Graphic

About the exhibition
Graphic surveyed contemporary drawing practice through the work of a diverse group of emerging and established Australian, American and European artists. Spanning a broad spectrum of styles—from abstract to representational, controlled to intuitive, narrative to metaphorical—the exhibition reflected the ongoing dynamism and conceptual richness of drawing as a medium.

The selection included meditative landscapes by Ian Friend and Judy Watson, alongside intimate explorations of personal identity in the practices of Rosslynd Piggott and Anne Wilson. Materiality and process were central to Felicia Kan’s graphite-dense surfaces and Virginia Coventry’s silverpoint ‘nets’.

Several artists employed self-imposed constraints to shape their approach—Neil Roberts, for instance, created drawings by repeatedly bouncing boot polish–coated balls across paper. Mathematical systems and the visual logic of information networks informed works by Damiano Bertoli and Andrew McQualter. Elsewhere, diaristic fragments drawn from memory and the subconscious appeared in the works of Jim Shaw and Jon Cattapan.

MUMA Online Exhibition Archive
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^{Image: Louise Forthun, Flow 1998 (detail), synthetic polymer paint on paper, 3 parts, 70 x 300 cm (overall). Courtesy of the artist and Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne}