Interconnected

Interconnected Utopia Art Sydney 20 June - 14 July, 2012

Interconnected David Aspden Helen Eager Craigie Horsfield Emily Kame Kngwarreye Makinti Napanangka George Tjungurrayi

20 June - 14 July, 2012

Utopia Art Sydney

Š Utopia Art Sydney

Interconnected installation

Interconnected

To coincide with the 18th Biennale of Sydney, ‘all our relations’, Utopia Art Sydney presents a diverse selection of works by artists from the gallery’s immediate and extended ‘family’.

Each work stands alone as a unique expression of the artist’s individual vision - white or black, male or female, young or old. Yet, seen together on the gallery walls, the relationships between these powerful works elicit exciting parallels between different cultures and art making practices.

Both David Aspden and Makinti Napanangka will have paintings at the Museum of Contemporary Art for the biennale. Through expressive linemaking and painterly fields, Pintupi artist Makinti Napanangka has woven important stories of her country around Kintore in the Western Desert. David Aspden’s vibrant canvases evoke the complex melodies of jazz music and experiences of landscape through subtle interactions between colour and form.

Whilst Craigie Horsfield and Reinier Rietveld will collaborate to create a ‘unique, site-specific, surroundsound experience’ at the Turbine Hall of Cockatoo Island, at Utopia Art Sydney, a slection of Horsfield’s recent photographic prints will demonstrate another element of his multi-faceted practice. This is Horsfield’s debut appearance at the gallery and the first time he has incorporated Australian imagery into his art, after a trip to the Western Desert in 2011.

Helen Eager’s large-scale wall painting at the entrance to the Museum of Contemporary Art will welcome Biennale visitors to Circular Quay – including those hopping on the ferry to Cockatoo Island. A

new painting by Eager will fill the walls of Utopia Art Sydney. Relationships between tones and the dynamics of positive and negative space are crucial to her practice, not only in her wall paintings but also in her paintings and drawings.

Emily Kame Kngwarreye and George Tjungurrayi are both master painters, internationally recognised as pioneers of Indigenous art in Australia. Major works by these artists speak perfectly to the curatorial bent of the Biennale – of storytelling through a complex interaction between coded forms and the imagination of the viewer. As a male Pintupi artist, George Tjungurrayi’s art provides an interesting counterpoint to that of Makinti Napanangka. His paintings deal with place and the relationships between people - both ancestral and contemporary - his mesmerically swirling lines enact these relationships in a universal visual langauge.

All of these artists from the Utopia Art Sydney family are united through their art, which sings on the gallery walls in a symphony of colour and form.

1. Makinti Napanangka, Untitled, 2001, acrylic on linen, 122 x 61cm

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2. David Aspden, White On, 1975, acrylic on canvas, 157 x 299cm

3. Helen Eager, VIF, 2010, oil on linen, 200 x 300cm

4. Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Untitled, 1992, acrylic on canvas, 165 x 295.5cm

Interconnected installation

Interconnected installation

5. Craigie Horsfield, Ellery Creek Big Hole, West MacDonnell National Park, July 2011. 2012, dry print on arches paper, 98 x 137.5cm (image size)

6. Craigie Horsfield, Ellery Creek Big Hole, West MacDonnell National Park, July 2011. 2012, dry print on arches paper, 82.5 x 147cm (image size)

7. Craigie Horsfield, Ellery Creek Big Hole, West MacDonnell National Park, July 2011. 2012, dry print on arches paper, 136 x 98cm (image size)

8. Craigie Horsfield, Ellery Creek Big Hole, West MacDonnell National Park, July 2011. 2012, dry print on arches paper, 98.5 x 98cm (image size)

9. George Tjungurrayi, Untitled, 2009, acrylic on linen, 244 x 183cm.

10. Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Untitled, acrylic on canvas, 1993, 105 x 80cm

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11. David Aspden, Spring Comes to Upper Sainswick, 1993, acrylic on canvas, 156 x 421.5cm

12. Makinti Napanangka, Untitled, 2008, acrylic on linen, 122 x 91cm

13. Makinti Napanangka, Untitled, 2004, acrylic on linen, 122 x 91cm

14. David Aspden, Boundaries I, 2000, oil on paper on canvas, 75.5 x 110cm.

15. Helen Eager, Remembering Spring, 2012, wall painting, variable dimensions

Interconnected Utopia Art Sydney 20 June - 14 July, 2012

Utopia Art Sydney 2 Danks Street Waterloo NSW 2017 Telephone: + 61 2 9699 2900 Facsimile: + 61 2 9699 2988 email: utopiaartsydney@ozemail.com.au www.utopiaartsydney.com.au Š Utopia Art Sydney

Utopia Art Sydney 2 Danks Street Waterloo NSW 2017 Telephone: + 61 2 9699 2900 Facsimile: + 61 2 9699 2988 email: utopiaartsydney@ozemail.com.au www.utopiaartsydney.com.au