Happy Holidays

David Keeling, New room with feature wall 2011, oil on board, 40 x 40 cm

Bett Gallery wishes you the happiest of holidays and thanks you for all your support over 2011.

We will close on December the 24th and re-open on January the 4th 2012.

Always available by appointment.

Tributes to Dick Bett AM (1947 - 2011)

Order of Service, Hobart, Tasmania, 2nd of December, 2011

Speakers in celebration of Dick’s life

MC  - Raymond Arnold

Carol Bett

David Keeling

Hon Duncan Kerr SC

Richard Flanagan

Other tributes

Mercury, 29 November 2011

Leo Schofield, Mercury, 10 December 2011

Fae Robinson for Island Collection

Dick Bett AM Eulogies

Dick Bett sadly passed away after a long illness on the 28th of November 2011.  We have been inundated with requests for copies of the eulogies from the recent service for Dick.  We will publish these, and other tributes to Dick, on our website in the next couple of days so they can be shared with those who could not be there on the day.

2011 Bett Gallery Honours Award announced

Bett Gallery congratulates Lydia Evangelou-Oost, winner of the 2011 Bett Gallery Honours Award in conjunction with the University of Tasmania.  Watch this space for more about Lydia and her work....

Tasmanian Aboriginal shell stringing gains international recognition

The Premier, Lara Giddings, today congratulated two respected Tasmanian Aboriginal shell necklace makers whose work has been selected to appear in a prestigious exhibition in the United States.

Ms Giddings said works by Aunti Corrie Fullard and her daughter Jeanette James had been selected for the Forces of Nature exhibition at the Australian Embassy in Washington DC, which opens on 16 November 2011 and continues until February 2012.

“Curated by Melissa Keys, an Australian contemporary art curator currently living and working in the United States, Forces of Nature draws together the work of thirteen of Australia’s most significant artists working in the field of jewellery and small sculpture practice,” Ms Giddings said.

“The exhibition investigates the intricacies of land and sea, flora and fauna, while exploring the complex relationship between contemporary Australia and its unique natural environment.”

Aunti Corrie Fullard is a respected elder of the Tasmanian Aboriginal community and the tradition of shell stringing was passed down through many generations of her family, including to her daughter Jeanette.

The art of shell stringing is a valued Palawa cultural tradition that has remained intact and continued without interruption for many thousands of years. 

Ms James said the cultural and artistic aspect Aboriginal shell necklace stringing had been difficult to explain to some overseas countries.

 “Exhibitions such as this one help educate international audiences about Tasmania and the Aboriginal culture and practices.

“My mother and I were excited when we were invited by the curator to be a part of this exhibition and we are very honoured to be considered two of Australia’s most significant artist working in the field of jewellery and small sculpture.”

Ms Giddings described the pair as an inspiration to all Tasmanian artists.

“The recognition of Tasmanian Aboriginal shell stringing at an international level is incredibly significant and I commend Aunti Corrie and Jeanette for continuing to preserve this important traditional practice.”

Megan Walch at MOP Projects

 Lineage of Eccentricity Stage 2
10th November - 27th November 2011
Opening Thursday 10.11.2011   6 - 8 pm
 MOP Projects,   2 / 39   Abercrombie   Street   Chippendale  Sydney  NSW   2008 

What Goes Up’…. (detail)
Acrylic, enamel, oil paint, glitter on wood panel
70 cm x 280 cm,    

By placing pressure on painting’s traditions Megan aims to exploit the extreme plastic conditions of the medium to cross cultural as well as aesthetic boundaries of form.
‘Eccentric art’ has been a recognised category of Japanese art history since the 18th Century. Japanese Art Historian Tsuji Nobuo coined the term ‘Kiso no Keifu’ (The Lineage of Eccentricity) in his 1970 book of the same name.
Nobuo’s definition embraces unconventional notions of beauty in painting emphasizing the grotesque, a love of nature and the use of humour in imagery.
‘The Lineage’ is a new framework for Megan to develop an Australasian vision in art; one that prioritises a pan-Pacific diaspora.
The etymology of ‘eccentricity’ is rooted in the Greek for ‘off centre’ and it is at a distance from Europe and the US that globalisation’s cultural mutants result in new forms of expression.

Megan’s work has been exhibited in the United States and Australia, including Wilderness, curated by Wayne Tunnicliffe at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Kindle and Swag - The Samstag Effect, curated by Ross Wolfe, University of South Australia Art Museum, and Primavera 2000, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. Megan is a Samstag Scholar and an alumnus of the San Francisco Art Institute USA and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture USA. Megan has had residencies in the Space Program New York, in an Australia Council studio at Taipei National University for the Arts, and with Asialink at Khon Kaen University Thailand. She currently lives and works in Hobart Tasmania.

Amanda Davies in Shotgun 2011

CAST and project partner, Detached Cultural Organisation present the second edition of this annual early career artist exhibition and professional development opportunity. Shotgun provides a platform for promising early career artists based in Tasmania to develop new work for exhibition. This years artists are Andrew Harper and our own Amanda Davies.

Shotgun operates under a flexible curatorial model with selection of applications assessed through a committee process. This year sixteen artists from across Tasmania were invited to submit portfolios. From these submissions six artists were chosen for interview, and ultimately two were selected for inclusion in Shotgun.

SHOTGUN EXHIBITION OPENS AT CAST 28 OCTOBER, 2011

DISCUSSION EVENT SATURDAY 12 NOVEMBER, 2011

Tom O'Hern Artist Interview for Primavera '11

Imants Tillers acquired by Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery

In These Latitudes 2011
acrylic & gouache on 72 canvas boards
No. 90304 - 90375
226.5h x 284.5 cm (approx installation area)

Bett Gallery is thrilled to announce the acquisition of this significant Imants Tillers, from his recent exhibition The Journey South,   by the Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery.

Helen Wright wins Hutchins Art Prize

Congratulations to Helen Wright for taking out the 2011 Hutchins Art Prize with her work:

The Exquisite Corpse of Seaweed Man  2011
relief print
168 x 60 cm

Limited edition available from Bett Gallery.

Joel Crosswell Artist Talk

15 Soul Collectors, clay, wire and resin, 40 x 40 x 9 cm

"My sculptures and drawings are based around existence. I create a world based on ideas that already exist in mythology and shamanism as well as ideas that link closely with the everyday world in which we live. I am interested in ideas of what may be beyond death and how this relates to our sense of self. I use the figurative form of the body to portray this sense of vulnerability. My art practice involves a process of subconscious channelling where the art becomes metaphoric for past memories, feelings and personal stories."

Joel Crosswell, 2011

Joel will be speaking further about his work, this Saturday the 15th of October at 2pm in the gallery backspace.  Join us.

Welcome to The Valley Collection

Bett Gallery announces it's most recent art collecting group -  The Valley Collection.  Tasmanian based, and with a focus on collecting a major collection of contemporary Australian Art, we wish them all the best as they start on their collecting journey.

Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize

Gravity #4  2011,  cast bronze, 24 x 12 x 12 cm

Congratulations to Belinda Winkler who has been short listed as a finalist in the 2011 Woollhara Small Sculpture Prize. Announced Friday 21 October.

Rob O'Connor wins portraiture prize

Congratulations to Rob O'Connor for taking out first prize of $5,000 in the RACT Tasmanian Youth Portraiture Prize.

Tom O'Hern at Primavera 2011

Here's Tom with one of his works located in The Rocks, Sydney as part of Primavera 2011.  Because of renovations taking place at the MCA, this year's highly anticipated Primavera exhibition takes place in various locales around The Rocks.  Tom has 4 works located offsite as well as a suite of drawings in the Cleland Bond Store.  Do have a look if you are in Sydney - the show is on until 13 November. View more about the show at http://www.pv11.com.au/blog/

David Keeling exhibition complete sell out

Inside outside 2011 oil on paper on canvas 51 x 61cm

David Keeling's current exhibition New Rooms on at Niagara Galleries, Melbourne has sold out with still two weeks left of the show. This series of works see another shift in the artist's oeuvre by bringing us, the viewer inside.  Here we are indulged with glimpses of his well known landscapes through the angles of contemporary interior spaces.  Keeling's next solo exhbition is at Bett Gallery in July 2012.

The Esk Collection: 2001 - 2011

Congratulations to all members of the the Esk Collection who held their final meeting last week after 10 years of collecting contemporary Australian Art.  The group celebrated it's wind up with a dinner at Stillwater followed by an auction of the collection, which dispersed the 51 collected works amongst it's 30 members.

To quote Peter Timms,  "The Esk Collection Group demonstrates that collecting, rather than being competitive or obsessive, can be a cooperative and exploratory pursuit, focused not upon the endless amassing of things (having) but on the individual experiences they offer up (being).  Here we are presented with a very good example of collecting as a conduit for the development of taste and discrimination.  For what it's worth. Freud would certainly have approved."

Michael Schlitz featured in September issue of Art Monthly

An informative look into the work of printmaker Michael Schlitz, this article by Brisbane based curator Anne Kirker features an interview with the artist and and an insightful look at the practice of woodcut printmaking.

