ARTHOUSE GALLERY ANNOUNCES A DYNAMIC AND EXCITING EXHIBITION CALENDAR FOR 2024
Arthouse Gallery is delighted to announce our dynamic exhibition program for 2024. This coming year features solo shows by newly-represented, emerging artists as well as new works from our celebrated and diverse stable of Australian contemporary practitioners. We really look forward to welcoming you to the gallery in 2024.
CELEBRATING THE START OF 2024 WITH OUR SUMMER GROUP SHOW
9– 27 January 24
IAN GREIG Corndale country, oil on canvas, 112 x 112 cm
We're starting the new year with a cheers to the beginning of 2024 with our always highly anticipated Summer group show. Featuring artists from our collective, working in a range of mediums from painting and ceramics to sculpture and works on paper, all expressing the joy of Summer.
It will also mark our first opening event for 2024 which always brings the community and art lovers together in a wonderful celebration of art and culture. We look forward to welcoming you!
DISTINGUISHED ARTIST JOHN BAIRD
1 – 24 February 24
Opening Celebration Thursday 1 February, 5 – 7pm
JOHN BAIRD Northern Shoreline, acrylic & shellac on board, 123 x 123 cm (framed); John Baird photographed in his studio by James Geer
Distinguished Melbourne artist John Baird who brings his unique aesthetic and practice to the gallery with a brilliant exhibition of new work.
Working across painting, collage and sculpture, Baird explores how slippages between utilitarianism and decoration inhabit everyday objects. With a lingering aura of nostalgia, the sail boat, the dressing table or the floral arrangement are elevated from the commonplace. By consciously conflating foreground and background, Baird forges a surreality that adds a dream-like dimension to his constructed spaces, enkindling our memories and inspiring our imaginations.
Baird has participated in numerous solo and group shows around Australia, and his work is held in major national collections including the National Gallery of Victoria, Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum, Artbank and Bell Potter Group, as well as international and national corporate and private collections.
SULMAN PRIZE FINALIST JOHN PRINCE SIDDON
Melbourne Art Fair – Booth K4
22 – 25 February 24
JOHN PRINCE SIDDON Web Art, acrylic on canvas, 120 x 120 cm; John Prince Siddon photographed at Fremantle Arts Centre by Pixel Poetry
We are really excited to be taking John Price Siddon to the acclaimed Melbourne Art Fair with a new body of work featuring paintings, 3D painted bull skulls, painted oil drums and satellite dishes. Recently commissioned by the Art Gallery of New South Wales to paint three paintings for the opening of the new North Building, and being announced as a finalist in the Sulman Prize, Prince's work is always a must see.
John Prince Siddon is a Walmajarri man who lives in the remote township of Fitzroy Crossing in the West Kimberley. Prince’s psychedelic surrealist paintings bring some of the most urgent themes of our time into piercing view. His ironic combination of Australian narratives, current affairs and ancestral creation stories articulate some of the complexities of the present-day Australian experience.
Prince has been a finalist in the Sulman Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (2023), The Fisher's Ghost Art Award (2022) and the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA) at the Museum and Art Gallery Northern Territory (2021, 2020, 2019, 2018). He was also a featured artist at the Tarnanthi 2021 festival at the Art Gallery of South Australia. His solo exhibition ‘All Mixed Up’ at the Fremantle Arts Centre, presented in conjunction with the Perth Festival 2020, was heralded as the ‘stand-out exhibition’ of the festival by John McDonald of the Sydney Morning Herald. His works are included in the collections of the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Art Gallery of South Australia and Artbank.
LEAH FRASER EVOKES THE ETHEREAL & MYSTICAL
7 – 30 March 24
Opening Celebration Thursday 7 March, 5 – 7pm
LEAH FRASER Wind in My Heart, Dust in My Hair (detail), acrylic on linen, 155 x 125 cm (framed); Leah Fraser in her studio photographed by Bed Threads
Leah Fraser creates lyrical paintings and ceramics that engage with history, magic and the unknown in their metaphorical visualisation of the 'waters of life'. Arthouse Gallery is delighted to be exhibiting a new collection of work from Fraser that will evoke the ethereal and mystical with her unique ability to create magical worlds through her paintings.
