Place Gallery
Claudia Terstappen
After Life
Opening night Tuesday August 31, 6-8pm
Exhibition dates: September 1 – 25

Claudia Terstappen

Heide III: Central Galleries
Up Close
Carol Jerrems with Larry Clark, Nan Goldin and William Yang
Curator: Natalie King
Exhibition dates: July 31 – October 31

Up Close traces the significant legacy of Australian photographer Carol Jerrems (1949–1980), and situates her work alongside that of other photo-based artists from the 1970s and 1980s: Larry Clark and Nan Goldin from New York, and William Yang from Sydney. Sharing an interest in sub-cultural groups and individuals on the margins of society, each artist reveals a remarkable capacity to provide an empathetic glimpse into semi-private worlds through intimate depictions of people and their surroundings.

Cookie in Tin Pan Ally, New York City, Nan Goldin 1983

Melbourne based curator and arts writer, Jessica O’Brien shares her thoughts on the exhibition…

Heide Museum of Modern Art presents Up Close, featuring the work Australian photographers Carol Jerrems, William Yang and American documentary photographers Nan Goldin and Larry Clark.

Up Close includes work taken during the 1970s and 80s, offering unvarnished insights into the alternative worlds of American and Australian subcultures.  Depictions of sex, drug taking, and youth culture are at once timeless and specific. Sharpies, the pre- AIDS gay party scene and extravagant party wear firmly locate the works in a specific historical period. However, the intimacy, abandon and vulnerability evident in the photographs transcend periods and locations.

The highlight of Up Close is the work of Larry Clark and Nan Goldin. Clark, whose controversial films are perhaps better know that his photographic work (Kids, Ken Park) feature perfectly executed compositions that lend grace to his often violent subject matter.

Goldin’s documentation of New Yorks post-punk, new-wave music scene and gay subcultures is both emotionally and visually arresting. Her work takes the form of a 45 minute slide show entitled The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, first shown at Frank Zappa’s birthday party in 1979. This work, in which 800 photographs are displayed, is accompanied by a heady sound track that includes rock, blues, opera, and reggae.

While the curatorial focus in Up Close is on the work of Australian Carol Jerrems, more interesting (to this author at least) are the American photographers used to position the work within an international context. Bolder in subject matter, and in the case of Nan Goldin, lush in colour, the sections of the exhibition featuring these artists are truly arresting.

Murray White Room
Polly Borland
Smudge
Exhibition dates: August 13 – September 11

Polly Borland

Polly Borland

London based Australian photographer Polly Borland’s new work can be viewed at the Murray White Room.

Basil Sellers Art Prize
Ian Potter Museum of Art
Exhibition dates: August 6 – November 7

Shortlisted artists for the 2010 prize and exhibition are: Vernon Ah Kee, Eric Bridgeman, Juan Ford, Phillip George, Tarryn Gill & Pilar Mata Dupont, Ponch Hawkes, Grant Hobson, David Jolly, Richard Lewer, Noel McKenna, Glenn Morgan, David Ray, Gareth Sansom and Tony Schwensen.

Ponch Hawkes, ‘Untitled’ from the series ‘He never should have worn those shorts’ 2010, duratran photograph on LED lightbox 100 x 100 cm

The Basil Sellers Art Prize defines sport in the broadest possible sense. In 2010, an acquisitive prize of $100,000 will be awarded to a single, outstanding artwork, displayed in an exhibition of shortlisted finalists at the Ian Potter Museum of Art, the University of Melbourne. This prize is supported by Basil Sellers in order to encourage contemporary artists to develop their practice, to engage with the many themes within sport past and present, and to contribute to critical reflection on all forms of sport and sporting culture in Australia.

Dianne Tanzer Gallery
Lost In Painting
Featuring Giles Alexander, Natasha Bieniek, Chris Bond, Marian Drew, Craig Easton, Vincent Fantauzzo, Louise Paramour, Victoria Reichelt, Kate Shaw & Megan Walch.

