2009

Siemens-RMIT Fine Art Scholarship Awards

RMIT Gallery

16 December 2019 - 23 January 2010

The Siemens-RMIT Fine Art Scholarship Awards is one of the most progressive scholarships of its kind in Australia.

Now in its ninth year, it enables RMIT students to further their careers in fine arts by assisting their research and production costs. Each year eight students share $32,000; five undergraduate travel scholarships and three postgraduate scholarships.

The partnership demonstrates the commitment of both Siemens and RMIT University to innovation, knowledge and excellence.

This year’s eight winners are: Becc Orszag, Jennifer Bishop, Malcolm Lloyd, Clare Rae, Lucie Hallenstein, Marita Lillie, Saskia Moore, Ernesto Rios Lanz.

This year’s five shortlisted artists are: Robyn Phelan, Caitlin Telford, Caroline Kennedy-McCraken, Gavin Drumm, Harry Metcalf.

Super Human: Revolution of the Species

RMIT Gallery

5 November - 5 December 2009

This interactive exhibition at RMIT Gallery turns the spotlight on collaborations between artists and scientists and the impact on what it means to be human – now and into the future.

Super Human: Revolution of the Species is an exhibition to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s Origin of Species.

Emerging artists and scientific practices have evolved new species of hybrid art forms. Super Human revisits the Cartesian body and its place in contemporary culture through its focus on Cognition and Neurology (Mind), Augmentation and Biological Manipulation (Body) and Nanoscale Interventions (Spirit, that which is not visible). Showcasing work in these fields by a new generation of Australasian artists, Super Human exposes our aspirations and fears about our bodies and their extraordinary functions.

View photos and interviews with the participating artists: Jonathan Duckworth, Tina Gonsalves, Leah Heiss, George Poonkhin Khut, Brad Nunn, Jill Scott, Tissue Culture and Art Project, Mari Velonaki, Justine Cooper, Donna Franklin, Angela Main, Paul Thomas.

Konsortium: Schwarz

RMIT Gallery

25 September - 25 October 2009

Modernism, post-modernism, avant-garde or mainstream – younger artists aren’t bothered with categories or charging art with ideology, according to German writer Sebastian Preuss.

This is true of Konsortium, a group of artists from Düsseldorf, Germany who are making an iconic break from Modernism. In Schwarz, they bring their work to RMIT Gallery for the first time.

Shelter: On Kindness 

RMIT Gallery

25 September - 25 October 2009

Shelter: On Kindness is an invitation to artists, architects, writers and thinkers to reflect on what qualities of environment and circumstance afford us shelter in a physical and metaphorical sense.

Is a shelter a sense of safe haven, a place to protect ourselves from the natural elements, from the unrelenting pressures of modern life or, perhaps, a place or space to reflect on our innermost thoughts?

Shelter: On Kindness examines the ideas of nurture and kindness through the filter of the writings of psychoanalyst and author Adam Phillips and historian Barbara Taylor on the history of kindness.

This exhibition is part of Melbourne International Arts Festival 2009.

New Scientist Eureka Science Photography Prize 2008 

RMIT Gallery

7 August - 12 September 2009

Curated and managed by the Australian Museum, this exhibition showcases the best 25 entries in the annual Eureka Prize for Science Photography, sponsored by New Scientist.

The Prize is awarded for a single photograph that most effectively communicates an aspect of science, and is a significant component of the Australian Museum Eureka Prizes, Australia’s premier science awards.

The winners of the 2008 Prize were Phred Petersen (first), Steven Morton (second) and Katrina Putker (third).

Liu Xiao Xian: From East to West | RMIT Gallery | 7 Aug – 12 Sep 2009 

RMIT Gallery

7 August - 12 September 2009

The first major solo exhibition of Chinese-Australian artist Liu Xiao Xian is now showing at RMIT Gallery.

One of the most compelling contemporary Chinese Australian artists, Liu Xiao Xian explores the nuances between East and West with playfulness and wit, revealing some profound differences as well as shared concerns and values.

Johannes Kuhnen – a survey of innovation | RMIT Gallery | 5 Jun – 18 Jul 2009 

RMIT Gallery

5 June - 18 July 2009

Johannes Kuhnen has made a pioneering contribution to Australian design and gold and silver smithing through his commitment as a generous educator and innovative practitioner.

This exhibition will create linkages between his earlier works, some of which was made in Germany prior to migrating to Australia and new work specifically produced for this exhibition and this will be done both with objects and through a catalogue/monograph to be launched at the opening venue.

The exhibition will borrow from Australian public and private collections to facilitate the demonstration of connecting design elements in the work from both significant streams in Kuhnen’s work in jewellery and hollowware

SCHMUCK 2009

RMIT Gallery

5 June - 18 July 2009

This annual exhibition, originating in Munich and now its fiftieth year, is widely recognised as the premier exposition of international contemporary jewellery.

It is an honour for an artist to be selected for inclusion and we are equally honoured that RMIT Gallery has been chosen as the venue outside Germany to present this prestigious body of some 60 works.

Year after year the names of the contributors comprise a role call of some of the most renowned and innovative jewellery practitioners.

Likewise, the outstanding quality of the work reflects a mastery of materials both traditional and experimental, continuously challenging and reinventing the formal conventions and concepts of wearable jewellery.

Central Periphery

RMIT Gallery

17 April - 23 May 2009

Six Northern European artists engage in a recurring conversation that explores ideas of landscape, point of view and spaces through minimal abstraction, drawing and installation.

Curated by Scottish artist Alan Johnston, his drawings will be shown alongside works from Franz Graf from Austria, Karin Sander and Martina Klein from Germany and Ragna Róbertsdóttir and Kristján Guðmundsson from Iceland. These six artists share a passion for abstraction, and though some have shown together in Europe, Central Periphery will bring them all together in a single show for the first time at RMIT Gallery.

Curator: Alan Johnston

Critical Fixtures

RMIT Gallery

17 April - 23 May 2009

This is an exhibition of contemporary Australian and expatriate artists who continue to develop a spectrum of strategies and methodologies in site-specific practice and contextual reflexivity.

A re-evaluation and expansion of the cannons of site-specificity, the latent influence of early ’70s institutional critique of the ‘white cube’ and a sustained investigation into architecture continue to provide fertile ground for these artists.

Sydney artist Mark Brown has drawn together Mimi Tong, Robbie Rowlands, Denis Beaubois, Kate Fulton and Mark Themann to expand our experience. It is fitting that as the Gallery celebrates its recent renovation and new look, that we are called to see the Gallery in a different way.