Gertrude Studios 2010

Gertrude Contemporary’s 2010 Studio Artists’ exhibition presents an unrivalled selection of new work by Australia’s most innovative young artists.

As an organization that fosters artists in the first fifteen years of their career through studio residencies, exhibitions, touring exhibitions, publications and educational programmes, Gertrude Contemporary offers an environment where risk, experimentation and creativity are encouraged.

As such, the annual Gertrude Studio exhibition presents an unparalleled sampling of Australia’s most dynamic contemporary art practice. Featuring sixteen artists and collaborative groups working across a range of disciplines, this year’s Gertrude Studios exhibition extends throughout the labyrinth of Gertrude Contemporary’s gallery spaces. Selina Ou has photographed couples mid-embrace and in balletic choreographed poses. Although these moments of intimacy are captured in the studio, each image is fraught with tension and emotion. Belle Bassin’s new video installation shows three carnivalesque figures who flip in and out of the frame as they navigate the landscape. Also navigating the pathway is painter Geoff Newton in his replication of an internet image search, overblown in scale and comic in referenced juxtaposition

Other artists will be depicting the duplicate or the ghostly within the gallery space. Collaborative group DAMP have constructed an over-sized lead pencil which will be performatively employed by the group before the opening, using the gallery walls as a ouija board.

Sanné Mestrom also evokes a sense of the not-quite-present with her new sculptural work from a series of ‘psychological furniture’, in which familiar objects are adapted to support and hold the body, but appear out-of-shape and lop-sided. This exhibition also features new works by Emily Ferretti, Nathan Gray, Matt Hinkley, Susan Jacobs, Ash Keating, Silvana Mangano and Gabriella Mangano, Moya McKenna, Rob McLeish, Kate Smith, Alex Vivian and Nicki Wynnychuk.

As part of the annual exhibition Gertrude Contemporary Studio Artists will be opening their studios to the public for one afternoon only on Saturday 20 November 1—4pm. This is an exclusive opportunity to meet the artists and gain an invaluable insight into their practices.