News

GERTRUDE REBRAND AND WEBSITE RELAUNCH

As an organization committed to risk and supporting new directions, we are very pleased to announce that for our twenty-fifth birthday we have made significant changes to create space for the next phase.

Looking forward this is it: Gertrude Contemporary,

Strong, distinct, and concise, Gertrude Contemporary is a name that honours our roots on Gertrude Street but releases us from the bonds of geography by letting everything after the “contemporary” take its own volition. Gertrude Contemporary exhibitions; Gertrude Contemporary Studio’s; Gertrude Contemporary emerging Writers program (presented in partnership with Art & Australia); Gertrude Contemporary Visiting Curators; Gertrude Contemporary education; Gertrude Contemporary publications; Gertrude Contemporary touring project.

The emphasis at Gertrude Contemporary is always firmly on the artists and ideas of our times and to maintain our principles of access, Gertrude Contemporary is embracing a new brand revolution with an identity transformation generously designed by Australia’s leading graphic design company, Fabio Ongarato Design. Fabio Ongarato Design have redesigned our entire brand including exhibition catalogues, invitations and other collateral, along with our new, phenomenally improved website.

From the 20th August 2010 www.gertrude.org.au will bring a third dimension to the Gertrude Contemporary program. representing the breadth of Gertrude Contemporary’s twenty-five years of activity, this website brings Gertrude Contemporary up to and beyond the current moment. Featuring a comprehensive archive of artists and exhibition images and information, along with mp3s and videos from our forums, floor talks and lectures, as well as a brand new addition, the Gertrude Contemporary portal which features a calendar of cultural events, links to institutions and opportunities and downloadable maps that will be a one-stop guide to Melbourne. Also featured in Gertrude Contemporary’s new website is the Gertrude Contemporary Blog. this will be a centre for the discussion and exploration of current issues and ideas, offering audiences the opportunities to comment on programs, and to be engaged by our commissioned series of essays that will be published on this blog.

Stepping-up our momentum we will be hard to miss with our new brand cutting a fluorescent swathe through Australia’s cultural terrain, so watch this space www.gertrude.org.au for a changing Gertrude Contemporary. We invite you to help celebrate the launch of the new brand during the Melbourne Art Fair 2010, with Gertrude Contemporary staff, Fabio Ongarato Designers and Gertrude Contemporary’s Melbourne Art Fair artist Nathan Gray. Thursday 5 August at 4pm–5:30pm at Stall A67, Royal Exhibition Building, Fitzroy

Alexie Glass-Kantor (Director, Gertrude Contemporary) and Emily Cormack (Curator – Communications Manager) will present our new brand in conversation with designers from Fabio Ongarato Design. this will be followed by a floor talk by Nathan Gray who will discuss his exhibition, What They Brought Back at the 2010 Melbourne Art Fair.

For further information or images, please contact Emily Cormack telephone +61 3 9419 3406 Facsimile +61 3 9419 2519 emily@gertrude.org.au www.gertrude.org.au Gertrude Contemporary 200 Gertrude Street Fitzroy VIC 3065 Australia

NICK SELENITSCH: WINNER OF QANTAS TRAVELLING ART AWARD

Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Qantas and the Australia Council for the Arts are pleased to announce Nick Selenitsch as the winner of the Qantas Foundation’s second annual Qantas Foundation Encouragement of Australian Contemporary Art Award.

This prestigious award is one of the richest annual art prizes in Australia and is awarded to one emerging artist from each state and territory. This award is unique in that judges consider the artists entire body of work, rather than basing their decisions on a single piece. The winners receive $13,000 cash and air travel to the value of $10,000. This award offers significant opportunities for emerging artists to develop their practice, facilitating pivotal opportunities for international travel, and encouraging artists to engage with arts practice in a global context.

Nick Selenitsch was a Studio Artist at GCAS from 2006-2008. His work explores ideas of meaningful meaninglessness, revealing the junctures where the serious meets the playful. In his cross-disciplinary practice Selenitsch references Western abstraction and the absurd in his critiques of our goal- oriented existence.

Qantas Sponsorship Manager and Award Judge, Ken Groves, said the Qantas Foundation was privileged to have some of Australia’s eminent art identities on the judging panel, including Kon Gouriotis representing the Australia Council for the Arts, Edmund Capon from the Art Gallery of NSW, Alan Dodge, a former Director of the Art Gallery of Western Australia, renowned collector Pat Corrigan and Elizabeth Ann MacGregor from Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art.

