Exhibition Catalogues

A series of small scale exhibitions designed to give an in depth analysis of either a single artist, a group of artists working with a common thematic interest or a production company. Artists are primarily selected for their reference to the State Art Collection and Western Australian art practice.

Brutal, Tender, Human, Animal

Roger Ballen Photography

Author: Robert Cook

(2007)

Over almost thirty years, Roger Ballen has produced some of the most compelling and thought-provoking images in contemporary photography. His work is unflinching, confronting and always deeply moving. With its roots in the photo-documentary tradition, Ballen's approach has expanded to become an unforgettable vision of the human condition.

Radical Elegance

Yohji Yamamoto Garments in Australian Collections

Author: Jenepher Duncan

(2007)

The first solo exhibition of women's clothing by the renowned Japanese couturier, Yohji Yamamoto in Australia The exhibition traces the changing aesthetic interests and themes of his work over a twenty-year period. Featuring over forty garment ensembles, it draws on Australian private collections and the public collections of the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria and the Powerhouse Museum.

Rodney Glick & Lynnette Voevodin 24Hr Panoramas

Authors: Gary Dufour & Robert Cook

(2006)

The unique approach of Rodney Glick and Lynnette Voevodin in creating their DVD video panoramas places an intense focus on nuance and detail, which challenges common assumptions about the Australian landscape. The '24Hr Panoramas' reveal the unexpected, the chance discoveries, with supreme technical skill to provide a new way to see outback WA.

Kate Daw The Space Between                                                                                     

Author: Jenepher Duncan (2006)                                                                                                                                                   

Kate Daw's exhibition of ceramic sculpture, typed text paintings and silkscreen prints embraces a highly personalised and feminised aesthetic. A further concern in her work is how narrative functions in contemporary art, in particular the relation of narrative to its objects through a fragmentary series of encounters. Daw places her own practice in the context of historical precedent in both fiction and art.

Ricky Swallow The Past Sure Is Tense

Author: Jenepher Duncan

(2006)

Swallow grounds his work in personal memory and meticulous craftsmanship. He bridges the divide between everyday iconography and monumentality, popular culture and art historical traditions. The early sculptures, mostly replicated machines from his teenage years, resonate as remnants of outdated technologies and as symbols of the passage of time. Swallow's works, however varied their content and media, revolve around the themes of evolution, mortality and the mutability of all things.

Brent Harris Swamp Op

Author: Robert Cook

(2006)

'Swamp Op' combines evenly pitched opposites. Pulling these poles into their 'Swamp Op' unity is the work of Brent Harris, an artist whose obliquely figurative prints, paintings and drawings spin around an endless mutation of forms that give pictorial voice to layers of personal, sexual, existential and biological trauma we experience as humans. All of which unfolds within a keen awareness of the inevitable point of death which awaits us.

Under God's Hammer

William Blake versus David Shrigley

Author: Robert Cook

(2006)

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This unique pairing of historical and contemporary illustrations inspired by the famously ambiguous Old testament text offers a fascinating look at the machinations of faith and the power of artistic vision in relation to the world of the early nineteenth century and our own times. The distinct styles and world views of these artists produce two remarkable takes on the significance of the Old Testament story, whose interpretation remains puzzling and manifold.

Wall Power

Author: Jenepher Duncan

(2005)

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'Wall Power' brings together seven artists using diverse materials, techniques and processes to expand the picture plane of the wall into their structural and conceptual base, using the wall as an intrinsic medium for the creation of art works, not just their display.

While there is no overarching theme in this exhibition, there are certain optical, procedural and conceptual correspondences between the works, creating a dynamic dialogue around such elements as geometry, pattern, structure, colour, decoration and material.

Wembley Ware

Excitingly Different

Authors: Melissa Harpley & Andrew Nicholls

(2005)

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During the 1950s Australia's largest range of commercial ceramics was the wembly ware line of 'fancyware' produced in western Australia by HL Brisbane and Wunderlich Ltd. selling nationally and in New Zealand between 1946 and 1961, Wembley Ware invigorated a market dominated by plain, mercenary wartime ceramics. The ornate designs and lustrous glazes reflected the buoyancy of post-war Australian society, and resulted in some of the most unique examples of ceramic Australiana ever commercially produced.

Raised By Wolves

Authors: Robert Cook, Jenepher Duncan, Clotilde Bullen, Melissa Harpley

(2007)

Raised by Wolves is a visual invitation to consider different configurations of the human family and their personal, social and political implications. A richly immersive experience composed of photographs, drawings, video projections, sculptures and paintings, the exhibition features twenty-six international and Australian artists from several generations. The selected works depict moments of family celebration and unity, social and peer groupings as alternative families, the effects of family breakdown, and the geopolitical dynamics that have tended at times to celebrate families.

