PAPER FORM - Articulate project space, 497 Parramatta Rd, Leichhardt - August 31 to September 22, 2024

PAPER FORM at Articulate project space featured the work of Amber Johnston, Angharad Evans, Anna Russell, Arthur Koutoulas, Beata Geyer, Constantine Nicholas, Daniel Lopez Lomeli, Dell Walker, Isobel Johnston, Jamie Jude Smith, Kate Mackay, Lisa Jones, Liz Shreeve, Mark Gowing, Marlene Sarroff, Matti Matti, Michael Thomson, Natalie O'Connor, Paul Cooper, Phong Le, Pia Larsen, Rhonda Nelson, Sue Callanan, Vanessa Wright and Audrey Egan.

From the Articulate website - 

PAPER FORM group exhibition presents the artworks that invite us to consider the materiality of paper in space. Stacked, folded, moulded, built, inscribed and moving. Paper is mutable and has a memory that indelibly records its engagement with the environment, from finger prints, to sun and wind, to the form it is made to take. 

I contributed 2 towers.  The 4.5m tall Tatlins Tower made from painted cardboard tied together with yarn, and the 50cm tall Tiny Tatlin of small timber blocks covered with coloured paper and PVA.  

EVERY COLOUR - Articulate project space, 497 Parramatta Rd, Leichhardt - August 3 to August 25, 2024

EVERY COLOUR at Articulate project space included work by - Angharad Evans, Annelies Jahn, Anthea Boesenberg, Anya Pesce, Beata Geyer, Billy Gruner, Brigitta Summers, Chris Packer, Daniel Lopez Lomeli, Elizabeth Day, Gary Warner, Isobel Johnston, Jan Handel, Karen Benton, Kate Mackay, Kenneth Lambert, Lisa Pang, Lisa Stonham, Liz Shreeve, Luna Gui, Lynne Eastway, Mark Ryan, Michelle Le Dain, Pia Larsen, Pollyxenia Joannou, Ro Murray, Rox De Luca, Samantha Jade, Sarah Keighery, Sarah Robson, Sue Callanan, Susan Andrews, Szilvia Gyorgy, Wendy Cohen and was curated by Beata Geyer.

From the Articulate website - 

The conceptual possibilities of colour in art are boundless. EVERY COLOUR exhibition explores colour and its potential, presenting works by artists whose practices revolve around colour as a fundamental and integral component. EVERY COLOUR celebrates the diversity and complexity inherent in the chromatic spectrum.

I contributed a four panel work from the "Nothing To Say Here" series. Each painting is 42.5cm x 42.5cm, oil on canvas.

COLOUR TIME - Clarence Regional Library exhibition space, Pound St, Grafton - May 6 to June 3, 2024

The Clarence Regional Library in Grafton, NSW, has a great little exhibition space that they make available for free to local artists and craftspeople. I proposed a mini survey show of my work, with paintings from 1999 to the present.  It included a work from the "Same Paintings" series, one from the "Circle Square" series, a number from the "Nothing To Say Here" series, and a new cube work installed around a column in the exhibition space.

COLOUR TIME

LIST OF WORKS (left to right)

 1. Same Painting- Orange Oil on canvas, 167cm x 167cm, 1999

2. If You Look At A Thing Long Enough It Loses All Its Meaning – Andy Warhol Oil on canvas on board, 51cm x 51cm, 2018

3. Art Is Art, Everything Else Is Everything Else – Ad Reinhardt Oil on canvas on board, 47cm x 47cm, 2019

4. The Aim Of Art Is To Represent Not The Outward Appearance Of Things But Their Inward Significance - Aristotle Oil on canvas on board, 68cm x 68cm, 2020

5. No Artist Tolerates Reality - Nietzsche Oil on canvas on board, 42.5cm x 42.5cm, 2019

6. No Great Artist Ever Sees Things As They Really Are – Oscar Wilde  Oil on canvas on board, 51cm x 51cm, 2018

7. Art Is Everything You Don’t Have To Do – Brian Eno Oil on canvas on board, 47cm x 47cm, 2019

8. The Task Of Art Is To Bring Chaos Into Order – Theodor Adorno Oil on canvas on board, 47cm x 47cm, 2019

9. Painting Is By Nature A Luminous Language – Robert Delaunay Oil on canvas on board, 42.5cm x 42.5cm, 2019

10. An Artist Discovers His Genius The Day He Dares Not To Please – Andre Malraux Oil on canvas on board, 51cm x 51cm, 2018

11. A Line Is A Dot That Went For A Walk – Paul Klee Oil on canvas on board, 42.5cm x 42.5cm, 2019

12. One and the Same- Yellow Dot Oil on canvas, 101cm x 101cm, 2011

13. Column Cube Acrylic on cardboard with yarn, 2024

EARTH - Articulate project space, 497 Parramatta Rd, Leichhardt - April 6 to April 28, 2024

Articulate project space curated the exhibition "Earth" to celebrate Earth month.  It included work by Alexander Bebbington, Anke Stacker, Anna Russell, Beata Geyer, Brenton Schwab, Carrie Fraser, Christian Bonett, Dell Walker, Diane McCarthy, Elizabeth Rankin, Elke Wohlfahrt, Isobel Johnston, Jill Carter- Hansen, Joshua Chek, Jude Crawford, Juliet Fowler Smith, Justine Roche, Karen Benton, Kate Riley, Kate TD, Kirsten Drewes, Laurens Tan, Louise Owen, Maria Constantinescu, Noelene Lucas, Paraskevy Begetis, Patricia Wilson-Adams, Ro Murray, Sonja Karl, Steven Fasan, Studio 29B (Anna Russell, Anthea Boesenberg & Rhonda Nelson), Sue Callanan, Sue Murray, Vilma Bader and myself.

From the ARTICULATE website -

 Articulate celebrates Earth Month. We all need to be reinvigorated in our resolve to make behavioural changes: to drive less, acquire less, and plant more. Being open-ended, art has been shown to be effective in stimulating and expanding minds as well as influencing behaviour.

My work was a crocheted wall piece called "Accumulated Landscape" created from the yarn that is left after one of my cardboard cube sculptures are dissassembled.  

Accumulated Landscape, woolen and acrylic yarn, 100cm x 125cm approx., 2024

image supplied by Articulate project space

AGENCY ARTISTS EXHIBITION - 80:20 Artists Agency, 377 Parramatta Rd, Leichhardt, Sydney - opened March 16, 2024

The Agency Artists exhibition at 80:20 Artists Agency opened Saturday the 16th of March.  It included the work of Lionel Doolan, Adrian Hall, Barbara Halnan, Sibylle Hofter, Chris Packer, Adam Sebire, Kevin Sheehan, Liz Shreeve and myself.

I created a cardboard cube work "Box on Box" where the work wrapped itself around the strange architectural feature that juts into the exhibition space.  I also had 3 paintings from my "Nothing To Say Here"series as well as a crocheted cube work, which is constructed from the leftover yarn after a cardboard cube work has been deconstructed.

FACTORY 49 A TRIBUTE - Articulate project space, 497 Parramatta Rd, Leichhardt, Sydney - March 9 to March 31, 2024

 From the Articulate project space website - 

Articulate project space presents 'FACTORY 49. A Tribute' a group exhibition that honours the extensive history of Factory 49 and its significant contribution to art, both locally and internationally.

Factory 49 was created by Pam Aitken in 2006 and ran for 16 years.  It featured the presentation of non-objective, reductive, material based and process driven art in a factory building in Marrickville, Sydney. 

This exhibition was curated by Beata Geyer, Chris Packer and myself, and it included the work of 67 artists.  Invitations to participate were sent to all of the artists that had exhibited at Factory 49.   

The artists in this show were - Alexandra Kennedy, Amarie Bergman, Annelies Jahn, Anya Pesce, Barbara Halnan and Rose McGreevy, Beata Geyer, Billy Gruner, Bogumila Strojna, Cameron Stead, Carrie Fraser, Catherine Gaillard-Remontet, Chris Packer, Christine Boiry, Christine Dean, Christine Wiltshier, Danielle Lescot, Elisabeth Bodey, Elizabeth Day, Elizabeth Rankin, Elke Wohlfahrt, Fabian Freese, Fiona Halse, Georgina Pollard, Ian Thomas, Jacek Przybyszewski, Jacky Ferrand, Jamie Bastoli, Jan Handel, Jason Haufe, Jenny Herbert-Smith, Judy-Ann Moule, Karen Benton, Karryn Argus, Kate Mackay, Kendal Heyes, Lila Alfiouni, Linden Braye, Lisa Pang, Liz Shreeve, Louise Blyton, Lynne Eastaway, Margaret Roberts, Marlene Sarroff, Michelle Le Dain, Nicola McClelland, Nicole Ellis, Pam Aitken, Pamela Leung, Paul Mallam, Paula McCambridge, Peter de Lorenzo, Pia Larsen, Richard van der Aa, Ro Murray, Roland Orepuk, Sandra Curry, Sarah Fitzgerald, Sarah Keighery, Sarah Robson, Sue Callanan, Susan Andrews, Sydney Art Exchange, Tanya Alexandra Richards, Wendy Cohen and Wendy Kelly.

I wrote a piece on the creation and history of Factory 49, that was put together by Chris Packer, in the style of the Factory 49 publications.  

FACTORY 49 - A MEMOIR

The first exhibition opened at Factory 49 in Marrickville on the 22^nd of June 2006.  I remember because it was mine.  The second show was Margaret Roberts, and there was an outside wall work by Andrew Leslie.  Pam Aitken had asked me if I would like to be involved in a new exhibition space that she was creating.  She had previously been involved in the first iteration of SNO (Sydney Non Objective) at 11 Faversham Street, Marrickville that ran for 2 years. She owned the 49 Shepherd Street space and it had been leased to a manufacturer for a number of years, but finally they were moving and she was able to take it back.  The first exhibition was originally scheduled to happen a couple of weeks earlier, but at that stage she had only enough money to create the walls in plywood, planning to reline it later.  I offered to line it with gyprock in lieu of gallery rental, and then volunteered my partner Mick to do the work….I did help…. The height of the walls was determined by the standard size of ply and gyprock sheets.

