In 2022, ANCA is pleased to present a exhibition showcasing the work of our studio creatives.

ANCA Tenant Talent On Show

Saturday 22 October will see the considerable talents of ANCA artists exhibiting for the first time since the relaxing of COVID restrictions.  Entitled, the stuff in between, the show explores what happens between the artist’s concept and what is eventually perceived by others.  Twenty six of ANCA’s resident artists will be participating at ANCA’s gallery in Dickson.

Dr Marisa Paterson MLA, representing Ms Tara Cheyne Minister for Arts MLA, will open the Exhibition at 2:30pm.

The occasion also celebrates the 30th year since the Dickson studios and gallery opened and the launch of the new Friends of ANCA.

Speaking today Karen Lee, Chair of the ANCA Board, said:

We are delighted to invite everyone to join with us in celebrating ANCA’s three decades of nurturing the Canberra region’s artistic talent.  The talent on show is simply breath taking.

It’s amazing that Australia’s largest studios run for artists by artists is still fulfilling its objectives of providing affordable and fit-for-purpose studio space for artists.  It justifies the vision our founders and their supporters in government had.  As the beneficiaries of that good work I, and all ANCA residents, express our thanks to those visionaries.

Of course, we look forward to our next 30 years.  However, ANCA needs the support of the greater community to continue to thrive.  We invite the community to support us by becoming a Friend of ANCA.

The exhibition runs from 22 October to 27 November.  The opening day celebration starts at 11 on Saturday 22 October with arts sales and refreshments, live music from 12, official proceedings 2:30-3:00, and closing at 6.

ANCA is an independent not-for-profit artist-run initiative in Canberra, Australia.  ANCA was established a collaboration between the ACT Government and representatives of Canberra’s Visual Arts community.  ANCA provides 35 affordable and professional studio spaces to artists at two campuses located in Dickson and Mitchell, plus an exhibition facility at Dickson.

We will proudly be showcasing tenant talent as follows.

Artist information hyperlinked.

Peter Alwast

Lucy Chetcuti

Jacquie Meng

Riley Beaumont

Dionisia Salas

Liam Fallon

Karen Lee

Emma Beer

Joel Arthur

Julie Bradley

Brett Barton

Hannah  Quinlivan

Bryan Foong

Nyx Mathews

Zev Aviv

Elizabeth Ficken

S.A. Adair

Bart Beswick

David Liu

Lisa Sammut

Kate Stevens

Katrina Barter

Rowan McGuiness

Helene Walsh

Lymesmith

OPENING EVENT: Wednesday 14 September from 6:00pm at ANCA Gallery. Free to attend, no bookings required.

Venation explores ‘vessels’ conceptually through contemporary craft practices of two artists, Sophie and Lucy Quinn. Vessels are one of the most elementary cultural objects in the world, however the metaphors far exceed functionality. Vessels are closely linked to the body through their traditional use, being handled and passed around. They can contain vital food and water or medicine, they enable mobility, transportation, communication, commerce and trade. More abstractly, the body can be a described as a vessel for life, carrying thought, emotion, life or culture, embodied experiences and illness.

Both artists will interrogate the vessel and how it relates to the body by using line as both a formal and conceptual device. The line is one of the fundamental tools of artistic expression, the study of line is a principle in art theory and history. The line in art – whether it be painting, sculpture or any other media– is typically a formal device: a method of enclosing, of differentiating, of suggesting space. The artists objective will be to demonstrate how formal innovations and deviations in the use of line can express new ways of thinking about the relationship between the body and vessels.

For Lucy, the body is a metaphor for vessel, a site that carried both sensation and experience. The duality of physical and psychological experience is imperative to her work, she explores the degradation of memory and the way sentimental objects shed meaning over time, as they are passed from generation to generation. The importance of the line as a visual device connects to veins and systems in our bodies which is literally a vessels for fluid, perception and thought. Materially this is represented by flowing glass, pigmented marks or connecting textile threads. For Sophie the line represents interconnectedness between viewer and object. The object in this case is the vessel, which raises questions about who gives and who receives, what can be taken or taken from? Due to the relationship between body and vessel, the status of a vessel is both fixed and potentially changeable; the vessel symbolises abundance and loss, life and decay.