Western Desert Satellites

Author: Clotilde Bullen

(2006)

This stunning collection of works spans almost forty years, and emphasises the connections between country, community and story. Western Desert stories are linked with one another and spread in specific ways across a large area of land. Artworks from this region are a reflection of geographical location, communal and familial networks and grounded spirituality. There are commonalities of narrative but an enormous diversity in the expression of those stories, which presents a challenge as well as a visual adventure to the viewer.

Norman Lindsay: Drawn to Women

The Complete Published Etchings

Author: Melissa Harpley

(2006)

Norman Lindsay was one of Australia's most important artists. He was very prolific both as an artist and as a writer, but he is also significant for changing forever the understanding of what it meant to be an artist in Australia. Lindsay was a complex figure: admired for the extraordinary skill as a draughtsman that he revealed in his drawings and etchings, enjoyed for the humour in his writing and at the same time reviled for his deliberate attacks on the public morality of middle-class Australia.

Edge of Desire:

Recent Art in India

Author: Chaitanya Sambrani

(2005)

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Edge of Desire: Recent Art in India focuses on contemporary Indian art running from 1993 - 2003, a period marked by enormous social, cultural, and economic change that counted political violence and rapid economic growth brought about by liberalization and foreign investment among the most significant. This decade has seen the undermining of certitudes and aspirations fundamental to the struggle for self-determination and the establishment of a secular, socialist democracy. This period has also seen a growth in India's international prominence. These factors have inevitably influenced major changes in visual culture.

St Petersburg 1900

Author: Alan Dodge

(2005)

Seldom in history do the stars line up to form a field of creative energy that marks a great period of cultural output. As Russia greeted the twentieth century, the juxtaposition of the old imperial system in St Petersburg and the dizzying array of new ideas burst onto the scene. Coupled with social and political unrest and the dying days of elegance and extravagance in the imperial capital, St Petersburg and all Russia became a hotbed of creativity.

Mix Tape 15 WA Artists

Authors: Tara Brabazon, Robert Cook, Jenepher Duncan, Edmund Tadros

(2005)

'mix tape' captures aspects of Western Australian art as it is configured today. It features a mix of artists from young to senior, working over many media and artistic attitudes. Conceived, as the title suggests, in a way akin to the mix tapes that we send to people, that we share music on, it is an idiosyncratic blend, not intended to be comprehensive survey. Rather it conveys the sense of intimacy and adventure found in a mix tape. It captures a sense of surprise in seeing a range of artists' work you would not have expected to see together in the same space.

Sunshine and Shadow: AB Webb and the poetics of place
Author: Janda Gooding

(2004)

The beauty of river scenes, paperbarks, reeds and sands at Crawley or Dalkieth, faint wooded points of land jutting into the river as well as stronger scenes of Karri trunks, and granite boulders and open plains in the south-west feature in this catalogue. A beautiful collection of both watercolours and prints, by a leading West Australian artist.

Howard Taylor, Phenomena
Authors: Gary Dufour, Russell Storer

(2003)

A comprehensive review and commentary on the work of Western Australian artist Howard Taylor. Includes transcripts of interviews with the artist and over 120 colour plates of work produced from   1950 - 2001.

South West Central

Indigenous art from south Western Australia 1833 - 2002

Author: Brenda Croft with Janda Gooding

(2003)

Embracing a period of nearly two centuries, South West Central, includes a reproduction of an 1833 ink drawing by Gyallipurt and twenty-first-century digital re-takes on colonial representations by Dianne Jones. In between is a myriad of outstanding visual expressions by Nyoongar artists that reveal their relationships to their communities and traditional lands. Most painfully, they recall the forcing of people from their traditional lands into fringe camps, the destruction of their traditional practices and their being rendered invisible in their own country.

Traces of Genius

Drawings from the Amsterdam Historisch Museum

Authors: Jeroen E Jurjens & Norbert E Middelkoop

(2003)

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In the Spring of 2000 an exhibition to showcase the highlights of the Amsterdam Historical Museum's collection of old-master drawings was being prepared, their high quality led to talks about bringing a selection of the treasures to Perth. It was a natural fit with both past history and future directions, for the Art Gallery of WA has a longstanding commitment to contemporary drawing practice. The personal selection of drawings made by Dr Simon H Levie, former Director of the Amsterdam Historical Museum and the Rijksmuseum,  from the rich drawing collection means that, for the first time, audiences outside The Netherlands can enjoy the quality and diversity of this fine collection.

StripTEASE Max Pam

Author: Robert Cook

(2002)

StripTEASE offers an in-depth look at the work of Perth-based photographer Max Pam. Covering over thirty years of practice, this exhibition showcases Pam's black and white photographs from the 1970s to the 1990s alongside his more recent, sumptuous colour pictures. His subject-matter embraces a large chunk of the world, yet, as his work is far better known outside Australia, it is important that this exhibition was created to be seen within his own country.

With this, all of Pam's work, whether made at home or on the road, lives on in the imagination, activating the synapses, and eroticising our involvement with the world.For Max Pam as for those who find themselves caught up in the lure of his photography, the striptease will never be over......

