New Australian Printmaking - National Gallery of Victoria

Megan Cope’s Fellowship project took the form of two monumental multi-panel colour lithographs depicting the artist’s Quandamooka Ancestral Country. Featuring her signature use of colonial-period maps, delicate colour washes and hand-inscribed Indigenous place names in nineteenth-century typeface, these large-scale works challenge colonial-settler narratives and extend Cope’s research-based practice that investigates issues relating to cultural identity and the environment.

Image: Megan Cope - YARABINDJA BUDJURUNG I. Lithograph (one hand-drawn lithographic plate + two photolithographic plates).
Overall image + sheet size: 106cm x 365.5cm. Printed in an edition of 5 (plus proofs) by APW Printers Martin King and Simon White at APW, Melbourne, 2021.

Shaun Gladwell’s Fellowship prints built on his longstanding interest in street culture, technology and the physical limits of the body.

Using a range of traditional and digital print techniques, as well as new media, Gladwell produced three major suites of prints that were his most ambitious to date. One of these series, Skulls ‘R’ us 1-3, 2019, featuring the artist’s iconic skull imagery, was developed using a 360-degree camera.

Image: Shaun Gladwell - Skulls 'R' us 3. Etching (with lift ground, open bite, aquatint, hardground, burnished aquatint and drypoint). Image size: 90cm x 120cm.
Sheet size: 102.5cm x 129.5cm. Printed in an edition of 5 (plus proofs) by APW Printers Martin King and Simon White at APW, Melbourne, 2019.

Tim Maguire incorporated chance into his creative process in a series of vibrant colour intaglio prints titled CMY Dice Abstracts.

Deriving from six sample charcoal drawings and using only the three primary colours – cyan, magenta and yellow – the compositions of each of his Fellowships prints was determined by the roll of dice, which resulted in an extraordinary and unexpected range of colour combinations.

Image: Tim Maguire - CMY Dice Abstract 1. Intaglio (three photopolymer intaglio plates). Image size: 48cm x 48cm. Sheet size: 58.5cm x  57cm.
Printed in an edition of 10 (plus proofs) by APW Printers Martin King and Simon White at APW, Melbourne, 2021.

Patricia Piccinini, engaged with printmaking for the first time during her Fellowship, creating two ambitious suites of prints.  The Weavers’ Suite, used etching and lithography to bring a new inflection to her long-standing investigation of nature, the body, and the uncanny. Her second series The Skywhale Suite, features the artist’s provocative Skywhale family hovering over a variety of brightly coloured landscapes and combines hand-drawn and computer-generated images to create a suite of lithographs.

Image: Patricia Piccinini - Mountains (from The Skywhale Suite). Lithograph (one hand-drawn lithographic plate + two photolithographic plates).
Image size: 44cm x 64cm. Sheet size: 56cm x 76cm. Printed in an edition of 25 (plus proofs) by APW Printers Martin King and Simon White at APW, Melbourne, 2019.

NEW AUSTRALIAN PRINTMAKING

The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Federation Square, Melbourne

13 May - 11 September 2022

The Australian Print Workshop Artist Fellowship Program was generously assisted by: a Bequest from the Estate of Beverley Shelton and her late husband Martin Schönthal; the Australian Government through the Australian Council, its arts funding body; the National Gallery of Victoria; and the Ursula Hoff Institute. 

APW thanks the Artists and their representatives for their participation and support of the APW Artist Fellowship Program. Megan Cope courtesy Milani Gallery, Brisbane. Shaun Gladwell courtesy Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne. Tim Maguire and Patricia Piccinini courtesy Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne.