Recent Articles
Home Art
Category

Art

ArtNews

BCAP19 People’s Choice Prize

Blacktown City Art Prize is our much loved art prize exhibition showcasing the work of finalists from across the country. Final works for the 2019 display include paintings, drawings, sculptures, ceramics and mixed media.

Enjoy viewing the 112 diverse artworks on display and the Young Artists Prize exhibition featuring works by local children.

Click here to vote for the People’s Choice Prize.

Exhibition | 2019 Blacktown City Art Prize
30 November 2019 – 25 January 2020

Summer Workshop Program
This summer we are offering a range of engaging and creative workshops with artists for children, families and adults.
Click here for more information

30/11/2019 0 comment
0 Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest
Three women working on artworks at a table
ArtNews

See the art, make the art! – Summer Workshop Program

This summer we are offering a range of engaging and creative workshops with artists for children, families and adults. While you are at the Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre, you will have the opportunity to visit the Blacktown City Art Prize and the Young Artists Prize exhibitions, get to know our friendly staff, and learn new skills!

 

 December

Drop in workshops with Patrice Wills

Join experienced artist educator Patrice Wills for a series of drop in workshops throughout December and January at the Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre. Drop in to check out the Blacktown City Art Prize and stay to make your own masterpiece or work on that creative idea you’ve been stuck on for a while. Come for five minutes or three hours, it’s up to you!

Date: Wednesdays 4, 11, 18 December

Saturdays 7, 14, 21 December

Time: 10am -1pm

Cost: $5 on the day to cover materials

Children 12 years and under require a parent/caregiver present.

Wednesday 4 December: Drawing Portraits

Pitch in and contribute to the creation of a frieze of faces representing the many visitors to the art centre. All abilities welcome.

 

Sat 7 December: Young Artists Workshop

Painting the natural world: In line with the environmental theme of the Young Artists Prize, children are invited to paint mini boards inspired by natural elements; bugs, bees, and leaves.

 

Wednesday 11 December: Drawing Portraits

Pitch in and contribute to the creation of a frieze of faces of the many visitors to the art centre. All abilities welcome.

 

Saturday 14 December: Young Artists Workshop

Pastel Pets! Young artists can draw their own pet or a favourite animal and learn to use pastels.

 

Wednesday 18 December: Watercolour Christmas cards

Handmade cards are always a treasure. Join us and create your own beautiful cards to keep or gift.

 

Saturday 21 December: Painting Postcards Workshop

A painted postcard is the perfect gift or memento. Take home a few painted gems after a painting session at the art centre. All abilities welcome.

Children making art at a table 

Drop in workshops with Patrice Wills: Open studio

Date: Wednesdays 4, 11, 18 December

Saturdays 7, 14, 21 December

Time: 2 – 4 pm

Cost: $5 on the day to cover materials

Children 12 years and under require a parent/caregiver present

On Wednesday and Saturday afternoons, visitors are invited to join in on open studio sessions to realise their own artistic goals with the expertise of artist educator Patrice Wills. Continue something you have already begun in a prior workshop or start that new project you’ve been thinking about for too long! All levels are welcome: beginners to advanced.

2019 Blacktown City Art Prize Launch

Saturday 30 November

2 pm – 4 pm

The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre

Click here to RSVP

 

Young Artists Prize Launch

Saturday 7 December

11 am – 12 pm

The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre

Click here to RSVP

Photo credit
Image 1: Joshua Morris

Image 2: Gerrie Mifsud

The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre

78 Flushcombe Rd, Blacktown, 2148

Tuesday – Saturday, 10 am – 5 pm

(02) 9839 6558

artscentre@blacktown.nsw.gov.au

Everyone is welcome and attendance is free.

26/11/2019 0 comment
0 Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest
Two people viewing art displayed on a white wall
ArtNews

2019 Blacktown City Art Prize

2019 Blacktown City Art Prize

Blacktown City Art Prize is our much loved art prize exhibition showcasing the work of finalists from across the country. Final works for the 2019 display include paintings, drawings, sculptures, ceramics and mixed media. Click here to see the list of finalists.

