Look: contemporary Australian photography since 1980

Anne Marsh's massive new book Look: contemporary Australian photography since 1980 was launched last night at CCP. Look is 400 pages and includes hundreds of full-colour illustrations, all organised according to thematic chapters: identity, life, experiment, space and environment. Marsh has also written five short essays that elaborate the ideas used to organise the photographic illustrations. The essays provide a great context for the pictures, flagging the critical, curatorial and commercial factors that have helped shape recent Australian photographic practice. It's lush and perfect for xmas. Also, as with such surveys, it is great to go through and see how Marsh's selection of 190 artists and their photographs stacks up against your own wish list of great Australian photographs from the last 30 years!

New North exhibition: call for entries

After the success of their first gallery-curated exhibition Four elements: air, New North are asking for submissions for the second instalment in this series – Four elements: water. The exhibition will take place at the Fairfield gallery from 3 to 26 February 2010.

Four elements: water will explore the subject of water (of which Victorians have seen a lot lately!) in photography through the depiction of bodies of water (sea, lakes, rivers, puddles), clouds, atmospheric effects, wetness, condensation, environmental photography, as well as social or political commentary associated with water issues. Contact David (david@newnorth.com.au) or Micheal (michael@newnorth.com.au) for details.

Pinhole camera workshop

Pinhole camera workshop
12-4pm Saturday 27 November 2010

Want to give pinhole photography a shot? Heard about it but don't know where to start? Recently bought a Diana or a Holga with pinhole capability and want some tips?

David Tatnall will provide expert advice for beginners of all types wanting to give pinhole photography a go in this fun workshop. Tips and tricks from making an accurate pinhole, avoiding blank film, what to ask for at the lab to how to build your own or even convert a camera you already have.

Bring along your own pinhole if you have one, or there are a few different types available to purchase from SHOP@MGA or even just play with a borrowed one on the day.

Bookings Essential, limited places
$35 Friends of MGA
$40 General

Call 03 8544 0500 to book your place

About the presenter:
David Tatnall is well known for his masterful use of pinhole cameras to capture urban and natural landscapes. His runs intensive large format photography and pinhole classes where he guides you through the steps to build your own accurate camera at Gold Street Studios in Trentham East

Is Photography Global?

Panel Discussion
Wednesday, 1 December 2010, 6.15pm
What are the relations involved in the global production of photographs? In what ways are new technologies influencing, shaping or impinging on these relations? Does photography have a specific place in globalisation? Are some kinds of photography more global than others?

Is Photography Global? aims to begin an international conversation among critics, historians and practitioners of photography on global thinking within the discipline.

Paul James (Director of the Globalism Institute, RMIT), Natalie King (curator/ writer) and Matthew Sleeth (artist) will discuss issues around the global production, distribution and local reception of photographs. Led by David Bate (University of Westminster, London) and Daniel Palmer (Monash University, Melbourne).

Centre for Contemporary Photography
404 George Street Fitzroy Victoria 3065 Australia
t +61 3 9417 1549 w www.ccp.org.au

image:
‘The Blue Marble’ — Earth seen from
Apollo 17, 1972.
NASA/courtesy of nasaimages.org

The past, present and future of photography

Have a spare 15 minutes? Fill your ears with a discussion of the past, present and future of photography. SFMOMA (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art), guided by their upcoming exhibitions and a fascinating forum from earlier this year, ask the question 'Is photography over?'.

You can watch and listen along here.

SFMOMA is currently showing two photography focused exhibitions: Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance, and the Camera Since 1870 and Henri Cartier-Bresson: The modern century

New North Photography Prize

The New North Prize for Photography is announced tomorrow night at the New North Gallery at 15A Railway Place, Fairfield. This is the second year of the prize, which has three categories: open, student and portrait. The winner of the open category gets to stage an exhibition at New North next year, with $2500 worth of printing included. Entries were received from a broad range of photographers and there are some great pictures on show. Be at New North at 6pm to hear the announcement.

