2010 Calendar Now Available

The 2010 calendar for the Town Hall Gallery has arrived! To get your copy or to be added to the mailing list contact Leisure and Cultural Services on 9278 4770.

Also don't forget we have a public program this Saturday 5 December. Join artist Caroline Carruthers from 2pm to 3pm as she discusses her work and her artist residency at New Pacific Studios in New Zealand.

Human Nature is the last exhibition for the year so come in before Saturday 19 December to get your fix! Otherwise you will have to wait for the gallery to re-open on Wednesday 13 January 2010.

Take a walk on the wildside....

Caroline Carruthers, Mt Holdsworth Secrets (detail), oil on paper, 2008

The Town Hall Gallery is pleased to present Human Nature, an exhibition by Australian artist Caroline Carruthers during November and December

In Human Nature, Carruthers presents works created during her residency at New Pacific Studios in New Zealand. These paintings examine a recurrent theme in her work: how we see ourselves and how we present to others.

In the context of the natural environment of the Pukaha Mt Bruce National Park, Carruthers brings the human capacity for self-awareness and self-deceit into focus.

Utilising evocative natural features and objects from that environment, Carruthers explores the boundary between human and external natural realities, and recreates the sense-experience engendered by those realities.

When you step into the terrain explored in Human Nature you will experience one artist’s view of the contradictory nature of each individual’s interaction with the natural world.

Caroline Carruthers hopes the exhibition will provide a forum for visitors to consider how their lives affect their environment.

“(We should) reflect on how much we change our world. How a simple stroll in the bush might destroy animal habitats. How we balance our desire to preserve our environment with the need to feed and house ourselves,” Carruthers said.

Human Nature will be at the Town Hall Gallery from Wednesday 25 November to Saturday 19 December.

In Conversation – Human Nature
The artist will be discussing the exhibition with interested visitors between 2pm and 3pm on Saturday 5 December.

Come in and see some Maudsley's!

Artist Helen Maudsley with gallery assistant John Hendriks at the launch of the exhibition.

Town Hall Gallery is pleased to present Line, Colour, Shape, an exhibition which highlighting many recent acquisitions and donations to the Collection over the last two years, as well as some older art works.

The title Line, Colour, Shape explores three elements of art and how they are applied to the variety of works on display. The exhibition hopes to help viewers gain an in-depth aesthetic appreciation of the Collection through these principles.

Visitors will also be able to view latest acquisitions by Helen Maudsley, a renowned locally based artist and widow of the artist John Brack.

Town Hall Gallery curator, Mardi Nowak said the inspiration for this four-week exhibition is Maudsley's significant work, The Green Sovereignty, which has been added to the Collection this year.

"Helen Maudsley's work is unique and prolific. In both her paintings and drawings a variety of abstract shapes fill the plane, giving us glimpses of icons that are familiar to us. Every time you view a Maudsley you are drawn into the chaos only to find something new over and over," Ms Nowak said.

Town Hall Gallery Collection is pleased to have built up a small but substantial body of works by Helen Maudsley. The recent acquisitions bring the total of pieces to five and include both works on paper and paintings.

A variety of other artists' work will be on display with Maudsley's, including Eric Thake, Fred Williams, Matthew Sleeth, John Blogg, Robert Clinch and others.

Line, Colour, Shape will be at the Town Hall Gallery from Wednesday 28 October to Saturday 21 November.

To find out more about the Town Hall Gallery Collection, visit the Collection database here!

Your Curator is at Large!

(Gallery assistant John Hendriks, the Town Hall Gallery horse and Curator Mardi Nowak)

Hello Town Hall Gallery visitors and blog readers!

Just a note to say that your Curator will be away doing lots of arty stuff in a variety of overseas locations for the remainder of 2009. The gallery will be running as usual under the guidance of assistant John Hendriks (above with our beautiful horse!) and Cultural Development Officer Tammy Ryan who is returning from maternity leave.

There will be a variety of events and exhibitions still to happen before 2009 is over such as Get into Art day on Saturday 24 October and the Town Hall Gallery Collection exhibition Line, Colour, Shape which starts on 28 October.

Stay tuned for some guest posts from Tammy for the remainder of 2009 as well as some 'Curator at Large' posts from me from a variety of locations for those interested in what's going on in the art world internationally.

See you in 2010 with a great program of fascinating, dynamic and beautiful exhibitions!

Mental Health Week 2009 at Town Hall Gallery

Town Hall Gallery is pleased to host Voice: to be seen and heard, an exhibition that celebrates collaboration between a variety of Boroondara artists who experience mental health and isolation issues.

The exhibition is presented as part of Mental Health Week 2009 and features artists from CROP, Mosaic Day Program, Nova Art, Oasis, Prague House and City of Boroondara Youth Services.

CROP art tutor Lachlan Plain has guided participants to use whatever medium they feel comfortable using to tell their stories. This includes sound elements, painting, printmaking, poetry and textile works.

The exhibition will be open to the public from 7 October to 24 October 2009.

For more Mental Health Week activities and events visit here! For more information about CROP visit here!

The Paper Life Boat - Media stuff!

Click on the article to make bigger to read!

The Paper Life Boat exhibition finishes this Sunday at 3pm so you only have one week to come and check out the comic book geniuses. When you pop in this week you may also see our large green horse taking some time out in the gallery to read some of the comics as well. He featured during the public programs on Saturday as many of the attending comic book artists added a 'square' to the horse.

If you would like to read more about what happened on Saturday 26 September during the public programs why not check out Bobby N's blog. Bobby is a comic book creator and attended the programs as well.

The article above has featured in the Beat Magazine this week. Lou Pardi from Beat interviewed Jo Waite about the exhibition. I'm sure that you will find the interview very insightful, especially how difficult it can be to a comic book creator in Melbourne.

The Paper Life Boat now open!

The Paper Life Boat exhibition opened last night to great attendances. Everyone took part at the 'paper life boat making stand' and added their creations to the installation above. It was great to see many familiar faces from the Melbourne Comic Book scene but also some new comic book people from interstate too!

A big congratulations to the artists involved, their work looks amazing and all have taken on the theme with enthusiasm. Also a thank you to organizers Jo Waite and Bernard Caleo for again, taking the gallery visitors on a wonderful journey through comics.

We hope to see you this Saturday at the gallery from 2pm for a talk by Bernard on how comics can save your life and then from 3pm till 4.30pm there will be a comic book jam, more paper life boat making and if you feel keen, help us paint our Melbourne Cup horse!

We look forward to seeing you soon. Just remember that the Paper Life Boat exhibition ends on Sunday 4 October at 3pm.