LUCAS GROGAN | LONG STORY SHORT | MAITLAND REGIONAL ART GALLERY

— A CURATOR ASKED —

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— A LIBRARY #1 —

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— A LIBRARY #2 —

— A LIBRARY #3 —

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— A LIBRARY #4 —

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— A BURNING BRIDGE —

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— FOLKLORE #1 —

— FOLKLORE #2 —

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— FOLKLORE #3 —

— FOLKLORE #4 —

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— FOLKLORE #5 —

— FOLKLORE #6 —

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— THE WRESTLERS —

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— A DETONATION —

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— FEBRUARY DOZEN — YOU’VE BEEN OUT ALL NIGHT BABE —

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1 2 3 — MIDNIGHT DOZEN — FOREVER — YOU’RE HARD WORK BUT I WORK HARD —

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2 3

— A STONE — SELF PORTRAIT WITH ROSES — EXHIBIT F —

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— LETS NOT AND SAY WE DID — TOGETHER SOMETIME SOON — A SHARD —

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— DAWN DOZEN — A GOLDEN TOMB — I CANT BELIEVE IT EITHER —

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— FUCKING HELL —

A HAUNTING 31

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— TRUE BLUE BABE —

— THE BOMB — SEX DRUGS AND KYLIE MINOGUE —

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— THE FUCKING MINEFIELD —

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— THE SHROUD —

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— A DELIBERATION —

A BURNING BRIDGE 45

— THE UNIVERSE QUILT —

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— A HAUNTING —

— HEY —

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— A STORM —

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A CURATOR ASKED

2018, INK AND ACRYLIC ON MOUNT BOARD, 28 × 21CM PRIVATE COLLECTION PAGE 3

A LIBRARY #1

2014, INK AND ACRYLIC ON MARINE PLY, 4 PANELS (122 × 244CM EACH), 244 × 488CM PRIVATE COLLECTION PAGE 4—5 (DETAIL) & PAGE 6—7

A LIBRARY #2

2017, INK AND ACRYLIC ON MARINE PLY, 2 PANELS (122 × 244CM EACH), 244 × 244CM PRIVATE COLLECTION PAGE 8 & PAGE 10 (DETAIL)

A LIBRARY #3

2017, INK AND ACRYLIC ON MARINE PLY, 2 PANELS (122 × 244CM EACH), 244 × 244CM PRIVATE COLLECTION PAGE 9 & PAGE 11 (DETAIL)

A LIBRARY #4

2017, INK AND ACRYLIC ON MARINE PLY, 2 PANELS (122 × 244CM EACH), 244 × 244CM PRIVATE COLLECTION PAGE 12 & PAGE 13 (DETAIL)

A BURNING BRIDGE

2014, INK, WATERCOLOUR AND ACRYLIC ON ARCHIVAL MOUNT BOARD, 152.5 × 102CM PRIVATE COLLECTION PAGE 14—15 (DETAIL)

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FOLKLORE #1—#6

2013, INK AND ACRYLIC ON MARINE PLY 61 × 61CM (EACH) FOLKLORE #1, #2, #4, #6 PRIVATE COLLECTIONS FOLKLORE #3, #5 THE ALLENS COLLECTION PAGE 16—21

THE WRESTLERS

2016, INK ACRYLIC AND WATERCOLOUR ON ARCHIVAL MOUNT BOARD, 182 × 122CM PURCHASED 2017 MAITLAND REGIONAL ART GALLERY COLLECTION PAGE 22 & PAGE 23 (DETAIL)

