Presented in partnership with Byron Arts Magazine, the BAM Finalist Art Prize exhibition promotes awareness of the arts in the Northern Rivers by presenting a national art prize within the region.

The Finalist Exhibition showcases finalist artworks shortlisted for the 2021 prize.

Join Aaron Chapman in the studio and explore his new body of work, A Wet Finger to the Wind.

A Wet Finger to the Wind celebrates and mourns the colourful imagination of childhood innocence by reinterpreting photographs through the lens of a childhood craft.

The Norman Park Substation residency will see Chapman’s photographic enquiries of home(s) reimagined in a tactile manner through a limited palette of coloured perler beads. Chapman will individually place tens of thousands of perler beads (which are then fused together with a household iron) to engender meditative, reflective and domestic acts.

Chapman’s bond to home was significantly amplified since becoming a father and fatherless. It’s these significant life events that inform the developing work of A Wet Finger to the Wind and its attention to home, intimacy, refuge and childhood.

All are welcome to see works completed during the residency and to learn more about Aaron’s work and his process.

Using the current exhibition as stimulus, you’ll be able to join us to develop critical thinking and knowledge, understanding and skills for creativity in one of our Responding and Making sessions.

Students will experience our exhibitions, share ideas, and communicate their observations through making their own artworks as artists and audience. Facilitated by a collection artist, contemporary artist, or experienced art educator. All workshop materials provided.

Tickets $15 (per student, 90 min session) Suitable for students Prep-Year 12, TAFE and Tertiary.

To Book

To book, please complete the School Booking Request Form on our Gallery and Visual Arts Education page.

Aaron Chapman

In this creative writing workshop, Aaron will guide participants through the Solid Gold exhibition before returning to the studio to begin an ekphrastic journey writing about art. Undertake Aaron’s exercises in visual literacy, critical and creative thinking, while learning more about narrative and creative writing techniques.

Mon 24 May 2021
9.30-11am, 11.30 – 1pm, 1.30-3pm

Tue 25 May 2021
9.30-11am, 11.30 – 1pm, 1.30-3pm

Mon 31 May 2021
9.30-11am, 11.30 – 1pm, 1.30-3pm

Tue 1 June 2021
9.30-11am, 11.30 – 1pm, 1.30-3pm

The new HOTA Gallery’s first ever major exhibition premieres new works indoors and out, celebrating the diversity, richness and ambition of the Gold Coast.

Established Australian artists including Hiromi Tango, Michael Candy, Samuel Leighton-Dore and Libby Harward will be exhibited alongside locally recognised artists and collectives.

The exhibition features a variety of artforms including sculpture, weaving, textiles, ceramics, painting, photography, video, and installation. And with works presented in Gallery 1, around the public spaces of the Gallery, and outdoors – we’re literally bursting with great art around every corner.

They remind us of the beauty of the landscape, capturing it through a local lens. In a city that is ever developing, they also examine our sometime fraught relationship with the nature and, optimistically, they show us how as individuals we might relate more harmoniously to this wonderful world around us.

Solid Gold was curated following a call out seeking the best and brightest visual artists with strong ties to the Gold Coast, and showcases the thriving (and growing) creative wealth of the region. The 2021 $100,000 opportunity was fast tracked earlier this year to support artists financially when they needed it most.

Be part of this momentous occasion and explore new works from some of Australia’s most exciting contemporary creatives as they present a rich and varied portrait of our city and beyond.

Presented by HOTA, Home of the Arts

FEATURED ARTISTS

CJ Anderson
Mary Elizabeth Barron
Elliot Bastianon
Ali Bezer
Kirsty Bruce
Michael Candy
Aaron Chapman
Abbey McCulloch
Mimi Dennett
Claudia De Salvo
Erica Gray
Jason Haggerty
Libby Harward
JIL Studio
Samuel Leighton-Dore
Nicola Moss
Lisa Sorbie Martin
Hiromi Tango
Whatu Manawa Collective

Purple is Black Blooming is an ongoing reflection of childhood and the home, as our experiences inside these spaces have the potential to deliver the foundation for who we become.

Through documentary and fine art photography, and a large sculpture made from the packing boxes used to move from the artist’s childhood home, Chapman tells a deeply personal narrative both mourning and celebrating the colourful imagination of childhood innocence.

Purple is Black Blooming invites viewers to reflect on their own experiences in their childhood home(s) and to consider how these significant physical environments protect intimacy, provide refuge and keep memories.

Gallery DownTown is the annexe of Tweed Regional Gallery & Margaret Olley Art Centre, an initiative of Tweed Shire Council and is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.

Upstairs at M-Arts Precinct | Cnr Proudfoot Lane & Brisbane St, Murwillumbah NSW.

Limited numbers and bookings essential for opening night.

