Exhibition opening event 2pm Saturday 4 October 2023

The 2023 ANCA Artists Group Show which runs from 28 October to 19 November is an exhibition of works by emerging, mid-career and established artists who have a studio-based practice at ANCA studios. The exhibition showcases the gamut of artistic expression, from internationally renowned practitioners to those just beginning.

Participating artists include: Nadege Desgenetez, Hannah Quinlivan, Joel Arthur, Ella Barclay, Peter Alwast, Tom Campbell, Cathy Zhang, David Greenhalgh, Tilly Davey, Ian Marr, David Liu, Helen Braund, Karen Lee, Jacquie Meng, Katrina Barter, John Hart, Zev Aviv, Evan Humphreys.

Memoryscapes exhibition opening event 6pm Wednesday 4 October 2023

In Memoryscapes Katrina Barter brings together a series of 1 x 1 metre abstract acrylic paintings on primed and unprimed cotton, linen and jute canvases. Inspired by abstract expressionist and conceptual lineages, including North American artists Agnes Martin and Sol Lewitt, Barter uses methodical, repetitive processes to create her works of undulating compositions of colour and light. The paintings are based on observational photographs of moments and places that the artist has taken over the last seven years.

These abstracted translations create mesmerising optical effects for the viewer, at the same time encouraging contemplation on the nature of memory as something comprising elements both real and fictional.

For Barter, the grid sits at a junction between abstraction and reality—both of the world and outside it. In some works, the grid reinforced by the negative space between painted squares, shimmers and produces optical illusions, while in other works it can be perceived as a solid and unyielding counterpoint to the fields of colour it holds. Through varied approaches to colour, scale and rhythm, Barter is interested in testing the underlying flexibility of the grid and how it can be used and understood, both as a structure within paintings and as a metaphor for the nature of human consciousness.

Katrina Barter is an artist based in Canberra, Australia. She is a Canberra business owner, current studio tenant at ANCA Dickson, and holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts majoring in Textiles from the ANU.

Exhibition opening event 6pm Wednesday 13 September 2023

When visiting a gallery or exhibition we might admire artists—and their finished work—but fail to recognise or understand the effort involved in researching, testing and creating the final piece. Networks Australia: Artists at work offers audiences a behind-the-scenes glimpse into artists’ lives and their work. In the exhibition a variety of artworks by members of Networks Australia is displayed alongside photographs of the artists at work and in their studios. The Networks artists practise in a wide-range of different media including; textiles, sculpture, photography, painting and drawing.

Networks Australia: Artists at work features 2 and 3-dimensional artworks in various media, exhibited alongside photographs of the artists by award-winning photographer, Fiona Bowring. As a member of the Networks Australia group, Fiona has captured personal, documentary-style portraits of other Networks members. Fiona’s talent at visual story-telling gives the audience an intimate view of life as an artist, and the diversity of techniques and skills involved in creating artwork for exhibition and for enjoyment.

Networks Australia is a diverse group of artists, living and practising in Australia, who have collaborated for over ten years exploring the concept of networks and networking. The group has exhibited nationally and internationally, in group and solo exhibitions. Some Networks Australia artists are professional artists, with many years of experience, while others are at the start of their artistic journey.

Participating artists: Angela Coleman, Beverly Moxon, Carol Cooke, Cheryl Jobsz, Christine Appleby, Dotti Le Sage, Fiona Bowring, Gail Nichols, Jenny Manning, Josie Cosgrove, Karyn Fearnside, Keziah Craven, Linda Eliott, Liz Perry, Monique van Nieuwland, Nancy Tingey, Ola Robertson, Pinal Maniar, Rozalie Sherwood, Sandra Obst, Steve Tomlin, Susan Hey, Valerie Kirk, Wendy Dodd, Yasmin Idriss.

Exhibition opening 6pm Wednesday 23 August 2023

Out of the Shadows is an exhibition of digital drawings, crochet sculptures and video works. The works reflect Megan Munro’s life as a queer, disabled artist and sometime performer. 

The artist’s everyday life is very quiet, slow, and removed from the outside world. Think permanent COVID lockdown. Prior to becoming chronically ill, Munro was very active in queer communities, performing as a drag king and living a full and active life. Now the artist lives very quietly and deals with the ongoing grief related to the loss of that former life.

