VAULT EXTRA 2nd DECEMBER 2021
MATISSE ALIVE AT THE AT GALLERY OF NEW SOUTH WALES
The Art Gallery of New South Wales is currently showing Matisse Alive, a vibrant and energetic exhibition presented in conjunction with the blockbuster show Matisse: Life & Spirit, Masterpieces from the Centre Pompidou, Paris. Matisse Alive presents a range of incredible works from the AGNSW collection in addition to a unique consideration of Matisse’s influences. At the heart of Matisse Alive are four new artist projects that present contemporary perspectives on Henri Matisse, with particular focuses on his imagining of the Pacific. Projects are by leading contemporary artists, Nina Chanel Abney (US), Sally Smart (Australia), Angela Tiatia (Sāmoa/Australia), and Robin White (NZ).
One of the stand out moments in the exhibition is Nina Chanel Abney’s Framily Ties. Within Matisse Alive, Abney’s works span five walls of the exhibition and are anchored by nineteen new large-scale collages, created by the artist at Pace Prints’ print shop in New York City. Following shows at numerous US institutions over the last four years, and an overseas début at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, Abney’s contribution to Matisse Alive marks her first museum exhibition in Australia. In 2019, VAULT sat down with the artist, to unpack the ideas and experiences driving her iconographic works. You can read more about the artist’s expanded practice in Jane O’Sullivan’s Issue 26 cover story Nina Chanel Abney: Eyes to the Front.
Matisse: Alive continues until April 3, 2022 and Matisse: Life & Spirit continues until March 13, 2022.
Image credit:Installation view Matisse Alive featuring Nina Chanel Abney’s works at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Photo © AGNSW Diana Panuccio
JAMES GLEESON AT CHARLES NODRUM GALLERY
A selection of paintings and watercolours by one of Australia’s most committed and influential surrealist painters, James Gleeson, is currently on show at Charles Nodrum Gallery, Richmond. Marking the artist’s ninth exhibition in Australia since 2000, the works come from the Gleeson O’Keefe Foundation, which is managed by the Art Gallery of New South Wales; all proceeds from sales of Gleeson’s work go towards the acquisition of new artworks by Australian artists.
In the early 1980s – after retiring from his secondary career as an author, critic and curator – Gleeson devoted himself exclusively to painting. To everyone’s surprise, the sexagenarian’s first exhibition proved an impressive display of monumentally scaled paintings with a sheer painterliness and an ambiguous level of abstraction, leaving viewers to puzzle over how these astonishing performances could be interpreted – a situation which continues to this day. James Gleeson’s latest exhibition continues at Charles Nodrum Gallery until to December 18, 2021.
charlesnodrumgallery.com.au
Image credit:James Gleeson, Landscape with a depicted remnant, 1994, oil on canvas, 133 x 199 cm. Image courtesy of The Gleeson O'Keefe Foundation & AGNSW
EXPERIMENTA LIFE FORMS AT TWEED REGIONAL GALLERY
Experimenta Life Forms is considered to be the most ambitious iteration of the International Triennial of Media Art to-date. True to the mission of Experimenta at large, Experimenta Life Forms is positioned as a timely exhibition, this iteration specifically exploring our changing relationship and definitions of life forms. Work by 20 leading Australian artists, including Daniel Boyd, Oron Catts & Ionat Zurr, Brad Darkson, Michael Candy, Donna Davis, Justine Emard, Anton Hasell, Floris Kaayk and Helen Pynor and international artists come together to show a diversity of art forms including robotics, bio-art, screen-based works, installations, participatory and generative art. The triennial has already toured to Plimsoll Gallery (TAS) and The Lock-Up Gallery (NSW), and will soon land at Tweed Regional Gallery (NSW), on show from December 10, 2021 until January 30, 2022.
experimenta.org
artgallery.tweed.nsw.gov.au
Image credit:Justine Emard, Soul Shift, 2018, video still. Courtesy of the artist
LILLIAN O’NEIL WINS THE 2021 WILLIAM AND WINIFRED BOWNESS PHOTOGRAPHY PRIZE
Lillian O’Neil has been named the winner of this year’s prestigious William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize for her work Drawing to a close, 2020, a large-format collage of found photographs. O’Neil’s practice centres on the reconceptualization of found and archival images, often sourced from pre-digital books and magazines. Her analogue collages breathe new life into otherwise “obsolete” print technologies, creating a surreal black and white world in which the past is pasted with the present. An exhibition of the finalists’ works continues at the Monash Gallery of Art (MGA) until December 5, 2021.
mga.org.au
Image credit:Lillian O'Neil, Drawing to a close, 2020, collaged archival pigment ink prints on Ilford smooth cotton rag on Dibond (framed), 183 x 183 x 6.5 cm. Photo: John O'Neil. Collection Monash Gallery of Art, Melbourne
BLOOMING IN REIMS
Blooming at the Domaine Vranken-Pommery in Reims has been extended until January 5, 2022. Blooming is the brain-child of Nathalie and Paul François Vranken. The exhibition aligns with the ongoing EXPERIENCE POMMERY # initiative that engages the Museum of Fine Arts of Reims and brings contemporary art into the evocative context of the Domaine Vranken-Pommery – however, Blooming, specifically strives to facilitate a context for reviving arts and culture since the pandemic. Installed in a new space at the Domaine Vranken-Pommery, Blooming brings together more than 60 artists, including Paul Gaugin, Camille Corot, Keith Tyson, Pierre et Gilles and Jean-François Fourtou. Curated by Catherine Delot, Director of Museum of Fine Arts of Reims, and Fabrice Bousteau, Editorial Director of Beaux Arts Magazine, artists have been selected to form a dialogue between the seminal artists of the Museum of Fine Arts of Reims, as well as those who have a connection to the Domaine Vranken-Pommery.
Blooming explores the notion of blossoming life. As many people continue to persevere through an anxiety inducing period, the exhibition takes inspiration from nature to allude to signs of hope, revival and renewal. Bringing together photography, painting and installation, the exhibition presents an historical to contemporary portrayal of nature – together offering signs to the cyclicality of life.
champagnepommery.com
musees-reims.fr
Image credit: Installation view Blooming, 2021, Cellier Pompadour, Domaine Vranken-Pommery, Reims, with Laurent Pernot, Grand bouquet 3, 2021. © Ballade Studio, 2021
PAULA REGO AT VICTORIA MIRO
The Forgotten is currently on show Victoria Miro, London. The exhibition marks Paula Rego’s first solo exhibition with the gallery and brings together significant individual works and important series including her excoriatingly personal Depression Series, with many works rarely shown and primarily from the past 20 years of the artist’s practice. Rego’s highly emotive and evocative works are testament to a career spent exploring often obscured narratives and their associated stigmas. The Forgotten brings to light subjects such as mental illness, abortion and aging – subjects often buried within society. The exhibition continues until January 22, 2021.
VAULT features Paula Rego in the current issue – Issue 36 (Nov – Jan). You can subscribe today to read more about the artist’s incredible practice.
Image credit:Paula Rego, The Fisherman, 2005, pastel on paper on aluminium, 180 x 120 cm. © Paula Rego. Courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro
