News
Eco-printing Workshops
In May I am teaching two eco-printing workshops, one on May 2 at the beautiful Oak Hill Gallery in Mornington, and the other over the weekend of May 15-16 at the King Island Cultural Centre.
For more information or bookings for the Oak Hill Gallery workshop, please go to there website. For more information about the King Island workshop please message the King Island Cultural Centre through their facebook page.
For more information or bookings for the Oak Hill Gallery workshop, please go to there website. For more information about the King Island workshop please message the King Island Cultural Centre through their facebook page.
Burnie Print Prize
I'm thrilled to be a finalist in this year's Burnie Print Prize! It is such an honour, and I have never had a work in this prize before. Many thanks to the judges for accepting my work 'Homage to the Bee Tree', a linocut on eco-printed paper with hand inking. Congratulations to all the other finalists and especially to the winner, ACT artist Annika Romeyn.
The exhibition is on at the Burnie Art Gallery, Tasmania, until May 1 2021.
My statement for the work is:
In lockdown, my world contracts to my home and neighbourhood. Time moves like honey. Home each day, a eucalypt flowering in my garden catches my attention. It hums constantly, music from its attendant cloud of bees. Rainbow Lorikeets, Little and Red Wattlebirds, and Musk Lorikeets visited daily, their cacophony underscored by the bees’ quiet hum. So quiet as to normally be drowned out by now absent traffic noises.
This is my homage to the bee tree. The paper is eco-printed with foliage from the tree and surrounding plants; the birds are life-sized linocuts of the birds listed above that visited daily. The oversized bees are printed in gold to signify their importance to our survival, and to compensate for the fact that, in my usual busy life, they had gone unnoticed. The inked lines indicate the unification of bees, birds and tree: one tiny world.
Image below: 2020, 'Homage to the Bee Tree'. Photo by Andrej Kocis.
The exhibition is on at the Burnie Art Gallery, Tasmania, until May 1 2021.
My statement for the work is:
In lockdown, my world contracts to my home and neighbourhood. Time moves like honey. Home each day, a eucalypt flowering in my garden catches my attention. It hums constantly, music from its attendant cloud of bees. Rainbow Lorikeets, Little and Red Wattlebirds, and Musk Lorikeets visited daily, their cacophony underscored by the bees’ quiet hum. So quiet as to normally be drowned out by now absent traffic noises.
This is my homage to the bee tree. The paper is eco-printed with foliage from the tree and surrounding plants; the birds are life-sized linocuts of the birds listed above that visited daily. The oversized bees are printed in gold to signify their importance to our survival, and to compensate for the fact that, in my usual busy life, they had gone unnoticed. The inked lines indicate the unification of bees, birds and tree: one tiny world.
Image below: 2020, 'Homage to the Bee Tree'. Photo by Andrej Kocis.
The Overwintering Project: Westernport
Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery March 6 - May 23 2021
The Overwintering Project is a long-term environmental art project that unites artists around Australia to raise awareness for our most endangered group of birds, migratory shorebirds, and their habitat. Migratory shorebirds spend the summer on our beaches, then fly annually to the arctic to breed, a round trip of over 25,000 km. The Project is co-ordinated by Melbourne artist Kate Gorringe-Smith.
The Overwintering Project: Westernportfocusses on Western Port as internationally significant migratory shorebird habitat. The exhibition features 17 artists who have produced new work in a variety of media inspired by the local Westernport environment. These will be shown in conjunction with the Overwintering Project Print Portfolio, a growing collection of 300+ original prints made by artists from Australia and New Zealand in response to the unique nature of their local migratory shorebird habitat.
This exhibition celebrates the 50thanniversary of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, and is dedicated to the memory of Dr Clive Minton OAM, father of Australian shorebird research. The Overwintering Project: Westernportis supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria.
Curated artists
Alexis Beckett
Andrej Kocis
Beverley Meldrum
Byron Scullin Heather Hesterman
Cathryn Vasseleu
Dominic White
Hank Tyler
Helen Kocis Edwards
Jan Parker
Kate Gorringe-Smith
Khue Nguyen
Lindy Yeates
Liz Walker
Magda Miranda
Rea Dennis
Simeon Lisovski
And
The artists of the Overwintering Project Print Portfolio
The Overwintering Project: Westernportfocusses on Western Port as internationally significant migratory shorebird habitat. The exhibition features 17 artists who have produced new work in a variety of media inspired by the local Westernport environment. These will be shown in conjunction with the Overwintering Project Print Portfolio, a growing collection of 300+ original prints made by artists from Australia and New Zealand in response to the unique nature of their local migratory shorebird habitat.
This exhibition celebrates the 50thanniversary of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, and is dedicated to the memory of Dr Clive Minton OAM, father of Australian shorebird research. The Overwintering Project: Westernportis supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria.
Curated artists
Alexis Beckett
Andrej Kocis
Beverley Meldrum
Byron Scullin Heather Hesterman
Cathryn Vasseleu
Dominic White
Hank Tyler
Helen Kocis Edwards
Jan Parker
Kate Gorringe-Smith
Khue Nguyen
Lindy Yeates
Liz Walker
Magda Miranda
Rea Dennis
Simeon Lisovski
And
The artists of the Overwintering Project Print Portfolio
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At the moment my main work is my ongoing project The Overwintering Project. The aim of the project is to connect artists and communities with there local migratory shorebirds and migratory shorebird habitat. The main part of the project that I administer is the Overwintering Project Print Portfolio and it is an open call for artists in Australia and New Zealand to make a print in response to their local migratory shorebirds and habitat and send two to me - one to exhibition in ongoing Overwintering Project exhibitions and one to sell to raise funds for BirdLife Australia's migratory shorebird research and conservation programs. So far I have about 300 prints in the Portfolio and we have raise $23,000 for shorebird research! Click the link above for details or you can email me at overwinteringproject@gmail.com. The deadline for prints for the upcoming Victorian exhibition at the Mornington Peninsula Regional gallery is December 31 2020.
UPCOMING OVERWINTERING PROJECT EXHIBITIONS
Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Vic.
6 March – 23 May 2021 (*)
Signal Point Gallery, Goolwa SA
June 2021
Kingborough Community Hub, Kingston, Tas.
5 – 16 July 2021 (*)
(* Exhibitions marked with an asterisk are Core exhibitions - i.e. exhibitions that include the Overwintering Project Print Portfolio.)
Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Vic.
6 March – 23 May 2021 (*)
Signal Point Gallery, Goolwa SA
June 2021
Kingborough Community Hub, Kingston, Tas.
5 – 16 July 2021 (*)
(* Exhibitions marked with an asterisk are Core exhibitions - i.e. exhibitions that include the Overwintering Project Print Portfolio.)