Past Events › Exhibitions

For the past 63 years the Maitland International Salon of Photography (MISoP), which operates via various Camera Clubs in the Hunter Region, has invited entries from photographers around the world. From an average of 5,000 images received from 40 countries for the annual competition, they are then judged across 6 salon categories; Colour, Monochrome and Nature prints as well as Open, Nature and Travel projected images. All the 2019 MISoP acceptances and award winners are shown at the Maitland Showground…

Maitland based artist Jaime Pritchard creates work that reflects the spirit of wabi-sabi, the view cantered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. Pritchard’s work traverses painting, drawing, multimedia installation and sculpture in response to emotion, memory and experiences. Unravelling To Recognition is an immersive installation revealing a journey of recollection, moments of deep reflection and acknowledgement leading to understanding.

The MASTERS part of the exhibition comprises 21 artworks from the Lakeview Collection of Old Masters. These are works on paper by artists Francisco Goya, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Pablo Picasso, Rembrandt Van Rijn, Marc Chagall, Joan Miro and Destino (a collaboration by Salvador Dali and Walt and Roy Disney) and include lithographs, etchings, etchings with aquatint and serigraphs. To complement these works and to provide creative input from budding APPRENTICES, students from local primary and high schools were invited to make…

Kei Takemura‘s artworks are characterised by overlapping a layer of embroidered cloth on to a photograph, drawing or broken objects. In her Renovated series, Takemura repairs broken objects using silk thread, transforming these 'wounds' into objects of beauty. For the artist, the act of embroidery creates a state of being tentative; it transforms objects and places which no longer exist, and brings fragments of memory towards a tangible existence. Kei Takemura is represented by Dominik Mersch Gallery  BE INSPIRED…

The nature of printmaking has changed substantially over the past 30 years and we now have artists who are willing to push the parameters of what was once considered  to be a “perfect print”.  They have done this by experimenting freely with various print media, melding their practice with other fields and investing in a new materiality.  Any notion of privileging technical perfection has now given way to research, and  an investment in questioning old paradigms but not at the…

Dale Forward is a Newcastle based artist and comic creator. Predominantly working in ink, though also delving into painting and digital illustration on occasion, Forward’s work is characterised by its dark fantasy themes and explorations into interactive elements. The title Warlock is drawn from Forward’s 2018 interactive comic of the same title that readers are able to engage with through 3D glasses to find different images on the same page giving two different sides to the story.

Between the wheezing song of the carousel and the voice of the muse of epic poetry lies the land of Nicola Hensel and John Turier. For twenty six years their home and studio have produced a steady stream of sculptures, drawings, songs and offspring who make things. This show brings their practices together for the first time – and includes a drawing machine a mechanical parade, giant buttons and maps for the ever renewable heart.

Milan’s work comes from an obsession of making things by hand. He has a passion for the everyday, the commonplace, the raw, the hands on, the gritty world of making things that talk about the who, the how and the why of us.

Legacy: Reflections on Mabo celebrates the man behind the game-changing Native Title Act, Eddie Koiki Mabo. Co-curated by Gail Mabo, Dr Jonathan McBurnie and Kellie Williams (Director of Umbrella Studio), the exhibition brings together a selection of over 20 works by Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists in the spirit of reconciliation, twenty-five years after the historic achievement. Each artist has responded to an aspect of Eddie Mabo that they are drawn to, whether it is his life, politics, activism, or legacy. The…

Volunteer snake catcher, educator and natural history illustrator Teresa Purnell presents an exhibition of serpentine splendour.
Teresa’s passion for the conservation of snakes and reptiles drives the artworks in the exhibition SnakeAbout. The detailed natural history illustrations are seen as a tool for teaching people about the peaceful and safe co-existence with reptiles.

If you stroll along High Street in an easterly direction you cannot miss Brett Piva’s immense mural on the side of the Gallery building. Commissioned to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the Gallery’s redevelopment the Artist was asked to take inspiration from this milestone. Piva believes the beauty of abstract art is that it is open to interpretation. The Artist has taken inspiration from the landscape within which the Gallery sits and has amplified the patterns that can be…

Local legend Frank Oakes invites you into a world of wizardry, wonder and fairy tales created through the ancient art of puppetry.

For Suzanne Archer, travel has been one of the most powerful challenges and enriching source of artistic expansion. From travelling with camera, sketchbook and notebook in hand, Archer has amassed a collection of travel journals that have recently begun transforming into artist books. Her journeys have taken her to Europe, Africa, Thailand, China, Bali, USA, and domestically throughout Australia, with this exhibition including a variety of media collected from and in response to the idea of Travel and Self. Suzanne…