15/02/17 5:52 PM
JULIAN MEAGHER TH ERE IS HO PE TO TH E LAST FLO WE R
Cover: A white spot in the sky 2016 oil on linen 117 x 96cm $8,800
JULIAN MEAGHER THERE IS HOPE TO THE LAST FLOWER 22 February – 12 March 2017
In J ulian Meagher’s studio bottles have fallen and pale flannel flowers are dying. Painting rapidly the shine of daylight is captured in a split second refraction and there is not time for revisions. The large central diptych for this show has a m editative grace and the im pact is meant to be soft, familiar. Perhaps comforting. A gathering of bottles and inflated wine sacs, purge of the party, quietly deflating. The m orning after that seem s poignant and prosaic is a scene the artist keeps returning to. B oth as a homage to Morandi and the inherent discipline of a set piece but also for the mutability of the m aterials chosen.
The duality of glass as both a vessel and a cipher, a window and a m irror, as well as being both relic and refuse, suits the nuanced purpose of J ulian Meagher. For although he has been painting gathered objects for som e years, his ‘materials’ are not the sam e as his subject. Conceptually these are not straight still lives but conduits for the artists’ own allegory. F lannel flowers, metallic plastic wine flasks, ancient bottles and a silver em ergency blanket ‘contain’ his ideas, m ixing tragedy with elegy and the aesthetic with the arbitrary. A portrait of his wife wrapped in a silver “safety blanket” m ixes the formal tenets of a classical sitting with a m edia im age from a calamity. The personal becom es the political. H ow could it not? These new works function like still hearts in the eye of a gathering storm . They are concentrated but anti-passive. A burst of petals splintering inside a cut glass vase, the flowers are not just standing there. They are exploding. “I am interested in the tipping point ecologically and emotionally between optim ism and disaster. The words that titled this show cam e from a documentary on bees where an apiarist said simply “there is hope to the last flower”. We need that optim ism . The idea of redemption is an answer
to nihilism . Perhaps my use of bottles isolates the object away from a negative context: a bottle empty of alcohol is also drained of so many darker connotations. Perhaps the work is a constant process of em ptying out. I like the space between objects. The silent intervals.”
With deft concentration few details escape his eye. Yet Meagher’s project is not a servile or conventional photo-realism. Thinning his oils to the limpid fluidity of watercolour the refractions within his glistening surfaces bleed into abstraction. D rawing near the shining silver plastic creases of a “goon” and you see paint that looks like torn flesh or the dense blur of a butterfly wing. The spare palette of the new work pivots on the drama of m onochrom atic contrast. O ne, alm ost opaque, black bottle anchors the series, offsetting the finesse and gleam with an ashy sculptural depth.
And there, like a pendulum , swings the dance between concrete form and m elting shadow. The sym bolism of black and white is archaic: D arkness and light. D awn and abyss.
B ut on a formal level, purely visually,
m onochrom e retains tremendous tension. O bjects on a white field bear down on the retina, draw the eye deeper into the deep furrow of brushstrokes. R igidity, perspective and three dimensional form vibrate like a cord. And that is probably som ething we forget about figurative art, that the broken elements form the whole, and nothing is concrete. The real is built on a huge leap of faith, the illusion of perspective, solidity and weight are mathem atical and for that m oment we believe.
Anna J ohnson
Article 19 2016 oil on linen 183 x 167cm $15,000
Colony Collapse 2017 oil on linen 117 x 96cm $8,800
There is H ope to the Last F lower 2016 oil on linen 152 x 246cm $18,000
Self Portrait as Vessel 2017 oil on linen 117 x 96cm $8,800
H oneybee 2016 oil on linen 117 x 96cm $8,800
There is L ight Somewhere 2017 oil on linen 152 x 246cm $18,000
H ow the L ight gets in 2016 oil on linen 117 x 96cm $8,800
The Ashes F all, the Wine Spills 2016 oil on linen 153 x 122cm $12,500
Study for There is Light Somewhere 2016 oil on linen 117 x 96cm $8,800
Study for There is H ope to the L ast F lower 2016 oil on linen 117 x 96cm $8,800
H ope is a Walking D ream 2017 oil on linen 117 x 96cm $8,800
The Mad R iver 2016 oil on linen 117 x 96cm $8,800
Top-B ar H ive 2016 oil on linen 117 x 96cm $8,800
I Saw a B utterfly in H ell Today 2017 oil on linen 117 x 96cm $8,800
