Sumer Artist Residency Program

Summer Artist Residency Program

Seventh Gallery is very VERY excited about a visit from

TAKURO KOTAKA
International Artist in Residence 2010/11
28 December 2010 – 10 January 2011

Based in Tokyo, Japan, Kotaka is a cross-disciplinary artist concerned with the everyday experiences of people he encounters on his travels. Working with performance, installation and video Kotaka addresses questions of cultural communication, otherness, history and narrative.

In 2010, after hearing a rumour that ‘there are no potatoes in Egypt’ Kotaka bought a potato in South Africa and traveled across the African continent for seven months to Egypt, visiting 14 countries along the way. The resultant work Traveling Africa with a Potato takes the form of documentation and a video installation and records Kotaka’s encounters with the people he met on the journey.

For his Melbourne residency Kotaka will continue his exploration of community and shared experience. He will seek to create a utopian New Years Eve celebration with locals;
I heard that people in Melbourne watch big fireworks to celebrate a New Year. When I heard the story, I imagined that it would be great if I could watch the New Year’s fireworks with 1000 people on the top of a small hill, and drinking beer. I then become interested in actually searching for such an ideal place to participate the special event that I imagined.
As with his previous works, it is that search that will drive Kotaka’s project and create unexpected encounters and outcomes.

At the end of Kotaka’s residency the project will be exhibited on Thursday 6th and Friday 7th January, 12-6pm, with a closing event on Friday 7th January, 6 – 8pm.

Takuro Kotaka has exhibited in Japan and internationally since 2004. Recent exhibitions include Future Vision - The APT Global Art Collection, Li-Space, Beijing, 2010; 56th International movie festival Oberhauzen, Oberhauzen, Germany, 2010; /+\=X serialworks, Cape town, South Africa, 2010; Jakarta biennale 2009, Indonesian National Gallery, Jakarta, 2009; Istanbul international film festival, Istanbul, 2007; Artist as Activist, Plan B, Tokyo, Japan, 2007;SF TOKYO @ 667Shotwell at Tokyo-San Francisco Art Festival, San Francisco, 2006.

December 1-18th, 2010

Gallery 1 and the Project Space: A Wound Disembodied
Rohan Schwartz & Krishnamurti Suparka

Gallery Two: Fuck You Gravity - Ann Fuata & Rachael Ang

Night Screen: Clea Fraser Chiller

Worker's Window: Avoid Tess E. McKenzie

Ann Fuata & Rachael Ang

Clea Fraser Chiller

Rohan Schwartz - Horizon Of Compression, (collage) 2010

Tess E. McKenzie

Nov 10 - 27th Connor O'Keefe's "Call me James"

CRAWL2 - Gallery Two 20th Oct - 6th Nov

Seventh Gallery is excited to host the cross-city curated project CRAWL2 featuring Brisbane based artist Gemma Smith, Melbourne based Arlo Mountford and Mexican based Francis Alÿs Gemma Smith / Loop 2010 / Synthetic polymer paint on board / 34 x 27.5cm / Image courtesy of the artist

From the utopian ambitions of the modernist movement through pop culture piss-take and the confusion of life in the 21st century, each artist in ‘Three Moves’ engages with a dizzying spectrum of forms and ideas. Works by Arlo Mountford, Gemma Smith, and Francis Alÿs all muck around with Marcel Duchamp’s famous maxim that ‘art is a game’,variously poking fun at, reconfiguring, or playing with a vast array of visual referents, from the familiar to the foreign. Rather than breaking free from the past, each artist meets it head on, mining the annals of art history in order to make it new - to ham it up, break it open, and take it out to the streets. Three artists, three moves: It’s a nonsensical game between irony and intellect where art wins handsdown.

Melbourne-based artist Arlo Mountford employs a witty and often sardonic approach to explore the contextual relationship between contemporary art practice and its perceived past, working primarily with interactive installation paired with sound, video and animation.Mountford has exhibited regularly since 2002, and his work been shownin a number of significant group exhibitions including: ‘NEW010’,Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne (2010);‘Contemporary Australia: Optimism’, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane(2008); and ‘21st Century Modern: Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art’, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide (2006). Mountford’s most recent solo exhibitions have been at Centre of ContemporaryPhotography, Melbourne (2009); Grantpirrie, Sydney (2010); The Art Centre Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, (2009); Conical, Melbourne(2008) and Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne (2007).

Gemma Smith is well known for exuberantly coloured sculptures and paintings that play with pictorial depth and geometric abstraction. Smith's work has been shown extensively throughout Australia, featuring in major group exhibitions including: 'Cubism & Australian Art', Heide Museum of Modern Art (2010); 'Temperature 2', Museum of Brisbane, Brisbane (2009); 'Contemporary Australia: Optimism', Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane (2008); 'Primavera', Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2008). Smith has recently held solo shows at Sarah Cottier, Sydney (2008,2010), Milani Gallery, Brisbane (2008,2010) and Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne (2009).

Born in Belgium and now based in Mexico City, Francis Alÿs has produced a complex body of work that uses allegorical and poeticmethods to address social and political realities. A simple action isoften the starting point for his practice, either by the artist orothers, which is then documented in a range of media spanning video,painting, performance and drawing. Alys’s has been the subject ofseveral major solo exhibitions at the WIELS Centre d'art contempora in,Belgium (2010), UCLA Hammer, Los Angeles (2007), Tate Modern, London,(2010); Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg (2004); and Museum of ModernArt, New York (2002). Alÿs has also been included in major biennales including São Paulo (1998, 2005), Istanbul (1999, 2001) and Venice(1999, 2001, 2007); as well as numerous international group exhibitions.

Please see: http://crawl.net.au/crawl2/ to review this exciting project by CRAWL

THESE ARE YOUR INSTRUCTIONS 29 Sep -- 16 October 2010

THESE ARE YOUR INSTRUCTIONS!

Loosely based on the work of conceptual artist Sol leWitt, five artists were invited to present instructions detailing the creation/completion/extension of artworks to a participatory audience. Gallery visitors were invited to take an active part in the exhibitions development by constructing, developing or performing the works according to their own interpretation over the course of the exhibition.

Part happening, part conceptual, part minimal, part chaos the outcomes from THESE ARE YOUR INSTRUCTIONS were unpredictable and uncertain.

The opening night was almost riotous!


INSTRUCTORS:

LOU HUBBARD
DYLAN MARTORELL
SCOTT MITCHELL
TORIE NIMMERVOLL
CHARLIE SOFO

'THESE ARE YOUR INSTRUCTIONS' was a SEVENTH ARI project curated by Jessica O'Brien, Irene Finkelde and Jonas Ropponen with assistance from Arts Victoria and generous sponsorship from The Workers' Club.



REVIEW OF SHOW: http://notquitecritics.com/2010/09/29/these-are-your-instructions/

Scott Mitchell's instructions fulfilled: Charlie rides bike, Saskia walks.

Scott Mitchell's instructions fulfilled: Brielle brings a horse into the gallery.

Andrew with the horse

10th Birthday Party

Another Blog...

http://notquitecritics.com/2010/09/21/shower-curtains-and-hangovers/

Check the link above to see a review of our latest exhibition, featuring Isadora Vaughan & Jahnne Pasco-White, Tess McKenzie & Luke Devine.

30 June - 17 July

Gallery One:
Anchored

Jake Wotherspoon & Daisy Watkins-Harvey


Gallery Two:
Shifting Measures

Polly Stanton

Project Space:

Lyndal Walker

Night Screen:
And the Gods Made Blue...

