2020 Exhibitions
Judy Watson
memory scars, dreams and gardens
This will be the first Judy Watson exhibition at Tolarno Galleries since 2016.
Read the catalogue essay by Katina Davidson.
memory scars, dreams and gardens precedes the TarraWarra Museum of Art exhibition Looking Glass: Judy Watson and Yhonnie Scarce, opening 28 November 2020 to 8 March 2021.
Image: Judy Watson memory scar, cable tie, nut 2020, indigo, acrylic, graphite and linen thread on canvas, 176 x 90 cm
stitching by: Dorothy Watson
[daily confirmed COVID-19 deaths in Australia March 14 – April 23, May 25 2020, graph source: Crikey]
Andrew Browne
Shoegazer
Visit Shoegazer Online Viewing Space
Shoegazer, a diverse group of drawings made by Andrew Browne during the extended Melbourne COVID-19 lockdown, is a playful allusion to that sub-genre of indie rock, Shoegaze, but more so to the attention one pays to subjects and prompts found close at hand… almost underfoot. These somewhat introspective images are tender and intuitive encounters with observation, composition and mood.
Image: ANDREW BROWNE Shoegazer (wharf) 2020, pencil on Moulin Du Gue paper, image size 37.5 x 26 cm, paper size: 76 x 56.5 cm
Amos Gebhardt
Night Horse
Night Horse examines the powerful currents between horses as they negotiate consent and desire during mating season. The viewer is drawn inside the kinetic swirl of the herd where hooves, flicking tails, and outstretched limbs offer an intimate encounter across the species divide. Shot in the heat of a February summer’s night, on the artist’s birthday, the charged atmosphere is palpable.
Modern equine reproduction is now often a supervised insemination process, or between a mare and stallion who are performing on cue. Night Horse captures a rarely seen ritualised courtship, where the protagonists experience heightened states of being ‘for themselves’. Gebhardt says, “The images are raw, showing the mess of body fluids and muscle, giving vivid dimensions to the physical language of the body as an archive of story, to suggest a dramatic arc in horse terms.”
Image: AMOS GEBHARDT Crest 2019, archival inkjet pigment print, 122 x 163 cm, edition of 5 + 2 AP
Sydney Contemporary presents 2020 (online)
Tolarno Galleries is pleased to participate in the online event Sydney Contemporary presents 2020 with new works by A&A, Brook Andrew, Andrew Browne, Amos Gebhardt and Ben Quilty.
Pictured: A&A Klaatu, tallboy. Custom dyed rye straw, birch ply, brass, 160 (h) x 42.5 (w) x 42.5 (d) cm, unique.
Tim Johnson
Parallel Universe
If a painting is a portal to another dimension, then the canvases of Tim Johnson are magic carpets, each one an invitation to embark on a voyage through the acclaimed Sydney-based artist’s personal cosmology. Revealing his sustained interest in Buddhism and other Eastern traditions, these serenely composed constellations of figures, objects and symbols inhabit an exalted space free from everyday concerns.
Johnson’s first show in five years with Tolarno Galleries, which has represented him since 1987, Parallel Universe brings together twelve new paintings, five of them made in collaboration with Daniel Bogunovic, a self-taught artist who lives in Los Angeles.
Image: Tim Johnson Thredbo River 2020, acrylic on linen, 101 x 137 cm
Download the exhibition essay by Tony Magnusson.
Watch the exhibition video featuring Tim Johnson in a rare glimpse inside the studio with curator-at-large Tony Magnusson. Our thanks to Thirdrow Films.
Peter Atkins
TV Week 1980-1985
A new series of small abstract paintings by Peter Atkins, playing on cultural memories of small screen heroes and villains from the 1980s.
Image: Peter Atkins ‘Why Jack Thompson Posed Nude / Inside Kamahl’s Sydney Mansion’ 2019, acrylic on board, 28 x 21 cm, 51.5 x 41.5 cm framed
Download the TV Week 1980-1985 catalogue essay and full list of works
Danie Mellor
The Sun Also Sets
Comprising sepia-tone paintings overlaid with iridescent wash, as well as large-format photomontages, the series signals a new approach by Danie Mellor.