A DETONATION

2019, ACRYLIC, ENAMEL AND GLITTER ON CANVAS 180 × 75CM, PAGE 24

FEBRUARY DOZEN

2019, ACRYLIC, ENAMEL AND GLITTER ON CANVAS 114.5 × 92.5CM, PRIVATE COLLECTION, PAGE 25

YOU’VE BEEN OUT ALL NIGHT BABE

2019, ACRYLIC, ENAMEL AND GLITTER ON CANVAS 65 × 52CM, PAGE 25

MIDNIGHT DOZEN

2019, ACRYLIC, ENAMEL AND GLITTER ON CANVAS 114.5 × 71.5CM, PAGE 26

FOREVER

2019, ACRYLIC, ENAMEL AND GLITTER ON CANVAS 91 × 48.5CM, PAGE 26

YOU’RE HARD WORK BUT I WORK HARD

2019, ACRYLIC, ENAMEL AND GLITTER ON CANVAS 72 × 55CM, PAGE 26

A STONE

2019, ACRYLIC, ENAMEL AND GLITTER ON CANVAS 114 × 91CM, PAGE 27

SELF PORTRAIT WITH ROSES

2019, ACRYLIC, ENAMEL AND GLITTER ON CANVAS 67 × 40CM, PAGE 27

EXHIBIT F

2019, ACRYLIC, ENAMEL AND GLITTER ON CANVAS 67 × 48.5CM, PAGE 27

LETS NOT AND SAY WE DID

2019, ACRYLIC, ENAMEL AND GLITTER ON CANVAS 75 × 54CM, PAGE 28

TOGETHER SOMETIME SOON

2019, ACRYLIC, ENAMEL AND GLITTER ON CANVAS 76 × 46 CM, PRIVATE COLLECTION, PAGE 28

A SHARD

2019, ACRYLIC, ENAMEL AND GLITTER ON CANVAS 121 X 65CM, PAGE 28

DAWN DOZEN

2019, ACRYLIC, ENAMEL AND GLITTER ON CANVAS 114.5 × 82CM, PAGE 29

A GOLDEN TOMB

2019, ACRYLIC, ENAMEL AND GLITTER ON CANVAS 65 × 55CM, PRIVATE COLLECTION, PAGE 29

I CANT BELIEVE IT EITHER

2019, ACRYLIC, ENAMEL AND GLITTER ON CANVAS 63 × 60CM, PAGE 29

FUCKING HELL

2014, INK, WATERCOLOUR AND ACRYLIC ON ARCHIVAL MOUNT BOARD, 152.5 × 102CM HUGO MICHELL COLLECTION PAGE 30 & PAGE 31 (DETAIL)

TRUE BLUE BABE

2010, NEEDLEPOINT AND UPHOLSTERY ON SATIN 165.0 × 174.0 × 2.0CM PURCHASED 2010, NEWCASTLE ART GALLERY COLLECTION PAGE 32—33 (DETAIL), PAGE 34 & PAGE 36—37 (DETAIL)

THE BOMB

2013, COTTON ON COTTON 40 × 40CM, PRIVATE COLLECTION, PAGE 35

SEX DRUGS AND KYLIE MINOGUE

2014, WOOL ON COTTON 25 × 35CM, PRIVATE COLLECTION, PAGE 35

THE FUCKING MINEFIELD

2013, CREWEL WOOL EMBROIDERY 70 × 70CM, PRIVATE COLLECTION PAGE 38 (DETAIL) & PAGE 39

THE SHROUD

2016, COTTON ON ITALIAN WOOL, VENETIAN LACE, CHUX AND COTTON, 259 × 239CM PAGE 40—41 (DETAIL), PAGE 42, PAGE 43 (DETAIL), PAGE 66—67 (DETAIL) & COVER (DETAIL)

A DELIBERATION

2014, DRAWING IN INK AND WATERCOLOUR OVER ACRYLIC PAINT ON ARCHIVAL MOUNT BOARD, 152.5 × 102CM NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA COLLECTION PAGE 44 & PAGE 45 (DETAIL)

THE UNIVERSE QUILT

2013, EMBROIDERY; COTTON THREAD ON BLACK LAMINATED COTTON, 200 × 175CM ARARAT GALLERY TAMA (TEXTILE ART MUSEUM AUSTRALIA) COLLECTION PAGE 46 (DETAIL) & PAGE 47

A HAUNTING

2014, INK, WATERCOLOUR AND ACRYLIC ON ARCHIVAL MOUNT BOARD, 152.5 × 102CM PRIVATE COLLECTION PAGE 48 & PAGE 49 (DETAIL)

HEY

2019, INK AND ACRYLIC ON MOUNT BOARD, 30 × 21CM PRIVATE COLLECTION PAGE 51

A STORM

2017, INK, ACRYLIC ON ARCHIVAL MOUNT BOARD 105 × 84CM (EACH PANEL) PAGE 52—53

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Today 8:15PM

Hey Lucas are you ready? This is the interview.

Oh shit Yep go OK. Firstly congratulations on the exhibition.

I’m really jealous.

Thanks Thurgate – that’s always been the highest praise we’ve given each other.

For true.

So I want to start by establishing your backstory.

Talk to me about being a Maitland kid.

