Ten Melbourne Art Exhibitions to See Before Summer Ends

The most popular piece of video art ever created is coming to Melbourne, and making time to see it is recommended. Of course, when you’re staring at The Clock, all you’ll have is time. You won’t be able to avoid it. First premiering in 2010 at London’s White Cube Gallery, Christian Marclay’s mammoth installation is comprised of images of clocks and watches, plus other mentions of and references to the seconds, minutes and hours passing. In total, more than 12,000 clips are featured, cobbled together from an enormous range of films and television shows.

The piece is both a meditation on time, humanity’s fascination with it and its relationship to our mortality, and an epic trip through eight decades of cinema history. With The Clock‘s temporal collage unravelling in real time, that means one thing — yes, every second of the day and night is represented. The full version runs for an entire 24 hours, operating as the most intriguing timepiece you’re ever likely to come across. As a result, when Marclay’s masterpiece comes to the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) between Wednesday, January 23 and Sunday, March 10, 2019, it will screen in two formats. You can drop by daily during ACMI’s opening hours to see time pass, or you can settle in for the long haul once a week across the seven weeks.

You’re invited to take a rare glimpse into the life of Frida Kahlo, with photographs from the famed Mexican artist’s personal collection now showing at the Bendigo Art Gallery. It features a sprawling selection of 257 images curated by Mexican photographer and photography historian Pablo Ortiz Monasterio.

The collection travels through Kahlo’s fascinating life, speaking to the artist’s lifelong passion for photography — an art form that regularly influenced her own work. The photos have been pulled from the archives of the Casa Azul (Blue House) — Kahlo’s former home, which has been made into a museum celebrating her life and art. You’ll spy gems that have only been on public show since 2007, capturing Kahlo’s family moments, her love for Mexico and its traditions, her passions, friends and enemies, the era’s political struggles, and even the artist’s lengthy hospital stay following an accident in 1925. The exhibition also features shots from Frida contemporaries including Fritz Henle, Man Ray, Tina Modotti, Edward Weston, and Lola and Manuel Alvarez.

Patricia Piccinini’s otherworldly pieces have popped up all across Australia, and now it’s the TarraWarra Museum of Art‘s turn to host. Patricia Piccinini and Joy Hester: Through love… not only focuses on the woman with an incredibly distinctive view on all things weird and wonderful — and on the thin line between humanity and animal kind that’s engrained in her creative portfolio — but on fellow Australian artist Joy Hester.

If the latter’s name doesn’t sound familiar, she was a Melbourne artist who passed away in 1960, favoured brushwork and ink on paper, and is considered one of Piccinini’s key influences. This’ll be the first time anywhere in the world that a gallery has explored the connection between the pair, with more than 50 pieces on display. With the showcase broadly focused around the theme of love and intimacy as well, visitors will get to see the evolution of Aussie art through the output of the two inimitable figures, with Hester’s ink and paper works considered touchstones for Piccinini’s sculptures, photographs, videos and drawings. In both camps, attendees will be treated to something either rare or brand new. Much of Hester’s work is rarely seen, though her famous couple-focused series Love 1949and Lovers 1955–56 will be on display. As for Piccinini, she’ll be represented by both new and existing large-scale pieces.

Having launched in March of this year, Buxton Contemporary is the newest gallery on Melbourne’s art-plenty block and it’s pulling no punches when it comes to compelling shows. The first in an exciting annual series of international exhibitions, The Garden of Forking Paths sees Buxton Contemporary unite the distinctive practices of Melbourne-based artist Mira Gojak and Tokyo’s very own Takehito Koganezawa.

Curated by Melissa Keys and Shihoko Iida, the exhibition features large scale presentations and provocative works which highlight the parallels and contrasting elements between the two art practices. Like forking paths, there are both moments of connection and divergence between the artists’ work. Taking place across both floors of the gallery, the show incorporates work from across Gojak’s 20-year career, including drawing, sculpture, installation and photographs, with performative video drawings, improvisational works and paper creations by her Japanese contemporary Koganezawa.

Measuring seven metres in diameter and featuring renderings of the celestial body’s surface based on NASA imagery, the Museum of the Moon is a detailed installation by UK-based artist Luke Jerram. The giant sculpture has been touring the world since 2016, displaying in New York, Hong Kong, Mumbai and plenty of spots around Europe.

