Exhibition at Goulburn Regional Art Gallery

April 2013

A really excellent show – Fair Trade, an exhibition of collaborative work by ex-TAFE Arts and Media teachers from TAFE Goulburn and Moss Vale campuses was nonetheless tinged with sadness.  When the idea for this exhibition was formed none of us had any idea that all public funding for the courses we taught would be withdrawn. So the exhibition was in a sense a goodbye. I’ll miss the interaction with fellow teachers, and the students, and the close working relationship our programs had with Director Jane Cush and her team at the Gallery.  What a loss all round!

The original idea for the show was for the printmaking teachers on staff – myself, Cecile Galiazzo, Tony Ameneiro, Julie Krone and Kath Orton to collaborate with staff teaching other media to make a portfolio of prints.  But the idea grew and evolved and in the end a much more interesting, varied and stimulating exhibition was produced.

Our numbers fell as some of us had other commitments and withdrew, so we ended up with nine artists working in pairs – Cecile and Andy Townsend, Tony Ameneiro and Kim Shannon, Simon Bowley and Britta Stenmanns, Bev Hogg and myself and also Kathy Orton with myself.

Kathy and I – both printmakers, collaborated on a series of one off images of trees each of us overprinting the other’s work. Canberra-based ceramic artist and sculptor Bev Hogg and I after much discussion ended up going in the opposite direction to the original idea.  Our sculptural piece made of sticks is in one sense a translation of my mandala prints into three dimensions.

I have not really worked collaboratively before but both experiences have been enormously enriching for me and in both cases we plan to do more together. The gallery has produced a lovely little catalogue. Check it out and watch out for more developments!

View the Exhibition page here.

Marianne, Bev, their sculpture ‘Groundwork’, & Robert Crombie
top: Marianne and Kathy Orton with some of their work at the opening

Southern Highlands Printmakers Exhibition at Sturt Gallery

Hot on the heels of the Nowra exhibition both Marianne Courtenay and Kathy Orton had work in the Southern Highlands Printmakers’ exhibition, Elements, which was opened on Sunday 10th February at Sturt Gallery by Akky van Ogtrop, President of the Print Council of Australia. I think this was the strongest show the group has had for quite some time.  One of the most interesting things for me was the presence of a number of three dimensional pieces. Sandra Shrubb, Tony Deigan, Slavica Zivkovic, Britta Stenmanns and Jan Hanrahan all had work that showed different ways of taking prints ‘out of the frame’.

They’ll be a review of the show by free lance curator Gillian McCracken in the Winter edition of Imprint, the journal of the Print Council of Australia.  Keep an eye out for it.

View the Exhibition page here.

Exhibition at the Shoalhaven City Arts Centre, Nowra
January 2013

The Shoalhaven from Source to Sea, an exhibition of work by Liz Jeneid and Kathryn Orton and I, opened at the Shoalhaven City Arts Centre on 4th January. The work in the show grew out of a project the three of us were involved in as part of the Braidwood based 2011 Two Fires Festival. This involved a group of artists making work inspired by the upper Shoalhaven River and its environs and we got so fired up that we just kept on going and explored the full course of the river down to where it meets the sea near Nowra.

Thanks to Fran Ifould who generously offered to stand in for me and hang my work and to Janie Wood from the three of us for the beautiful invitation.

View the Exhibition page here.

above:  Marianne, Liz Jeneid and Kathryn Orton with gallery director Tracy Glenn