Kylie StillmanMelbourne Art Fair 2012

Utopia Art Sydney Melbourne Art Fair 2012

Melbourne Art Fair 2012

1 - 5 August, 2012Royal Exhibition Building Melbourne

© Utopia Art Sydney

Helen EagerMarea GazzardEmily Kame KngwarreyeYukultji NapangatiMakinti NapanangkaKylie Stillman

There are many ways to approach an art fair: one is as a shop, where things will be sold, and another is to use the opportunity to showcase the very best of what a gallery is all about – and of course, a gallery is about its artists.

Utopia Art Sydney is 25 years old next year and this is the last Melbourne Art Fair under the direction of the Melbourne Art Foundation. Thus, we felt it was important to put a group of works together that clearly acknowledged the important relationship between artist and gallery in the context of our only national forum.

Helen Eager and Kylie Stillman have made works specifically for this Fair. With the opening of the new Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Eager’s vibrant work Tango continues to recieve considerable attention. In a surprising twist, Lagoon takes colour to its deepest limits, using dark greens and purples that appear black upon first glance. Nevertheless, in Eager’s new work, Trip, the bright tones of Tango are revisited in a tri-colour triptych reminiscent of her drawings across the many panels of concertina books. Here, there is a strong sense of movement between panels, which one senses could go on infinitely. In fact, the last panel could join the first perfectly.

Stillman’s new work Cypress Pine will be a focus of our stand, continuing her large-scale work in wood, after the Hermes commission last year. In this work the web of branches addresses the entire plane of the sculpture in a more overall form. Her latest book carvings similarly look in finer detail at the birds we know, now reduced to the bare essentials of their skeletal structures.

Emily Kame Kngwarreye began her exhibiting career with our gallery in 1988 and has risen to become one of Australia’s leading artists. The painting that will represent her at the Fair is one of the last major works from the early 1990s in private hands. In fact, this painting was delivered to the Melbourne Art Fair in 1992, but was immediately placed with a private collector ‘behind the scenes’. As such, it has only been publicly exhibited for the first time this year, and we felt that it would be apt for this painting to return to the Fair, two decades on.

When Makinti Napanangka began painting in the mid 1990s, Utopia Art Sydney staged her first solo exhibitions. It is important to acknowledge this distinguished artist for her unique contribution to the women’s movement of Papunya Tula Artists. Her inclusion in the 18th Biennale of Sydney: all our relations, has placed her work firmly within the arena of contemporary international art.

Similarly, Yukultji Napangati is at the forefront of a younger generation of Papunya Tula Artists. Two of her new paintings will be premiered at the Fair. Napangati continues to strengthen her signature style, with finely dotted lines forming mirage-like fields from which a sense of space and volume emerge.

Marea Gazzard has a long history with the Melbourne Art Foundation, generously gifting her sculpture ‘VIP’ to be presented at their Awards for the Visual Arts. In this fair, two pieces never before exhibited in Melbourne, capture the iconic simplicity apparent in all of Gazzard’s oeuvre. Never overstated, the elegant power of these sculptures has made Marea herself an icon of Australian art.

These women, of different ages and backgrounds, are united by their uncompromising dedication to their art. It is their persistence and self belief in their own unique visions that defines them. It is a privilege to represent them amongst their peers at MAF 2012.

Helen Eager, untitled, 2012, oil on linen, 214 x 137.5cm

Helen Eager, Trip, 2012, oil on linen, 214 x 412.5cm

Marea Gazzard, Janus I, 2007, clay, 40.5 x 16 x 16cm

Marea Gazzard, Delphi I, 2005, clay, 36.5 x 32 x 14cm

Emily Kame Kngwarreye, untitled, 1992, acrylic on canvas, 165 x 295.5cm

Emily Kame Kngwarreye, untitled, 1995, acrylic on paper, 76 x 56cm

Makinti Napanangka, untitled, 2004, acrylic on linen, 122 x 91cm

Yukultji Napangati, untitled, 2011, acrylic on linen, 153 x 122cm

Yukultji Napangati, untitled, 2012, acrylic on linen, 153 x 183cm

Kylie Stillman, Cypress Pine, 2012, wood carving, 201 (2.1 length) fence palings, 225 x 210 x 15cm, base 40 x 220 x 80cm

Kylie Stillman, Cypress Pine, 2012, wood carving, 201 (2.1 length) fence palings, 225 x 210 x 15cm, base 40 x 220 x 80cm

Kylie Stillman, Karen, 2012, book carving, 18 x 18 x 11cm, base 23.5 x 14.5 x 2cm

Kylie Stillman, Georgie, 2012, book carving, 18.5 x 17 x 10.5cm, base 23.5 x 14.5 x 2cm

Kylie Stillman, Bill, 2012, book carving, 19 x 20 x 13cm, base 23.5 x 14.5 x 2cm

Kylie Stillman, Blackie, 2012, book carving, 20 x 18 x 11cm, Base 23.5 x 14.5 x 2cm

Kylie Stillman, Duncan, 2012, book carving, 18.5 x 18 x 11.5cm, Base 23.5 x 14.5 x 2cm

Kylie Stillman, Gonzo, 2012, book carving, 19.5 x 17.5 x 11.5cm, Base, 23.5 x 14.5 x 2cm

Kylie Stillman, Eucalypt, 2012, book carving, 37 x 72 x 11cm

Melbourne Art Fair 2012

1 - 5 August, 2012Royal Exhibition Building Melbourne

Utopia Art Sydney2 Danks StreetWaterloo NSW 2017

Telephone: + 61 2 9699 2900Facsimile: + 61 2 9699 2988email: utopiaartsydney@ozemail.com.auwww.utopiaartsydney.com.au

© Utopia Art Sydney

Utopia Art Sydney2 Danks StreetWaterloo NSW 2017

Telephone: + 61 2 9699 2900Facsimile: + 61 2 9699 2988email: utopiaartsydney@ozemail.com.auwww.utopiaartsydney.com.au