The Picks | Mar 2024

I don’t know what’s going on out there but there’s a whole lot opening in March. HEAPS. It’s wild. I’m going to attempt to see all of it, but for now here are the Make and Do 'Picks' for March.

The big compulsory[1] one is at The Plimsoll down there on Hunter St at the UTAS School of Art.  Between Waves is a massive First Nations art exhibition that highlights contemporary art from the South East region. I got lucky and saw this last year at ACCA in Melbourne and I can reliably report that it’s a total cracker and you really need to get along. There’s a lot of content, some of it is just breathtaking and it’s all of a high standard. This is probably one of the best shows you’ll get to this year.

Between Waves
Plimsoll Gallery, School of Creative Arts, Hunter St
8 March – 4 May
Open Tuesday – Saturday 11 – 4
More information here.

I can’t ignore Lands of Light: Lloyd Rees and Tasmania which is now on at TMAG. Rees is a significant landscape artist who was actually pretty great, but also represents an approach to the landscape we don’t really see in the contemporary era – so this is a show as much about history as it is about art. That said, Rees fascinates because he had such a long career, he didn’t really follow trends and got much more interesting as he went along. I’m yet to get to this, but I really can’t wait to see this in depth survey of a singular artist. If you’re super keen on Lloyd, you can catch a showing of his etchings and lithographs at Colville Gallery 19^th – 30^th March too.

Lands of Light: Lloyd Rees and Tasmania
TMAG, Dunn place
7 March – 27 October
Open daily 10 -4 until 31 March, then every day except Mondays.

There’s a neat show of newer Contemporary Tasmania Women artists at Despard until the 30^th of March which features some people who are totally new to me, some, and some other whose work I enjoy – notably Rosanagh May who is getting more confident and more experimental. Her works here are excellent, a bit weirder, but still with her sense of comedy and love of music. It’s a cool show worth seeing, and a nice move showcasing some very new artists who are creating bold work.

Contemporary Tasmanian Women Artists
Katie Barron, Keryn Fountain, Kirsty Riddle, Maggie Jeffries, Rosanagh May, Sophie Witter & Zoe Grey
Despard Gallery, Level 1 15 Castray Esplanade
6 – 30 March
Monday – Friday 10 – 5, Saturday 10 - 4

Dark Brew: The Alchemist at the Rosny Schoolhouse will feature a working darkroom set up in the exhibition space, and visitors will be able to make stuff that becomes part of the exhibition. Sounds fun, and the artist, Simone Darcy, is a bit influenced by early Dada artists, who did wild things with photography (and everything, really). The darkroom will be active Wednesdays and Thursdays, but there’ll be art there the whole time. There’s even some funky workshops in experimental photography where you get to make chemigrams and cyanotypes – these are on the 16^th and 23^rd, check out the details here.

Dark Brew: The Alchemist
Simone Darcy
Rosny Schoolhouse
8 March – 7 April
Open Wednesday – Sunday 11 - 4

[1] Compulsory. Really? I’m such a bossy boots and I get excited. Ahem.