Parched: Meg Buchanan & Wendy Teakel
Main Gallery: 30 January - 29 March 2009
Left to right: Meg Buchanan, Dust Storm, 2007, synthetic polymer on canvas; Wendy Teakel, Seed bed, 2007, synthetic polymer paint and pokerwork on plywood
Acclaimed regionally-based artists Meg Buchanan and Wendy Teakel present paintings, drawings, prints and sculptures which respond to the changing rural environment. Parched, curated by Cath Bowdler, features a range of works based on the artists' response to the rural landscape and the effects of the drought. Both artists are based near Canberra, but have longstanding connections with Wagga Wagga. Wendy Teakel, now Head of Sculpture at the ANU School of Art, was born and raised in Wagga Wagga, while Meg Buchanan taught for a number of years at the School of Art and Design at Charles Sturt University. Both artists have had numerous solo exhibitions in public and private galleries around the country, and are represented in major state and national collections.
Meg Buchanan and Wendy Teakel both reside on rural properties, and their work in recent years has recorded and investigated their experiences of this country and other areas in regional New South Wales. Their works poignantly explore the effects of man's interventions in the landscape with distinctly personal styles. The artists present us with different but related views, which neither romanticise the landscape nor demonise the pastoral industry. Both create works of great beauty where the tension between abstraction and realism delights the viewer with the spark of recognition, yet retains a hint of the unknown.
A Wagga Wagga Art Gallery Initiative
Parched on display in the Main Gallery, 2009
Opening
When: Friday 30 January 2009, 6:00- 8:00pm
Where: Wagga Wagga Art Gallery
Cost: Free