Drawing inspiration from folk mythologies, diverse cultures and children’s tales, Fraser’s paintings depict shaman-like characters travelling through mystic lands in search of spiritual metamorphosis. Decorated in ritualistic clothing and plants in a ceremonial splendour, the figures have a deep respect for and understanding of the natural world, prompting the viewer to contemplate their own (dis)connection with nature.
After completing a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the College of Fine Arts, UNSW, Fraser was granted an Art Production Residency in Arquetopia, Puebla Mexico (2012) and has regularly exhibited throughout Australia in solo and group shows. The artist has also been a finalist in a number of awards, including the Blake Prize for Religious Art (2014, 2009), the Moreton Bay Art Prize (2016), Kings Art Prize (2019) and the Portia Geach Memorial Award (2017).
BRETT WHITELEY SCHOLARSHIP WINNER LAUREN O'CONNOR
7 – 30 March 24
Opening Celebration Thursday 7 March, 5 – 7pm
LAUREN O'CONNOR Red cedars/what I want back is what I was before (detail), acrylic on board, 92.5 x 123.5 cm (framed); Lauren O'Connor in her studio photographed by William Mansfield
Following a stellar 2023 for Lauren O'Connor which saw her announced as one of the winners of the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship and announced as a finalist in the Paddington Art Prize, Arthouse Gallery is excited to present a new exhibition of work from this incredible emerging artist.
Through layered colour, impulsive mark-making and erasure, Lauren O'Connor brings the transient into view, invoking the complexities of memory and representation. Forms in nature are broken apart and reformed in her paintings giving new interpretations of landscapes. Based on memory and imagination, her landscapes lead to new worlds being created; they are familiar yet foreign, complicated yet simple. Her work constantly contradicts what the viewer's eye is used to seeing and understanding about painting and landscape itself, mirroring the Australian landscape, with its contradictions of familiar and strange.
O'Connor is a graduate of the National Art School in Sydney and was announced as a winner of the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship in 2023. She has been a finalist in various prizes including the Paddington Art Prize (2023, 2021), Northern Beaches Environmental Art & Design Prize (2023), Mosman Art Prize (2022) and was awarded the 2022 AACI Internship placement at Ernabella Arts Centre, APY Lands. Her work is featured in Amber Creswell Bell’s book 'Australian Abstract'.
ACCLAIMED SYDNEY LANDSCAPE ARTIST PETER SIMPSON
4 – 27 April 24
Opening Celebration Thursday 4 April, 5 – 7pm
PETER SIMPSON Bouddi II (detail), oil on paper, 86 x 66 cm (framed)
To mark the beginning of Autumn, Arthouse Gallery presents Peter Simpson with his brooding, light filled paintings celebrating the beauty of the Australian landscape.
The paintings of Simpson perpetuate the artist’s fervent belief in the contemporary validity of landscape painting. Whether it is through the quiet whisper of his still lives or the soaring roar of his majestic landscapes, Simpson’s works provide us with a framework through which we can read a great deal about life on this beautiful continent.
Simpson’s work is held in numerous public and private collections in Australia and abroad including Artbank, Lincoln Institute, Australia Post, City of Monash, Australian Club, Melbourne and BHP. The artist has exhibited widely throughout Australia, and has won several awards including People’s Selection, Best Painting at Cowra Regional Art Gallery (2008) as well as being selected as the Artist in Residence at the Arthur Boyd Studio, Bundanon.
