Lisa Walker and Brendan Huntley talk to curator Dunja Rmandić about the exhibition News from Nowhere at MPRG. Lisa Walker’s vast body of work is a career-length conversation with the question of ‘what is jewellery?’ As well as being the frontman for the Melbourne punk rock band Eddie Current Suppression Ring, Brendan Huntley’s paintings, objects and works on paper depict faces and explore the emotional depth of humanity. In this conversation they discuss how sitting across both fine art and craf...
Jul 17, 2024•1 hr 4 min
MPRG Director Danny Lacy and artist and co-curator Rosie Weiss take us through Surreal Landscapes - a group exhibition that explores the way artists position subtle and strange, absurd and dreamlike interventions within the landscape, abstracting and shifting our reading of the landscape. Find out more about works in the show, including artists Hayley Millar Baker, Nadine Christensen, Peta Clancy, Emily Ferretti, Tara Gilbee, Philip Hunter, Raafat Ishak, James Newitt, Emma Phillips and Christian...
Jul 14, 2021•32 min
Kate Gorringe-Smith sees migratory birds as a metaphor embodying human migration and the search for home and safety. She reveals how she learnt printmaking on Fred Williams’ printing press at school and went on to study printmaking at RMIT. Discover how working at BirdLife Australia influenced her art and the genesis for the Overwintering Project. Kate also discusses how the AGL proposal at Western Port was recently overturned and how the exhibition is a celebration rather than a requiem for thi...
May 17, 2021•20 min
As artists, how can we fill in the gaps of knowledge about our cultural histories? How can nature and country act as a connector? How can collaboration help strengthen our practice? Tai Snaith kicks off this new series by speaking with Gundijmara/ Italian/ Torres Strait islander artist LISA WAUP about her powerfully personal, shield-like work on paper from the MPRG collection called ‘Admit to Care.’ Together they discuss Lisa’s process of collecting history and stitching it together in order to ...
Feb 24, 2021•42 min
What does it mean to push past perfectionism? How can feeling powerless create more power for us in the end? How do we strike a balance between depicting the absurdity of life and the serious nature of compulsion? In this episode Tai Snaith and Lily Mae Martin start by deciphering her work on paper from the MPRG collection called ‘Wrestling.’ They go on to unpack a series of ideas around how we see the female body, comfort zones, censorship and control. Together they navigate the very personal t...
Feb 24, 2021•38 min
How can the way in which something is painted affect the way we read it? How is the self-discipline involved in painting similar to the self-discipline of an athlete? How can we forget the cost of our materials in order to paint freely? In this episode Tai Snaith converses with Fiona McMonagle about her watercolour painting ‘Wonky’ from the MPRG collection. This work is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Fiona’s fascination with complicated female subjects and making up her own rules. ...
Feb 24, 2021•41 min
How can the overload of images in daily life be seen as a positive thing? How can we keep ideas alive over decades of practice? How do you KEEP EVERYTHING and not become a hoarder? In this conversation Tai Snaith and Elizabeth Gower discuss an early work of hers on paper called ‘Precious Life’ from the MPRG collection. They explore the practice of collecting and sorting both actual materials and symbols and how it has adapted and changed over her life. Elizabeth shares how she learnt to ‘accept ...
Feb 24, 2021•44 min
As artists, how we can learn to use our megaphones to create a world we can bear to live in? Can a knife have a mind of it’s own? Can desire be an animating force? In this conversation Tai Snaith converses with Deborah Kelly about her animated paper work ‘LYING WOMEN’ from the MPRG collection and the process of making it. They talk of freeing the female figures from white man’s HIStory and letting them rub up against each other in HERstory. They go on to explore a series of juicy topics from sta...
Feb 24, 2021•40 min
How do our gestures and bodies become part of our work? And how is the act of cutting a feminist action? Tai Snaith and Sally Smart talk about female identity and archetypes of women such as pirates, witches and more- ideas which have been present in Sally’s life and imagination since she was a child. We talk about the act of cutting and how the female identity is both fragile and sturdy, but ultimately ‘re-arrangeable’ and fluid. Presented as part of ‘A World of One’s Own’ a podcast and exhibit...
Feb 24, 2021•39 min
How do we access our True Selves? Tai Snaith and Katherine Hattam discuss how making and depicting space can merge the inside (mental) world with the outside (public) world of politics and ideas. Reflecting on Katherine’s interest in psychoanalysis and unconscious time vs real time and how family life can be political. Presented as part of ‘A World of One’s Own’ a podcast and exhibition at Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery in 2021. 'A World of One’s Own' is an ongoing document which began in...
