Art - Past Exhibitions
Dates
15 January - 27 February 2011
Stories of Ancestors
Western Arnhem Land works by the Nganjmirra family from the Burrinja Collection
This exhibition draws on works from the McLeod Gift Collection to explore and celebrate the unique artwork produced by Kunwinjku people in the Oenpelli community of the western Arnhem Land region.
Dates
9 October 2010 - 9 January 2011
The Melbourne Reef Exhibition
A satellite of the worldwide Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef Project, created by Margaret and Christine Wertheim of the Institute for Figuring in Los Angeles.
This unique global community art project fused higher mathematics, crochet, environmental awareness and marine biology. Capturing the imagination of people all over the world, ‘Satellite Reefs’ have now being made on almost every continent. The Melbourne Reef is one such satellite reef.
Dates
30 July – 26 September 2010
Bill Henson: Early Works from the MGA Collection
This exhibition provided audiences with the opportunity to view some of the most powerful and beautiful photographs made by one of Australia’s best-known contemporary photographers. It featured twenty-nine exquisitely printed examples from many of Henson’s major series from the 1970s through to the early 1990s, all drawn from the Monash Gallery of Art (MGA) Collection.
Dates
23 July – 27 September 2009
Kathleen Boyle: Leitmotif
This exhibition profiled key drawings and monoprints from Kathleen Boyle. While Kathleen's broader body of work ranges across media from printing and drawing, to painting, collage and most recently wooden construction, this exhibition offers a short review of her more figurative drawings and prints. Even within this framework, however, Kathleen's adventurous approach to experimenting with various media and materials is evident in the various papers and surfaces she works on and the techniques she employs to express her vision.
Dates
18 July – 27 September 2009
Heather Fairnie: Mapping - Territories and Landscape
This exhibition explored the intersections of mapping across Western and Indigenous art traditions, including the contrasts and synchronicities with 'mapping country' works from the McLeod Gift Collection and new work created by contemporary artist Heather Fairnie. The exhibition aimed to foster engagement with the process of mapping across cultural divides, enhancing the way audiences and artists perceive the place of Aboriginal art in a contemporary context.
Dates
9 May – 12 July 2009
Diane Kilderry
A collection of old metal objects found at a country tip became the starting point for the abstract paintings and drawings in this exhibition. Inspired by the form and essence of these found objects, Kilderry's ghostly, meditative artworks create space for the viewer to move past the literal world to the subjective space beyond.
Local Belgrave artist Diane Kilderry has been exhibiting nationally and internationally for the past 20 years. Her work is held in many collections including the Australian National Gallery, G J Coles, and the Lefebvre Collection.
Dates
23 April – 5 July 2009
Apmer Mwerrangker: Beautiful Country...Ever Present Past
Apmer Mwerrangker (pronounced: ‘ab mirrah’ ‘ma rung gara’) was the premier exhibition of the complete collection of 23 etchings produced at Ampiliwatja Aboriginal community in 1999-2000. The etchings were produced under supervision of Basil Hall of Northern Editions at the Northern Territory.
The exhibition features iconic works by some of the most highly regarded Aboriginal artists of the Sandover region, 200 knm North-East of Alice Springs, the Urapuntja Artists of Utopia
Dates
6 February – 3 May 2009
Kudditji Kngwarreye
This retrospective exhibition presented significant works by Utopian artist Kudditji Kngwarreye from the Hank Ebes Collection.
Kudditji Kngwarreye was born circa 1928. For the majority of his life he worked as a stockman, like many other Aboriginal men, and resided on pastoral leases throughout Central Australia. Kudditji (pronounced Kubbitji) was one of the first established male artists in Utopia and is the younger brother of the late Emily Kame Kngwarreye.
Dates
1 February - 14 March 2009
Station Rats & other Scum Pups
The Scum Pups project began in late 2008, when Burrinja offered a group of local young people the opportunity to take part in a one-off art project that supported them in expressing their opinions and experiences about daily life in their community.
Burrinja invited Tiffaney Bishop, a local photographic artist, to facilitate the project, which resulted in a photographic exhibition called We’re Afraid of the Daylight. The exhibition attracted widespread praise and community support, inspiring the group to devise an ongoing interactive art program that embraces young people and adults and makes vital social, cultural and community connections between the two.
Dates
January 2009
Aboriginal Art Across Australia
An exhibition of key works from the McLeod Gift Collection.
Aboriginal art has its roots in a very ancient culture, but artists today are also expressing issues of social justice, cultural practices and spirituality born from the last two hundred years of colonisation. Curated by Tiriki Onus, son of local artist and activist Lin Onus, this exhibition highlighted the vast diversity in Aboriginal cultural and artistic practice across Australia.
Dates
16 October 2008 - 11 January 2009
Ronnie Sexton: Aisling Gheal (Bright Dream)
Award winning Irish born sculptor Veronica "Ronnie" Sexton trained at London College of Furniture, and obtained her Graduateship and Higher Diploma in Woodcarving and Gold Leaf Gilding at City and Guilds of London Art School. On completing art school, Ronnie worked for several years in restoration, including extensive work on Windsor Castle. She has also worked on commissions in the USA, Malaysia and Ireland. Ronnie's strict classical training in Gothic, Baroque and Rocco woodcarving has evolved into a more relaxed and freer flowing style event in her work in this exhibition.
Dates
11 April – 12 July 2008
Maggie Diaz: Into the Light
A Retrospective curated by Gwendolen De Lacy.
American born photographer Maggie Diaz arrived in Melbourne in 1961, on a one-way ticket, and soon established herself has one of the city's leading commercial photographers. An award-winning photographer in Chicago and resident photographer of the famous Tavern Club, Diaz used her flair for night photography and use of available light to capture the essence of Melbourne's arts and wider community over four decades.
Dates
8 February - 30 March 2008
Lloyd Godman: enLIGHTen
Lloyd Godman's first major Australian exhibition, featuring projection installation, 'carbon obscura', photography, new and mixed media, extends the boundaries of the gallery, creating experiential immersion.
Dates
13 January - 11 April 2004
Footprint of the Spirits
Selected Aboriginal paintings of the McLeod Gift Collection formed backbone of the Footprint of the Spirits exhibition which toured to seven galleries in New Zealand during 2002/03 and attracted over 60,000 visitors. It was presented at the Centre of Contemporary Art in Christchurch, Otago Museum in Dunedin and galleries in Invercargill, Oamaru, Blenheim, Ashburton and Timaru. Two artists, Heather Umbagai and Petersen Nganjmirra accompanied the tour.
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