Meet the artists

Join the exhibition curator Julie Ewington for an exclusive tour of Meet the artists. Julie will share insights into the exhibition and the James C. Sourris AM Collection of Artist Interviews, a series of intimate conversations with acclaimed Australian artists. About Julie Ewington Julie Ewington is a curator and writer based in Sydney. From 2001 to 2014 Julie led the Australian Art department at Queensland Art Gallery, and contributed to the Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (1996 - 2012). As a curator she works closely with artists, bringing their work to new audiences. Recent projects include The Housing Question: Helen Grace, Narelle Jubelin and Sherre DeLys (Penrith Regional Gallery, 2019). Julie has written widely: books on Fiona Hall (2005) and Del Kathryn Barton (2014); essays in catalogues and anthologies; and reviews in Art Monthly, Australian Book Review, eyeline, and The Monthly. In 2014 she was awarded the Emeritus Medal from the Australia Council’s Visual Arts Board. Julie Ewington is the author of the Meet the artists publication which can be purchased at the Library Shop.

What does it take to exhibit at the Venice Art Biennale? In 2022, Dr Sebastian Di Mauro’s Greenback series was shown as part of the Personal Structures exhibition at the 59th Venice Art Biennale. The two-year-long project explored his experience relocating from Australia to America, a journey not too dissimilar to his grandparents’ emigration from Sicily to Australia. On this work Sebastian appliquéd and embroidered green US-military issue blankets with representations of the culturally significant buildings used on US ‘greenback’ dollar notes. But how does an artist take their work to such a prestigious, international exhibition? Hear Dr Sebastian Di Mauro detail his work and the process of applying for an Arts Queensland, Queensland Arts Showcase Program and Australian Cultural Diplomacy Grant Program to support the realisation of his international exhibition. About Dr Sebastian Di Mauro Bilingual in Sicilian — the language of his grandparents —and English, Sebastian Di Mauro has gradually developed a sculpture practice that speaks to his family’s migrant experience. The 1998 exhibition Pane e Zucchero (Bread and Sugar), held in Cairns, drew directly on his father’s work as a baker in far North Queensland and his grandfather’s labour in the sugar-cane fields. His signature use of astro-turf to clothe the natural forms used for his public sculptures referred to the ‘greener grass’ sought by his migrant family. Di Mauro’s paintings, sculptures, artist books and installations are collected by many of Australia’s key art institutions. Dr Sebastian Di Mauro is represented by Onespace Gallery. About Meet the artists Surround yourself with extraordinary contemporary works by some of Australia’s most acclaimed Australian artists and hear their stories with screenings of 35 video interviews in the James C. Sourris AM Collection of Artist Interviews. Artwork on display includes work from Vernon Ah Kee, Luke Roberts, Fiona Foley, Judith Wright, Leonard Brown, Anne Wallace, Sandra Selig, and Eugene Carchesio, The exhibition is curated by Julie Ewington, an authority on contemporary Australian art, showcasing the James C. Sourris AM Collection of Artist Interviews. Meet the artists will be open until 6:00 pm in the slq Gallery before the artist talk

Join a guided tour of Meet the artists led by the exhibition producer and hear about the highlights of the exhibition. The exhibition features contemporary works by Vernon Ah Kee, Luke Roberts, Fiona Foley, Judith Wright, Leonard Brown, Anne Wallace, Sandra Selig, and Eugene Carchesio, along with screenings of all 35 James C. Sourris AM Collection of Artist Interviews. Meet the artists is curated by Julie Ewington, an authority on contemporary Australian art, showcasing the James C. Sourris AM Collection of Artist Interviews.

Judy Watson, photographed by Richard Neylan-NolanJudy Watson is a Waanyi woman, born in Mundubbera in 1959, who has lived and worked in Queensland most of her life. While the stories passed down to her by her grandmother formed the foundation upon which all her work has been based, a visit in 1990 to Riversleigh Station in the heart of Waanyi country in north western Queensland and the place where her grandmother grew up, was pivotal in cementing Judy's connection to her family and their ancestral sites and stories - becoming a touchstone for her art practice from then on. Riversleigh Station, courtesy of Tomas Maltby & Encyclopaedia BritannicaJudy's work often tackles difficult subjects, inviting viewers to contemplate images layered with meaning and messages of concealed histories, including uncomfortable truths about Aboriginal massacres or desecration of sacred sites. Judy has been quoted as saying she hopes the message "leaks in like a deadly poison dart and implodes in the viewer, leaking its contents slowly".While Judy trained as a printmaker, her practice now spans a variety of media including drawing, painting, video, installation and public art commissions. She is now one of Queensland's, and Australia's most renowned artists. Her work is held by many major Australian galleries, including National Gallery of Australia and the Museum of Contemporary Art, and internationally by institutions such as the British Museum, Tate Gallery and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 2006, she was one of eight Aboriginal artists whose work featured in the Musee du Quai Branly project in Paris, and just last year, her work 'Tow Row' was installed at the front entrance of the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane. State Library of Queensland also holds some of Judy's work. in our collection.On Friday, 10 August 2018, Judy will be a special guest and the focus of State Library's 'Portrait of an Artist' series, featuring the screening of an extended interview recorded as part of the James C. Sourris AM Portrait of an Artist Collection and followed by a Q&A session with the artist. This is a free event, open to everyone. Bookings via our website.

Anne Wallace, That was long ago (detail), 2005, oil on canvas.The Queensland Library Foundation invites you to the James C. Sourris AM Collection: Portrait of an Artist featuring Anne Wallace. Anne Wallace is one of the most recent additions to the James C. Sourris AM Collection of contemporary Australian artist interviews, which are part of the Australian Library of Art at the State Library of Queensland.Anne's work is influenced by a number of factors including the differing Queensland architectures she observed in her grandparent's houses, the time periods before she was born and when she was growing up, books and films for example those about mid-century America and music such as "The Smiths". A lot of Anne's works refers to something, such as a poem, and although you can appreciate the painting without knowing the reference, knowing the reference allows you to fully appreciate the painting. Many of Anne's works have alluded to crimes and scenes of crimes and she is currently interested in witches and historic "old crones". Anne hopes that each of her paintings is recognisable as hers but that each is "unique" with a different image and feeling.Following the screening of Anne’s interview, she will be available for discussion with the audience.The event takes place on Friday the 30th of September between 6:30-7:30 pm in SLQ Auditorium 2, level 2, State Library of Queensland. Book now at https://www.eventbrite.com... We look forward to seeing you there. Bec Kilner, Published Content Technician

Inspired by a current QAGOMA exhibition Madonna Staunton : Out of a Clear Blue Sky, our guest blogger artist Normana Wight reviews Pennant an artists' book from the collections of the Australian Library of Art.This is a book of some size and weight; in timber and paper, it is a sculptural ‘objet d’art.’The shape suggests the pennant of the title. If it were in your own house, it would probably sit upright and open on your mantelpiece, so that you would experience its poetry and message as you walk past – from left to right(.?.)As happens with some artists’ books, it arrives in a box, then opens out into a small scale complete exhibition. Just for you to view.It strikes me as a good idea to include in this blog, the artists own description of the works’ evolution.“Books often evolve as a response to found material chosen to act as covers, sometimes sourced from derelict furniture. This adds a sculptural element to the concept. In the instance of Pennant the inner folds mimic the profile of the boards, playing with the theme of reverie in repose. Pennant perhaps refers to a Dream Ship.”Viewer/readers can not only experience this enigmatic and exciting book, at the State Library, but over the road at The Queensland Art Gallery there is a new exhibition of Madonna’s work in which she has returned to painting which, like all her work, is rich in poetry, mysticism, and the world of the mind.Madonna Staunton interview: The James C Sourris AM Collection

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