Same Same But Different: Contemporary Art Downunder

17 Dec 2015

Artist talk with Daniel Shipp, Lindy Lee and Tamara Dean
Moderated by Owen Craven
Saturday, 23 January 2016, 11am-12pm
Yavuz Gallery
RSVP: irene@yavuzgallery.com

Opening during Singapore Art Week 2016, Antipodean Inquiry is a major group exhibition of thirteen leading artists, exploring the vast and varied approaches that make up the fabric of contemporary art from Australia and New Zealand. In conjunction with the exhibition, Yavuz Gallery is organising an artist talk with featured artists Daniel Shipp, Lindy Lee and Tamara Dean, moderated by exhibition curator Owen Craven.

Daniel Shipp (b. 1972) began his career in film and television, where he gradually found himself drawn to light and photography. He is interested in creating images with tangible, emotional narrative, intuitively building emotion into his compositions. Exhibited at Antipodean Inquiry, works from his Botanical Inquiry series are elaborate photographic diaoramas that shuffle nature, geography, and physics into familiar but fictional environments, exploring the quietly menacing effect that humans have on the natural world. His works have been exhibited in Australia and Canada, including the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art.

Lindy Lee’s (b. 1954) practice explores her Chinese roots through the philosophies of Taoism and Buddhism, characterised by an awareness of humanity’s close relationship to nature and the universe. Her recent works use imagery from family photo albums, combining photographic elements with techniques that refer to traditional Chinese practices such as ‘flung ink painting’, which is understood as an act of renewal where all that is held inside oneself is released.

Lee has exhibited in Australia and abroad, including shows at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Art Gallery of New South Wales; Taiwan Museum of Art; and Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art. In 2014, she held a solo exhibition at the University of Queensland Art Museum (Brisbane). Her work is included in major public and private collections, including Art Gallery of South Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, National Gallery of Australia and The University of Melbourne.

Tamara Dean (b. 1976) is a multidisciplinary artist whose works explore the relationship between humans and the natural world, and the role ritual plays in our lives. Natural cycles within time and space, life and death, nature and spirituality, contribute to her investigation of the world around her. Dean’s practice relies on her subjects experiencing and engaging with their environment and emotions, as well as her own inclusion in the ritual.

Dean’s works have been shown in solo and group exhibitions in Australia, Asia and Europe, including the Canberra Contemporary Art Gallery (2011); Museum of Sydney (2007); and Art Gallery of New South Wales (2004). Her works are included in public and private collections including ArtOmi Collection, ArtBank Australia and Gold Coast City Gallery.

Based in Sydney, exhibition curator Owen Craven has worked as an independent curator and arts writer for over a decade, embedding himself in the studios of countless Australian artists, and often working closely with artists as they create work in response to specific projects and places.

Previous curated exhibitions include Not the Way Home (2012), which saw him lead 13 prominent Australian artists to Fowlers Gap, part of the Arid Desert of northwest New South Wales. More recently, he was Project Manager for Your Friend the Enemy (2015), an exhibition featuring artworks by 16 significant Australian and New Zealand contemporary artists, and touring both Australia and New Zealand.

Craven is currently a curator with Urban Art Projects (UAP) where he works as an artist liaison on large-scale public art commissions. Prior to joining UAP, Craven was the Editor of Artist Profile and Art Almanac, two of Australia’s leading visual arts magazines.