Today is World Environment Day, Friday 5th June. During our isolation time much of our Earth has been celebrating, undertaking some healing showing us the outcomes. Clear waters in the Canals of Venice, Views to the Himalayas that had been hidden in smog, a decline in Greenhouse gases and wild animals roaming city streets are just some of the positive results of us staying indoors.
As the sun shines outside, though, it is difficult to not want to be out there engaging with nature.
I reminisce about making artwork in the great outdoors and celebrate today with posting an artwork from Flinders Island. One day I walked to a rise and stood overlooking a vast stretch of white sand. The stunning view was like and immense canvas just waiting for interaction.
Spiral from the Sea is the result of spending time on that vast canvas of sand, walking barefoot and feeling the coolness under my feet.
After much consideration and discussion I have come to the conclusion that it would be wise to cease art classes forthwith. To say the least this is a great disappointment but we all are living in unusual times.
Term 2 was due to commence on April 20/21 but this may not happen. We will keep you informed.
Those of you who had paid for a full term will have your money held over and adjusted when we recommence.
A few of you may wish to call in for advice or to pick up work, you are most welcome but please ring beforehand.
Please keep painting!
Until we meet again,
Walter.
We are currently living in a world where self preservation has taken on an urgency not seen in my lifetime.
The toilet roll saga has lead to empty shelves of anything related to soft papers for delicate body areas.
It has expanded to a hunter gatherer mode where shelves that once held pasta, rice, flour, sugar and other deemed staples are emptying at express rates.
Over one hundred countries checking their options to lock down in self preservation against a microscopic bug.
All major venues closing until further notice and/or one month at the minimum.
World renowned museums and galleries are in shut down and most importantly YOU NEED TO KNOW:
Art at St. Francis is closed until further notice. The current significant exhibition namely: Marks in Time – my exhibition on a world scale cannot be viewed. it is with SINCERE APOLOGIES that I advise all that the best way to see my work is via the attached images.
To view the full image: Select and click on first image – click on the i in a circle RHB of opened page then select View Full Size.
On Page 27 of the February issue of the Warrandyte Diary read Sandi Miller’s write up on Montsalvat Arts & Events current exhibition: Destruction, Beauty and Hope. Featuring works by both Denise Keele-bedford and Walter Magilton, money from art sold at the exhibition goes to the Victorian Bushfire Appeal.
Walter was interviewed on site at the exhibition: “Walter was a member of the North Warrandyte Fire Brigade and fought the Ash Wednesday Bushfires and his family have been caught up in the recent fires.”
Denise was encouraged to submit an entry for the upcoming exhibition at Red Gallery.
It was lovely to receive the below email from the Gallery Director Elle Rusch Drakos.
Good Morning.
Gina Fairley
Tuesday 11 February, 2020
Over the weekend, Melbourne’s iconic street art venue, Hosier Lane, was targeted by a gang armed with spray-paint.
Purportedly, six people wearing balaclavas used spray guns to ‘paint over’ aerosol and stencil artworks.
A video of the event was posted to Instagram on Sunday (9 February), which went viral.
By Monday, Melbourne City Council was in clean up mode. Melbourne Lord Mayor Sally Capp has said the historic cobblestones in the laneway were damaged in the act.
The attack drew a storm on social media.
Opinions were divided, many saying the action was not in the spirit of the laneway’s ethos, while others have drawn attention to the very transient nature of street art – it is often quick, irreverent, against authority and largely ephemeral.
Channel 7 reporter Nick McCallum described the event on Twitter as ‘A culture war between radical graffiti and more commercial street art.’
Chinese-Australian political artist Badiucao has had work in the lane in the past. He said of this week’s activities: ‘For me it is more like a stunt. If they having the same uniform; if they do it properly and with a public announcement right after, then it would be much easier to read into.’
‘It’s unfair work has been destroyed, but I think of it like a bushfire – new branches come after a severe bushfire – and the lane will completely shift and changed. We have to not just see as a disaster, but to see as bringing a renaissance to the lane,’ Badiucao told ArtsHub.