Enjoy viewing the 112 diverse artworks on display and the Young Artists Prize exhibition featuring works by local children.

Please join us for this very special event which will include drinks and light refreshments. Councillor Tony Bleasdale, OAM, Mayor of Blacktown City, will present the prizes for the exhibition.

Join us for the opening of the 2019 Blacktown City Art Prize.    

Click here to RSVP for the launch on 30 November 2019.

 

Young Artists Prize

The Blacktown City Art Prize celebrates the creativity of local young people with an environmentally-themed Young Artists Prize.

The theme of the Blacktown City Young Artists Prize for 2019 is Repair & Restore, asking young artists to respond to:

Countries around the world have declared that climate change is a real emergency. As our climate becomes hotter, what positive things can we do to cool our homes, cities and natural environments?

This section is open to 5 – 15 year olds who live or go to school in Blacktown City.

Please join us for the launch of the Young Artists Prize exhibition featuring artworks by local children.

Click here to RSVP for the launch on 7 December 2019.

 

 

See the art, make the art.

We are offering a range of creative workshops and open studios for adults, young people, and kids in collaboration with the artists and makers from the 2019 Blacktown City Art Prize.

Drop into the Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre to unleash and explore your creativity and immerse yourself in the new work of contemporary Australian artists!

 

The 2019 Blacktown City Art Prize exhibition will be open from 30 November 2019 – 25 January 2020.

2019 Blacktown City Art Prize Launch

Saturday 30 November

2 pm – 4 pm

The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre

Click here to RSVP

Young Artists Prize Launch

Saturday 7 December

11 am – 12 pm

The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre

Click here to RSVP

The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre

78 Flushcombe Rd, Blacktown, 2148

Tuesday – Saturday, 10 am – 5 pm

(02) 9839 6558

artscentre@blacktown.nsw.gov.au

Everyone is welcome and attendance is free.

Photo credit
Jennifer Leahy

15/11/2019 0 comment
0 Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest
Wendy Murray standing in front of a brick wall
ArtArtistInsightInspirationNews

The Poster Centre | Wendy Murray

Wendy Murray is a Sydney-based artist and arts-educator. She was artist-in-residence at the Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre from 4 July to 31 August 2019, running a pop-up studio called The Poster Centre, where visitors could come in and learn more about poster-making and printmaking processes.

I sat down with Wendy in The Poster Centre to chat and collaborate on a poster. Here’s what I learnt about the artist and her practice.

 

Firstly, tell me a bit about yourself and your practice.

I’m a poster-maker and I love drawing. I also run community workshops, teach, and sell my posters. I love screenprinting, and you could say my practice is diverse. I don’t think that’s by choice, it’s just the way things are. Making a living as a full time artist, it helps to have quite a diverse practice.

Posters on the wall about The Poster Centre, behind a table with materialsWhat attracted you to printmaking originally?

When I did my undergraduate design degree at Wellington Polytechnic, now Massey University, I had a class project for a typographic class and it was about engaging the audience. I worked with one of my professors in the screenprinting lab for the first time. I thought, ‘I could do a screenprinted poster, this will be amazing!’ He guided me through that process, but the access to those facilities was limited. That was in the late nineties. I did a residency at Megalo Print Studio in 2010 that coincided with the change in legislation on carrying spray cans and pens. I’d done a lot of street art and stencil work previously, and then I did my residency at Megalo Print Studios with Alison Alder, one of the Redback Graphix crew. I didn’t know anything about Redback Graphix. I’d seen the posters, but I didn’t really understand the history. Meeting Alison, and then having access to the incredible print facilities there, was a game-changer. Before that, I’d only done some rudimentary printing in my studio. I wouldn’t call myself a printmaker; I’m a poster-maker and screenprinter. I’ve tried other printmaking techniques but screenprinting is the one for me.

