Art Gallery Update

Striking out across the region’s galleries you’ll find some familiar names alongside exciting new voices … and now that Harbour is now delivered to even more locations, it means that our Art coverage has also expanded!

At last, we get to showcase you the exciting work currently being exhibited across our northern neighbour, with the Grafton Gallery featuring not one, not two, but four wildly inventive exhibitions that each conclude on June 18th.

‘ZOONOSES’ is a touring exhibition of works by Dr Nicola Hooper, which takes the darker side of nature and transforms it into captivating art. As the gallery explains, “This exhibition uses drawing as a narrative tool to consider human fear of … zoonosis, and draws parallels to the representation of animals in fairy tales, myths, and rhymes.”

They are also presenting the works of local artist, Rochelle Summerfield in the “On the River’s Edge we meet” exhibition, a series of drawings, installations and experiments inspired by the Clarence River.

“TRUTH (Just be careful who you offend)” is an exhibit from proud Yaegl woman, mother and artist Frances Bell Parker. It is a stirring response to the ongoing censorship and silencing of First Nations voices.

Finally, there is also ‘Do you see what I see?”, a curated selection of works from the Gallery’s own collection. Deborah Taylor, a well known Clarence Valley-based artist of Gumbaynggir and Bundjalung descent who has had a long involvement with the Gallery, has chosen this special assortment of differing viewpoints on different subjects.

And that’s just the one gallery! We can’t wait to show you more of the Clarence Valley’s visual art scene in the months ahead.

Headed south again, the Urunga Art Space is launching ‘Apron Strings … The Ties That Bind”.

Have you ever picked up an object, visited a location, or heard a song and been

immediately transported to an earlier time and place? Certain images, smells and sounds tug at our memory: they have power in our lives.

In this exhibition, artists were invited to explore these ‘ties that bind’ within their own mediums. Artists include Gloria Malone, Chris Hundt, Andrew Lo, Tony Southwell, Christine Wilson, Kathy Sobothie-Edwards, Elinor Holliday, Hugh Wade, Rosalind Robertson, Will Douglas, Rowena Post, Edna Adamson and Coco Elder.

The exhibition runs from 18th May until 18th June, and is open every day from 10am till 4pm.

Wander just fifteen minutes inland and you’ll find yourself in that wonderland of creativity, Bellingen – and the Nexus Art Gallery. During the first half of June, the gallery will see the continuation of exhibitions by the Fibre Artists Network and Will Douglas. Following this, the Bellingen Community Art Council (BCAC) Winter Members’ Exhibition opens on Sunday 18 June at 2pm, and runs until 14 July. Find out more: www.bcac.org.au

Something for everyone across our region’s galleries – and that’s no small claim.

Now! Time to go admire some art …

Artwork: Bath Time by Linda Coomber