Venation is a show by sisters, Lucy and Sophie Quinn. Both are multidisciplinary artists with independent practices, who will draw on their fine arts and contemporary craft skills to create an exhibition that interrogates idea of ‘vessel’.

OPENING EVENT: Wednesday 17 August from 6:00pm at ANCA Gallery. Free to attend, no bookings required.

of soap and stone brings together the work of 3 early career artists; Kati Gorgenyi, Fran Romano and Melinda Brouwer. Working across mixed-media sculpture and ceramics, they have created an immersive and reflective experience which engages with notions of remembrance, memorialisation and the ephemerality of life. Kati investigates loss and memory; Fran explores the rituals and ephemera surrounding death, and Melinda’s interest lies in death’s material nature. 

The exhibition is an investigation into the very human need to create acts of commemoration and remembrance. This social phenomenon appears in some form in all human cultures documented so far and can have educational, healing and cleansing properties. By creating a sense of groundedness and calm, the ritual act opens a space in which to reflect on the duality of life: the tangible and intangible. Commemorative acts and stories connect past, present and future, and can ease grief. 

The exhibition experience will be enhanced by an interactive public program. On weekends, artists will encourage gallery visitors to engage with the artworks and themes by making clay votives. These offerings will become part of the exhibition, developing into an ephemeral installation which will remain in the gallery courtyard to decompose. The installation will be documented using time-lapse photography by videographer, Caroline Huff. 

Melinda Brouwer’s practice explores the interaction of people and nature using ceramic sculpture. She has been selected for Artisans in the Gardens and Hidden (Rookwood cemetery) exhibitions in Sydney, as well as regional sculpture shows throughout NSW. She recently won the small sculpture award at Lakelight Sculpture (Jindabyne), having previously won the Snowy Monaro Environment Award.  

Kati Gorgenyi’s mixed-media sculptures explore intergenerational trauma and its effects on relationships. An early career artist, her work also draws from her professional background as a psychologist. Her sculptures explore vulnerability, trauma, transition and decay. She combines her psychology work with interactive community art where possible, as she considers the role of connectedness and art play in people’s well being.  

Fran Romano’s work investigates themes of memory, history and nostalgia through layering, surface texture and imagery. In 2018, she was awarded an Emerging Contemporaries prize from Craft ACT. Recent works explore death rites and rituals from both an archeological perspective and a human one. She was a finalist in the Little Things Art Prize (2018) and the Palliative Care Art Prize (2017); and in 2019, awarded first place for 3D Art in the Foot Square Small Pieces Competition (Brisbane). 

Emerging curator, Zoe Slee, completed her Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours) in 2014 from ANU School of Art. She is currently working towards her Masters of Art Curation & Cultural Leadership at UNSW. 

EXHIBITION OPENS: Wednesday 20 July from 12 pm at ANCA Gallery.
OFFICIAL OPENING EVENT: Saturday, 23 July from 2pm
Free to attend, no bookings required.

Portraits, death masks, masks of hope & ritual, memorials, & shrouds – forms relating to the living, the dying & the dead, the influential & the remembered; the casts of Pompeii & the cast-offs of contemporary daily life are essential references, becoming an homage to or representations of mortality, presence, influence & resonance, dissolution & re-constitution, being & vitality, belonging & culture.

The mask is a device of ritual used in most documented cultures. Modern technology has produced a mask that meets the requirements of radiation therapy, which targets cancerous cells to destroy their DNA. This mask helps to register the targeted radiation treatment from one therapy session to the next &, as an object dissociated from its function, becomes an affecting portrait of the hopes, fears, pain & isolation – physical & existential – endured by those struggling to find a path to survival.

While at times spoken with distant or discordant voices, the project is a story of interaction & one-ness with its collection of experiences and accumulation of objects & materials – made, used, discarded, re-imagined. It proposes to invoke a sense of, not only the push-&-pull of our daily lives amidst- & post-Covid, but also to offer something of the imagery, physical materiality, & perhaps invoke a catalyst of some sort for moving into & through a more symbiotic present & a community-based dynamic of remembrance & celebration

Richard Maude

Richard studied at the National Art School, Alexander Mackie College, City Art Institute & Sydney College of the Arts. He has established several artist-run, studio residences & galleries, has worked as a curator & public gallery director, & has held several solo shows, with work exhibited in numerous curated group & award exhibitions.

Gabrielle Bates

The art practice of Gabrielle Bates has evolved over 30 years into an immersive investigation of how we occupy, understand and enchant place. In 2007 Gabrielle undertook a year long residency in Kuala Lumpur, which led to subsequent residencies in Penang, Manila and Australia. These experiences introduced her to community-inclusive approaches to cultural production, as well as prompting her post graduate research into Witchcraft, ritual and creative site activation.

Jane Bodnaruk

Jane is interested in the everyday textiles that surround us – our clothes and our household linens. These everyday textiles are invested with tacit memories, and we can be moved by emotions when we handle them. Jane explores the interweaving between lives and the textiles surrounding them: what complicated stories are incorporated into the threads of warp and weft of household linens, or in the stitches and seams of garments.

OPENING EVENT: Wednesday 22 June from 6:00pm at ANCA Gallery. Free to attend, no bookings required.

The Succours are Canberra based visual artists and creative arts specialists; Tilly Davey (on clay), Heidi Lefebvre (on textiles), Daniel Vukovljak and Naomi Zouwer (on paint). The Succours are artists who untether themselves from expectations around outcome and exist for the process.

‘Material Purpose’ is an experiment. Discussion around different creative practices traces intersecting process and shared thematic manifestations.

The ANCA gallery will be a hothouse of imagery, text, cottons and sturdy objects. Materials will be manipulated and “OTHER” will be generated by The Succours.The artists have provoked, prodded and stimulated each other's practices to produce this body of work, some works are POLISHED and some will never be complete.

During the exhibition period ‘The Succours’ will invite members of the local community into the exhibition space to make, discuss and play with tools, tensions and techniques with the artists. Viewers will be invited to take something home from the show as the artists want to ensure their collective footprint is LIGHT and the community is involved.

Naomi Zouwer is a Canberra based, cross-disciplinary artist. She works across drawing, printmaking, painting and textiles mediums making works that engage with ideas of cultural heritage, identity and the social role of personal objects. Naomi also has expertise with creative processes and design to improve engagement, collaboration, and learning. When she is not at her studio Naomi enjoys working on projects with research and cultural institutions, a wide range of educational organisations (from pre-school to tertiary) and community organisations.

Daniel Vukovljak creates works that embrace intuitive responses to exploring consciousness, perception and presence, allowing for play and experimentation. Through this process, Daniel explores themes of escape/fantasy, grief, technology, and portraiture.

Heidi Lefebvre With experience in education, ethical engagement, and community development, I create inclusive spaces, facilitate workshops, and construct  installations. My interdisciplinary practice creates a parley between object: subject, process: outcome. I use reclaimed and recycled items. Through a process of resuscitation, the final objects are imbued with notions of the familiar made new.

Tilly Davey’s practice questions the vulnerability of humanity and the daily struggles which the world at large faces and has done so since time is memorable. Her  work in the community and personal practice often explores the notions of power structures and the repercussions which are caused in communities due to unrealistic expectations and poor power dynamics. The work Tilly produces and the public art programs she directs seek to prompt reflection on the need to break down barriers between people working in different sectors of the community, such that diversity is celebrated not only conceptually, but as a practical and organisational methodology.

OPENING EVENT: Wednesday 25 May from 6:00pm at ANCA Gallery. Free to attend, no bookings required. Live music at opening event:

Vivaldi and more — Sopranos Greta Claringbould and Sarah Mann  with Rose Holcombe, piano.

The exhibition shows a series of 12 paintings inspired by Antonio Vivaldi’s concert “The Four Seasons”. Vivaldi himself was inspired to compose the concert when he saw a series of landscape paintings by Marco Ricci. In this exhibition the music is translated back into 12 contemporary paintings. It is searching for a way to express the connection between baroque music, colour theory and geometric abstraction.

Baroque composers tend to work around very strong patterns of harmonies and clear, regular rhythms.

The primary and secondary colours are used here as two sets of triads which can be regrouped into harmonic and dissonant chords, drawing a parallel to the musical notes and exploring what happens when particular shades of colour are placed next to each other or on top of each other, as Josef Albers said “Hearing music depends on the recognition of the in-between of the tones, of their placing and of their spacing.”

The compositions of the 12 paintings connect to the rhythms of the “The Four Seasons: mathematic partitions of the canvas space and the use of repetitive patterns aim to create the pulse for the colour chords and also to reflect the poetic echoes in Vivaldi’s music.

Vivaldi’s melodies are surprisingly minimalistic in their theme and at the same time complex and engaging. These paintings seek such a balance, or that thin line between simple enough to pass on a clear visual message and complex enough to keep the viewer intrigued. The titles of the paintings are fragments taken from the sonnets Vivaldi wrote to accompany his concert.

Click here to download a copy of the exhibition catalogue.

Stefanie Schulte is a German artist based in Canberra. She studied Visual Arts in Barcelona and Madrid, Spain, and holds a PhD in Visual Arts. Initially she was a sculptor, then interrupted her career for her young family. Australia inspired her to reengage with creativity and to dive into the exploration of colour.

OPENING EVENT: Wednesday 27 April from 6:00pm at ANCA Gallery. Free to attend, no bookings required.

ARTIST TALK: Sunday 15 May 2:00-3:00pm. Free to attend, no bookings required.

This exhibition features the work of three artists whose research-based practices have a strong focus on material experimentation. Their material language speaks generally to the idea of impermanence, bodily traces, memory, and loss. This often involves references to geological evolution, deep time and the effects of transformation over time. For each artist, the physical engagement of ‘making’ is an important aspect of this work.

Sue Pedley’s work embraces the geological evolution of the land and its natural history. Pedley considers herself to be an artist of ‘place’, forging connections between a site, its overlooked qualities - as well as the relationship that place may have to other places – and to other histories and cultures. For this exhibition, Sue Pedley experiments with visualising a philosophical and ecological text, Of Knots and Joints, written by social anthropologist Tim Ingold. Rope Work are drawings and objects relating to memory, space, architecture and the materiality of carpentry and textiles.

Penny Coss’s installation centres on a site that underwent a dramatic change after fire swept through it and attempts to synthesise material and emotional histories with the possibilities of making something new. The site in recovery extends to the idea of the presence of the body in alignment with a bruised topography where colour acts as a signifier.

This draws parallels with the bruising intimated by Sylvia Griffin’s Second Skin paintings. With an interest in memorial culture and expressing grief and trauma, Griffin explores the concept of permanence, as commonly associated with memorials. In this exhibition she considers the dichotomy between the natural origins of associated memorial materials such as marble, acknowledging their geological origins and relationship to landscape.

ARTIST TALK: Sunday 15 May 2022 2:00-3:00pm

Join Sylvia Griffin, Sue Pedley and Penny Coss as they walk through the gallery and discuss their works, followed by refreshments in the outdoor atrium. Penny Coss will give a presentation linking her work in show to her encounters over 15 years with a local bushland and the implications of remembering, empathy and loss through her observations of its recovery after a fire swept through it. Sylvia Griffin will address how memorialising and expressing grief threads through her work and the important role materiality plays in this work. Sue Pedley will discuss the ongoing themes of place and environment in her work and how the new strand the works in this exhibition relate to this.

Sylvia Griffin’s multi-disciplinary practice ranges across sculpture, installation, textiles, video and photography. Her work addresses trauma, memory and history and seeks to challenge preconceived notions around identity, memory and the role of ritual. Her research considers artistic alternatives to the role that monuments and memorials have traditionally played in expressing grief and mourning, believing that ephemeral and alternative forms of art can aid in imparting meaningful remembrance and solace.

Sue Pedley is a visual artist recognised for her multimedia installations, large scale drawings and collaborations. She exhibits her work across outdoor locations, galleries and museums. Responsive to the contingencies of the sites where she works, her recurring themes include the environmental degradation of water and its impact on communities and the natural world; colonisation, including addressing her family history as settlers in Tasmania; and the intergenerational hurts of war.