Alfred Gregory at Source Photographica

From Everest to Blackpool, by Alfred Gregory
Exhibition: 8th - 29th October 2010
Tuesday - Sunday 11am – 5pm
Source Photographica
1A Rose St, Brighton VIC 3186
T:03 05306059

On June 2nd, 1953 the world heard that the peak of Mt Everest had finally been reached. It was a British - led team that made it to the summit of the world's highest mountain, and images of the triumphant Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were flashed around the world.

Those pictures were taken by Alfred ‘Greg’ Gregory, the expedition's official stills photographer, and constitute part of a an exhibition of his work at Source Photographica until 29 October 2010. The show contains many images held in the MGA collection

GREGORY, Alfred Everest First Ascent 1953: Tom Stobart, 2005.
Gelatin Silver Photograph. Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection

Hijacked Artists featured online

Flak Photo is a daily photography website that celebrates the art & culture of photography online. It's all about discovering and promoting photographers from around the world. Published six days a week by one-man-band Andy Adams in his "spare time" no less.

While they've just finished featuring works by 20 of the photographers from Hijacked 2: Australia/Germany each weekday for the last month, that's not the only reason to check them out.

They also accept submissions to be featured on the site - so to those photographers out there looking for some international exposure, this might be your opportunity.

- Stephanie

Li Gang's artist talk today

Exhibiting artist Li Gang and exhibition curator Tony Trembath both joined us this morning to discuss their exhibition Li Gang: in the grey scale (on display until 28 November 2010).

We recorded the talk and hope to have it up on our website later today for those of you who couldn't make it along.

- Stephanie

Lee Grant wins the 2010 Bowness Photography Prize

Canberra photographer Lee Grant has won this year's prestigious $25 000 William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize at Monash Gallery of Art in Melbourne.

Lee Grant's family portrait Mary with her daughters Aja and Adau, and her granddaughter Nankir is a formal portrait of a Sudanese migrant family set in their home in Canberra.

Established in 2006 to promote excellence in photography, the annual non-acquisitive William & Winifred Bowness Photography Prize is an initative of the MGA Foundation. It has quickly become Australia's most important photogaphy prize.

Works by Philip Quirk, Clare Rae and Darren Sylvester received Adobe Honourable Mentions

34 artists have been shortlisted as finalists in the 2010 prize. All 34 works are on display in the exhibition (see them online here).

Get involved by voting in the People's Choice award, with $1000 going to the winning artist and four Crumpler Camera bags up for grabs for the voter.

For more information on this year's prize as well as it's history check out MGA's website

2010 Bowness Photography Prize judging in progress...

The 2010 William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize is being judged today. Curator Gael Newton, photographer Max Pam and MGA Director Shaune Lakin have been deliberating over the winner of $25 000 for the last 5 hours!

Announcement of the winner and three Adobe Honourable Mentions will take place at MGA tomorrow night at 7.30pm. Also voting will open tomorrow for the Crumpler People's Choice Award. Voters go into the draw to win three Crumpler Camera Bags and the winning artist walks away with $1 000 thanks to the MGA Foundation.

-Katie

CCP Lecture Series, Wed 15 September 2010

Dr Penny Edmonds, historian at The University of Melbourne and Dr Jane Lyndon, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies, Monash University will be discussing issues of Indigenous sovereignty and rights through colonial photography and performances in a free lecture at the Centre for Contemporary Photography, 404 George Street Fitzroy, tomorrow night, Wednesday 15 September 6.15pm.

For more information contact CCP on 9417 1549 or info@ccp.org.au

Amanda Thornton

PHOTOGRAPHY AND THE RETURN OF THE DEAD

PHOTOGRAPHY AND THE RETURN OF THE DEAD
3.00pm Saturday 14 August 2010 FREE EVENT
Bookings preferred mga@monash.vic.gov.au or call 03 8544 0500

Join prominent photographic artists ANNE FERRAN and ROD McNICOL and well-known curator and writer HELEN ENNIS as they discuss photography's ability to keep the past alive.

Contemporary culture is obsessed with keeping the dead alive. While vampires and zombies were once the mainstay of horror films and literature, the success of Buffy and more recently the Twilight saga suggest our collective fascination with the undead has reached phenomenal proportions.