Retro prints and some printmaking books on plinthsWhat connects your printmaking practice with your drawing practice?

It’s connected through necessity. If I need a drawing, it’s amazing that I have the skill that I can use if the drawing is required. In my series of ‘Sydney We Need To Talk’ posters from 2018, I used drawing in conjunction with letter-press processes. I wanted to reflect the human element in our urban environment. If the poster is done with Letraset text or letter-press text you don’t get that sense of personality and people. It’s about displacement of people and homelessness, ideas that can be quite cold sometimes, especially when you want to engage an audience that hasn’t been homeless. You engage them with a beautiful drawing, a line that seduces them, so they look at the message that way. The drawing isn’t a massive component. However, I did a commission with the Australian War Memorial Museum last year which was a large-scale drawing turned into paper-cut stencil poster. That was all about the drawing and the brush marks; in the same way that the Soviet TASS window posters were made. That process of making posters is something I’d really like to pursue. I have this whole suite of tools including Letraset and letter-press; I can just pick up whatever is appropriate for that particular work.

What role does printmaking and poster-making play in social justice movements and protest?

It’s the immediacy of screenprinting and paper-cut stencils. I’ve been fortunate enough to have seen some of these at the Center for the Study of Political Graphics (USA). The centre gave me access to their folder of posters. They are remarkable. And what’s so awesome about them – which is lost when you look at the reproductions in the book – is the immediacy of them. They’re technical, but they’re simple and they’re imperfect. Here in The Poster Centre, you can make a poster with me and you can do it so quickly, it’s very rewarding and accessible.

What led to you wanting to facilitate a space such as The Poster Centre at the Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre, where people can come in and make posters with you like they did at Garage Graphix in the eighties and nineties?

My dream would be to have my own space that was like this – where three days a week I might be working on my own projects and working alongside other artists, and then one day a week I’d have the space available to whoever wants to come in and collaborate. I could also have a day when other artists can come in and make their own work. How fantastic would that be?

Various posters on the wall

Would you say that the process of making a poster is as important as the end result? 

No. I think a poster can communicate without a lengthy process. If someone has a message, the question might be: ‘Do you want to learn to screenprint or do you have a message you want to disseminate?’ If you come to me and say, ‘I’ve got a message’, we might set some Letraset on an A6 sheet and go straight to the photocopier and not pull any ink for your poster. It’s a question of weighing up the message and the process. I think this adds to that immediacy. You can make a poster any way you like. You could just go out there now, rip some posters off the wall in the street, collage them up, and reattach them to the street, using a Stanley knife and some wheat paste. You don’t necessarily need to go through the complicated process of photo stencil screen-printing. A poster can be a single object; it doesn’t have to be a multiple. It just depends on what your message is and how you want to say it with your poster.

What’s your favourite part of the printmaking and poster-making process? 

Working in The Poster Centre allows me to do what I enjoy most: being a conduit, by facilitating other people’s ideas and helping them distil down what they want to say in the poster. Working with the Sydney Pacifica group from 10am until 3pm for two days was a really fantastic collaboration. I introduced them to methods of quickly making posters. We got down to the nuts and bolts of their poster ideas: How did they feel about global warming? How does it affect their island communities? We drilled down to their honest and open opinions about it and then transformed the ideas into simple graphics that could be communicated in a poster format. It seems I am able to help people communicate how they feel about an issue or idea. The ‘See It’s Rising’ poster was a collaboration with one of the young artists from the group. I can do the process on my own, but it’s so much more satisfying, interesting and exciting when you’re working with other people.


Table with prints and materials and prints hung on the wallFinally, what advice would you give to someone wanting to get into printmaking or poster-making?

