ARTWORK LEAVES FOR NEW HOME /  by Helen Grace

I’m very happy to say that my At the House composition (1981/2021) has moved out and found a new home – the Museum of Contemporary Art collection.

At the House, 1981/2021, 220 x 320cm

Work in new exhibition – Woman (seen) - Margaret Whitlam Galleries /  by Helen Grace

I have work in this new exhibition which has just opened.

Drawn from Western Sydney University’s Art Collection and loans from artists or their estate, Women (seen) celebrates 20 women artists connected to Western Sydney through work, study, family, or home.

Exhibiting Artists: Marian Abboud, Eddie Abd, Janice Bruny, Fiona Davies Helen Grace, Cassandra Hard-Lawrie, Kirtika Kain, Debra Keenahan, Margo Lewers, Audrey Newton, Mylyn Nguyen, Raquel Ormella, Debra Porch, Leanne Tobin, Catherine Rogers, Robyn Stacey, Justene Williams, Vicki Van Hout, Savanhdary Vongpoothorn and Anastasia Zaravinos aka Adonis.

With 10 percent of the nation’s population calling Western Sydney home, Western Sydney is Australia’s most culturally diverse region, providing fertile ground for creativity, rich with authentic storytelling, experimentation, and expression.  

Janice Bruny - Freshwater Mermaid Hunting with Digging Stick and Dilly Bag, 2013. Pencil, acrylic paint, acid free gelpen on paper, 55 x 75 cm.

From 1986 – 2009 Western Sydney University, or as it was then known as the University Western Sydney played a critical role in the advancement of visual arts literacy and training in the region through the art school on the Nepean campus. 

The legacy of the art school still resonates widely throughout the art sector today with an impressive list of student and staff alumnae working as professional artists, lecturers, and curators.

15 of the exhibiting artists in Women (seen) are part of the cohort of Western Sydney University’s alumnae across the study areas of visual arts, electronic arts, visual communications, and education. 

As with legacy, lineage also features strongly within the exhibition. Ideas and processes connect artists to each other, with their influences and antecedents, permeating the artworks on display. 

Women (seen) speaks of identity, community, and belonging. It celebrates what once was, and what is now

The Womanifesto Way – Artist Talks, Saturday, Nov 18, 2023 /  by Helen Grace

Hoping to see lots of you at this upcoming event.

Adapting, gathering, connecting—these are just some of the relational approaches of women artists. The Womanifesto Way: Sydney Gathers explores the ethos of this women-centred arts collective through collaborative exchanges between Womanifesto artists based in Sydney, and by embarking on open process of visual and digital art–history making that reveals nearly three decades of collaborative reinvention.

Womanifesto began in 1997 with the first feminist Southeast Asia-based international biennial, and has since brought together more than 150 contemporary artists across 45 countries. A uniquely collective approach facilitated by key members Varsha Nair, Phaptawan Suwannakudt and Nitaya Ueareeworakul and others, has guided every Womanifesto initiative from biennial exhibitions and community-based workshops, through to artist-led publications and online collaborative art projects. The collective’s unique longevity and diversity suggests there is much we could learn from women- and artist-led approaches to intergenerational and cross-cultural exchange. And here such exchanges range from the intimacy of one-on-one conversation and local gatherings during lockdown, through to multilingual children’s book projects and an expansive, ongoing digital art history project.

Join the organisers and artists behind the exhibition as they share and discuss their art and projects whilst reminiscing on their connections with Womanifesto. We invite everyone to an afternoon of convivial and casual exchange at 4A on 18 Nov 2023, 1-3PM.

Organisers Phaptawan Suwannakudt, Marni Williams, and Yvonne Low will kick off the event at 4A Lab at 1:00 pm, followed by the artists:

Helen Grace
Virginia Hilyard
Sue Pedley
Kyati Suharto
Shuxia Chen

This event begins at 4A Lab, located next to the main entrance of 4A. Our front-of-house staff will guide attendees.

Please RSVP to secure your place at this event. Light refreshments will be provided.