East Maitland man. There’s a difference.

What are we talking?

Social, economic, religious…?

All of the above?

I didn’t realise we grew up in the country really.

It wasn’t as urban as it is now. I lived near the then open Maitland Goal, went to Catholic school, Catholic church and everyone I knew was basically the same. Middleclass, white and churchy.

And your family is big right?

6 or 7 kids depending on who you ask. There were a lot of people in a three-bedroom house.

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That familial density was clearly formative. You’ve always struck me as someone who needs people around you.

100% unfortunately. Having all those brothers and sisters really did spill into a social life not too dissimilar. Then I ended up with a career where you spend a large majority of it working by yourself.

Ironic life choice Fuckin oath Your grandparents were important as well though.

A kind of respite from all that social competition.

Talk about their role in your story.

Yeah. I was a naughty kid. We’d get sent up to Non and Pa’s in Branxton where we were not treated so much as children, rather as workers, which I loved. Getting up at 4am to feed the pigs, butchering chickens, rabbiting, stuff like that. It was very formal, but fun. Though they were very religious as well. Mass several times a week.

Rosaries in the car. They had a real solid structure built around them. And I loved going there.

Their influence on you feels like it manifests in your work ethic and in the intergenerational vernacular of your text works.

Definitely. Some of my favourite pearlers come straight from my Pa’s mouth. Like, “bullshit baffles brains.” But also aesthetically too. Both were hoarders of things they might need one day. And they were both totally DIY. The only things of opulence were church based. There’s a lot about church in this…

Yeah let’s talk about that. You clearly learned how to tell a story from the Catholics.

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There really are some massive stories being told in the Bible. The most dramatic and insane are the Old Testament ones that are shared between the Semitic faiths. They are essentially morality tales designed to be hyperbolic so they’re easy to remember and share. But also if you read the Bible, the way it’s laid out, the books, psalms and gospels are clipped down to number verses. Short sharp ‘Landay’ like sentences. Like a byline or a slogan.

And this gets coupled with a more-is-more production value. I think this interest in narratives and how to tell them has been an abiding obsession of yours. I see that in your fascination for politics.

Especially current politics, which can only be described as operatic. But you’re right, I am telling stories. Some are short, some are volumes.

Where does school fit in? You describe your childhood as feeling constrained, like you were a kelpie in a backyard. I imagine classrooms were an extension of that.

I was always in trouble at school, especially early on. I was always mouthing off. By high school I was ravenous for information and experiences that mostly weren’t available, so I started rebelling like a normal teen. Dying my hair blue or getting around school with a backpack that said, ‘Failed Abortion 84’. Stupid stuff like that.

Hahaha. I’ve seen pics of the hair but you’ve never mentioned the backpack. I love that.

The principal didn’t.

Well you’ve never placed much stock in authority.

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I remember meeting you at Newcastle University in 2003.

You were equal parts curious and suspicious.

Yeah but looking back I was definitely too young to go to uni. I should have taken a year off before starting.

Sliding doors mate.

I really hated it, apart from theory. It just wasn’t for me.

You seemed to get more out of all the extracurricular stuff – the student exhibition program, volunteering at Newcastle Art Gallery, getting involved in ARIs – these were key experiences.

100% – first week I was volunteering at Watt Space the student gallery. During uni I also started working one day a week at a commercial gallery and an auction house in Sydney – training it down. Working in these art spaces taught me how to potentially make a career for myself in the industry.

And that’s also where I had some of the best and worst experiences ever – like walking dog shit through a client’s house while delivering a work, finding out I was allergic to 200-year-old tiger skins, carrying around duffle bags of cash, etc.

Too funny. Those early work stories are the best.

You packed a lot in.

We both did. But I don’t think we can/should talk about that.

Agreed. I do want to talk about sex, romance and broken hearts though. It’s been the major thread running through your life and your work right?

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Yes. And I’ve mixed feelings about it. But I made what I felt was honest at the time.

Your honesty has been explicit. I think it’s interesting that the unashamedly gay content of your work feels overlooked.

Same here. I once had a gallerist say to me, “do people realise your work is a bit poofy?”

But I’ve never felt any shame whatsoever about being gay. Maybe some trepidation in the early days but nothing serious. In my own way I was hoping to create universal images that everyone could relate to though.

Which is where romance comes in. It’s the universal narrative.

– I think so. But a lot of the barriers and prejudices are very much alive and well. Doesn’t everyone want to be loved? I know I do.

Man I just want a guy who’s into art but not musical theatre.

And that’s hard to find.

It doesn’t seem like much to ask.

So love and loss runs right through this exhibition. In the 17 years I’ve known you you’ve spilt a lot of milk. And you’ve always been an emotional maximalist.

To me there’s a tension at work in the feedback loop between your life and your practice. The experience, the translation, and the reflection all chase each other in self-perpetuating cycles.

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Well I’ve always been a diarist in one form or another. And I do see each of my works as pages in a larger personal narrative. Early on I was probably too explicit in revealing the details of such events and experiences.

As I’ve matured I’ve made a more consistent effort to codify those narratives by using identical figures, symbols and broad language.

But I am telling a story. Are you suggesting I’m an unreliable narrator though?

Not necessarily. But I’m interested in the way you blur the lines between living the story and telling the story.

The works generally take a really long time to make and that allows for a lot of reflection.

But I think I get what you’re getting at.

An artist I worked for once said to me, “I can’t believe someone like you makes the work you do.” I present as this tough and loose party kid who happens to make detailed, time consuming and emotionally revealing work. Is that what you mean?

Yeah. You’re a rich tapestry Grogan, with numerous contradictions at work. You’ve created your own complicated symbolic reality, which makes you difficult to place.

HA! Yeah I’ve got a way about me. It’s not a good way but it’s a way. People have always said I am difficult.

You are. But not in the way most people assume.

Let’s get back to the idea or narration.

You mentioned being a diarist before.

Talk to me about writing.

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Writing is everything. My current process journals are nearly entirely text. Short sharp phrases overheard, said to me, lifted from media, poetry, musings or just general ideas. And I don’t write them down in a linear fashion – rather the text is collected and crammed in wherever it fits. So to read back on them I can’t pinpoint exactly when that was or where I was. The rhythm and cadence are also extremely important. I think I use text like pithy lyrics from a top 40 single that spell out something overlooked or offer the audience a reprieve – hopefully offering them a sense of, “oh it’s not just me.”

My phrases are a mash up of commercial slogans, biblical verses and bogan poetry. The capitalisation in an irregular handwritten font is done to misdirect and make the phrase seem flippant when it’s anything but.

Yeah there’s an every-man quality to it. Folk wisdom masquerading as the witty retort. And I love the idea of you as a kind bowerbird for text.

Yeah I like the bowerbird thing too. That’s nice Thurgate.

There’s also an Oscar Wilde like quality to your writing. The idea of subverting grammatical conventions as a deliberate misdirect reminds me of that story of Wilde spending all day contemplating the placement of a comma.

Don’t get me started on the apostrophe.

You also manipulate patterns and repetition as part of this subtext right?

Yeah I think so. But like language, I also just love the joy of pattern.

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You mean in a formal sense?

Yeah. You can choose a particular pattern however since I do everything by hand the irregularities present themselves as I work. The surprise twists and turns are fun to solve. I’ve said this before but I think I use patterns like other artists use colour.

Instead of cool or warm I think about push, pull, twist, radiate, sink and swallow.

They’re verbs.

I like that. It operates in opposition to the flatness of your work. You’ve never cared much for fall of light.

I only recently discovered perspective too.

Maybe I should’ve paid more attention (or even attended) classes at uni.

For true. It’s interesting to note how deliberately you turned your back on these pictorial conventions. You’ve often said painters suffer a kind of curse.

Absolutely – the painter’s curse. They get really good at moving paint into a semblance of their subject often at the expense of the content. Look it’s fine, it’s just not for me. And the mixing of too many colours together can make me feel nauseous.

Your use of blue solves that problem. I think what’s relevant in all of this, is the way formal aspects of your work reinforce meaning.

The obsessive pattern making, that uncanny lack of depth, a denial of standard picture making strategies; like any good artist you’re conveying intent implicitly. It’s the old adage, about how you say it.

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Yeah I think you’re right. Plus I think we make what we’re attracted to. And I make dense, hypnotic, naïve, blue works often with acerbic quips. I wonder sometimes if people get the layers or reference both visually and literally though. But I don’t see it as my job as an artist to provide answers, just questions. I think of myself as a distillery with all these sources of information churning and fermenting over time. Sometimes it produces shit, sometimes it’s a gilded turd.

I love that. Who says a Grogan can’t be polished?

