Previous Exhibitions
2023
DANDALOOSU
DECOLONISE
10 December - 26 February 2023
Decolonise is an exhibition of textiles by Wellington-based artist DandalooSu, that explores the importance and value of native fauna and flora in agricultural and fashion industries. Drawing on cultural practices of native fibre crafts, knowledge of Gilgai’s (small water holes) and three pivotal dates where imported fibres were introduced into the Australian landscapes, DandalooSu fashion garments, headdresses and ornaments made with native materials is an attempt to highlight our current patterns of consumption. Decolonise is a body of work that aims to reclaim and elevate the use of native fibres within the textile world, and draw awareness to the environmental impact of their modes of production.
This is a HomeGround exhibition, produced by WPCC and supported by Orana Arts. HomeGround is sponsored by Wingewarra Dental.
Curated by Mariam Abboud
.png){kind=logo}
Image Credit: DandalooSu, Celebration, 2017, native fibre spiny sedge and imported raffia. Image © Chenoa.
ANDREW SULLIVAN
SURVEY INTO THE CRETACEOUS
10 December - 26 February 2023
“Human courage and endurance have conquered-the explorer must change his methods.” - Roy Chapman Andrews.
Survey into the Cretaceous is a journey into the painters imagination.
The painter has imagined himself as being an assigned artist with a team of paleontologists, scientists and geographers on a survey expedition into the late Cretaceous period. His brief is to record the fauna and express the experience through an artist’s eye. A broad cross-section of species is represented, some now extinct, some still extant today.
Boundaries of reality are not of relevance, barriers between disciplines blurred, this is an act of imagination. The work presented being the product of the journey, tangible evidence of an impossible story.
The analogy of the journey is paramount. As with each individual’s human journey, it is a journey of struggle, learning, growth and ultimately evolution and perhaps, transcendence.
This exhibition is managed and toured by Pompom Gallery
Image Credit: Andrew Sullivan, Out of Purgatory (Purgatorius, Diabloceratops and Dante) 2019?, oil canvas, 137 × 137cm. Image © the artist.
Curated by Mariam Abboud
THE COLLECTION
PREDATOR BECOMES PREY
1 October - 26 February
When the word Predator comes to mind, we may naturally think of animals that hunt, or prey on other animals. We perhaps overlook that the smallest of insects can become predators to the most fearsome of creatures in the animal kingdom. Predator becomes Prey is an exhibition that explores the delicate balance of nature and the complex relationship between animals and humans that interconnects us both from birth until death. This continual connection is expressed through our interaction and intrigue with the animal world, ensuring our place within the cycle of life.
Image Credit: Petrina Hicks, Bird Fingers, 2013, pigment prints on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Pearl paper 320gsm. Collection Western Plains Cultural Centre, Purchased with funds provided by the Friends of the Western Plains Cultural Centre.
EUAN MACLEOD AND RODNEY POPLE
2°
1 October - 12 February 2023
Friends and well-known Australian artists Euan Macleod and Rodney Pople undertook artist residencies in Dubbo during 2021, observing people and animals in Zoos produced sketches and preparatory studies and expanded on these later in the studio. For their first two-person exhibition they have produced large scale paintings and portraits of animals and humans, revealing a sustained engagement with the act of looking and its reverse – being looked at. In different ways characteristic of each artists’ established practice, the paintings explore notions of captivity and freedom, drawing out the absurdity at the heart of our own ideas around dominance and survival.
Curated by Kent Buchanan
This exhibition has been supported by funding from Create NSW.
Image Credits:
Euan Macleod, Zoo larger crowd, 2021, acrylic on polyester, 100 x 124cm. Image © the artist.
Rodney Pople, Roulette, 2021, oil on linen, 145 x 184cm. Image © the artist.
2022
CAPTURING NATURE
Early photography at the Australian Museum 1857- 1893
4th June - 23rd October
In Capturing Nature, we travel back to a time when photography was revolutionising science, art and society.
These never-before-seen images dating from 1857 to 1893 have been printed from the Australian Museum’s collection of glass plate negatives and are some of Australia’s earliest natural history photographs. Sitting at the nexus of science and art, they tell both the story of pioneering research as well as the advent of photography in the young colony less than 20 years after the birth of photography in Europe.
A touring exhibition created by the Australian Museum.
Image Credit: Gerard Kreft with the newly discovered manta ray, Manta alfredi, in the Museum’s courtyard in 1869. Photos © Australian Museum.
_edite.png){kind=logo}
BEHIND THE LINES: THE YEAR IN POLITICAL CARTOONS 2021:
PROPHECY & CHANCE
29th October - 4th December
Behind the Lines 2021 is rummaging in the fortune-teller’s chest for the crystal ball. Just as predictive models have become ever-present in the news cycle, the exhibition’s current theme, Prophecy & Chance, acknowledges our discomfort with uncertainty and our quest to know what the future holds. Peering into the swirling mists of the ‘Canberra bubble’ our talented political cartoonists have illuminated the complex issues of 2021’s ‘new normal’ - a year peppered with big reports, unexpected outcomes and floundering forecasts. From COVID-19, case numbers to house prices and employment levels, 2021 was a year to expect the unexpected.
