On Friday 23rd August New England Regional Art Museum will open three new exhibitions Quite Existence by Kate Durack, Imperial Reminiscence by Caroline Garcia and BIG!
Walcha based artist Kate Durack’s first solo exhibition at NERAM is a revival of the joys of nostalgia. The series of paintings in Quite Existence depict luscious interiors and garden pond scenes that revisit Durack’s childhood memory and imagination.
At the centre of Durack’s remembrance is her grandparent’s goldfish pond a quiet, murky and secret world that Durack once spent hours contemplating. The mystery of the external garden is then bought inside where opulent flower arrangements are stylishly placed amongst treasured domestic objects, but even here the influence of the pond still lingers for those who are looking closely.
“We are very excited for this first solo exhibition at NERAM by Kate Durack,” said Rachael Parsons, NERAM Director. “This body of work references art history and the style of work we see in our Hinton Collection, as well as Durack’s own childhood. The result is a series of stunning paintings that are both sentimental and contemporary.”
Kate Durack was born in Brisbane, she completed a Bachelor of Graphic Design from Griffith University (Queensland College of Art) in 1990 and has worked as a graphic designer in Brisbane, Kuala Lumpur and Sydney. In 2011, Kate and her family relocated from Sydney to Walcha NSW. In 2016, in collaboration with local author John Heffernan, she illustrated a “Tale of Two Brothers of Ancient Mesopotamia” and has since gone on to have several sell out solo and group shows at the Walcha Gallery of Art, also winning a number of local art shows.
Caroline Garcia is an interdisciplinary artist from Sydney. She works across live performance and video and investigates popular culture and colonial imagery. Imperial Reminiscence, explores the politics of identity, visibility and representation through the history of ‘whitewashing’ in mainstream cinema. In an attempt to reclaim these ethnographic images Garcia inserts herself into the dance sequences in Hollywood films to critique and mock the stereotype of the exotic ‘other’ and the use of white actors to perform the roles of non-white characters.
Garcia is currently based in New York City and has presented work at Judson Memorial Church, The Vera List Center for Arts and Politics, Spring/Break Art Fair (all NYC), The Luggage Store Gallery (San Francisco), The Manila Biennale (Philippines), Art Central Hong Kong, and was one of the eight artists selected for Primavera 2018: Young Australian Artists at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia.
In BIG! visitors can view some of the biggest artworks from the NERAM collection, some that have been rarely seen before. The exhibition features larger than life contemporary works by artists such as John Coburn, Two Bob Tjungurrayi and Tjampitjinpa, Karen Papacek, John Peart and more. The show is only open for a short period so it’s a BIG little show.
