Artists on View 2023 Program

A Retrospective by Boben Mammen

Mindset series
Emotional Beasts
Relative Strangers
17 February - 28 February

"My art is my way of marking my time here, and like the same day or a fixed period of time brings a different experience to each individual, my paintings hold a spectrum of understanding and emotions for those who immerse in them. I think of my life split into two epochs; my days where art bore me, by guiding me and providing me with sustenance, then the days I decided to dedicate myself to bearing the art which had made it possible for me to lead a comfortable life until then. So I began to delve deeper, research more deliberately, invest further in my process, and thus commit my life to art and pursue it through every possible avenue."

Vulnerability

Alanah Ellen Brand
22 April - 30 April

In Vulnerability, Brand presents a series of portrait paintings that examine how important vulnerability is in forming authentic connections with others. Vulnerability aims to showcase the importance of expressing all emotions, and the difficulties each of us face, in a world that often tries to hide or confine them.

On the opening night Brand will perform a duologue alongside young actor Kerry Corvevski to showcase how vulnerability can be educational and powerful. Brand and Corvevski will perform a fragment of Corvevski’s own story about her diagnosis of FA (Friedreich ataxia). Brand hopes this performance, alongside this series of paintings, sheds light on the difficulties many face to create a space that is authentic and vulnerable.

Bendigo Birdlife

Ignacio Querejeta
16 June - 25 June

These creatures are all around us and contribute to defining the identity of the place where we live.
With this collection of bird portraits in rigourous black and white, I wanted to highlight the differences between them in a game of realism and stylisation.
My daily walks - in canine company - offer me an excellent opportunity to observe, increasing my curiosity and empathy with the protagonists of the exhibition.

Same Country, Different Interpretations

Judy Hutchins & Elaine van Dyk
5 August - 13 August

Same Country, Different Interpretations interrogates our relationships with Australian landscape.  Examining themes of memory, consciousness and place, this collaborative exhibition by regional Victorian artists Judy Hutchins and Elaine van Dyk inspires viewers to reflect upon their own personal, historical and emotional connection to the land.

At times heady and vivid expressionism and, at other times, stark and yearning abstraction, the exhibited works explore the deep connection between identity, culture, personal history and the timelessness of the natural landscape.  Capturing both the emotive infinity of Australia’s vastness and the visceral textures of its immediacy, Same Country, Different Interpretations wonders, softly, whether it is we that conjure the landscape or the landscape that conjures us.

Nests - The Bird's Abode Exhibition

Terry Jarvis and Michelle Jarvis
21 September to 3 October

Celebrating the intrinsic beauty of nests, the birds that build them and the places they choose to live and nurture their young.

Beautiful watercolour paintings by Terry Jarvis.

Superb nests handcrafted from wire, twigs, twine and vine by Michelle Jarvis.

Also featuring poetry and writings by Michelle and combined works by both artists.

Points of entry: before and beyond

Adam Staples
13 October - 22 October

Points of entry: before and beyond is a research-based exhibition in which the concept of the entry point is examined. Entry points exist within the places we inhabit and through this body of work the nature of how we use them to negotiate ways to live with what has been, and ways to live with what will be, is investigated. This body of work revisits the related motif of the juncture, or the coming together of disparate lines and horizons, and makes material the artist’s perspectives about what happens just before and beyond the point at which these lines and horizons converge.

(Image: "In no particular order, No. 4", 2023, Porter's Original Paint, British Paints and cardboard, 24cm x 23cm)