Thanks for talking to me Lucas.

Good chat Delivered

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TO LISA CORSI, ANNE MCLAUGHLIN, NICK MITZEVICH, LISA SLADE, BILL GREGORY AND ANDREW SHAPIRO FOR GIVING ME A START. TO IAIN DAWSON, ANNA PAPPAS, VIRGINIA WILSON, JACK HANLEY, MARITA SMITH, HUGO MICHELL, MARTIN BROWNE AND CAN YAVUZ FOR GIVING ME A GO. TO MICK, BEC, AARON, SHANNON, CHARLOTTE, JORDAN FOR PAYING MY WAY. TO THURGATE, EMILY, SALLY, ADRIANA, SARAH, JOHNNY, NICKY, ELSIE, OLLIE, THERESE, ELLIE AND GIL WHO ALWAYS TOLD ME TO PULL MY HEAD IN BUT SUPPORTED ME ANYWAY X

MAITLAND REGIONAL ART GALLERY (MRAG) AND THE MAITLAND COMMUNITY WARMLY EXTEND THEIR GRATITUDE TO LUCAS GROGAN, WITHOUT WHOM THIS EXHIBITION WOULD NOT BE POSSIBLE. IN EQUAL MEASURE WE DISTINGUISH HUGO MICHELL GALLERY, SOUTH AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIA, MARTIN BROWNE CONTEMPORARY NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA & YAVUZ GALLERY, SINGAPORE FOR THEIR SUPPORT IN ENCOURAGING MANY PRIVATE ART COLLECTORS TO LEND TREASURED ARTWORKS SO WHOLEHEARTEDLY FOR THIS EXHIBITION. MRAG WOULD ALSO LIKE TO THANK THE MANY PRIVATE LENDERS FOR ALLOWING LOVED ARTWORKS TO BE BORROWED FROM VARIOUS PRIVATE ART COLLECTIONS FOR THE ENJOYMENT OF OTHERS. WE WOULD ALSO LIKE TO THANK NEWCASTLE ART GALLERY, ARARAT GALLERY TAMA (TEXTILE ART MUSEUM AUSTRALIA) AND THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA FOR LENDING ARTWORK FROM THEIR ART COLLECTIONS IN SUPPORT OF THIS EXHIBITION. MRAG EXTENDS CONGRATULATIONS TO WRITER AND ARTIST LUKE THURGATE FOR HIS UNIQUE INTERROGATION AND CONVERSATION WITH LUCAS IN THE FORM OF A SERIES OF TEXT MESSAGES AND SHARED HERE AS THE ‘CATALOGUE ESSAY’; INSIGHTFUL QUESTIONING ENTICING TRUSTED RESPONSES CLEARLY COMES FROM A DEEP AND RESPECTED FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN THE TWO. FINALLY MRAG WOULD LIKE TO ACKNOWLEDGE FORMER MRAG GALLERY DIRECTOR BRIGETTE UREN FOR INITIATING THIS EXCITING AND TIMELY EXHIBITION CELEBRATING ONE OF MAITLAND’S OWN.

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FIRST PUBLISHED IN 2020

BY MAITLAND REGIONAL ART GALLERY TO ACCOMPANY THE EXHIBITION: LONG STORY SHORT: LUCAS GROGAN 22 FEBRUARY — 17 MAY 2020 CURATORS: KIM BLUNT & LUCAS GROGAN EXHIBITION SUPPORT: LINDEN POMARE ADMIN SUPPORT: NATALIE RYAN EDITED BY CHERYL FARRELL DESIGN BY CLARE HODGINS PRINTED IN CHINA BY THE AUSTRALIAN BOOK CONNECTION ISBN: 978-0-6487348-0-2 © MAITLAND REGIONAL ART GALLERY ALL IMAGES COPYRIGHT OF THE ARTIST LUCAS GROGAN IS REPRESENTED

BY HUGO MICHELL GALLERY, SOUTH AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIA, MARTIN BROWNE CONTEMPORARY NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA & YAVUZ GALLERY, SINGAPORE MAITLAND REGIONAL ART GALLERY IS A SERVICE OF MAITLAND CITY COUNCIL AND SUPPORTED BY THE NSW GOVERNMENT THROUGH CREATE NSW MAITLAND REGIONAL ART GALLERY PO BOX 220, MAITLAND NSW 2320 MRAG.ORG.AU