11/12/2018Biennale of Australian Art, BOAA review
Biennale of Australian Art, BOAA 21 September to 6 November 2018 Ballarat, Victoria The Biennale of Australian Art (BOAA) began its inaugural festival in Ballarat, just 1.5 hours on the train north of Melbourne. Ballarat originally was a gold mining town with many stunning heritage buildings built during the gold rush of the 1850’s. It was also famous for the Eureka Rebellion among many other things. BOAA is an arts festival to showcase Australian artists and to create innovative contemporary art. It had more than 150 artists, 65 solo exhibitions held around 14 locations across Ballarat. There was a variety of sculpture, installation, drawing, painting, photography, performance, music, huge painted landscapes. There was a free bus (to ticket holders), every so often taking viewers to each venue and there was no shortage of people and plenty of places for coffee. Many of the heritage buildings are now empty and have…
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27/11/2018Australian Print Triennial 2018 Review
Australian Print Triennial 2018, Mildura 31st Oct – 4th Nov 2018 “The Australian Print Triennial is a major international art event spearheaded by The Art Vault that will bring together artists, academics, arts ambassadors and practising printmakers from Australia and overseas to engage in a celebration of art printmaking and its significance in modern Australia’s Art’s culture.” To read more of Robyn Archers forward for the event click here This 2018 world-class event ran over five days. The first 2.5 days comprised of Community Workshops, Artist workshops, Presentations and Demonstrations. A fabulous Meet and Greet at Stefanos Café, one of the event sponsors, kicked off one of three opening launches in venues on Deakin St, the Young Emerging Artists Exhibition, Exhibition by La Trobe students from Mungo, and the Exhibition of Indigenous works. Congratulation to Lauren Carter, an Umbrella member who had a beautiful triptych in the Young Emerging Artists…
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12/11/2018NQCC Art Exhibition – Call for Entries
Calling for Art works for next year’s exhibition 1 March – 5 April 2019 NQCC would like to invite anyone to submit a postcard sized artwork for our fundraiser event next year (limit of one artwork per artist). The works will be up for auction and displayed in the Vault at the Umbrella Studio, Townsville. Artworks due by 18 January 2019 Further details below and entry forms available here.
08/08/2018CIAF 2018 wrap up
Umbrella has showcased work by Townsville artists at the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair (CIAF) since the Fair began nine years ago and this year was our most successful yet. A diverse range of artworks were featured including prints, paintings and intricate Daris and masks by six artists including Martina Ah Sam, Toby Cedar, Shirley Dawson, Gail Mabo, Tommy Pau, and Obery Sambo. The high caliber of the Umbrella display attracted significant sales during the preview opening for museums, curators and collectors. Of particular note, the Bendigo Art Gallery purchased a shark mask by Toby Cedar which marks its first acquisition of a ‘traditional’ style Torres Strait Island artwork into their permanent collection. Overall exposure for Umbrella artists was substantial, with over 45,000 people attending the fair. Total sales for Umbrella in 2018 are the highest they have been in any year so far which is a wonderful achievement. Obery Sambo…
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08/05/2018Groovin the Moo 2018
After many months of working on the Groovin the Moo community art project, we installed the teepees on Friday 4 May and went to check out the festival in action on Sunday 6 May 2018. Umbrella did 6 weeks of workshops to create our public art installation for the Groovin the Moo festival. The theme for this year’s festival was “Back to Craft”. Ann Bartholomeusz was the artist facilitator on this project working with Angela Little planning the artwork, delivering a series of community art workshops and then installing it at the festival. We had 40 people work over 200 hours to transform bamboo poles, garden netting and CDs into a giant crafty creation! We gave 35 free tickets to participants who attended 2 of the workshops and dedicated a minimum of 6 hours to the project. With a team of 6…
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22/01/2018Compact Prints 2018 Registrations Open
International Print Exhibition & Exchange 17 August – 25 September 2018 Umbrella Studio invites artists working in traditional and digital print media to participate in our biennial international print exhibition and exchange, Compact Prints 2018. The exhibition is a celebration of contemporary print practices, embracing traditional, non-toxic and technological methods. Works are to measure 12 x 12cm. There are a few changes this year! You only need to TWO prints from the same edition and you now can submit up to 3 entries instead of just one. Full details are listed on the website. Registrations opens on Monday 22 January 2018 Registrations close on Monday 14 May 2018 Prints are to be postmarked by 5pm Friday 29 June 2018 to Umbrella Studio. Click here participate in the exhibition
29/11/2017Call for Exhibition: Expressions of Interest
Umbrella artists are invited to show expressions of interest in being part of an exhibition highlighting portraits of people who have experienced Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. PTSD is an health issue which is often ignored both privately and publicly and it is hoped the exhibition will heighten community awareness. It is expected the exhibition will take place at Umbrella Studio in 2019 but an expression of interest will need to be lodged by 28 February 2018. We hope to be able to provide a sitter who has experienced PTSD if you are unable to source your own. There is also a curatorial opportunity for someone who would like to coordinate the exhibition and curate the show. Please make your expression of interest in the exhibition and any questions you may have by clicking here to email Jan Hynes
21/05/2017Pop Up North Queensland Festival update
Expressions of interest to participate in Pop-Up North Queensland closed on Friday 19 May 2017 and we received our target of 30 artists! Thank you to everyone who have shown interest and put in an application! So many exciting and unique applications were received including a wide variety of painting styles, photography, printmaking, puppetry games and performances, textile art, ceramics, sculpture, film, and bar fly talks including a pop-up bar. Artists also expressed interest in holding workshops in fabric dying, drawing, petal couture, painting, nautical knotting, and weaving, woven milk crates and building an onsite Trojan Horse. Pop-Ups will also feature artists in action in areas of painting, printmaking, pottery, drawing and photography such as creating 100 portraits on 100 different lenses (of visitors to the festival)! Several empty shops have been secured in the CBD such as Northtown, Flinders Street, Denham Street, and Stokes Street. Artists will be given…
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11/04/2017Groovin the Moo sculpture Update
After almost three months of working solidly on our Groovin Grub (official name) for the Groovin the Moo festival, the sculpture is almost complete! We have had an amazing turn out from the community to help us create it, with 80 people contributing over 600 hours of their time. The GTM site crew came to visit us this week to check it out. Lynn Scott-Cumming led this project to turn and idea into reality – an outstanding achievement to everyone involved.
01/01/2017Wanton, Wild & Unimagined Touring Australia
Wanton, Wild & Unimagined is a playful exhibition of sculptured recycled plastics that stirs the imagination and evokes environmental reflection. Environmental artist Alison McDonald has spent many hours manipulating the humble plastic bottle, and collecting thousands of plastic lids to make a variety of unimagined and impossible creations inspired by plants, oceans and John Wyndham’s book The Day of the Triffids. McDonald’s artwork sits at the junction of sculpture, consumer culture and environmental concern; utilising multiples of individual recycled materials to create new forms and perhaps re-shape our thinking about plastic and its effect on our environment. McDonald’s own version of the Triffids manipulate plastic bottles into large and colourful-looking plants to such an extent that their original form is lost, whereas large-scale works such as Flow and Global leave the original form intact so we can see the impact of small plastic items on an enormous scale. By converting…
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