Ceramics

Regeneration

Magali Gentric ·

Stockroom Kyneton, ceramic space
12 October / 17 November 2024

VICTORIA LYNAGH
Regeneration

Epicormic #4, 2024, burnished Keane’s terracotta, terra sigillata, saggar fired with eucalyptus woodchips, 12 x 33 x 8 cm

Climate change is one of the most profound and challenging issues facing humanity.  Victoria Lynagh’s work has developed from concerns surrounding the changing landscape and the increased prevalence of naturally occurring bushfires in Australia. Further influence comes from the debate on the historical use of controlled burns by indigenous peoples to manage the natural environment in a way that benefits humans and wildlife.  Many ecosystems have evolved with fire as an essential contributor to habitat vitality and renewal, with plant species regenerating in the fire-affected environments when the resultant ash is used as a source of nutrients to germinate, establish or reproduce.

The importance of the effects of fire on the ecological landscape is represented in Lynagh’s work. The blackened debris caused by fires, and the re-growth in the landscape that can follow, is illustrated in the partly carbonised sculptural forms that bleed into the natural colours of the land.

Drawing inspiration from the ancient and simple approaches used in land regeneration, Lynagh incorporates traditional hand-building ceramic methods into her practice.

The works are made from a range of different clay bodies, illustrating the array of colours that occur naturally in the Australian landscape.  All pieces are pinched, paddled, altered and refined before the surfaces are enhanced by the introduction of an earthy-toned palette of refined slips and terra sigillata.  This enables the use of clay in solid and liquid forms within each piece. They are then burnished to create a glossy patina, which reflects the light and creates shadowed areas.  Through their form and finish, the sculptural objects invite touch through their tactile and flawless surfaces and subtle, earthy beauty. Low-firing the pieces in a saggar with a range of organic combustible materials results in the works retaining the marks of the making process and reinforces the connection between the raw materials used and the earth they are taken from.

In a world where the pace of life is constantly increasing, Lynagh finds the simple hand-building techniques used in creating these pieces meditative. The simplicity and apparent effortlessness of the objects is born out of a labour-intensive method, where the repetitive and rhythmic nature of making imbues the surface with a sense of time. It is a process that cannot be rushed.  The ‘smoking’ effect on the object surface cannot be pre-determined. In a way, it reflects a wildfire – a process that cannot be controlled, but can result in an exquisite landscape.

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An Uncertain Grasp

Magali Gentric ·

Stockroom Kyneton, gallery one
12 October / 17 November 2024

PIA JOHNSON
An Uncertain Grasp

Dr Pia Johnson is a visual artist, photographer and lecturer. Her practice-led research is engaged in

performance, cultural identity and belonging, stemming from her mixed background of Chinese Italian- Australian descent. These themes have underpinned her interest in memory, cultural spaces and performance, to investigate notions of transcultural identity, belonging and otherness through photography. Pia has exhibited across Australia and internationally, and her works have been in numerous prizes and are collected in private and public collections including the National Gallery of Victoria.

Known as one of Australia’s distinctive performance photography and portrait artists for over a decade, Pia has commissions from all the major and small to medium performing arts organisations in Australia. In 2023 Pia was awarded the Kerri Hall Fellowship for Performing Arts at the State Library of Victoria and was an Artist in Residence at the Immigration Museum Victoria, which culminated in the solo exhibition Re-Orient. Pia has her own podcast Out of the Frame: Conversations about Photography, which profiles contemporary photographers and artists speaking about their practice and photographic concerns today.

Pia holds a Bachelor of Creative Arts and Diploma of Modern Languages (Mandarin) from University of Melbourne and has a Doctorate in Fine Arts from RMIT University, where she is a lecturer and currently the Program Manager of the Master of Photography program.

Pia lives and works on Dja Dja Wurrung Country, with her husband and daughter. She acknowledges and pays respect to the traditional owners of the land - always will be Aboriginal land.

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Dystopia

Magali Gentric ·

Stockroom Kyneton, gallery one
08 June / 14 July 2024

GUILLAUME DILLEE
Dystopia (Selected Works)

“The title Dystopia refers to the dreamlike quality of my works, a conceptual world where the relationship between Man and Nature is perpetually at odds. My creations reflect the limits of mankind concerning the expansive biodiversity around him. I delve into this paralleled concept through the exploration of man’s relationship with their natural environment, interpretations of plant organics, and the ambiguous relationship between botanical toxic beauty and danger.

Upon my arrival to Australia ten years ago I was exposed to a whole new world of natural environments and complicated intertwinings between man and nature. The Australian environment was a revelation of a unique palette of colours, light, shapes, biodiversity, flora, fauna, and natural disasters. I found myself intrigued by the contradictory beauty yet ferocity of Australian flora and fauna. This dichotomy became a central theme in my work, prompting me to examine the delicate balance between attraction and danger inherent in the botanical world.