The 2021 Cartoonist of the Year is Glen Le Lievre, cartoonist whose work has appeared in The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, MAD, Private Eye, Reader’s Digest, The New Yorker, Time and The Wall Street Journal.
Behind the lines is an annual onsite and travelling exhibition developed by the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House.
Curated by Holly Williams, The Curator’s Department
Image Credit: Glen Le Livre, Prophecy & change, Behind the Lines 2021 Image © artist.
%20(002)_edited_.png)
(Mono)_edited.png)
JESS JOHNSON & SIMON WARD
TERMINUS
1st October - 4th December
Inspired by Sci-Fi, comics and fantasy movies, Jess Johnson and Simon Ward: Terminus is a virtual reality (VR) installation that transports the viewer into an imaginary landscape of colour and pattern populated by human clones, moving walkways and gateways to new realms.
With their pioneering use of virtual reality, artists Jess Johnson and Simon Ward hold a unique position amongst contemporary art practitioners. Johnson’s drawings are transformed from analogue into digital, and from solo practice into cross-disciplinary collaboration, forming the basis of this virtual experience. Animated by Ward and enriched with input from Smith and Clarke, the result is Terminus: a mysterious universe of alien architecture populated by humanoid clones and cryptic symbols, explored via a network of travellators and gateways.
Terminus presents a quest, a choose-your-own adventure into the technological. Prepare yourself for a slippage of time and space as your journey propels you through five distinct realms.
Jess Johnson and Simon Ward is a National Gallery Touring Exhibition supported by Visions of Australia and the National Collecting Institutions Touring and Outreach Program. Terminus was commissioned with the assistance of The Balnaves Foundation.
Image Credit Jess Johnson and Simon Ward Jess Johnson and Simon Ward, Terminus (still), 2017 - 2018, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, commissioned with the assistance of The Balnaves Foundation 2017, purchased 2018 © Jess Johnson and Simon Ward, courtesy of Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney; Ivan Anthony Gallery, Auckland and Jack Hanley Gallery, New York
MELISSA KELLY
NOT FRAGILE LIKE A FLOWER
9th July - 18th September
Not Fragile Like a Flower is an exhibition of ceramics by Gilgandra-based artist Melissa Kelly, that explores and challenges the ways society has indoctrinated women into traditional roles. Drawing on lived experiences, Kelly fashions figurative zoomorphised forms that reflect and contemplate the various stages of life for women during marriage, motherhood and after. Not Fragile Like a Flower is a body of work that explores resilience, transformation and growth, allowing for adaptation through life’s continual changes.
This is a HomeGround exhibition, produced by WPCC and supported by Orana Arts. HomeGround is sponsored by Wingewarra Dental.
Curated by Mariam Abboud
IN CONVERSATION SATURDAY 9 JULY 2PM
Image Credit Melissa Kelly, Bird Woman, 2021, Stoneware and paint. Image © the artist.
EXPERIMENTA LIFE FORMS: INTERNATIONAL TRIENNIAL OF MEDIA ART
2nd July - 18th September
Experimenta Life Forms: International Triennial of Media Art features 26
contemporary Australian and International artists working across diverse artforms – including robotics, bio-art, screen-based works, installations, participatory and generative art. The exhibition explores the changing notions of life in response to new scientific research and technological change. While the focus is on biological life, there are also artworks that look to a future with sentient machines and the possibilities afforded by biotechnology research. In unexpected, playful and challenging ways the exhibition connects us to the complexity and messiness of the life that envelops us.
Curated by Jonathan Parsons and Lubi Thomas
Associate Curator: Jessica Clark
EVENT OPENING FRIDAY 8 JULY 6PM
Image Credit: Justine Emard, Soul Shift, 2018. Video still. Image courtesy of the artist.
WASTE TO ART
SOFT PLASTICS
7th May - 26th June
Waste to Art is an annual competition that features artworks created by community members using recycled and unwanted materials. The results are highly imaginative and thought-provoking with the collected artworks celebrating recycling and sustainable living. This year’s theme is Soft Plastics.
Curated by Phil Aitken, WPCC.
OFFICIAL OPENING AND PRIZE: SATURDAY 21 MAY 2PM
Image Credit: William Munro, The Motorbike, 2021, found metal. Image © WPCC.
TAYLA MARTIN
FLOOD TO DUST
7th May - 3rd July
Flood to Dust is an exhibition by Wagga Wagga based artist, Tayla Martin featuring a series of photographic and video works documenting the ever changing landscapes across regional NSW. Martin adopts a documentary style approach highlighting the major environmental challenges that have swept across the region over the past several years, and the social impacts that these brought with them. Martin’s body of work focuses on embodying the true essence of human resilience and spirit within communities affected by these events.
ARTIST TALK SATURDAY 7 MAY 2PM
Curated by Mariam Abboud
Image Credit: Tayla Martin, Checking the Dam Level, 2020, photographic print. Image © the artist.
This is a HomeGround exhibition, produced by WPCC and supported by Orana Arts.
.png){kind=logo}
FROM THE VAULT
THE PLEASURE OF YOUR COMPANY IS REQUESTED: A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE BALL
14th March - 3rd July
Attending a Ball was the epitome of social interaction in the 19th and early twentieth centuries. More than just a pleasurable activity, it had an important social function. Held to celebrate important local events, to raise funds for charities and to showcase the latest debutantes, they provided one of the few public spaces where young men and women could interact, and dancing offered an opportunity to flirt, admire and attract. This exhibition at the Western Plains Cultural Centre will explore the world of the Ball, and its importance to the social fabric of the region.
Image Credit: Hospital Ball at Empire Hall, Macquarie Street, Dubbo, 9 August 1912, Local Studies Collection, Dubbo Regional Council, D0000510
ARLO MOUNTFORD
THE FOLLY, THE TRIUMPH & THE LAMENT
4th June - 26th June
Arlo Mountford is one of Australia's most interesting contemporary artists. His diverse practice mines art history, mass media, screen culture and the internet; working with large-scale interactive installations that integrate sound, video and animation. From 2009-2011, Mountford produced animations based on paintings by Pieter Brueghel the Elder (c1525-1569) and Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684-1721), in which he meticulously reproduced the original works with the addition of sound and movement. These works reinvigorate these iconic paintings, becoming new works that explore the act of making, the history of western art and its relationship to contemporary art practice, and how we engage with the past, narrative and myth. The Folly (2009), The Triumph (2010) and The Lament (2011) are presented together for the very first time.
Curated by Kent Buchanan
Image Credit Arlo Mountford, The Folly [still], 2008, 3-channel digital animation and 4-channel audio, 9 mins. Collection Western Plains Cultural Centre. Purchased with funds provided by the Friends of Western Plains Cultural Centre, 2009
THE QUEEN'S ALBUM
12th February - 29th May
Curated by senior curator, Dr Penny Stannard and curator, Bonnie Wildie, The Queen’s Album explores the unique story of an album of photographs gifted to Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle in 1882 on behalf of the people of NSW. The album contained 64 photographic images of sites and scenes in Sydney and regional NSW that were constructed to promote NSW as a progressive and desirable place, and to consolidate its position within the British Empire. At the time, the album was described as a ‘graceful tribute of loyalty’ to Queen Victoria. Today, its whereabouts are unknown.
In 2018 NSW State Archives rediscovered most of the original photographic glass plate negatives in the State Archives Collection which were conserved, digitised and reproduced for the exhibition project.
Image Credit: Photographer unknown. Picton Viaduct over Stonequarry Creek 1870 Digital reproduction from glass plate negative [detail] NSW State Archives, NRS 4481 SH1117
SPOWERS & SYME
26th February - 29th May
Celebrating the artistic friendship of Melbourne artists Ethel Spowers and Eveline Syme, the National Gallery Touring Exhibition Spowers & Syme will present the changing face of Inter-war Australia through the perspective of two pioneering, modern women artists.
The exhibition offers rare insight into the unlikely collaboration between the daughters of rival media families. Studying together in Paris and later with avant-garde printmaker Claude Flight in London, Ethel Spowers and Eveline Syme returned to the conservative art world of Australia – where they became enthusiastic exponents of modern art in Melbourne during the 1930s and ‘40s.
Spowers & Syme is a National Gallery of Australia Touring Exhibition supported by Visions of Australia, Major Patron David Thomas AM and the Gordon Darling Foundation. Spowers & Syme is a Know My Name project.
EVENT OPENING FRIDAY 25 FEBRUARY 6PM
Image Credit: Eveline Syme, The Factory, 1933, Colour linocut, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, purchased 1979, © Estate of Eveline Syme.
JACK RANDELL
ANIMAL STUDIES
12th February - 1st May
We’ve been pretty good at adopting animals as tribal symbols, footy codes, advertising, and astrology. These are nuanced ways of describing ourselves. “She has the courage of a lion” or “He was as meek as a lamb.” Humans have recently had to consider their own potential collective demise and been witness to extinction of dozens of other species. Animal Studies explores a shared existence. Each artwork in this series considers a shared space, a shared presence. We say that elephants never forget - what is it that they think? What is it that a rhinoceros senses with its gaze and tough dry skin?
Animal Studies is a body of work that has occupied Jack Randell for the last two years and features drawings, paintings, and media studies of singular creatures animated for the viewer to consider the animal’s gaze upon us. What do they see? What do they think and dream? If they thought like us, and I suspect they don’t, what would they think of our use of their shared ecology?
Curated by Dr Andrew Frost
EVENT OPENING FRIDAY 11 FEBRUARY 6PM
ARTIST TALK SATURDAY 12 FEBRUARY 11AM
Image Credit: Jack Randell, Przewalski’s Horse, 2020, mixed media on polypropylene. Image © the artist.
GEOFF THOMAS
ALL ABOUT THE MATERIAL
12th February - 1st May
All About the Material is an exhibition that showcases the prolific practice of Gilgandra-based potter, Geoff Thomas as he explores both the materiality and processes involved in creating wood-fired pottery. Drawing on East Asian pottery practices, Thomas reflects on his own identity and roles as farmer and potter, using clay as the medium to convey beauty within both worlds. All About the Material is a body of work that combines process, experimentation and chance as overarching elements that influence the outcome.
Curated by Mariam Abboud
Image Credit: Geoff Thomas, Anagama Jar and Bowl, 2020, Anagama fired, fire box pot, clay, natural fly ash glaze, shell wads, four-day firing, cypress pine fuel and ash glaze, clay, 18-hour firing, bourry box kiln. Image © the artist.
This is a HomeGround exhibition, produced by WPCC and supported by Orana Arts.
2021
MEL O'CALLAGHAN
CENTRE OF THE CENTRE
20th November 2021 - 20th February 2022
Centre of the Centre is inspired by a small mineral containing a tiny pocket of water, possibly millions of years old, which was gifted to the artist by her grandfather, renowned Australian mineralogist, Albert Chapman.
During 2018 and 2019 Mel O’Callaghan travelled to two underwater locations, the East Pacific Rise, and the Verde Island Passage in the Philippines – one of the World’s most productive and concentrated ecosystems in the world, dubbed the ‘centre of the centre’.
For this exhibition, O’Callaghan has engaged some of the world’s leading scientists. Filming deep underwater, the team observed microscopic ‘extremophiles’ – organisms that thrive in extreme environmental conditions. The footage captures these organisms moving in and out of gases from simultaneously freezing ocean temperatures and superheated hydrothermal vents.
O’Callaghan has translated these investigations into an immersive exhibition experience that features a large-scale video work, accompanied by glass forms that entwine a choreography of performance, breathing and sculpture.
Mel O'Callaghan's Centre of the Centre was curated and developed by Artspace and is touring nationally with Museum and Galleries of NSW. Centre of the Centre is co-commissioned by Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers, Artspace, Sydney, and the University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane with commissioning partners Andrew Cameron AM, Cathy Cameron, Peter Wilson and James Emmett, and lead supporter, Kronenberg Mais Wright.
The development and presentation of Centre of the Centre is supported by the Fondation des Artistes, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and the US National Science Foundation. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australian Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body.
Image Credit: Mel O’Callaghan, Respire, Respire, 2019, performance and installation view, Artspace, Sydney, courtesy the artist and Kronenberg Mais Wright, Sydney; Galerie Allen, Paris; Belo-Galsterer, Lisbon. Photo - Document Photography.
THROUGH A DIFFERENT LENS: CAZNEAUX BY THE WATER
21st December 2021 - 6th February 2022
Harold Cazneaux (1878-1953), was a giant in the history of Australian photography. ‘Through a Different Lens’ takes us back in time to Cazneaux’s soft focus Australia and gives us an insight into this significant photographer’s life.
This exhibition of more than 50 original pieces presents this aspect of Cazneaux’s art, reflecting how water and Sydney Harbour fits within his work, his signature pictorial photographic style and his foray into modernism and abstract form.
SCOTT HOWIE
HOW GOOD IS UNAUSTRALIA
4th December 2021 - 6th February 2022
how good is unaustralia is an exhibition of work by Wagga Wagga-based artist, Scott Howie featuring a series of screen-based performances, sculptures and installations that offer a cheeky and provocative view
to imagining the possibility of an unaustralia. Howie adopts a satirical
lens as he questions the nationalistic values associated with being Australian, revealing a body of work that allows us to question those unfulfilled promises and hopes of being Australian.
LEILA JEFFREYS
FLOCK
20th October - 28th November 2021
Leila Jeffreys utilises photography and video to create intimate images of birds as a means to highlight their idiosyncratic beauty and their unique relationship to humans and the natural world. Eschewing any outside elements that would distract from her subjects, Jeffreys’ human-sized portraits of native pigeons and doves of New Guinea and Australia, featured in this exhibition, revealing them to be surprisingly diverse, unlike the everyday image we may have of them. The series, titled ‘Ornithurae’, allows us to see these busy birds up close and in minute detail, which would otherwise be impossible in real life.
Image Credit Leila Jeffreys, ‘Nature Is Not A Place To Visit. It Is Home.’, 2019. Production still of multi-channel digital video. 8min 20sec on continuous loop. Western Plains Cultural Centre Collection, donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts program by Leila Jeffreys.
BUILDING COMMUNITY:
WALLACE & McGEE, WALMAC AND THE
CONSTRUCTION OF THE WEST
31st July - 7th November 2021
What do the RAAF Base, St Raphael’s Church in Cowra, St Mary’s School, Wellington, the Nyngan RSL Club, the Forbes Olympic Pool and the Amaroo Hotel have in common? A Dubbo-based company built them all.
This exhibition will explore the history of the company as well as its impact on the establishment and consolidation of communities across the western region.