Photography is also preoccupied with the undead: it keeps the past alive, in the form of a magical, silvery image. As part of its latest exhibition Living deadly: haunted surfaces and contemporary art, MGA is hosting a panel discussion on photography’s ability to keep the past alive.

image: Rod McNICOL Untitled 1–20 from the series Memento mori 2002–3
20 pigment ink-jet prints on cotton paper 2010
courtesy of the artist and Place Gallery, Melbourne

Barbara Oehring wins Most Dramatic Image

MGA Friend Barbara Oehring took out the LEXAR MOST DRAMATIC IMAGE prize at CCP 2010 Kodak Salon for her photograph Sleep in Fright. Barbara wins a Sony DCR SX40Silver Handycam & Lexar Card Pack $1427. Check out the show until 25 September 2010

Nan Goldin at Heide

Heide's current exhibition Up close: Carol Jerrems with Larry Clark, Nan Goldin and William Yang argues that photography offers a means to engage with and give a picture to "subculture". In this way, the exhibition signposts the political and ethnographic preoccupations of certain photographers of the 1960s-80s.

Aside from the excellent survey of Jerrem's work, the exhibition provides a great opportunity to see Goldin's keystone work The ballad of sexual dependency. Goldin first began showing this slide show with soundtrack to friends - invariably the subject of the photographs - at venues around New York City in the late 1970s. At Heide, it is seen in extended and somewhat updated form. The slide show runs for over an hour and has to be viewed in full. Even if not you're enamoured with Goldin's refusal of technical virtuosity, it's impossible not to be affected by the work's melancholia and intimacy.

Jerrems at MGA and Heide

There are two great opportunities in Melbourne at the moment to consider the significant legacy of one of the city's most important photographers Carol Jerrems (1949-80). A large survey of Jerrems' photographs opened yesterday at Heide Museum of Modern Art. Up close: Carol Jerrems with Larry Clark, Nan Goldin and William Yang draws on a range of public and private collections to build a convincing picture of Jerrems as a great photographer whose work engaged keenly with the politics and style of Melbourne's avant-garde during the 1970s. MGA is showing a series of pictures made recently by Lyndal Walker and Concettina Inserra that draw on the legacy of Jerrems, Taking pictures some time later.

The series presents portraits of Walker and Inserra's milieu, each holding a print of their earlier photograph "Pole Street" (2000), which restages Jerrems' most famous picture "Vale Street" (1975). Also included is a 1976 photograph of Jerrems' friend Juliet holding a print of "Vale Street", itself the point of origin for Walker and Inserra's recent series. We get a clear sense of the influence of Jerrems for later generations of artists. Lyndal and Tina's photographs also suggest that the gender and sexual politics indicated in Jerrems' work, with the hopes it placed in cultural practice as a driver for social reform, remains a work in progress.

Shaune

Bill Henson lectures

Today's Sunday Age has a report on eminent artist Bill Henson's lecture to be delivered tomorrow (Monday 2 August) at BMW Edge, Federation Square. The article suggests this is Bill's first public talk since the controversy over his work two years ago. That's not quite true: Bill spoke at MGA on 29 September last year, when he answered questions from the crowd, some of which touched on the controversy. Bill will again speak to MGA visitors on 12 August.

Shaune

Opening tonight - The Substation

SUB12 series two: opening Friday 30 July 2010 6-8pm.
exhibition dates: 30 July - 22 August 2010

SUB12 is The Substation's major contemporary visual arts program and is a series of three exhibitions featuring the works of some of Melbourne’s newest and brightest visual art makers.

SUB12 runs from 2 July through to 19 September, and is supported by Hobsons Bay City Council.

Officially launched by Cr Bill Tehan, Mayor of Hobsons Bay

Artists in series 2: Bonnie Lane, Brendan Lee, Dead Pan, Tully Moore, Julie Shiels, Kate Daw, Luke Pither

A most powerful transformative experience

Congratulations to Peter Ryan for his win at last night’s CCP 2010 Kodak Salon Awards.

Peter’s work Keeping me from infinitywas considered the ‘Most powerful transformative experience’. Quite the commendation!

For the last four weeks Peter has been running our teen photography workshops in conjunction with Monash Public Library service.

The Salon is on display 30 July – 25 September 2010 so go and check out Peter’s winning work.

