Selected Projects and Group Exhibitions
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Geometries
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Reciproco
Collaboration between Italo Australian and Italian artists. March 2019
Collaboration between Italo Australian and Italian artists. March 2019
Wilma Tabacco - Essay, April 2019 >> DOWNLOAD ESSAY
Photo: Saluti dai Paesi Fantasma, 2019
Wilma Tabacco & Angelo Bellobono |
RECIPROCO/reciprocal brings together five contemporary Australian artists of Italian origin and five contemporary artists from Italy, in order to collaborate in the making of new work exploring the nuanced narratives that describe both the chronicles of century-old Italian migration to Australia and those that have signposted the millennial evolution of italianity.
Through a collaborative process the artists have been encouraged to research and articulate aspects of the living tissue that connects one culture to the other, and we anticipate that the five collaborative outcomes will both challenge and celebrate the determining role that cultural context plays in the formation of an artist’s unique sensibility.
The co-curators Domenico de Clario (Australia) and Laura Cionci (Italy) have collaborated on a single outcome, and they have invited Eugene Carchesio (AUS) to work with Alessandro Cannistra’ (ITA); Angela Cavalieri (AUS) with Luana Perilli (ITA); Damiano Bertoli (AUS) with Rocco Dubbini (ITA) and Wilma Tabacco (AUS) with Italian artist Angelo Bellobono.
The resulting reciproco/RECIPROCAL multiplatform manifestations will be performed, installed, showcased, discussed and screened in each of five iconic socio-cultural venues, located in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Carlton.
These are CoAsIt/Museo Italiano (Cavalieri and Perilli); La Mama Theatre (Bertoli and Dubbini); Brunetti’s Café (Carchesio and Cannistra’); Readings Bookshop (Tabacco and Bellobono) and the Melbourne General Cemetery (de Clario and Cionci).
Chaos and Order, 120 years of collecting at RMIT
RMIT Gallery
Date: 13 APR 2018 - 9 JUN 2018
Embracing the contradictions inherent in public art collections and exploring the uses to which they are put.
Chaos & Order celebrates over 80 Australian and international artists in an ambitious survey of the RMIT Art Collection.
RMIT Gallery
Date: 13 APR 2018 - 9 JUN 2018
Embracing the contradictions inherent in public art collections and exploring the uses to which they are put.
Chaos & Order celebrates over 80 Australian and international artists in an ambitious survey of the RMIT Art Collection.
LEFT: Airborne. 1-9 2008, gold leaf and pigment on paper. 9 panels 60 x 75 cm each.
MIDDLE: Lindy Lee
RIGHT: Robert Jacks
MIDDLE: Lindy Lee
RIGHT: Robert Jacks
Curator: Jon Buckingham
Curatorial assistants [RMIT MA Arts Management]: Ellie Collins, Adelaide Gandrille, Marybel Schwartz, Valerie Sim, Sophie Weston
Artists including Tate Adams, Howard Arkley, Khadim Ali, Peter Booth, Polly Borland, Godwin Bradbeer, Rupert Bunny, Penny Byrne, Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Peter Clarke, Michael Cook, Len Crawford, Daniel Crooks, Craig Easton, Peter Ellis, Neil Emmerson, Juan Ford, Hayden Fowler, Len French, Sally Gabori, Bill Henson, Petr Herel, Clare Humphries, Robert Hunter, Robert Jacks, Sam Jinks, George Johnson, Roger Kemp, Inge King, Grahame King, Juz Kitson, Grace Lillian Lee, Helen Maudsley, Nick Mourtzakis, Trevor Nickolls, Jill Orr, Polixeni Papapetrou, Susan Philipsz, Anthony Pryor, Reko Rennie, Yhonnie Scarce, Greg Semu, Jan Senbergs, Christian Thompson, Kawita Vatanajyankur, Ah Xian.
Curatorial assistants [RMIT MA Arts Management]: Ellie Collins, Adelaide Gandrille, Marybel Schwartz, Valerie Sim, Sophie Weston
Artists including Tate Adams, Howard Arkley, Khadim Ali, Peter Booth, Polly Borland, Godwin Bradbeer, Rupert Bunny, Penny Byrne, Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Peter Clarke, Michael Cook, Len Crawford, Daniel Crooks, Craig Easton, Peter Ellis, Neil Emmerson, Juan Ford, Hayden Fowler, Len French, Sally Gabori, Bill Henson, Petr Herel, Clare Humphries, Robert Hunter, Robert Jacks, Sam Jinks, George Johnson, Roger Kemp, Inge King, Grahame King, Juz Kitson, Grace Lillian Lee, Helen Maudsley, Nick Mourtzakis, Trevor Nickolls, Jill Orr, Polixeni Papapetrou, Susan Philipsz, Anthony Pryor, Reko Rennie, Yhonnie Scarce, Greg Semu, Jan Senbergs, Christian Thompson, Kawita Vatanajyankur, Ah Xian.
