Ornamental/Elemental exhibition, children’s activities open 2024 Crows Nest Gallery program

Ornamental/Elemental, an exhibition highlighting selected works from the Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery – Toowoomba City Collection, and a children’s art activity from the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (The Castle of Tarragindi on Tour) open the 2024 program at Crows Nest Gallery.

The Ornamental/Elemental exhibition, which will be on display until February 4, 2024, features artworks that play with the structure and poetics of ornamentation.

Works in this exhibition celebrate how artists use materials to transform everyday objects and reveal the ornamental as elemental.

This exhibition’s featured artists share an interest in the underlying structure and form of their chosen medium and in the potential of their materials to embellish the surface of their work.

From the subtle geometries of Harley MacBeth’s paintings to the embedded pattern of flowers in Narumi Ii’s vessel, the artists demonstrate that the ornamental is elemental.

All displays in Ornamental/Elemental are selected from the Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery – Toowoomba City Collection.

Children and families can participate in fun art-making activities by contemporary Australian artist Natalya Hughes with The Castle of Tarragindi on Tour until February 4.

Developed in collaboration with the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), The Castle of Tarragindi on Tour invites audiences to create their own digital hybrid creature, decorate and assemble a 3D object, make elaborate patterns using printed paper, and take part in self-portrait drawing activities.

Hughes creates paintings, textiles, sculptures and installations informed by decorative and ornamental traditions. In The Castle of Tarragindi, the artist has chosen to explore ‘grotesque’ design, a specific tradition of ornament known for its hybridity.

The Castle of Tarragindi on Tour features a striking blue and white palette inspired by a grotesque castle interior by French designer, architect, and engraver Jean Bérain (1640–1711). Hughes has also included imagery of things that are important to her in the activity materials, such as the Australian flora and fauna found close to her home in the Brisbane suburb of Tarragindi.

As part of the project, children will be able to view an introductory video where Hughes shares her thoughts on the inspiration and concepts behind The Castle of Tarragindi.

Queensland Art Gallery l Gallery of Modern Art Director Chris Saines said the free program would be presented at more than 200 regional and remote venues across all 77 Queensland and Torres Strait Councils areas including 17 First Nation Councils from January through to June 2024.

“The regional tour of the program from Boigu Island to Birdsville and Millaroo to Middlemount occurs as Natalya Hughes: The Castle of Tarragindi continues at the Children’s Art Centre at the Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane until 14 July, 2024,” Mr Saines said.

Natalya Hughes (b.1971) completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts at the Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane in 2001 and a PhD in Art Theory at the College of Fine Art (UNSW) in 2009. She currently lectures in Fine Art and Expanded Practice at the Queensland College of Art, Brisbane.

Hughes has exhibited her work at numerous museums and institutions, including Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (2019, 2017 and 2012), QUT Art Museum Brisbane (2016), Artspace Sydney (2016), Hazelhurst Regional Gallery (2015), Performance Space (2012), Parliament House Canberra (2014), UQ Art Museum, Brisbane (2010), Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne (2009) and Tarrawarra Museum of Art, Victoria. (2006).

Hughes was a finalist in both the Sulman Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the National Works on Paper Prize at Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery in 2018, as well as the 2017 Ramsay Art Prize at the Art Gallery of South Australia.

For more information visit www.qagoma.qld.gov.au

For more information on Ornamental/Elemental, please see: Exhibition | Ornamental/Elemental (tr.qld.gov.au)

For more information on The Castle of Tarragindi on Tour , please see Art Activities | The Castle of Tarragindi on Tour (tr.qld.gov.au)

Enquiries about the exhibition can be directed to Crows Nest Gallery on (07) 4698 1687 or [email protected]

Crows Nest Gallery, at the corner of the New England Highway and William Street is open from 10.30am to 3.30pm Wednesday to Sunday. It is closed on Monday, Tuesday and public holidays.

Images: 1. From the Ornamental/Elemental exhibition - Miles ALLEN / Stacking carrots 2010 / timber, ink and wax / 79 x 65 cm / Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery – Toowoomba City Collection 1845 / © Miles Allen (Top)

2. From the Ornamental/Elemental exhibition - Narumi II / A morning in June 2017 / porcelain / 4 x 24 x 22 cm / Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery – Toowoomba City Collection 2258 / © Narumi Ii (below left)

3. From The Castle of Tarragindi on Tour Art Activity - Taking part in an activity in ‘Natalya Hughes: The Castle of Tarragindi’, Children’s Art Centre, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, 2023 / Photograph: C Callistemon/© QAGOMA (below right)

4. From The Castle of Tarragindi on Tour Art Activity - Taking part in an activity in ‘Natalya Hughes: The Castle of Tarragindi’, Children’s Art Centre, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, 2023 / Photograph: C Callistemon/© QAGOMA (bottom)