Joseph Häxan & Matthew Thorne to exhibit at GAGPROJECTS this June

Two young Australian media artists are set to exhibit works in tandem across two exhibitions opening this June. Häxan's Mesmeric Pool and Thorne's Out the back of beyond: Marungka Tjalatjunu & The Sand That Ate The Sea open June 7th at GAGPROJECTS.

Thorne achieved a career honour this year, winning the Silver Bear Jury Prize for Short Film at the 73rd Berlinale International Film Festival for his film Marungka Tjalatjunu with actor Derik Lynch.

Häxan's film The Black Rite, developed as an homage to the 100 year anniversary of the premier of the groundbreaking silent film HÄXAN: witchcraft Through the Ages, debuted in Paris at Opyum Festival earlier this year and will be screening as part of Oslo Fusion Festival this September 1-30th.

Thorne will exhibit work developed during an extended stay with a remote opal mining community in Andamooka - famous for its opalised fossils and star-gazing. Häxan exhibits works from linked series UNIVERSE and REALITY, with the title of the exhibition alluding to the mesmerising qualities of nature and reality. Häxan and Thorne are linked by their shared photo/film practices, and the sense of pervading mysticism seen and felt across their works in both mediums.

Mesmeric Pool and Out the back of beyond: Marungka Tjalatjunu & The Sand That Ate The Sea open June 7th, 6-8pm at GAGPROJECTS, Kent Town

GAGPROJECTS reopens with new show 'Assumed Reality' by Guan Wei

GAGPROJECTS has reopened in Kent Town, SA with a new exhibition of panel works on canvas by multidisciplinary Chinese/Australian artist Guan Wei. Guan Wei graduated from the Department of Fine Arts at Beijing Capital University in 1986. From 1989 to1992, he completed art residencies at the University of Tasmania, Australian National University and Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney. In1993, he immigrated to Australia. In 2008, Guan Wei set up a studio in Beijing. He now lives and works in Beijing and Sydney.

Guan Wei has held more then 70 solo exhibitions in Australia and internationally, and has been included in many important international contemporary exhibitions, such as the Shanghai Biennial, China; the 10th Havana Biennial, Cuba; the Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Australia; the 3rd Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Australia; the Osaka Triennial, Japan; and the Gwangju Biennial, South Korea. He has been awarded in many art competitions, including: 2002 Sulman Prize at Art Gallery of NSW; 2015 Arthur Guy Memorial Prize, and Bendigo Art Gallery in Victoria. In 2021, Guan We was awarded an Honorary Doctor in Creative Art by the Western Sydney University.

Guan Wei’s work has a profoundly felt, if implicitly ironic, moral dimension. In their complex symbolic form, his subjects potently embody current social and environmental dilemmas. They are equally the product of his rich cultural repertory of symbols and his informed socio-political awareness and art-historical knowledge.

2022 Adelaide Biennial features James Tylor and Rebecca Selleck

image: James Tylor and Rebecca Selleck with their work currently on show at the Art Gallery of South Australia, photo: Sia Duff

JAMES TYLOR and REBECCA SELLECK are currently showing in the 2022 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Free/State. THE COUNTRY’S LONGEST-STANDING SURVEY OF CONTEMPORARY AUSTRALIAN ART - until 5 June, 2022 at the Art Gallery of South Australia.

Curated by Sebastian Goldspink