Low-down: Recent Acquisitions, Monash University Collection
Dates:
20 February–17 March
Artists:
James Angus, Lauren Berkowitz, Ian Burn, Eugene Carchesio, Virginia Coventry, Adam Cullen, Russell Drysdale, John Dunkley-Smith, Dale Frank, Brent Harris, Robert Hunter, Linda Judge, Rosemary Laing, John Meade, Vera Möller, Geoffrey Nees, David Noonan, Susan Norrie, Robert Owen, Mike Parr, Patricia Piccinini, Kerrie Poliness, Jacky Redgate, Neil Roberts, Simone Slee, Ricky Swallow, Louise Weaver, Guan Wei
Curators:
Jenepher Duncan and Katarina Paseta
Location:
Monash University Gallery
Monash University, Clayton Campus
About the exhibition
Spanning three generations of artists and a diverse range of media, Low-down demonstrated the strength and underlying rationale of the Monash University Collection to represent important developments in contemporary Australian art. Organised across three galleries, the exhibition opened with works focused on abstract and minimalist concerns, and traced an arch between the late 1960s and the ‘now’ of 2001.
In her catalogue essay, Juliana Engberg noted the way in which ‘minimalism becomes the territory of the corporeal’ in more recent works by artists such as Susan Norrie, Lauren Berkowitz and Vera Möller. James Angus’ Soccerball droped from 35,000 feet, 1999, and Ricky Swallow’s ‘The stars don’t shine upon us, we’re in the way of their light’ (Family telescope), 2000, both spoke to deflated or defeated objects of optimism.
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Image: John Meade, Set of Holds 1999, Styrofoam, enamel, polyurethane, sand, 5 parts (overall: 245 x 290 x 50 cm, irreg.). Monash University Collection, Melbourne. Purchased 2000. Courtesy Sutton Gallery, Melbourne