Image Credit: Photographer unknown, Believed to be Phil McGee in front of Wallace and McGee’s shed in Wingewarra Street, Dubbo c1930s, gelatin silver print, Local Studies Collection, Dubbo Regional Council.
JAMFACTORY ICON ANGELA VALAMANESH
ABOUT BEING HERE
20th October - 7th November 2021
JamFactory’s ICON series celebrates the achievements of South Australia’s most influential artists working in craft-based media. Inspired by the symbiosis between science and poetry, Angela Valamanesh’s artworks elicit intrigue and a strong sense of personal investigation as she manipulates seemingly familiar anatomical, botanical and parasitic forms in beguiling and unusual ways. Primarily known for her biomorphic ceramic sculptures, this exhibition also celebrates the artist’s evocative drawings, watercolours, and mixed media works from her developing style of the late 1990s until present.
Image Credit Angela Valamanesh, Various friends and enemies no. 6, 2016. Photo: Michael Kluvanek.
LINDY LEE
MOON IN A DEW DROP
22nd May - 1 August 2021
Moon in a Dew Drop is an exhibition of the work of influential Australian Chinese artist Lindy Lee. Lee’s shimmering, meditative and thought-provoking works feature in this major national touring exhibition, which draws on her experience of living between two cultures.
Using a spectacular array of processes which include flinging molten bronze, burning paper and allowing the rain to transform surfaces, Lee draws on her Australian and Chinese heritage to develop works that engage with the history of art, cultural authenticity, personal identity and the cosmos. Key influences are the philosophies of Daoism and Ch’an (Zen) Buddhism, which explore the connections between humanity and nature.
This exhibition will introduce audiences to works from across the artist’s extensive career, from early photocopy artworks, to her research into her family history and recent paintings and sculptures created using fire and water.
Exhibition organised and toured by the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government’s Visions of Australia program.
Curated by MCA Director, Elizabeth Ann Macgregor OBE
Image Credit: Lindy Lee, The Silence of Painters, 1989, photocopy, synthetic polymer paint on paper, Museum of Contemporary Art, gift of Loti Smorgon AO and Victor Smorgon AC, 1995, image courtesy the artist and Museum of Contemporary Art, Image © artist
BEHIND THE LINES: THE YEAR IN POLITICAL CARTOONS
2020 A DOG'S BREAKFAST
29th May - 18th July 2021
In a year that some have politely described as ‘a dog’s breakfast’, this year’s theme encompasses 2020’s mix of disruption and uncertainty. The term seems particularly fitting for something so unappealing – a year filled with mess, turmoil and failed attempts.
From the bushfire summer to the pandemic and global economic woes, Australia’s political cartoonists have had plenty to work with. They have cast their eyes over the whole dog and pony show. There’s the usual dog-eat-dog world of politics, with its top dogs, sly dogs and people thrown to the dogs. But they’ve also watched on as we’ve embraced panic buying, curves (on graphs and on ourselves) and experts in our midst (or at least at our press conferences). And masks. It’s been a year with plenty of masks.
In this year’s exhibition, visual cues from overlapping crises pepper the cartoons: Hawaiian shirts and burnt trees give way to masks and spiky balls. Fortunately, our cartoonists have also captured moments of goodness and humour amid the rolling drama. With luck, we can look back on 2020 – a masked, sloppy mess of a year – and send it firmly back to the doghouse where it belongs. The 2020 Cartoonist of the Year is Cathy Wilcox, cartoonist for the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age.
Behind the Lines is an annual onsite and travelling exhibition developed by the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House.
Curated by Holly Williams, The Curator’s Department
Image Credit Cathy Wilcox, A Dog’s Breakfast, Behind the Lines 2020. Image © artist.
TRUE TO LIFE LIKENESS: A HISTORY OF VINCENT'S STUDIO
24th October - 23 May 2921
Vincent's Studio was a photographic studio that operated in Dubbo and region from the early 1900s to the late 1970s. Before phone cameras and social media, photographic studios played a crucial role within a community, documenting and producing photographs of weddings, debutante balls, engagements, couples, nurses, service personnel, elected officials, sporting teams, portraits, passport photographs, families, children, babies, and assorted buildings.
The collection of negatives, logbooks, and other materials that make up the Vincent's Studio collection had begun to significantly deteriorate by the time they were donated to the Dubbo & District Family History Society (DDFHS). Over a number of years, DDFHS volunteers have tirelessly cleaned, scanned, catalogued, and researched the collection, allowing it to be accessed and utilised by the general public.
This exhibition charts the history of photographic studios, the Vincent's Studio collection and the invaluable work of volunteer-run organisations like DDFHS in preserving our material culture.
This exhibition is a collaboration between Western Plains Cultural Centre, Local Studies and Dubbo & District Family History Society.
Any new information on the images in our exhibit will help us learn more about the archive and ultimately about our community. If you recognise anyone in the photos - let us know! If you suspect your family may have had photos taken by Vincent's Studio, click on the link below and check the Index on the Dubbo & District Family History Society website.
