Julie Mehretu working on a copper plate for Epigraph, Damascus at Borch Editions in Copenhagen, 2015.
Julie Mehretu’s processes and practice are located within a fascinating complexity of influences and networks. In this article for Imprint magazine, the Australian Print Council’s quarterly publication, I wrote about Mehretu’s recent exhibition at Palazzo Grassi in Venice.
Titled ‘Ensemble’, the exhibition was a survey that spanned twenty-five years of Mehretu’s practice, shown alongside the work of Nairy Baghramian, Huma Bhabha, Tacita Dean, David Hammons, Robin Cost Lewis, Paul Pfeiffer and Jessica Rankin.
After 33 years of exhibiting art from the Canberra region and beyond, Susie and Martin Beaver of Beaver Galleries have retired and closed their gallery.
I was so fortunate to have my work represented by them for the last 23 years. I value the numerous opportunities that exhibiting regularly and being a part of their stable have offered me, from the very earliest days of my career – my first exhibition at Beaver Galleries was in 2001, to the last exhibition in mid 2024.
Beaver Galleries team, pictured from left to right: Emma, Susie, Martin and Sienna.
Here are a few images from some of the exhibitions over the years in the lovely exhibition spaces. I wish all the best to the Beaver Galleries team with their future adventures.
Installation view, 2006 Exhibition, ‘Kirrily Hammond, Painting, Prints & Drawings’
Installation view, 2011 Exhibition, ‘There is a light that never goes out’
I’m currently working towards two exhibitions in Australia featuring a range of recent paintings and prints.
The first opens 6pm, 18 April 2024 at Alexandra Sasse Gallery in Melbourne. This will be a duo exhibition with Maryanne Wick and runs until 11 May.
The second opens 2 May 2024 at Beaver Galleries in Canberra, and runs until 18 May. I’ve been represented by Beaver Galleries for over 20 years, and this will be my seventh solo exhibition with the gallery.
I can’t wait to travel back to Australia to be there for the openings!
Lisbon Courtyard 2023 Misty Lake 2023Fanø II 2021Flight 2022
I recently wrote an article for Imprint magazine about Geography Biography, an exhibition of new work by Tacita Dean at the Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection, Paris. The exhibition explored slow time in relation to the seasons and our own shifting landscapes through the mediums of film, photography, drawing, collage and printmaking.
The title work of the exhibition, Geography Biography (2023) was a 35 mm diptych film presented in a circular pavilion in the centre of Bourse de Commerce. Comprised of images from 20th century postcards from various parts of the world, and outtakes from her own films dating from her early days as an art student to the present, the work offered fragments of the life and memory of the artist, and according to Dean, it was an “accidental self portrait”. Also featured in the exhibition was the majestic chalk drawing on blackboard, The Wreck of Hope 2022, and Sakura (Jindai I) 2023, a photograph of a centuries old sacred Japanese cherry tree, with a hand-coloured background.
Tacita Dean, The Wreck of Hope, 2022, Photo: Florent MichelView of Tacita Dean’s exhibition, Geography Biography, Bourse de Commerce, 2023. Photo: Aurélien MoleTacita Dean, Sakura (Jindai I), 2023 Photo: Aurélien Mole
The Summer edition of the Australian magazine Imprint features my article titled Memory Itself, with the image on the cover of the Bourse de Commerce circular pavilion designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando. The article investigates the process and story behind the works in the exhibition, with a focus on a series of four prints titled Telomere, which were produced at BORCH Editions in Copenhagen.
Some exciting news – Alexandra Sasse Gallery will now be representing my work in Melbourne, Australia.
Alexandra Sasse Gallery is located in a Victorian mansion in Kew and represents a group of contemporary Australian artists who have decades of peer reviewed practice and whose work is collected by state and regional galleries. They include Jane Chandler, Elizabeth Cross, Simon Deere, Mark Dober, Rachel Ellis, Dianne Emery, David Hamilton, Sallie Moffatt, Evan Salmon, Alexandra Sasse, John Scurry and Melody Spangaro.
For further information, please visit the gallery’s website where you’ll find my artist profile and a link to my cv.
I’ve started work for my first exhibition at Alexandra Sasse Gallery in October 2023.
In the meantime, if you are in the Victorian region, enquiries about available works can be made to Alexandra via her website or [email protected].
Enquiries from Canberra and the ACT region can continue via my other Australian representative gallery Beaver Galleries.
David Noonan, Untitled 1 2008 screen printed jute and linen collage Michael Buxton Collection, Melbourne
Theexhibition The Devil had a Daughter was curated by Kirrily Hammond and reflected an enduring fascination for allegorical, theatrical and macabre representations apparent throughout the history of printmaking. Drawing upon various forms of print-media such as architectural installations, the artist’s book, performative works, found print-media, as well as longer standing print traditions, The Devil had a Daughter opened up the definition of ‘printmaking’ towards an expanded understanding of the role and form of print-media in contemporary art.
Featuring the work of Jason Greig, Stuart Ringholt, Sally Smart, Dylan Martorell, Pat Brassington, Mike Parr, Tony Garifalakis, Petr Herel and David Noonan, the exhibition was timed to coincide with IMPACT 7, the International Multi-disciplinary Printmaking Conference to be held at Monash University from 27-30 September 2011.
Download a pdf of the catalogue here.
Sally Smart, In her nature (Performativities) 2011, installation view MUMA
Ronnie van Hout, Doom and gloom 2009 (detail) Painted plastic, clothing, painted fibreglass on polystyrene, modelling clay, synthetic hair., Monash University Collection
MUMA exhibition Self-Conscious: Contemporary Portraiture, allows us to dwell on one of the most fascinating subjects – ourselves. The act of self reflection, and the study of others, can be fraught, humorous and enlightening, whilst also revealing artistic processes and modes of philosophical address, laid bare in the work of art.
Featuring a range of works drawn from the Monash University Collection, this exhibition explores the many ways in which artists approach contemporary portraiture and represent different modes of identity. Artists include Fiona McMonagle, David Rosetzky, Mutlu Çerkez, Ronnie van Hout, Mike Parr, Matthew Griffin, Simryn Gill, James Lynch, Linda Marrinon and Eliza Hutchison.
Download installation images here
Matthew Griffin, still from Work for the dole 2008
Switchback Gallery, Monash University Gippsland Campus
14 April – 13 May 2010
Mira Gojak, From the outside to the outside 2009 epoxy paint on wire, steel and copper, Monash University Collection
The dynamic spiralling forms of Mira Gojak’s sculptures and drawings are poetic evocations of the creative process. In this Gippsland exhibition MUMA presents three distinct bodies of work by Mira Gojak drawn from the Monash University Collection.
Richard Lewer, Final school map 2004 acrylic on map
Richard Lewer: Nobody likes a show off is a solo exhibition of work by Melbourne-based, New Zealand artist, Richard Lewer. It encompasses the scope of this artist’s practice, including painting, drawing, animation, installation and performance. Marked by a sceptical humour and a focus upon the darker sides of human behaviour, place and social identity, Lewer’s work involves close observation and highly subjective encounters with family, religious, sport and criminal subjects, leading to insightful and absurd narrative reflections on good and evil, life and mortality. Curated by Kirrily Hammond, this survey exhibition features keys works from public and private collections in Australia and New Zealand.
Richard Lewer, Pegboard confessions 2009 acrylic on pegboard
Switchback Gallery, Gippsland Centre for Art and Design, Monash University
10 Sept – 9 Oct 2008
Moya McKenna, Come and go 2005, still from Super 8 film
Revelling in the freedom of artistic invention, and drawing on a myriad of sources including literature, art history and the fantastic, the works in Fictions suspend our everyday realities, prompting contemplation of the nature of creativity and imagination. Curated by Kirrily Hammond, this exhibition features a wide range of works from the Monash University Collection and selected loans, including work by Andrea Blundell, Guy Benfield, Nadine Christensen, Peter Ellis, Julia Gorman, Gracia Haby, Gregory Harrison, Petr Herel, Philip Hunter, Louise Jennison, Matthew Johnson, Sarina Lirosi, Nick Mangan, Moya McKenna, James Morrison, David Noonan, Geoffrey Ricardo, Leah Schnaars, Nick Stephenson, Ruth Waller and Louise Weaver.
Switchback Gallery, Gippsland Centre for Art & Design, Monash University
17 May – 22 June 2006
Nicola Loder, Child 5, detail from the series, Child 1-175 1996, silver gelatin photographic print
Emerging from the Romantic and Symbolist traditions, the evocative and enigmatic works in Reverie present alternative realms where the imagination is allowed free reign.
Drawn together from the Monash University Collection, the works in this exhibition share an ambiguity of form and meaning that relies on the viewer’s intuition to decipher and interpret.
Artists: Charles Blackman, Lynne Boyd, Peter Graham, Graeme Hare, Siri Hayes, Louise Hearman, Nicola Loder, Rosslynd Piggott and Ronnie Van Hout
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 14 August – 5 December 2004
Roy Lichtenstein, Spray can 1963, catalogue cover, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2004
An exhibition that showcased the Pop print collection of the National Gallery of Victoria,15 Minutes of Fame: 20 Years of Pop Printsfeatured the work of Peter Blake, Patrick Caulfield, Jim Dine, Richard Hamilton, David Hockney, Jasper Johns, Allen Jones, R.B. Kitaj, Roy Lichtenstein, Don Nice, Clæs Oldenburg, Eduardo Paolozzi, Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist, Joe Tilson, Andy Warhol and Tom Wesselmann.
Curator: Kirrily Hammond
Eduardo PaolozziPeter Blake, David Hockney and Andy WarholRoy Lichtenstein, James Rosenquist and Joe TilsonAndy Warhol, Jim Dine and Jasper JohnsTom Wesselmann, Claes Oldenburg and Robert RauschenbergJames Rosenquist
