Yvonne Audette, Jon Cattapan and Robert Owen will talk about the exhibition "Vibrant Matter' on June, 2nd, 4-6pm at the TarraWarra Museum of Art! For more information please click here.

The Art Gallery of NSW and Bulgari announced today that Jon Cattapan is the 2013 recipient of THE BVLGARI ART AWARD.

The Bulgari Art Award consists of a $50,000 painting acquisition for the Art Gallery of NSW and a residency in Italy valued at $30,000. The total award of $80,000 is one of the most valuable art awards in Australia. The award-winner has been selected by the Art Gallery of NSW Trustees and the head curator of Australian art.

Jon Cattapan is a highly regarded artist and one of Australia’s finest contemporary painters. Cattapan’s subject is often contemporary cities, both their architecture and organisation and how we inhabit them. He overlays specific imagery with an abstract patterning that recalls the digital matrixes through which information circulates, extending local references into more global concerns.

Cattapan’s winning painting Imagine a Raft (Hard Rubbish 4+5) 2012 is a triptych painted over a five year period. Images of a city and abstract digital grids are juxtaposed with an image based on humble discards, a pile of disused furniture waiting for the council collection trucks at the end of Cattapan’s street in Melbourne’s St Kilda. The discarded objects resembled a marooned vessel and started Cattapan thinking about broader issues of what we value and what we discard. How do simple belongings shape our sense of identity? And how, by extension, can global preoccupations with territories and surveillance inform the creative zeitgeist of our times? These questions are a part of the artist’s thinking and aesthetic.

Jon Cattapan’s parents were born in the Veneto region of Italy and this award will enable him to reconnect with his family origins as well as experience the rich contemporary and historic cultural life of Rome and Italy.

Wayne Tunnicliffe, head curator of Australian art, said:
'The Gallery has looked to acquire a major painting by Jon Cattapan for several years now and we are thrilled that the Bulgari Art Award will enable us to have Imagine a Raft (Hard Rubbish 4+5) 2012 for our permanent collection. It is a tough but also lyrical painting, which finds a form of beauty in an unlikely subject matter. This winning painting veers between abstraction and representation and is a superb addition to our contemporary Australian collection.’

Julie Ann Morrison, managing director of Bulgari Australia and UK, said:
'We are delighted that the Art Gallery New South Wales has selected Jon Cattapan as the recipient of the Bulgari Art Award 2013. Jon’s work acquired for the state collection is highly distinctive in the context of Australian painting, combining a contemporary sensibility with a mythical and vivid depiction of the “city” as cast out from the landscape. Throughout his extensive career, Jon has challenged the conceptual boundaries of Australian art, bringing new questions and allusive associations to realisation with particular force, expressed with the tradition and timeless skill of a fine painter.’

MARION BORGELT and JON CATTAPAN are part of the 'VIBRANT MATTER' show at the TarraWarra Museum of Art, opening April, 20th, 2013

http://twma.com.au/exhibitions/event/vibrant-matter/

PHILIP WOLFHAGEN has been selected as a finalist in the Archibald Prize and the Wynne Prize, 2013.

Image left: 'Thirteenth Journey' (Detail),  2013, oil and beeswax on linen, 200 x 160cm

'The Body is a Big Place' has just opened as part of the 'Oscillator' exhibition at Science Gallery Dublin, open until April 14. Click here for more info.

Science Gallery is based on the Trinity campus and is dedicated to art-science practice, acknowledged internationally as one of the important innovators in the art-science field in terms of curatorial practice and public engagement strategies. 

The Irish Times featured an article about the live performance the day after the opening night, click here to read the full article

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WALDACH shows her most recent site-specific work in this new exhibition which runs until 5 May 2013, follow this link to view the details

The 2013 DOMINIK MERSCH GALLERY AWARD in conjunction with Sydney College of the Arts has been presented to Jenny Ihn. 'Dust' Jenny's new show will open in the gallery on 23rd January 2013

Until April 14, 2013 at The Kunstverein. Find out more about the exhibition here