The Picks: June 2024

Yes, yes, the month is a third gone.

We have been most deathly ill here at Make and Do Towers, and the long nights have been punctuated by the ghastly sputter and croak of the unwell. Sleepless and stretched as thin as bare rags, we beg your kind indulgence, loyal art fan.

We’re coming up to our first birthday though, and there is still much to come, so let us blaze through what remains of June, as there’s a LOT of wonder out there to devour.

The one-you-must-see for June belongs to Despard Gallery. Here you may catch up with The Return of The Great White Hunter by Milan Milojevic. My pagan deities, this a winner: Milan has upped his game and archly bitten into the satirical fruit to present a scathing critique of the colonial figure of The Great White Hunter. The show is savagely funny, and Milan’s blended method of creating work is in peak form: it all looks incredible. The work features overwhelming images of a white imperial type obliterating a landscape, and there’s no missing the point, but the details are the juice. Milan has completely Brought The Noise with this show, and he’s also managed to catch current events in Nipaluna with one of his works. You need this one in your life; it’s on until the 22^nd so do not spare the horses; get to this.

Bett Gallery have a pair of winners: Rosie Hastie has really pulled one out with her new selection of landscapes that are actually scrunched paper and smoke, light and glass. Rosie is an artist who uses a formidable skillset for satirical purpose, and her examination of how images of landscape are constructed are hilarious and subversive. Next door to Rosie at Bett is Mish Meijers, whose vibrant practice mixes ceramics, painting and bits of drawing in whirling neon grotesque that digs into contemporary culture as it roars around us, mixing the banal and comedic with terrifying and serious: everything all at once.

Steven Carson has a new show at the Rosny Schoolhouse. Maybe it’s there features Steven’s vibrantly psychedelic palette of ordinary materials given new context. Steven is a reliable artist who always presents thoughtful exhibitions that revel in creative energy, and is surely one to make sure you get along to.

There’s a cool looking show from newer artist Harry Holcombe James on down at the Henry Jones Art Hotel – Harry produced a worthwhile show over at Good Grief a while back, so this new effort, entitled Self, should be worth getting a go of.

Tilley Wood has a new show at Penny Contemporary – solstice – which presents a series of painting and sculptures that describe the arc of the artist’s year from last Solstice to this one. The show opens at Penny on Liverpool St. this Friday.

There are events galore this weekend, so get some thick soled shoes and warm socks – warm feet are the key to survival. We already know Tilley Wood is having a party at Penny Contemporary; just down the block in Hobart, Bett Gallery has a dual opening for Rosie and Mish, then there’s a massive shindig at Good Grief. The studio is turning 5 (good god how did that happen) and there’s an exhibition that rumour has it features every studio resident in the place – that A LOT – and a team-up with the Vibrance Massive, who have been going gangbusters in wretched conditions giving the building a makeover. Friday the 14^th will be all too much and the art is only there for the weekend (who does that?) so you know what you must do.

The NEXT DAY (Saturday 15^th) in the afternoon, still at Good Grief there’s a Launch for Memo magazine – which is based in Naarm, but has reviews written by me and the most excellent Loren Kronmeyer about Lutruwita art! This launch is 2 -4 in the arvo of the 15^th, so come and check the art in GG out and get a mag – there’s a huge feature about Archie Moore in there that’s top reading.

Then on SUNDAY, still at GG – there’s a free screening of Style Wars, a classic 80s street art doco.

Alright, there’s bound to be more (I think there could be a massive new exhibition at Mona, say) but this is the visual art related funk we think you might dig, so dig in. You never know what’s out there. Bring a jumper and maybe a snack, dress to travel, and sign with the ranger as you enter. Safety First.