Image Credit: A.J. Vincent; Vincent's Studio, Hospital Ball at Empire Hall, Macquarie Street; Dubbo, 9th August 1912. 1912 silver gelatin print; Image (C) Local Studies collection, Dubbo Regional Council
WASTE 2 ART
13th March - 16TH May 2021
Waste To Art is a community art exhibition and competition showcasing reused & recyclable waste materials. This exciting and innovative challenge invites schools, community groups and individuals to transform rubbish into art and design.
Dubbo Regional Council is a proud NetWaste member and supports community's commitment to re-use and recycle through creative expression. While the artworks do not have to be made using the theme Aluminium and Steel Cans, the theme provides a focus for waste challenges and education programs.
2020 JACARANDA ACQUISITIVE DRAWING AWARD
13th March - 16th May 2021
Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award (JADA) is Grafton Regional Gallery's flagship art prize, sponsored by the Friends of the Gallery.
Established in 1988 the JADA celebrates drawing in all its splendour from hyper-realism to the expressive and abstract, each evokes a poetic and emotional response to the human condition and our environment. Many of the works question and challenge the notion of traditional drawing; while others provide a contemporary perspective and reinvigorate those traditions.
In 2020 the $35,000 prize received a record 659 entries from 521 artists throughout Australia with 56 finalists selected for the exhibition and subsequent tour.
EVENT OPENING 19 MARCH 6PM
Image Credit: Teo Treloar This is impermanence, (detail), 2019, graphite pencil on paper, 56 x 76 cm u/f. Courtesy of the Artist and Andrew Baker Art Dealer. Image © artist.
CORAL DOLAN
HERSTORY
13th February - 16th May 2021
Official Opening: 20 February 2pm
Herstory by Dubbo based artist Coral Dolan features works that explore and celebrate the lives of women in regional NSW. Inspired by their courageous stories of travelling and settling in isolated areas, Dolan fashions multi-layered works from found ‘women’s objects’, eco printed fabrics, and preserved botanicals; sealing them with preserving wax, with the intent to create artefacts that encapsulate the hitherto untold stories of these women.
Herstory is an exhibition where Dolan sheds light on the importance of preserving these historic personal and cultural stories of regional women, before they risk being forgotten.
This is a HomeGround exhibition, produced by WPCC and supported by Orana Arts.
Curated by Mariam Abboud
Herstory is an exhibition, which explores and celebrates the personal and cultural stories of regional women throughout history. Join us for this artist talk, as Coral Dolan discuss how these women have inspired this multi-layered body of work, paying homage to their memory.
This is a HomeGround exhibition, WPCCs emerging regional artist program. The HomeGround program is proudly supported by: Wingewarra Dental
Image Credit Coral Dolan, Həːst(ə)ré, 2020, Cyanotype print, wax, botanical material, eco printed linen and silk, gold leaf, thread. Image courtesy of artist
NERIDAH STOCKLEY
A SECULAR VIEW
30th January - 7th March
Neridah Stockley: A Secular View is an exhibition spanning twenty-five years of sustained practice by Northern Territory based artist Neridah Stockley. Whilst Stockley is best known as a painter, this survey reveals the diversity of her practice including drawings, collage, dry point etchings and a growing body of ceramic work.
Stockley's work is characterised by abstracted compositions that hint at narrative or symbolic content, traversing memory and experience in an ongoing dialogue with visual interpretation. Domestic in scale, she invites the viewer to encounter a section of surveyed and deconstructed landscape, through a process of re-visioning the natural and manufactured world into linear and geometric planes and forms.
Curated by Gillian Shaw, Art Curator, University of Newcastle Art Gallery.
EVENT OPENING 29 JANUARY 6PM
Image Credit: Summer 1, 2012, acrylic on hardboard, 50 x 50cm. Image c Christine Godden
LET ME BE MYSELF
30 November 2019 - 27 January 2020
Official Opening: 30 November 2.00pm
Let Me Be Myself was an exhibition that enabled visitors to identify with the personal story of Anne Frank. The exhibition connected the personal story of the Frank family with the important historical events of that time: the rise of the national socialists, the isolation and discrimination of the Jewish population, eventually escalating in the Holocaust. The connection between the personal story of Anne Frank and the historical context shows the consequences the anti-Jewish measures had on one particular person. It reminds us that all out actions have the ability to impact on a single individual.
Image Credit Photo collection of the Anne Frank Stitching (Amsterdam)
EYE OF THE CORVUS:
MESSENGER OF TRUTH
14 December 2019 - 2 February 2020
Official Opening: 14 December 2:00pm
From the ancient stories of indigenous cultures of the world to the more contemporary sagas and fables of western civilisations, birds of the Corvidae family (ravens and crows) are highly symbolic - representing the presence of death, all-seeing knowledge, evil, good luck and protection.Using multi-channel video projection with layers of ambient and constructed, amplified sounds, triggered by motion sensors, and recorded on location in Australia and Iceland, Eye of the Corvus, explores the range of these birds in two of their native lands – drawing the participant into a new narrative through the avian eye. It will be an immersive experience, throwing the viewer into the expansive field of view of the raven, reimagining landscapes familiar in one aspect, made unfamiliar through additional layers of information.
