NANA'S 1ST BIRTHDAY

NANA Contemporary art space turned one on November 27 2014 and we celebrated with champagne, coloured cake and a giant pass the parcel. 

In only one year NANA has exhibited 5 solo exhibitions and 6 group shows, celebrated 2 Festive Folly events with Renew Newcastle as well as showcased Renew's 5 year anniversary exhibition. NANA presented a satellite exhibition as part of This Is Not Art Festival 2014 famously known as Monuments of the Everyman and has  welcomed guest emerging curators to practice their skills. NANA'S large gallery has also provided a great fundraising space, with events like the NANA Fete and the Plate Show not to mention a workshop space for school holiday groups. 

Congratulations NANA !!

party guests reading NANA'S photo album of 2014

Currently on show: (un) Commonplace by Peter Morgan

NANA contemporary art space is proud to present her first solo photographic exhibition: (un)commonplace by Sydney based photographer Peter Morgan. 

(un)commonplace treats the audience to an extra special experience of art this November as the interior of NANA'S gallery has been transformed into a portal of worldwide travel, introducing the audience to break dancers in New York City to monuments in Paris city gardens. In this 16 piece strong show Morgan shares his poetic stream of consciousness with us  as captured in chance shots through his camera lens.

(un)Commonplace is a cross section or work taken by artist Peter Morgan after one year of walking throughout cities in Europe, North America and Australia. Originally intended as a diary record of life during an artist residency, the body of work developed into a playful exploration of 21st century flanuerism and the dialogue between the individual (viewer or subject) and space in modern urban confines. Be- ginning in the ‘banlieues’ of Paris, the work abandons traditional digital and film cameras for the discretion and flexibilty of mobile phone camera. 

Born in Sydney, Peter received his BFA (Honours) in Photography from the National Art School in 2007. Primarily focused in the areas of street photography and portraiture, his practice revolves around contemporary fusions of surveillence, identity and the photographic tradition. He has been in a finalist in Sydney Life, The Blake Prize for Religious Art and The Australian Ethical Art Prize. In 2012, he was awarded Storrier Onslow National Art School Paris Residency at the Cite Internationale des Arts. Peter works as a freelance photographer and Technical Officer at the National Art School. 

Spring Flower Workshop

 

Come and experience the joy of flower arranging with 10+ years industry experience Miss Adams Florist will teach you and your friends and family how to make a bouquet for your home, as a gift or for your own wedding!

When: Saturday 15 November 2014, 2:00-3:00

Where: NANA contemporary art space

The Emporium

          185 Hunter St Mall, Newcastle.

Price: $85 (max12 people per class)

Included in the class:

Beautiful hand picked and fresh seasonal blooms, supplied by local flower and plant specialists.

A Miss Adams care guide for the specific flowers chosen for the class

Miss Adams will supply you with floral sundries you will need for the class such as: scissors, floral tie and wrapping paper for take home convenience.

A one hour class where a trained florist will show you the techniques behind a successful rounded bouquet.

Bookings:

0478 030 093 | missadams111@gmail.com | www.missadamsflorist.com

 

Monuments of the Everyman Opening Event

Saturday the 4th of October 2014 marked the opening of Monuments of the Everyman - an exhibition curated by NANA directors Madeleine Cruise and Jacqueline Larcombe.  

In this group exhibition NANA invited artists from across Sydney and Newcastle to create monuments that memorialize the everyday experience. In an exhibition designed to question the hierarchical value placed on certain people and events in society, artists were encouraged to create personal works that would stand in contrast to an exclusionary history.

Monuments of the Everyman forms part of the 2014 This Is Not Art (TINA) festival program that responds to the Critical Animals theme:  Possible Futures. The combination of sculpture, site specific work and performance showcased in Monuments of the Everyman can be understood as signposts of the present for future generations.

Monuments of the Everyman

Curated by Madeleine Cruise & Jacqueline Larcombe

1^st October – 31^st October 2014

Featuring:

Jayanto Damanik

Karolina Ristevski 
Flynn Doran 
Madeleine Cruise 
Eleanor Hanlon
Jacqueline Larcombe
Rosie Deacon
Madeleine Brady
Adam Kelly
Lottie Consalvo
James Drinkwater

Contributors to Madeleine Cruise's work receive their 'trophies'

My life is real, Jacqueline Larcombe.
Burger, Adam Kelly

Jayanto Damanik and audience with his work 'conversation with NANA'

Children interact with Flynn Doran's work

(left to right) Co director of Critical Animals, Madeleine Cruise (NANA) Eleanor Hanlon 

Lottie Consalvo, Swan Song (totem)

Gallery Window: Madeleine Brady, Window Dressing.

Front: James Drinkwater, turning thy back no.2

Front: Rosie Deacon, Little men visit block city.
Rear: Flynn Doran, Negative Space - build your own monument.

Jayanto Damanik and his work 'conversation with NANA'.

Monuments of the Everyman

1^st October – 31^st October 2014

nanacontemporaryart.blogspot.com.au

185 Hunter St Mall Newcastle

Kamikaze Sisters EXPOSED

Manon Marguerite working with sequins.

Thursday 25th September 2014 11AM - 1PM 

NANA Gallery windows

During a two hour performance in the gallery windows of NANA the Kamikaze Sisters shed some light onto their practice as two very different artists. In a process of relocating their individual studios into the gallery space, the artists made a bold leap from their private creative worlds into the public domain. Their practice of sewing, gluing illustrating and typing was out in full view,  giving the audience a rare glimpse and understanding of the world behind a finished artwork. Draped in the comforts of their studios including scull and cross bone blankets and my little pony figurines the artists worked and socialised as artists and friends.

  

During a one week exhibition Kamikaze Sisters Jessica Mcleoud-Yu and Manon Marguerite set up a colourful installation of their work in two of NANA'S Perkins Street Gallery windows. Jessica displayed her recently published book and it's illustrations whilst Manon exhibited her very pink dress creations. Both women are recent graduates of fine art at the University of Newcastle who are now determined to launch their individual brands. This exhibition operates as a celebration of their friendship, founded whilst studying together and their professional debut into the commercial art world.

Jessica Mcleoud-Yu working in the gallery window

From the inside out

The Kamikaze Sister's exhibition is on until Tuesday 30th September.

You can view the exhibition ANY TIME on Perkins St Newcastle

For more information about Jessica and Manon please visit:

strawberryskies.tumblr.com

jessicamcleodyu.com

Coming Soon to NANA'S Windows … Kamikaze Sisters

Manon Marguerite and Jessica McLeod-Yu present: “Kamikaze Sisters - The Worlds of Two Girls Collide"

Inspired by the movie Kamikaze Girls, a story where two girls of different styles come together and become friends.

Utilising two of NANA'S shop windows the Kamizaze sisters will create an installation of their working atelier as well as a commercial exhibition of their artwork. In this joint project the sisters will expose the working lifestyle behind their creative discipline which will be accessible by the public 24 hours 7 days a week. On Thursday the 25th of September the artists will activate the window space further by staging a performance that examines further the role of an artist's image and lifestyle as part of their art making lifestyle.

Both of the artists work in different mediums and have their own individual aesthetics, yet they both work towards a common goal of creating their own brands. 

Exhibition runs from 23rd - 30th of September 
NANA art space. Perkins Street Newcastle 
Performance: Thursday the 25th Septeber 11am - 12pm

The return of captain Kitty's chicken boat

Rosie Deacon

This September, Sydney artist Rosie Deacon has electrified the NANA art space with a pink chicken boat spectacular. In this mixed media solo show, Deacon uses expandable foam, glitter, paint, beads - you name it really, to tell the story of a Captain Kitty's return. As the audience wanders through a space filled with glittering sculptures and neon pink beams, one starts to wonder if Captain Kitty really has returned or if we have some how been transported back to wherever he/she adventured to. But then this suspicion is dashed when in the centre of the gallery we meet the captain himself, formally known as Captain Sticker Roo, who is awkwardly rocking on his timber legs - it seems he hasn't quite regained his land legs yet. As you would expect, the captain has a side kick: The Long Legged Slurpy Cat, who stands by his side as well as a merry crew of colourfully painted cats, budgies and koalas that dance o the walls. It seems this boat, like any other, has a stow away too who is non other than a flying African Mole Rat ! His cable tie and split pin coat is more than a little disturbing and positioned near the entrance to the gallery, this sculpture has scared off more than a few feeble Newcastle customers.
But don't let that deter you - Rosie Deacon's show is far from horrifying, it's a magnificent tale told through a glorious palette that begs you to discover your own version.

Rosie Deacon is an artist working in sculpture and installation whose work engages with the spectacle of obsession. In 2010, Deacon graduated from the UNSW COFA with first class honours. She was the recipient of both the Gallery Barry Keldoulis Grant for emerging artists and the Dinosaur Designs Prize. Since then she has held solo and group exhibitions at GAFFA and 107 Projects Redfern. This is Rosie's first show with NANA.

Show runs 1 -20 September @ NANA

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ber 2014

Skye Jacobson Solo Exhibition - Opening Event

Seamless Gestures
14 August – 1 September 2014, NANA Gallery.

An exhibition of drawings by Skye Jacobson.

Haunted by the mysterious figures of strangers parading up and down the streets of Berlin earlier this year, Skye continues her exploration here in Newcastle recalling and depicting people and faces from memory.

Tuning into the social dialogue of gestures and movement in street scenes through abstract and linear suggestion, Skye portrays spontaneous and quirky expressions of passers by captured in fleeting moments of time. 

Greatly inspired by German and Austrian Expressionism, Kirchner’s street scenes come to mind:

“It seems as though the goal of my work has always been to dissolve myself completely into the sensations of the surroundings in order to then integrate this into a coherent painterly form”. 
 * Source of his artist quotes on painting art, Brücke / Bridge and street scenes, Berlin: letter to K.E. Osthaus, 23 December 1917; as quoted in “Kirchner and the berlin street”’, ed. Deborah Wye, Moma, New York, 2008, p. 36.