MAIN AND FOYER GALLERIES

Portals: Thresholds: Boundries

The Cattle Dog Printmakers

7 June to 7 July 2018

In 2015 a group of members and friends of the Warwick Artists’ Group attended a beginners printmaking class held at the Warwick Artists’ Group Studio at 21 Willi Street. Over the following months the group explored different relief printing techniques such as lino cut. In 2016, with the help of funding, the printmakers acquired an etching press and began learning other techniques including etching, dry-point, collagraphy, lithography and screen printing.

Portals: Thresholds: Boundaries is the group’s first exhibition at Warwick Art Gallery.

The Cattle Dog Printmakers

Sandra Bartley
Jill Birtwistle
Rhyl Dearden
Catherine Elliot
Susan Ellwood
Mike Geisel
Cathy Holmes
Gayle Pershouse
Mo Skeet
Sue Whitton
Kris Wood

This exhibition received support from the Regional Arts Development fund, a partnership between the Queensland Government and Southern Downs Regional Council to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland.

ORANGE WALL GALLERY

For the Love of Trees

Nikki Wood

24 May to 30 June 2018

Nikki's work is focused on trees. She admires them and their ability to transport the viewer to a place that feels whimsical, otherworldly and calm.

This body of work includes pastel drawings and some acrylic paintings, all created from photographs taken on walks from the top of Spring Creek to Queen Mary Falls. It also includes imagery from other parts of the Scenic Rim.

The collection includes images of the Spring Creek drive, with is a sealed road bordered by tall, colourful trees. It includes work which looks at the depths of the forest, looking beyond to bordering open spaces, and work which encompasses the dark areas of this place, thick with overgrowth and moss covered trees.

In addition, imagery from Springbrook is also featured, showcasing little showers of light in such a dense rainforest setting. Each piece has a story.

MAIN AND FOYER GALLERIES

Shifts

Clinton Barker

7 June to 7 July 2018

Clinton Barker is a Brisbane based artist who has widely exhibited in Queensland and Northern New South Wales. He has work in private and public collections including the Print Council of Australia and Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital in Brisbane.

This collection of paintings and works on paper is titled Shifts to represent the changes that are created when individual figures are united as a collective grouping.

Clinton’s artworks are influenced by Abstract Expressionism and Primitive Art starting out as abstracts but developing into narrative compositions with the addition of human like figures. He paints as a way of interpreting his personal thoughts and emotions with the overall compositions kept balanced with beautiful colour harmonies.

“A work generally starts out as an abstract composition and then the figures are born from there. As I paint, one colour informs the next until there is harmony. I choose colours that will create a certain ‘vibration’ … ultimately I want each painting to pulsate, to feel alive.”

MAIN AND FOYER GALLERIES

Advance Australia Fair

Allora Photogprahy Club

3 May to 2 June 2018

The Allora Photography Club will hold their first group exhibition at Warwick Art Gallery starting on the 3^rd of May.

The exhibition will depict our national anthem “Advance Australia Fair” with the verses of the anthem represented in photographic images taken by members of the group.

This ambitious concept has really challenged the group who were determined for their first gallery exhibition to be professional and memorable.

The Allora Photography Group aims to promote and advance the local photography scene by encouraging meetings to facilitate the exchange of ideas, techniques and above all friendship and support of each other.

Visitors to the exhibition will enjoy interpreting the narrative of the anthem and how it relates to the matching image.

TOURING

A travelling exhibition of work by Loani Prior and Mark Crocker 

Warwick Art Gallery was the producing gallery for the exhibition Portraits of a Tea Cosy. 

Work on this exhibition started in 2012 when Queen of Tea Cosies Loani Prior and photographer Mark Crocker travelled to six towns in three states meeting tea cosy guardians and recording their stories.    From these meetings Mark has produced 40 black and white portraits of the interviewees with their tea cosies in colour.  Their stories have been turned into an audio presentation and delightful quotes about family, friendship and the joy of owning something handcrafted. 

This exhibition also stars 20 exuberant TEA COSIES created by Loani Prior, author of three best selling books, Wild Tea Cosies, Really Wild Tea Cosies and How Tea Cosies Change the World.  They are knitted objets d’art, woolly sculptures; clever and funny, like nothing you will have seen before. 

The exhibition was displayed first in Warwick during Jumpers and Jazz in July 2013.  The tour includes the following locations: Mittagong, Northern Territory, Hervey Bay, Miles, Longreach, Bundaberg, Ballina and Canberra. The tour was completed in 2015.  Mark Crocker's prtraits are now part of the Warwick Art Gallery collection.

This project is supported by the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian state and territory governments and by Arts Queensland in the Department of Science, Information Technology, Innovation and the Arts.

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

Warwick Art Gallery, from time to time, organises one off events, residencies or community project outside of our scheduled exhibition program.  

Casting Off 

Alison McDonald residency

July 2016 

Casting Off was commissioned by Warwick Art Gallery for Jumpers & Jazz in July 2016.

Warwick Art Gallery approached Alison to design a semi permanent artwork that reflected the Jumpers and Jazz in July festival vision and branding. The artwork needed to communicated the festival’s priority to provide visual art that is surprising and creative. Key inspirational themes included Humour, Wrapping, Disguising, Softening, Pattern, Texture, Repetition and Colour.

"The typical crocheted ‘granny square’ rug made from left over bits of wool is something we are all comfortable and cosy with, just like our relationship with plastic, particularly single- use plastics. The colourful Casting Off may appear cosy or even fluffy from a distance, but when you get close it is prickly, symbolising the continuing conundrum we all share about what to do with plastics at the end of their life. This artwork highlights the massive amounts of plastics that clog our waterways and draw our attention to the stewardship and responsibility we owe our sea creatures."  Alison McDonald

Warwick Art Gallery received financial assistance from the Queensland Government through the Visual Arts and Crafts Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, state and territory governments.

The project also received support from Bunnings Warehouse Warwick and Celtis Grove Bed and Breakfast Warwick.