‘Fair Play’, an exhibition curated by Ben Rak at Manly Art Gallery and Museum.

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There is a myth that sport and art are natural enemies, as exemplified by the ongoing debate about the allocation of public funding by governments at all levels in Australia. Fair Play seeks to bridge the gap between these two forms of cultural production and to demonstrate that they both empower us to express ourselves physically, emotionally and intellectually, enabling us to connect and communicate with each other around the world — across borders, cultures, languages, and generations. 

Rew Hanks and Ben Rak have work in the show.

Friday, 9 December 2022 – 10:00am to Sunday, 26 February 2023 – 5:00pm at Manly Art Gallery and Museum.

All are invited to the Exhibition Opening Fri 9 Dec, 6 – 8pm.

RSVP via MAG&M Eventbrite(Opens in a new window)

Artists in Conversation Sat 10 Dec, 3 – 4pm. Free event. RSVP via MAG&M Eventbrite(Opens in a new window)

One on One: Amber Boardman Sun 15 Jan, 2 – 4pm. Free event. Book via email

Clay Character: Billy Bain Wed 18 Jan, 10am – 12pm. Book via MAG&M Eventbrite(Opens in a new window)

The Playful Eye: Michael Garbutt Mon 6 Feb, 10am – 1pm. Free event, bookings required via MAG&M Eventbrite(Opens in a new window)

Experimental Animation Workshop: Kellie O’Dempsey Thu 23 Feb, 6 – 9pm. Book via MAG&M Eventbrite

To the Edges @ Manly Art Gallery and Museum

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Anne Starling - Nuclear Family
Anne Starling, Nuclear Family, 2020, linocut, woodblock, intaglio, relief, collage, 62 x 157cm.

Only six days to go to see this impressive exhibition!

Splash page image: Nathalie Hartog-Gautier, Looking for Paradise, Handmade raw cotton paper in collaboration with Darren Simpson from Creative Paper Tasmania and Penelope Lee, 12 books, unique state.

The Exhibitions Page is Now Ready to View.

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Susan Rushforth - PassingClouds VI
Susan Rushforth, Passing Clouds VI (Sunrise), U/S, 2019, woodblock print using water based pigments on handmade Kozo paper, 35 x 70cm.

The exhibitions page has links to a short Film of the installed work, the online catalogue, and Sasha Grishin’s Opening Address.

Go Here.

Great news: To the Edges @ Manly Gallery is opening again!

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Angela Hayson - The Shelter of Ourselves
Angela Hayson, The Shelter of Ourselves, 2021, relief, monoprint, drawing, carborundum on Japanese kozo paper, 1.70 x 2.48cm

Sydney Printmakers 60th Anniversary Exhibition is opening again for three weeks from Tuesday 12th October to Sunday 7th November. The work has been sitting quietly on the walls for months but now we have another chance to see it.

There may be limits on how many people can enter the gallery at the same time, but its very exciting that we will have another opportunity to visit. Many of us did not get there the first time.

Get your friends together and go and have a look…….Its an excellent show.

Artists in Conversation with the Exhibition Curator, Katherine Roberts, Manly Art Gallery and Museum: Carmen Ky.

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Rainforest Meets the Sea, Collagraph, etching, watercolour, encaustic wax on Hahnemuhle paper, 74.5 x 59cm each panel.

How does your work address the theme ‘to the edges’?

Consisting of six connecting panels, each one complete also in its own right, this work is thematically concerned with edges. Titled Rainforest Meets the Sea connects my current environment: a narrow coastal strip at the edge of the Royal National Park, nestled under the Illawarra Escarpment to the South Coast of NSW. My home and studio adjoin remains of subtropical rainforest with a short walk to the ocean. Here the edges of the land meet the sea, feeding into the concept of To the Edges.          

Always living next to large bodies of water and in bushland, I inhabit and respond to natural elemental environments. The ambience of the natural elements reaffirms my research into the philosophy of the Five Elements as interpreted in Tibetan Buddhism and takes my work to the edges of Eastern philosophy and Western art. This was further explored in my Master of Philosophy degree completed at ANU in 2020.

Can you describe the technical process you went through to achieve the finished work and what technical challenges you encountered along the way?

For this project I pushed my printmaking to the edges of becoming a painting by including a few of the mediums that I employ when painting: watercolour, collage and encaustic wax. Starting with washes of watercolour, I then printed collograph shapes reminiscent of sea weeds or tree trunks, next I tore my etchings into evocative shapes suggestive of deep-sea creatures or rainforest forms and collaged them into the work. This was followed by painting a series of white spheres and ovals to add connecting sparks of light in each panel. 