Stephanie

Fontaine de Vaucluse

Robyn Stacey's wonderful Fontaine de Vaucluse 2009 from Empire Line series is featured on MGA's 3 x 4.5 metre billboard at the corner of Jells Rd and Ferntree Gully Rd, Wheelers Hill.

Robyn is one of nine artists in Living deadly: haunted surfaces in contemporary art at MGA from 21 July to 19 September 2010. Living deadly will be opened on Saturday 24 July, 3.00pm by Djon Mundine OAM, Indigenous Curator - Contemporary Art, Campbelltown Arts centre. All welcome.

Mark Hislop

Banned books in Australia

The current exhibition at the Baillieu Library at the University of Melbourne (To Deprave and Corrupt: Forbidden, Hidden and Censored Books, 7 June-29 August, 2010) explores "banned books" and censorship in Australia. Associate Professor Robert Nelson (Associate Dean, Art & Design , Monash University) is talking on the Henson & Serrano affairs on Thursday 12 August. Also on the bill is Dr Philip Nitschke and Dr Donald McDonald.
http://www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/collections/special/exhibitions/bannedbooks/

Amanda

Limited places still available!

Our upcoming four-part course An armchair guide to contemporary Aboriginal art with Susan McCulloch & Emily McCulloch Childs kicks off next Thursday and will provide an in-depth and insightful introduction to contemporary Aboriginal art for the beginner, enthusiast and collector.

Get in early and purchase the full series ticket to receive a complimentary copy of the best-selling book McCulloch's Contemporary Aboriginal Art: the complete guide.

Full series subscriptions are just $135 General public/ $115 Friends of MGA
Individual sessions are $35 General/ $30 Friends of MGA

Call MGA 03 8544 0500 to book and head here for session descriptions.

Prepare to be Hijacked!

Regular MGA visitors would recall last year’s exhibition Presentation/Representation: photography from Germany which featured, amongst the other nine contemporary German artists, the work of Heidi Specker.

During Presentation/Representation’s tour to Sydney, Heidi Specker and Theo Deutinger worked together as part of an artist-in-residence project at the Sydney College of the Arts. The resulting body of work ‘Help me I am blind’ is being displayed at RMIT Gallery from 23 July–11 September 2010.

Which is just enough time to whet your appetite for some more German-Australian photographic connections. Coming to MGA at the end of October is Hijacked 2 Australia/Germany. Combining the work of 32 German and Australian photographers the book and exhibition provide an opportunity for cross-cultural conversations.

The Melbourne leg of Hijacked 2 will open at MGA on Sat 30 October 2010 and features a number of MGA Collection artists including Georgia Metaxas, Rebecca Ann Hobbs and Polixeni Papapetrou alongside some photographers whose work would be familiar from past MGA exhibitions both solo and as part of the William & Winifred Bowness Photography Prize: Louis Porter, Bronek Kozka and Michael Corridore.

Image: Heidi SPECKER D'ELSI Eis 1-3 2007, Digital Fine Art Print courtesy of the artist

Anne Zahalka: The way things appear

Winter is a good time for exhibitions throughout Melbourne. It can be easy to miss them though as the cold days and even colder nights tend to keep us locked up in our homes and offices with heaters blasting. And it seems much easier to read about them in the paper or visit their websites instead.

I was glad I ventured into the city on Tuesday night to attend the opening of a new exhibition by one of MGA’s prominent collection artists, Anne Zahalka. Her exhibition, The way things appear, examines the relationship between art, its spaces and its audiences. Stemming from Zahalka’s interest in tourist sites and the way they are seen by tourists, the photographs in this exhibition depict artworks on the walls of international art galleries and viewers interacting with them.

The way things appear is on at Arc One in Flinders Lane until 24 July.

Stella Loftus-Hills

MGA exhibition nominated for Prix Pictet

Paul Dunn’s exhibition Imagined Communities, originally exhibited at MGA in 2009, has been successfully nominated for consideration by the judges of this year’s Prix Pictet.

