Tuesday 20 September – Saturday 29 October
Boroondara Arts will present three new community exhibitions by Geoff Cunningham, Madeleine Thornton-Smith and QArt Studio, all showing at Hawthorn’s Town Hall Gallery.
Streets of Your Town is an exhibition by Geoff Cunningham showing Tuesday 20 September – Saturday 29 October, featuring spray paint and stencil-based painting that explore the beauty, drama, and humour in everyday life. Viewers will be transported through Melbourne’s city streets among the weathered heritage buildings, power lines and laneways, and other overlooked traces of modern life.
Geoff is a stencil artist living and creating in Melbourne, whose paintings are held in collections locally and around the world. His distinctive works often combine the themes of streetscapes and nostalgia to form a back drop for his thought-provoking narrative.
Geoff explains: “I love the challenge of bringing so many different artistic disciplines together to create a finished piece that allows the viewer to step into a world that is familiar, yet somehow beautiful and unexpected.” Streets of Your Town will reveal the many different aspects of our everyday surroundings, turning the mundane into something extraordinary and unexpected.
Place by Madeleine Thornton- Smith will exhibit from Tuesday 27 September – Saturday 5 November and examines pre-existing hierarchies between paintings and ceramics. Originally trained as a painter, Madeleine creates ceramic works that imitate traditional elements in fine art, such as canvases, frames, and plinths.
Through pressing clay against textured surfaces of local buildings and making moulds of small found objects such as rocks or gumnuts, the artist attempts to capture a sense of Boroondara. These collected impressions are recreated in a series of ceramic paintings using the process of slip-casting.
Madeleine’s practice aims to challenge traditional beliefs in Western art history that painting is the highest artform and more valuable than craft-based works like ceramics. In representing one medium by using another, their perceived meaning, value, and symbolism become merged.
Through Our Eyes by QArt Studio is showing Tuesday 8 November – Saturday 17 December and explores the individual perspective of artists from QArt Studio, featuring paintings that convey the limitless colours, subjects, and themes that occupy our lives. The QArt Studio is a professionally operated art studio in Kew, Melbourne. Within the studio, artists with intellectual disabilities are given support by qualified managers to achieve the creative vision for their artworks and designs
The exhibition features works from Julian Campomizzi, Henry Deakin, Jordan Dymke, Stefan Farina, Shelby Gardner, Sarah Gibson, Sammi-Jo Matta, Tiffany McBroom, Miranda Millane, Holly Walton, Jarrod Wendt, Mya Wilson, Tara Scott, Tara Wood, and Kitty Yiu
QArt Studio and Gallery operates as an Australian Disability Enterprise which provides employment, mentoring and training for professional artists with intellectual and physical dishabilles. The employment and recognition afforded to the artists gives them a sense of pride in who they are and an identity in the community.
Town Hall Gallery
360 Burwood Road, Hawthorn
Free entry
https://www.boroondara.vic.gov.au/events/streets-your-town-geoff-cunningham
https://www.boroondara.vic.gov.au/events/painting-place-madeleine-thornton-smith
https://www.boroondara.vic.gov.au/events/through-our-eyes-qart-studio
Image Credits:
- Geoff Cunningham, ‘Gertrude Street #2’, 2022, acrylic and aerosol on canvas, 91.5 x 61 x 4, image courtesy of the artist.
- Madeleine Thornton-Smith, ‘Cast of a Painting (with studio textures)’, 2019, slip-cast earthenware, stoneware, midfire, glaze, 40 x 30.7 x 4.7cm framed, image courtesy of the artist.
- Henry Deakin, ‘The Dawn of Australian Fauna’, 2022, synthetic polymer on canvas, 122 x 76cm, image courtesy of the artist and QArt Studio.
Town Hall Gallery features a diverse range of contemporary public programs, curated exhibitions and exhibitions drawn from the Town Hall Gallery Collection, celebrating the rich cultural heritage of the City of Boroondara. A member of the Public Galleries Association of Victoria, Town Hall Gallery supports local, national and international artists at varying stages of their careers and offers a space for local artists and community groups to exhibit professionally in a gallery environment. Town Hall Gallery is open to the public in line with current restrictions and with a COVIDSafe Plan in place. For the latest information and opening hours, visit boroondara.vic.gov.au/arts.
