Bett Gallery Hobart - Gallery News November 09

369 Elizabeth Street
North Hobart Tasmania 7000
Telephone: +61 3 6231 6511
Email: dick@bettgallery.com.au
Web: www.bettgallery.com.au

gallery news 06 | november 09

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More signs of life
09 November – 02 December, 2009
Exhibition opening: 6pm, Friday 13 November, 2009

Bird Tree 2009

Helen Wright’s upcoming exhibition More Signs of Life marks twenty years of exhibition history with the gallery. Helen completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Tasmanian School of Art where she went on to lecture in printmaking. She was a founding member of the Chameleon Studios and Contemporary Art Space, Hobart and in 1989 she was artist-in-residence at the Verdaccio Studio, Italy. Helen’s work is included in numerous public and private collections including the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery of South Australia, Art Gallery of Western Australia and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.

‘The exhibition More Signs of Life celebrates my fascination and love for the natural world and our attempts to understand it. The images present aspects of both native and feral animals and birds such as rabbits, deer and pigeons in ways that straddle the strange to the familiar, from ‘the portrait’ study to fantasy and established stories such as the willow pattern to the mysterious stare of the creature back to the human. Images such as The Last Tree on the Island and Bird Tree relate to my fears for the future of native species and habitat destruction so familiar to me in Tasmania.’– Helen Wright, 2009

Double Nothing 2009

View Annika's exhibition here

The Ruins
02 November – 15 November, 2009

Following on from her successful show in Hobart last February, Bett Gallery Hobart introduces Annika to its Sydney clients, showcasing an exhibition titled The Ruins at Depot Gallery, Danks Street, Waterloo.

‘Annika Koops’ new work for The Ruins follows a similar thematic trajectory to that of past works. Koops continues to investigate her interest in the construction and sociological ramifications of online networks, communities and virtual environments. These themes are interwoven with art historical references from 16th and 17th century painting, still life, and religious and allegorical painting. What is also maintained is the quietly uncanny quality of Koops’ photographic and painted works. While they actively reference historic and contemporary movements in painting, there is also a speculative fictional quality to Koops’ strange and cold imaginings that evokes the qualities of Margaret Atwood’s the Handmaid’s Tale (1985) or the poetry and prose of Sylvia Plath.’– extract from The Ruins exhibition catalogue, Meredith Turnbull, 2009

Bertha Benz 2009

Heroes, Heroines, Villains & Victims from the Golden Age of Motoring
Now showing until 1st December, 2009

Exhibiting at bettgallery@raincheck is Hobart artist Tristan Stowards. A graduate of the Tasmanian School of Art, Tristan has studied traditional marionette making in the Czech Republic, is a current board member of Six_A Artist Run Initiative and a past recipient of the CAST Emerging Curator Mentorship. Heroes, Heroines, Villains & Victims from the Golden Age of Motoring consists of seven playful kinetic sculptures that are delighting both collectors and Raincheck patrons.

‘These sculptures are abstractions of the mainstay of the Industrial Revolution, the reciprocating piston engine; the kind in use since James Watt championed the steam engine; the kind (excepting electric and rotary engines) that drives every
car, truck and motorbike on our planet.’ – Tristan Stowards, 2009

View Tristan's exhibition here

Now showing until 1st December, 2009
Lea Stein Owl head vintage brooch 2009	Wednesday 04 December, 2009 – Tuesday 12 January, 2010 Opening: 6pm, Friday 4th of December, 2009
	Don’t miss this year’s Christmas Show – a fresh and innovative exhibition of the work of artists not seen before at Bett Gallery Hobart. Stunning vintage brooches from well-known Parisian designer Lea Stein; humorous, cheeky portraits by David Collins; edgy, detailed illustration by Tom O’Hern; eclectic, found-object sculpture from Vicki King; colourful, funky collages by Breon Martin and glamorous and exquisitely detailed, hand-crafted, one-off creations by Ghost of Lola jewellery designer Kim McLintock pull together an exciting line up. Join us at the opening for Christmas cheers at 6pm on the 4th of December

Wine makes you happy 2004

Don’t forget Bett Gallery Hobart stocks the complete works of the exceptionally popular Tom Samek. Tom has been entertaining audiences with his wit as a painter and printmaker for four decades. View Tom’s work online here.

If you can’t see the work you want on the website, let us know and we will get it in for you.

Bett Gallery Hobart is now calling for expressions of interest in a new Collecting Group based in Hobart. The Iron Pot Collection is aimed at Generation X and Y collectors interested in developing and sharing contemporary art knowledge and will focus on forming a major collection of emerging contemporary Australian art.

For more information, contact Emma: emma@bettgallery.com.au

Gallery artist news
Irene Briant Here and There Series No 4 2009	Irene Briant’s exhibition Lost is on now at the Carnegie Gallery until the 15th of November. View the show online here. Congratulations to Raymond Arnold, winner of the $10,000 Burnie Art Prize with his painting Night Watch – West Coast Mill 2009. Peter James Smith has been awarded a New Zealand Antarctic Fellowship 2009/10 by Antarctic New Zealand and will be will be based at Scott Base, Ross Dependency, during January 2010 producing art in response to the environment. Jane Burton, Bronek Kozka and Troy Ruffels are finalists in the 2009 William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize, a $20,000 non-acquisitive prize, at Monash Gallery of Art, Melbourne, 9 November – 13 December, 2009. Jane Burton, Julie Gough and Jonathan Kimberley are finalists in the 2009 Westpac Redlands Art Prize, a $20,000 acquisitive art prize curated this year by Imants Tillers, at the Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney, 14 November – 6 December, 2009. Thornton Walker will be represented by Dolby Chadwick Gallery, San Francisco at several major Art Fairs in the USA in 2010, and has had two still life etchings accepted into the British Museum; gifted through the Australian Print Workshop. The National Gallery of Australia recently purchased Hook, a sculpture by Heather B Swann. You can now view Heather’s work online here. Rob O’Connor is off to Paris next March on a three month residency at the Rosalind McCulloch Studio, Cité International des Arts. Anne MacDonald has had two works selected for inclusion in the current exhibition Au Feminin: Women Photographing Women at the Centre Culturel Calouste Gulbenkian in Paris, France and will also be included in the exhibition Drape: Classical Mode to Contemporary Dress opening at the NGV International, Melbourne in December 2009.	Raymond Arnold Night Watch – West Coast 2009 Heather B Swann Hook 2009

CHRISTMAS Trading Hours
The gallery will close on the 24th of December, 2009 and re-open Tuesday 05 January, 2010.