Sponsored by the Geneva-based private bank Pictet & Cie, the Prix Pictet is the world’s first prize dedicated to photography and sustainability. It has a unique mandate – to use the power of photography to communicate crucial messages to a global audience. The theme of this year’s prize is Growth, which resonates strongly with Dunn’s interest in the ‘growth corridors’ of Australian cities.

Christian Thompson Survey Show

Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi has just slipped this survey show into its program, after something else fell through, but it's an inspired 'filler' - not to be missed!

"Christian Bumbarra Thompson, a Bidjara man of the Kunja Nation, is a photographer, conceptual and performance artist. He is a third wave Indigenous Australian artist whose work and unique experience come from an emersion in the social and cultural zeitgeist of the 80s and 90s as an Aboriginal person. His work is a leading force in the exploration of issues of identity, race and history in Australia. In 2009 Thompson completed a DASARTS residency (Advanced Studies for Performing Arts) in Amsterdam and a residency at The Centre for Future Art Research at Arizona State University, USA. He will be the first Aboriginal person to attend Oxford University after recently being awarded the inaugural Charlie Perkins Scholarship for International post-graduate studies and will undertake a residency at Blast Theory Art Collective in the UK in August 2010. This survey show brings together photographic and video work from the last 10 years of Christian Thompson’s impressive career." (Press release)

-Stephen Zagala

Georgia Metaxas

Georgia's new and improved website is worth a look. As a so-called 'straight' documentary photographer, her work is often understated. But, bit by bit, her practice has developed a remarkable gravity that is quite striking when viewed as a whole. She's currently working on a new series of portraits, and looking for subjects, so help her out if you can. And she'll be one of the artists featured in HIJACKED 2 - AUSTRALIA/GERMANY, on show at MGA, 28 Oct 2010-16 Jan 2011.
-Stephen Zagala

The real meaning of engagement

When was the last time you were truly engaged with an exhibition? I mean in a receptive, timeless and selfless state of wilful, absolute involvement of mind and emotion?
If you’ve visited MGA recently, chances are this has happened to you. It’s been apparent over the past weeks that visitors to Icon & archive: photography and the world wars are not ‘seeing’ the exhibition—they’re experiencing it!
Amanda

Bring In Your Memorabilia Day

They came alone, in pairs and in groups, some nervous and others unsure if their questions could be answered, but also proud of their family-member’s contribution during times of war. Gently, they carried softly yellowing photographs, medals hanging from a rainbow of ribbons and hand-written letters, postcards and diaries from fathers, uncles and grand-fathers, barely legible through the passage of time.

These personal treasures and their caretakers made their way to MGA last Saturday for a very special event: four experts from the Australian War Memorial in Canberra had come to visit for Bring In Your Memorabilia Day.

For four hours Kate Dethridge, Curator of Photographs; Dianne Rutherford, Acting Curator, Military Heraldry & Technology; Helen Butler, Conservator, Paper & Photographs and Dr Karl James, Historian provided advice to over 140 visitors.

The age, origin and significance of the treasures were common queries with some visitors having only recently discovered photographs that had been hidden away. For many, their items were in need of care and they left armed with tips and suggestions to ensure their preservation for future generations. Some came away with a sense of relief, their queries answered, others with yet more questions.

MGA would like to extend its thanks to Kate, Dianne, Helen and Karl for their time and expertise, the Australian War Memorial and also the Department of Veterans’ Affairs Commemorations Program for their generous funding and support of the day.

Whilst there is just six weeks remaining to see Icon & archive: photography & the World Wars there are plenty more events to come, check out our events calendar for more details.

Image:
Kate Dethridge & Dr Karl James provide advice to gallery visitors
© Monash Gallery of Art 2010 photo: Stephanie Richter

$25 000 Bowness Photography Prize: 4 weeks to deadline

Photographers from across the country have 4 weeks left to enter one of Australia’s richest art prizes.

This year the first prize is $25 000 (non-acqisitive) with an additional $1 000 People’s choice award.

Entries close 30 June and photographers will need to complete an entry form available from our website: http://www.mga.org.au/bowness-prize/entry

The Bowness Photography Prize attracts a range of work from photographers across the country. There are no thematic restrictions and the competition is open to all analogue and digital photography.