What seems to be missing in this conversation is a level of understanding of the history and role of street art.
Melbourne artist Rone told the ABC that the tone of respect shifted about ten years ago, when the entire laneway was painted blue as an art project. ‘Nothing was sacred after that. Nothing was important,’ Rone told reporters, adding that the lane had already been trashed as a tourist trap.
In an earlier ArtsHub article Emily McCulloch Childs writes about the blueing of Rutledge and Hosier Lanes.
Childs wrote at the time: ‘The late 1990s to late 2000s were significant in Melbourne art: for it was really the time the street art movement was born. Graffiti had flourished in the 1980s (in Melbourne); while there are still some decent practitioners left, the golden age is over.’
Like Rone, it is a view that it is a cyclical practice and one that is forced to recalibrate itself regularly – this is yet another iteration.
The lane has become famed for its street art to the level that it is now a major tourism boon for the city. It is the norm to catch a fashion photo shoot, buskers, artists selling their wears, and of course selfie addicts … all of whom are using the art, rather than engaging with it.
ArtsHub spoke with Zoe Poulsen, Festival Director of the forthcoming Melbourne-based urban art festival, Can’t Do Tomorrow. She said: ‘Artists know that their work can be there one day, gone the next. I think the lane will continue to be a space for provocation. Interesting to see what comes up next.’
Poulsen continued: ‘The lane has always incorporated art of various genres, its temporary and transient – it’s the life of the lane. Motivation frames what it is.’
Opening just a week after the Hosier Lane action, Can’t Do Tomorrow will be held 20-29 February at The Facility, and is all about a new generation of talent coming through our urban art scene. ‘Ultimately, we’re keen to question the very nature of art itself,’ said the festival organisers.
About the author
Gina Fairley is ArtsHub’s National Visual Arts Editor. For a decade she worked as a freelance writer and curator across Southeast Asia and was previously the Regional Contributing Editor for Hong Kong based magazines Asian Art News and World Sculpture News. Prior to writing she worked as an arts manager in America and Australia for 14 years, including the regional gallery, biennale and commercial sectors. She is based in Mittagong, regional NSW.
Twitter: @ginafairley
Instagram: fairleygina
Photo Credit:
Tourists taking photos of the street art in the hidden laneways of Melbourne, 2019. Image shutterstock.com Photo Wade Machin.
Amid Coronavirus Scare and Ongoing Protests, Art Basel Cancels Hong Kong Fair
An article by Alex Greenberger
Senior Editor, ARTnews
After a tumultuous period in Hong Kong marked by continuing protests and fears of a coronavirus outbreak, Art Basel has called off its fair in the city. The fair had been due to run from March 19 to 21. In a release about the fair’s cancelation, MCH Group, the holding company that owns Art Basel, said that the coronavirus and “severe logistical challenges” limiting travel were among the “numerous factors” that had influenced the decision. The ongoing protests were not mentioned in the release.
“Our thoughts are with those affected by the recent coronavirus outbreak all around the world,” Marc Spiegler, the global director of Art Basel, said in a statement. “We are acutely aware of the important role that the fair plays within the region’s cultural scene and for our galleries, both in Asia and around the globe. Our team dedicated extensive time and effort to ensure our show in March would be a success over the course of the past year. Unfortunately, the sudden outbreak and rapid spread of the novel coronavirus radically changed the situation.”
Adeline Ooi, Art Basel’s Asia director, promised that the fair would return in 2021. Next year’s edition is currently slated to run from March 25 to 27.
Shortly after Art Basel called off its Hong Kong fair, Art Central, another event of the sort in the city, followed suit. “The uncertainty has made it increasingly untenable to guarantee the safety and well-being of the public,” Art Central said in a statement. “Acting on its obligation to deliver a successful event which is ever dependent on a strong audience, the fair’s organizers today concede to the simultaneous myriad challenges.”
The Art Basel cancelation comes after the fair tried to console exhibitors worried about showing in Hong Kong while protests raged on. The fair had previously said in December that it would offer discounts on shipping and lodging because “we deeply value our relationship with our gallerists.” A representative for the fair said exhibitors would get a 75 percent refund on their booths.
