2018 Dandenong Ranges Open Studios

One of the Dandenong Ranges most creative and inspiring cultural experiences.

Featuring 30 participating artists and collectives, the 15th Dandenong Ranges Open Studios offers visitors a unique exhibition and open studio weekend. Explore and connect with artists, ignite your creative imagination and step into the hidden gems, curious constructions and awe inspiring spaces of the artists’ creative environments.
Ascend into the hills to meet the creative folk that make this region so creatively vibrant. Visit the studios that most intrigue or inspire you. You will have the unique opportunity to purchase artwork and hand crafted items directly from the artists, informed by new insight into their creative world.
Dandenong Ranges Open Studios is the biggest creative 'Open Door' of the region.

Be ready to explore, enjoy and be inspired!

FEATURING Growing Pains Synapse, Andrea Innocent, Stephen Glover, Rain White, Jacqueline Grace, Michele Fountain, Cameron Semmens, Jessie Yvette Journoud-Ryan, Jacqui Christians, Juet Sculpture, Glenn England, Lee Goller, Jenny Rowe, Brian Baker, Leonie Macredie, Chris Lawry, Wendy Havard, Megan Williamson, Gerard Russo, Susie Parry, Mark Westaway, Yola & Daria, Tracey Roberts, Ches Mills, Leaf Studios, Marta Salamon, Melchior Martin and Heather Bradbury

OPEN STUDIOS WEEKEND Sat & Sun 5 & 6 May 2018

Visit studios between 10am and 5pm
GROUP EXHIBITION AT BURRINJA GALLERY 28 March to 6 May 2018
Exhibition opening and event launch event: 28 March 2018, 7pm - Burrinja Gallery


Full details  at openstudios.org.au

The Wonder WigWam - Amy Middleton & Dave Thompson

Burrinja Kids Stay and Play free family activity by local artists 

The Wonder Wigwam is an interactive visual and sound installation for children and families. Created as a catalyst for imaginary play, The Wonder Wigwam uses books, environment and sensory triggers to evoke imagination and wonder. It brings together elements of an outdoor dwelling that includes a wigwam constructed from wood, fabric and found materials, interactive lighting, a soundscape, and a range of books for children to enjoy that directly engages with theme of imaginary contemplation/play and idea generation. Illustrative books that do not include text will also be included for those who find reading difficult due to age or language barriers. The installation will include a soundscape made in collaboration with local sound artist Dave Thomson. The purpose of the soundscape is to offer our participants sensory triggers that support the idea of an outdoor environment. The natural environment of the Dandenong Ranges plays a large role in the conceptual development of Dave's art practice which compliments the outdoor theme of The Wonder Wigwam.


More about Burrinja Kids - Stay and Play

 

Jutta Malnic: Mwaga -  A bird at the end of the world

Mwaga is a photographic essay captured by Jutta Malnic on a small island in the East of Papua New Guinea in the 1980s. It shows the near-synergic relationship between the people on the island and the Mwaga gannets, a bird species locally referred to as ‘navigator birds’. Ancient Polynesian seafarers used these birds’ behaviour and movements as a navigation guide. 

Jutta Malnic is a Sydney-based photographer born in Berlin to a German father and Australian mother in 1924. After her family move to Australia in 1948, Jutta Malnic soon began to work as a on-board photographer for a shipping line. Between 1950 and 1969, Jutta Malnic sailed on 72 cruises around the South Pacific Islands. She developed deep relationships with the people of the region. Talking to the islands’ Chiefs, shermen, women and children, she was taught about the culture and legends in the Pacific Islands — and captured her impressions through the lens of her camera. Throughout her career she published several books.

Presented in cooperation with Goethe-Institut Australien.

Join us for the exhibition opening at 2pm on Sunday 6 May

Bleeding Hearts  - Human Rights and Cognitive Dissonance in the “lucky country”. 

Eliza Phillips

In the exhibition Bleeding Hearts Dandenong Ranges resident Eliza Phillips investigates the disparity in Australia between the mythologised nationalist illusion of a ‘fair go’ and the systematic vilification of minoritygroups and social justice advocates. Eliza Phillips is a Burrinja studio artist who works across different mediums, utilising text and recycled materials to explore themes of social justice.

Join us for the exhibition opening at 3 - 5 PM on Saturday 12 May

 

Walls as Witness

Stephen Glover

Created in a non-objective style, Stephen Glover's work draws intuitively upon influences from the natural and constructed world, employing an interplay between the expressive potential of both brush and palette knife. Surface patinas, scrapings and textures reveal layers from another time and act as witness to what has gone before. "This is my response to the shifting nature and impermanence of living each day”, says Stephen Glover, who is one of Burrinja’s studio artists.

Join us for the exhibition opening at 2- 4 PM on Saturday 12 May

Artist Talk 2 - 3 PM - Saturday 2 June 

WAM (Where Artists Meet)

Burrinja invites you to our local Artist Social.

Offered as Bi monthly events throughout the year, these regular gatherings propose space for connecting and developing conversation between local creatives. WAM provides a fun and friendly environment to talk shop with other artists, share tips, discuss creative practice, projects and local arts and culture. With the Dandenong Ranges rich and abundant cultural landscape Burrinja’s WAM events are a great opportunity to develop new creative networks, find out about potential opportunities and connect with your local arts community.

As well as connecting with other local practitioners over a drink, each event will touch on a different arts issue or skill. Special guests will be invited to share their insight, their secrets and their stories. We will learn, share and laugh together as we celebrate the rich local arts community.

Artists of all art forms are invited

Diode

Gerard Russo

Diode is an exhibition of illuminated copper works by Belgrave artist Gerard Russo. Using a unique copper plate composite his art practise involves traditional woodworking, painting and copper etching. ‘Diode’ explores nature, the industrial, the conscious and temporality. With each artefact the original artwork is destroyed to reveal the copper plate.  Illuminated from within; the art speaks with lux. The self-illuminating works create ambience, detaching the observer from the space in an immersive experience of light, questioning linear perceptions of time and journey. 

Join us for the exhibition opening at 2 - 4 pm on Saturday 16 June 

Love, Thieves and Fear make Ghosts

Andrea Innocent

Ghost stories and mythology are present in both Western and Eastern cultures, however the history of these tales in Japan date back thousands of years through to the present day, as can be seen in the new medium known as J-horror; highlighting a vibrant continuous narrative.

The folklore surrounding these is well ingrained in the Japanese psyche and presents an opportunity for them to be shared across cultures to both surprise and challenge commonly held views and assumptions.

The prints featured in 'Love, Thieves and Fear make ghosts' utilize recurring Japanese motifs and the stylized imagery of block prints with a strong emphasis on shape, contrasting the ephemeral and nebulous `ghost’ subject matter with the dramatic physical presence of the visual works. 

Women Painting Women   

Realist portrait painting by Australian female artists.   

Women Painting Women is a major exhibition of portraiture oil painting and features recent works by Sally Ryan (NSW), Megan Roodenrys (SA), Dagmar Cyrulla, Vicki Sullivan, Fiona Bilbrough, Raelene Sharp and Heather Ellis (all VIC).

Giving insights into the relationships between the artists and their sitters (among these Yorta-Yorta soprano Deborah Cheetham, actress Sigrid Thornton, domestic violence campaigner Rosie Batty and labour senator Penny Wong), the works touch on a variety of contemporary themes while revealing personal stories of reward and loss.

Taking its inspiration from the realist painting movement in the United States, the exhibition celebrates the talent of female portrait artists and the women who sit for them, and is the second instalment at Burrinja after its successful show in 2016.    

"This exhibition uniquely honours the female spirit - of realist painters and their sitters” - artist Vicki Sullivan

Wild Awards 2018

The Wildlife Art Society of Australasia presents their major biennial exhibition ‘The Wild Awards’ in the Burrinja Gallery.

Be moved by this unique exhibition and the passion and talent of a diverse range of artists from the Australasian region. The exhibition features an exquisite array of different animal species and habitats in sculpture, painting and works on paper.

‘The Wild Awards’ encapsulates art excellence and this fine display proudly demonstrates the Society members’ strong passion and respect for wildlife and its habitat. Be delighted and inspired by this stunning collection of beautiful wildlife imagery by The Wildlife Art Society of Australasia.

“Intriguing and inspiring artwork. It’s always a joy to see a WASA exhibition.”- Kris Peter President Wildlife Art Society of Australasia

Master of Aboriginal Contemporary Art #2    
Minnie Pwerle : Beginnings 

Celebrating the work of one of the world’s great painters. 

Minnie Pwerle (1919-2006) grew up at Utopia, a former cattle station 300 km northeast from Alice Springs (also known as Urupuntja), home to the Anmatjerre language group. The story of her life was one of struggle and endurance. In 1999, at the age of 80, she took up painting and soon gained national recognition. The use of bold brushstrokes and bold, vibrant colours became her trademark, as did paintings of small bush melons and women’s body-painting designs.  
The exhibition surveys Minnie’s Pwerle’s oeuvre and features a series of unseen paintings including the very first ones she produced in 1999.
    
"Paintings of striking expressionistic quality.” – Burrinja Curator JD Mittmann

Black Mist Burnt Country

In the 1950s Australia became the nuclear testing ground for the British Government. A total of 12 atomic tests were conducted. Sixty years after the events Black Mist Burnt Country revisits the history of the test program at Maralinga, Emu Field and Monte Bello Island, through works by Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists across the mediums of painting, printmaking, sculpture, photography, music and new media spanning seven decades.  An award winning Burrinja national touring exhibition.    

“Powerful, though-provoking, moving - a must-see.” - 2017 Audience member