Penny Coss’ work is a response to the natural world, its geology, biology and botany, with oblique references to landscape systems in extremis like earthquakes, bushfires and algal bloom. Coss works intuitively in the studio, open to the unexpected connections encountered in her work. Emerging from a painting based practice, recent work spans sculpture, installation, often incorporating video and sound, indicating iterative possibilities in creating a whole.

OPENING EVENT: Wednesday 30 March from 6:00pm at ANCA Gallery. Free to attend, no bookings required.

selected01, an exhibition of recent works by Henry Hu. Bringing together diverse media — photographs, paintings, works on glass, digital prints and video installations — these projects provide an overview of his emerging creative practice. 

To be presented in dialogue with one another, the show will feature selections drawn from multiple interlocking bodies of work. Starting off in the bright light. Two sets of photographs. passing parade and shading port, BEAMS — each of the two series offers the comfort of transience, languishing in the desire to be anywhere else. The pictures call attention to those little restful moments in life, and the certainty that all disturbances eventually calm.

Sea Sore Honey Lock, a series of multimedia paintings, will set the conceptual stage for the exhibition. From paints to prints, threads to fabrics. The works distill the loss of childhood splendor, ruminating on the time before adulthood, back when everything was brand new, glaring, often exciting. In an excerpt from the series statement, Henry Hu shares: 

“Children’s rhymes, myths, fables, legends. They all once filled our heads with ideas only we never seem to know what they were. This series is the reaction. An object of reverence to any and every fairy tale. Wonder tale. Magic tale. A nod to the gift of anticipation. A gleaming dive into fanaticism. A leeway in which we too become children, again. A return to that world, to recreate. 

If childhood is, after all, an echo of time, every now and then, rings in a memory. 

Then, with our decades of growth. In our dearest of feelings. We smile at those memories.”

Also on view are mixed-media works from series free corn ban_wih_bi_lg and @@@@capcap!!!. Conceived alongside Sea Sore Honey Lock, these pieces are the skeletal keys that unlocked the progress, the self-reflections that advanced the growth. Closing out the exhibition. Lights to dim, on display: 2x,HOLEG, digital motion works. A dazzling study of shapes and sounds.

Exercising through various mediums, Henry Hu’s emerging practice commits to an infusion. An exchange. An immediacy. A link between the interior and the exterior — of a self, a being, an identity, a consciousness. Each individual series offers an overarching narrative, steps away from the present for a spell: tasked with casting new perspectives, fresh air to breathe, a spiritual relief. Often juxtaposing the past with the future, differing forms of surrealistic fantasies unfold across his works; along with a recurring structure, the heart of all series rests in harmony.

OPENING EVENT: Wednesday 2 March from 6:00pm at ANCA Gallery. Free to attend, no bookings required.

rodomontade

it takes a certain form of swagger to throw a punch, forming the f shape with your mouth but the lessons each week actually show you more about conditioning muscle memory talks about the journey from exaggeration to assimilation

each night you sit down and engage memories of breaking the needle but this time the tension is correct and the sensation is one of fabric gliding through machine something about becoming a cyborg

but really this show is about quilting together a persona or a memorial or some kind of transmutation this show is about bodily relations to scale, movement, a smiling face this show is about pulling up your weight in line with the moon

no really, this show is actually about quilts

Tom Campbell is an emerging artist of Kadazan-Australian descent working on Ngunnawal/Ngunawal/Ngambri land. His work is motivated by the voice as a tool across gossip, conversation, humour and persuasion, and in this exhibition takes shape across textiles, writing and video performance. Tom graduated with Honours from the ANU Painting workshop and was selected to show at Canberra Museum and Gallery as part of the Emerging Artist Support Scheme showcase. He recently took part in You Are Here’s Cahoots development program. Tom works in fundraising and advocacy with Community Shapers and is a current studio tenant at the ANCA Mitchell campus, as well as being ANCA’s deputy Board chair. Did I get it all in? (rodomontade)

OPENING EVENT: Wednesday 2 February from 6:00pm at ANCA Gallery. Free to attend, no bookings required.