The discounts offered originally by the fair in January proved to not be enough for some of the fair’s 240-plus exhibitors. Luxembourg & Dayan, SCAI the Bathhouse, and Tyler Rollins Fine Art dropped out of Art Basel Hong Kong in January, and days later, 24 enterprises with plans to exhibit there called on the fair to do more to alleviate its exhibitors’ concerns about a volatile market in the city. Dealer Richard Nagy followed with his own letter to Art Basel in which he said that the fair was “now commercially on artificial life support.”
Getting there was also proving increasingly difficult for exhibitors, due to travel restrictions put in place amid the spread of the coronavirus. Cathay Pacific and British Airways were among the airlines that had canceled flights over the course of the coming month, and U.S. officials urged people to avoid traveling to China for non-essential reasons.
An unlikely combination of factors has led art spaces to close for varying periods of time over the past month. In November, with protests taking place in Hong Kong’s streets, Hauser & Wirth postponed a planned opening of an Annie Leibovitz show; the exhibition still has yet to go on view in Hong Kong. And in January, public art institutions shuttered in the city as officials worked to contain the coronavirus, which has sickened more than 4,600 in China alone. At the time, Art Basel said it was “closely monitoring” the situation.
Last week, two Beijing institutions also postponed major events that were set to occur there. The CAFA Art Museum postponed the opening of its CAFAM Techne Triennial, which had been slated to open in October, and the X Museum, a new private museum founded by collector Michael Xufu Huang and businesswoman Theresa Tse, called off its inauguration. This week, the He Art Museum followed suit and delayed its opening, scheduled for March 21, for an as of yet unannounced date. Beijing Art Weekend postponed its 2020 edition to April, leaving open the potential for cancelation if conditions did not improve by mid-April. And on Thursday, February 6, with the death toll exceeding 500 from the coronavirus in China, the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art said three exhibitions slated to open in February and March would not open on their expected dates.
Some have cast doubt on whether the protests had impacted the art market in Hong Kong. Dealer David Zwirner, whose mega-gallery operates a space in Hong Kong, told ARTnews in December that the market in the city remains “alive and well.” He wound up canceling a Luc Tuymans show that had been slated to happen at his Hong Kong gallery this year.
This is not the first time Art Basel has canceled a fair. In 2001, following 9/11 and an anthrax scare, Art Basel postponed the inaugural edition of its Miami Beach art fair. The deposits paid by exhibitors that year were put toward the following edition.
Go to: ARTnews.com
People stand around an artwork created by South Korean artist Lee Bul at Art Basel in Hong Kong . Art Basel, one of the world’s most prestigious modern and contemporary art exhibitions, is returning to Hong Kong in its seventh edition. The prestige art fair is hosting 242 galleries from 35 countries and territories
China Art Basel, Hong Kong, Hong Kong – 27 Mar 2019
It has been heartbreaking to watch as the devastating bushfire crisis continues, therefore Montsalvat has decided to offer support in the form of a special fundraising exhibition entitled ’Destruction, Beauty & Hope’ to try and raise much needed funds for the appeal.
Montsalvat have invited artists to donate artworks for the exhibition with 100% of the sale of these artworks being donated to the Victorian Bushfire Appeal and have received an overwhelming response. Montsalvat will also be supporting the exhibition with a special opening in the Long Gallery on 1st February (2-4pm). All of which will go directly to the Victorian Bushfire Appeal and 100% of these donated funds will go directly to communities in need
Walter and Denise have donated artworks in support of the appeal. You are encouraged to attend the Opening and/or visit the exhibition until 6th March.
Exhibition opening
February 1, 2pm – 4pm
Long Gallery and Residents Gallery
Please RSVP to montsalvat@montsalvat.com.au or (03) 9439 7712
For information on the appeal visit www.vic.gov.au/bushfireappeal
- An image of the artwork/s you’d like to donate
- Title, Media and size of the work (not to exceed 100cmx100cm)
- Suggested sale price – priced to encourage a sale.
- A short artist statement
