AIR BORN brings together a vibrant collection of 19 contemporary artists’ work who through their varying artistic disciplines are inspired by birds, either as subject or who emulate through their work aspects of avian habitats and rituals.

Birds have played a vivid role in the conceptual and spiritual life of many cultures. AIR BORN inspires an exploration of these cultural traditions and symbology by unravelling varying ideas surrounding the bird and our interaction with them. The themes presented in these works traverse art and cultural history as well as ideas of adornment, volatility, migration, environment, place and identity.

23 June – 6 October 2013
The Elisabeth Murdoch Gallery, McClelland Gallery + Sculpture Park

Marian Drew, Rainbow Lorikeet on Queensland Needlework, 2009, inkjet print on archival Hahnemuhle cotton paper, 112x134cm

HEARTLAND is an exhibition of contemporary art from South Australia that premieres new works of art made for the exhibition as well as selected works that have rarely been seen.

The title of the exhibition proposes an expansion of the genre of landscape to include the geographic, the political, the ecological, the immaterial, the emotional and even the spiritual. It consciously deviates from the use of the term landscape to include Indigenous and settler narratives. HEARTLAND hopes to generate new ways of thinking about who and where we are.

Curated by Nici Cumpston, Curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art and Lisa Slade, Project Curator
Free admission
21 June – 8 September 2013

Yhonnie Scarce, Cultivation of whiteness (detail), 2013, 60 pieces blown glass, 1L glass beakers, dimensions variable

Amy Joy Watson is a South Australian sculptor known for creating colourful, geometric balsa wood sculptures. Often floating with the assistance of helium balloons, her works delicately balance on a single point or form a stack using magnetic attraction.

Born in Adelaide 1987, Amy has been included in various solo and group exhibitions throughout Australia, including Westspace 2012 and at the Contemporary Art Space of South Australia. Amy won the 2011 Adelaide Critics Circle Contemporary Art Award and the SAlife Emerging Artist Award for the 2009 SALA Festival.

In 2012 Amy undertook a 3-month studio residency at ISCP (International Studio and Curatorial Program) New York, sponsored by the 2011 CARCLEW Ruth Tuck Scholarship. Amy was also awarded a 2-month studio residency at Takt Kunstprojektraum, Berlin Germany 2009. Amy has been successful in receiving an Australia Council for the Arts Tokyo Studio Residency, which she will take up in early 2014.

Amy is exhibiting a major sculptural work in Heartland at the Art Gallery of South Australia, opening this Friday 21 June.

Please e-mail dtanzer@ozemail.com.au for all enquiries.

Amy Joy Watson, Untitled (balloon installation), 2011, balsa wood, watercolour, polyester thread, balloons, dimensions variable

My Country, I Still Call Australia Home is the GOMA’s largest exhibition of contemporary art by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists to date. The exhibition examines the strengths of the Gallery’s holdings and explores three central themes — presenting Indigenous views of history (My history), responding to contemporary politics and experiences (My life), and illustrating connections to place (My country).

From paintings and sculptures about ancestral epicentres to photographs and moving-image works that interrogate and challenge the established history of Australia, to installations responding to political and social situations affecting all Australians, the thread that binds these artists is their collective desire to share their experiences and tell their stories.

1 June – 7 October 2013
Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane
Free admission

Michael Cook, Civilised #13, 2012, inkjet print on archival Hahnemuhle cotton paper, 100 x 85cm
Collection: Queensland Gallery of Art

Yhonnie will be holding an artist talk at 4pm Friday 31 May at Palazzo Bembo – all welcome.

Personal Structures
1 June – 24 November 2013
Palazzo Bembo, Venice, Italy

Yhonnie Scarce, Blood on the Wattle, 2013
Palazzo Bembo, Venice, installation view 

Follow the link below to read Nicholas Forrest’s full wrap-up for Blouin ArtInfo:

Australians Buy Big and Sell Big at Art Basel in Hong Kong by Nicholas Forrest

Visitors at our booth at Art Basel Hong Kong

1 June to 25 August 2013 
Gippsland Art Gallery

New Horizons surveys methods and approaches to landscape painting in the early twenty-first century.Common to each of the works is a modification of the natural world, and a sense in which the world has become magnified, artificial and constructed. While still retaining connections to the familiar, New Horizons proposes an alternate reality where thing are not always what they seem.

OPENING: Friday 31 May 6.00pm. To be opened by Ashley Crawford, Art Writer and Curator

CURATOR TALK: Friday 31 May 5.30pm by Simon Gregg

Tony Lloyd, Stylus and Turntable, oil on linen, 92 x 71cm

Kicking off with the VIP Preview and Vernissage opening party tonight, Art Basel Hong Kong will attract collectors and art enthusiasts from all over the globe to view thousands of artworks from over 250 exhibiting galleries.

To view Juan’s exhibition online, click here. For details of what’s on during the fair and for ticketing information, visit the Art Basel Hong Kong website.

If you’re in Hong Kong, come visit us at Booth 3D-18!
Juan Ford will be presenting an artist talk at our booth at 2pm on Thursday 23 May.

23-26 May 2013
Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC)

Click here to download the Juan Ford catalogue PDF

Appearing as part of this year’s Head On Photo Festival,  Ornamental (Royal National Park),  is the culmination of Marian Drew’s residency at Hazelhurst and responds directly to the Royal National Park (RNP), the world’s second-oldest national park. Drew’s art practice in photography, video and sculpture combine in this exhibition in a series of photographs alongside a video work titled Warrumbul Picnic.

Exhibition dates: 17 May – 30 June 2013
Venue: Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Arts Centre, NSW

Marian Drew, Warrambul Swan (detail), 2013, giclee print on cotton paper, 110 x 135cm 

Yhonnie Scarce is also packing her bags for the Venice Biennale – opening the last week of May. Watch this space for news and images of Yhonnie’s work at the Palazzo Bembo as part of this prestigious exhibition!

ARTIST TALKS

JUAN FORD @ Art Basel Hong Kong, Thursday 23 May
2pm at Booth 3D-18

YHONNIE SCARCE @ Personal Structures, Friday 31 May
4pm at Palazzo Bembo, Venice

Juan Ford, Entwine and Implode, Detail, 2013, oil on linen, 91x71cm

Yhonnie Scarce, Blood on the Wattle, Detail, 2013, 292 pieces blown glass, perspex, steel, aluminium and fabric, 210x70x60cm

These projects have been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its funding and advisory body.