I love using encaustic wax when painting, however a challenge in applying it to paper is that it becomes partly absorbed while using a heat gun to spread the wax and thus changes the tone of the paper. Firstly, I stabilized the paper by gluing it to well-sealed boards and defined the shapes that I wanted to remain white by applying white paint to those areas. eg: the white spheres. This incurs another small challenge: painting white on white paper, makes it hard to evaluate the spatial depth of the work … until the wax is burned in. The whole process is labour intensive and the encaustic wax is toxic, so it involves wearing a protective mask. However, the resulting smooth protective coating produces a beautiful luminous quality to the work.

What do you see as the role of Sydney Printmakers for the next 60 years?

I see the Sydney Printmakers continuing as a platform for members to exhibit and embracing new members and methods of print and supporting change. 

How do you see the role of printmaking, in general, contributing to the conversation about contemporary art practice?

Printmaking will always be a part of contemporary art practice as an embedded tradition constantly changing to accommodate new approaches and media.

Artists in Conversation with the Curator, Manly Art Gallery and Museum: Tina Barahanos

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Artists in Conversation with the Exhibition Curator, Katherine Roberts, Manly Art Gallery and Museum: Tina Barahanos

Tina Barahanos. Transfixed, M2 Freeway on the Way Home 2021

Transparency in Lightbox, edition of 2 and 1 x AP, 80 x 60cm

How does your work address the theme ‘to the edges’?

‘Transfixed, M2 Freeway On The Way Home’ is part of a series of lightbox works that take their reference from the edge of the roadside, a view that is generally observed through peripheral vision. This is where I wanted to focus my attention, find inspiration and distraction from my day. A place where imagination takes over and patterns are created as the roads edge moves along with me. I am entertained by the abstracted creations where the blur of movement fuses the real and phantasmagorical. It became my muse.

Can you describe the technical process you went through to achieve the finished work and what technical challenges you encountered along the way?

This image was taken from my car window, while travelling along the M2. (I was the passenger of course).  Using digital editing I strive to create work that looks for similarities between digital print and etching, between realism and abstraction. The work is then sent to the fabricator where the lightbox is made. 

One of the technical challenges I faced was with the level of lighting. It was originally far too bright and was washing out the image. I incorporated a dimmer for a period of time to help work out what brightness was required. The lightbox was then adjusted to half the light strength. And the final light box manufactured.

What do you see as the role of Sydney Printmakers for the next 60 years?

To continue to inspire and nurture newer generations of printmakers. 

How do you see the role of printmaking, in general, contributing to the conversation about contemporary art practice?

I think printmaking will continue connect and engage through cultural commentary and personal expression.

 

Artists in Conversation with the Curator, Manly Art Gallery and Museum: Wendy Stokes

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ARTISTS IN CONVERSATION WITH THE EXHIBITION CURATOR, KATHERINE ROBERTS, MANLY ART GALLERY AND MUSEUM: WENDY STOKES.

Wendy Stokes   Edge of Blue

Multiplate Woodblock and direct transfer relief print, unique state 330 x 112cm each panel.

How does your work address the theme ‘to the edges’?

The theme for my work is best placed in the context of my practice and the very nature of the landscapes that inform it. For over 5 decades I have inhabited and walked in coastal landscapes; a fluid geography, where edges constantly shift and boundaries blend. Experiences too, both past and present dissolve the edges between time and place.

Can you describe the technical process you went through to achieve the finished work and what technical challenges you encountered along the way? 

I generally work between the practices of painting, drawing and printmaking but in this work I wanted to experiment and push the scale of my printmaking into that of my painting. It was important though to retain the integrity and structure of relief printmaking particularly that of wood and utilise found wood washed up on the shore. Rather than the more conventional approach of creating a singular image on a block the size of the work, I carved many blocks reflective of notations from my drawing practice executed within the landscape. These were inked and individually placed on an extended table and the paper rolled out over a section then pressure applied with various objects and  barens in a gestural manner. The process was repeated for the various colours and for each panel. The challenge lay in the size and length of the ricepaper, requiring it to be rolled and unrolled in sections as it progressed the length of the work and being unable to see the actual result until it was rerolled and turned over and unrolled again. The process needed to be repeated on all 3 panels. The work was preplanned technically, yet needed to be open to adaptation while the image evolved as one would be creating a painting.

What do you see as the role of Sydney Printmakers for the next 60 years?

To continue to work collegially in the pursuit of excellence, allowing each member to express their individuality while expanding the boundaries of the printmaking medium. Collectively this can make a valuable contribution.

How do you see the role of printmaking, in general, contributing to the conversation about contemporary art practice? 

I have tended to believe that one’s concepts and aesthetics drive your practice rather than being tied to a singular medium. Printmaking itself offers up many opportunities for exploration within the medium and the work needs to be able to hold its own regardless of the technologies explored, traditional or the most up to date digital or 3d explorations.