The inevitability of growth is a garden within the gallery. The garden is a contained and constructed site for the practice of gardening - an ongoing doing which never gets done - the garden is in a perpetual state of becoming. It is a field of noticing, shaped by attention. It is mundane and sublime. It is an inherited lawn, a sanctioned moat around your house, a place to eat breakfast, to read and grow food, a luxury during lock-down, a hassle after heavy rains. 

If ‘garden’ (the verb) can be a metaphor - an apparatus for a way of doing something - what happens when it is applied to other contexts? What is it to garden a text?...a gallery?...the dinner table?...an archive?...or whatever is on your mind? The inevitability of growth tests ways of tending, being attentive and being attuned to a variety of things, the way a gardener is to their garden. 

The exhibition has been carefully planted, uprooted and transplanted in places, weeded, watered, pruned, mowed, and harvested by Rover Rinnie, Annie Parnell, Zev Aviv, Nyx Matthews, Othy Willis and Sophie Quinn. It may well sprout new growth over the course of the exhibition. 

PUBLIC PROGRAM Saturday 19 February 1-2PM. Join the artists on a guided walking tour of the urban landscape surrounding ANCA Dickson, guiding practices of noticing unplanned plants and overlooked ecologies.

Rover Rinnie (R. R.) is an artist, writer and curator who works collaboratively to create exhibitions, publications and creative research projects which meld the mundane, sublime and personal facets of life.

Annie Parnell works with people, introduced plant species, text and sculpture to excavate obscured and emergent narratives and ecologies on unceded Ngunnawal/Ngunawal/Ngambri Country.

Zev Aviv is a queer multi-disciplinary artist raised with privilege on unceded Ngunnawal/Ngunnawal/Ngambri land. They enjoy making people uncomfortable and working with their hands, though not at the same time.

Nyx Mathews’ multi-disciplinary practice utilises sculpture, fiction and digital media to critique 21st century institutions and built environments, and propose speculative alternatives.

Othy Willis’ work is an appendage to infrastructural and ecological dynamic systems; the aesthetics and invisible connections they embody, how we value the trash we discard. Othy incorporates these into a liberatory processes of community sovereignty; hacking old fans into wind turbines, or composting the waste we excrete.

Sophie Quinn works in two and three dimensions, often exploring tensions between traditional and non-traditional materials. By interrogating certain concepts – such as masking and protecting – her aim is to explore the challenges of connection and concealment.

OPENING EVENT: Wednesday 19 January from 6:00pm at ANCA Gallery. Free to attend, no bookings required.

It was the urge to adorn oneself that defined the human being. This desire in its most pure form looks like jewellery, a practice with no truly rational justification. Jewellery spreads far beyond this idea however, it is the story of our entire civilisation. 

It was the crown that made kings. The power of gold, silver, diamonds and rubies inspired authority and organised societies. Jewellery told us that the Earth was greedy for swallowing metals and stones, and that it was our job to tear these materials free. As wealth has increased and become centralised, we have only become more efficient and jewellery continues to flourish. We fight each other too, for jewellery.

Through our hands, jewellery is born. Through our eyes, the spores of jewellery enter our minds. When jewellery fruits, outbreaks of gold, shell and stone appear on our bodies. It then decomposes and is shed from our body, to be replaced by the fruits of the next generation. And yet jewellery is also old and wise. Some jewellery has roots so deep in our persons, families and societies that they have become indistinguishable. When these things speak, it is jewellery’s voice that is heard. Like a parasite and its host, we are reduced to a vessel.

This exhibition seeks to cast shadows from this inconceivable, weird being so that we might glean its features. Look as we might at the fruits of jewellery, it has a root system beneath the surface that we cannot comprehend. Lovecraft suggests that those who truly witness a thing so irreconcilable would suffer instant madness.

Jonathon Zalakos is a contemporary jewellery and object maker based in Canberra, on Ngunnawal and Ngambri land. Jonathon seeks to integrate traditional goldsmithing materials and techniques with contemporary practices and philosophical thought. Jonathon is particularly interested in how meaning is co-produced through the processes of expression and perception.