A G lass in the O cean 2016 oil on linen 117 x 96cm $8,800
U ntitled IV 2017 oil on linen 66 x 51cm $3,500
F rom left: U ntitled V, U ntitled I, U ntitled II, U ntitled III all 2017 oil on linen 66 x 51cm $3,500
JULIAN MEAGHER Born 1978, Sydney, Australia Solo Exhibitions 2017 There is hope to the Last Flower, Olsen Gallery, Sydney 2016 Everybody talks in their sleep, Edwina Corlette Gallery, Melbourne project 2015 Alone in the Sun, Edwina Corlette Gallery, Brisbane 2015 Drinking with the other sun, Olsen Irwin, Sydney 2014 The sky still breaks, Merry Karnowsky Gallery, Los Angeles, USA 2013 The Space Between Clouds and Mud, Edwina Corlette Gallery Brisbane 2012 Pressure makes Diamonds, Aratong Gallery Australian High Commission, Singapore 2012 As a matter of Fact, 52 Tins Flight QF1 Art Vault, Mildura 2011 2011 2011 2011 2010 2010 2009 2009 2008 2008 2007 2006 2006 2003 2002 2000
Blue Ribbon. Chalk Horse Gallery, Sydney The King of Good Times, Edwina Corlette Gallery, Brisbane From where you'd rather be, Gallery Ecosse, NSW Strong men also cry, Lindberg Gallery, Melbourne Small Heroes, Chalk Horse Gallery, Sydney Portable Shrines, Edwina Corlette Gallery, Brisbane Mikoshi, Scott Livesey Gallery, Melbourne Inks in Oil, Chalk Horse Gallery, Sydney The best gesture of my brain, Chalk Horse Gallery, Sydney Scrub Series, Upstairs Flinders Gallery, Melbourne Integument, Chalk Horse Gallery, Sydney Scanning, SNMI 06, Jamshedpur, India Dissections, Depot II Gallery, Dank Street, Sydney Sketches from India, New York & Jupiter, Knot Gallery, Sydney Double Exposure Oils on X Ray, Pavillion Gallery, Bondi Sydney Artist in Residence, Sydney Grammar School, Sydney
Group Exhibitions 2014 2013 2013 2012 2012 2012 2011
Group show, Olsen Irwin, Sydney Sydney Contemporary Art Fair, Chalk Horse Gallery Fhloston Paradise, Merry Karnowski Gallery Los Angeles Miami Scope Art Fair, Chalk Horse Gallery Melbourne International Art Fair, Chalk Horse Gallery New Collectors, Edwina Corlette Gallery, Brisbane Miami Scope Art Fair, Chalk Horse Gallery
2011 2010 2010 2010 2010 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2008 2008 2007 2007 2007
Wattle, Cat Street Gallery, Hong Kong Tatau BMGART Adelaide Shanghai Art Fair, Future Perfect Contemporary Art Platform, China Melbourne Art Fair, Chalk Horse Gallery Aratong Gallery, Singapore Christmas Show, Edwina Corlette Gallery, Brisbane Australia Council for the Arts Group Show /Artbank, Sydney The Horn of Plenty, Para/site Gallery Hong Kong Inks, Concord Library, City of Canada Bay Sydney Smoking Guns, The Cat Street Gallery, Hong Kong. Chalk Reindeer, Chalk Horse Gallery, Sydney My Body, My Business, At The Vanishing Point Gallery, Sydney Chalk Reindeer, Chalk Horse Gallery, Sydney Australia Council of the Arts Window Box Show, Sydney New Artists Collective Exhibition, McCulloch Gallery, Melbourne
2007 Cross Sections II Collector’s Choice, Rex-Livingston Gallery, Sydney Prizes 2016 2016 2015 2015 2013 2012 2012 2012 2011 2011 2010 2010 2010 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2008 2003 2002
The Gold Award, Rockhampton Art Gallery Shirley Hannon Portrait Prize Finalist, Bega Regional Gallery Archibald Prize Finalist, AGNSW Wynne Prize Finalist, AGNSW2014 Finalist, Archibald Prize Mosman Art Prize Australia Council New Work Early Career Grant Doug Moran Portrait Prize Finalist Metro Art Prize Finalist, Melbourne Metro Art Award Finalist, Melbourne Salon Des Refuses Finalist, S.H Erwin Gallery Sydney Black Swan Prize for Portraiture Finalist, Perth Metro Art Award Finalist, Melbourne Salon Des Refuses Finalist, S.H Erwin Gallery, Sydney Royal Bank of Scotland Emerging Artist Award Finalist, Sydney Blake Prize Finalist, NAS Gallery, Sydney Metro 5 Art Award Finalist. Melbourne Doug Moran Portrait Prize Finalist. State Library NSW. Salon Des Refuses Finalist, S.H Erwin Gallery, Sydney Australia Council Emerging Artist New Work Development Grant Salon Des Refuses Finalist, S.H Erwin Gallery, Sydney Salon Des Refuses Finalist, S.H Erwin Gallery, Sydney
Collections Artbank Australian War Memorial, Canberra St Paul’s College, Sydney University St John’s College, Sydney University St Vincent’s Private Hospital, Sydney Private collections Sydney, Melbourne, Paris and Hong Kong Education Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery, University of New South Wales, 1997-2003 Portrait Painting at Charles H Cecil Studios, Florence, Italy, 200 Part time student at Julian Ashton Art School, 1994-1997
JULIAN MEAGHER THERE IS HOPE TO THE LAST FLOWER 22 February – 12 March 2017