The Wagga Wagga Art Gallery invites the community to welcome three new exhibitions as part of its Summer Exhibitions Launch on Saturday 2 November, including a showcase of the best of Australian textile art, a multimedia installation exploring the stories of local critically endangered species, and an exhibition of works from the Gallery's permanent collection.
Before the official launch at 5pm there is a free live salt drawing demonstration from 10am-12pm and 1pm-3pm with Canberra artist Hannah Quinlivan, followed by a special free floor talk between 2pm-3pm by the artists who have created one of the new displays, Understories.
Art Gallery Director Dr Lee-Anne Hall said Residue + Response: Tamworth Textile Triennial will let audiences take the temperature of contemporary textile practice in the country's most prestigious textile art showcase.
"Residue + Response presents the best of Australian textile art, exploring what it means to be human and part of the fabric of society," Ms Hall said.
The exhibition Look at Me, the result of a year-long curatorial mentoring and development program the Gallery undertook with University of Sydney undergraduate students, will display selected works from the Gallery's extensive collection.
"In this exhibition audiences will discover gems from the collection and reflect on the question of what it means to look at art through the eyes of three University of Sydney Museum Studies students.
"With these works, which include a painting by a British artist from the 1860s and a 1954 portrait of a saxophonist that shows the instrument but not the face behind it, we are unpacking how the audience might understand works of art and contribute to them.
"The exhibition will also reveal the complexities of curatorial practice within a gallery."
Dr Hall said through Look at Me the Gallery was contributing to the development of the next generation of curators.
"With the commissioned work Understories, the Gallery is supporting three highly regarded local artists undertaking projects dealing with the interface between art and ecology, following on from last year's GREEN 2023 Art Gallery program.
"Christopher Orchard, Timothy Crutchett and Damian Moloney speak to local concerns with an interactive multimedia, sound and sculpture installation exploring the interconnected stories of eight critically endangered species from local ecological communities."
