8 February -
30 March 2025
Gertrude Contemporary
21-31 High Street, Preston SouthOpening event:
Fri 7 February, 6-8pm
Borrowing from a title coined by artist Sandra Bridie in 1991, A Fictional Retrospective takes a speculative look at the span of artists’ works shown during Gertrude’s formative years, to shape a fresh and vital interpretation of this era. The exhibition will include artworks rarely seen in almost 40 years, yet which retain contemporary relevance through their diverse explorations of abstraction, cultural and artistic identities, the media, and the cinematic. Not claiming to be definitive of the period, the exhibition will evoke the liveliness of the Gertrude community during these foundational years and provide an opportunity to reflect on the nature of the gallery's contribution.
The approach taken acknowledges that there is no universal truth to the telling of history, and that subjectivity and chance will inevitably play a role in the curatorial process. This will be a large and expansive exhibition of more than thirty artists including, among others, Howard Arkley, Angela Brennan, Sandra Bridie, Jon Campbell, Tony Clark, Mikala Dwyer, Diena Georgetti, Michael Graf, Gail Hastings, Raafat Ishak, Mathew Jones, Anne-Marie May, Elizabeth Newman, Rose Nolan, David Noonan, Louise Paramor, Rosslynd Piggott, Nike Savvas, Robyn Stacey, Anne Zahalka and Constanze Zikos. The full list of artists will be announced in January 2025.
Emma Nixon is a writer and curator based in Naarm/Melbourne and is the Gallery Manager at Neon Parc. In 2023 Emma curated two companion exhibitions at Haydens, ‘Pink Heat’ which placed nail polish monochromes by Mikala Dwyer from the 1990s with recent abstract paintings by Renee Cosgrave and Madeline Simm, and ‘Free Jazz’ which presented three luminous acrylic sculptures by Anne-Marie May. She also co-curated ‘John Nixon—Four Decades, Five Hundred Prints’ at Geelong Gallery with Sue Cramer and Trent Walter. She completed a Bachelor of Art History and Curating at Monash University and her Honours thesis was peer-reviewed and published in Findings Journal. In 2018 she co-founded Cathedral Cabinet ARI in the Nicholas Building. Emma has written exhibition texts for the National Gallery of Victoria, Geelong Gallery, Bus Projects, Caves, Knulp, Blindside, Mejia, Sophie Gannon Gallery, ReadingRoom and Liquid Architecture’s journal Disclaimer.
