BOOKISH Artist Talk at Melbourne Athenaeum Library

Pictured above and below are selected highlights from the artist talk Bronwyn Rees and I gave on Wednesday evening, March 23, in celebration of all things BOOKISH, the Print Council of Australia artist book exhibition at Melbourne Athenaeum Library. Additional photographs are on my Art Blog HERE.

Thanks a million to the library for having us and to each and everyone who came to the talk, including the numerous BOOKISH artists who attended. 

BOOKISH concluded its run on Saturday March 26. In her opening address, the library’s General Manager Sue Westwood (pictured right in the first and last photos above) said she hoped this would be the first of other collaborations with the Print Council of Australia. I certainly echo those sentiments.

BOOKISH Exhibition and Artist Talk

From March 17, Melbourne Athenaeum Library will play host to Bookish, an extensive exhibition of contemporary artist books by members of the Print Council of Australia. Among them are my one-of-a-kind book, Cat’s Cradle. 

The library’s collaboration with the Print Council of Australia is part of the 8th Melbourne Art Book Fair at the National Gallery of Victoria. 

From the Melbourne Athenaeum Library website:

As part of Bookish, the library will also host an artist talk with former artist-in-residence Deborah Klein, and printmaker Bronwyn Rees. Deborah and Bronwyn will speak about the art of making artist books on Wednesday 23rd March at 6pm. The event is FREE but RSVPs are required on 96503100 or 

library@melbourneathenaeum.org.au.

The exhibition is open from March 17 - 19 and March 22 - 26 during the library's 

opening hours. 

Melbourne Athenaeum Library 

Level 1

188 Collins Street

Melbourne, Victoria 3000

Australia

Pictured top: Deborah Klein, front and back covers of Cat’s Cradle, 2019, hand-painted and lettered in acrylic on MDF. 

Pictured second: Artist book on PCA invitation: Bridget Hillebrand, Ascent ll, 2020 (detail).

Click on images for enlarged views. 

Walking-and-Talking at a snail's pace: a leisurely stroll through PATTERNS OF COLLECTING: FROM THE BOWER AT THE JOHNSTON COLLECTION

The rain is bucketing down as I write, and in its wake come the snails. If not firmly dissuaded, they will devour the lovingly nurtured plants on our Abbotsford balcony down to the stalks.

Thankfully it’s warm and dry inside the Natural History Room at the Johnston Collection Museum and the snail atop my artist book Leaves of Absence, on loan from the museum, is ceramic. An ingenious example of trompe l’oeil, it will leave no slimy trails across the front cover, nor will it chomp on the eucalyptus leaves from Newstead Forest, gathered especially for this project.

Rain or shine, this morning’s Walk-and-Talk at the Johnston Collection with fellow Bower artist Carole Wilson will take place from 10 am – 11.30 am. The event is fully booked, so for those who missed out, a final walk-and-talk is scheduled:

Thursday 13 September 2018 | 10.00 am – 11.30 am with Deborah Klein & Louise Saxton

For further information about the above, or to book a house tour before PATTERNS OF COLLECTING/ From the Bower at the Johnston Collection concludes on 18 September, go HERE: 

CREATIVE WOMEN IN FOCUS - an artist talk at Duldig Studio

It's an honour to have been invited to speak at the Duldig Studio Museum in the first of their new series of Creative Women in Focus talks. I'll be posting more about the museum in the next couple of weeks. Meanwhile, see below for full details of the talk.

CREATIVE WOMEN IN FOCUS

Deborah Klein: printmaker, painter and book artist

When Saturday 25 August 2018. 2.00 – 4.00pm

Where Duldig Studio 

Bookings https://bit.ly/2M8cxBG

Creative Women in Focus is Duldig Studio's new series of talks with Creative Women, Inspired by our current exhibition SLAWA modernist art + design, and our own creative woman – Slawa Horowitz-Duldig.