LYDIA BALBAL PAINTS THE GREAT SANDY DESERT IN VIBRANT COLOUR
2 – 25 May 24
Opening Celebration Thursday 2 May, 5 – 7pm
LYDIA BALBAL Martakulu (detail), acrylic on linen, 151 x 180 cm
“I’m painting underground, what’s underground. Upside down: water, rockholes, lines beneath the sand-dunes.“
2012 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award Winner Lydia Balbal presents a new body of work in April. A Mangala woman who was married to the Yulparija artist Nabiru Bullen until his death in 2009. Lydia's country is near Punmu in the Great Sandy Desert of W.A. Her people's existence was threatened by severe drought so that they had little choice but to leave their traditional country. Her family were some of the last to walk out to the coastal town of Bidyadanga (then La Grange Mission) located two hours south of Broome in the early 70s. Lydia first began painting in 2007 but has already received significant attention from collectors and the media with her dynamic, visceral works with free, expressive mark making. Depicting her Country, the Woman's Law Line and the king brown snake, we are delighted to present these new works from Balbal.
FOWLERS GAP RESIDENCY
13—19 May 24
MULTI AWARD WINNING ARTIST EMMA WALKER
30 May – 22 June 24
Opening Celebration Thursday 30 May, 6 – 8pm
EMMA WALKER Immersion (detail), oil & acrylic on carved board, 180 x 150 cm; Emma Walker photographed by Lisa Sorgini
Emma Walker consistently and evocatively engages with the natural world, looking at the patterns and rhythms that recur in nature, we are delighted to be showing a new body of work from Walker at the gallery in May.
Carving, sanding, digging, grinding, glazing, dripping and scratching into layered timber, the artist creates a unique process and approach to her sculptural wall paintings. From ancient landscapes of sea, rock and sky to the microscopic patterns and rhythms that power existence, her work moves between the micro and the macro in a formative dance. As much about the process of painting as they are with visually imprinting the Australian environment, Walker’s unique imagery emerges from a combination of experimentation and automaticity, each mark growing from the next in a catalytic reaction that emulates the geological occurrences that cause continents to move and shorelines to reshape, etching on the faces of rocks, rivers and ravines.
Walker has been exhibiting for over thirty years. Her career has enjoyed the strong support of patrons Ann Lewis AO, Nick Waterlow, OAM and Julian Beaumont OAM. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the National Art School, Sydney, and she has also studied in Italy and travelled extensively. She was a finalist in the Paddington Art Prize (2017, 2013, 2010, 2008) and winner of the prestigious Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award (2014). Walker has held numerous exhibitions in both Sydney and Melbourne, and her work features in several major public and corporate collections including Macquarie Bank, Australian Club, Sydney, Lismore Regional Gallery, Tweed Regional Gallery & Margaret Olley Art Centre and Bathurst Regional Gallery, in addition to various private collections in Australia, Indonesia, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and the United States.
WYNNE PRIZE FINALIST NICOLE KELLY
30 May – 22 June 24
Opening Celebration Thursday May, 6 – 8pm
NICOLE KELLY Black Swan Lake – Pink Dawn (detail), oil on polyester, 154 x 185 cm (framed); Nicole Kelly in her studio photographed by William Mansfield
Fresh from her selection for the Salon des Refusés 2023 at S.H Ervin Gallery and recently exhibiting in Singapore, Nicole Kelly returns to Sydney with a new exhibition of work lingering between the essence of a subject and the experience of being.
Clouded by the romanticism of remembering, her paintings are imbued with experience captured in vibrant strokes of colour and with swift brushwork. Kelly’s works, informed by an interest in literature and the discipline of painting, cast moments of shared stillness in an atmosphere of light. She says of her works “my desire is to push painting beyond a surface likeness of any subject and into the realm of poetics”.
Winner of the prestigious Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship (2009) and the Hurford Hardwood Portrait Prize (2018), Kelly is well recognised for her landscape, portraiture and still life painting. She has undertaken residencies in France (2019, 2018, 2017, 2010) and Spain (2016) and has completed major public commissions for the Sutherland and St George Hospitals in Sydney. Her work has been selected for inclusion in the Lester Prize for Portraiture at the Art Gallery of WA (2019, 2018, 2017, 2015), Portia Geach Memorial Award (2021, 2020, 2019, 2015, 2014), Salon des Refusés (2023, 2020, 2019) and Wynne Prize at the Art Gallery of NSW (2015). Kelly’s work is held in the collections of the Moran Art Foundation and Lismore Regional Gallery, among others. She has also recently completed her Masters of Fine Art at the University of New South Wales researching contemporary painting and poetic literature.
HERMANNSBURG POTTERS EXPLORE LIVED HISTORY THROUGH THE CERAMIC MEDIUM
27 June – 20 July 24
Opening Celebration Thursday 4 July, 5 – 7pm
VOIGHT RATARA Five Stories of Country, terracotta and underglazes, 26 x 14 x 14 cm; The Hermannsburg Potters photographed by Bec Capp
The Hermannsburg Potters are a dedicated group of Western Arrarnta artists creating vibrant handmade ceramic pots that encompass collective and individually lived histories in their distinct Country. The exhibition will feature the men of the community following a workshop with ceramicist Billy Bain.
ILTJA NTJARRA MANY HANDS CREATE CONVERSATION OF LAND CONSERVATION THROUGH REPURPOSED ROAD SIGN PAINTINGS
27 June – 20 July 24
Opening Celebration Thursday 4 July, 5 – 7pm
REINHOLD INKAMALA Boxing Arras / Kangaroos, acrylic on repurposed road sign, 120 x 120 cm
We are delighted to present a new exhibition from Iltja Ntjarra Art Centre, following their exhibition with us in 2023, where the majority of works were acquired by the Powerhouse Museum.
Painting on repurposed road signs this unique and innovative body of work speaks to the way country is named and boundaries are drawn since colonisation. Whether used to direct traffic or to communicate specific rules, signs like these are crucial in governing our relationship to the land. In bright and arresting colours, they are used to convey laws and regulations across the continent. In the hands of the Iltja Ntjarra artists, their function is subverted to communicate important information relating to Country, its beauty, cultural practices and customary lore on traditional lands. Each sign has been painted with images of Country in the Hermansberg style. Alongside these beautiful images are messages that urge us to look after these precious lands for future generations, telling us that it is not something to be owned or taken advantage of for profit.
The Iltja Ntjarra artists' road signs featured in the 23rd Biennale of Sydney in 2022 and in 'Belonging / Tjoritjarinja' at Ngununggula in the Southern Highlands, 25 March - 21 May 2023. Their works have recently been acquired by the Murdoch University Art Collection as well as the Powerhouse Museum.
HIGHLY ACCLAIMED ARTIST BELINDA FOX
25 July – 10 August 24
Opening Celebration Thursday 25 July, 6 – 8pm
BELINDA FOX Lead the Way III (detail), watercolour, ink, acrylic spray, collage on board, 132.5 x 242.5 cm (framed); Belinda Fox in her studio photographed by Melinda Schawel
Following a major survey exhibition at Mildura Arts Centre, Belinda Fox presents a new exhibition of work in July.
Drawing from her virtuosic skills as a former Master Printer and fusing together profoundly personal and global concerns, Belinda Fox’s work lays bare the paradoxes endemic to contemporary human experience. Working in painting, drawing, glass, sculpture, printmaking and collaboration, Fox examines the volatility of our era, excavating the iridescent beauty that flickers below the shadowy surface of conflict and despair. Currently based in Melbourne, Fox presents us with a series in which beauty is a gateway into dense conceptual terrain patchworked with blackness and light, an ‘antidote’ to our polarised epoch; a bridge connecting us through a shared – albeit almost forgotten – humanity.
