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22 April to 23 May 2010
Two exhibitions that showcased and
celebrated a century of exquisite women’s handiwork were on display
in April and May. “This collaboration between the Gallery, Pringle
Cottage Museum, Warwick and District Historical Society and Stanthorpe
artist June Fiford has enchanted us all”, says Gallery Director Karina
Devine, “It is a privilege to be able to display this exceptional hand
work in a gallery setting”.

June Fiford’s exhibition
“Treasures for a Grandmother – Hilda’s Doiley”
was inspired by her own grandmother and a doiley with mauve flowers and
a yellow crochet edge. The original piece was probably part of a
duchess set with the two smaller doilies being lost over time. “I loved
the simplicity of the design, the skill of the embroiderer and the
family history of the piece,” said June, “I have used fragments of the
doiley as inspiration for my gold embroidered work ever since.”

Girls, Brides then Young Wives
To
support June’s exhibition of gold work and Kantha embroidery, iwas a
captivating collection of wedding gowns and Hope Chest articles dating
from 1867 on loan from Pringle Cottage Museum and private collections.
The garments were grouped by era with most recent gown worn in the
1960’s. President of the Warwick and District Historical Society Janice
Flood initiated the project as she become aware of the fragility of the
textile collection at Pringle Cottage. “I really wanted to share their
beauty with an audience but they are too delicate to model or put on
permanent display. Viewing the garments in this way is like touching
the past. The viewer can create their own story about the wearer –
their hopes, their dreams, their struggles and their sadness.”
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27 May to 27 June 2010
A
Brush with the Land
The
land, with all its personality and spirit, was the inspiration
for Warwick artist Dawn Marriage whose first solo
exhibition opens at Warwick Art Gallery this week. Dawn has
been painting for 11 years and has exhibited before in group
exhibitions. She has also inspired many new artists by teaching
her unique technique in several popular workshops in 2009.
“The effects of the elements
and time, along with the cycles of life, leave designs and shapes that
continually stimulate my imagination” said Dawn, “my paintings are
influenced by nature and the reactions I have to it”. Dawn’s
technique involves using traditional materials such as acrylic paint and
charcoal which she combines with sand, small seeds, modelling compound,
rice paper and tissues. The lusciousness of the textures she creates is
what makes her paintings so popular with the viewers.
Where
Rainbows Live
Our
local children will adore this exhibition. The Gallery is very pleased
to be able to exhibit the 13 original artworks that were created for the
delightful children’s picture book Where Rainbows Live by Denise Vanderlugt from the Whitsundays in North Queensland. Her
inspiration for the book was her local environment – the rainforest, the
reef, wetlands and open spaces. She has been a full time quilt maker
since 1982 and her work is recognized in Australia and overseas.
The book was published in 2007 with the story illustrated by the quilts
and the text embroidered onto linen. In 2008 the book won two
International Awards, a Bronze medal in the Independent Publishers Book
Awards and a Gold medal for a Spirit Award in the Moonbeam Children’s
Book Awards.
Denise
has also developed a technique for making three dimensional forms such
as baskets from fabric. The baskets feature in her book and these will
also be on display. Denise has been invited by Warwick Art Gallery
to be a guest tutor at this year’s Jumpers and Jazz in July festival.
All places in her class are taken but you will be able to meet her in
Warwick on Saturday 17th July at 10 am and 2 pm when she will
do a special reading of her book at the Gallery. You will also see her
spectacular jelly fish artwork in a palm tree for the tree jumper
exhibition which starts on Thursday 15 July.
A Dogs Life
Many people will be familiar with Dion’s work from the Cheeky Dog tee
shirts that adorn the backs of Northern Territorians and tourists alike.
Dion Beasley is a 19 year old Indigenous artist from Canteen
Creek near Tennant Creek in the N.T. Dion was born profoundly deaf and
has muscular dystrophy. With his friend and mentor Joie Boulter, Dion
has been producing Cheeky Dog images for tee shirts and bags for a
number of years.
This exhibition sees a whole new side to Dion’s work. Ten large limited
edition hand coloured prints give a humorous and astute observation into
the community life of Canteen Creek’s camp dogs and introduces several
new characters. The works were printed at Julalikari Arts in Tennant
Creek under the guidance of Alan Murn.
These works captivate and delight and highlight the wonderful
contribution artists with disabilities make to our cultural and artistic
life.
Murn says
“The works on print are more than very, very good drawings of dogs.
Dion’s line work is very confident and very skilful. His use of space
that he works within is very clever, and his perspectives and
perceptions are highly developed for someone without any training.”
A Dogs Life is a touring exhibition from Artback NT: Arts Development
and Touring in conjunction with the Australia Council for the Arts, and
supported by the Northern Territory Government through the Department of
Natural Resources, Environment and the ARTS and Arts Access Australia.
It is on display at Warwick Art Gallery from 27 May to 27 June.
 