Inspired by Jerram’s time living in Bristol and “noticing the huge tidal variation as he cycled over the Avon Cut each day” according to the Museum of the Moon’s website, the artwork recreates the moon at a scale of approximately 1:500,000, with each centimetre equating to five kilometres of the lunar surface. The spherical sculpture is lit from within, so it’ll add a glow when it comes to Scienceworks for five months. It also combines its imagery and light with a surround sound piece created by composer and sound designer Dan Jones, and just how each venue displays it is up to them. Basically, it’s never the exact same installation twice.

Pablo Picasso jammed plenty of creativity into his 91-year life, including paintings, sculptures, prints, ceramics, stage design, plays, poetry and more. During the 1930s, he also etched and engraved a set of 100 pieces, in a series that was named after the art dealer who commissioned them: The Vollard Suite.

Produced over an eight-year period, the collection takes inspiration from stories, tales and myths, as well as the human form, his mistress and politics at the time. In other words, it proves an artistic overview of his favoured themes and fascinations, while also offering an autobiography of sorts. It’s the kind of intimate work that gives fans an insight into the Spanish master beyond his more famous pieces. As it happens, Canberra’s National Gallery of Australia is one of the few institutions in the world to boast a complete set, and it’s being so kind as to send the collection down our way for a spell. You’ll be able to catch The Vollard Suite at the Ballarat Art Gallery for two months from February 22, 2019.

Get a rare glimpse into artist Mirka Mora’s private universe at Mirka Mora: Pas de Deux – Drawings and Dolls. Showing at the Heide Museum of Modern Art until March 4, this show brings you never-before-exhibited works from Mora’s home and studio. Among them are many of her bright soft sculpture dolls. You’ll find them draped across tables, displayed upright and suspended from the ceiling. On close examination, they reveal an imaginary world, peopled by sea creatures, fantastical animals and fairy tale characters. Mora has said that her dolls are “drawings in three-dimensions”.

Also on show is a publication that carries you into the extraordinary life of French-born Mora and her German-born husband, Georges. After meeting in 1946, the two moved to Melbourne in 1915, where their apartment at 9 Collins Street became a magnet for artists, writers, musicians, actors and Bohemians. Together, they founded the Tolarno Galleries, as well as three popular cafes: the Mirka at 183 Exhibition Street, Cafe Balzac in East Melbourne and Tolarno in St Kilda.

This summer, the National Gallery of Victoria is showcasing the works of William Wegman — a celebrated American photographer, visual artist and dog lover. William Wegman: Being Human, the artist’s first major exhibition in Australia, features more than 100 works created throughout his productive 30-year career. In addition, the exhibition will also include 50 photographs that have never been seen by the public before. Wegman’s work first emerged in the 1970s, with much of his career fixated on his favourite dogs and their offspring, relatives and companions — including his now famous dogs Man Ray and Fay Ray.

With the dogs showing a great interest in performing in front of the camera (allegedly), Wegman developed somewhat of an obsession, seeing them as an interesting way to reflect the human condition. Through the dogs’ poses and outfits, Wegman’s work reflects various famous historical moments and pop culture references. While the wagging Weimaraners may have been the subject of William Wegman’s most recognisable works, he was also a prolific painter, photojournalist and admirer of fashion and art history, all of which make appearances throughout the works on display.

In what would have been his 100th year, the late Nelson Mandela has been honoured in a travelling exhibition that’s made its debut in Victoria. Hosted by Melbourne Museum, Mandela My Life is the most comprehensive collection of the human rights icon’s memorabilia ever to be shown outside South Africa. Alongside a huge assortment of artefacts, including warrants of committal for Mandela’s 27-year stint in prison, the exhibit explores the Nobel Peace Prize laureate’s life through a series of film and audio archives.

Some of the other artefacts include a boxing glove signed and gifted by Muhammad Ali, Mandela’s shoes, walking cane and some of his vibrant Madiba shirts. Alongside these, there will also be images, sound and film footage of one of Mandela’s earliest interviews — which took place during the ‘Treason Trail’ of the late 1950s. Mandela My Life is supported by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, which is the custodian of most of the revolutionary’s personal photographs, documents and memorabilia.