Home

Art Gallery of Western Australia

Authors: Trevor Smith, Thomas Mulcaire & Gary Dufour

(2000)

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Realising that dialogue can only emerge out of shared interests and concerns, 'home' expands upon the uncertainties of belonging precisely at a time when these concepts are being reformulated by the persistent pressures of ethnicity, race, nationalism, and globalism. The exhibition develops from the social, artistic and historical particularities of South Africa and Western Australia. It attempts to destroy the disjunctions of distance and open up a transregional conversation between artists. Particular artists, works and practices are woven into dialogues, conversations and exchanges sustained beyond notions of territories and borders.

Susan Norrie

Authors: Trevor Smith & Gary Dufour

(1998)

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Whether you turn to her paintings, installations or video projections, Susan Norris' work is haunted by the human body. Figures surface in extravagantly layered oil paint or float Ophelia-like beneath a video of a viscous oil slick. Anthropomorphic animals become portraits of pathos and passion, greed and gluttony. Powerful metaphors of concentration are embodied in historical figures.

The images and subjects in her recent videos and installations are allusive, hovering just beyond the threshold of immediate or complete recognition. The lavish surfaces offer glimpses of other times and particular histories. The space created is for exploration, remembering and discovery.

Nature As Object

Craft and Design from Japan, Finland and Australia

Author: Robert Bell

(1998)

The outstanding material cultures of Japan, Finland and Australia are shaped in response to their unique natural environments. 'Nature as Object' focuses on the innovation and influence of contemporary craft artists and designers in each of these countries. By tracing similarities of approach the exhibition brings together objects from specific natural and cultural environments which transcend the boundaries of locality.

The Golden Age of Dutch Art

Seventeenth Century Paintings From The Rijksmuseum And Australian Collections

Author: Norbert Middelkoop

(1997)

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The Dutch paintings seen in this exhibition date from the years between 1616 and 1697, a period which encompasses the Dutch arrival on Australian coasts. The artists from the age of the Dutch explorers expressed not only the potential of the world around them but also the artistic possibilities that lay in people and their place in the world, as well as in the objects and the landscape around them. In their manner of painting, these artists explored their individual potentials. At the same time this seventeenth-century Dutch art also reveals the cohesion within a small community. In their splendid works, the highly skilled painters of the Golden Dutch Age record and recall for us major events and personalities.

Design Visions

Author: Robert Bell

(1992)

Design Visions is a collection of ideas which have been given a compelling reality by 111 artists from thirteen countries, working in the areas of glass, metal jewellery, ceramics, textiles and furniture. Grouped in various sections, these dramatic and innovative objects reflect a changing vision of the world.

Douglas Chambers

A Survey

Author: Margaret Moore

(1991)

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The gamut of human emotions runs through Chambers' art because it is so connected to his life. His iconography becomes a a key to unraveling narratives as well as a key to a state of mind, with all the attendant vacillations of mood and spirit. There is a melancholy and then there is also unbridled humour. There is intimacy conveyed in his line drawings and his later studies of women range from tender to the almost voyeuristic. Repeated appearances of certain motifs in various works also help to construct meanings.

Perth International Crafts Trennial

Author: Robert Bell

(1989)

In both scale and focus the Perth International Crafts Triennial brings new vigour to Australian0organised international exhibitions. It provides an illuminating account of three selected media and also serves as a forum for dialogue between four different continents. This Triennial demonstrates the Art Gallery of Western Australia's commitment to contemporary practice as well as the expertise of its staff. Robert Bell accepted the challenge to develop a concept and determine the framework for an ambitious exhibition highlighting new directions in world craft practice.

Monet & Japan                                                                                                                                   Author: National Gallery of Australia Publication

(2001)                                                                                                                                    

Monet never traveled to Japan, but surrounded himself with a large collection of Japanese woodblock prints. From as early as the 1870's, critics commented on the influence these works were having on Monet's Impressionism.

Japanese art accompanied Monet throughout his life as an artist. Without it he would not be the 'Monet' we know. It affected not only his style and subject matter, but also the way he saw nature and how he conceived his relationship to nature.

Monet & Japan shows how Japanese prints and paintings helped to shape Monet's art during six decades, influencing not only his style and subject matter, but the very way he saw the world around him.

John Campbell 1855-1924

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Brochure highlighting the career of John Campbell, an artist and a signwriter who was active in Western Australia c1892-1923. During this time he produced oil paintings and watercolours of Perth buildings including houses, pubs, breweries and churches as well as street scenes, railway stations, military camps and landscapes.

The Pre Raphaelite Dream
Paintings and Drawings From the Tate Collection

Author: Robert Upstone
(2003)

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Drawn from Tate's outstanding holding, The Pre-Raphaelite Dream combines iconic paintings with less well-known works by the major artists of the movement to set the work of the Pre-Raphaelites in their aesthetic, social and historical context.