Just do it! With screenprinting, you can sit around and say ‘Okay, how am I going to get access to a studio?’ I think there are two access studios in Sydney. All you need for screenprinting is screens and hinges – not an exposure unit. If you’d like to start printing, make a basic table-top set up. If you don’t feel like you want to get into screen, do some drawings and turn them into posters or, make some posters with a photocopier. Some of artist Alex Latham’s street posters poked fun at Sydney’s lock-out laws. They were digital drawings which he colour printed and pasted up on the street. Beautifully drawn, low-fi, A3 size, but big on impact. It’s about doing it, and then the more you do it the more you can get a sense of how you can make bigger prints or increase your quantities. Just make a start and get into it any way you can: photocopy, collage; give it a go. There are so many options. It doesn’t have to be highly technical, a photocopier is a printer. So use that tool, whatever tool you’ve got.

By Beth Sorensen

The Poster Centre ran from 4 July to 31 August 2019. To follow Wendy Murray’s journey, follow her on Instagram at @busymakingposters and @drawingacrowd or visit her website.

Photo credit
Wendy Murray by Josh Morris

14/11/2019 0 comment
1 Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest
ArtNews

2019 Blacktown City Art Prize | Finalists

114 artworks have been selected for the 2019 Blacktown City Art Prize!

The winners will be selected from this list of finalists, and announced at the official opening on Saturday, 30 November 2019.

Walter Auer
The Secret Manifesto 1

Walter Auer
The Secret Manifesto 2

Ray Monde
Dryandra Street

Kara Wood
“Why?”

Joy Ivill
‘After Basquiat’

Joshua Muir
KING

Jolon Larter
Push-Button Warfare

Louis Pratt
Regret

Bree Cribbin
The Centre

Barbara Newton
Always there

Liz Cameron
Bulada Dreaming – Snake Creation

Judy Panucci
the scream

Freya Jobbins
Fingerpointing Series #3

Renee Henzell
Come Closer, Now Back Off

Nicole O’Loughlin
View of kunanyi / Mount Wellington from South Hobart Tip

Harry Rothel
Heaven Sent

Peter Kafer
MAARRA

Kelly-Anne Love
I don’t want your hope

Alexandra Colvin
Contemplation

Wataru Tamanaha
The Circle of Dream: Martin Luther King JR

Carmel Mackie
White Cockatoo

Carmel Mackie
Monstera Leaf

Jamie Eastwood
Blacktown Native Institution 1823-2018 Then and Now

Paul Handley
Redesigning Sovereignty #5 (Hong Kong)

Daniel Sherington
Artist As… (Obsequious)

Leonie Fisher
Portrait

Clayton Micallef
Australian Figaro

Jasmine Mansbridge
THE DIVIDE OF THOUGHTS AND TIME

Minka Gillian
Rogue Cell

Minka Gillian
Down by the Singing Sea

Tanika Meeks
Sunset Dreaming

Craig Handley
We are particularly fond of the outdoor space

Songshi Li
Chinese Garden in Blacktown

Jian Hua Qian
Big Eyes

Eddie Abd
A Hazelbrook Woman Dressed in Her Finery # 1 (With the help of the British Museum).

Hyun Hee Lee
Winter Letter

Max Berry
Church & olive tree

Laura Bright
What If I Could Be Myself

Morgan Veness
Birds of Extinction a Bird of Paradise

David El-Melky
Yearning for Youth

Gilbert Riedelbauch
Ambiguity black (on red base)

Nick Ferguson
Meeting by the river

Florek Stan
Cloud

Deirdre Boeyen-Carmichael
Artefacts of the Anthropocene

Chee Yong
Life Is Short. Don’t Waste It Chasing Ghosts

Adrian Elmer
Tim

Yang Qiu
The wonderland shoe

Sima Alikhani
I can walk by myself

Em Deusien
The Ancient Ones

Basia Nowacki
Facing the Unknown

Billy Bain
Game Day

Tracey-Maree Smith
I will try not to breathe

Jody Graham
Craving – Australian Butcherbird

Tina Barahanos
Driving home from a friend’s place

Tina Barahanos
Driving along Tamboura Ave

Belinda Sims
It was a well (the phoenix of Seven Hills)

