Exhibitions

The Muse Gallery Outdoor Sculpture Show, featuring 14 artists opens at 2pm Saturday December 1st and closes December 10th 2012. Opening the same day is ‘Hill Form’, an exhibition of new paintings and prints by Jeff Gardner and ceramic sculpture by George Piercy.

Press Release – Muse Gallery Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition 2012

The Muse Gallery of Milawa is pleased to announce its forthcoming ‘Muse Gallery Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition 2012′. Representing fourteen sculptors, the exhibition will be situated on the lawns of the Milawa Cheese Factory. Muse Gallery director, artist George Piercy, is excited that this exhibition, which he describes as ‘the first of its kind for the Gallery,’ showcases artists of national and international standing.

Exhibiting artists include Benjamin Gilbert whose sculpture ‘Humpback Gunship’ was recently acquired by Princess Mary of Denmark, and now sits permanently outside Denmark’s AROS Contemporary Art Gallery. Based in Yackandandah, Gilbert has produced major civic sculptures such as the ‘Peace Arch’ at White Box Rise, Wodonga. Favouring sculpture that can be tangibly experienced by all ages, Gilbert explains that the artwork in the Muse Gallery exhibition ‘will be climbable and meet Australian Standards for playgrounds.’

Also featured will be work by Paul Blizzard, known for his ‘fossil sculptures’ seen in Melbourne’s CBD, including seventeen works which front the Department of Justice. In these works, Blizzard has sculpted skeletons of native Australian animals such as goannas and platypus, combining them with environmental rubbish like plastic six pack rings, to create bronze ‘fossils’ set in stone. Given humanity’s destruction of the planet, ‘the animals we have now might only be fossils in the future,’ says Blizzard.

Visitors can also expect to see works by Melbourne-based artist Rudi Jass, known for his outdoor ‘kinetic’ sculptures driven by the wind. Rendered in copper and steel with flowing lines and elegant natural motifs such as the leaf of the ginko tree, Jass’ outdoor and garden sculpture is sought after by landscape designers and architects.

Local artists in this exhibition include master blacksmith Richard Walker of the High Country Forge. Having spent years travelling the world refining his craft, Walker combines contemporary and traditional techniques to express his love of free-flowing organic forms inspired by the natural surrounds of the upper Ovens Valley.

The Muse Gallery will be also welcoming back Bright-based sculptor Benita Murray, who uses recycled materials patinated with rust to create works of characteristic emotional warmth; and Malcolm Laurence, whose found metal sculptures are already much loved by Gallery patrons for their whimsical, light-hearted sensibilities. 

The exhibition will also feature yet more art works by Christoph Morgeau, Kevin Free, Sam Anderson, Darren Gilbert, Cinnamon Stephens, Barry Allen, Frank Duyker, and Yvonne George, whose garden art is a great source of decorative outdoor sculpture.

Coinciding with the exhibition is a ‘Creative Kids Sculpture Competition’, proudly supported by the Rural City of Wangaratta. Artist Jo Briscomb will deliver 2 sessions for up to 25 kids aged 7-13 years who will learn how to sculpt using the materials provided (soft forming wire, stone & timber, and some found objects). This free special event will be run on Sunday 2 December in two sessions: 11.30am and 2.00pm, with prizes sponsored by Muse Gallery and Shades of Art announced at the end of each session. Bookings via the Muse Gallery of Milawa are essential.

The workshops will be held amongst the outdoor sculptures and will be a great opportunity for children and families to be engaged in this creative medium in an outdoor setting.

The ‘Muse Gallery Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition 2012′ is being officially opened by guest speaker Belinda Wilson, artist and Program Manager at the School of Art, RMIT University, on Saturday 1 December at 2pm. This opening event is generously sponsored by Wood Park Wines and the Milawa Cheese Factory. The exhibition will run from 1-10 December 2012. 

For further details please contact:
George Piercy, Director 
Muse Gallery of Milawa
At The Milawa Cheese Factory, Factory Rd, Milawa VIC 3678
Phone: 03 57273599  
Mobile: 0421 244385

Press Release – ‘Hill Form’ by Jeff Gardner & George Piercy

‘Hill Form’ the exhibition coincides with the inaugural Muse Gallery Outdoor Sculpture exhibition 2012 – opening simultaneously at 2pm on Saturday 1 December.

The two artists have collaborated to produce Hill Form ceramic sculptures, designed and created by Piercy and illustrated by Gardner. The natural an easy balance between the two friends and their respective art forms, assures a harmonious artistic outcome.

Gardner is also exhibiting new recent etchings and large scale oil paintings.

New poems have been written with squid black ink and glaze fired onto the Hill Forms and rendered forever permanent – seriously Concrete Poetry! Gardner’s verse and illustrations wrap around the Hill forms, an ever present reminder of the pleasure of our head in the clouds. These works are good for ones heart and soul……they assist in clearing ones thoughts to make way for the dreaming to begin. The Hill Forms act like a resist, they block the unwanted noise in your head from the days more mundane activities, the forms resonate higher, lofty thoughts. They are about harmony, the pastoral poetic; the dreamer in an escapist landscape – a tree, a man, a hill and we imagine the rest, the clouds, our loves, our aspiration, the stars in our heads.

Gardner’s large scale copperplate etchings are his largest prints to date. The artist’s treasure trove draws of collectibles are intricately drawn in The Studio Apartment, odes to remembrances of things past. One constantly discovers a recognisable object like a ‘click-clack toy’ of an owl which might have come from a 5 year old birthday party, a disappearing magic peg bat – the magic trick, Indian ink bottles and always paint brushes. These mementos hover in the space around the family of the three ensconced sleepy heads at the centre of this undisturbed, nostalgic quiet place nestled into a subterranean hill form. The Birds and the Bees etching celebrates nature. Butterflies, the flowers and the bees go about their business gathering nectar and pollinating in these romantic and peaceful Jeff Gardner artworks.

Unique and truly beautiful work, already widely collected both in Australia and internationally.

Hill Form and the Muse Gallery Outdoor Sculpture Show 2012 officially opens at 2pm Saturday December 1 by guest speaker Belinda Wilson, artist and Program Manager at the School of Art, RMIT University. This opening event is generously sponsored by Wood Park Wines and The Milawa Cheese Factory. The exhibition will run from 1-17 December 2012.

For further details please contact:

George Piercy, Director
The Muse Gallery of Milawa
At The Milawa Cheese Factory
Factory Rd, Milawa VIC 3678
Phone: 03 57273599
Mobile: 0421244385
Email: contact@musegallery.com.au