Forging an international career in Australia, USA, Europe, Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea and Jakarta, Fox has received several notable awards including the Paul Guest Drawing Prize (2010) and Burnie Print Prize (2007) and been a finalist in the Swan Hill Print & Drawing Award (2022, 2018, 2006, 2004) and Fremantle Art Prize (2007, 2006, 2003). Her work is held in major collections including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, National Gallery of Victoria, National Gallery of Australia, Manly Art Gallery & Museum, Queensland University of Technology Art Museum, Artbank, Fremantle Arts Centre, Print Council Of Australia, Swan Hill Regional Gallery and Wollongong University.
NGV TRIENNIAL ARTIST JOSHUA YELDHAM
29 August – 14 September 24
Opening Celebration Thursday 29 August, 6 – 8pm
JOSHUA YELDHAM Bougainvillea Owl (detail), acrylic on hand-carved board, 246.5 x 201.5 cm (framed); Joshua Yeldham photographed by Jo Yeldham
Joshua Yeldham's work continues to inspire, and with the close of 2023, was announced as an artist in the National Gallery of Victoria's Triennial 2023 exhibiting work alongside Tracy Emin, Yoko Ono, Sheila Hicks and David Shrigley. In August 2024, Arthouse Gallery will present a new exhibition of work featuring paintings, carved photomedia, sculpture and ceramics.
Drawing from a deep observation and a reverential love of nature, Joshua Yeldham’s art practice forms a complex interplay between narrative and myth, imagination and experience. Through his highly symbolic visual vernacular, the artist takes us on an inward odyssey exploring the threads that weave cultural ideologies, philosophies and religions across East and West. Working across painting, kinetic and musical sculpture, carved works on paper and photography, Yeldham has developed a singular aesthetic that often conflates these various mediums.
Joshua Yeldham has exhibited widely throughout Australia and internationally. In 2017 he was awarded the renowned Nancy Fairfax Artist Residency at Tweed Regional Gallery & Margaret Olley Arts Centre, that culminated in a critically acclaimed survey exhibition. Yeldham has been a finalist in numerous prestigious awards including the Wynne Prize (2019, 2018, 2017, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2009), Archibald Prize (2013), Sulman Prize (2006, 1998) and Mosman Art Prize (2005, 2003) and in 2015 he participated in the London Art Fair, ART15. Yeldham’s work is held in many important collections including Mosman Art Gallery, Manly Art Gallery and Museum, Australian Stock Exchange, University of Wollongong and BHP Billiton Collection, as well as numerous private collections in Australia and overseas.
SYDNEY CONTEMPORARY ART FAIR
JOSHUA YELDHAM
Sydney Contemporary Art Fair
5 – 8 September 24
JOSHUA YELDHAM Yeomans Bay – Bird Rock (detail), acrylic & cane on hand-carved board, 202 x 246 cm (framed); Joshua Yeldham in his studio photographed by Jo Yeldham
Arthouse Gallery is delighted to announce that Joshua Yeldham will be our feature artist at Sydney Contemporary. Showcasing a second body of work following his exhibition at Arthouse Gallery in August, the works will be on display at Carriageworks from September 5– 8, 2024.
Major galleries take part across Australia and abroad with thousands of new artworks on display, it is the perfect place to discover, love and collect contemporary art.
NICOLA MOSS' DYNAMIC WORLD OF PAPER CUT-OUTS
21 September – 12 October 24
Opening Celebration Saturday 21 September, 3pm
NICOLA MOSS Forest Walk, acrylic and paper on linen, 171 x 171 cm (framed); Nicole Moss in her studio photographed by Ella May Fitzgerald
Len Fox prize finalist Nicola Moss explores the fragility of landscape through her stunning paintings composed of intricate paper cut outs at Arthouse Gallery in September.
Probing the intersection of politics and ecology Nicola Moss' collaged works highlight the importance of green spaces amid congested urban environments. Relying on an archive of papers coloured using paint, graphite, printmaking and various stains, Moss' materials travel with her as she explores the physical landscape. Impressions from tree bark frottage rubbings, for example, become collaged elements of her compositions. Framing nature as a source rather than a resource the artist highlights how intrinsic sustainable green spaces are to our well-being, both physical and mental.