Feb 24, 2021•35 min
Annika Romeyn, the winner of the 2020 National Works on Paper, talks about her award-winning work 'Endurance 5'. After growing up in Canberra, Annika decided against studying medicine and began studying art at the ANU. Through her softball and academic achievements, she received a full scholarship to the Morgan State University, historically a black college, in Baltimore in the US to do a liberal arts course. Annika describes her ambitious printmaking process where she captures her fascination w...
Feb 23, 2021•32 min
Artist Tara Gilbee has a multidisciplinary approach to art making that incorporates solograph and pin hole photography techniques. Her work will be displayed in MPRG’s upcoming exhibition ‘Surreal Landscapes’ as well as an online exhibition of her works resulting from her time spent at the Police Point Artist in Residency, on the Mornington Peninsula, in 2018 and 2019. Discover more about Tara’s background as a health professional and how this has fostered ideas around power and forensics and id...
Sep 17, 2020•26 min
Curator Danny Lacy talks to Mornington Peninsula based artist Sophie Perez about studying at the Royal College of Art in London, her inspirations and her love of colour. Sophie shares how she captures the essence of the Mornington Peninsula landscape in paint and discusses her new studio, her 9 x 10 inch commission paintings and how she promotes herself on social media.
Apr 27, 2020•12 min
Artist and avid collector Patrick Pound talks about his MPRG exhibition 'A Collection of Stranger Things'. Pound delved into the MPRG Collection and drew out works that he recontexualised alongside his own collections of found photographs and objects. Patrick Pound is well known for his collections-based artworks, where he collects thousands of photographs that he themes together as museums. Discover more about his collection methodology and how the collection has become the medium. A conversati...
Mar 29, 2020•15 min
Three generations of artists from the same family - Christine Lloyd, Michael Favaloro and Merryn Lloyd - talk to curator Danny Lacy about their work in a recent exhibition at MPRG. In the Valley was an exhibition that highlighted the beauty and fragility of our natural environment and was presented as part of CLIMARTE’s ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE 2019 festival. Discover how three generations from one family presented different perspectives of the same Mornington Peninsula location. A conversation with M...
Jun 06, 2019•17 min
Juan Ford examines the human figure and its relationship to the environment. He has consistently been engaged with opening up new possibilities for realism in painting. Find out more about how exhibiting in artist-run spaces helped develop his practice. He also talks about his artistic process and still life constructions and why his work is often a multifaceted, but sometimes contradictory affair. A conversation with MPRG curator Danny Lacy. Our 2018 podcast program is supported by the Gordon D...
Mar 25, 2019•12 min
A special episode of practical and inspirational advice for artists by artists featured in MPRG's 2018 exhibition program and podcast series. We asked artists what they wish they knew when they were just starting out. Hear advice from 14 Australian artists, including Raafat Ishak, Jon Campbell, Andrew Hazewinkel, Kylie Stillman, James Tylor, Laura Wills, Rosie Weiss, Katherine Hattam, Danica Chappell, Catherine Truman, Natasha Bieniek, Vipoo Srivilasa, Chris Bond and Christian Capurro. Top tips:...
Feb 17, 2019•16 min
Christian Capurro's 'Another Misspent Portrait of Etienne de Silhouette' is a September 1986 issue of Vogue Hommes magazine that has been carefully erased by over 260 people. The participants inscribed the time taken to erase the page with its monetary value according to their current income. Discover how Capurro is interested in the idea of how erasure is manifested and how image making is simultaneously a making and unmaking process. A conversation with MPRG curator Danny Lacy. Our 2018 podcas...
Feb 04, 2019•26 min
Chris Bond’s practice involves the invention and embodiment of fictional artists and writers. In his painting practice, this is often realised in imagined books, magazines and correspondence. Bond’s new series of four small watercolours for the Obsession: Devil in the detail exhibition continue his chimerical alter-ego of Martin Meeks, a Boston-based artist possessing species dysphoria, who identifies himself as an ocelot. Find out more about how Chris Bond works in ways that are unlikely. A con...
Jan 09, 2019•20 min
Vipoo Srivilasa is a ceramic artist who was born in Thailand. He creates contemporary porcelain sculptures and vessels that transmit a universal message about cross-cultural experiences. In this podcast, Vipoo talks about how he works with artisans around the world to make his iconic creatures and how his patience series was a reaction to the distraction of social media. Discover more about his art projects, his new studio and how he manages his busy international schedule. A conversation with M...