Challenged by climate change more than most places, Australian land and people are frequently confronted with the destructive forces of natural disasters. In this context, I explored the complexities of coexistence between man and nature, focusing on the power dynamics that naturally arise between the two forces. On one side is man, who exploits natural resources, and on the other is nature, which, despite everything, regenerates beyond all expectations.

As a self-taught artist, I view my studio as a laboratory for experimentation between various mediums, techniques, and contrasts to create unusual visual compositions. I draw on what I observe, what I hear and what I feel to create elements that find their place in my creative subconscious. Successive layers of various mediums build upon each other, crafting the desired effect. Enamel or ink are applied in a spontaneous, definitive gesture, like Japanese Shodo (calligraphy technique), embracing the irreversibility of each mark.”

-  Guillaume Dillée, 2024

JOSHUA COCKING

Magali Gentric ·

A foreign body, 2024, oil on canvas, framed, 61 x 61 cm

Stockroom Kyneton, gallery two
16 March / 21 April 2024

JOSHUA COCKING
A foreign body

During Cocking’s years living in remote Indigenous communities, he was always conscious of being an outsider. That despite Cocking’s good intentions, he was an interloper in an unfamiliar place. These paintings capture implausible orbs floating in the landscape, attempting to blend into their surroundings, reflecting and absorbing colour. But ultimately, they remain a foreign body; they do not belong.  The Kimberley works represent Joshua Cocking’s ongoing attempts to immerse in a country and culture that is not his own. Conversely, the landscapes of south-western Victoria where he grew up are now also foreign; a sense of belonging eroded over half a lifetime lived away.

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KEZ HUGHES

Magali Gentric ·

Heather B. Swann, HeavyHead, Collection Art Gallery of South Australia 2016, 2023, oil on linen, silver finish frame, 51 x 51 cm

Stockroom Kyneton, gallery one
22 July / 27 August 2023

KEZ HUGHES
You Never Got Me Right

In an age where digital images dominate our experience, Kez Hughes’ paintings are lovingly rendered to communicate stillness, and beauty, and provide a new recording of artworks lost to their respective histories and locations.
Through repositioning and recreating paintings from existing documentary images of art, Hughes contemplates ideas of originality, authenticity, and authorship.
You never got me right brings together painted adaptations of works by Australian Artists including Lucina Lane, Heather b Swann, Olah Cohn, and Nat Ryan amongst others.

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GEORGINA PROUD

Magali Gentric ·

Crescent, 2023, stoneware, glaze, sea glass, 18 x 21 x 6.5 cm

Stockroom Kyneton, ceramic space
22 July / 27 August 2023

GEORGINA PROUD
Flux

Flux is an exploration of materiality that investigates the chemical reactions and transformation of materials that occur during the ceramic-making and firing process. These works combine a range of materials and techniques that I have been experimenting with over the past four years including the incorporation of novel materials, such as sea glass, seeds, and perlite, into different clay bodies. The interplay of the introduced materials and the clay creates a unique process of development.

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The decision is emerging

Magali Gentric ·

Stockroom Kyneton, gallery two
10 June / 16 July 2023

ANTHEA KEMP
The decision is emerging

This body of work represents the continuation of Anthea Kemp's fascination of nature and her creative process derived from nature and place. Through these paintings, Anthea captures a holistic approach, allowing her intuition to form a process to balance compositions inspired from visuals found in nature. The decisions that arise are an outcome of her attempts to distil the interplay between light and shadow, the graceful form of a donkey orchid, and the expressive lines found within trees. Simultaneously, she embraces the unpredictable nature of the painting medium.

This exploratory process enables the boundaries between representation and abstraction to shift, resulting in artworks that exist in a state of transition. Working on these paintings concurrently in her studio establishes a connection between them, evident in the shared decisions regarding marks, colours, and motifs. This continuity allows an energetic flow from one painting to the next, highlighting the iterative process she employs to bring each piece to resolution.

Anthea Kemp has been exhibiting since 2015, showcasing her work in solo exhibitions in Melbourne, Regional Victoria, and Sydney. Additionally, her artwork has been included in group exhibitions across various locations, including Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, and regional Victoria. Noteworthy exhibition spaces include Blindside ARI, LON Gallery, Saint Cloche, Benalla Art Gallery, and Wangaratta Art Gallery. Anthea has also been recognized as a finalist in the Macquarie Group Emerging Artist Prize (2016), the Atheneum Club Visual Research Award (2019), and the Len Fox Award at Castlemaine Art Museums (2022). In 2021, she was awarded the Macfarlane Fund Kyneton Residency. Anthea's work can be found in the collection of the Wangaratta Art Gallery, as well as in numerous private collections.

