clipped from www.visitvictoria.com

Lyndal Jones, Darwin with Tears

24 May - 20 Jul 2008

Australian artist Lyndal Jones’ long and successful career at the forefront of video and performance art in Australia will be celebrated with a survey exhibition at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) from May 24.

 Lyndal Jones uses personal stories and memories to explore desire, attraction and sexual selection in a long and celebrated practice that has seen her represent Australia at the 2001 Venice Biennale, and show her work at numerous galleries here and overseas. 

 A pioneer of new media, video and performance art in Australia, Jones has produced a massive body of work since the early 1980s, and is known for creating long-term projects which initially focused on performance then video installation.  Throughout, her works have addressed the power of the experiential and the development of interactivity.

clipped from www.pubinfo.vcu.edu

clipped from www.stevenassael.com

1998, Oil on Canvas

Steven Assael was born in New York, NY in 1957. He attended Pratt Institute and presently teaches at The School of Visual Arts in New York. Mr. Assael balances naturalism with a romanticism that permeates the figures and surroundings of his paintings and drawings. The focus of his work is the human figure, either individually or in a group, rendered in glowing relief by gentle beams of warm and cool light.

Steven Assael is represented by the Forum Gallery in New York and his work is in the collections of The Hunter Museum of Art in Chattanooga, (TN), The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art & Design (MO), The Columbus Museum of Art (Columbus, OH) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY).

clipped from www.geelongadvertiser.com.au

Geelong bollard icon dies - 18 Mar 08

BREAKING NEWS GEELONG'S bollard lady Jan Mitchell has died after a short battle with cancer.

The creative artistic force was 68.

She leaves a distinctive legacy in her adopted city after having created more than 100 sculptured and painted bollards lining Geelong's waterfront.

Mrs Mitchell received an Order of Australia medal for her contribution to the waterfront transformation.

``She was generous of spirit and very, very talented,'' Mr Grant said.

Mrs Mitchell started creating the series of 111 figures with the help of wood carver Pieter Roos and artist John Starr in 1995 and finished about 1999.

Bollards pointing to her waterfront parade are in Geelong Botanic Gardens and at Melbourne and Avalon airports.

``People need to understand that each of those buttons, each badge and each piece of music they are reading or instrument they playing or holding is not just an artist's whim but thoroughly researched,'' Mr Grant said.

clipped from www.crowncasino.com.au

José Andrés

27 February - 31 March 2008

Crown presents a spectacle and a gastronomic delight for foodies everywhere – the My Last Supper photographic exhibition and gourmet experience.

Acclaimed photographer Melanie Dunea from New York has gathered 50 of the world’s finest chefs and asked them – what would you eat for your final meal?

Her book My Last Supper has been an international success – now Melanie brings all 50 photographic portraits plus six additional portraits of Melbourne-based chefs for a world premiere exhibition at Crown.

clipped from www.cowwarr.com

Clive Murray-White is one of Australia's leading sculptors, he has held over 30 solo exhibitions in major commercial galleries, predominantly in Sydney and Melbourne. His work can be found in many of the nation's leading collections, most notably the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria & New Parliament House, Canberra. He has been invited to exhibit in many major national exhibitions such as the Sydney Biennales and Australian Sculpture Triennials. He has completed numerous commissions and has received many Australia Council Grants.

About the sculpture

The sculptures depict humanity as eroded and battered by its passage through time and the hardships of life and show that intelligence, care and generosity of spirit always seem to survive.

A face not only communicates more to human beings than anything else but also provides the greatest potential for range of perceivable expression.

About the marble

Clive Murray-White uses Australian marble to create his sculptures

".....no material can be more appropriate to create our art from....after all....each piece is a perfect slice of time....a perfect record of all the forces that actually formed our land, our marble has been neglected....you can't  go out and buy it....you have to find it where it lies dotted about, often in very remote locations....the places where the stone can be found are often just as inspiring as the stone itself....the true character of the land always finds its way into the sculptures just as I feel that our light is trapped in the stone...."

clipped from allofus.com.au

Michel Lawrence has spent the past two years photographing as many people as possible from every different country of the world who now calls Australia home. The result is a celebration of our multicultural diversity. The project will be unveiled at Federation Square for Australia Day 2008, along with the launch of the large format book of the same name.

clipped from archive.amol.org.au

The Listeners
Type:	Oil on canvas
Creator:	Jeffrey Smart
Date:	1965
Description:	90.5 x 70 cm; signed l.r. "Jeffrey Smart 65"; gift of the William, Rene and Blair Ritchie Collection
Item Id Number:	1998.23
Collection: Ballarat Fine Art Gallery

clipped from www.artseensoho.com

Richard Billingham

In 1996 these untitled images were assembled in an acclaimed book titled Ray's A Laugh, published by Scalo. This book documents the intimate moments, emotions, and poverty of the Billingham family. "In all these photographs I never bothered with things like the negatives. Some of them got marked and scratched. I just used the cheapest film and took them to be processed at the cheapest place. I was just trying to make order out of chaos."

clipped from www.fusedmagazine.com

In my case I think it helped that I did not know about the work of other photographers, as I would have accidentally copied their visual ideas.

clipped from en.wikipedia.org

Billingham studied at the University of Sunderland as a painter, and came to prominence through his candid photography of his family in Cradley Heath, a body of work later added to and published in the acclaimed book Ray's A Laugh (1996). 'Ray's a Laugh' is a portrayal of the poverty and depravation in which he grew up. The photographs, which were taken on the cheapest film he could find, provide brash colours and bad focus which adds to the authenticity and frankness of the series. Ray, his father, and his mother Liz appear at first glance as grotesque figures, with the alcoholic father drunk on his home brew, and the mother, an obese chain smoker with a fascination for nicknacks and jigsaw puzzles. However there is such integrity in this work that Ray and Liz ultimately shine through as troubled yet deeply human and touching personalities.

clipped from victoriantourismawards.com.au

Just 15 minutes from Melbourne’s CBD, Heide Museum of Modern Art is one of Australia’s leading public art museums. Within a unique environment of art and design, architecture and landscape, Heide has a rich and colourful social history and art heritage. Often referred to as an incubator of Australian modernism, Heide was frequented by artists including Sidney Nolan, Albert Tucker and Arthur Boyd and offers changing exhibitions of modern and contemporary art and design. Explore Heide’s 16.5 acres including the much-loved Kitchen Garden, Sculpture Park, heritage-listed Osage Orange groves and Yarra frontage extending to the famous Heidelberg Artists’ Trail.