Download the exhibition essay by Tony Magnusson.
Download the artist text by Danie Mellor.
Watch the exhibition video featuring Tyson Yunkaporta in conversation with Danie Mellor. Our thanks to Thirdrow Films.
Image: Danie Mellor On the edge of darkness (the sun also sets) 2020. Acrylic with gesso and iridescent wash on board. Three panels, 181.5 x 371.5 cm overall, framed
Installation photography by Andrew Curtis
Brent Harris
Four new works
Tolarno Galleries is very pleased to present a suite of four new Brent Harris works in the Online Viewing Space in July 2020, direct from the studio.
Brent says, “These paintings have been worked on during the COVID-19 lockdowns. But really my studio practice is quite the same, as with most artists, we are used to working in isolation. The subjects of these panoramic pictures originates in the personal, before hopefully taking on relevance for the individual viewer.”
These previously unseen new works include two paintings, and two related works on paper.
Image: Brent Harris Imaginary Brother 2020, oil on linen, 92 x 73 cm
Benjamin Armstrong
Under the Southern Sky
A new series of 8 linocuts.
Image: Benjamin Armstrong Shear l (2020), linocut, pigments & binder on polyester, 134 x 150 x 3.5 cm
Click to read the accompanying essay Contact Images by Quentin Sprague.
Bill Henson
Bill Henson | On Beauty
On Beauty – three new Bill Henson works, just released from the studio.
“We should remind ourselves, from time to time, that despite what goes on in the world, the best in art always recommends the truth and its sometimes complex and ambiguous nature. As Plato said ‘beauty is the splendor of truth.’ ” – Bill Henson, 1 May 2020
Image: BILL HENSON ‘Untitled 2010-20’ RC SH47 N32C (2010–20) archival inkjet pigment print 127 x 180 cm (paper size)
Amos Gebhardt
Evanescence
An online feature dedicated to the Amos Gebhardt video Evanescence (2018), and the related photography series.
Scheduled to coincide with the Art Collector magazine issue #92 cover story, April – June 2020.
Justine Varga
Tachisme (online)
Premiering Justine Varga’s new body of work. An abridged edit of the full suite of Tachisme works presented at Tolarno Galleries in February 2021 as an official exhibition of the PHOTO 2021 International Festival of Photography.
Pictured: Justine Varga with her winning 2019 Dobell Drawing Prize work Photogenic Drawing (2018), chromogenic photograph 151.5 x 120 cm, 154.5 x 124 cm (framed). Photo by Peter Morgan, courtesy National Art School
Click to read the catalogue essay by Andrés Mario Zervigón.
Brent Harris
Works from 2020 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Monster Theatres
Available Brent Harris works from the 2020 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Monster Theatres.
New paintings and prints are on display at the Art Gallery of South Australia 29 February to 8 June 2020.
Image: Brent Harris more 2019, oil on linen , 244 x 175 cm
A&A
Exquisite Corpse / Cadavre Exquis
The debut exhibition from industrial designer Adam Goodrum and French marquetry artisan Arthur Seigneur.
Part of Melbourne Design Week 2020, an initiative of the Victorian Government in collaboration with the National Gallery of Victoria, 12 – 22 March 2020.
Pictured: A&A Archant (2018-2019) console. Custom dyed rye straw, birch ply, brass, 91 (h) x 156 (w) x 36 (d) cm
Ben Quilty
150 years
An exhibition of new works from Ben Quilty.
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.
Recently dubbed a ‘critical citizen’ by curator Lisa Slade, Quilty’s new work at Tolarno more explicitly depicts a self- critical citizen. In this case Self may not necessarily connote oneself, but one’s milieu, an individual splattered, dispersed throughout their socio-cultural plane. The artist – as well as a few family members and friends – are present in the landscape of the Rorschach, in the abstract works, and of course in Santa himself.
Download the 150 Years exhibition essay by Milena Stojanovska.
Image: Ben Quilty After the Pink Dress (Self Portrait) 2019, oil on linen, 265 x 202 cm