“The Qantas Foundation is very proud to have assembled some of the champions of Australian art on our judging panel for the Qantas Foundation Encouragement of Australian Contemporary Art Award,” Mr Groves said. “These are all people who share the Qantas Foundation’s commitment to encouraging Australian artists, and we are very proud to work with the arts sector to highlight the importance of corporate Australia supporting the arts in our community, particularly in these critical economic circumstances.”

Chief Executive of the Australia Council for the Arts, Kathy Keele stated: “The Australia Council congratulates Qantas for leading corporate Australia in partnering with the arts, particularly during these difficult economic times.”

The state and territory winners are: ACT Tiffany Cole, NSW Izabela Pluta, NT Mariana Murdilnga, QLD Laith McGregor, SA Peter McKay TAS James Newitt, VIC Nick Selenitsch, WA Nicole Andrijevic and Tanya Schultz (Pip and Pop)

Nick Selenitsch is represented by Sutton Gallery, Melbourne

Opportunity: The Future Generation Art Prize open for applications

The Future Generation Art Prize is a world-wide art prize of 100,000 USD. It is open to all artists up to the age of 35. The prize is established to discover and provide long-term support for emerging artists, wherever they may live and work. Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces is a partnering organisation for this prize.

Applications close April 18, 2010.

20 shortlisted artists will show their work in an exhibition at the PinchukArtCentre in Kiev. The jury will select one main Prize winner who will receive a total of 100,000 USD (60,000 USD as a cash award, and 40,000 USD toward the production of new work). An additional 20,000 USD will be allotted to fund artist-in-residency programs for up to five other special prize winners. Images of works by all the shortlisted artists will be posted on the PAC website, and the public will be invited to vote via the Internet for People's Choice Prize. To encourage the assistance of one generation of artists to the next, a group of renowned Mentor Artists has committed its long-term participation in the Prize and will provide in-person counsel and support to the Prize winners. The Mentor Artists are Andreas Gursky, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons and Takashi Murakami.

Jurors for the prize this year are Daniel Birnbaum (Sweden) — Director of the Städelschule Art Academy, Frankfurt am Main; Director of the Venice Biennale 2009, Okwui Enwezor (Nigeria) — Director of Documenta XI; Former Dean of Academic Affairs and Senior Vice President at San Francisco Art Institute, Yuko Hasegawa (Japan) — Chief Curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT); former Chief Curator of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Ivo Mesquita (Brazil) — Chief Curator at the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo; Curator of the 2008 São Paolo Biennial, Eckhard Schneider (Germany) — General Director of the PinchukArtCentre, Robert Storr (USA) — Dean of the Yale University School of Art; Director of the Venice Biennale 2007, Ai Weiwei (China) — artist

For more information and online application form please see www.futuregenerationartprize.org

Belle Bassin at GRANTPIRRIE, Sydney

Belle Bassin will be exhibiting at GRANTPIRRIE in Sydney, 24th June - 24th July. Opening reception Thursday 24th June 6-8pm, 86 George St Redfern. 

Gertrude welcomes incoming Studio Artists for 2010

Gertrude welcomes incoming artists Trevelyan Clay, Emily Ferretti, Susan Jacobs, Sanne Mestrom, Kate Smith, Selina Ou and Alex Vivian to the Studio Program for 2010.

APPLICATION DEADLINES

2011 Gertrude Exhibition program - applications are now closed, all applicants will be notified by the end July. Please continue to consult this news section for the 2012 deadline dates.

2011 Gertrude "Studio 18" International and interstate residency program for artists and curators - applications close Monday 5th of July, 2010. Please note: hard copy applications only.

Gertrude Studios program 2011 - applications close Monday 27th of September, 2010.

For all application requirements, click on the 'How to apply' section of the website.

GCAS AND ART & AUSTRALIA EMERGING WRITERS PROGRAM

The Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces and Art & Australia Magazine Emerging Writers Program provides new opportunities for emerging visual arts writers.

2010 Mentors

Sue Cramer Curator, Heide Museum of Modern Art

Max Delaney Director, Monash University Museum of Art, Editorial Advisor at Art & Australia, and contributor to Frieze

Chris Mcauliffe Director, The Ian Potter Museum of Art , The University of Melbourne, and widely published author

Robert Nelson Associate Dean at Monash Art & Design and Art Critic for The Age

APPLICATION PROCESS

Interested applicants to the mentorship program are asked to submit a relevant writing sample of no more than 500 words, together with a CV and a cover letter outlining what they hope to gain from participating in the program to:

Emerging Writers Program

Gertrude Contemporary Arts Spaces

200 Gertrude St, Fitzroy, VIC, 3065

DEADLINE

Friday 26 March 2010, 5pm

For further information on the program please contact: Emily Cormack at Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces on (tel) 03 9419 3406 or (email) emily@gertrude.org.au

Former Gertrude Studio Artist Christian Thompson gains Charlie Perkins Scholarship

Former Gertrude studio artist Christian Thompson and accomplished Sydney University psychology student Paul Gray have each been awarded inaugural Charlie Perkins Scholarships to be the first Indigenous Australians to study at Oxford University.

Launched in 2008 the scholarships are to enable Indigenous Australian students to study at oxford.

Despite a significant Australian student body, it is believed there has never been an Indigenous Australian studying for an undergraduate or postgraduate degree at the University.

Paul Gray and Christian Thompson are the inaugural winners of the Charlie Perkins scholarship programme that will send them to study at Oxford University. They will begin their studies this year.

Thompson plans to undertake doctoral studies in Fine Art at the Ruskin School of Art.

Rob McLeish has work in 'Tapeworm' at Neon Parc

Opening 5 August and continuing until 28 August, 'Tapeworm' will also feature work by Luke Rudolf and assume vivid astro focus. Rob McLeish will also represent Neon Parc at the NADA art fair in Miami, 2-5 December 2010.

Emily Ferretti's new work at the Sofitel Melbourne on Collins Street

In conjunction with the Melbourne Art Fair and the Sofitel on Collins Street and also in collaboration with Sophie Gannon Gallery and Global Art Projects, Emily Ferretti's new work will be on display until September 5. View more of Emily's work here www.sophiegannongallery.com.au.

Geoff Newton showing new work at The Physics Room, New Zealand

Showing until 15 August, Geoff Newton has produced a new suite of paintings drawing influence from 1980s and 70s recipe books. Visit any bookshop and it’s easy to find yourself overwhelmed by the vast array of books selling glossy pictures, step by step guidelines and tasteful trends back to us; and that’s only in the cooking section.

For more information see www.physicsroom.org.nz

Sanné Mestrom is showing at Chalk Horse Gallery, Sydney

Sanné Mestrom has work in The Nothing (take two), a group show curated by Kelly Fliedner and also featuring work by Damiano Bertoli, Lou Hubbard, Deborah Ostrow, Daniel Price, Matthew Shannon and Jackson Slattery. The show was first exhibited at Westspace earlier this year.

The Nothing (take two) at Chalk Horse opens Thursday June 10, 2010 at 6:00pm and the exhibition continues to June 28 2010. For more information please see http://www.chalkhorse.com.au.

Nicki Wynnychuk is a finalist in the 2010 NZ National Contemporary Art Awards

Nicki Wynnychuk is a finalist in the 2010 National Contemporary Art Awards selected by judge, Rachel Kent who is currently the Senior Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney  (winner to be announced). The exhibition will be at the Waikato Museum, Hamilton New Zealand from 7 August to 9 January 2011

EVERYONE IS SMILING: SALE SUCCESS RAISES $40,500 FOR GERTRUDE CONTEMPORARY ART SPACES

GCAS is very pleased to announce that the Nelson Alexander Charitable Foundation has generated a tremendous donation provided in support for one of Melbourne’s leading contemporary art spaces.

As part of Nelson Alexander’s Foundation Day fund-raiser the Nelson Alexander office in Fitzroy agreed to donate their 2% commission from a selected property to a chosen not-for-profit organisation and for 2009 the organisation was GCAS.

Nelson Alexander Fitzroy selected for auction a beautifully converted warehouse apartment at 110 Gertrude St, owned by Natalie and Simon Herd (Director, Myer Foundation), who offered to match the donation made by the Nelson Alexander Charitable Foundation if the property sold for more than $1,000,000.

In an unprecedented sales success the property sold for $1,011,500! Due to this excellent sale price the owners have matched the contribution from sale commission resulting in a combined donation from the Nelson Alexander Charitable Foundation with Simon and Natalie Herd to the value of $40,500.

GCAS is an organisation that has been on Gertrude Street for 25 years and provides a destination for audiences, and professional support to artists in all stages of their careers through exhibitions, studio’s, cultural exchange, education, and public pro- grams. This donation is a very real gesture of support in turbulent times. Alexie Glass, Director with Troy Hey, Chair and the Board of Management Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces would like to publicly express their sincere thanks to Simon and Natalie Herd (owners), Peter Stephens from the Fitzroy office of Nelson Alexander and the Nelson Alexander Charitable Foundation for their generosity and support.