SHOUFAY DERZ, HYUN-HEE LEE & OWEN LEONG \\ selected as finalists of Hazelhurst Art On Paper Award

Shoufay Derz, Cameron's Quarry, 2013, pigment print on cotton paper, 120 x 120cm

Artereal Gallery congratulates artists Shoufay Derz, Hyun-Hee Lee and Owen Leong who have been announced finalists in the Hazelhurst Art On Paper Award, which recognises outstanding art by artists working on, with or about paper.  They join a host of other artists, selected from over 1500 entries by more than 750 artists. 

Artworks by Shoufay Derz, Hyun-Hee Lee and Owen Leong will appear alongside other finalists in the exhibition, which will will present a diverse range of paper media and industry techniques, including drawing, printmaking, photography, sculpture, paper cuts and video.  The exhibition will appear in both the Regional and Community Gallery between 30 May and 26 July 2015. 

Shoufay Derz has been selected for her artwork entitled 'Cameron's Quarry' from 2013. The work was originally shown in 'Phantom Limb' at UTS Gallery and accompanied the installation 'Without'. The Wombeyan marble used in 'Without' was sourced from this now disused quarry around the Wombeyan caves. 

Hyun-Hee Lee has been selected for her artwork entitled 'White Tears', which was also recently shown at UNSW Art & Design's AD Space Gallery. 

Hyun-Hee Lee, 'White Tears', 2014

Owen Leong was selected for his artwork, entitled 'Aura' from 2014. 'Aura' visualises the human circulatory system as an external shadow. This work is inspired by A.J. Defehrt’s 18th century engraving of the blood circulatory system, which has been cut from the soft black leather pelt of an animal. The act of hand cutting leather traces the passage of blood as it circles the body. The webbed veins of the circulatory system are then draped over my body like a second skin. A surgical stainless steel device holds his mouth open, which symbolically silences while opening up the body as a passive receptacle. This device suggests medicalisation of the body, hierarchies of classification and power. Aura attempts to make visible the transmission of social, cultural and political forces across the body. 

Owen Leong, 'Aura', 2014

With prizes totalling $26 000, the biennial award sees artists compete for the $15 000 major award, the $5000 Emerging Artist Award, the $5000 Friends of Hazelhurst Local Artist Award and the $1000 People's Choice Award. 

THE MOTEL SISTERS / HAUS OF KITTEHS @ HAZELHURST ART FESTIVAL

KEN + JULIA YONETANI / SUSTAINABILITY FORUM TALK AT HAZELHURST REGIONAL ART GALLERY

In Conversation with Ken + Julia Yonetani_Video courtesy of Hazelhurst Regional Art Gallery

Tomorrow on Saturday 12 April 2014, Ken + Julia Yonetani will be participating in a forum talk at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre.

Coinciding with their new exhibition at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery, The Last Supper, they will be discussing the topic of Sustainability, featuring guest speakers Megan Fizell and Michael Mobbs.

The Last Supper installation will be exhibiting from 22 March - 18 May 2014.
Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre - 782 Kingsway, Gymea NSW

KEN + JULIA YONETANI / THE LAST SUPPER

 Ken + Julia Yonetani_Still Life: The Food Bowl (detail)_2011_Murray River Salt_dimensions variable.

From 22 March - 18 May 2014, Ken + Julia Yonetani will be exhibiting a new installation, The Last Supper, at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre. Developed during a four month residency at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery, the installation references and recreates art historical imagery of The Last Supper via the creation of a nine metre long banquet table, heavily laden with a feast sculpted entirely from Murray River salt.

In The Last Supper the artists extend their prominent 2011 work Still Life: The Food Bowl in scale and concept. The Last Supper points to concerns arising from increasing salinity levels in Australia and unsustainable agricultural practices. In the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster,  the massive banquet of luxurious foodstuffs also becomes a larger visualisation of the problems of food security and safety in an increasingly toxic world. In the words of the artists: “Here salt is a metaphor for the death of the land, sacrificed in the production and consumption of what has become The Last Supper.” The religious and historical associations of salt, as a sacred substance that sustains life yet also can invite death, are infused within a powerful work about what is placed on our dinner table in the twenty first century.

Ken + Julia Yonetani are also included in the following current and upcoming exhibitions: Desire  at the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre (until 11 May 2014) and The Lorne Sculpture Biennale (8-30 March, 2014) where they have been commissioned to create a performance piece on 29 March.

The exhibition opening for The Last Supper will be held on Friday 21 March from 6pm. Ken + Julia Yonetani will also be participating in a panel discussion, The Last Supper: A Sustainability Talk, at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery on 12 April at 2pm.

For further information on works being exhibited as part of The Last Supper please contact Artereal Gallery.

Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre
782 Kingsway, Gymea NSW
Open daily 10am-5pm
Free admission

KEN + JULIA YONETANI / HAZELHURST REGIONAL GALLERY ARTIST RESIDENCY

Ken + Julia Yonetani_Hazelhurst Residency

From 22 March - 4 May 2014, Ken + Julia Yonetani will be exhibiting a new installation, The Last Supper, at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre. 

Developed during their four month residency at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery, the installation recreates the Last Supper dining table as a 9 metre long banquet sculpted entirely from salt.

Following their 2011 solo exhibition at Artereal, Still Life:  The Food Bowl, this work continues to address the concerns arising from increasing salinity levels and environmental toxins, and its impact on food production and food safety. The salt works bring focus to the environmental cost of agricultural production and connect with the historical associations of salt - as a powerful, sacred substance that maintains life by enabling food preservation, but also induces the death of ecosystems and the collapse of empires. Salt becomes a metaphor for the rise and fall of civilizations throughout history, and the issues of environmental decline, climate change, and food security that face us on a global scale today.

Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre - 782 Kingsway, Gymea NSW
Open daily 10am-5pm, free admission

ART & AUSTRALIA COLLECTION 2003-2013

Chantal Fraser_Maiden of Tempt and VG_2012_inkjet print on epsom paper, archival tape_45cm diameter

From 14 December 2013 - 27 January 2014, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre will be exhibiting The Art & Australia Collection 2003-2013.

"The Art & Australia Contemporary Art Award was established by the respected art journal of the same name, to promote the work of artists from Australia and New Zealand. The award focuses on artists in the first five years of their practice, supporting them with a critical text discussing their practice and the illustration of the work on the magazines back cover. To date, the work of twenty-four artists has been acquired for the collection, which represents not only a diversity of art practice but also cultural perspectives within Australian art today."

Exhibiting artists include: Del Kathryn Barton, Karen Black, Rebecca Baumann, Kushana Bush, Christian de Vietri, Pat Foster & Jen Berean, Patrick Francis, Chantal Fraser, Mark Hilton, Astra Howard, Sara Hughes, Helen Johnson, Jonathan Jones, Ash Keating, Gregor Kregar, James Lynch, Peter Madden, Sanne Mestrom, Nicholas Mangan, Amanda Marburg, Laith McGregor, Rob McHaffie, Alasdair McLuckie, Peter Nelson, Selina Ou, Tom Polo, Sarah Ryan, Giles Ryder, Britt Salt, Noel Skrzypczak, Grant Stevens, Michelle Ussher, Emma White, Tim Woodward and Jamil Yamani.

Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre: 782 Kingsway, Gymea NSW