2007 William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize

> Winner announced:
6.30pm Friday 07 SEPTEMBER, 2007

> Exhibition on display:
Friday 07 SEPTEMBER to Sunday 11 NOVEMBER 2007

Finalists 2007

Zoe Ali, Robert Ashton, Donna Bailey, Adrian Baljeu, Magdalena Bors,
Chris Budgeon, Jane Burton, Peta Carlin, Danica Chappell, Bindi Cole,
Ray Cook, Simon Cuthbert, Penelope Davis. Sean Davey, Damian Dillon
Rozalind Drum mond, Rachael Duncan, Joyce Evans, Cherine Fahd
Farrell & Parkin, Jackie Felstead, Jerry Galea, Tim Handfield
Andrew Hazewinkel, Petrina Hicks, Rebekah Hughes, Danny Huynh
Mark Kimber, Daniel Kolieb, Christopher Köller, Cathy Laudenbach
Kirsty Lillico, Sally Mannall, Vanila Netto, Simon Obarzanek
Deborah Paau we, Scott Redford, Simon Strong, Darren Sylvester
David Tatnall, Lisa Tomasetti, Michelle Tran, Beverley Veasey
Tamara Voninski, Lyndal Walker

Australian Rules:
around the grounds

>07 SEPTEMBER – 28 OCTOBER 2007

In this era of footall professionalism, where the analysis of matches, coaches and players extends the parameters of the code into seemingly ever-expanding levels of complexity, the MGA has brought together photographers who capture the action away from the media spotlight. Australian rules: around the grounds features the work of five photographers who are represented in the MGA's permanent collection: Donna Bailey, Paul Dunn, Rennie Ellis, Grant Hobson and Jesse Marlow .

With images of hopeful young indigenous players training in the desert, to cheer squad stalwarts supporting their teams under drizzling Melbourne skies, this exhibition provides a range of perspectives on the sport and its social contexts. Connecting the world of footy with the raw emotion and eccentric personalities of the game, these photographers grasp the wider social significance of the game and reveal the passion, spirit and vitality of local communities.

Grant Hobson explores the nature of Australian masculinity and mateship through his sublime images of amateur footballers. Paul Dunn has worked closely with the Collingwood Cheer Squad, documenting their participation in the passionate theatre of spectatorship. Jesse Marlow's exploration of football in the Northern Territory celebrates the importance of the game to Indigenous Australians. Donna Bailey exposes the unmediated passion for the game found in the faces of her son's under-twelves team. And Rennie Ellis captures the style and culture of football in the 1970s.

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Public programs and other events

> YOUNG FOOTY FANATICS

DATE : Saturday 08 SEPTEMBER
TIME: 2 - 4pm Suitable for 5-12 yrs old

After a short tour focussing on images of AFL cheer squads in the exhibition Australian Rules: around the grounds , children will respond by making their own flags, banners, floggers and placards. Children are encouraged to come wearing their finest footy regalia in support of their team. A selection of works will go on display in the Community Exhibition Space.

> ARTISTS' FLOOR TALKS: 2pm, 28 OCTOBER, 2007

DATE : Sunday 28 OCTOBER
TIME: 2pm

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Lee Miller's War

> 07 JULY to 02 SEPTEMBER, 2007

Lee Miller's War comes to Monash Gallery of Art from the Lee Miller Archives in England and presents 110 photographs by one of the world's most influential and remarkable photographers.

Lee Miller's War presents works created during 1944-45 when Miller visited hospitals in Normandy and travelled through Germany, France, Austria, Hungary and Romania, as an official war correspondent for Vogue . Her unflinching documentation and commentary of what she witnessed shocked and educated the world to the horrors and futility of war.

These photographs were first published in Vogue in 1945-46 and represent a unique achievement in fashion publishing that has rarely been seen since. The uncompromising images by Miller were published under Alex Kroll's editorial vision. The strong content combined with striking magazine layouts produced a Surrealistic vision of what many saw as a confounded and irrational war.

