MRAG

For over 60 years the Maitland International Salon of Photography has attracted entries from photographers around the world. Over 5,000 entries were received this year in salon categories Colour, Monochrome, Nature  as well as Open, Nature and Travel projected images. From the accepted prints which are displayed at the Maitland Showground, this exhibition acknowledges 50 prints further selected to be exhibited at MRAG along with projected images.

The stage is a place separated from the everyday that allows us to more fully view life, revealing all the tragedy, comedy, mystery, love and fate that are part of the human experience. When the curtain is raised, we are able to see ourselves as the immortals see us, immersed in our destiny while enacting rituals that ask for blessings and curses to be granted. This world of theatre defies logic and reason in order to reflect who we are…

Lucas Davidson has created the site specific exhibition Casual Forces for the two levels of the Art Factory exhibition space. Using mirrored surfaces, geometric shapes, repetition and scale Casual Forces aims to challenge viewer perception, questioning the identification and interpretation of the work and the surrounding environment. Casual Forces invites a slower kind of looking that places emphasis on viewer attention and the present moment.

David Griggs explores the darker undercurrents of human existence. His work, predominately portraiture, focuses on the human condition; drawing on political imagery, underground media, local histories and personal experience. Famous for his bold anarchistic approach, Griggs takes the everyday and flips it to expose the cracks, exhuming the raw undercurrent of a society. He documents intimate chance moments and the deliberate actions of his friends, and strangers, within an unidentifiable Manila. His work is often collaborative, engaging directly with communities…

The building of a cubby in the bush is easily overlooked as childish and insignificant. However the interaction between a person and their environment is far from trivial. By being in and interacting with the ecosystems around them, a child is given the opportunity to take on a knowledge of the natural world and develop a bond to the environment in which their life takes place. This bond is the foundation of a person’s environmentally ethical decision-making in adulthood. Through…

In 2003 and at the height of his career, Australian art critic and broadcaster, Bruce James, left Sydney and returned to his home town of Ayr in the Burdekin delta in Queensland and became the painter Cutler Footway. My North features both the expansive landscapes of the artist’s home and still life studies in a rich palette of colour. As a satellite story to this exhibition, MRAG will present Cutler Footway’s inspirations, through the work of Grace Cossington Smith and…

Operation Art is an exhibition of 50 selected artworks by students from schools across New South Wales who have been invited to create uplifting works for other children. The exhibition is an initiative of The Children’s Hospital at Westmead in association with the NSW Department of Education and will include artworks by students from Hunter and the Central Coast schools.

Stories from Wonnarua Country is a series of artworks made by students from nine local schools who have been exploring what it means to be living on Wonnarua Country today. The artists have been led by their student colleagues who are the leaders of  their school -based Junior Aboriginal Education Consultative Group.