Colour',  new paintings from the Corrigan Collection. I finally got to thank him personally for the Pat Corrigan grant I received early in my career, way back in 1999 - it certainly was a great help back then, and, as he reminded me, I was in good company as he reeled off name after famous name of the Australian artworld. Pat has a very hands-on approach to his philanthropic ventures and is totally committed to the causes he supports. Once again, thank you Patrick Corrigan!

Patrick Corrigan at the MRAG opening.

The six exhibitions on show for the Winter Program were officially opened by Lydia Miller, Executive Director of ATSIA, Australia Council for the Arts, and it was wonderful to meet her and listen to her insights about indigenous art and the role they play in our society. After the exhibition we all relaxed over a delicious meal in the cafe with a few champagnes, and I got to talk to some of the other artists involved in the Winter Program. Just before I left, I snuck back into the gallery to take a night shot of my 'Net Returns' installation which shows its true colours with a flash setting.  The glass fibre, which has 50,000 miniscule glass beads per square inch really reflects the light as I intended it to, as do the glass covered sticks on the wall installation 'I think'.

'Net Returns'

'I think...'

Finally, my sincere and hearfelt thanks must go to curator Kim Blunt, ex-Director Joe Eisenberg and Acting Director, Bridget Uren for their enthusiasm and commitment to showing my work at MRAG, which was in the pipeline for several years! I really appreciate their support and encouragement not only for this exhibition, but for my continuing arts practice.

Install at MRAG

This week I have been installing work for my survey exhibition 'Fertile Ground'  at the Maitland Regional Art Gallery, which officially opens tomorrow afternoon. I have had the pleasure of working with The Dream Team (a.k.a. Kim, Kate, Brad, Lizzie and Marie) to install the work across three of the ground floor galleries.  It has been fantastic to work with such a professional team who really respect the artworks and have taken such care with it. I am posting a few photos of the install because I always forget to take records of this at the start of an exhibition. I had the pleasure of having a visit from recent ex-Director Joe Eisenberg yesterday (obviously he is feeling separation anxiety from the gallery, haha!) and he was very complimentary about the exhibition over lunch. So far all comments have been extremely positive and I hope to see a few people turn up for my public talk at 1pm before the official opening tomorrow afternoon.

Marie and LIzzie installing framed works in G3

View of G1 from the scaffolding

Brad installing works in G2

QUILT = ART

Yes, it has been a while between blog postings and I do apologise! I have been busy preparing work for several upcoming exhibitions, including my large solo exhibition Fertile Ground which will open at the Maitland Regional Art Gallery on July 18th. I will be driving up there this week to deliver most of the work. I will post more details on this exhibition closer to the opening date.

I was also invited to participate in Quilt=Art which opens at the Stanthorpe Regional Art Gallery on Friday 3rd of July.  Please see the invitation below, and if you are up that way put this on your radar because it looks like a fantastic exhibition.