The Re-invention of #Gravity #Exhibition #arts #Sydney

Michelangelo honed his practice by meticulously copying art from Roman antiquity. Rembrandt’s apprentices slavishly copied (and then sold) works by the master, forever creating confusion in art markets. Over the last two centuries artists have torn free of this regulated and hierarchical relationship, but how do artists now respond to the work of others, to the methods and practices of those who came before them? How do they engage and concurrently add to the canon that at times seems weighty enough to crush them?

The Re-invention of Gravity: Responses to works from the USU Art Collection asks current artists to look to these hefty precursors afresh. Taking a work each from the University of Sydney Union Art Collection as their starting point (an impressive collection that boasts over 700 pieces, some dating back 500 years), each artist has defied the intense gravity of history to create art anew.

Nicholas Greenwich responds to a historical, anonymous photo of an empty Union locker room with a stark and disturbing digital print entitled ‘The meek and the proud’. Solemn, detached faces hang on clothes hooks; one is man-handled into a paper bag, as one might pack a leg of lamb. There is an unsettling timelessness to this image, perhaps commenting on the tendency of institutions to homogenise people into products.

TITLE: The Re-invention of Gravity: Responses to the University of Sydney Union Art Collection

ARTISTS: Imants Tillers, Vilma Bader, Arthur Streeton, Kate Beckingham, Warren Knight, Penelope Cain, Chris O’Doherty, Jason Christopher, George Milpurrurru, Hayley Megan French, Nicholas Greenwich, John Wardle, Richard Kean, Shaun Gladwell, Johnathan McBurnie, D Stuart-Grieve, Armelle Swan

Curated by Anna McMahon and Bartholomew Oswald

WHEN: Opening Thursday August 30, 6pm. Aug 31 – Sep 14, 2012. Mon-Fri 10am-5pm.

Artists’ Talk: Thursday September 6, 1pm.

WHERE: Verge Gallery, City Road, Jane Foss Russell Plaza, The University of Sydney

COST: FREE (food and refreshments provided)

CONTACT: Greg Shapley on (02) 9563-6218, g.shapley@usu.usyd.edu.au

Image Credits(composite image attached):

Artist unknown – glass plate negative (USU Art Collection)

‘The Meek and the Proud’ by Nicholas Greenwich, Pigment Print on Cotton Rag, 108cmx128cm