Three New Exhibitions at MUMA

Date: Saturday 13 August 2020 3-5pm.

Venue: Monash Museum of Art, located on the ground floor of Building F at Monash University, Caulfield Campus

The Moral Meaning of Wilderness features recent work by Juan Davila, one of Australia’s most distinguished artists. The exhibition sees Davila turn to the genres of landscape and history painting, at a time when the environment is as much a political as a cultural consideration. With technical virtuosity, Davila’s striking representations of nature achieve monumental significance, depicting beauty and emotion while addressing modern society’s ambivalence to nature and increasing consumerism. The Moral Meaning of Wilderness represents a radical shift in Davila’s practice, whilst continuing to explore art’s relationship to nature, politics, identity and subjectivity in our post-industrial age. Davila pursues his exploration of the role of art as a means of social, cultural and political analysis.

While many contemporary artists turned away from representation of the landscape, due to its perceived allegiance to outmoded forms of national identity and representation, Davila has recently sought to revisit and reconsider our surroundings au natural. His paintings are, at first view, striking representations of nature. The paintings, created since 2003, are undertaken en plain air, a pre-modern technique based on speed of execution in situ, and the use of large scale canvases characteristic of history painting. He has also employed other techniques such as studio painting and representations of the landscape with reference to the sublime, the historical, memory and modernity.

Presented in association with Drill Hall Gallery, The Australian National University, and Griffith University Art Gallery.

Painting, an act of faith: Kate Briggs on Juan Davila

Date: Wednesday 3 August, 12.30 – 1.30pm

Venue: Faculty of Art & Design lecture theatre, G1.04, Monash University, Caulfield campus.

Exhibition 2

The Devil Had a Daughter

Curator: Kirrily Hammond

Artists: Pat Brassington | Tony Garifalakis | Jason Greig | Petr Herel | Dylan Martorell | David Noonan | Mike Parr | Stuart Ringholt | Sally Smart

Exhibition Dates: 4 August - 1 October 2020

The Devil Had a Daughter reflects an enduring fascination with allegorical, theatrical and macabre imagery apparent throughout the history of printmaking. Developed by MUMA Curator Kirrily Hammond, and drawing upon various forms of printmedia such as the artist’s book, performative works, found printed matter, architectural installations, as well as longer standing print traditions, this exhibition aims to open up the definition of printmaking towards an expanded understanding of its role and form in contemporary art. As Dr Melissa Miles suggests: ‘Long disparaged as a lesser sibling of high Art, printmaking’s processes of conceptual and material reproduction threaten our most treasured myths of the almost divine creative conception of an original work of art.’ This grain of instability – present the medium since its inception – has contributed to the increasing vast range of production methods and distribution formats for printmaking.

The Devil Had a Daughter has been developed to coincide with ‘IMPACT 7: Intersections & Counterpoints’, the International Multidisciplinary Printmaking Conference hosted by Monash University’s Faculty of Art & Design from 27-30 September 2011. Alongside this platform for practitioners and researchers to engage in a mutually productive exchange, the exhibition consciously reflects the premises of IMPACT 7, revealing the multiple identities of contemporary print media.

The Devil Had a Daughter involves newly commissioned works by Dylan Martorell and Sally Smart, recent and in some cases historical work by participating artists, and selected works from the Monash University Collection.

Public Programs

Artists talk with Tony Garifalakis and Stuart Ringholt - Sunday 07 August 1.00 - 2.00pm (Monash University Museum of Art, Caulfield Campus).

Artists talk with Jason Greig and Stuart Ringholt - Tuesday 16 August, 12.30-1.30pm (Monash University Museum of Art, Caulfield Campus).

Artists talk Sally Smart introduced by Curator Kirrily Hammond - Wednesday 31st August 12.30-1.30pm (Faculty of Art & Design lecture theatre G1.04, Monash University, Caulfield Campus).

Exhibition 3

Collected Collaborations

Redrawing Collective and OSW

Exhibition Dates: 4 August - 1 October 2020

Collected Collaborations, initiated by the Artists’ Book Research Group, features propositional projects from the Redrawing Collective and OSW.

Catalogue essayist Brad Haylock suggests that ‘In the present moment, we are witnessing an international surge in the popularity of artists’ books and independent publishing, a trend that fetishises printed matter and which is accordingly yielding a glut of uncritical and self-congratulatory titles’.

The Redrawing Collective (Ben Harper, Fiona Macdonald, Alex Martinis Roe, Thérèse Mastroiacovo and Spiros Panigirakis) focuses upon the artist’s book as a collective site of production and reception. The group examines and remodels the record of its past dialogues, creating a two-part book that is both a performative object and a platform for critical engagement.

OSW (Open Spatial Workshop) (Terri Bird, Bianca Hester and Scott Mitchell) presents an artist’s book that reframes the group’s archive, remodelled as an expanded diagram. The publication operates as a generative device that elaborates connections within OSW’s research into spatial practices and the politics of movement.

Grounded in the two collectives’ respective practices, the two projects in Collected Collaborations encourage us to interrogate the popularity and fetishisation of the artist’s book, to ask the question “why publish?”, and to proceed in the making and the reception of artists’ books with a critical eye.

Public Programs

OSW discuss Collected Collaborations, introduced by Brad Haylock - Tuesday 13 September 12.30-1.30pm (Monash University Museum of Art, Caulfield Campus).

Redrawing Collective discuss Collected Collaborations, introduced by Brad Haylock - Tuesday 20 September 12.30-1.30pm (Monash University Museum of Art, Caulfield Campus).