Adam Douglass

9 - 26th June

Gallery One & Night Screen:
Thea Rechner

Gallery Two:
Grotto
Jonas Ropponen

Project Space:

Elena Betros

May 19 - June 5, 2010

Gallery One, Night Screen & Project Space: Whole Pieces
Renee Cosgrave, Alanna Lorenzon, Merryn Loyd, Kate Woods & Andy Hutson
Curated by Pip Wallis.

Gallery Two: Inside Story
Eliza-Jane Gilchrist

Blasts from the Past...and Present!

So...

If you've been checking our blog and wondering what the hell has been going on at Seventh, now you can finally find out! 

We've been super busy trying to make sure the gallery doesn't fall into the hands of evil property developers, whilst simultaneously trying to extract money from the government and coordinate the new program. Plus we've managed to squeeze in our 10th Birthday Party! There's been a lot going on.

For now, here's an outline of some of the show's we've been having over the past few months.

[Apologies to all our wonderful artists for the time-lapse...]

Showing at Seventh until May 15th....

Gallery One
Adrian Stojkovick
Sure and Natural Union















Gallery Two

Nicole Henderson

And the night illuminated the night

Night Screen
Martha Acroyd Curtis
Milk Rash




















The Project Space
Adam John Cullen
Project #1

Boxcopy at Seventh - interstate intermingling

Brisbane ARI Boxcopy are currently showing at Seventh. The show is titled Some Absolute Beauties and is on show until April 24th.

 

While they're down they'll also be participating in Structural Integrity, a Next Wave program at the Meat Market in North Melbourne, Friday May 14—Sunday May 30 from 12:00pm. There's some really exciting art spaces from around Australia and Asia involved so have a look here:

http://2010.nextwave.org.au/festival/projects/132-structural-integrity

Here's a little review of Ross' work, on the interesting blog, Artpals.

http://artpals.wordpress.com/2010/02/11/prelude/

Ross Coulter on RRR Community Radio

Hey kids!
If you are anywhere near a radio* this Thursday, the 11th of Feb, check out an interview with Ross Coulter on Smart Arts, hosted by Richard Watts at around about 10am. Ross will be discussing his current exhibition at Seventh Gallery, titled Prelude.

Go Ross!

*If not, get near one.

Opening February 3rd, 2010 - Ross Coulter, Kent Wilson & Joanna Anderson

This is our first Calendar show for 2010, and what a great start. In Gallery One, for his installation titled Prelude, Ross Coulter has created an airy installation using paper planes - the room at first appears to be filled with IKEA pendant lamps, but upon closer inspection, these clusters of angular paper reveal themselves to be dozens of paper planes all taking siultaneous nose-dives.

The centrepiece of this work is a large concrete plinth, reminiscent of Rachel Whiteread or Bruce Nauman's 'A Cast of the Space Under My Chair', but here the conflict of flight and heaviness is literally compounded, as paper planes collide and embed themselves within this weighty - both metaphorically and literally - object.

In gallery Two, Kent Wilson's Plane of Composition, although not related to paper planes per se, still resonates with Ross' almost entirely white room: Kent's sculpture is also almost entirely white, apart from several objects carefully placed upon it.

A pyramid of speakers project a little water spout which sends a trickle of water down a perfect semi-circular groove to two pools, one containing a bonsai and the other a webcam. From the speakers emanates the weird cracking noise of the artist breaking twigs from two significant trees in melbourne, one related to indigenous Australians and the other to European settlers. Here, this self conscious gesture is slowed down and made aesthetic.

In the Project Space, Joanna Anderson has created an intimate drawing/sculpture titled CARE FACTOR, that encapsulates a kind of 'teenage girl's bedroom' aesthetic - a string of fairy lights that dangle around portraits of friends, family and other people we assume the artist admires...or perhaps not? The deflated balloons suspended in the centre of the arrangement lend a kind of fragile emotionality to the work, while the double-mantra 'Don't be Scared, don't be Scared' makes you wonder whether or not there is reason to be frightened here...