Dancehouse presents Open Season

A season of multi-artform performances.

17 – 20 September, 2009

Curated by Dancehouse Artistic Director David Tyndall, Open Season brings together a four-day showcase of eight unique works by established and emerging Melbourne contemporary artists.

In June this year Dancehouse called for expressions of interest from artists of all disciplines – dancers, choreographers, writers, performance artists, musicians, animators or anything in between – for the opportunity to present their works as part of Open Season.

Eight distinctive and intriguing works have been selected and incorporated into two different programs running for two days each – Program A and Program B. Audiences will be treated to solo performers and groups, dance, 3D clay animation, wall paintings, physics, the sounds of birds, improvisation, paper bags, video projections, memories and of course, buckets.

Visit www.dancehouse.com.au

Stranded comic art stories by 23 people

STRANDED is a new show from SilentArmy (the same people responsible for the PureEvil anthologies, Silent Army Infermary and other printed collections of short stories in the sequential narrative styles using illustration and painting) – an ever changing group of brave young artists bestowed with the joy/horror of creating comic art.

23 melbourne artists tackle the comic book medium on their own for no reason other than to be out there – some for the first time! Including framed artwork from: Kieran Mangan, Michael Fikaris, Nick Potter, Michael Hawkins, Tom O’Hern, Kirsty Madden, Stewart Cole, Sam Wallman, Aaron O’Donnell, Clint Cure, Pat Grant, Kirrilly Schell, Ted McKinlay, Rachel Torbett, Nick Paice, Richard Butler-Bowden, Cougar Flashy, Tristan Jalleh, Ben Hutchings, Karl Von Bamberger, DeathTron, Tim Molloy, Mike Makatron and James James (in no particular order) for three weeks only…

Starts – Thursday, August 27, 2009 at 6:00pm
End Time: – Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 9:00pm
Location: Highlander Gallery, 11a Highlander Lane,
Melbourne, Australia

Ann Howie – Point Roadknight

One of Melbourne’s most respected painters Ann Howie, climbs the cliffs of Point Roadknight to present her awesome new exhibition. The work contains views and vistas from Anglesea, Victoria and displays her latest commission for one of her private collectors. Ann has also been busy creating her website as a point of info exchange about her work and career. Ann is currently encouraging comments and inquiries about sales of her work.

^{Across the Point
oil on linen 92×140 2009,© Ahowie 2009}

Visit the Ann Howie website

Connected 09 – Melbourne exhibit

Cathy Staughton
Cathy Mother Poor ‘R2D2′ Robo & Good Little Boy Angels 1 Year old Dec 2007 2008
Gouache & Ink 765 x 560 mm

Connected 09…

Selected Artists from Arts Project Australia will be exhibiting in Connected 09 exhibition at Black Box Theatre at the Victorian Arts Centre.

Artists included in the exhibition are Jodie Noble, Dionne Canzano, Steven Ajzenberg, Peter Ben, Steven Worrell, Alan Constable, Julian Martin, Miles Howard-Wilks, Leo Cussen, Cathy Staughton, Chris O’Brien, Brigid Hanrahan, Cameron Noble, Valerio Ciccone and Lisa Reid.

Location
Black Box Theatre,
Victorian Arts Centre
100 St Kilda Road,
Melbourne VIC

Opening
Friday 31 July 2009 at 11.30am

Exhibition Dates
Thursday 30 July – Thursday 13 August 2009

Hours
Daily from 11am – 6pm and until 9pm on Friday and Saturday evenings
FREE and open to the public

Arts Project Australia is a not-for-profit incorporated association that is committed to supporting people with disabilities to become practitioners in the visual arts and to promote their work as integral to the broad spectrum of contemporary arts practice.

Van Gogh coming to IMAX

Experience Van Gogh’s works on his largest canvas ever, in the new IMAX film Van Gogh: Brush with Genius, set to be released at IMAX Melbourne Museum on 13 August, 2009.

Filmed entirely in 15/70mm film on location in France and the Netherlands, Van Gogh: Brush with Genius captures the breathtaking landscapes and extraordinary colours of Van Gogh’s most famous works with the stunning visual effects of IMAX technology.

Created by Peter Knapp and Francois Bertrand with the cooperation of the Van Gogh Museum, the Musee d’Orsay and the Kröller-Müller Museum, Van Gogh: Brush with Genius traces the artist’s remarkable story from his first paintings at the age of 27 to the masterpieces he produced prior to his tragic death ten years later. Based on more than 900 of Van Gogh’s letters, the film takes you on an emotional rollercoaster through the life and work of this troubled genius.

Banksy in Bristol

Graffiti artist Banksy’s biggest exhibition has been unveiled by Bristol City Museum, featuring more than 100 of works which were installed in the council-run museum amid great secrecy this week. The show – which was kept secret from council bosses – includes new works including a burned-out ice cream van. Banksy was previously sought for vandalism by the police and council in his home city. He said: ‘This is the first show I’ve ever done where taxpayers’ money is being used to hang my pictures up rather than scrape them off.’

More from The Guardian

Also check out the hangup pictures competition as they are giving away a Banksy!

Salt and the Dress an Installation by Lesley Dickman

Lesley Dickman’s new installation, Salt And The Dress, arrives at Guildford Lane Gallery this June. The artist, who cites the landscape as the starting point for her work, has travelled the Australian outback and crossed America’s Mohave dessert, sketching, painting and photographing the interesting shapes found in the eroded rock
formations.

Having grown up with a dressmaking mother, Lesley’s work also focuses on the theme of the dress. Living in a house used as a dressmaking factory meant there was very little separation between that creative process and our day-to-day living, she says. Like fabric it was woven into many aspects of my childhood memories.

