Three new exhibitions showcasing the work of three female Australian artists spanning different styles and generations will be opening next month at the Riddoch Arts and Cultural Centre.
Clarice Beckett: Paintings from the National Collection, Natalya Hughes: The Interior and Beth Kay: The Feminine Art of Shooting will all open on June 15.
Each collection has a differencing theme, with all works being complimented by ‘Viewfinder’, which will see the first-floor gallery transformed into a creative space.
Riddoch acting programming officer Kyra Sykes said visitors were encouraged to explore Viewfinder while checking out the exhibitions.
“Viewfinder is an interactive, creative space providing a unique look inside the worlds of exhibiting artists Clarice Beckett, Natalya Hughes and Beth Kay,” they said.
“We encourage visitors to explore the artists’ perspectives and discover their own through a variety of activities inspired by the artists’ work.”
Clarice Beckett: Paintings from the National Collection, on tour from the National Gallery of Australia, is an intimate selection of works by one of Australia’s most original and esteemed artists of the early 20th century.
Ms Beckett was born in Casterton in 1887 and her works focused on everyday life and scenery with an eye for the overlooked, common place and fleeting.
Deeply sensitive to the effects of colour, light and atmosphere, her works captured a world on the cusp of modernisation, evoking both the natural environment and simple pleasures of suburban existence.
Riddoch director Ashleigh Whatling said the artist had an amazing legacy.
“Clarice Beckett has an amazing legacy in Australian art history both for the work and her personal journey as a female artist of the early 20th century,” she said.
“We are very proud to have this special collection of works on show in the region she grew up in.”
Almost 40 years after her death more than 2000 of Ms Beckett’s paintings were found rotting in a hay shed, but curator Rosalind Hollinrake realised the value and was able to save some works, hosting a show in 1971.
Posthumously Ms Beckett is acknowledged as one of Australia’s most important early modernist painters and her work is included in major museum collections.
The Interior by Natalya Hughes is a national touring exhibition presented by the Institute of Modern Art and toured by Museums and Galleries Queensland.
Ms Hughes is one of Australia’s most exciting mid-career artists, known for her explorations of decorative and ornamental traditions and their associations with the feminine, the human form, and excess.
Drawing on the gendered power dynamics between public and private space, she will transform the gallery into a playfully exaggerated consultation room.
Combining sculptural seating, richly patterned soft furnishings, uncanny objects d’art and a hand-painted mural, The Interior creates a stimulating space to unpack our collective and unconscious biases.
Ms Hughes said she wanted to explore society’s unease with women with her work.
“I am interested in the representation of women, how we are conceptualised and why expectations of us are so slow to shift,” she said.
“Freud founded psychoanalysis – a theory which informs much of my art making.
“Women are also problematic within his work, but psychoanalysis provides a useful framework for dealing with problems around gender and what we value. By mining Freud’s references and imagery of women, I seek to see what they might offer or reveal in order to more equitably reimagine the idea of ‘woman’.”
During the exhibition audiences are invited to recline and be enveloped, soothed and held by the furniture’s womanly forms while taking turns playing analyst and patient.
With this bodily encounter The Interior creates a space where the existence of women can be reimagined on different terms in the post ‘Me Too’ world.
With her show The Feminine Art of Shooting, Beth Kay makes her mark on the male-dominated sport of bullseye shooting in Australia.
Having her own target range shooting practice Ms Kay began making drawings and paintings using the target design as her launching motif.
Using the gun itself as a powerful mark making tool, she loads up and delivers the end of each piece with a speeding bolt of lead.
The Riddoch will host a panel discussion on Clarice Beckett’s life and on Saturday, June 15, at 11am featuring the National Gallery of Australia assistant curator Australian art Deidre Cannon and conservator Jocelyn Evans.
Later the same day there would be an artist’s talk with Natalya Hughes at 12.30pm, followed by a tufting workshop at 1pm, where participants would create their own textile work using the punch needle tufting technique that Hughes employs in her work.
On Saturday, July 20, there would be a presentation and Q&A with author of ‘The Worlds and Work of Clarice Beckett’ Dr Edith Ziegler.
Activities can be booked online at theriddoch.com.au
The exhibitions will officially open on Friday, June 14, at 6pm by City of Mount Gambier mayor Lynette Martin, with works on display until July 28.
