In recent years marian drew's work has undergone significant changes and we are very pleased to present an exciting new body of work titled Centrepiece.
We last exhibited Marian's work in Perth when she was one of our 2009 Artists in Residence. She writes of her new work:
"Centrepiece (2014) connects the painted tradition of the still life with narratives of play and landscape. In response to my own previous photographic series Australiana / still life (2003-2012), that explored the deaths of wild animals, I aim to bring a certain joie de vivre to the site of the table, imbued with temporality and lightness. The regenerative image of play provides an instructive alternative to Judeo-Christian guilt. I believe that, through our own imagination and engagement, we have to find sustaining metaphors for living that reflect an understanding of our own folly. Not for a moment do I think that play is foolish. I believe that play is a serious creative tool for finding relevant meaning through intuitive understanding."
Artist Statement, May 2014
The table-top, or still-life, compositions in these Centrepiece photographs, pay homage to the 17th Century Dutch masters' vanitas paintings, as did Marian's previous series of Australiana, in which dead native birds and animals were exquisitely photographed on linen table-tops. Her new works are more joyous affairs, the table-tops are festive arrangements of found objects including fruit, hybrid ornaments, shells, coral and plants. Most were found at the artist's retreat on the Central Queensland coast at Agnes Water, and photographed in front of printed, or actual, land and skyscapes. The still-life arrangements also refer to the 18th Century fad for exotic and fanciful figures, and ornate table sculptures that stimulated conversation and humour at the dinner table.
Marian Drew is a mid career artist who has already had an extensive, and illustrious, art career. She studied at the Canberra School of Art in the early 1980s and followed this degree with post-graduate studies at Kassel University in Germany. She is currently an Associate Professor at the Queensland College of Art. Marian has exhibited across Australia and internationally, and her photographs can be found in over 20 important collections, including the J.P. Getty Museum USA, Museum of Photographic Art in San Diego USA, Australian National Gallery, Art Gallery of South Australia, Queensland Art Gallery, Artbank, and closer to home, Murdoch University. The photographs from this stunning new series are sure to find new homes in even more collections.
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