February 2004Welcome to the February edition of the Megalo News where we anticipate an exciting and event filled year for Megalo. There are interesting exhibitions booked into the Gallery and innovative projects such as the Beam Data Projections, which are scheduled for the Celebrate Canberra Festival in March. Further development of the Watson facilities are planned including the establishment of the paper workshop and the dye facility for screenprinting onto fabric. A budget for the works will be tabled for consideration at the March meeting of the Management Committee. Megalo Members ExhibitionThe response to the first members show in the new Watson Gallery was very positive but we hope to make the 2004 show even better. We would like to receive your ideas and suggestions about how we might do that perhaps by offering a theme which would give the exhibition an additional point of interest for members and our visiting public. Steven Cullen has suggested something Greek might be appropriate, whether this was a reference to the Olympics or the notion that a Latin title would lend status to an exhibition I am not sure but all suggestions are welcome as are most things Greek, particularly the edible. As an enhancement for the members show Megalo has entered into a sponsorship arrangement with the ArtStore that will provide 3 materials vouchers to the value of $500, $200, & $100. The winners will be drawn from a hat! The exhibition will be held from 1st December 04 - 31st January 05, Suggestions for themes or indignant outcries against the whole concept of an exhibition theme can be directed to the nearest Megalo staff member. Megalo MembershipThis is the annual reminder that memberships expired on the 31 December, unless you renewed your membership in September or later. To check if your membership is current look for a number 4 beside your name on the address label. Memberships can be renewed over the phone with a credit card. Note: your Megalo Membership card entitles you to a 10% discount at the Artstore in Phillip and Braddon Megalo AGMThe Annual General Meeting of Megalo will be held at the Watson Workshop at 6.00pm on Monday 29 March. All members are welcome to attend. Items on the Agenda will include the tabling of the annual report for 2003 and the appointment of new board members to replace those outgoing. Time will be provided for members to ask questions of the Megalo Management Committee which is comprised of the elected Board and Staff members, for further details contact Peter Zanetti at the office. Megalo Business Plan 2004 - 2006Megalo is pleased to advise that our application to artsACT for continued operational funding has been successful. The funding has been allocated for the period 2004 through 2006 and will allow Megalo to implement the program of activity described in the business plan for the period. A copy of the Business Plan is available for viewing by interested members. National Print SymposiumThe National Gallery of Australia will be hosting the 5th National Print Symposium from Friday 2nd - Sunday 4th April 2004. The Symposium will present exhibitions and talks by artists, curators and others involved in Printmaking within Australia and the region. Exhibitions at the NGA will include Place Made, a selection of prints made in the Australian Print Workshop and works from the Silk Cut Collection. A number of Canberra Galleries including the Megalo Gallery will present associated exhibitions. Symposium Programs will be available from the NGA. Megalo ClassesMegalo is currently running introductory classes in Screen-printing, Etching and Lithography. The next class program will be offered in June. Megalo Gallery Exhibition Program February- May 04 2,4,8,0
9 Sanctum Contour
Recent Works
From A Far-away Land Regeneration
Beam Data Projections6 - 15 March Project Artists: Jo Broad, Penny Cain, Peter Jordan, Rose Montebello, John Pratt and Franki Sparke The beam team have been busy developing and refining the data projection process from the design stages through to the projections. The original project concept anticipated relatively static works composed of still images but from early on the artists began experimenting with the moving image. By the time of the first official projection in City Walk on 12 December they had introduced motion and change into the imagery using drawing and photography as the basis for the works. They have also experimented with the projection surface and building forms to determine how the projections can engage with the host architecture to best effect. The next projections are scheduled to take place in City Walk in association with the Celebrate Canberra Festival See beam projections www.celebratecanberra.comDonation of prints to the Megalo ArchiveMembers are reminded that Megalo is keen to maintain the workshop proof collection; we welcome the donation of prints to the archive including works produced at Kingston as far back as 2000 In the WorkshopsThe summer period has been a busy and productive period. Western Australian artist Susanna Castleden undertook her residency during January and shared the screenprinting area with fellow resident artists Lindsay Dunbar, Joanne Robinson and Eleanor Gates-Stuart. Susanna packed a lot into her 4 weeks in Canberra. She undertook research in the National Library, had weekends in Sydney and on the South Coast and still found time to produce a variety of works on themes of place. She used reference materials such as maps and made contact prints of plants and old lace fabrics with association to particular places. Her works were all screen-printed using black ink to heighten negative against positive. Lindsay Dunbar also worked with just black ink but combined this with a palm size silkscreen, which features a stencil image of a crowd of faces. Lindsay uses this single screen to build up large landscape works, which use the faces to create a complex tonal system that forms the image at a distance. By contrast Eleanor Gates Stuart has been reaching deeply into the colour pots to produce images of saturated colour and delicate contrasting forms. Much of her recent work has been digitally based and developed with other collaborators using combinations of text, drawing and photographic imagery. Her current works in progress draw on those previous sources but celebrate the tactile and rich colour possibilities of screenprinting. Joanne Robinson's past works have combined her machine knitted fabrics with screenprinting. During the summer she began using canvas and fabric lengths, printing them with elements such as digitised rust and multiples of truck batteries rendered into elegant patterns extended from the base subjects. Both Lindsay and Joanne will return to Megalo later in 2004 to complete their residencies. Kate Lohse has just arrived in Canberra to begin her residency. She and Eleanor continue their stay through March. Work produced during the residencies will be scheduled into the exhibition program in the near future. |