Entries this year are coming in from a broad cross section of photographers - ranging from documentary photographers to fashion and nature photographers, as well as strong representation from contemporary artists.

The winner of the 2010 Bowness Photography Prize and Honourable Mentions will be announced on Thursday 23 September 2010 during a cocktail party held at MGA.

A visit to Sydney

A trip to Sydney over the next few months can include a feast of contemporary art at the 17th Biennale of Sydney, The beauty of distance: songs of survival in a precarious age.

The Biennale includes a broad range of artworks by Australian and international contemporary artists. The works are displayed in seven venues throughout Sydney, with its primary sites being the Museum of Contemporary Art and Cockatoo Island.

Amongst the diverse array of art forms and media in this year’s Biennale are some photographic works. For instance, the first room on the ground floor of MCA is taken over by a large installation of photographs by Sun Yuan and Peng Yu from China. Their work, Hong Kong intervention 2009 is a project in which the two artists invited 100 Filipino domestic workers to take a toy grenade and photograph it in their favourite spot at their workplace. These photographs are displayed alongside back-view portraits of the participants. The photographs are presented in a grid that extends almost to the top of each of the tall walls in this space.

A number of Roger Ballen’s photographs are on display in the convict precinct of Cockatoo Island. The run-down building that houses them is an eerie setting for Ballen’s surreal and disturbing images. Ballen’s Biennale display includes a selection of his documentary works as well as his staged compositions, some of which were included in the exhibition of his photographs at MGA last year. Along with his Biennale installation, Ballen’s Boarding House series is showing at Stills Gallery in Sydney until 29 May.

Yvonne Todd’s photographic portraits are also displayed in the convict precinct of Cockatoo Island and take over an entire cottage. They are not hung on every wall of the old and deserted building or grouped together in a straight hang. Instead they are scattered around on different walls as if they were family portraits hung in a domestic setting. Todd’s photographs draw on the conventions of traditional portraiture and require a second glance in order to note their strange and unsettling qualities. The unnatural and eerie nature of Todd’s portraits is accentuated in this setting on the Island.

Hiroshi Sugimoto’s installation, Faraday Cage 2010 includes black and white light boxes from his series Lighting fields and is based on his recent photographic experiments into the imaging of static electricity on large-format film. The installation was conceived specifically for Cockatoo Island’s abandoned Power House.

The Biennale also includes works by some of MGA’s collection artists including Christian Thompson and Brook Andrew.

Also in Sydney for the next few weeks is Bill Henson’s latest exhibition at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in Paddington. It is a series of large photographs that juxtaposes sublime images of seas, waterfalls, skies, ancient ruins, statues and a female model. It is definitely worth a visit and will be on display until 2 June.

Stella Loftus-Hills

Image:
Cai Guo-Qiang
Inopportune: Stage One 2004 (detail)
Collection of Seattle Art Museum, Gift of Robert M. Arnold, in honour of the 75th Anniversary of the Seattle Art Museum, 2006
Courtesy Cai Studio
The presentation of this project was made possible with the assistance from Shiseido

Contemporary Indigenous photography at Horsham Regional Art Gallery

Adam Harding and Danielle Smelter have over the last year added a number of key works by Indigenous photographers to the Horsham Regional Art Gallery's exceptional collection of photographs. Photographs by Tony Albert and Fiona Foley recently joined pictures held in the collection by Ricky Maynard, Leah King-Smith, Darren Siwes and Brook Andrew. These photographs – alongside a work by Destiny Deacon on loan from a private collection – were until recently on display at the gallery in a wonderful, concise show that clearly demonstrates the strength of a collection rarely seen outside of the Wimmera.

Contemporary Indigenous photography demonstrated some of the ways Indigenous photographers have interrogated some of the myths of contemporary Australia. A range of strategies – humour, doubling or mirroring, shock – are seen throughout the work to meet this end. Many of us are now familiar with these strategies and their effectiveness – the idea that dominant images can be critically unpacked by drawing attention to the pictorial and visual codes used historically to produce and/or circulate myths.

