For further information please contact

Horsham Regional Art Gallery
80 Wilson Street Horsham Vic 3400
telephone: (03) 5362 2888
fax: (03) 5382 5407
email: hrag@hrcc.vic.gov.au

and Gallery's touring exhibition-
CROSS SECTION: THE DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY OF CHARLES PAGE
Touring exhibition organised by Horsham Regional Art Gallery focusing on the work of one of Australia’s best itinerant documentary photographers. The exhibition will tour to venues across Victoria and in S.A. and Queensland in 2007-2008. Curated by HRAG Director, Merle Hathaway. Sample Education Kit.pdf

Regional& interstate tour:
(Information correct at time of publication. Please check before visiting.)

Bundoora Homestead Arts Centre - July 6 to Aug 5, 2007

MANMADE
October 23, 2007 – January 13, 2008 (Federation Room)
Drawn from the Gallery’s Permanent Collection, Manmade surveys photography of the built environment. Architectural and engineering monoliths contrast with small details highlighting craftsmanship, and a human scale. Photographic and digital technologies are used to construct images that further investigate the built environment and the nature of contemporary work.

Manmade will feature Craig Cole’s archival print illustrated above and the winner of the 2005 Julie Milowick Acquisitive Photographic Award, Washington Hotel by Simon Cuthbert. These images will be joined by historic photographs including; A Miner's Hut, Lithgow Valley, NSW, c1880’s, city scenes from the sixties by Steven Lojewski, and digital works by Stephen Haley, and Peter Hennessey.

IAN HILL: GRAIN SILOS OF THE WIMMERA AND MALLEE  
November 13, 2007 – January 6, 2007 (Photographic Gallery)
“Under big skies, in the vast colonized plains of the Wimmera and Mallee, these abstract clusters of silos erupt from and dominate the featureless flatness with their verticality and mass. Iconic place markers, like sentinels, they mark time and space for travellers through the region.”

Greg Burgess, architect

Ian Hill has been documenting the grain silos of north-west Victoria since 1999. Lucid and unsentimental, his large format black and white photographs capture the drama of the silos in their landscapes

WALK
December 11, 2007 – February 3, 2008 (Handbury Gallery and Bill and Maureen Mann Gallery)
In March 2006, eight artists embarked on a three week journey through forest, river, estuary and bay along the Great South West Walk in Victoria. Gaining insights from each other, traditional owners, and resident experts, these artists have produced artworks that bring together the fine, applied and multimedia arts in an exciting, cross-disciplinary approach.

Walk allows us to experience this journey through exquisite; jewellery, textiles, printmaking, painting, and sculpture. We can be emersed in this landscape through breathtaking video, and intimate sound works. Whilst beautiful these works emphasise the cultural significance of the land rather then its majestic beauty, and may be considered as demonstrating a model of nature as culture.

Walk a NETS Victoria touring exhibition. This exhibition is supported by Visions of Australia, an Australian Government program supporting touring exhibitions by providing funding assistance for the development and touring of Australian cultural material across Australia.

ANNETTE WILLIS: THE ROMANCE OF DEATH
8 January – 2 March 2008 (Photographic Gallery)
The artistry of French stonemasons and expressions of love, loss, and remembrance can be found throughout the cemeteries of Paris. Sydney based photographer Annette Willis uses these memorials to explore symbols of human drama and how people transform memorials into metaphors for life, for grief, and art.

These handcrafted black and white photographs are accompanied by poetry by acclaimed Australian poet Jill Jones.

THEY COMMUNICATE DIFFERENTLY WITH WOMEN
15 January – 23 March 2008 (Federation Room)
Men explored through images of work, rest and play. Inspired by the Gallery’s recent acquisition Fred Cress’s An Invitation, 1989, They Communicate Differently To Women will bring together works from all aspects of the Collection. Historic photography of the region alongside contemporary works by Bill Hensen and Farrell & Parkin; paintings by Noel McKenna and Raafat Ishak; drawings by George W. Lambert.

GRAEME MAC GREGOR: GRAMAC REVISITED
5 February - 23 March, 2008 (Handbury & Mann Galleries)
This Ballarat artist passionately explores environmental issues.
“It is nice to visit an old friend every 20yrs or so, that is, if that old friend is still alive, well - & working.”
Gramac

Commenting on the state of our contemporary society, with particular focus on the politics of water and environmental issues facing Australia, Gramac reviews the events of 2007. These vibrant and often humorous paintings, completed in acrylic on canvas, allow us to reflect on a year of major change in Australia. This extensive body of recent work will again allow Horsham Regional Art Gallery audiences to reconnect with this Ballarat artist twenty years after his first exhibition in Horsham.

THE ART OF PULLING STRINGS
17 February – 4 May 2008 (Community Gallery)
Experience the diversity of the local artists as they respond to the theme of this year’s Art is … pulling strings festival

JO GRANT: ALL PRIZE WINNERS PARADED
4 March – 27 April (Photographic Gallery)
This work is an exploration of small town agricultural shows in Australia, particularly Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. The desire to photograph these events was driven by more than sentiment or a wish to produce ‘objective’ historical documents. The work is an attempt to use ‘the show’ as a way of illustrating values that remain steadfast in these communities. Details of content or process can evolve over time but the central values that are encapsulated in the simple rituals like setting a table or preparing food remain constant.

CONNECTION ~ REFLECTION
18 March – 18 May, 2008 (Handbury & Mann Galleries)
Heather Burness, Aspinah Houspian, Rosemary Kingsmill and James McMurtrie live in various parts of Australia and Europe but each has engaged in projects based in our region. Heather Burness from ACT inserted printmaking plates into the soil at Dimboola allowing the salt to etch the plate. Aspinah Houspian, now in Germany, contributes a photographic study of the people of Rainbow. Closer to home, Rosemary Kingsmill’s felts relate to the beleaguered Yarriambiack Creek, while James McMurtrie’s glass works reflect his experience of the nearby Grampians.

THINGS I LIKE TO DO WITH MY FAMILY
5 May – 8 June, 2008 (Community Gallery)
Natimuk primary students respond to the question, “what do I like best to do with my family”. Colourful paintings on canvas. Organised by Wimmera Uniting Care.

CHARLIE SUBLET: THE BLUE MAN
15 May – 8 July, 2008 (Photographic Gallery)
The Blue Man ? Preacher? Prophet? Tormented Soul? He wanders the Australian bush exorcising demons. Part documentary, part theatre, The Blue Man is anguish, loneliness, anxiety, depression, grief and desperation.

Part documentary, part theatre, The Blue Man is anguish, loneliness, anxiety, depression, grief and desperation

THE 56TH BLAKE PRIZE FOR RELIGIOUS ART
20 May – 13 July, 2008 (Handbury & Mann Galleries)
Contemporary art celebrating cultural diversity. A touring exhibition from the Blake Society

PAUL CARRACHER:
10 June - 6 July, 2008 (Community Gallery)
Paul Carracher is an award-winning Wimmera Mail-Times photographer who has been covering the news in the Wimmera for over 20 years. These recent photographs documents sports, community clubs and local events.

MARCUS WILLS: ARCHIBALD PRIZE WINNER:
From June 21, 2008. (Federation Room)
Wimmera artist, Marcus Wills won the Archibald Prize in 2006. Now we can view for the first time in this region his stunning painting, The Paul Juraszek monolith (after Marcus Gheeraerts). This large and extraordinary work will be displayed along with a number of small works by Marcus Wills.

DACCHI DANG: LIMINAL
10 July - 2 September, 2008 (Photographic Gallery)
Liminal is the borderline of photography and design.

Dacchi's usual medium is photography but his approach is purely an artist, using a wide variety of photographic techniques, including ancient ones to convey his ideas.

His fascination with the circular form of the ancient Fong son warrior drums lead him to create the “Liminal” series. (Liminal is defined as transitional, or occupying both sides of a boundary or threshold). Images of French colonial architecture, and Australian, Vietnamese and design elements are embedded into nine exquisite, decorative, circular plates wrapped in rice paper.

ALEX LYALL
15 July – 7 September, 2008 (Handbury & Mann Galleries)
In July 2008 the Horsham Regional Art Gallery will host a retrospective exhibition of the work of Alex Lyall.

After completing her art training at RMIT, Lyall established a studio in St Arnaud in 1986 where she worked until her death in April 2007. This retrospective will present Lyall’s Wimmera landscapes, seascapes, lighthouses, silos, portraits of artistic peers, including poet Philip Hodgins and a series of self portraits, created as she stared down her own mortality.

Lyall’s concern for landscape and the way we view it is apparent in this painting from her series ‘Inside Out’.

DARREN SCOTT: KOKODA
5 - 31 August, 2008 (Community Gallery)
Photographs of the Kokoda Track, 2007. Rupanyup photographer, Darren Scott, documented his 2007 trek of the iconic Kokoda Trail.

ART UNLIMITED: REFRACTION
2 - 28 September, 2008 (Community Gallery)
Vibrant artworks from “Art Unlimited”. a Geelong based art group for people with a disability A feature exhibition of Awakenings festival exhibition

ENID MAYFIELD: FIELD AND FLORA IN ART
4 September - 28 October , 2008 (Photographic Gallery)
A selection of botanical illustrations featured in the publication Flora of the Otway Plain and Ranges. The exhibition includes detailed watercolour drawings of orchids, lilies and irises of the region by scientific illustrator and author, Enid Mayfield. Finely detailed botanic drawings and paintings by an artist who works at Geelong Botanic Gardens.

LOOP: NEW AUSTRALIAN VIDEO ART
9 September – 2 November, 2008 (Handbury Gallery)
Contemporary digital and video art. A NETS (Vic) touring exhibition initiated by Hamilton Art Gallery, curated by Hamilton Director Daniel McOwan.

During the exhibition there will be a multi-media performance / performance by Anna Lowendahl and Greg Pritchard. The installation, Lit from Within can be seen in the Town Hall, adjoining the Art Gallery, October 17 – 18.

STEVE MORVELL: FLEETING VISIONS
9 September – 2 November, 2008 (Mann Gallery)
Sketches of wildlife from the Bill & Maureen Mann Collection of Australian Wildlife Art selected by HRAG Curator, Adam Harding.

PENS, PENCILS AND PAINT
30 September –26 October, 2008 (Community Gallery)
Artworks executed by members of the Friday’s Art Group Horsham Community House, exploring their families, self portraits and our landscape. View a year’s hard work by the dedicated members of this arts group created at Horsham Community House

Get into Art! OPEN DAY
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Join us at Horsham Regional Art Gallery for a day of FREE workshops, letures, entertainment and much more as galleries across the state throw open their doors for the third annual Get into Art! Open day.

PROSPECT AND REFUGE: SMALL LANDSCAPES BY FIVE PAINTERS
30 October, 2008 – 7 January, 2009
These paintings combine an intense observation of particular places with the inviting intimacy of a small scale. Mary Tonkin, Peter Wegner, Geoff Dupree, Ken Smith and Maryanne Coutts each respond to a different type of landscape with visions which are vivid, subtle, dramatic, and tender.

BEYOND REASONABLE DROUGHT
4 November 2008 –5 January, 2009 (Mann Gallery)
Beyond Reasonable Drought features 80 extraordinary photos selected from over 1,500 images. It documents the effect of the drought on people in rural and urban communities around the country. The images demonstrate both the harshness and beauty of the Australian landscape in drought.Exhibition Patron and 2008 Australian of the Year Lee Kernaghan said, ‘The impact of this drought on people, the land, businesses and communities has been terrible. It’s been relentless and people are doing it tough. The photographers of this exhibition have taken the time to get to know people in those communities and documented their stories, so we can be reminded of what’s happening across our county. Beyond Reasonable Drought is an Old Parliament House travelling exhibition in association with the Many Australian Photographers (MAP) Group.

EXHIBITIONS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION
Upstaris - the Mack Jost Gallery shows selection from the Mack Jost collection, Bill and Maureen Mann Collection of Wildlife Art and other collections of Australian art, colonial to contemporary. Throughout the year a number of recent acquisitions will be featured in these exhibitions.