There was always discussion about whether the walls should be raised to the ceiling height.  Pam was always insistent that the space was to retain its factory history and aesthetic. There was to be as little interference with the nature of the space as possible.  This is also the reason why she always referred to Factory 49 as a Showroom and not a Gallery, emphasising the idea that the production of artworks was work, and the showroom was the place that the public could see the artists output.

Pam’s vision was to give artists who worked within the field of the Non-Objective and Reductive Abstraction a space to have affordable solo exhibitions.  There was at that time (and still is) very little opportunity to hold solo shows, and she wanted artists to be able to have a space to properly develop and expand their work, something that is difficult to do if you can only ever get one or two works into group shows.  Pam made no decisions as to what work went into the exhibitions, as long as it fell within the realm of the non-objective.  The exhibitions ran for two weeks with the gallery being open from Thursday to Saturday.  Artists normally had access to the space on Sunday night with the show ideally being hung by Tuesday.  The exhibition was then photographed and an A5 catalogue was created and printed in time for the opening on Wednesday night.  It was a well-oiled, if slightly stressful, machine.  For the first few years, Pam also interviewed each artist during their exhibition, creating an invaluable historical resource.

According to my CV, the first Annual Group Show happened in 2010, and the Office Project Space was created about the same time.  The Annual Group Show was a departure from the insistence of solo exhibitions, and allowed a great opportunity to see the vast array of work within the non-objective sphere.  They were interesting exhibitions to install.  Often many of the artists involved would stay around and help with the hanging.  The works that had been submitted dictated the arrangement of each exhibition, with aesthetic connections being created as each show was installed.   Despite the diverse works on offer, the Group shows always had a cohesiveness resulting from the shared sensibilities of all those involved.

The Office Project Space came about as a response to artists who wanted to present work that may have been less resolved and more experimental, and also allowed for joint and group shows.  The work had to share its existence with the gallery desk and storage cupboard.  Outside Wall Works were also a feature from the beginning.  The external concreted space beneath the stairs was available for a 3 month Wall Work.  Later the Biscuit Factory across the road also allowed artists to create works on their external wall.

Around 2014, Pam had to take time off and myself and Marlene Sarroff, with the help of Chris Packer and his technical expertise, kept the space going for a while.  We eventually decided that a new committee was required.  We initiated visits to SCA and the National Arts School, seeking like-minded artists to become involved and continue the experience of Factory 49.

Each year, Pam Aitken travelled to Paris for 3 months, establishing contacts with many European artists and spaces.  She participated in the Salon Realites Nouvelle Exhibitions and introduced many Factory 49 artists to this exhibition and to many European contacts, enabling Australian artists to exhibit in Paris and elsewhere in Europe.  She created a Residency at Factory 49 at Marrickville, where European artists could come and stay in Australia and create an exhibition in the Showroom.  But she had always had a vision to create a Factory 49 in Paris.  Finally in 2018 she acquired a lease on a space and created a residence in the small attached room.  Artists would go for a month-long exhibition and residency.  They would install and photograph their work, send the images back to Pam in Sydney for the catalogue, which she would send to the printer in Paris, ready for the artist pick up in time for their opening.  I remember being sceptical that it could all work, but with Pam’s organisational skills, the professionalism of the artists involved, and the help of many of the artists in Paris, the space was a success, running for almost 2 years until covid made it all too hard.  It showed artists from both Australia and Europe.

The final Exhibition at Factory 49 in November 2021, was the Sydney satellite of 'Que des femmes / Only women'.  Part of the 6th International Biennale of Non-objective Art, it was curated by Anya Pesce and Lisa Pang, under the auspices of recently deceased biennale founder Roland Orépük and curator Billy Gruner.  It contained work by many of the women artists who had been part of the history of Factory 49 and was dedicated to the memory of F49 favourite and good friend, Barbara Halnan.

Kate Mackay, January 2024

My work was from the 'Nothing To Say Here' series - ' Artists Think With Their Eyes Open - Ian Burn', oil on canvas, 42.5cm x 42.5cm, 2024

Below are installation shots from the exhibition.  CLICK HERE for the full room sheet.

ANNUAL GROUP EXHIBITION - 80:20 Artists Agency, 377 Parramatta Rd, Leichhardt, Sydney

 William Seeto has opened a new space on Parramatta Road in Leichhardt.

The Annual Group Exhibition includes the work of 17 artists.

"Nothing To Say Here - Kate Mackay"

goache on gessoed paper, 29.5cm x 29.5cm, 2023

(image William Seeto)

"We Live In A Rainbow Of Chaos - Paul Cezanne"

goache on gessoed paper, 29.5cm x 29.5cm, 2023

(image William Seeto)

"Artists Think With Their Eyes Open - Ian Burn"

goache on gessoed paper, 29.5cm x 29.5cm, 2023

(image William Seeto)

"Conceptual Art Replaces The Customary Visual Object With Arguments About Art - Ian Burn"

oil on canvas on board, 64cm x 64cm, 2023

(image William Seeto)