Abstraction TwentyEighteen
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A B S T R A C T I O N A M P L I F I E D ABSTRACTION TWENTYEIGHTEEN is an initiative showcasing Abstract / Non-Objective art: 1 exhibition; 125 artists; 5 venues. Each of the Melbourne exhibition spaces has selected work that demonstrates its particular curatorial practice and aesthetic, with artists from around Australia working in a variety of materials and formats. Such diversity reflects the range of contemporary interests in Abstract / Non-Objective art. Practitioners with decades of experience and recent graduates celebrating together its innovative vitality, its freshness and longevity. In 1968, the National Gallery of Victoria opened its new St Kilda Road home. A major architectural and cultural emblem to highlight the maturity and strength of the nation’s burgeoning artistic ambition. THE FIELD exhibition of contemporary Australian abstraction affirmed our aspirations for an international context. It was a significant choice for the opening of this new cultural institution. The built form of the NGV could be considered ‘modernist sombre’ while THE FIELD itself was ‘energetic excess’. Restraint meets exuberance. A magnificent balance. In 2018, the NGV celebrates 50 years in St Kilda Road with THE FIELD REVISITED. More than a restaging of the breakout exhibition; it is a retelling of a great moment in a long story. ABSTRACTION TWENTYEIGHTEEN is a complementarity to THE FIELD REVISITED, and its precursor. The works in our suite of exhibitions reflect on a deeper history than just post/modern moments and sensibilities. They reveal influences and derivations, progressions and grand re-examinations of artistic cul-de-sacs. All manner of aesthetic polemics and political postures are reified and re-contextualised to make and mark works that advancethe action beyond novelty of the new. Stephen Wickham langford120.com.au stephenmclaughlangallery.com.au fivewalls.com.au jahm.com.au deakin.edu.au/art-collection |
Stephen McLaughlan Gallery - April 25 – May 26, 2018
Langford120, April 21 – May 20, 2018
Coney Island: Counihan Gallery in Brunswick
30th September - 29th October
[ EXHIBITION LINK - CONEY ISLAND ]
30th September - 29th October
[ EXHIBITION LINK - CONEY ISLAND ]
Flights of fantasy 2008, Oil on linen, 152 x 137cm. Wilma Tabacco
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CONEY ISLAND - Catalogue Essay extract:
Wilma Tabacco’s capacity for flawless hard-edge painting has been honed in a practice that spans thirty years. In the studio, smaller studies for works consist of cardboard components, that are shuffled into different configurations. The painted line surfaces differently in her works: at times in fine vertical vibrations, at others in highly pronounced block form. Dan Rule observes how, “Tabacco’s painted surfaces aren’t nearly as flat as their first read. With proximity, their patina and the play of the brush become far more complex.”4 Both Sesame and Hatchepsut are loosely drawn from the aerial view of archaeological sites. The scale of the works prompts figurative allusions and the artist freely asserts that many of her works are based on observations harnessed from reality.
Wilma Tabacco’s capacity for flawless hard-edge painting has been honed in a practice that spans thirty years. In the studio, smaller studies for works consist of cardboard components, that are shuffled into different configurations. The painted line surfaces differently in her works: at times in fine vertical vibrations, at others in highly pronounced block form. Dan Rule observes how, “Tabacco’s painted surfaces aren’t nearly as flat as their first read. With proximity, their patina and the play of the brush become far more complex.”4 Both Sesame and Hatchepsut are loosely drawn from the aerial view of archaeological sites. The scale of the works prompts figurative allusions and the artist freely asserts that many of her works are based on observations harnessed from reality.
Four Drawings
Barberis, Bradbeer, Southall and Tabacco Langford120, Melbourne 11 February - 12 March 2017 [ EXHIBITION LINK ] |

NEO-0-10 #2, 2016
Stephen McLaughlan Gallery, Melbourne
[ EXHIBITION LINK ]
Michelle Benoit, Louise Blyton, Tracey Couttes, Kendell Heyes
Christopher Heathcote, Frédéric Hirschi, Christine Loew
Wilma Tabacco, Rene van den Bos, Stephen Wickham
Stephen McLaughlan Gallery, Melbourne
[ EXHIBITION LINK ]
Michelle Benoit, Louise Blyton, Tracey Couttes, Kendell Heyes
Christopher Heathcote, Frédéric Hirschi, Christine Loew
Wilma Tabacco, Rene van den Bos, Stephen Wickham
Site A, 2016, pigment, acrylic on paper, 49 x 35 cm
Site D, 2016, pigment, acrylic on paper, 49 x 35 cm
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Dark: More than Black, 2014
Stephen McLaughlan Gallery, Melbourne
[ EXHIBITION LINK ]
Magda Cebokli, Andrew Christofides, Tracey Coutts, Ross Harrison, Christopher Heathcote, Kendal Heyes, PJ Hickman, Emma Langridge, Lis McDonald, Julia Ritson, Wilma Tabacco, Stephen Wickham
Stephen McLaughlan Gallery, Melbourne
[ EXHIBITION LINK ]
Magda Cebokli, Andrew Christofides, Tracey Coutts, Ross Harrison, Christopher Heathcote, Kendal Heyes, PJ Hickman, Emma Langridge, Lis McDonald, Julia Ritson, Wilma Tabacco, Stephen Wickham
Squaring Up, 2013
Langford120, Melbourne
Langford120, Melbourne
In these new works I have used the cyrillic alphabet letters that 'spell' Malevich as the basis for compositions intended as referents to his paintings. This year marks the 100th anniversary of his prototype drawing for the iconic painting Black Square and this exhibition commemorate his visionary ideas.
[View selection from Squaring Up Exhibition]
[View selection from Squaring Up Exhibition]
Partial exhibition view, Langford120 2013
Transcentric, 2008
Lethaby Gallery, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London
Lethaby Gallery, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London
Return Nature 2: Pastoral, 2003
Nanjing Shenghua Arts Centre, Nanjing, China, 2003
Nanjing Shenghua Arts Centre, Nanjing, China, 2003
Painted Spaces, 2000 -2001,
Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne
New Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Talbot Rice Gallery, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
Cuator: David Thomas
Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne
New Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Talbot Rice Gallery, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
Cuator: David Thomas