Artists in Conversation with the Curator, Manly Art Gallery and Museum: Angela Hayson

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ARTISTS IN CONVERSATION WITH THE EXHIBITION CURATOR, KATHERINE ROBERTS, MANLY ART GALLERY AND MUSEUM: ANGELA HAYSON.


Angela Hayson The Shelter of Ourselves

Relief, Monoprint, drawing, carborundum on Japanese paper

How does your work address the theme ‘to the edges’?

Conceptually I was thinking about how individuals preserve their core identity and at the same time make subtle shifts in how they present when in a group. How far to the edges of our authentic self are we willing to be seen and be known?  The work is about dual identities, accepting our idiosyncrasies in order to remain authentic to self, and also constructing a public persona according to social norms and expectations when connecting and relating to others.  The multiple identities are implied by the inversion and juxtaposition of figurative forms within the image.

On a physical level, multiple sheets of Japanese kozo paper are layered with mixed media and printed elements, with the image intentionally extending to the outer edges of the paper.  The work has been developed from matrixes of wood, cardboard and rigid plastic sheet combining relief, drawing, monoprint and carborundum.

Can you describe the technical process you went through to achieve the finished work and what technical challenges you encountered along the way?

The Shelter of Ourselves is a multiple panel work developed from the 3-D forms of two small bronze figurative sculptures I had recently made. I was interested in the push and pull of the negative and positive shapes within the forms, which became key elements in the printed image. 

Having the opportunity to work large, I sketched up a composition at small scale to reflect what might convey the subject of shifting identities and then gridded up to the intended full-size dimensions. The vast up-scaling required numerous stages of drawing and redrawing with continual modifications and additions to the image, working out the relationship of shapes and spaces, along with the aligning of the image at the edges of the matrix as it transitioned from one panel to the next.

Preparing eight large cardboard panels to receive the carborundum for the final printed element in the work required the transfer of the drawing to the boards. Gel medium was applied to the drawing and carborundum was dropped into the medium.  Several coats of shellac were applied to protect areas not to be printed, allowing discretionary wiping back of the ink.  

The non-uniform backgrounds encompassed relief printing from woodblocks, drawing with wax pencils and graphite, scrunching up the sheets of paper into balls and re-stretching out to flatten again, and then monoprinting again on top from rigid plastic sheet in readiness to take the carborundum print element.  I used a printing press to release each of the inked layers onto the paper.

The backgrounds were experimental and enjoyable.  The greatest technical challenge, which I had not anticipated, was the inking and wiping back of the large carborundum imagery.  It was slow, arduous and physically exhausting due to the many narrow and inaccessible areas requiring wiping out. I consider the project a success in that it has been a departure from my previous work and capable of having a strong and sustaining influence on future work. 

What do you see as the role of Sydney Printmakers for the next 60 years?

Having built up an impressive reputation for high quality artistic output and professionalism over six decades, the group is well positioned to further evolve with a focus on striving for increased recognition of print media in relation to other art forms. I believe this is an exciting time for the group to encourage new printmaking enthusiasts into the membership, encourage experimentation to extend the possibilities of print media and foster a culture of excellence.  

How do you see the role of printmaking, in general, contributing to the conversation about contemporary art practice?

Many printmakers, along with artists of other disciplines, make work that is a reflection of their own world, as well as the changing world including environmental, social, political and cultural issues of the time.  The diversity of methods and techniques available within print media provides extensive opportunities for raising awareness of contemporary issues, presented in unique and distinct ways. 

 

Artists in Conversation with the Curator: Karen Ball

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Since it appears that To the Edges will not reopen to the public, we will post these ‘conversations,’ together with the image under discussion, in a series. The curator, Katherine Roberts, has sent questions for each of the artists to answer.

How does your work address the theme ‘to the edges’?

My work emerged from a period of introspection at the beginning of the covid pandemic. Being isolated from family interstate was a catalyst for fluctuating moods. The boundaries between consciousness and dreams became blurred. It was analogous with  the concept of ‘intimate immensity’ as alluded to by Gaston Bachelard. The figures are representative of the self – waiting and moving from the real to the dreamlike edges.

Can you describe the technical process you went through to achieve the finished work and what technical challenges you encountered along the way?

I made large plates using dry point and carborundum. The actual making of the plates which are each 120cm x 60cm was therapeutic.

I decided on chine colle for the wings to slightly shift the tonal quality of the image.

What do you see as the role of Sydney Printmakers for the next 60 years?

I hope Sydney Printmakers encourages new and younger members who bring enthusiasm and energy to the group.

How do you see the role of printmaking, in general, contributing to the conversation about contemporary art practice?

Printmaking as an artform  is so diverse . It continues to inspire such creativity. I am certain it will always be so.