Australian Galleries is delighted to share that Mary Tonkin and Michael Snape have been included in the latest issue of Artist Profile ahead of their upcoming exhibitions in September.
Mary Tonkin will be showing recent works with Australian Galleries at Sydney Contemporary Art Fair from 8 – 11 September 2022, at Carriageworks. This exhibition will include several works by Tonkin which depict the expansive, fern-filled forests of the Dandenong Ranges. It also sees the extraordinary Ramble, Kalorama, 2017-19 – which stretches out at 180 x 1890 cm – in its interstate debut.
In her interview with Inga Walton for Artist Profile, Tonkin explains that in making this monolithic work:
I wanted to convey the immersive, episodic experience of looking – how it feels to be enfolded in the sensual envelope of that bush for long periods of time.
Image above: work-in-progress shot, Mary Tonkin Embrace, Kalorama 2021 oil on linen 183 x 214 cm.
What I like about the Australian bush is the unruliness and messiness of it. I paint in relation to the presence of those forms… it’s kind of a mysterious process for me, I just figure out what makes my pulse beat faster.
Image above: Mary Tonkin Regalia, Kalorama 2020-21 oil on linen 183 x 214 cm.
Michael Snape has also been featured in a preview written by Paul McGillick in the lead up to his forthcoming exhibition Here, showing at Australian Galleries, Sydney, from 15 September – 2 October 2022. These intuitive, two-dimensional responses to the landscape of Michael’s country property at Wamboin, north of Canberra in rural NSW, are created by loosely using a roller on the ground.
In his preview for Art Guide, Paul says of Michael’s work:
Landscape, traditionally, is depicted as static. But Snape’s landscapes are highly dynamic. Just as his sculptures are tautly intricate patterns of energised forms, so these paintings are highly concentrated formal rhythms with a rigorous all-over surface unity – regardless of format.
Image above: Michael Snape Reading the room 2021 oil on canvas 50 x 76 cm.
Image above: front cover, Artist Profile, issue 60.