Showcasing a diverse range of contemporary Australian and International art.

Tues 3 Dec 11am – free event
Join us for a Curtin Campus Art Collection Tour focusing on Howard Taylor’s public artworks here at Bentley Campus and celebrating the return of ‘Tree Forms’ back to its originally commissioned home in the Library.

Acknowledged as one of the most significant Australian artists of the 20th century, painter and sculptor Howard Taylor (1918-2001) was influenced by the Western Australian landscape, particularly the coastal forests of his home in Northcliffe.

Starting at the Gallery, visit & learn about our significant collection of public artworks by Howard Taylor, guided by Campus Public Art Coordinator and artist Mikaela Miller. Works to be explored include:

Way Through (1977-78) was the first major sculpture to have been commissioned by Curtin University (then WAIT).

Cyclops (1965) and its partner work, Untitled, Brass Relief (1965) were added to the collection as a gift from the ANZ Bank with the demolition of their former CBD headquarters in 1989.

Finishing with Tree Forms (1971) to its home in the newly refurbished Library building.

For further information, visit: https://events.humanitix.com/campus-public-art-tour-focus-on-howard-taylor or follow LINK in our BIO

@curtinuniversity @curtinuniversitylibrary @curtin_mcasi @curtinbfagrads @curtin.humanities @curtinlifeaustralia @curtinalumni @explorecurtin #publicart #campusart #sculpture #howardtaylor

@australianbaroque
Thu, 21 Nov, 7pm
Mozart’s Piano Quartets

With the internationally acclaimed fortepianist and Patron of Australian Baroque, Dr Geoffrey Lancaster AO, we present Mozart’s two sublime Piano Quartets KV 478 and KV 479—a form of chamber music invented by Mozart himself. Containing keyboard writing that was considered unplayable in Mozart’s time, these magnificent works are universally regarded not only as revealing the composer at his very best, but also as the ‘jewel in the crown’ of Mozart’s fortepiano chamber music.

For further information and to book: https://events.humanitix.com/mozart-s-piano-quartets

‘Aida Tomescu: in the midst of happening’ provides a fascinating insight into the studio practice of one of Australia’s greatest living painters. From the early stages of her studio practice, collage and print have enabled significant shifts in Tomescu’s work and provided a bridge between her drawing and painting. In this exhibition, we bring together all these mediums as well as ephemera from her studio, exposing the depth of her material and conceptual process. Tomescu holds a profound awareness of how her work functions, and the performance of her role within the complex dance of their making. For Tomescu, this is not about surface or texture or colour, though her paintings demonstrate sophisticated and complex mastery of all these elements. It is rather an act of seeking, of discovery.

25 Oct – 15 Dec 2024
Free entry – for more information visit our website www.curtin.edu.au/jcg or click via our BIO.

⭐️ ARTBEAT 👉 This Friday 15 Nov 10am, listen to Curator Lia McKnight on RTR FM chat about this amazing collection of artworks, the collaboration and friendship with Aida Tomescu. @rtrfm

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Aida Tomescu, 2024. Portrait photo by Erza Alcantra.

Vitrines featuring items from Aida Tomescu’s studio.

Aida Tomescu, Diacritical, 2012, oil and mixed media on linen.
Aida Tomescu, Ithaca V, 1997, etching and drypoint.
Curtin University Art Collection. Donated through the Australian Government`s Cultural Gifts Program by Aida Tomescu, 2024. Courtesy of the artist and Fox Jensen Gallery. Photo: Jenni Carter

Aida Tomescu, Viridian Press 1991.

@aida_tomescu @flowersgallery @foxjensengallery @lia_mcknight
#aidatomescu #inthemidstofhappening #studiopractice @curtinuniversity

Bjoern Rainer-Adamson
My twin that I absorbed, 2024
kinetic artwork: hand-formed steel teeth,
sewing machine, wood, rubber, electric motor
The cosmic joke, 2024
found objects, plumbing parts, plastic, copper,
steel, brass, rubber

Bjoern Rainer-Adamson’s kinetic sculptures examine our complex relationship with technology as a source of alienation in contemporary society. The first sculpture – a sewing machine with a grinding jaw – captures the emotional turmoil of an all-consuming search for a soulmate. The second machine alternates between sleep and laughter; a poignant commentary on the absurdity of human experience. Both works explore the idea of machines embodying human emotions, ranging from earnestness to absurdity. Rainer-Adamson stages a confronting possibility – that we may be mere players in an elaborate joke, with machines serving as both mirrors and participants in this existential theatre.

25 Oct – 15 Dec 2024
This 10 Year Retrospective of the John Stringer Prize is celebrated with an exhibition of new works by past winners, each influenced by studio visits and patronage from the Collectors Club and highlights a distinctive and eclectic representation of West Australian artistic practice.

Winner 2019
@bjoernraineradamson
Come hear Bjoern at our Artist Talks on Sun 24 Nov 12:30-2:30pm
See link in BIO or visit https://events.humanitix.com/john-curtin-gallery-studio-exhibitions-john-stringer-prize-public-programming-saxhskfm

@js_prize #collectorsclubperth
Supported by @lendlease and #thenavigatorscircle

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Portrait image by Ezra Alcantra

Alistair Rowe
Angles of incidence, 2024
wood, glass and epoxy

With Angles of incidence, Alistair Rowe joins fifteen pieces of wood together to form a single line that zigzags between five glass panels that are cut at acute and obtuse angles. The trajectory of the line bears similarities to the path that a ray of light might take as it moves through glass and is reflected and refracted randomly between its surfaces. Rowe makes sculpture and installation that is concerned with spatial and material dynamics. His work often references informal and provisional architecture. He utilises everyday materials to make open structures that are held together through tensility and balance.

25 Oct – 15 Dec 2024
This 10 Year Retrospective of the John Stringer Prize is celebrated with an exhibition of new works by past winners, each influenced by studio visits and patronage from the Collectors Club and highlights a distinctive and eclectic representation of West Australian artistic practice.

Winner 2015
#alistairrowe

Come hear Alister at our Artist Talks on Sun 24 Nov 12:30-2:30pm
See link in BIO or visit https://events.humanitix.com/john-curtin-gallery-studio-exhibitions-john-stringer-prize-public-programming-saxhskfm

@js_prize #collectorsclubperth @curtinalumni
Supported by @lendlease and #thenavigatorscircle

Erin Coates
The bone thieves, 2021, graphite on paper, 75 x 100 cm
Hip (fracture) hagfish; Jaw (fracture) anemone; Ribcage (fracture) jellyfish; Sister’s bones, from the series My Family’s Bones, 2022
graphite on paper
Represented by Moore Contemporary

My Family’s Bones is an ongoing series of drawings cataloguing the broken bones in my family. Each work focuses on a single bone or skeletal joint that shows the signs of past injury or medical intervention. They are markers of our time alive, inscriptions in our bones that evince misadventure, tragedy and healing. The drawings speculate on an alternative future for my bones and those of my extended family, in which they are scattered across the benthic zone, deep on the ocean floor. In each drawing, a species of marine animal has come to inhabit the forms, transforming our bones into micro-architectures.

25 Oct – 15 Dec 2024
This 10 Year Retrospective of the John Stringer Prize is celebrated with an exhibition of new works by past winners, each influenced by studio visits and patronage from the Collectors Club and highlights a distinctive and eclectic representation of West Australian artistic practice.

Winner 2017
@coates_erin @moorecontemporary

Come hear Erin at our Artist Talks on Sun 24 Nov 12:30-2:30pm
See link in BIO or visit https://events.humanitix.com/john-curtin-gallery-studio-exhibitions-john-stringer-prize-public-programming-saxhskfm

@js_prize #collectorsclubperth @curtinalumni
Supported by @lendlease and #thenavigatorscircle

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Portrait image by Ezra Alcantra

Merrick Belyea
Off Nanga Brook Road, 2024, oil on aluminium, 80 x 260 cm
Represented by Art Collective WA

Merrick Belyea is an established Australian artist whose work focuses on a curiously human appetite for destruction. Environmental concerns are central to recent paintings that refer to a potential for devastation and offer a portent to future mechanical scarification of the landscape. Paring back the veneer of previously prepared paint layers revealing the detritus of process and the fragility of surface. New works have been focusing on the tension caused by applying paint to unfamiliar surfaces – in this case, aluminium – and exploiting the inherent incompatibility between metal and oil paint.

25 Oct – 15 Dec 2024
This 10 Year Retrospective of the John Stringer Prize is celebrated with an exhibition of new works by past winners, each influenced by studio visits and patronage from the Collectors Club and highlights a distinctive and eclectic representation of West Australian artistic practice.

Winner 2021
@merrickbelyea @artcollectivewa

Come hear Merrick at our Artist Talks on Sun 24 Nov 12:30-2:30pm
Link in BIO or https://events.humanitix.com/john-curtin-gallery-studio-exhibitions-john-stringer-prize-public-programming-saxhskfm

@js_prize #collectorsclubperth
Supported by @lendlease and #thenavigatorscircle

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Portrait image by Ezra Alcantra

We are EXCITED to announce our 2025 Perth Festival program featuring two monumental exhibitions: ‘Burndud Ground’ by Alice Guiness and ‘Doba Nation’ by Mai Nguyễn-Long

7 February – 17 April 2025

Elder and senior artist Alice Guiness holds a deep connection with the Burndud, an important site and story for the Yindjibarndi people. Brought to life in neon sculpture and immersive media installations, her use of bold colour and patterns embody the rhythms and movement of the women dancing and the men singing in Ceremony. This @perthfest and @juluwarluartgroup Commission is part of the Boorloo Contemporary Program in partnership with @wesfarmersarts
📸 Alice Guiness, Burndud Ground, 2022, acrylic on canvas, 100 x 80 cm. Courtesy the artist and Juluwarlu Art Group.

Mai Nguyễn-Long’s large-scale installation Doba Nation features hand-formed clay sculptures that are arranged by the artist on site in a process akin to live storytelling. Created for Perth Festival 2025, the series responds to post-Vietnam War metal bomb shell casings. Doba Nation acts to reconcile the artist`s personal experience of diasporic trauma and invites audiences to interrogate the history of their own identity.
📸 Mai Nguyễn-Long, Doba (with handles), 2023, smooth terracotta fried to 1120
Photo by Jonathan Cohen, courtesy of the artist and Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin.