Collaborations between artist, perfumer, florist and bespoke Scottish scarf maker explored in all-encompassing body of new work by Alesandro Liubicic

Alesandro Ljubicic, known for his luxuriant use of oil paint and bold hues, will unveil a new body of paintings for a solo exhibition titled The Scent of Painting, to be presented at Michael Reid Sydney from 3 until 27 February 2016.

A colour-intensive, physically immersive response to the beauty of nature, The Scent of Painting will envelop the viewer in a creative collaboration that brings together the artist; the Sydney-based florist, Mr. Cook; the Brisbane-based perfumer, Damask Perfumery; and the bespoke scarf manufacturer Kmossed, from Edinburgh, Scotland.

Examining the intense beauty of nature, Ljubicic invites the audience on a multi-layered and vivid experience through this constructed ecosystem; each sense engaged by a heady mix of colour, texture and aroma.

The Scent of Painting reveals both of Ljubicic's best known art forms: his large and small scale Still Life floral paintings on stretched linen and his gestural colour studies on birch boards. Both instantly recognisable by the drag and scoop of vibrant slabs of pure oil paint; the resulting surfaces taking on a distinctly sculptural quality. The exhibition will show some 25 works on linen and 30 colour studies.

Ljubicic draws inspiration from a diverse selection of florists both nationally and internationally. For The Scent of Painting, he has collaborated closely with floral designer Sean Cook. To compliment the new body of work, Ljubicic, for the first time, has also created a unique magnolia infused scent and limited edition, hand-made scarves printed with his artwork, both available within the exhibition.

Blake Prize finalists announced

 Casula Powerhouse Art Centre (CPAC) and the Blake Society announced finalists for the 2016 Blake Prize, Australia’s longest standing and most prestigious art prize which encourages conversation about spirituality and religion through art. The Blake Prize exhibition will be presented for the first time at CPAC, from 13 February until 24 April 2016, featuring the work of 8o finalists from across Australia, Ireland, the USA, Switzerland, France, Germany and New Zealand. 

The winner of the 64^th Blake Prize – presented biennially – receives $35,000 and the Emerging Artist Award, an acquisitive prize, is awarded $6,000. In addition, CPAC will also offer the inaugural Blake Residency program a one-month residency at CPAC and a solo exhibition which will be unveiled at the 2018 Blake exhibition program.  This year there were 594 entries for the Prize with the 80 finalists selected by the curatorial team at CPAC.

National Art School Postgraduate Exhibition helps launch the careers of more than fifty emerging artists

The National Art School Postgraduate Exhibition 2015 celebrates and showcases the achievements of more than fifty graduating students from the Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours) and Master of Fine Art. The exhibition will be on show from 30 October until 7 November at the NAS Gallery in Sydney’s Darlinghurst.

The 2015 postgraduate cohort have reaped the benefits of the recent $8.7 million redevelopment of the National Art School’s state-of-the-art Postgraduate Centre. Now it’s time to enjoy one of the most anticipated events in the visual arts calendar, the National Art School Postgraduate Exhibition, offering the opportunity to see what our leading fine art students are creating and the chance to acquire these works directly from the studio.

Michael Snelling, National Art School Director, said, “The Exhibition is a platform for emerging artists to showcase their work to thousands of visitors including curators, collectors and gallerists.”

The Exhibition will feature a diverse and stimulating collection of artwork produced by graduates of the rigorous Master of Fine Art and Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours) degree programs. Students can major in ceramics, drawing, painting, printmaking, photography or sculpture. 

Anna Schwartz Gallery presents new exhibition of work by Shaun Gladwell titled 'The Inspector of Tides'

The Inspector of Tides’ is appropriated from the second volume of work by the late Australian poet Michael Dransfield and provides the spiritual and conceptual framework for Shaun Gladwell’s exhibition. Rodney Hall has described Dransfield as an eclectic poet who was never interested in orthodox categories or even the larger interconnections within art and society. Instead, Dransfield was trying to open himself to ‘surprises’ through a wild and discursive range of interests and stylistic approaches. Gladwell finds an affinity with this rejection of a specific and singular signature, both in terms of medium and subject matter. If any methodology is employed in Gladwell’s recent works then it is an itinerant multi-media trans-national and trans-historical wandering: the present show was produced in London, Paris, Antwerp, Sydney and Perth. 

The work engages with material from the early 20th century with Hans Heysen, the 1930’s with the films of Cinesound and photographs of George Caddy, the 1970’s with Dransfield himself. The exhibition also features performances held within the last year by Gladwell and his collaborators. The work even makes projections into a distant future with the painting of a science fiction drone. The tide of the exhibition is historically and geographically expansive.

‘The Inspector of Tides’ is perhaps most literally depicted by Gladwell in a series of large scale photographs taken at Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach. Since his childhood, Gladwell has returned to Bondi to receive inspiration. ‘Severed Heads‘ depicts a hand reaching out from the churning whitewash of a broken wave. The title describes both the mechanics of freshly cut flowers as ‘severed heads’ but also refers to the 1980’s Australian experimental band by the same name.

This exhibition is comprised of photographs, paintings, installation and video.

Fashion & Art explored in COLLECTION+: CHRISTIAN THOMPSON AT SCAF

Christian Thompson, one of Australia's most significant indigenous artists, will be the focus of a new exhibition presented Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation (SCAF) exploring the intersection of art and fashion through his cross-disciplinary work. Presented from October 23 until 12 December 2015, Collection+: Christian Thompson includes photography; sculpture, performance, film and video works that appropriate traditional Aboriginal iconography, often creating fashion-related imagery with original and compelling contemporary art results.  

Collection+: Christian Thompson is the fifth exhibition in the SCAF Collection+ series that incorporates key works from the Gene & Brian Sherman Collection alongside works loaned from major public and private collections worldwide. For this exhibition, works by Christian Thompson have also been borrowed from the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), the National Gallery of Australia (NGA), and the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA). A new sculptural work, All Revolutions are Led by the Young, 2013 will also be premiered as part of the exhibition.

The exhibition is curated by emerging Melbourne-based curator and lawyer Alana Kushnir, who has explored concepts of collection and ownership, questioning what it means to truly own or possess something. Kushnir has looked into concepts such as the extinction and rediscovery of indigenous languages and the appropriation of indigenous Australian material culture. Kushnir draws a connection between these questions and Thompson’s photographic series, We Bury Our Own, which has been selected from the 900 piece Gene & Brian Sherman Collection.

Naomi Milgrom Foundation launches second visionary MPavilion in Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Gardens

A major international architecture commission and design collaboration was unveiled today in Queen Victoria Gardens. MPavilion 2015 initiated by Naomi Milgrom Foundation is designed by AL_A, the studio of renowned British architect Amanda Levete. The second groundbreaking MPavilion employs materials and technology developed for the aerospace industry to create a graceful ‘forest canopy’ of five and three metre‐wide translucent petals supported on slender four metre‐high columns. Each petal is just a few millimetres thick and the resulting ultra-lightweight structure sits lightly in the landscape and gently responds to the climate. The petals are fitted with LED lights that are activated at sunset to give a light performance synchronised with music. 

MPavilion is presented free to the public over four months from 6 October 2015 until 7 February 2016 and populated by more than 200 free events, created in collaboration with more than 200 arts organisations, designers and architects from Melbourne and around the globe.

The MPavilion 2015 was officially opened by Martin Roth, Director of London’s Victoria and Albert Museum and commemorated by a live performance by Yorta Yorta soprano Deborah Cheetham, overseen by MPavilion founder, Naomi Milgrom AO, Melbourne’s Lord Mayor Robert Doyle and commissioned architect Amanda Levete of award-winning British architecture studio AL_A. 

Kaldor Public Art Projects and Carriageworks present highly acclaimed French choreographer Xavier Le Roy

Kaldor Public Art Projects in collaboration with Carriageworks presents a groundbreaking new Project with world renowned choreographer Xavier Le Roy. Le Roy will develop a new exhibition Temporary Title, 2015, which will be informed by a series of open rehearsals and presented alongside three performances of Le Roy’s seminal solo work Self Unfinished.

Celebrated choreographer, performance artist and dancer Le Roy collaborates with Hong Kong based choreographer and dancer Scarlet Yu, and 18 Australian performers to develop and present this thought provoking exhibition Temporary Title, 2015, which premieres at Carriageworks on Friday 20 November 2015.

Le Roy has selected Australian performers from Melbourne and Sydney to collaborate closely in the development and presentation of this new work. A former molecular biologist, Le Roy brings a deep, critical, curiosity to his collaborative experimental process. Rather than instructing his performers to move using a specific technique, direction or tempo, he proposes ideas to be discussed and actualized in movement and form. In this new work, he invites the audience through a series of open rehearsals to participate in this unique process.

Le Roy’s 18 Melbourne and Sydney-based performers are drawn from a variety of ages, demographics, experience and performance backgrounds. They are: Natalie Abbott, Christine Babinskas, Geraldine Balcazar, Georgia Bettens, Eugene Choi, Matthew Day, Lauren Eiko, Peter Fraser, Ryuichi Fujimura, Alice Heyward, Becky Hilton, David Huggins, Marcus McKenzie, Kathryn Puie, Amaara Raheen, Darcey Wallace, Adam Warburton and Ivey Wawn.