Moss has exhibited throughout Australia, Japan, Sweden and the USA, was awarded the Moreton Bay Region Art Award (2012) and in 2019 was selected to participate in the artist in residence program at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica, Venice. She has been a finalist in numerous awards including the Len Fox Painting Prize (2022), John Leslie Art Prize (2020), Fisher’s Ghost Art Award (2019), STILL: National Still Life Award (2019) and Sunshine Coast Art Prize (2018, 2017, 2014). Her work is held in many important collections including the Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, Moreton Bay Region Art Collection, HOTA (Home of the Arts) and the Social Securities Appeals Tribunal, Brisbane.
DESERT ARTIST, WYNNE & SULMAN PRIZE FINALIST JO BERTINI
17 October – 9 November 24
Opening Celebration Thursday 17 October, 6 – 8pm
JO BERTINI Breath of the Last Wild River, iridescent pigments & oil on French polyester canvas, 203.5 x 203.5 cm (framed); Jo Bertini photographed by Thomas Studer
Critically acclaimed, multi-prize winning and well-loved artist Jo Bertini returns to Sydney from her home in New Mexico for an exciting exhibition exploring desert landscapes.
Bertini’s paintings are an exploration of the true nature of wilderness. Drawing from the traditions of artists on scientific and ecological survey expeditions into the most remote and inaccessible regions, Bertini celebrates her long and intimate engagement with the desert. Her work bears witness to natural and human histories of nomadism observing the seasonal rhythm of landscapes and the people connected to them. With loose yet refined brushwork, she finds a balance between simple and complex, rescuing beauty from desolate landscapes.
An award winning painter, educator and writer, she has thirty years of experience as a professional exhibiting artist. Her works are held in the collections of Artbank, National Museum of Australia and the National Portrait Gallery. Bertini has been a finalist in numerous art prizes, including the Portia Geach Memorial Award (2022, 2021, 2017, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2009, 2008, 2006, 2005, 2004), Wynne Prize (2015), Tattersalls Art Prize (2019, 2015, 2014), Calleen Art Award (2014, 2013), Mosman Art Prize (2023, 2014, 2013, 2011, 2007, 2006, 2004, 2002, 2001) and Sulman Prize (2011, 2010).
NORTHERN RIVERS ARTIST HOBIE PORTER
14 – 30 November 24
Opening Celebration Thursday 14 November, 6 – 8pm
HOBIE PORTER Looking Through the Angophoras (Berry Island) (detail), oil on polyester canvas, 166.5 x 86.5 cm (framed); Hobie Porter photographed by Justin Ealand
The fragility of the natural environment and the human impact on our climate is a topic that is defining our time, Hobie Porter's virtuosic landscapes explore this fraught subject in a new much anticipated exhibition at Arthouse Gallery in November.
Rendered with microscopically detailed trompe l’oeil, the paintings conjure the notion of environmental catharsis and transformation while, paradoxically, questioning the concept of sustainability and humanity’s intoxication by our own consumption. While exploring anthropogenic notions of loss and neglect, Porter’s paintings also poetically point towards transcendence and redemption.
Porter has exhibited nationally since 2004 with major exhibitions at Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery, Lismore Regional Gallery, Tweed Regional Gallery & Margaret Olley Arts Centre and in 2017 was invited to participate in the 'North Head Project' at the Manly Art Gallery & Museum. His work is held in numerous public collections, including Warrnambool Art Gallery, Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery, Tweed Regional Gallery & Margaret Olley Arts Centre, Mosman Art Gallery and Manly Art Gallery & Museum.
CELEBRATE 30 YEARS OF ARTHOUSE WITH US
5 – 21 December 24
Opening Celebration Thursday 5 December, 5 – 7
Over the past thirty years, Arthouse Gallery has established itself as one of the leading contemporary art galleries in Australia. Currently boasting over forty artists in their stable, the gallery is celebrating their 30th Anniversary in December with a major retrospective showcasing artists past and present.