Adaptation, narrative, myth-making and interdependence collide in the raven. It is a marker not just for our time and culture but for many times and many cultures. This is a WPCC exhibition.
Image Credit Kim V. Goldsmith, Eye of the Corvus: Messenger of Truth, detail, 2019, Image courtesy of artist
ART OF THREATENED SPECIES
9 November 2019 - 2 Februiary 2020
Official Opening: 8 November 6.00pm
Art of Threatened Species explores threatened flora, fauna and the environments that sustain them in New South Wales, by enabling artists and scientists to collaborate. Each artist has travelled vast distances and spent many hours researching and observing species and environments. Each has partnered with a scientist working within each specific field. The resulting works will attempt to communicate the issues, politics, and emotions that surround at-risk animals, plants and environments. This project is a partnership between Orana Arts (OA) and the Office of Planning, Industry and Environment.
A collaboration between Western Plains Cultural Centre, Orana Arts and the Office of Planning, Industry and Environment
Image Credit Anna Glynn Marooned (video still) 2019
ROCHELLE SUMMERFIELD
CROSSROADS
7 December 2019 - 16 February 2020
Official Opening: 7 December 2.00pm
Crossroads is an exhibition that uses visual storytelling to explore themes on loss and transformation. Summerfield's bold experimentations through animation and mixed media shadow works disrupt traditional art forms as she combines new technologies to create dialogues around female subjectivity, nature and transformation. Crossroads examines the relationships between humans and the environment which Summerfield believes are intrinsically bound to our sense of self, well-being and connections within communities. This is a HomeGround exhibition, WPCC's emerging regional artist programme, and produced in collaboration between WPCC and Orana Arts.
Image Credit Rochelle Summerfield ‘Doomed Innocent: Macquarie Perch’’ 2019, Mixed Media drawing and shadow projection, courtesy of the artist
FLEUR MACDONALD
BASED ON A TRUE STORY
22 February - 19 April 2020
Based on a true story is an exhibition that explores and pays homage to the traditional craft of doily making. Inspired by the legacy of historical Kandos local Lucy Williams, artist Fleur MacDonald reimagines this traditional practice of doily making by painting renditions of traditional doilies on found domestic wooden serving bowls. Through this the process, the artist’s intention is to highlight the importance of this craft, and to emphasise the potential for past handicrafts and their associated intricacies, to be lost through time.
This is a HomeGround exhibition, produced by the WPCC and supported by Orana Arts.
Curated by Mariam Abboud
Image Credit Fleur MacDonald, Destination, 2019, pigment and vanish on wood. Image © Fleur MacDonald 2019
TO SERVE!: WOMEN, WORLD WAR II & THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY
1 February - 3 May 2020
In 1953 the writer L.P Hartley declared “The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there”. These words speak to the challenges of archiving history and the stories and lessons we glean from it. Photographs, letters, clothing, keepsakes, etc. all play active roles in helping us to create a picture of the events of the past, but in the end we are all in service to memory. To Serve examines the role of women in the Central West of NSW and the myriad contributions made by them to the World War 2 war effort at home and abroad. The exhibition highlights the ways in which these stories are passed down through time and the role of Museums and Local History Studies in helping to reconstruct the past for future generations.
Image Credit: Group portrait of the Merrymakers in the Grand Finale - "The Allies" tableau, Dubbo, 24th September 1945, black and white photograph. Collection Western Plains Cultural Centre, Local Studies Collection.
ARLO MOUNTFORD:
DEEP REVOLT
8 February - 19 April 2020
This survey of significant works by Melbourne-based artist Arlo Mountford, spans 15 years of the artist’s practice, from 2003 to 2018. Mountford’s large scale video installations, kinetic sculptures and animations take a wry look at the artistic canon, throwing light on visual art’s ongoing meaning and relevance in contemporary society. Amusing, strange and laden with references from art history and pop culture, Mountford’s animated films are hand drawn with a mouse directly into a computer. He reimagines both real and created spaces from the art world, digitally reconstructing the interiors of iconic museums or retracing the brushstrokes of European masterpieces, well known and loved for centuries.
A Goulburn Regional Art Gallery exhibition toured by Museums & Galleries of NSW.
Image Credit Arlo Mountford, Murder in the Museum (still), 2005, single channel digital animation, 4:3 aspect ratio, stereo sound, 4:27 minutes. Image courtesy the artist and Sutton Gallery Melbourne. Image © Arlo Mountford 2019
LEO CREMONESE
THE COLOUR OF INVISIBLE
23 June - 6 September
The Colour of the Invisible by Kandos-based artist Leo Cremonese, features work that offers access to realms outside of the human domain. Using a combination of painting and installation, the artist fuses disparate materials and colours in an effort to create harmony within the physical and giving form to what is usually invisible. The exhibition asks us to reflect on our natural surroundings and allow ourselves to embrace the unknown and unseen. The Colour of the Invisible highlights the artist’s adaptability in transforming an outdoor private experience into the context of the gallery space, and bringing the non-human to the human domain. This is a HomeGround exhibition, produced by WPCC and supported by Orana Arts and Wingewarra Dental. The Colour of the Invisible is also supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.