Currently working with the landscape around Geelong and the You Yangs in Victoria, the artist says she has discovered the salt pond as a rich resource for the next series of paintings: I find it interesting that salt is corrosive yet a healer of wounds. It has proved to be very destructive in the environment and yet it has many useful properties that we encounter on a daily basis. I work in layers of paint that, like salt, can dissolve
and merge then reappear.

Exhibition: 17 June – 5 July
Opening: 6pm Thurs 18 June

20 – 24 Guildford Lane, Melbourne
http://www.guildfordlanegallery.org/

Melbourne Ink: a documentary – Thursday May 7th Docklands

Street art isn’t for anyone, it is for everyone.

A documentary on the underworld of Melbourne’s street art screening @ OPEN  CHANNEL, Shed4, Docklands

On 7th May, Melbourne Ink, an independent documentary about our beloved laneways and evolution of street art in Melbourne and its protagonists, will be screened at OPEN CHANNEL, Shed4, Docklands. It is an opportunity to get an insight into these disembodied artists, their motivations and philosophies. It is a free event with artists from the film doing some live painting, a delicious Argentinean BBQ will be on offer and there will be plenty of beer at a cheap price.

The documentary is made by two French directors, Julian Sena and Romain Levrault, who wanted to make an uncensored film featuring Melbourne’s most prominent figures in graffiti and stencil art. “Melbourne is legendary for its street art, it brought us here. We wanted to make a film about the conflicting forces where street art is illegal but is widely used to market the city”, says Romain.

The film stars various artists from the Blender Studio, the Mitten Fortress, the Everfresh Studio, No Vacancy and Until Never galleries. The artists have been interviewed and followed during their performances in the city. “This is their story uncensored, you will see from the film there is no holding back. It is an exciting and politically-charged 25 minutes”, says Julian.

Sponsored by Melbourne Stencil Festival, OPEN CHANNEL, Art Truck and Mountain Goat, the screening brings a night of live spraying demonstrations, music and a chance to get close up with some of Melbourne’s most notorious street artists.

Melbourne Ink
Thursday May 7th 2009
Victoria Harbour, Shed 4 North Wharf Road (end of Bourke Street) Docklands
Time: 6 till 9pm
Free entry

Dorothy Berry: Bird on a Wire

Dorothy Berry
He’s In Prison 2000
pastel 500 x 340 mm

Dorothy Berry
Not titled 1991
acrylic 1010 x 700 mm

Dorothy Berry
Sister Theresa from St Joseph 1993
acrylic & pastel 995 x 700 mm

Editor’s note: I featured one of Dorothy Berry’s works last week. But I really like her style and humour, so I’ve appropriated some more of her work from the Arts Project Australia newsletter. I am sure she will gain lots of attention, but hope this helps! GG

Arts Project Australia presents a major retrospective of ‘famous artist’ Dorothy Berry’s work that traverses a set of personal themes and fascinations as diverse as people, animals, religion and royalty. The exhibition was opened to a crowd of over 100 guests by the Hon. Bill Shorten MP, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children’s Services.

‘The flights of fancy, of real and imagined worlds which are so beautifully expressed in Berry’s work also suggests the transcendent potential of art, to marry the corporeal state with the freedom of the spirit.’ Founding Director, Dr. Cheryl Daye

Guest curator Maxine Ryder, an Australian artist now living in Munich, who worked with Berry over ten years, has captured all the major themes of Berry’s work.

‘Dorothy has always had a really strong sense of herself as an artist. She will quite boldly introduce herself to people as ‘Dorothy Berry, the Famous Artist’. So she does have that strong sense of identity and she sees herself very much as a painter. ‘ Curator Maxine Ryder

Berry has worked at the Arts Project Australia studio for over twenty years, during which time she has developed a style of work that is at once highly original, quirky, sensitive, poignant and humorous.

The exhibition, which runs six weeks, is accompanied by a full colour catalogue featuring an interview with the curator conducted by artist Sandra Bridie, along with a series of special edition artist cards produced to coincide with Dorothy Berry: Bird on a Wire.

Exhibition Dates:
Runs until – Saturday June 6, 2009.

Location:
Arts Project Australia Gallery
24 High Street
Northcote Victoria 3070 Australia

Gallery Hours:
Monday – Friday 9am-5pm, Saturday 10am-1pm
FREE and open to the public

FamousWhenDead exhibitions in May

All in All is an exhibition aimed to bring together local artists and local residents alike. It presents artists from a variety of different ages and backgrounds living and working in 3003 and 3051. Expect a range of different mediums including painting, sculpture, photography and jewellery. Featured are works by Ted May, Eric Henshall, Catherine Mather, Theo Robinson, Bengamin, Noriko Nakamura, Sophie Black, Lehmann Smith, Sonja Hornung, Natalie Jeffcott, Mirian Mooney and Julie Parker.
Exhibition runs from 1 – 17 May.

What to do with the good old vinyl record when music comes from discs and pods these days? Throw some art on it and spin that thing! This exhibition will present unique works on 12inch records, and if you are luck you might be still able to  play the B-side. Collector’s feast…
Artists include: Ali J, El Moocho, ApeSeven, Kirsty Furnes (FR), Shayna Yasuhara (USA), Martin Whatson (NOR), Caitlin Rigby, Yuki Nakano, Adi, Fray, Hermlife (USA), Megan Dell, Simon Milligan (NL), A1one (IRAN), Laura McKellar, Maria Slovakova (UK), Papermonster (USA). More to be announced.
Exhibition runs 21 – 31 May.

FamousWhenDead Gallery | 207 Victoria St | West Melbourne VIC 3003 | melway ref 2B A11 | Australia

http://www.famouswhendead.com.au/