The annual SWELL Sculpture Festival is a free and all-inclusive 10-day outdoor sculpture exhibition, by the people for the people. A celebration of narratives and stories spoken through the artworks produced by local, national and international artists. Visitors are invited to immerse on their own level and pace with the sculptures set amongst the natural landscape.

SWELL Sculpture Festival 2020 will deliver 50+ works of art by nationally and internationally renowned artists, to be presented as a free public exhibition between 11 – 20 September 2020 along Currumbin Beach. Additionally, pop up exhibitions will be presented as westerlySWELL in The Village Green, Mudgeeraba, northerlySWELL in the Cultural Precinct, Helensvale and the SWELL Smalls Gallery at Dust Temple, Currumbin Valley.

The 2020 SWELL Smalls Gallery at Dust Temple will exhibit over 30 smaller sculptures over two weeks throughout the festival. Just a short drive from Currumbin Beach, visit Dust Temple to experience this eclectic space and enhance your art collection by taking home an original work of art.

The SWELL Smalls Gallery Program will host a rich and exciting program of live events, including visual arts and literary masterclasses, live music, spoken word experiences and creative culinary adventures. Join us as artists discuss their motivation, practice and personal experience. Learn a new craft, discover the sounds of SWELL, listen to uniquely crafted prose and poetry and enjoy exploring the 2020 SWELL Smalls Gallery.

The Contemporary Landscapes in Photography (CLIP) Awards is an internationally open photographic prize for new perspectives in natural and urban landscape photography. The selection criteria focuses on images which are original, stimulating, and that challenge traditional notions of landscape photography.

In this intense time of social restrictions, rapid change and mass actions, Co-Video is both a simple act of connecting through the medium of video, and a query of how our voices may be required to group together in different ways in this extreme climate and beyond.

SCREENING AND EXHIBITION DATES

18 July, 5.30pm
Screening in the pop-up gallery in M|Arts Precinct  [coinciding with Jack MacRae's end of residency Open Studio]

22 July - 2 August
Projection exhibition  in The Field [Wednesday - Friday 10am - 3pm , Saturday 10am - 2pm]

25 July, 7-8pm
Outdoor projection in Proudfoots Lane, Murwillumbah

The Border Art Prize supports the endeavours of artists living and working in the Tweed and surrounding shires. Open to all media and subject matter, the Prize attracts a wide variety of styles from both well-known and emerging artists, reflecting the region's lively artistic community. The Border Art Prize 2020 guest judge was Director of Grafton Regional Gallery Niomi Sands.

View Online Exhibition Catalogue

AIRspace curated by KYLE WEISE for METRO ARTS
THE FEEL curated by REBECCA ROSS for THE WALLS

Ten local Artist-Run-Initiatives (ARIs) take up residence in the Level 3 studios at Metro Arts, a place that has been home to many ARIs over the years.  

The 2019 ILFORD CCP Salon provides an invaluable opportunity for both emerging and established photographers to exhibit their work in a high-profile context. In past years, digital, analogue, video, 3D works and self-published photobooks have filled Centre for Contemporary Photography (CCP) and this year we are excited to once again present a diverse snapshot of contemporary Australian photomedia practice.

Run in conjunction with our institutional partner, the University of Macau, #APWT2019 features a stellar line up of feature authors, editors, emerging writers and translators from around the globe including Behrouz Boochani, Omid Tofighian, Linh Dinh, Melanie Mununnggurr-Wiliams, Eleanor Goodman, Alan Vaarwerk, Ashwani Kumar, Elizabeth Woods, Aaron Chapman and Tim Baker and you!

Inspired by the notion of Macau as a city of bridges our event will focus on the power of words and narrative to bridge the gaps between us – whether they be social, political or cultural. As a community of writers we are all well aware of the enormous impact words have to transform our internal landscapes but literature can change the worlds we live in too. In the words of revered feminist author and civil rights activist Audre Lorde, ‘Poetry is not only dream and vision; it is the skeleton architecture of our lives. It lays the foundations for a future change, a bridge across our fears of what has never been before.’ This theme will infuse our programming for 2019 and we look forward to hearing your ideas and contributions to this theme.

#APWT2019 will also feature a sidebar event on the 9th of November in Hong Kong run in conjunction with our partner Cha - An Asian Literary Journal.

Find out more at http://apwriters.org/. #APWT2019

Take a journey through fire and serenity with this year’s Australian Life photography prize finalists.

From heart-achingly intimate portraits to sharp observations, the 28 finalist images paint a unique picture of our current juncture in time. Quiet beauty, fierce energy, drought, excess, defiance and valour – the documented moments represent a multitude of stories that make up Australian Life.

Australian Life is one of Australia’s biggest – and most democratic – photography prizes. For more than 15 years, amateur and professional photographers have submitted their epic and intimate images of Australia. The finalists, and the $10,000 grand prize winner, were chosen by a panel of professional photographers, artists and curators.

Australian Life is part of Art & About Sydney, an ongoing program of temporary art projects in unusual spaces.