Martin Claydon
BnE and Doin’ Badness

Annie Shin
Habitants Emerge

Jayanto Damanik Tan
Ritual Tortoise Cakes

Alma Studholme
Chasing Fibonacci No. 2

Laura Nolan
Fallout

Mei Feng Wu
Harmony

Paula do Prado
Sangre/Blood

Rebecca Trajkovski
Home

Paula do Prado
Guidai/Moon

Brian Robinson
Ai Baud

Poppy Williams
‘Are you sure we are on the right track’

Peter Rush
Blacktown Mall

Tamara Pavlovic
Valerie

The Bankstown Koori Elders Group
Ghost Gum Dreaming

Mandy Francis
Wildflowers and Crazy Cuttings

Linda Joyce
Road Trip 1960

Samuel Massey
Shoebox tied with a ribbon of red

Salvatore Gerardi
Shadow Lines

Sergio Hernandez Merchan
Untitled (oysters)

Alexander Smith
Warped Worlds #4

Amber Hearn
Tea Time Mountain’

Merran Esson
Shadow Play

Sara Sohrabian
I am in a relationship with the sun.

Eunjoo Jang
Conjuntion of old and new

Catherine Leung
Above It All

Hiromi Tango
Full Moon – Sakura’s Will

Ala Paredes
Domus Divinus (Divine Home)

Vanessa White
Ettore’s Yellowface

Hilary Sims
Allowah Day

Ryan William Daffurn
Consonance

Daniela Cristallo
Desert Rose Rain

Travis De Vries
She wasn’t kicked out, she left

Blak Douglas
We know we cannot live in the blast, but the blast lives in us

Jane Aliendi
Still Life with Cat (after Bonnard)

Linda Brescia
Common ground

Yvette Tziallas
Petri Dish 3

James Lai
Toward Lake Lyell

Catherine Lees
Amoeba III

Samia Khan
The Need to Matter

Fozia Zahid
The show must go on …

Annarie Hildebrand
Banksia Whispers

Rew Hanks
Josephine’s Ark

Damian Dillon and James Birch
Captain Thunderbolts Lament

Emily Portmann
Australia has a Black History: The Battle of Bathurst

Kristone Capistrano
Thirst

Emma Noakes
Waratah Rain

Karen Andrews
Leonard

Alan Schacher
You Don’t Know Me From a Bar of Soap

Yvonne Boag
Pulling Time

Jane Coquillon
Over it

Julie Sol Lee
Pillow Talk

Kenneth Lambert
Relic in Black Particles

Andrew May
The Madness (Musician)

Erik Shahmoradian
Fighter

Olivia Godbee
Vanitas

Kirtika Kain
Stone Idols

Sam Doctor
The will to contain what cannot be contained

Sarah Eddowes
Static

Artwork Delivery for Selected Works
Dates | Friday 15 November 2019 or Saturday 16 November 2019
Time | 10 am – 5 pm
Location | The Leo Kelly Blacktown Art Centre at 78 Flushcombe Rd Blacktown

26/10/2019 0 comment
0 Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest
Designed image of Joyce Hinterding and David Haines
ArtNews

SOFT PEDAL

SOFT PEDAL is a night of electronic and experimental sound work curated by artist George Tillianakis and featuring performances by artists David Haines & Joyce Hinterding, Peter Blamey, Del Lumanta, and Chris Petro.

Performances will experiment with various forms of technology to generate sound and imagery, through diverse and abstract expressions. Our performers will experiment with abstract expressions to create immersive sound and imagery through new technology.

George Tillianakis is a Sydney based multidisciplinary artist, exhibiting primarily as a video performance artist, composer, and musician. George has been active in the arts for 20 years, exhibiting and performing in galleries internationally, most notably in New York City.

Book now! Don’t miss out on this rare opportunity to experience the immersive and transformative work of established electronic and experimental sound artists. Click here to book.