This is a HomeGround exhibition, WPCCs emerging regional artist program. The HomeGround program is proudly supported by: Wingewarra Dental
Image Credit: Leo Cremonese, Earthly Fire and Celestial Fire (detail), 2019, mixed media on linen, courtesy of artist.
FRESH ARTS 20/20
1 June - 4 October
Fresh Arts Inc. is a group of artists who live and work in Dubbo, Warren, Gilgandra and surrounds. A co-operative vehicle for exhibiting, professional development and social opportunities, Fresh Arts has exhibited widely since its establishment in 2004. The Western Plains Cultural Centre (WPCC) has collaborated with the group in a number of ways, with many individual artists exhibiting over that time. Fresh Arts: 20/20 presents the work of 18 artists from its current membership and presents a focused survey of current artistic practice within their ranks, as well as that of the region as a whole. The exhibition reveals the diversity of practice as well as the interests and concerns of artists living in regional NSW in 2020.
BEHIND THE LINES: THE YEAR'S BEST POLITICAL CARTOONS 2019: THE GREATEST HITS TOURS
8 August - 18 Octgober
Behind the Lines is an annual exhibition from the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House that celebrates the role of political cartoonists in Australia and highlights the power that their drawings have in contributing to our daily political and social discourse.
Framed by the world of rock music and under this year’s theme song of The Greatest Hits Tour, Australia’s leading political cartoonists amped up the satire on 2019’s greatest political hits. Behind the Lines features over 80 artworks from over 30 political cartoonists from across Australia.
This exhibition is supported by the National Collecting Institutions Touring and Outreach Program, an Australian Government program aiming to improve access to the national collections for all Australians
ANNA NORDSTROM
SANG INTO EXISTENCE
12 September - 22 November
Sang into Existence by Lismore-based artist Anna Nordstrom is an investigation into the continual environmental, societal, and climatic changes that Australia has faced in recent years. Inspired by her journey from Lismore to Dubbo; these mixed media works, primarily created from discarded construction materials from renovated and destroyed houses, explore and reflect on the meaning embedded within the materiality that surrounds us. Sang into Existence is an exhibition that explores notions of history and memory associated with life in Australia, by reinterpreting the unwanted materials that once formed our home.
This is a HomeGround exhibition, produced by WPCC and supported by Orana Arts and Wingewarra Dental.
Image Credit Anna Nordstrom, Talbragar Silo Dubbo (detail), 2020, Linoleum and pressed metal, image courtesy of artist.
CONCRETE: ART DESIGN ARCHITECTURE
5 December - 24 January 2021
CONCRETE: art design architecture is a major exhibition exploring innovative ways that concrete is being used by artists, designers and architects in Australia in the 21st century. Curated by JamFactory’s Margaret Hancock Davis (Senior Curator) and Brian Parkes (CEO), the exhibition includes 21 artists, designers and architects from across
Australia and brings together products, projects and works of art that reflect many of the current preoccupations with concrete within contemporary art, design and architecture in Australia.
CONCRETE: art design architecture is supported by Visions of Australia funding through Australian Government’s Department of Communications and Arts and the South Australian Government through the Department of Skills and Industry.
The Principal Sponsor for CONCRETE: art design architecture is Cement Concrete & Aggregates Australia, the peak body for the cement, concrete and quarry industry in Australia.
Curated by Margaret Hancock Davis & Brian Parkes, Jam Factory
Image Credit: Sanné Mestrom, Untitled (Self Portrait, Underground), 2017, bronze, concrete, steel, 156 x 100 x 83cm. Image © Sullivan+Strumpf.
RONNIE GRAMMATICA
200 YEARS ON
27 November 2020 - 7 February 2021
200 Years On features photographic works by Crescent Head-based artist Ronnie Grammatica. In this body of work, the artist retraces the journey of 19th Century British explorer John Oxley through regional Australia. In acknowledging his own cultural identity and sense of belonging, Grammatica has documented some of the individuals he encountered along the way, revealing a diverse and interconnected hiuman landscape.
200 Yeas on highlights the growing diversity of our communities in regio9nal NSW, exploring the stories of individuals and places, and how each has developed since Oxley's day.
Curated by Mariam Abboud
Image Credit Ronnie Grammatica: Anthony (detail), 2020 archival
MAKE THE MARK: HSC WORKS FROM THE DUBBO REGION
5 December 2020 - 7 March 2021
An exhibition of this year's Dubbo senior students' works produced for HSC Visual Arts. In spite of all that the region, the nation and the world has experienced, this exhibition is once again a demonstration of the strengths and tenacity of the youth of the region as they use the power of the visual image to stimulate the imagination and to story emotion.
Curated by Dr Phil Aitken
Image Credit: Chatchawarn Visetsiri, Drifting Silent Night Thoughts, 2020, oil on canvas, St Johns College Dubbo. Image c of artist.