But this little exhibition had a certain power because of its location. Who knew that Horsham had, for some time now, been putting together a sub-collection of pictures by contemporary Indigenous photographers? Like many prosperous regional centres, Horsham – and the Wimmera more broadly – has a troubled Indigenous history. My experience of the area during the seventies and eighties is of a place without Indigenous presence; the exceptions were a few references to the local Jaadwa people in placenames like Jardwa Park and Jardwa Court. We couldn't even spell it correctly. Although a few, very proud Indigenous families lived in the town, it was possible to live in Horsham and not encounter Indigenous people at all.

It's a different place now. The Goolum Goolum Aboriginal Coorperative and the Barengi Gadjin Land Council are both highly visible, and the municipal authority is also doing its bit to reconcile the region's settlement history. And all the while, under the astute leadership of Merle Hathaway and now Adam Harding, the gallery has been compiling a series of photographs that can assist this process further. I don’t want to sound like photography needs to play a grand social or historic role to be of use; but I can see how this show might have made a real difference to the Wimmera people lucky enough to have seen it.

Shaune Lakin

image: Tony Albert, Omptimism 8 2008, Type C print, 80 x 80cm, purchased through the Horsham Art Gallery Trust Fund, 2009

On 'Art Nation' this Sunday

For those who can't make a trip up to the Museum of Sydney to catch Up the cross: Rennie Ellis & Wesley Stacey, the exhibition will feature this Sunday on ABC's Art Nation (formerly Sunday Arts) including interviews with Inara Walden. 'Sir' Wayne Martin & Carmen.

Art Nation is on this Sunday at 5.30pm - ABC1 and 7.00pm - ABC2

Up the cross: Rennie Ellis & Wesley Stacey currently on display at Museum of Sydney explores the 'summer of 1970-71 in Kings Cross through the photographs of Rennie Ellis and Wesley Stacey, who together captured the sights, sounds and pulsating rhythms of life on the streets and in the clubs and private pads of Sydney's infamous red-light district.'

Art chats at McClelland Gallery

11am Thursday 13 May 2010
Guest speaker: Dr Shaune Lakin, Director Monsah Gallery of Art
Download pdf

2010 William & Winifred Bowness Photography Prize

The MGA Foundation will once again showcase the work of Australia's best photographers in Australia's most coveted photography award. Photographers from all over Australia are encouraged to submit entries to this year's Bowness Photography Prize. Each year, finalists are drawn from the breadth of Australian photographic practice: editorial, commercial, street and fine art.

Photographers will be competing for $25,000 first prize (non-acquisitive) and $1,000 People's Choice Award.

This year's entries will be judged by Gael Newton, Senior Curator of Photographs, National Gallery of Victoria, Max Pam, Australian photographer, and Shaune Lakin, Director of MGA.

Visit www.mga.org.au/bowness-prize for more information on how to submit entries.

Coming up at MGA in March & April

Continuing throughout March & April is our PASIFIKA season and focus on Sustainability & the Arts.

Download our events calendar for all the details - we hope to see you at MGA soon!

http://mga.org.au/events/MGA_EVENTS_MarchApril.pdf

Talking Tapa: Pasifika Bark Cloth in Queensland

Special Exhibitions Gallery
12 February - 11 April 2010

This exhibition offers an opportunity to view traditional and contemporary Pasifika design and to learn more about Australia's Pacific neighbours and migrant communities. Talking Tapa comes to MGA from Brisbane Multicultural Arts Centre and details the rich cultural heritage of tapa cloth. As well as being astonishingly beautiful, tapa holds great social, symbolic and practical value for many island nations of the South-West pacific.

Photograph: installation (c) MGA 2010

Sneak Peek! Exhibitions opening this weekend

Installation is underway for TALKING TAPA: Pasifika barkcloth in Queensland

and Kiribati: putting a face to climate change (photographs by Jon Lewis)

Opening celebrations are this Saturday 13 February at 3pm - hope to see you there!

Current exhibitions

Come spend a couple of hours at MGA, it's free!

Currently exhibiting:

Building as muse: the creative collaboration of Max Dupain and Harry Seilder (ends 7/2/2010)

Paul Dunn: imagined communities (ends 7/2/2010)

Robert Ashton: photographs from the edge (ends 24/01/2010)

Photograph: install of Building as muse