Stockroom Kyneton, gallery two
18 January / 23 February 2025
MADELEINE MINACK
a thing that holds something else
As an interdisciplinary artist primarily working in installation and sculpture, Minack's practice derives from a process of accumulation. Collecting discarded found objects to produce small, intimate sculptures that reflect minute details of normally unnoticed everyday matter.
Stockroom Kyneton, ceramic space
18 January / 23 February 2025
STEPH WALLACE
Remnant: a trace remaining
Born from a fascination with what lies beneath our feet, this body of work presents what is seen and unseen. In a merging of geological phenomenon, historical context and archaeological discovery, Wallace expresses diverse landscapes through the medium of clay.
Created in her Ballarat studio shaken daily by the explosions of contemporary gold mining practices, Wallace uses abstract line and embossed clay surfaces to meld her fragmented sense of place as a migrant. These works fuse imagery of historic gold diggings from her life in the Victorian Goldfields with personal fossil findings from the Jurassic Coast in Yorkshire, UK.
This sense of immersion in the landscape is continued through the artist's use of materials, often foraging site-specific resources directly from the land. Clays are dug directly from the earth to throw on the wheel and invasive weeds and introduced species are burnt to carbonise the surfaces of works.
This richly layered process of creation and modality of working irrevocably connects the work to the landscape itself, and becomes one with the stories told on its surface; its renderings of the visible terrain and imaginings of what is hidden to us inside the earth’s crust. To honour this connection further, Wallace seeks ways to reduce the environmental impact of her practice, using sustainable materials and methodologies where possible.
The making processes of fire and smoke and the resulting violent thermal shock can sometimes result in hairline fractures on even the most meticulously made ceramics. Wallace relishes these imperfections as opportunity for ‘radical repair’ and often pushes the making process intentionally to its limit, enticing and then embracing these aesthetic flaws. Using ancient repair methods and precious metals these invisible fractures become celebrated, with their imperfections adorned with brass and 23k gold.
I AVAILABLE ARTWORKS I
Stockroom Kyneton, gallery two
12 October / 17 November 2024
ALICIA KING
Phenomenal Bodies
Phenomenal bodies presents a collection of new artworks driven by King’s fascination with natural phenomena. This exhibition features pieces that incorporate elemental and industrial materials, as well as natural forces of gravity and magnetism, to create intricate crystalline formations on aluminium panel. Additionally, it includes hand-drawn works where King has meticulously etched cosmological motifs into aluminium colour planes. Though abstract, these works have a direct relationship to the natural world through King's evocative use of surface, line, colour, and texture.
King’s practice explores the intersections of nature, technology and the sublime. Through an alchemical approach to materiality and process, her work uses diverse technologies to create novel representations of the natural environment.
Her artworks engage viewers through their tactile surfaces and textures, inviting them to contemplate their connection with larger unseen forces and complex ecologies, from which we have so much to discover.
Stockroom Kyneton, ceramic space
12 October / 17 November 2024
VICTORIA LYNAGH
Regeneration
Epicormic #4, 2024, burnished Keane’s terracotta, terra sigillata, saggar fired with eucalyptus woodchips, 12 x 33 x 8 cm
Climate change is one of the most profound and challenging issues facing humanity. Victoria Lynagh’s work has developed from concerns surrounding the changing landscape and the increased prevalence of naturally occurring bushfires in Australia. Further influence comes from the debate on the historical use of controlled burns by indigenous peoples to manage the natural environment in a way that benefits humans and wildlife. Many ecosystems have evolved with fire as an essential contributor to habitat vitality and renewal, with plant species regenerating in the fire-affected environments when the resultant ash is used as a source of nutrients to germinate, establish or reproduce.
The importance of the effects of fire on the ecological landscape is represented in Lynagh’s work. The blackened debris caused by fires, and the re-growth in the landscape that can follow, is illustrated in the partly carbonised sculptural forms that bleed into the natural colours of the land.
Drawing inspiration from the ancient and simple approaches used in land regeneration, Lynagh incorporates traditional hand-building ceramic methods into her practice.
The works are made from a range of different clay bodies, illustrating the array of colours that occur naturally in the Australian landscape. All pieces are pinched, paddled, altered and refined before the surfaces are enhanced by the introduction of an earthy-toned palette of refined slips and terra sigillata. This enables the use of clay in solid and liquid forms within each piece. They are then burnished to create a glossy patina, which reflects the light and creates shadowed areas. Through their form and finish, the sculptural objects invite touch through their tactile and flawless surfaces and subtle, earthy beauty. Low-firing the pieces in a saggar with a range of organic combustible materials results in the works retaining the marks of the making process and reinforces the connection between the raw materials used and the earth they are taken from.
In a world where the pace of life is constantly increasing, Lynagh finds the simple hand-building techniques used in creating these pieces meditative. The simplicity and apparent effortlessness of the objects is born out of a labour-intensive method, where the repetitive and rhythmic nature of making imbues the surface with a sense of time. It is a process that cannot be rushed. The ‘smoking’ effect on the object surface cannot be pre-determined. In a way, it reflects a wildfire – a process that cannot be controlled, but can result in an exquisite landscape.