Anthony Penrose says of Miller's photographs in Lee Miller's War 1944-45 , “They show war ravaged cities, buildings and landscapes, but above all they portray war-resilient people – soldiers, leaders, medics, evacuees, prisoners of war, the villains and heroes.”

Renato Grome: Seduce

> 23 AUGUST to 30 SEPTEMBER, 2007

Renato Grome's works are striking in their simplicity and saturated colour, depicting highly sexualized flora – orchids, cacti and other flowers in his signature bold style.

His works are modern day mandalas; deceptively simple, bold, graphic works which are a unique fusion of inspiration derived from sources as diverse as classical and surrealist painting, contemporary advertising campaigns, fine art photography and the natural world,” says his Gallerist Sandra Byron, of Byron McMahon Gallery.

In the ubiquitous age of digital production of images, Renato Grome's artwork is intriguingly technically hand crafted traditional photography - in reversal - and not digitally manipulated. His process has evolved from many years of working with natural light and light absorption techniques, but when (frequently) asked by his viewers and collectors, Grome says that, “the process of creating this work engenders mystique, and like a magician or master chef, I'm not able to reveal my processes, that would ruin the experience for the viewer.”

Sydney: 22 August to 22 September 2007
Byron McMahon Gallery, 88 George St, Redfern, NSW 2016.
Tuesday-Saturday 11-5pm, www.byronmcmahongallery.com.au

Rome:  October 2007
Lipanje Puntin Arte Contemporanea, 10 Via di Montoro,Roma 00186, Italy www.lipanjepuntin.com

Karina Grundy: Falling through days

>28 JUNE to 18 AUGUST, 2007

Titled Falling Through Days , Karina Grundy's new exhibition is a portrait of the contemporary Australian family. She has an eye for the social political barb, satirical comment and the ordinariness of the everyday.

Grundy's photographs are staged in a studio setting supported by the most basic furniture ensembles – as if nothing else matters. Family members encounter each other in various domestic scenarios, seemingly cut off from the world and struggling with their identity in spite of conflicting loyalties and passions. These works are theatrical in mode - we suspend any disbelief and are prepared to go with her - ensuing an empathy with the subjects and scenarios.

Grundy sees this process as a strategy to examine the role of women in contemporary society and the place of storytelling as conduit for knowledge and entertainment in our culture. As Karina says, “ The generational divide between my mother, grandmother and me is such that child-rearing advice and story-telling is often outdated….. this breakdown of such a valuable female community and role modelling greatly affects the majority of urban women”

Grundy's tableaux compositions about parenting ask us to pause and reflect on experiences that are common to many of us but often go unacknowledged in mainstream media and social discourse

Painted Porcelain :
Decorated British Ceramics 1750 - 1850

A Geelong Gallery travelling exhibition

> 18 MAY to 01 JULY, 2007

Focussing on the painterly tradition of porcelain decora tion, t his exhibition represents 21 major porcelain manufac turers from the late 18th and early 19th centu ries. The works vary in shape and style, from simple blue and white teapots to ornately decorated and gilded plates and vases.

Lloyd Rees: A Private Collection

> 04 MAY to 01 JULY, 2007

Lloyd Rees: A Private Collection features work from one of Australia's most respected artists of the 20th century. The exhibition includes drawings, paintings and lithographs from The Holmes à Court Collection and focuses on highly regarded prints that Rees pro duced in his last years with master printmaker Fred Genis.This exhibition is most notable for the inclusion of a number of early pencil drawings that Rees produced in the 1930s when he was a prominent member of the Northwood Group that included fellow artist Roland Wakelin.
Lloyd Rees: A Private Collection includes 37 works ranging from the 1920s to some of the last works produced by the artist in the 1980s. Twenty-seven lithographs from the Caloola suite, the Sandy Bay set and a Tribute to Llight suite will feature along-side paintings and drawings selected from one of Australia's most important private collections .

Eva Collins : Patterns

> 04 MAY to 24 JUNE, 2007

Eva Collins explores her interest with nature's patterns through photographs that capture the often unnoticed abstractions in our natural and built environments. These elegant configurations withdraw from their worldly references and ask the viewer to engage with the formal rythms of the photographic image.

Gardens (1997 - 2007) : Christopher Köller

> 04 APRIL to 13 MAY, 2007

Gardens(1997—2007) is an exhibition of photographic images from Köller’s 10 year fascination with gardens. Since 1996 Köller has been using a plastic toy camera - a Diana - and large format colour film to produce strange and unpredictable images in locations such as Kyoto Japan, Lake Maggiore in Italy, and Ararat in rural Victoria. This exhibition will feature Köller’s photographs of gardens as being sites of repose, reverie and recreation. Being an avid admirer of Bonsai and having spent over 20 years visiting Japan, including a studio residency in 2004, Köller has a strong affinity with Japanese gardens. For Köller the garden becomes a place of light and shadow, distorted colours and shifting perspectives. His technique of using the toy camera distorts the image just enough to carry the viewer into a fictional dream-like space of the imagination, and in doing so links the act of observation to the strange imagined worlds of childhood.

FIGHT: Stephen Dupont

> 01 MARCH to 29 APRIL, 2007

Fight explores the world of traditional wrestling through the photographic works of Stephen Dupont. Dupont has earned an international reputation as a photographer who captures the human dignity of his subjects often in the world’s trouble spots of Angola, Rwanda, Burundi and Afganistan. Drawn to places of conflict and with an eye for compassion, Dupont photographs both the moments of beauty and devastation in life. Robert McFarlane has described his works as “...remarkable for their blend of humanity and composition”.
Travelling across eight countries Dupont documented wrestling culture ranging from the tribal warriors of The Gambia, to the masked Latino superstars of Mexico. His journey began in India in 1993 and has seen him document the rituals, celebrations and lifestyles that surround wrestling in all its forms. However it was not a subject Dupont had planned to pursue. “I was drawn into it in 1993 when I came across an article and photo essay about a traditional Hindu wrestling school in Old Dehli. Intrigued I payed a visit to the school ...... and (they) led me on the first steps of a compelling journey into the private world of traditional wrestling”
Wrestling is one of the worlds oldest sports mixing tradition and technique. These photographs combine images of raw physical contact with cultural forms of ritual, religion and folklore.The images give valuable insight into the people, culture and communities that have existed for hundreds of years, yet are fast dissappearing from our globalised world.

Light on the Landscape; Travis McHarg

> 01 MARCH to 29 APRIL, 2007

From the Todd River to Simpson's Gap and Alice Springs, Travis McHarg uses medium format film to render the Australian landscape with an acute observational awareness.

Travis McHarg spent most of the 1970s and 80s living in Central Australia and working with Health and Aboriginal Affairs administration. During this time he studied photography at the Community College of Central Australia and recorded his surroundings with modest fixed lens cameras, developing his own prints in “….. home laundries when the sun had gone down ”. Light on the Landscape features 30 works that span 35 years of photographic practice and range in subject from the landscapes of the Northern Territory to those of rural Victoria, Tasmania and New South Wales.

McHarg uses twin reflex cameras, black and white film, and the darkroom - the traditional tenants of photography - to capture the most abstract element of the natural world, light. McHarg states that for him “ photography is not about taking pictures of things but recording the effect of light ”. The result is a record of the landscape in extraordinary detail, depth of field and tonal range.

Travis McHarg grew up in Wandin Yallock, a fruit-growing district east of Melbourne. He won the Caltex NT Art Prize and has works in public collections in the Northern Territory.

2007 Fundraising
Preview Exhibition
Dinner & Auction

Preview exhibition:
>01 MARCH to 31 MARCH 2007

Fundraising Dinner & Auction:
>01 MARCH to 31 MARCH 2007

>On-Line Preview Exhibition


Twenty-three of Australia's most significant emerging, mid-career and senior artists have demonstrated the importance of Monash Gallery of Art (MGA) as a unique public gallery by generously donating their works to MGA's Fundraising Auction.

On Saturday 31 March 2007 , the MGA will host its 9 th annual Fundraising Dinner and Auction, a gala evening of fabulous entertainment, fine dining and exceptional photo-based art. Roger McElroy , of NKM, Nevil Keating McElroy LTD , will then auction works by some of Australia's most collectible contemporary photo artists including Jane Burton , Bill Henson , Robyn Stacey , Polixeni Papapetrou , Matthew Sleeth and many, many more!

Since 1999, the Fundraising Dinner and Auction has become a significant feature of the Gallery's event calendar. All funds raised will ensure the continued growth of MGA as one of Australia's leading public galleries along with the sustained development and conservation of a photography collection that is recognized as one of the Nation's finest.

Jane Scott, the Director of MGA, said, “The 2007 Fundraising Dinner and Auction promises to be an exciting evening, with great entertainment, food and art by some of Australia's best known and loved photographers. All the works have been professionally framed and provide guests with an exclusive, unique and affordable buying opportunity.”

A preview exhibition of donated works to be auctioned will be on display at the MGA between 01 March
to 31 March 2007. Absentee bids will also be available for those who are unable to attend this special event but wish to support the MGA. An online preview is available at: www.mga.org.au .

Tickets: $120 per person

Auction items include works by:

Andrew Chapman Susan Fereday Polixeni Papapetrou David Tatnall John Cato Jo Daniell Bill Henson Matthew Sleeth Kathy Mackey Mark Strizic Tim Webster Troy Innocent Ian Hill Ponch Hawkes Robyn Stacey Andrew Seward Jesse Marlow Julie Millowick Stephen Dupont Lisa Tomasetti Donna Bailey Alfred Gregory Jane Burton

Michael Riley: sights unseen

> 16 NOVEMBER 2006 to 25 FEBRUARY 2007

Michael Riley (1960-2004) was one of the most important contemporary Indigenous visual artists of the past two decades. His contribution to the contemporary Indigenous and broader Australian visual arts industry was substantial and his film and video work challenged non-Indigenous perceptions of Indigenous experience, particularly among the most disenfranchised communities in the eastern region of Australia.

Michael Riley: sights unseen will reveal the prolific talents of a quiet observer whose photomedia, video and film continues to have a profound effect on Australia’s contemporary representation and comprehension of Indigenous Australia. The exhibition will draw together a comprehensive body of work, charting the vision and experience of one of the country’s most significant visual artists, chronicling a period of intense cultural development and achievement.

This special exhibition will not only profile Riley’s most recognised photomedia, films and video work, but will also present some images previously unseen in the public domain.

A NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA TRAVELLING EXHIBITION

Community Spirit: Michael Coyne

> 16 NOVEMBER 2006 to 25 FEBRUARY 2007

Internationally renowned photographer Michael Coyne has captured wars, revolutions and significant international events in a career spanning over 30 years.

After documenting people living in villages in different countries around the world, Coyne was interested in capturing the essence of an Australian country town that was big enough to be independent yet small enough for everyone to know their neighbour. After significant research, Coyne decided to document Numurkah, a town with a population of 5,000 in northern Victoria.

In Numurkah, Lakes and Roses, Coyne explores the multifaceted concept of ‘community' with its sense of place and belonging, identity, participation, fellowship and its gatherings and traditional events.

From the main street to the family lounge room, from the debutante and B&S balls to the sporting ground and the agricultural show, Coyne has captured a candid portrait of daily life in this rural town nestled between Shepparton and Cobram.