Exhibition dates: August 21 – September 18

Marian Drew

Immanent Landscape
West Space
Jeremy Bakker, Hamish Carr, Atsunobu Katagiri, Hisaharu Motoda, Nobuaki Onishi, Kiron Robinson, Ai Sasaki, Utako Shindo
Opening night this Friday August 20, 6-8pm

Atsunobu Katagiri

Exhibition dates August 21 – September 4

Immanent Landscape is a project that brings together eight contemporary artists from Australia and Japan to express the idea of ‘landscape’. The project involves exhibitions, artists’ residencies, workshops, talk sessions or catalogue production, and it will be held in Australia 2010 and in Japan 2011. With this manner in which artists move between two cultures over two years period for a project, we aim to create and share a new cultural ‘landscape’.

The participating artists are Ai Sasaki, Atsunobu Katagiri, Nobuaki Onishi, Hisaharu Motoda, Kiron Robinson, Hamish Carr, Jeremy Bakker and Utako Shindo. Their artworks vary from photography, drawing, print to installation, however they have common in reflecting external environments and simultaneously embodying internal environments. Their artworks, therefore, encompasses the urban, mythological, social, historical, or spiritual context that humanity shares. From these diverse artworks a singular exhibition may form an immersive ‘landscape’ where different views intersect.

These artists are also active in engaging with art world through curation, education or production. The project evolves their participation into residency programs, research trips, exhibitions, educational talk sessions or workshops to create dialogues between artists, strength relationships between art communities, and to approach broader audiences. These activities may connect artists cultural knowledge and experiences, resulted in producing an exhibition that appeals to individuals with divers cultural background.

We intend to imagine and share “immanent landscape” that may be embedded in our communal existence.

A new Artists Run Initiative opens in Fitzroy
Dear Patti Smith
Opening night this Friday August 20.
Vernissage from 6pm, launch 7-9pm

Dear Patti Smith launch

Lazy Slum
Blindside Artist Run Space
Opening Friday August 20, 6-8pm

Lazy Slum

As part of an ARI exchange program Melbourne based Tape Projects and Hobart based Six_a will invade and colonize Blindside Gallery. Lazy Slum will be a cross-disciplinary experiment in what happens when you build a society from scratch. Think Lord of the Flies meets Better Homes and Gardens. Dystopian community meets tribal display home. Over three days a game will unfold where audience and artists alike are governed by the rules…

PRESENT (IN)TENSE
George Paton Gallery
Kotoe Ishii, Mayuko Itoh, Mutzumi Nozaki, Makiko Yamamoto
Opening night August 11th, 6-8pm

Kotoe Ishii

Exhibition runs from August 11th-21st

PRESENT (IN) TENSE introduces four Melbourne-based Japanese women. They exchanged their ideas about ‘transnational identity formation’ as Japanese living in Melbourne, and realised that their national and socio-cultural identifications sometimes overlapped and sometimes drifted away from each other. This complex nature of (un)shared senses of the self and crossing boundaries drives them to form PRESENT (IN) TENSE.

Schadenfreude
TCB art inc.
Dane Lovett, Laith McGregor, Charles O’Loughlin and Veronica Kent
Exhibition opening August 11th, 6-8pm

Schadenfreude

Exhibition dates: August 11th- 28th

window99
Make, Smash, Mend – Llawella Lewis
A Twitch Upon the Thread – Leo Greenfield
Exhibition opening Saturday August 14th, 6-9pm

window99

Exhibition dates: August 14th – September 4th

This is a very special week for art in Melbourne. It is going to be massive! Listed below are all the opening night events this week!

Tuesday 3rd August
Fortyfive downstairs
Unrepresented
Curated by Bernadette Alibrando
Exhibtion dates Tue 3rd August 10 – Sat 14th August

Unrepresented is an exhibition of five outstanding independent visual artists including emerging artists Ted McKinlay, Chloe Vallance, Nicholas Jones and Ben V Walsh alongside established independent artist Christopher Koller.

'All roads lead to where we stand’ by Chloe Vallance

Coinciding deliberately with the Melbourne Art Fair, which is an exhibition of leading contemporary art chosen and presented by over 80 national and international galleries, Unrepresented responds to the vagaries and minefields of the art world that contemporary artists encounter. While most artists see representation by a gallery as the best possible situation, others deliberately remain outside the accepted system.

Unrepresented is curated by Walk to Art director, Bernadette Alibrando who has delved beneath the surface of Melbourne’s commercial gallery scene, and has selected five diverse artists who are excellent at their craft, have refined concepts, conceptual and emotional content in their work, underlying drive and have chosen to remain independent.