Dec 12, 2018•21 min
Natasha Bieniek’s works shrink the everyday down into microcosms. Her tiniest paintings are only 4 x 5 centimetres. Natasha talks about how she is reviving the tradition of miniature painting and why she has shifted from portraiture to landscape painting. A conversation with MPRG curator Danny Lacy. Our 2018 podcast program is supported by the Gordon Darling Foundation. Introduction by Nathan Schroeder, Music courtesy of The Basics
Dec 05, 2018•22 min
Artist Catherine Truman talks about her JamFactory touring exhibition No Surface Holds. Truman's practice incorporates contemporary jewellery, objects, digital image and film installation with a focus upon the parallels between artistic process and scientific method. Discover how Truman co-founded the Gray Street Workshop, about her residencies overseas and her collaborative work with neuroscientist and poet Professor Ian Gibbons and what it feels like to be recognised as a JamFactory living ico...
Oct 23, 2018•21 min
Danica Chappell explores the malleability of analogue photography to create unique abstract works. Hear about the process and challenges behind the work she makes and her defining research at the Bauhaus museum after receiving a Jim Marks Postgraduate Scholarship. A conversation with MPRG curator Danny Lacy. Our 2018 podcast program is supported by the Gordon Darling Foundation. Introduction by Nathan Schroeder, Music courtesy of The Basics Image: Danica Chappell, Shallow Shadow #1 (detail)
Sep 16, 2018•17 min
Katherine Hattam who has been a finalist in the National Works on Paper eleven times. Katherine talks about her two stage process of making work, her repeating motif of the table covered in everyday objects and why she is fascinated by the William Buckley story, featured in her 2018 National Works on Paper work He Forgot How To Speak English. A conversation with MPRG curator Danny Lacy. Our 2018 podcast program is supported by the Gordon Darling Foundation. Introduction by Nathan Schroeder, Musi...
Aug 29, 2018•18 min
Rosie Weiss is a Mornington Peninsula based artist and educator. In 1992 she won the Moet & Chandon Australian art Fellowship. Rosie's work Two Banksias Holding On was acquired for the MPRG collection in the 2018 National Works on Paper. Rosie talks about her diaristic approach to her work, her interest in the environment and how she makes sense of the world through her art. Hear about her first teaching job at Pentridge, instructing life drawing in Saudi Arabia and her work with the Rosebud...
Aug 19, 2018•23 min
Curator Danny Lacy talks to James Tylor and Laura Wills, winners of the $15,000 Mornington Peninsula Shire / Beleura - The Tallis Foundation major acquisitive award in the 2018 National Works on Paper. Their award-winning work The Forgotten Wars 2017 was based on town and mining maps from the British Parliamentary papers and Commissioners’ reports on the colonization of Australia. The Australian Frontier wars were a series of armed conflicts, massacres and battles that took place from 1788 to 19...
Jul 29, 2018•22 min
Kylie Stillman is best known for her book sculptures and woodcarvings. She uses scalpel blades, jigsaws, sewing materials and drills to alter objects and create negative spaces that depict ‘signs of life’. Kylie talks to curator Danny Lacy about the defiance of creativity, the genesis of her book carvings and the idea behind her National Works on Paper piece Just C. A conversation with MPRG curator Danny Lacy. Our 2018 podcast program is supported by the Gordon Darling Foundation. Introduction b...
Jul 22, 2018•20 min
George Johnson is a New Zealand born, Melbourne based artist who has focused on Geometric Abstraction since the 1950s. George talks about teaching at Footscray Technical School and what he taught students about the most important elements of art. George’s large abstract painting from 1969, Big Blue, was featured in an exhibition of abstract works from the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery collection, which coincided with the National Gallery of Victoria restaging the iconic 1968 exhibition T...
Jul 16, 2018•12 min
Andrew Hazewinkel talks about his exhibition What the sea never told. This project takes as its starting point the 1892 Mornington football club tragedy where fifteen young men from Mornington drowned whilst returning from playing a game of football against the township of Mordialloc. Andrew talks candidly about this ambitious project that he developed over a period of three years. Discover more about Andrew’s work for the exhibition which included an epic new video installation, unique cibachro...
Jun 24, 2018•29 min
Jon Campbell talks about his exhibition Ball Yeah, a selection of his works from the past 15 years that reference aspects of our passionate sporting culture. Discover more about Campbell’s sporting background, his iconic ‘yeah’ flag and what it meant for him to win the $100,000 Basil Sellers Art Prize. A conversation with MPRG curator Danny Lacy. Our 2018 podcast program is supported by the Gordon Darling Foundation. Introduction by Nathan Schroeder, Music courtesy of The Basics
Apr 03, 2018•19 min