1 July to 8 August
Second Life
Mary Elizabeth Barron

Artist Statement
"When
making art from recycled materials the work retains a memory of the
materials original function. The pieces in this exhibition are made
predominately from my old clothes and those of my family and friends. In
their first life they were clothes, utilitarian and practical and their
purpose in this first life helps to inform their second life as art. Our
clothes are very personal and intimate and in using them to make these
sculptures they embody the work with these qualities. Also being made
predominately from the clothes of loved ones they are embedded with
their memories and our shared experiences. Both the physical form and
the emotional memories guide and inspire the form of these sculptural
pieces.
The exhibition represents second life not only because I use recycled
materials but also on a personal level. I spent my ‘first life’ being a
wife, mother and home educator now that my children are grown I have
embarked on my ‘second life’ as an artist. This exhibition is the
current embodiment of my ‘second life’ which of course builds on and is
informed by the first."
Then to Here
Liz Stuart

Artist Statement
"For the last five years I’ve been collecting found objects and
photographing interesting surfaces changed by weather and time such as
rust, stones, fungus and old partially buried machinery from horse drawn
drays, ploughs and car wrecks to old iron bed ends and other household
items, as I roam around the paddocks on my parents’ farm. This property
was once smaller farms on my father’s side, going back several
generations.I look for irresistible pieces of glass, ceramics and metal
shining in the sunlight where these homes once were.
The fragments are traces of their domestic lives long
gone. I feel like I’m on an archaeological dig, dusting off little
artifacts from the dirt, piecing together their stories and finding new
places for them in my art. That is how I came up with the title
Then to Here:
from way back
before my time (then) to now (here).
The wire I use to bind the objects together symbolises
our lives bound through blood and place. I also collected red dirt
and stones from Toowoomba and old crochet cottons to bring my mother’s
side of my family in. I’ve combined these in my three dimensional
hangings and charcoal drawings of Mother Earth, who has the double
symbolism for all the mothers of those generations who created families
down the line to me here now.
These art works have been the gathering and interpreting
of little moments of identity and place in time, through the parallel
world of my imagination."
15 to 25 July
Tree Jumper Exhibition 2010
The premier event on our exhibition calendar - we take the
art out of the Gallery and into the streets and parks of the
Southern Downs. 150+ "tree jumpers" will inspire and
amaze you.
12 August to 26 September
David Carson’s Video Dome - an innovative
new media artwork
The viewer is immersed in a full sensory experience, surrounded with
vision and sound, inside a 5 metre inflated dome. Made in
collaboration with colleagues from his exhibition to Lapland
capturing 3D footage of the Auraro Borealis.
Video Dome is an exhibition of new media curated by
David Carson.
The national tour is managed by ART ON THE MOVE.
The exhibition has been supported by the National
Exhibitions Touring Structure for Western Australia Inc. through the
State Exhibition Development and Touring Funds.
The exhibition is also supported by Visions
Australia, an Australian Government program supporting touring
exhibitions by providing funding assistance fro the development and
touring of cultural material across Australian.
ALSO on display to coincide with the Monaro
Nationals being held in Warwick on the 3rd to 6th of September...
GTS Robert Moore
A 3 m x 2.5 m x 6 m Moulded inflatable plastic
sculpture of a Holden Monaro with etching ink detail
This sculpture was commissioned by Ipswich Art
Gallery in 1999 with the assistance of a State Government Project
Grant from Arts Queensland. Kindly on loan from Ipswich Art
Gallery.
30 September to 14 November
Fantastic
Fibres Warwick Quilters
and Textile Artists
The talented members of this
group share their recent work with us, representing a broad spectrum
of textile art and quilting techniques. As part of the
exhibition, the participants were challenged to produce a piece of
work celebrating a particular colour in the spectrum.
18 November to 21 January
Twelve
Degrees of Latitude: Regional Gallery and University Art Collections
in Queensland
The first major exhibition of works
curated solely from Queensland’s regional gallery and university
collections. It represents a rare opportunity for visitors to view
and engage with significant artworks as part of the celebrations for
Queensland’s 150th year.
Twelve Degrees of Latitude draws on the collections of
twenty-seven regional galleries and universities. The exhibition
focuses on why and how Queensland’s regional collections began,
their historical roles within their communities, the role of
patronage and donor support in their growth and development, and the
strength of the state-wide regional gallery culture. Twelve
Degrees of Latitude represents a significant opportunity to
focus on the vital contribution made by Queensland’s regional and
public galleries to the state’s cultural landscape.
The exhibition illustrates the diversity, as well as significant
linkages, of regional collections through the following themes or
groupings:
Group 1: Pre-20th Century Art
Group 2: Landscape and Figures in Landscape
Group 3: Other 20th Century Art (1900-1990)
Group 4: Indigenous Art
Group 5: Art Post-1990
CURATORS
Bettina Macaulay (Lead Curator)
Brett Adlington
ARTISTS including:
Tony Albert, Davida Allen, Richard Bell, Gordon Bennett, John
Coburn, Max Dupain, Fiona Foley, Rosalie Gascoigne, Craig Koomeeta,
Alasdair Macintyre, Ron McBurnie, Tracey Moffatt, Rosella Namok,
Sidney Nolan, Dennis Nona, Margaret Olley, Patricia Piccinini, Gwyn
Hanssen Pigott, Ben Quilty, Scott Redford, Lloyd Rees, William
Robinson, Jeffrey Smart, Arthur Streeton, Ken Thaiday Snr., Alick
Tipoti, Judy Watson, Anne Zahalka, Michael Zavros.
Twelve Degrees of Latitude:
Regional Gallery and University Art Collections in Queensland is a
Museum and Gallery Services Queensland travelling exhibition. M&GSQ
acknowledges the assistance of Anna Bligh MP, Premier of Queensland
and Minister for the Arts, through the Queensland Government
Exhibitions Indemnification Scheme.
The regional tour of Twelve Degrees of Latitude is proudly supported
by the Tim Fairfax Family Foundation, The John Villiers Trust,
International Art Services and the Regional Galleries Association of
Queensland and has received financial assistance from the Queensland
Government through Arts Queensland.
This exhibition has received development funding from the Queensland
Government's Q150 Community Funding Program. Q150 gives
Queenslanders the opportunity to celebrate and commemorate our
state’s 150th anniversary. Twelve Degrees of Latitude is supported
by the Gordon Darling Foundation, Phillip Bacon Galleries and the
Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian,
state and territory governments.
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