Munro has Myalgic Encephomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) and Fibromyalgia, an illness that is very misunderstood. As only 5% of people ever fully recover from it most people are affected for life. Munro must spend a lot of time resting and conserving energy with most energy going towards day to day activities, like showering.

One of the positives to Munro’s disability is that it has facilitated change in the artist who now notices and enjoys all the little things in life: shadows that appear on the walls of their house, growth of their garden and the comfort of pets. Occasionally Munro still performs drag/burlesque. The juxtaposition between being in the spotlight and being at home living quietly is explored in the artist’s work.

Munro’s digital drawings are bright and colourful, each with its own story, while the small crochet sculptures are self-portraits reflecting the artist’s everyday life. These contrast with digital works which are moody—and explore time, change and the concept of moving slowly.

The exhibition itself will be as accessible as possible for viewers as this is integral to the artist’s work.

Megan Munro is a queer, disabled artist who graduated from the Canberra School of Art in 1996 after studying Textiles and Sculpture. Munro has used various mediums over the years, and participated in many group exhibitions. This will be their 6th solo exhibition. 

Opening event 6–8pm Wednesday 9 August 2023

Since ANCA’s inaugural PIN Show of 2011, the concept of reducing scale and honing in on a miniature wearable platform has appealed to many artists from a range of practices—such as sculptors, printmakers, painters, ceramicists, silversmiths, machine-makers, photographers, woodworkers and glass artists.

Following the success of the first show, ANCA held annual PIN exhibitions from 2012 to 2018. Now, after a break of five years, the ANCA Gallery is again running this hugely popular exhibition in 2023.

PIN provides a platform for contemporary artists, designers, craft practitioners and makers of all disciplines to showcase their work in an exhibition that focuses on the miniature: wearable artwork—the brooch.

PIN 9 will be exhibited at ANCA Gallery from 6pm Wednesday 9 August to 5pm Saturday 19 August.

Visitors who come to ANCA Gallery for this exhibition view it as a chance to purchase unique statement pieces that they can pin to their winter attire, as well as an opportunity to collect the work of established and emerging contemporary Australian artists at an affordable price.

Artists in this year’s PIN 9 include: Adelaide Butler, Angela Natalier, Ann McMahon, Anna Scheen, Annabel Nowlan, Brenda Runnegar, Catherine Mpofu, Damien Veal, Daria Fox, Elizabeth Curry, Fiona Meller, Fran Romano, Hands On Studio, Heather Groves, Ilka White, Ingrid Penc, Isobel Waters, Jacki Stone, Janet Angus, Jodie Cunningham, Karen Lee, Kate Gardiner, Katie Hayne, Kirra-lea Caynes, Kristie Watts, Lisa Jose, Maria Klingner, Marika Strohschnieder, Mel Young, Michele Grimston, Nicci Haynes, Nicola Knackstredt, Rachel Theodorakis, Rohana Holiday, Rozalie Sherwood, S.A Adair, Sarah Augusta Murphy, Sarah Jones, Tamsin McLure, Teegan Horat, Tracy Hopkirk, Ursula Frederick, Valerie Kirk, Virginia Sprague.

Brushes with the Bush by Jenny Gibson is an exhibition of oils on canvas and charcoal drawings spanning 28 years of art practice and observation.

Join us for the exhibition opening on Friday 2 June at 5.30pm. To be opened by Ruth Waller, artist and former Head of Painting ANU SOAD (2006–2018).

Gibson’s painting embodies a lifetime of bushwalking with family and friends. Whether in the Royal National Park in Sydney, where she spent many days while living in Bundeena, the Snowy Mountains where she skied in winter and walked in summer, or locally, around Canberra, her works express her encounters with the bush. Reflecting a sensorial response to the landscape around her, from more distant views to her immediate surroundings, from small grasses to her experience of moving through trees.

According to the artist, “I would like to introduce into the rectilinear geometry of our human built environment something of the irregular growth patterns of nature. I would like my paintings to remind people that there is another world out there which follows its own laws. This aim is underpinned by the recognition later in my life of the importance of plants in cycles of respiration and renewal and of the miraculous manner in which they make life possible on this planet.”

Exposed to painting as a young girl through Clewin Harcourt, a landscape painter who lived nearby in Heidelberg—Gibson developed her art practice through courses at Gymea TAFE, Sydney and later at the ANU School of Art. Her exhibitions range from group shows in Sydney and Canberra to solo exhibitions at ANCA Gallery and the Belconnen Arts Centre.