Image: George Tillianakis

Saturday 26 October

7.00 pm – 8.30 pm 

The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre

Click here to book

Image credit:

George Tillianakis

11/10/2019 0 comment
0 Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest
Group of children in a circle working on a project
ArtNews

School Holiday Workshops with CuriousWorks

These School Holidays, join CuriousWorks and film editor, production designer and animator Sandra May for these 2 fun filled film workshops.

In Flipbook Films, 6 – 8 year olds will be able to make their very own story come alive from cartoon drawings and digital media.

Tell a story. Draw a story. Model it and film it. Make your very own story go POP! From cartoon drawings to making a living, breathing story on film – you will have a fun-packed time with friends. Click here to book.

In Lost and Found Films, 9-12 year olds will be invited to work in small teams to create their own mini-film using claymation and found objects.

Create your own mini-film using claymation and found objects. In your pocket is an old coin or a key that sparks a story… In your mind characters lurk – waiting to be brought to life… Work in a small team to make your own unique short animation!  Click here to book.

Each young artist will be sent a link of their final work one day after the workshop ends! Bookings are required and spots are limited. Tickets are $15 per person.

 

CuriousWorks logo

Flipbook Films (6 – 8 year olds)

10 am – noon

Book here

Lost and Found Films (9 – 12 year olds)

2 pm – 4 pm

Book here.

 

1 October 2019

The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre

Photo credit
Katy Green Loughrey 2014 (The Drawing workshop, for FUNPARK)

19/09/2019 0 comment
0 Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest
Art

2019 Young Artists Prize

The theme of the Blacktown City Young Artists Prize for 2019 is Repair & Restore, asking young artists to respond to:

Countries around the world have declared that climate change is a real emergency. As our climate becomes hotter, what positive things can we do to cool our homes, cities and natural environments?

The Blacktown City Art Prize celebrates the creativity of local young people with an environmentally-themed Young Artists Prize.

This section is open to 5 – 15 year olds who live or go to school in Blacktown City.

Entries due Saturday 16 November 2019.

Enter the Young Artists Prize here

KEY DATES

Delivery date for artworks and entry forms

10 am – 5 pm Friday 15 November 2019 and Saturday 16 November 2019

Exhibition dates

30 November 2019 – 25 January 2020

Open Tuesday – Saturday | 10 am – 5 pm

Awards Presentation

11 am Saturday 7 December 2019 at The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre

Collection of entries

10 am – 5 pm Friday 31 January 2020 and Saturday 1 February 2020

Photo credit
Getty Images

16/07/2019 0 comment
1 Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest
ArtArtistNews

 Entries open for the 2019 Blacktown City Art Prize!

Entries for the 2019 Blacktown City Art Prize are now open.

Now in its 24th year, the Blacktown City Art Prize is a highly valued art prize, with cash prizes of $20,000 and acquisitive awards. Local, regional and national artists are invited to submit entries in drawing, painting, sculpture, ceramics and mixed media.

The winner of the Blacktown City Art Prize will receive $15,000. Three supporting prizes will also be awarded:

  • Aboriginal Artist Prize ($2,000)
  • Local Artist Prize ($2,000)
  • People’s Choice Prize ($1,000).

 

The winners of the Local Artist and Aboriginal Artist prizes will have the opportunity to undertake a 2-month residency in one of Blacktown Arts’ Main Street studios.

 

‘The addition of a studio residency to the prize pool is an exciting opportunity for artists who want to engage with people or places in Blacktown,’ said Mayor of Blacktown City, Stephen Bali MP. ‘In 2015, Alexandra Byrne created Lucas Road at night (outside my place) during an artist residency at Blacktown Arts’ Main Street studios. This striking work went on to win the Local Artist Prize later that year.’