We look forward to welcoming you!

4A is a fully accessible venue.

The Womanifesto Way: Sydney Gathers – 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art /  by Helen Grace

I’m very happy to be participating in this new exhibition with an incredible group of global artists, opening in Sydney on Nov 4th, 2023 and running until Dec 17th, 2023 at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, 181-187 Hay St, Haymarket, Sydney

The Womanifesto Way: Sydney Gathers

“The Womanifesto Way is a hybrid digital and in-person exhibition and publication project exploring the histories and collective ethos of Womanifesto. Presented in partnership with Power Publications, this project examines this ‘Womanifesto Way’, its importance for often-overlooked women artists, and follows its lead, putting a multivocal form of art-history making alongside in-person and digital presentations of collaborative art practices.”

The exhibition takes place simultaneously with Womanifesto: Flowing Connections, an exhibition currently showing at Bangkok Art and Cultural Centre.

still from: As it Was in the Beginning … (Helen Grace, 2023, UHD video, 4.08m)

still from: Towards Empyrean Grove, Helen Grace and Toby Huynh, 2021 (UHD video, 4.20m)

THE HOUSING QUESTION – NEW INSTALLATION AT GEELONG GALLERY /  by Helen Grace

We’re very happy to announce that The Housing Question opens at Geelong Gallery on August 26th, 2023 in a new double projection, coinciding later in its season with Geelong Design Week

Memo Review by David Wlazlo, October 28, 2023 here :

The installation will run in The Sidney Myer Gallery from Saturday August 26th until Sunday October 29th.

The topic is more relevant than ever! If in the middle of the Twentieth Century even fascist dictators were building mass housing, today it’s hard to get even social democratic governments to take on the challenge of solving the housing question.

From the site:

‘The Housing Question is a collaborative video work by Helen Grace and Narelle Jubelin that takes its title from Friedrich Engels’ seminal 1872 texts addressing the severe housing shortages in his native Germany. After nearly 150 years this question remains central to contemporary social and political debates.

Grace and Jubelin explore these issues through two exemplary modernist homes: Harry and Penelope Seidler’s house in Sydney’s Killara (1967), and Casa Huarte (1966) in Madrid by José Antonio Corrales and Ramón Vázquez Molezún. The two houses are almost exactly contemporary statements in modernist architecture, made thousands of kilometres apart in markedly different nations and political circumstances. Yet despite their dissimilar contexts, the Australian and Spanish architects shared globally influential aspirations to create more equitable societies through the provision of excellent and widely available housing. Both architects created important social housing projects.

The focus on the two houses, in Australia and in Spain, leads to considering modernist town planning and mass housing more generally, the role of social housing, and, importantly, the urgent issues surrounding access to shelter, given today’s movements of refugees and asylum-seekers. Rich in historical imagery and intimate footage of both houses, The Housing Question connects broad social issues with the personal and emotional impact of modern and contemporary ideas about house and home.’

SERIOUS UNDERTAKINGS REMASTERED /  by Helen Grace

We’re very happy to announce that Serious Undertakings (1983) is having a 40th birthday party - and world premiere screening in its remastered form.

It’s screening with Claudia von Alemann’s Blind Spot /Die Reise Nach Lyon (1981) as part of Cinema Reborn , April 26 - May 2nd, 2023

Screenings: Sunday April 30th, 2.30pm, & Tuesday May 2nd, Randwick Ritz.

Book here

CARRIAGEWORKS CLOTHING STORE STUDIOS /  by Helen Grace

I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve been lucky enough to win a place in the Carriageworks Clothing Store Studios for 2023.

Official announcement here

It’s an awesome bunch of people to be sharing the space with - Eddie Abd, Shivanjani Lal, Clare Britton, Jason Phu, Daley Rangi, Jazz Money, Elizabeth Day, Karleen Green, Anne-Marie Te Whiu, Salote Tawale.

I’ve never previously had this much space to work in, so I feel I’m just starting out - again! Now, adding the archive to sort and discard - and make work with! Watch this space!

Potential ++