Stockroom Kyneton, gallery one
12 October / 17 November 2024
PIA JOHNSON
An Uncertain Grasp
Dr Pia Johnson is a visual artist, photographer and lecturer. Her practice-led research is engaged in
performance, cultural identity and belonging, stemming from her mixed background of Chinese Italian- Australian descent. These themes have underpinned her interest in memory, cultural spaces and performance, to investigate notions of transcultural identity, belonging and otherness through photography. Pia has exhibited across Australia and internationally, and her works have been in numerous prizes and are collected in private and public collections including the National Gallery of Victoria.
Known as one of Australia’s distinctive performance photography and portrait artists for over a decade, Pia has commissions from all the major and small to medium performing arts organisations in Australia. In 2023 Pia was awarded the Kerri Hall Fellowship for Performing Arts at the State Library of Victoria and was an Artist in Residence at the Immigration Museum Victoria, which culminated in the solo exhibition Re-Orient. Pia has her own podcast Out of the Frame: Conversations about Photography, which profiles contemporary photographers and artists speaking about their practice and photographic concerns today.
Pia holds a Bachelor of Creative Arts and Diploma of Modern Languages (Mandarin) from University of Melbourne and has a Doctorate in Fine Arts from RMIT University, where she is a lecturer and currently the Program Manager of the Master of Photography program.
Pia lives and works on Dja Dja Wurrung Country, with her husband and daughter. She acknowledges and pays respect to the traditional owners of the land - always will be Aboriginal land.
I AVAILABLE ARTWORKS I
Stockroom Kyneton, gallery one
08 June / 14 July 2024
GUILLAUME DILLEE
Dystopia (Selected Works)
“The title Dystopia refers to the dreamlike quality of my works, a conceptual world where the relationship between Man and Nature is perpetually at odds. My creations reflect the limits of mankind concerning the expansive biodiversity around him. I delve into this paralleled concept through the exploration of man’s relationship with their natural environment, interpretations of plant organics, and the ambiguous relationship between botanical toxic beauty and danger.
Upon my arrival to Australia ten years ago I was exposed to a whole new world of natural environments and complicated intertwinings between man and nature. The Australian environment was a revelation of a unique palette of colours, light, shapes, biodiversity, flora, fauna, and natural disasters. I found myself intrigued by the contradictory beauty yet ferocity of Australian flora and fauna. This dichotomy became a central theme in my work, prompting me to examine the delicate balance between attraction and danger inherent in the botanical world.
Challenged by climate change more than most places, Australian land and people are frequently confronted with the destructive forces of natural disasters. In this context, I explored the complexities of coexistence between man and nature, focusing on the power dynamics that naturally arise between the two forces. On one side is man, who exploits natural resources, and on the other is nature, which, despite everything, regenerates beyond all expectations.
As a self-taught artist, I view my studio as a laboratory for experimentation between various mediums, techniques, and contrasts to create unusual visual compositions. I draw on what I observe, what I hear and what I feel to create elements that find their place in my creative subconscious. Successive layers of various mediums build upon each other, crafting the desired effect. Enamel or ink are applied in a spontaneous, definitive gesture, like Japanese Shodo (calligraphy technique), embracing the irreversibility of each mark.”
- Guillaume Dillée, 2024
Stockroom Kyneton, gallery two
20 July / 25 August 2024
KRISTINA TSOULIS-REAY
Dwellings
The diminutive paintings that comprise Dwellings depict scenes from rental homes the artist inhabited with her family during the period of their making, 2020-2022. Referring to both the domestic scenes depicted and the focused process of painting, Dwellings captures a sense of intimacy and warmth whilst suggesting the inadequacy and anxiety of insecure living. Each concise scene sets up a sort of proxy home, the artist ‘making best’ of its limited surface.
Stockroom Kyneton, gallery two
27 April / 02 June 2024
ARTHUR DIMITRIOU
State of matter
State of matter is a new exhibition by Arthur Dimitriou which focuses on the re-contextualising of discarded postage items that, have ended up in state of limbo. He trophies these objects through methods such as lost wax casting as he strives to critique and subvert the cultural associations a viewer may have toward such mass-produced commodities. To successfully juxtapose any pre-existing associations with these objects, Dimitriou selects materials that offer stimulating visual qualities. By encasing forgotten matter in aluminium and wax, he disrupts the lifecycle of said objects, rejuvenating their appeal to the audience. This new production and improved aesthetics elevate their perceived value and significance. After undergoing this transition, the works appear to exist within a transient state. Emerging from their vessel his sculptures can be viewed beyond an obvious moment in time. By transforming the readymade object from simply a tool to that of a blank canvas for interpretation and interaction from the viewer, Dimitriou emphasises the beauty that can be attributed to what we deem as insignificant when provided a new context and form.