Wednesday 4th August
The Melbourne Contemporary Art Fair Gala Opening!
Exhibition dates 4th – 8th August

More than 900 artists will be represented by over 80 leading national and international galleries. Melbourne Art Foundation attracts participation from Australian galleries from all States and Territories, as well as internationally, including from New Zealand, China, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Canada, America and Europe during the 4-day event. For more information, visit www.artfair.com.au

Thursday 5th August
Colour Factory Gallery
Blood, Sweat and Tears
Gerard O’Connor & Marc Wasiak in collaboration with Harry Rekas

Blood, Sweat and Tears

Exhibition dates 6th – 28th August

Friday 6th August
Lindberg Galleries
Sky High
Michelle Tran

Michelle Tran

Exhibition dates 6 – 28 August

Saturday 7th August
Rendezous in Wrongtown
One day only exhibition!  Saturday August 7 at 2pm sharp.
Group exhibition
Curated by Theresa Harrison, Tai Snaith and Vexta

Rendezous in Wrongtown

Directions available in the invitation above.

Centre for Contemporary Photography
Gallery 3
2010 Kodak Salon
Exhibition opening tonight, Thursday 29 July

Julia Palenov, Bench 2010, digital print, 40 x 36cm

Exhibition dates: 30 July — 25 September

Siri Hayes in collaboration with Eve Duncan
Gallerysmith
Listening Portraits
Opening this Friday 30 July from 6-8pm

Siri Hayes in collaboration with Eve Duncan

Siri Hayes’ exhibition Listening Portraits will open tomorrow, Friday 30 July at Gallerysmith in North Melbourne. The exhibition is part of the Innovators Series at the Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts. In this exhibition, Hayes works with renowned Melbourne composer Eve Duncan.

We invite you to enter the baroque world of Gerard O’Connor with his upcoming new exhibition ‘Blood, Sweat & Tears’, opening at the Colour Factory on August 5, 2010.

The elaborate artists that opened the Colour Factory Gallery last year are back with more extravagant and depraved pursuits, however this time there will be no loud fat ladies and bright seventies beach goers. Instead, their incredibly detailed mural images will depict dramatic scenes of loss and murder. The artists- coming from a background in fashion- utilize costume, with its social and political implications as a focal point of the imagery. Drawing from this plentiful history, they create an ornate tableau of meaning and surface. The images take on a painterly affect that, like the costume, reflects images of the period era. Masterfully shot and composited, these artworks are something to behold.

Detail of 'Funeral'

Light Projects
Jeremy Baker
I is another
Opening night Friday July 23, 6 – 8pm

KINGS ARI
9 – 31 July

FRONT GALLERY
Golden World (the Wall and the Door)
Benedict Ernst

Golden World (the Wall and the Door) is a single artwork made up of five panels. These panels, each the size of a large door, placed together span the entire wall of the gallery. They are part picture, part documentation of performance, part sculpture, and part immersive installation. They contain the artist’s life’s collection of gold foil chocolate wrappers (carefully framed). Each of these panels is methodically divided into an intricate matrix that allows a subtle pattern of gold upon gold to be observed.

MIDDLE GALLERY
Annal Beads
Chantal Fraser

Conjoining the annals of travel and tourism, this series shapes the parochial views of the tourist as subject. A series of performative frames, presented as photographic stills, showcase a collection of neckpieces (Ula) from the artist’s Samoan family – gifts of significance, ceremony and value – alongside a collection of metallic beads thrown from the balconies of Bourbon St, New Orleans during Mardi Gras– an herogenous ritual that rewards the female tourist more beads on the exposing of breasts. The work explores the creation of cross-cutlural connotations and representations through silhouette and the embodiment of adornment, and more significantly cultural adornment.

SIDE GALLERY
Psychopompistic
Marcel Feillafe

The Psychopomp is a figure from history whose role is to act as a guide from one realm to another; from life to death, or consciousness to sub-consciousness. You will be accompanied by this figure through space, and transcend banality. Liminality is a central theme in this work; a threshold between states. The enclosed structure is a vehicle to create a ritual-like state where transformation occurs, and divisions can be broken down. By extending the entrance of the gallery space to the exit, Feillafe metaphorically extends a moment normally passed over, given little or no thought. Once suspended in this moment, the intention is for the mechanics of liminality to be revealed.