Group Show
Monuments Of Nature
29 May - 9 June 2024
G3 + G4
Opening Night
Friday 31 May | 6 - 8pm
◼︎
"Monuments of Nature" presents a group exhibition showcasing the diverse perspectives of 10 artists who challenge traditional concepts of monuments by exploring this connection to the natural world.
Through various mediums such as drawings, paintings, ceramics, and installations, each artist responds uniquely to the theme, encouraging viewers to forge deeper connections with nature, especially in urban environments.
The exhibition will call on individuals to acknowledge their active role in the world, transcending from the role of passive observer, and expanding the community's awareness.
Alexandra Mills
Statement
These wall works are part of a body of work made during residencies over 2023-24 around Sydney’. They capture several stages of the plant’s life at once by combining and layering materials. Their distinctive sculptural features can be gnarly and hairy or smooth and regular. The seed pods can suggest human faces while the inflorescences in many shades of gold can be spirit-lifting. The scale is increased to invite the attention of human viewers’ to the importance of these life-carrying little monuments.
Bio
Alexandra Mills is an emerging Sydney-based artist working in mixed media sculpture and drawing combining found and re-used materials including wire, timber, textiles in drawings to evoke the character of subject matter. She has undertaken several research-based projects based on archival and museum collections, historic sites, and family artefacts. Her work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions and is held in the collection of the National Art School as well as private collections. Alex is a graduate of the National Art School and is currently an artist-in-residence at North Sydney Council’s Ridge Street Studios.
Website: www.artmills.net
Instagram: @alexandramillsart
Belinda Yee
Statement
The Graphite Profile drawings are made by tracing rock faces around Sydney Harbour and using those profiles as drawing guides. I repeatedly retrace a guide for each drawing, using my breath as a metronome. The works are made with graphite, a material made from the fossil remains of unimaginably ancient plants. I think of this work as a confluence of temporalities: the temporality of the natural rock forms, the metre of my breath, and the millennia over which graphite forms in nature. These temporalities coalesce in the brief dura/on of making each work.
Bio
I am an interdisciplinary artist living on Eora (Sydney), where my practice includes drawing, installation, and painting. I am currently exploring processes for decolonising /me by foregrounding the experience of me and other natural temporal meters. I have an MFA from the National Art School, a BVA from Sydney College of the Arts and a BID (Bachelor of Industrial Design-Honours) from the University of Canberra. I have exhibited in Australia, Hong Kong and France. I have work in the National Art School and Capella Sydney collections. I am a co-founder and director of Draw Space (drawspace.org) in Newtown.
Website: belindayee.com
Instagram: @belindayee
Ben Liney
Statement
Standing amongst the tall gums, the boulders of the Baw Baw Ranges rise prominently, adorned with moss. Resonating since the birthing of our earth, their memories echo into our present time. To enter their presence is to become aware of a profound stillness.
The painted works reveal the intricate details and forms of these great boulders, with their surrounding landscape intentionally removed to symbolise the stillness that defines their existence. The soft, living moss serves as a reminder of the life that thrives in the present moment, continuing a long-lived tradition.
Bio
Ben Liney is an Australian artist working on the lands of the Yalukit-willam. Seeking inspiration from explorations across the country, he takes a rigorous approach to bring new visions of place, depicting minimal scenes in an intimate realistic form.
Working in oil painting, Ben explores the unwounded beauty of the landscape and how it can carry out the hidden work of life within us.
With a focus on rock forms set against an open background, distinct details of the natural world are revealed in order to invite a conversation of the landscape into our everyday.
Website: www.benliney.art
Instagram: @benliney
Chris Gleisner
Statement
Microcosms is inspired by the awe and wonder I experience in the natural world. The work explores the textures and repetition of patterns which are the visually recognisable building blocks of the natural world. These fractal patterns appear in many forms and repeat themselves across all scales, from the smallest of microscopic organisms and expanding into the vastness of the known universe.
I see my process as a collaboration between my own creativity and the laws of nature. The final works are a blend of art and science, somewhere between order and chaos; between my intentional creative processes and the unpredictable forces of nature at work as water and ink interact with paper.
“The line between order and chaos where complexity lies is actually shaped like a fractal.”
- Neil Theise, professor of pathology
Bio
Chris Gleisner (she/her) is a Sydney based artist, working and living on the land of the Bidjigal and Gadigal clans. For most of her working career, Chris has been a freelance photographer, exhibiting her personal photography in various group shows, and a handful of small solo shows in the early 2000s. In 2019, after over 10 years devoted to raising her daughter and building her business as a commercial photographer, she began transitioning into a fine arts practice focussed primarily on drawing.
Working on paper, using mediums including pencil, ink and oil pastel, Chris’s work centres on a meditative drawing practice; an immersion in the process of mindful and intentional mark making. Her work is guided by contemplative exploration as a means of allowing both mind and body to focus on the intuitive and tactile process of creating by hand.
In 2022, she had her first solo exhibition of drawings, Meditations, in her gallery/studio space, Ten Forty Seven Creative Space. Since then, Chris has been a finalist in several art prizes. In 2023, she was awarded a Highly Commended Emerging Artist in the Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize, and in 2024 she won the Emerging Artist category of the Prize. Also in 2024, she received a Highly Commended in the Remagine Hornsby Art Prize. Chris was also finalist in both the Du Rietz Art Award and the Remagine Hornsby Art Prize in 2023.
Website: www.chrisgleisner.com
Instagram: IG: chris_gleisner_art
Emma Pattenden
Statement
"Monuments" unveils Emma Pattenden's vibrant new works based on observations of the Australian Landscape. Using delicate pen and watercolour techniques, she captures the monumental essence of ancient rock formations, prompting viewers to ponder the geography's significance. Each piece offers a unique perspective on these natural wonders, symbolising the passage of time and elemental forces that shaped them. Pattenden's meticulous approach documents the landscape's evolving character, weaving repetition and surprise to reflect its dynamic evolution. Through watercolour washes, she infuses depth and vibrancy into her portrayal, inviting quiet reflection encouraging a deeper appreciation for its monumental and ancient forms.
Bio
Emma Pattenden is a female visual artist residing in Naarm. Over the past 4 years she has practised as an artist part time creating intricate, methodical and contemplative art that delves into themes of landscape, memory and the embodied experience.With a background in architecture, Emma's art reflects a deep understanding of spatial engagement and human interaction with nature. Influenced by artists like Andy Goldsworthy and James Turrell, she creates pieces that invite viewers to reflect on their own connection to the natural world. Emma's professional success includes solo exhibitions at Red Gallery and Brunswick Street Gallery, as well as recognition in prestigious group shows such as the Agendo Art Prize and the Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing.
Website: www.emmapapttenden
Instagram: @boh_emma
Isabelle Mackay-Sim
Statement
When I am in nature, I feel at once connected to and separate from the landscape. I can see similarities between the silhouette of a rock or distant mountain, and the curvature of the belly, thigh or shoulder. The creases in eucalyptus bark recall the folds of the waist or the armpit. Simultaneously, the sheer enormity of nature presents a threat. My body feels small and vulnerable in the vast and sublime landscape. These works present a few on this ambivalent relationship.
Bio
Isabelle Mackay-Sim is a ceramic artist working in Canberra (Ngunnawal Country). After graduating with Honours from The ANU School of Art in 2018, Mackay-Sim has continued her practice as an exhibiting artist and an arts educator in tertiary and secondary settings. Approaches her craft with an emphasis on abstracted interpretations of the human body. Recent explorations delve into the shifting perceptions of the body as influenced by diverse environments, both natural and built. She has participated in numerous exhibitions and residencies in Australia and Internationally, including the Talente Art Fair in Munich, Joya Barcelona art fair.
Website: www.isabellemackay-sim.com
Instagram: @isabellemackaysim
LUCY CHETCUTI
Statement
Lucy’s practice extends to abstract painting, drawing, installation, sculpture and recently printmaking techniques like monotyping. She spends time walking on Ngunnawal / Ngambri Country observing plant life which informs the creation of abstract artworks. She approaches the topic of ecology and nature to uncover the queerness that prevails. Her work celebrates queerness in the context of nature, and rejects heteropatriarchal definitions of what is ‘natural’. Her work evokes the pure and magical queer joy that results from reconciling queer identities as perfect and natural. She makes work about the themes of intimacy, relationally, queerness and nat.
Bio
Lucy Chetcuti is an emerging visual artist based on unceded Ngunnawal/Ngambri land, Kamberri/ Canberra. Lucy was a board member of Tributary Projects Artspace for 2 years. In 2021 she won the ANU School of Art and Design Drawing Prize. She received First Class in Honours in Painting at the ANU School of Art and Design in 2021. In 2022 she undertook a 6 month residency at M16 Artspace in Canberra. She is currently a stockroom artist for Stanley Street Gallery in Darlinghurst, Sydney and a studio resident of Australian National Capital Arts (ANCA) in Kamberri/Canberra. Most recently Lucy was announced as a finalist in the Goulburn Art Award in 2022 and 2024.
Instagram: @untitled.attempts
Madeleine Sherburn
Statement
Sites are constantly under construction, both physically and phenomenologically. From this construction, there is a mutually occurring moment of loss; whether that be ecologically, the imbedded community, its culture and history, or otherwise.
Underneath A Rust Coloured Sky lingers between a moment and a space that is fragmented and displaced, calling to witness this flawed fixation of memorialising nature. To disrupt a site and to demarcate significance leads to its own demise. These translucent photographs, gently floating and lit against the gallery backdrop, are records of what becomes wasted or lost from human touch.
Bio
Madeleine Sherburn is an artist, curator, writer and arts worker, with a focus on lens-based practice and the intersections between the spectator, site-specificity and the environment. Madeleine seeks to challenge preconceptions around photography, particularly with regard to their positionality as a colonial-settler.
Website: madeleinesherburn.com
Instagram: @sher_burnt
Mahala Hill
Statement
Waste environments, the new normal. Skeletal bees, triumphantly surmount the contaminated geological waste columns, creating their new world order. Columns stand as enduring symbols of architectural ability. As foundational elements of grand human-made structures throughout history. Their imposing presence evokes a sense of awe and reverence while simultaneously exposing humans irreversible mark on the environment.
Reclamation of materials throughout my practice has helped to inform this experimental work. Layers of the reclaimed material stacked into columns, once fired appear as a blend of sedimentary layers, moss, and fungus. Bees feature in this work serving as both a homage to their monumental nature and a reflection of their fundamental significance in the earth’s ecosystem. The bees embody the living dead, a ghostly shell of their former selves. Being constructed from ‘burn outs’–the remnant form after plant matter is asphyxiated in clay and incinerated. The insects are uncomfortably fragile, simultaneously evoking traces of life and loss. In a time marked by rapid environmental change and human intervention, my sculptures serve as reminders of the need to worship and care for the natural world.
Bio
Mahala Hill is a contemporary ceramic artist who is renowned for her innovative approach, characterised by experimental techniques. She engages in material exploration, allowing it to guide her ideas and extend her conceptual framework. Central to Hill’s practice is the concept of burn out; a transformative process where plant matter is encased in clay and then incinerated, leaving behind a haunting, shell-like form. Through this process, Hill explores both past and present environmental challenges, inviting viewers to contemplate the fragility and resilience of our natural world.
Website: https://mahalahillceramics.com/
Instagram: @mahala_m_hill
Olivia Gates
Statement
These shell forms, shaped from glass, are tools for listening. Please take a moment to sit with these objects intended to be touched and held to your ear. Notice how they amplify the sounds around you, notice the difference in how each shell captures and reflects sound. Consider how you could continue your listening practice beyond this place.
Bio
Olivia Gates (she/her) is an artist working and living between Ngunawal and Ngambri Country (Canberra) and her home in Kiama in Dharawal Country. Working primarily with the material of glass, Olivia’s art practice explores strategies that foster her personal sense of belonging in the Australian post-Mabo landscape as a descendant of Irish, English, and Scottish settlers and convicts. Her research relies on generational memory, connection to place and confronting the ongoing impacts her lineage has on Country. Olivia has been a recipient of the Corning Museum of Glass / Australian National University Partner Scholarship, and the Nigel Thomson Travel Grant.
Instagram: @oliviagatesart
Alexandra Mills | Belinda Yee | Ben Liney | Chris Gleisner | Emma Pattenden | Isabelle Mackay-Sim | Lucy Chetcuti | Madi Sherburn | Mahala Hill | Olivia Gates
Contact
Phone : (03) 9482 3550
mail@redgallery.com.au
Address
157 St Georges Rd
Fitzroy North, Victoria, 3068
Map
How to get here
Tram: route 11
Stop 21 just north of Edinburgh Gardens
Melway ref: 30B12
Parking in nearby streets
Bus: 504 (Reid Street)