Arthur Dimitriou is a sculpture artist from Naarm/Melbourne. In 2019 Arthur completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Melbourne Victoria Collage of the Arts and is currently completing his Honours in Fine Arts. His practice explores utilized discarded, once purposeful readymade objects that have ended up in a state of limbo. Through reimaging these objects and focusing on the beauty that exists in the form these objects take on he looks to trophy the objects through lost wax casting which he has been undertaking at Fundere Foundry.
Stockroom Kyneton, ceramic space
16 March / 21 April 2024
ANGELA HAYES
Slab
It all starts with a Slab: A slice from a lump of clay - simple and unformed. The slab commences a ceramic hand-building process and also describes the ceramic form. It is the fabric of Angela Hayes’ ceramics and the canvas for expression.
With slab, the artist soothes her inner drama of contradictions. Seeking control and discipline with cautious crafting of form and edge, which is then abandoned for freedom in expression with unpredictable glaze finishes.
Angela Hayes’ ceramic sculptures originate from the study of the classic pouring vessel many years ago. The lip, the body, the foot, the spout, and the handle have evolved from wheel-thrown vessels to contemporary slab-made architectonic forms. Her work has departed from the functional constraints of the vessel and instead has become a receptacle for her artist’s voice.
Hayes studied Fine Arts - Ceramics at Queensland College of Art and later completed a Bachelor and Master of Landscape Architecture at the University of Melbourne. Her landscape architecture design practice, research, and teaching have developed a distinct style and keen eye for design which is demonstrated in her ceramic work. Angela has received numerous awards for her design work. She has exhibited her ceramic sculptures interstate, in China, and at numerous galleries in Melbourne.
Hayes creates ceramic sculptures from her inner-city studio in Melbourne. She finds inspiration in her urban environment through experimentation with traditional ceramics processes and refinement of new technical discoveries.
A foreign body, 2024, oil on canvas, framed, 61 x 61 cm
Stockroom Kyneton, gallery two
16 March / 21 April 2024
JOSHUA COCKING
A foreign body
During Cocking’s years living in remote Indigenous communities, he was always conscious of being an outsider. That despite Cocking’s good intentions, he was an interloper in an unfamiliar place. These paintings capture implausible orbs floating in the landscape, attempting to blend into their surroundings, reflecting and absorbing colour. But ultimately, they remain a foreign body; they do not belong. The Kimberley works represent Joshua Cocking’s ongoing attempts to immerse in a country and culture that is not his own. Conversely, the landscapes of south-western Victoria where he grew up are now also foreign; a sense of belonging eroded over half a lifetime lived away.
Stockroom Kyneton, gallery one
03 February / 10 March 2024
GREG WOOD
Nature Nurture
Greg Wood is a painter of the earthy and ethereal. The observation of atmospheric shifts in landscapes has been central to his practice for the past 25 years. He is attracted to observing the dynamic and subtle states of transformation enhanced by changing conditions, weather, and light.
In a recent residency in the ex-mining town of Queenstown, West coast of Tasmania,
Wood observed and created a series he describes as ‘resurrected landscapes’, images of places altered by human activity and in the process of regeneration. He describes these landscapes as occupying a liminal space between abstraction and realism, reminiscent of his style, that is, the physical abstraction wrought by human intervention and the shifting forces of atmosphere in the environment and the realism of nature’s capacity for remodelling itself as it heals. He describes the act of painting these wounded landscapes as acts of restitution and contrition.
Wood currently resides in one such landscape, the Central Victorian Goldfields, on Dja Dja Wurrung country. Described by local indigenous people as ‘Upside down country’ after the disruptions of the gold rush, this deeply disfigured landscape, marred and churned by mining, is in the process of reconfiguring. This singular landscape, with its saturated coppery hues and shadowy crenulations, impels Wood to create works that hold the unsettled beauty of a place both devastated and re-emerging. It is in this way that his art bears witness to the immense power of nature’s capacity for adaptation and repair.
For Wood, the specifics of place are not as important as the emotional and figural afterimages that endure. He paints places traversed through sensory impression, inviting the viewer to enter the felt sense of place, inciting flares of memory and emotion – landscapes of the familiar and unfamiliar. Wood describes his work as a ‘slow release’ –the nuance of his paintings gradually revealing themselves to the viewer. The art of Melbourne tonalist Clarice Beckett has been a formative influence for him, as revealed in his translucent, gestural layers of muted colour, flattened form, merging tones, and diffuse light.
Heather B. Swann, HeavyHead, Collection Art Gallery of South Australia 2016, 2023, oil on linen, silver finish frame, 51 x 51 cm
Stockroom Kyneton, gallery one
22 July / 27 August 2023
KEZ HUGHES
You Never Got Me Right
In an age where digital images dominate our experience, Kez Hughes’ paintings are lovingly rendered to communicate stillness, and beauty, and provide a new recording of artworks lost to their respective histories and locations.
Through repositioning and recreating paintings from existing documentary images of art, Hughes contemplates ideas of originality, authenticity, and authorship.
You never got me right brings together painted adaptations of works by Australian Artists including Lucina Lane, Heather b Swann, Olah Cohn, and Nat Ryan amongst others.
