BIG BAD LAND

THURS 20 JUL - SUN 6 AUG 2017

Official opening: Saturday 22 July, 2-4pm
Beer at opening sponsored by Murray's Craft Brewing Co.

This landscape exhibition presents the landscape in all its many differing forms. From its vastness, to its rocky mountains to its still quiet vistas. We live on one Big Bad Land.

Exhibiting artists: Sally Reynolds, Belinda Street, Libby Cusick, Catherine Greive, Laura Wilson, Malcolm Sands, Shelagh Lummis, Gwendoline Lewis.

MEET THE ARTIST sessions
Shelagh Lummis Thursday 20 July 1-4pm
Gwendoline Lewis Friday 28 July 2-4pm
Sally Reynolds Saturday 29 July 2-4pm
Belinda Street Sunday 30 July 11am - 2pm
Malcolm Sands Saturday 5 August 12 - 2pm
Cathrine Greive Saturday 5 August 2-4pm
Libby Cusick Sunday 6 August 11am - 2pm

Art on this big, bad land

Melinda McMillan | 6 Jul 2017, 12:21 p.m | newcastlestar.com.au

WHEN US-born conceptual artist Laura Wilson arrived in Australia in 1992 she wondered what it meant to be Australian. She now believes she knows the answer.

“I thought more about indigenous people and thought about what everyone has in common when dealing with the landscape,” Wilson said.

“I distilled it down to resilience … and it’s different to any other country that I have seen.

“If there is a flood, say in Queensland, people might shed a tear, but then they say, ‘We just have to get on with it.’

“It reminds me of Ned Kelly and when he was in his last minutes of life he said, ‘Such is life.’”

Wilson will take part in a group show Big Bad Lands at Gallery 139 this month.

“It looks at the harshness of the Australian landscape,” Wilson said.

“I originally come from Colorado, so it’s easier to look at Australia objectively.”

Wilson is exhibiting 10 pieces of work in the show, some of which reference the banksia tree.

“I thought about what was the most resilient flora, and it’s the banksia,” Wilson said. “Then I looked at bushrangers.

“So I have put the two together and I have bushrangers and banskia.”

In a nod to Sidney Nolan one of the works has an obscure reference to his Ned Kelly series.

“Sidney Nolan’s work is just beautiful, and it’s iconic and Australians just seem to love his work,” she said.

“It’s a slight nod to him.”

Wilson’s works also explore Australian tourism. The exhibition will feature a large wall hanging which quotes advice given to tourists about facing-off with “aggressive magpies”, how to deal with an angry kangaroo, redback spiders, venomous snakes, bushfires, crocodiles and sharks.

Big Bad Lands opens at 2pm on July 22, with the exhibition running from July 20 until August 6.

The show also features Sally Reynolds, Belinda Street, Libby Cusick, Catherine Grieve, Malcolm Sands, Shelagh Lummis and Gwendoline Lewis.

below: Gwendoline Lewis
The Crossing 1 2017 pencil on paper 50 x 60cm $1850.00

below: Sally Reynolds
Angourie Headland; Yuraygir National Park 2017, Triptych, Ink on Arches Paper, 76cmx55cm unframed ($700.00 framed)

below: Libby Cusick
Transformation acrylic on canvas 90x120cm $650.00

below: Belinda Street
Blue Lake 1 oil on canvas 120x90cm (left) $3300.00
Blue Lake 2 oil on canvas 120x90cm (right) $3300.00

below: Malcolm Sands
Broken Back 2017 oil on Canvas 30.5 x 25.5cm (left) $270.00
Bylong Valley Way 2017 oil on Canvas 30.5 x 25.5cm (right) $270.00