 

Mayor of Blacktown City, Stephen Bali MP also stated ‘The Blacktown City Art Prize has continued to be a significant cultural event in Blacktown for over two decades. The event reveals and promotes the extensive breadth and depth of artistic talent national, as well as in the Blacktown area. The Blacktown City Art Prize exemplifies Council’s ongoing commitment to art and culture, and its integral role in the life and community of our city.’

 

“The pride we get when we see it all come together as one work of art is encouraging; the enjoyment we get as a mob is very uplifting,” said the Bankstown Koori Elders Group representative, who won the Aboriginal Artist Prize in 2016 and the 2018 Blacktown City Art Prize in 2018. “For us to gather together to create art is wonderful and inspirational.”

 

The Blacktown City Art Prize also celebrates the creativity of local young people through an environmentally-themed Young Artists Prize. This section is open to 5 – 15 year olds who live or go to school in the Blacktown Local Government Area. The theme of the Young Artist Prize for 2019 is Repair & Restore, asking young artists to respond to:
Countries around the world have declared that climate change is a real emergency. As our climate becomes hotter, what positive things can we do to cool our homes, cities and natural environments?

 

Selected works will be exhibited at The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre from Saturday 30 November 2019 – Saturday 25 January 2020.

 

Entries close at 5 pm on Tuesday 8 October 2019.

 

ENTER NOW

2019 Blacktown City Art Prize Terms and Conditions

2019 BCAP Frequently Asked Questions

The 2019 Blacktown City Art Prize is proudly supported by Ford Land Company, Westlink M7, Blacktown Workers Club and Blacktown City Council’s Environmental Services.

For all enquiries, call 9839 6558 or email artscentre@blacktown.nsw.gov.au

KEY DATES

  • Entries close | 5pm on Tuesday 8 October 2019
  • Announcement of finalists | Monday 28 October 2019
  • Official opening | 2 pm – 4 pm on Saturday 30 November 2019
  • Exhibition dates | Saturday 30 November 2019 – Saturday 25 January 2020

ENTER NOW

Image: Fozia Zahid, Country Out of the Man, 2018. Winner of the Local Artist Prize in the 2018 Blacktown City Art Prize.

09/07/2019 0 comment
1 Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest
Black pen drawing of a woven woman weaving herself together.
Art

Weaving workshop with Phyllis Stewart and Steven Russell | a reflection

Genevieve Stewart is a Kuku Yalanji woman and is studying a Bachelor in Design Animation at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). She undertook an internship with Solid Ground and we invited her to respond to the Weaving workshop with Phyllis Stewart and Steven Russell.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Blacktown Arts presented a series of weaving workshops hosted by artists Auntie Phyllis Stewart and Uncle Steven Russell alongside the recent exhibition kanalaritja: An Unbroken String. In these workshops, participants delved into a range of techniques to create unique woven objects.

Woven fish nets

Steven and Phyllis are part of the Jungah Weavers artists’ collective based in Gerringong, on the South Coast of NSW. Through their own creative practices, they use different materials and techniques to create functional and sculptural weavings. The have a strong connection with Blacktown Arts and have previously exhibited with Blackown Arts part of the Black Native Project artists 2014-2015.

In response to the weaving workshop, Genevieve responded with her drawing ‘Weaving Woman’.

She states: “After participating in the weaving workshop with Uncle Steven Russell and Aunty Phyllis Stewart, the motif of missing cultural identity reoccurred and also that I have not had the chance to fully explore the cultural practices from my own clan. The woman in the illustration represents that desire to apply the activities that were once banned to my everyday life. Her head signifies that her journey is not fully completed but once it is she will have the memory to pass on.”

Black pen drawing of a woven woman weaving herself together.

‘Weaving Woman’ (2019)

Connect with Genevieve Stewart

Instagram: @genevieve_antoinette

Photo credit
STEVEN RUSSELL & KRISTINE STEWART, Eel Traps, 2015
Lomandra grass, Running postman vine, red hot poker plant, 35 x 30 x 160 cm

05/06/2019 0 comment
2 Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest