Across the country some galleries are open, while others have had to close, but the online sphere remains absolutely jam-packed with art content, from dedicated online exhibitions and art lessons to behind-the-scenes access to collections. Tracey Clement has handpicked a few online excursions that we can all take, no matter where we are.
See seven new digital-specific works in Hyper-linked
In Hyper-linked, Heath Franco, Brian Fuata, Matthew Griffin, Amrita Hepi, Kate Mitchell, JD Reforma, and Justene Williams present new works specially commissioned for the online realm. In their own unique ways, each artist deals with the paradox of isolation in an age of hyper connectivity.
Conceived of as a direct response to the pandemic, as part of the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) initiative Together in Art, curator Isobel Parker Philip says, “The artists in this exhibition are examining the role the internet plays in shaping our lives and the ways in which we relate. They bear witness and pay tribute to our networked selves.”
Highlights include Justene Williams getting frustrated with Zoom and suffocating in a homemade mask while wrestling a man behind a door in The Unboxers, and Matthew Griffin demonstrating a variety of uses for mobile phone packaging in Hello Visibility: Bricks.
Watch conservators reveal their secrets
Both the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) and the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) are offering online audiences an access all areas pass to their usually off-limits conservation departments.
The NGA are currently restoring one of the most famous works in their collection: Jackson Pollock’s Blue Poles, 1952. A dedicated microsite offers lots of behind-the-scenes stories including pictures of the conservation process. And if you happen to be in Canberra in real-time, you can watch the conservator at work each Wednesday.
The NGV have also launched a dedicated conservation microsite, but theirs focusses on the whole collection, rather than just one masterpiece. The site features numerous stories on conservation as well as more than a dozen video talks which reveal the insider’s secrets that conservators discover about works such as Shearing the Rams by Tom Roberts and Hokusai’s bold prints.
Go to art school without leaving home with Isadora Vaughan and ACCA
Ahead of her exhibition at Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), Overlapping Magisteria: The 2020 Macfarlane Commissions, (due to open late 2020, watch this space) artist Isadora Vaughan offers a step-by-step guide to her wax casting process as part of the ACCA Art Kitchen series.
In a short video the artist talks about her ideas and shows us how she makes her work. Students both young and old can then follow her clear instructions and make their own wax sculptures at home.
Take a virtual wander through Australia’s largest public collection of women’s art
The Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery at The University of Western Australia offer online audiences the chance to explore the Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, the largest public collection of its kind in Australia.
The new searchable database includes more than 700 works by Australian women. “It documents the extraordinary contribution female artists have made to our understanding of Australian life and culture,” says Professor Ted Snell, director of the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery.
Join a feminist editing circle
The Art+Feminism Wikipedia edit-a-thon is a global event with the aim of redressing the under-representation of female artists on Wikipedia. Keen to get involved? QAGOMA are hosting four online editing circle sessions full of tips and tricks, hosted by Dr Louise R Mayhew. These virtual editing groups take place on Wednesday evenings, 5, 12, 19 and 26 August. Participants must commit to all four sessions and bookings are required.
Endlessly inventive, the work of Hong Kong-born, Melbourne-based artist Scotty So spans photography, painting, video work, and drag performance. With a dual exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ballarat, So talks about pageantry, begonias and queens.
Kokatha and Nukunu artist Yhonnie Scarce has earned critical acclaim for her research in nuclear testing and its ongoing impact on First Nations communities. With a survey at the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Scarce speaks to her blown glass forms.
A new exhibition at Bendigo Art Gallery, drawn from the Musée Carnavalet in Paris, brings the Belle Èpoque era to life through impressionist paintings and antique ephemera. View, in pictures, a slice of Parisian history.
“Sometimes I think of my paintings as a sound score to the pulse of the landscape.” Sue Lovegrove presents 12 new abstract landscape paintings in her latest show at Gallerysmith.
Anne Zahalka’s retrospective at the Museum of Australian Photography offers the chance to see 40 years of her revered photographs. In our interview she talks about reflecting on her work, the necessity of humour, and making art in times of political and climate crises.
25-year-old Serwah Attafuah is known for her hyper-luminescent dreamscapes and cybernetic archetypes. In her Sydney studio she discusses the scavenger methods, ancestral rituals, and socio-ecological concerns that scaffold her practice—and why The Matrix helps her understand the world.
