JULIAN MEAGHER THE SPACE INTO BICHENO 1 SYDNEY CONTEMPORARY
Cover: Bicheno #2 2019 oil on linen 183 x 152 cm
JULIAN MEAGHER THE SPACE INTO BICHENO 1 12 September – 15 August 2019
The Space into Bicheno Julian Meagher ‘Water, that strong white stuff, one of the four elemental mysteries, can here be seen at its origins. Like all profound mysteries, it is so simple that it frightens me. It wells from the rock, and flows away. For unnumbered years it has welled from the rock, and flowed away.’ Anna ‘Nan’ Shepherd, as quoted in Robert MacFarlane, Landmarks (2016), p. 79 ‘I am the daughter of Earth and Water, And the nursling of the Sky; I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores; I change, but I cannot die.’ Percy Bysshe Shelley, ‘The Cloud’ (1820)
Julian Meagher’s new series is unashamedly Romantic—it seeks to chase, and then pin down, moments of beauty in the landscape. But Meagher is also reconfiguring the features of traditional landscape painting. That is, rather than providing a realistic scene or pastoral view, Meagher pares back and removes detail. The result is a series of works full of minimal marks and compressed gestures: these are brushstrokes that intimate or imply scenes, instead of presenting them in their entirety. While each of these paintings depict the east coast of Tasmania, they also sit resolutely in the in-between: they are abstract and realistic; they are landscapes as well as portraits; they are urgent in their desire to catch a single instant, even if they are imbued with stillness and calm. But this series is also about repetition: it is the act of returning and repainting the same coastal scene (rock, water, horizon, cloud & sky). With each new painting Meagher is cutting into, or reshaping, the landscape at a different angle—he is reworking the surface just as his relationship with the coast is being reworked. At times the view is hostile, at other times, welcoming. In one moment, it is cloistered in its silence; in the next, it is as gentle as a sigh. You can think of these changing views as condensed selfportraits of Meagher’s internal state. Just as the Romantic poets found the tracks of their own psyche in the fells of the Lake District, the tenor of Meagher’s paintings shifts in accordance with mood: with the ebb of a particular want or desire or fear.What does Meagher see when he looks at these repeated scenes? He sees the refuge of his past teenage self, or he sees his desire to feel the weight of this space, or he sees the place where his son and daughter will soon stand beside him. It is the mark-making of someone being-in-the-present. But it is also the mark-making of someone who knows this being-in-the-present is always informed by the pressing of the past, or the incursion of a future need.
You can find references to this in the brushstrokes’ dividing lines, in the way negative or absent space hangs at the edges of the scene. The paint dribbles, pools, or leaks into these spaces, suggesting a landscape half-caught, or a dream half-remembered. But just as the ocean view repeats, so too does the presence of the moon—a celestial anchor point that looms large over Meagher’s horizons. ‘I am convinced that the first lyric poem was written at night,’ writes the poet Mary Ruefle, ‘and the moon was witness to the event and that the event was witness to the moon.’1 The moon exists in Meagher’s paintings as a silent witness—a steady orb that does not change, even as the water shifts and moves beneath it. It is the moon, and all the references it carries with it (the changing of the tides, the cycles of time, melancholy, longing, and comfort) that unites this series. It’s the moon’s presence as mute observer that offers the feeling of stability in this painted space, a space which is not here, and not there, but in between. 11
Mary Ruefle, Madness, Rack, and Honey, (Seattle and New York: Wave Books, 2012), p. 12
The Space into Bicheno 2019 oil on linen 183 x 152 cm
Darsh 2019 oil on linen 183 x 152 cm
Four Mile Creek 2019 oil on linen 183 x 152 cm
Black Moon 2019 oil on linen 183 x 152 cm
JULIAN MEAGHER Born 1978, Sydney, Australia Solo Exhibitions 2018 2018 2017 2016 2015 2015 2014 2013 2012
Tidelines, Edwina Corlette Gallery, Brisbane Inlet/Outlet, Olsen Gallery, Sydney There is hope to the Last Flower, Olsen Gallery, Sydney Everybody talks in their sleep, Edwina Corlette Gallery, Melbourne project Alone in the Sun, Edwina Corlette Gallery, Brisbane Drinking with the other sun, Olsen Irwin, Sydney The sky still breaks, Merry Karnowsky Gallery, Los Angeles, USA The Space Between Clouds and Mud, Edwina Corlette Gallery Brisbane Pressure makes Diamonds, Aratong Gallery Australian High Commission, Singapore 2012 As a matter of Fact, 52 Tins Flight QF1 Art Vault, Mildura 2011 Blue Ribbon. Chalk Horse Gallery, Sydney 2011 The King of Good Times, Edwina Corlette Gallery, Brisbane 2011 From where you'd rather be, Gallery Ecosse, NSW 2011 Strong men also cry, Lindberg Gallery, Melbourne 2010 Small Heroes, Chalk Horse Gallery, Sydney 2010 Portable Shrines, Edwina Corlette Gallery, Brisbane 2009 Mikoshi, Scott Livesey Gallery, Melbourne 2009 Inks in Oil, Chalk Horse Gallery, Sydney
Self Portrait #1 2019 oil on linen 183 x 152 cm
2008 The best gesture of my brain, Chalk Horse Gallery, Sydney 2008 Scrub Series, Upstairs Flinders Gallery, Melbourne 2007 Integument, Chalk Horse Gallery, Sydney 2006 Scanning, SNMI 06, Jamshedpur, India 2006 Dissections, Depot II Gallery, Dank Street, Sydney 2003 Sketches from India, New York & Jupiter, Knot Gallery, Sydney 2002 Double Exposure Oils on X Ray, Pavillion Gallery, Bondi Sydney 2000 Artist in Residence, Sydney Grammar School, Sydney Group Exhibitions 2018 2017 2014 2013 2013 2012 2012 2012 2011 2011 2010 2010 2010 2010 2009 2009 2009 2009
5x5 The artist and The Patron, Penrith Regional Gallery Sydney Contemporary Art Fair, Edwina Corlette Gallery Melbourne International Art Fair, Edwina Corlette Gallery Sydney Contemporary Art Fair, Chalk Horse Gallery Fhloston Paradise, Merry Karnowski Gallery Los Angeles, USA 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 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
2009 Smoking Guns, The Cat Street Gallery, Hong Kong. 2008 Chalk Reindeer, Chalk Horse Gallery, Sydney 2008 My Body, My Business, At The Vanishing Point Gallery, Sydney 2007 Chalk Reindeer, Chalk Horse Gallery, Sydney 2007 Australia Council of the Arts Window Box Show, Sydney
2007 New Artists Collective Exhibition, McCulloch Gallery, Melbourne 2007 Cross Sections II Collector’s Choice, Rex-Livingston Gallery, Sydney Prizes 2019 Glover Prize Finalist 2018 Paddington Art Prize Finalist 2017 Shirley Hannon Portrait Prize Finalist, Bega Valley Regional Gallery 2016 The Gold Award, Rockhampton Art Gallery 2016 Shirley Hannon Portrait Prize Finalist, Bega Regional Gallery 2015 Archibald Prize Finalist, AGNSW 2015 Wynne Prize Finalist, AGNSW2014 Finalist, Archibald Prize 2013 Mosman Art Prize 2012 Australia Council New Work Early Career Grant 2012 Doug Moran Portrait Prize Finalist 2012 Metro Art Prize Finalist, Melbourne 2011 Metro Art Award Finalist, Melbourne 2011 Salon Des Refuses Finalist, S.H Erwin Gallery Sydney 2010 Black Swan Prize for Portraiture Finalist, Perth 2010 Metro Art Award Finalist, Melbourne 2010 Salon Des Refuses Finalist, S.H Erwin Gallery, Sydney 2009 Royal Bank of Scotland Emerging Artist Award Finalist, Sydney 2009 Blake Prize Finalist, NAS Gallery, Sydney 2009 Metro 5 Art Award Finalist. Melbourne 2009 Doug Moran Portrait Prize Finalist. State Library NSW. 2009 Salon Des Refuses Finalist, S.H Erwin Gallery, Sydney 2008 Australia Council Emerging Artist New Work Development Grant 2003 Salon Des Refuses Finalist, S.H Erwin Gallery, Sydney 2002 Salon Des Refuses Finalist, S.H Erwin Gallery, Sydney Collections Bega Regional Gallery 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
12 September – 15 August 2019