KATHERINE HATTAM featured in Blouin Art

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‘Katherine Hattam: The Grammar of Living’ at Hill Smith Gallery, Adelaide, Australia

BY BLOUIN ARTINFO | December 13, 2017

Katherine Hattam, “The Grammar of Living,” mixed media on paper, 51 x 83 cm.

(Courtesy: Katherine Hattam and Hill Smith Gallery)

Hill Smith Gallery, Adelaide is hosting “The Grammar of Living,” a solo exhibition of recent works by Katherine Hattam.

Katherine Hattam was dissuaded by her parents from entering art school. They knew the struggle of artists and the path to success that was littered with challenges and setbacks. Hattam attended university, where she enjoyed four years of studying literature and a psychoanalytic theory of politics. “The Grammar of Living” series comprises of university books and study material that reappear in many of the works. Hattam has been exhibiting since 1978. She was Australia China fellow in 2002 and has held solo shows in the Geelong Art Gallery, the Bendigo art gallery, the Warrnambool art gallery, with collections that are a part of National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of South Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, and the Heide Museum of Modern Art among others. Hattam is represented by Daine Singer Gallery Melbourne and Art House Gallery Sydney.

Hill Smith Gallery was established in 1982 by Director Sam Hill-Smith, in the Adelaide CBD.  The gallery seeks to introduce discerning collectors to exceptional artists and their work. Genres represented within the program include painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture, works on paper, and 3D printed objects. Many of the gallery’s artists’ works have been collected by leading national institutions and appear in notable corporate collections.

The exhibition is on view through December 16, 2017, at Hill Smith Gallery, Adelaide, 113 Pirie Street, Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia.

Additional available artworks available in the US at Morton Fine Art, Washington, DC.

New Artwork by KATHERINE HATTAM

KATHERINE HATTAM, A Week in Late Summer, 2017, 12″x10″, mixed media on linen

KATHERINE HATTAM, Dogs and Creek, 2017, 17″x12″, gouache on panel

KATHERINE HATTAM, Mother and Child, 2017, 12″x10″, mixed media and oil on linen

Looking at these recent Walking Tracks/Dog paintings, sometimes I think inside every figurative artist there’s an abstract artist insisting on being let out; at other times it seems simply that the division between abstraction and figuration is a false one – we are all hybrid – a bit of both.
-KATHERINE HATTAM

KATHERINE HATTAM’s artwork can be found in numerous prominent permanent collections in Australia including the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Bendigo Art Gallery, Warrnambool Art Gallery,Mornington Art Gallery, Minter Ellison Collection, Grafton City Art Gallery,National Bank of Australia, Potter Warburg Collection, Bankers Trust Collection, Queen Victoria Hospital Collection, Box Hill City Art Gallery, George Patterson Collection, Smorgon Collection,The Darling Foundation, Hamilton City Gallery,
Heide Museum of Modern Art Art Gallery of NSW, Queensland University of Technology, Art Gallery of SA, Artbank, Queensland Art Gallery, RACV Collection, University of Queensland and LaTrobe University (LUMA).

Available artwork by KATHERINE HATTAM.

WILLIAM MACKINNON exhibition reviewed in The Washington Post

By Mark Jenkins May 27 at 10:57 AM

William MacKinnon

Although many of his paintings don’t include cars, William MacKinnon’s style could be termed “automotive chiaroscuro.” The pictures in the Australian artist’s “I Am Beginning to See the Light” often center on a small patch of visible road or outback at night, illuminated by headlights or street lamps. Other around-midnight scenes in the Morton Fine Arts show include “The Great Indoors,” which depicts a house glowing from within and a porch supporting a string of blue lights that resembles a misplaced constellation. The even inkier “There Is a Darkness” discloses little more than a red swoop — perhaps a dirt road — on the lower left and a star cluster on the upper right.

The preponderance of black in MacKinnon’s compositions endows drama, but it also serves to unify the various techniques and media. The artist employs oil, acrylic and auto-body enamel in the same pictures and contrasts precise rendering with looser brushwork that verges on abstraction. The distinction reflects the divide between man-made and natural: Lush vegetation and night skies inspire a freer hand. It also reflects the moods of an artist who writes, “Each day I come into the studio feeling different.” Rather than harmonize these emotions, he juxtaposes them extravagantly, under the cover of darkness.