From printmakers to embroiderers, weavers to dressmakers this is an opportunity to hear some very creative women talk about their lives in art and design, their practices and the challenges and pleasures of the creative life.

Beginning in August, artist Deborah Klein will join us to discuss her career as a printmaker, painter and book artist.

Deborah Klein has exhibited widely, most recently at Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne; RMIT Gallery; the 9th International Printmaking Bienniale, Portugal; and as part of the Johnston Collection exhibition, Patterns of Collecting/From the Bower at the Johnston Collection, Melbourne. Her work is held in collections around Australia and overseas.

As Deborah describes, ‘My visual language has evolved over the years and is multi-layered. Many works pay homage to women and their creative histories. The work is unified by its concern for women: the untold numbers who have been completely written out of history, the courage of those women and girls who must still fight seemingly unsurmountable odds to have their voices heard.’

SOCIAL MEDIA

Instagram: @duldigstudio

Facebook: @TheDuldigStudio
Facebook event URL:  https://www.facebook.com/events/459263017913532/

Website: duldig.org.au

ABOUT DULDIG STUDIO

Duldig Studio is the former home, sculpture garden and studio of artist and inventor, Slawa Horowitz-Duldig and her husband artist and sculptor Karl Duldig.

FALLEN WOMEN, a new book for Melbourne Art Book Fair 2018

As reported in our previous post, Regional Arts Australia have invited me to participate in Regional Arts Words (RAW), a panel discussion they are hosting during Melbourne Art Book Fair 2018. 

To mark the occasion, a new book, Fallen Women, is currently in the making. Its front cover is previewed above. 

Fallen Women will be available at the Regional Arts Australia stand throughout the book fair. Full details of the publication will be provided shortly.

Regional Arts Words (RAW)

The Great Hall 

NGV International 

Friday 16 March 2.30 - 3.15 pm

Melbourne Art Book Fair 2018 runs from Friday 16 March - Sunday 18 March.

MEET THE ARTIST at Tacit Contemporary Art

Flashback Friday: to a blazing hot day last summer, spent gathering eucalyptus leaves from saplings in Newstead Forest. Numerous leaves from that day’s harvest were raw materials for the works in my current show, FALLEN WOMEN, at Tacit Contemporary Art. I’ll be talking about this and more, including my artist book, Leaves of Absence, the forerunner to the project, at an informal Meet the Artist event tomorrow, December 9, from 2 - 4 pm at Tacit. I hope you can join me. 

(Photo credit: Shane Jones).

Tacit Contemporary Art
312 Johnston St, Abbotsford, Vic 3067
T: 0423 323 188
E: keith@tacitart.com.au

Wednesday – Friday 11am–6pm
Saturday – Sunday 11am–5pm 

The exhibition is current until 17 December.

Artist talk at the Art Gallery of Ballarat (Part 2)

A big thank you to everyone who came along to my artist talk at the Art Gallery of Ballarat today, especially Kelly and the gallery guides, who made me feel so at ease, I almost forgot what a nervous public speaker I usually am. Thanks also to the guides for the spectacular lunch afterwards and to my partner Shane Jones, who travelled from Melbourne by train to attend the talk, and who took the photographs below. (Click on images to enlarge).

For more snapshots of the talk, visit my Art Blog HERE.

Artist talk at the Art Gallery of Ballarat

Recently I was invited to give an informal artist talk at the Art Gallery of Ballarat. The talk, which is part of the gallery's Art Insights series, will present an overview of my art practice; it is timed to coincide with the group exhibition Parallel Prints (see previous post). 

Over the past weeks I've been compiling a Powerpoint presentation. It's the first I've ever done and I've really enjoyed putting it together. (It certainly won't be the last; I've been simultaneously working on a print-based Powerpoint for the Mildura Print Triennial in late October - more about this in a future post). Meanwhile, a selection of book-related slides from the talk are pictured below.

The event is next Wednesday, 14 October from 12.30 pm - 1 pm. Entry is free and all are welcome. For further information, go HERE.