Belinda Winkler joins Bett Gallery

Energy & Equilibrium #2, porcelain.  Acquired by Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery

Belinda Winkler is a sculptor, ceramist and object designer. Within her multidisciplinary practice, she works across a diverse range of media and scales, from porcelain through to fibreglass, steel, bronze, Lycra and concrete and from intimately scaled vessel forms through to architectural installations and large-scale public art commissions.
Belinda’s art and research practice is focused on an exploration of the evocative nature of the curve under tension. Her visually dynamic curves are created through the stress forces of tension, compression, torsion and bending. These particular curves hold a certain ambiguity and mystery. While abstract, they invite associations beyond the visual and the intellectual. They are evocative, and thus have the potential to generate identifications and connections, both sensually and aesthetically. They tempt touch, be that with the eyes, the hands, the memory or the imagination.
A recurring thread within Belinda’s work is the relationship between forms, where curve almost meets curve, nearly, but not quite touching, creating a spatial tension, charged with anticipation.
Belinda's first exhibition with Bett Gallery is scheduled for January 2012.

Bronek Kozka featured in current issue of Artist Profile magazine

The work of Melbourne photographic artist Bronek Kózka occupies an intigiung space.  Drawing on snippets of collective and personal memory, his highly construced, meticulously lit images trace an unlikely path between mnemonic index and vividly filmic tableaux.

But while cinema would seem a central reference to Kózka's fastidiuosly detailed photographs, he frames his practice in a far more personal and poetic light.  Born into a part Jewish family from a village near Auschwitz, his experience of familial history has loomed large in his reading of the world and the place of memory and the photographs within that.

Check out Artist Profile magazine for the rest of this article written by Dan Rule.

Bronek Kózka's exhibition Memory: Pandora's Hippocampus is currently on now until the 3rd of September.

Neil Haddon featured in September/October Vogue Living

A couple of 25 Year exhibition opening snaps

The Bett Gallery 'love scrum'

 

Our wonderful supporters squeeze in

Joel Crosswell wins MONA Prize

Joel Crosswell, Godson 2011, ink on paper - winner MONA Prize

Joel Crosswell has been awarded the $7,500 non-acquisitive MONA prize as part of the Hobart City Art Prize.   Joel will be filling our backspace with over 40 small sculptural 'beings' and a selection of drawings in his upcoming exhibition titled The Little show of Existence. Opens October 7.

What are our artist's up to?

Anne MacDonald & Troy Ruffels are 2011 recipients of new work grants from the Australia Council for the Arts.  

Richard Wastell’s exhibition She-oak & River Patterns opens at King Street Gallery, Sydney on 23 August.   

Annika Koops’ exhibition Act Natural opens at Nellie Castan Gallery, Melbourne on 18 August.   

David Keeling has an exhibition opening at Niagara Gallery on 30 August.  

 Meg Walch is working towards a solo exhibition titled The Lineage of Eccentricity Stage 2 at MOP Projects, Sydney.   

David Keeling & Helen Wright are finalists in the 2011 Hutchins Prize. 

Bronek Kozka will be giving a talk at the Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney as part of his exhibition Dreams & Realities, 3 September, 2011.
 
David Stephenson’s work is currently on show in Deep Water: Photographs 1860-2000 at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne until 11 September 2011; at John Buckley Gallery, Melbourne until 2 September 2011 and Transcendence: photographs by David Stephenson opens at Monash Gallery of Art, Melbourne on 16 September until 16 October 2011. 

Peter James Smith is presenting a paper on Art & Maths at Auckland University.

Barbie Kjar, Troy Ruffels, Sue Lovegrove, Tim Burns & Raymond Arnold are currently exhibiting at Celia Lendis Gallery in Gloucester, UK in a show titled Van Dieman's Land: Tasmanian Art in the UK.   

Jonathan Kimberley & Jim Everett are preparing for The Global Dome Unlimited - a multi-media installation incorporating sculpture, video, sound and a live discussion with the audience. The artists have created a unique sculptural environment in the Old Mildura Station Woolshed for Palimpsest #8.  As the final Palimpsest event on Sunday 11 September the installation will be transformed by an artists performance and unfold into a long table discussion over lunch, hosted by chef Stefano de Pieri. 

Barbie Kjar is also involved in Impact, an International Print Symposium held at Monash University, Melbourne next month.  

Welcome to the stable

We welcome three new artists to the Bett Gallery stable.  Pat Brassington, Neil Haddon and Meg Walch.

Tom O'Hern in Primavera 2011

Tom O’Hern has been selected for The Museum of Contemporary Art’s annual Primavera exhibition featuring work by Australian artists aged 35 years and under - opening on September the 8^th. For the first time in it's 20 year history, Primavera 2011 will take place in The Rocks, exploring how artists can enliven the everyday and provide unique experiences in the city. Here's more on the show.

Yowie  -  Tom O'Hern

25 Years - An Unfolding Journey

Bett Gallery Team

What a night!  To all our artist’s, collector's, colleague's, friend's and family who joined us in our celebrations – thank you.  And to those who couldn’t be there but sent their well wishes - thank you.  It was an incredibly special night – nicely summed up by David Handley (Sculpture by the Sea) as a ‘Love Scrum’.   A wonderful opportunity for all of us to catch up and celebrate the gallery and it’s artists.  We now look on to the next 25 years with great fervour.