William MacKinnon: I Am Beginning to See the Light On view through June 2 at Morton Fine Art, 1781 Florida Ave. NW. 202-628-2787. mortonfineart.com.

 

The Great Outdoors, 35″x47″, acrylic, oil and enamel on canvas

 

Click HERE to view available works by WILLIAM MACKINNON.

 

WILLIAM MACKINNON sold out show “Internal Weather” featured in The Adelaide Review

Jane Llewellyn

March 8, 2016 12:19 PM.

20

William Mackinnon Exhibits Internal Weather

In his latest exhibition, Internal Weather, which sold out pre-opening, William Mackinnon uses scenes of landscapes combined with observations from everyday life to convey the feeling of what it’s like to be in the world now and more specifically what it’s like to be Australian.

“I really want to get across my experience and the feelings associated with these places,” Mackinnon says. “It’s not really representational of a place; it’s almost more a psychological feeling of going somewhere or leaving.”

The works carry with them a sense of nostalgia as Mackinnon is interested in his own personal experiences of the world. He uses the local scenery of places like Lorne where he has had a beach house for 15 years, as a starting point, adding elements from TV and advertising.

For example, travelling to Los Angeles influences the work Strange Country. The black silhouettes represent trees as seen from the Eames house looking through to Malibu Beach and the cartoon-like, or collage-looking, trees are inspired by Lorne.

“It’s trying to capture the complexity of the experience of all these things – the simultaneity of what it is to be alive,” Mackinnon says. “Although it’s a seemingly beautiful picture, there are rips in the water and the sun is incredibly hot.”

Other works such as The Great Indoors (ii), Summer in Mullimbimby is a painting of a friend’s house where he has stayed a number of times.

“It’s stuff we have an emotional investment in; it’s not an inanimate house.”

The image is immediately familiar and captures the essence of summer.

The Great Indoors (ii) Mullimbimy

The works are deliberately unpolished with Mackinnon particularly interested in the natural evolution of the paintings. He doesn’t know how they are going to turn out; he starts off with an idea and each day a new part develops.

“I like there to be a record of all the decision-making and the indecision and the thinking,” he says. “I want all that life and energy and the accumulation of time to be evident.”

Mackinnon describes his earlier work as being much more eclectic with lots of different influences, but over time his work has become more personal.

“I’m much more interested in what’s immediately around me and what’s inside my head and combining those two things. This show really is a good example of that.”

For Mackinnon, painting has always been the main medium and he prefers to work on a large scale, as the viewer can’t look at it all at once.

“I’m trying to communicate a feeling and the curiosity of looking,” he says. “I want the viewer to enjoy the playfulness of the quality of the paint and the scale. Also, to see the works beautifully lit in a gallery is a nice experience and it can’t be beaten.”

William Mackinnon
Internal Weather
Hugo Michell Gallery
Until Saturday, March 12
wmackinnon.com

 

Title image: William MacKinnon, Slow Down (Detail)

KATHERINE HATTAM’s Exhibition “Desire First” opens at Deakin University Australia

Desire first: Exhibition surveys work of Katherine Hattam

18 September 2015

The doctor’s dilemma, 2007. Book pages, fabric, charcoal and mixed media on paper. 130 x 120 cm image. Collection of the artist. Image courtesy the artist and Daine Singer. Photography: Clare Rae

The career of Melbourne-based artist, Katherine Hattam, is surveyed in the latest Deakin University Art Gallery exhibition.

Katherine Hattam: Desire first: 1978–2015 showcases works from Hattam’s entire career to date, including paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture.

In a practice that has extended over five decades, Hattam has developed a distinctive register of recurring motifs, in particular the chair and other domestic objects, which she combines with references to literature, feminism, art history and modern psychoanalysis in the creation of beguiling and personally symbolic works. A psychological charge is manifest in much of Hattam’s work, as anthropomorphic chairs stand in for a range of family members and a strong presence of the artist herself is evident in the spaces she depicts.

Deakin University Art Gallery Manager Leanne Willis said it was an honour to present the survey exhibition.

“Katherine Hattam is a contemporary Australian artist of great merit and has been a valuable contributor to the Melbourne visual culture since the late 1970s,” Ms Willis said.

“Deakin University has a long relationship with Katherine as she completed her PhD here in 2003, so it seems fitting that we are the venue to present a survey of her work.”

Exhibition curator Emma Busowsky Cox said Hattam’s work “tantalises with suggestive references”.

“Hattam uses personally symbolic materials, such as deconstructed Penguin classics from her late mother’s collection, or unfinished paintings by her artist father, alongside references to family politics, art history and psychoanalysis which hint at hidden meanings and unresolved relationships,” Ms Busowsky Cox said.

Supporting the exhibition is a catalogue including an essay by exhibition curator Emma Busowsky Cox, with a preface by Patrick McCaughey.

Hattam has exhibited widely throughout Australia. Her work is included in numerous major public collections including the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, Heide Museum of Modern Art, the Bendigo Art Gallery and Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art. She is represented by Daine Singer, Melbourne and Morton Fine Art, Washington, DC.

Katherine Hattam: Desire first 1978–2015runs to 16 October at the Deakin University Art Gallery, Burwood Campus, 221 Burwood Highway, Tuesday to Friday between 10am and 4pm, or by appointment on Monday for groups over 10. Entry is free.

Free floor talks with the artist and exhibition curator will be held on Wednesday 30 September at 12.30pm and Friday 16 October at 12.30pm.

Visit Morton Fine Art for available work by KATHERINE HATTAM.

Morton Fine Art, 1781 Florida Ave NW, Washington, DC 20009

(202) 628-2787, mortonfineart@gmail.com

http://www.mortonfineart.com

 

KATHERINE HATTAM: DESIRE FIRST 1978–2015 at Deakin University Art Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

Deakin University Art Gallery warmly invites you to the official opening of KATHERINE HATTAM: DESIRE FIRST 1978–2015 To be opened by Judith Brett, political historian and Emeritus Professor of Politics, La Trobe University Thursday 17 September 6.00 pm for 6.20 pm speeches Function will conclude at 8.00 pm Free floor talks with the artist and exhibition curator Wednesday 30 September at 12.30pm and Friday 16 October at 12.30pm RSVP essential by Friday 11 September via http://engage.deakin.edu.au/katherinehattam This exhibition surveys the work of Melbourne-based artist Katherine Hattam, from the early drawings of her first exhibition at the Ewing & George Paton Galleries at The University of Melbourne in 1978 through an evolving practice that also encompasses collage, printmaking and sculpture. In a practice that has extended over five decades, Hattam has developed a distinctive register of recurring motifs, in particular the chair and other domestic objects, which she combines with references to literature, feminism, family politics, art history and modern psychoanalysis in the creation of beguiling and personally symbolic works. The exhibition catalogue includes an essay by curator Emma Busowsky Cox and is prefaced by Patrick McCaughey. Cover image: The doctor’s dilemma, 2007 (detail) Book pages, fabric, charcoal and mixed media on paper, 130 x 120 cm. Collection of the artist. Image courtesy of the artist and Daine Singer. Photography: Simon Peter Fox Exhibition dates: 9 September to 16 October 2015 Deakin University Art Gallery, Deakin University Melbourne Burwood Campus 221 Burwood Highway Burwood 3125 Melways Ref 61 B5 T :03 9244 5344 F :03 9244 5254 E: artgallery@deakin.edu.au Hours Tuesday – Friday 10 am – 4 pm Free Entry Please visit deakin.edu.au/art-collection for more details. For information about parking on campus, please visit deakin.edu.au/parking.

WILLIAM MACKINNON’s painting “Exit” acquired by the State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia

Congratulations to Australian artist WILLIAM MACKINNON for the acquisition of his painting “Exit” in the permanent collection of the State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia.  The artist’s other outstanding achievements in recent months include finalist in The Fleurier, The Arthur Guy Painting Prize, and the Basil Sellers (staged at the Ian Potter Centre, a museum at Melbourne University).

Exit.
200 x 360 cm
Oil on linen 2013
Collection of The State Library of Victoria.

 

Please view the following slideshow of current available work by exceptional international painter WILLIAM MACKINNON. Contact Morton Fine Art for pricing at +001 (202) 628-2787 or mortonfineart@gmail.com

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MFA artists WILLIAM MACKINNON and KATHERINE HATTAM in Mornington Peninsula Regional Art Gallery, Australia

Enjoy this impressive video about three generations of internationally renowned artists, William Mackinnon, Katherine Hattam and Hal Hattam. On display from 27 February – 21 April 2013 at the Mornington Peninsula Regional Art Gallery, Australia.

The video documents the work and inspiration of all three artists and offers valuable insight into artistic process and the transference of creativity from generation to generation.