PHOTO 2022

at Collingwood Yards

Ugly/Beautiful at Arts Project Australia

Working across painting, ceramics, mixed media, video and soft sculpture, Mark Smith’s works explore the physicality of the body and the human nature.

Ugly/Beautiful is a solo exhibition of his photographic work about identity, difference and faith — aiming to express feelings of joy.

However, the viewer’s experience is confronting, with imagery depicting digital collages of body parts lurching outwards from a black background — prompting feelings of disconnectedness, discomfort and unease.

Opening reception: Saturday 30 April 2—4pm
Exhibition: Sat 30 April — Sun 12 June, 12—4pm

Billow at agency

Jemima Wyman’s practice explores camouflage as a visual and psychological device related to power.

Billow consists of collages of photographs depicting smoke used in recent protests and demonstrations, all of which are related back to ‘camouflage’—a word derived from the French term camouflet, which literally means ‘a whiff of smoke in the face’.

Opening reception: Saturday 30 April 4—6pm
Exhibition: Fri 29 April — Sun 22 May, 11am—3pm

Escape at West Space

Taungurung and Filipino man Alan Stewart uses photography to document his family, community, and personal journey as a First Nations person.

Escape is his new body of work, made during Melbourne’s long lockdown to reflect his longing to connect to country.

Exhibition: Sat 9 April — Sun 22 May, 12—4pm

Headdress at the Courtyard

Canadian First Nations artist Dana Claxton’s practice investigates indigenous beauty, the body, the socio-political and the spiritual.

Her series Headdress extolls indigenous cultural abundance. Presented as three-metre-high prints in our courtyard, four First Nations women display their very different collections of traditional beadwork, spanning generations, tribes and fashions.

Exhibition: Fri 29 April — Sun 22 May, 8am— 0pm