News 2020
March
Spread Art Not Viruses
#spreadartnotviruses is a creative campaign by Charlie Xiao, collector, curator and instigator, in response to the impact of coronavirus COVID-19.
Originally from Beijing, China, in September 2019 the now Melbourne-based Xiao acquired Colony – the whole-of-gallery sculpture installation of viruses and bacteria by Christopher Langton, with plans to exhibit the work in China.
Through Colony, Xiao met Theodore Wohng, the founder of ZOME AR, whose office is just metres from Tolarno Galleries on Melbourne’s Exhibition Street. In collaboration with Wohng and Langton, Xiao has now instigated #spreadartnotviruses as an open invitation to artists, writers and other creative minds to contribute to the movement online via Instagram and ZOME AR.
Inspired by the eerily prescient Colony – a hyperreal manifestation of Christopher Langton’s own experiences of life-threatening disease and infection – #spreadartnotviruses intends to show solidarity with those affected in Wuhan and around the world.
Together, artists can support those who are affected by the virus and turn the negative experiences into something positive.
https://spreadartnotviruses.com/
https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/spreadartnotviruses/
https://www.zome-ar.com/
Read more on the #spreadartnotviruses project from March 2020 in:
February
Tolarno Galleries presents A&A at Melbourne Design Week 2020
Tolarno Galleries is pleased to announce participation in Melbourne Design Week 2020, an initiative of the Victorian Government in collaboration with the National Gallery of Victoria, 12 – 22 March 2020.
A&A is the collaboration of two practitioners from completely different disciplines and cultures: Australian industrial designer Adam Goodrum (Rigg Design Prize winner 2015) and straw marquetry artisan Arthur Seigneur, a French émigré and one of an estimated 25 practitioners globally who maintain the 17th Century practice of straw marquetry.
A&A Exquisite Corpse / Cadavre Exquis is their debut solo exhibition premiering three new unique pieces: Talleo, a tallboy; Archant, a console; and Longbow, a credenza.
‘Exquisite Corpse’, the Surrealist parlour game, describes A&A’s process: Goodrum initiates the shape and pattern, and Seigneur finishes the works with hand-dyed straw in custom hues, and labour-intensive by-hand marquetry technique.
Read more at Wallpaper* magazine here and here, Australian Financial Review magazine, Art Guide, The Design Files, Vogue Living, Australian Design Review and AFR Life & Leisure. Not to mention Russian Architecture Digest and Newstrotteur France!
Exquisite Corpse / Cadavre Exquis is on view from 12–27 March 2020, by appointment.
February
Ben Quilty lunchtime talk
Tolarno Galleries will host a special lunchtime talk by Ben Quilty entitled The Ferals from 12.30pm-1.30pm Wednesday 19 February 2020.
Quilty will discuss his latest body of work, 150 Years, with particular focus on the major new multi-panel work 150 Year, Rorschach.
Ben Quilty 150 Years exhibition is on view at Tolarno Galleries until 29 February 2020.
Please RSVP to mail@tolarnogalleries.com to register your attendance.
February
Ben Quilty – book signing and ‘150 Years’ exhibition opening
We are pleased to announce that between 1pm and 2pm, prior to the 150 Years exhibition opening on Saturday 8 February, Ben Quilty will be available for a book signing in the gallery.
Neighbourhood Books will be selling copies of the recent hardback book, Ben Quilty, celebrating two decades of his work.
Read more about the exhibition in The Age.
Through Quilty’s ominous and heterogeneous approach in 150 Years each work invites us to participate in a critical discussion. The same Quilty who explored the spiritual hollowness of contemporary masculinity in paintings of passed-out mates is present here, yet these themes are refracted through the decades since, through experience, a global and pervasive uncertainty, and a tangible level of disillusionment. In an age of authoritarian revival, Quilty’s decades-long interrogation of masculinity is gaining momentum. – Milena Stojanovska
Ben Quilty 150 Years is on view 8 – 29 February 2020.
