House museums are double-barrelled in name as they are in nature, and rare to boot—a residence on one hand, and a semi-public art space on the other. For former architect Charles Justin and Leah Justin, an education coordinator at Melbourne’s Jewish Museum, retiring quietly was not an option. While others tend to look towards downsizing their homes, the Justins commissioned a triple storey apartment, dedicating the two lower floors to their considerable art collection. April 2016 saw their inaugural exhibition Divine Abstraction ruminating on the topic of God and the divine with works by Gabriella Possum Nungarrayi, Penelope Davis and Ash Keating, to name a few.
After three exhibitions, Leah and Charles Justin are handing over their floor space to Canberra-based couple Susan Taylor and Peter Jones, who began collecting just under two decades ago. A mutual interest in Justin Andrew’s work, which they both collect in depth, drew the two couples together.
“There are very strong common threads to our collections both in our interest in non-objective art and geometric abstraction,” says Charles Justin. Taylor and Jones have also converted a spare bedroom in their home into Spare Room 33. “Most art sits in private environments which is only accessible to a limited audience and therefore the general public does not have an opportunity to see it,” says Justin.
timeFRAME refers to the periods of acquisitions which make up the three sections of the exhibition beginning from 2000–2003. While geometric abstraction was an early interest, with works by John Nixon, Marie Hagerty, and Peter Vandermark sought, Taylor and Jones soon began collecting “concrete poetry, art ephemera relating strongly to conceptual art, posters from geometric abstractionists from Germany and Netherlands and contemporary jewellery,” says Justin. With over 200 works in their private collection, about one fifth will be on display.
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Justin Art House Museum
3 September – 6 December
Kamilaroi/Bigambul artist Archie Moore has won the Golden Lion for Best National Participation at the Venice Biennale for his monumental work, kith and kin. It marks the first time Australia has won the award in the event’s 130-year history.
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.
An exhibition at UQ Art Museum centres the relationship between culture, tradition and the ocean, and illuminates how intergenerational storytelling, tied to oceanic themes, might subvert settler-colonial narratives.
A collaboration between Perth Festival, DADAA gallery and studio, and four Japanese arts and disability organisations has resulted in A rising in the east—an exhibition that asks what artists with disabilities can achieve when offered the resources.
In a rare interview, alongside her showing in the 24th Biennale of Sydney, Tracey Moffatt talks about her penchant for the staged and surreal, going beyond identity, growing up in Brisbane and moving to New York in her thirties, and the importance of imagination.