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ΩMNI

Magali Gentric ·

Stockroom, gallery one
29 April / 04 June 2023

HAYLEY ARJONA
ΩMNI

Suspended Potential, 2023, oil on board, 120 x 120 cm

Hayley Arjona lives and paints on a farm in Glenhope near Kyneton. A practicing artist for over 20 years, her creative journey has been unrelentless, non-conforming, and ever-evolving.

Hayley has completed a Master of Art Therapy from La Trobe University Bundoora (2020), a Master of Fine Art from the Victorian College of the Arts (2000), and a Bachelor of Visual Arts with first-class honours from the South Australian School of Art, University of South Australia (1998). Hayley’s work has been exhibited throughout Australia, her work is held in public collections, of the Art Gallery of South Australia and Artbank. Hayley is represented by Nicholas Thompson Gallery, Victoria.

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Polar Front

Magali Gentric ·

Stockroom Kyneton, gallery two
04 February / 12 March 2023

JARRAD MARTYN
Polar Front

Refuge, 2022, oil on canvas, 89 x 91 cm.

Polar Front explores humanity's relationship with the natural environment through intersecting family and world histories. Martyn's inspiration for this new body of work is through film photographs his Father took whilst working as a helicopter pilot, based at Casey Station in Antarctica during the 1980s.

As Antarctica has experienced some of the most rapid warmings on Earth it has significantly changed since the photographs were taken. Once stable ice shelves are melting faster, the declining habitat of several Penguin species and the human footprint in the region are increasing. In the past, the photographs were personal memories of a far-off alien land but are now foreboding and darker.

Martyn uses the principles of bricolage, something constructed from a diverse range of things, to bring together academic research and imagery. Pictorial forms are assimilated into different contexts and are collaged together to encourage the creation of new conversations and symbolic connections. The works in 'Polar Front' combine archival photographs from Antarctica, with appropriated early-Colonial Australian painting language, climate modeling and weather forecast patterns, and Romantic painting techniques. The dripping of paint, blurring of figuration, and shifts in texture conceive landscapes that are in flux and out-of-this-world. This slippage attempts to occupy the space between the public consciousness of the changing climate and the individual's impact, all whilst confronting the personal and familial significance of memory-making and keeping.

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Making sense of nonsense

Magali Gentric ·

Stockroom Kyneton, gallery two
22 October / 27 November 2022

LAETITIA OLIVIER-GARGANO
Making sense of nonsense 

Painting 2 (Life felt like mince meat, but I can’t even afford that anymore.), 2022, gouache, epoxy resin, polymer paint on board, framed, 40 x 40 cm

Trying to make sense of the chaotic nature of the last few years, Laetitia depicts her experiences in a cheerfully nihilistic way. Aestheticising hyper-real forms to convey emotions and memories, Making sense of nonsense is almost a painting show, not quite a sculpture show.

Carefully painted ‘hyper-surreal’ resin sculptures are laid out like constructivist paintings among a vivid, energetic blue. Lunch leftovers become abstract collages and detailed sculptures double as whimsical candelabras. Each life-like scene is intently placed as a tactile translation of memory.

Food is the defining feature of this exhibition, as a joyful comfort, as helpful procrastination, and as a reminder of loved ones. Fleshy oysters ooze their ‘bougie’ picnic opulence. An impassive brick of minced meat stresses the appreciation of boredom.

All timely reminders that life is just a bit nonsense.

Laetitia’s practice is driven by a close survey of food, plants and everyday objects, through surreal sculptural reimagining. By blurring the boundaries of complex yet recognisable forms, her work playfully incites both a sense of wonder and unease. These edible and domestic items speak to deeply personal emotions, memories and associations. Her work often engenders bodily responses from viewers due to its intense familiarity, yet complete absurdity. Our stomach turns, and we want to look away, but curiosity stops us. It is this uncanny sensation and the universality of it that her works make us aware of.

Laetitia currently works from her studio in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia. She graduated in 2016 with a Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours) from Monash University. Her work has been exhibited nationally at institutions such as Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, Cement Fondu, Notfair and Firstdraft. Her work has also featured in Broadsheet, Artist Profile and Art + Australia journals. In 2019 Laetitia received the Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship for Emerging Artists, administered by NAVA. She undertook research in Japan, learning how to make their iconic plastic food samples. Laetitia’s practice often involves ‘hyper-surrealistic’ resin cast sculpture, stop-motion animation and works on paper.

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