ACCA @ MIRKA
AT TOLARNO HOTEL
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Judith Van Heeran
In nature we trust
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From 19 August 2008
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Judith Van Heeren has created six new paintings inspired by museum specimens, taxidermy and the impact of the drought for the next exhibition at ACCA @ Mirka.
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This Dutch-born, Melbourne-based artist creates collaged images derived from lifeless taxidermied animals, old illustrations, op shop ornaments and nature walks. Her works are painted in the tradition of the Flemish masters and document the endangerment and extinction of flora and fauna.
Van Heeren studied painting at VCA and has had several solo exhibitions – at the Murray White Room in Melbourne, the Brian Moore Gallery in Sydney and many others. Her work has consistently shown a lifelong interest in animals, nature and conservation.
Two of the paintings in this exhibition were inspired by a recent trip to the drought-affected Coorong, and five new bird paintings were created following a visit to see the dioramas in New York’s American Museum of Natural History and Museum Victoria’s own bird collections. “In these grand dioramas it is as though time has stopped and the natural world been captured and recorded - a far cry from the real, and instead it is artificial and almost kitsch,” she says.
“Apart from being inspiring works of art themselves, they are also a record of how the role of science museums was perceived in the early 20th century – the natural world was something to be captured, recorded and exhibited, even if this sometimes meant almost destroying it in the process.”
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Judith van Heeren at ACCA @ Mirka open from 19 August, 2008.
ACCA @ MIRKA is a collaboration between the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art and Mirka at Tolarno Hotel, presented by Sanpellegrino.
ACCA will curate four projects by emerging Australian artists each year, continuing the tradition of bringing great contemporary art to this unique and historic restaurant space.
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For further media information:
Katrina Hall - 0421 153 046, kathall@ozemail.com.au
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Mirka at Tolarno Hotel
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With the opening of Mirka at Tolarno Hotel Guy Grossi returns to the original kitchen in which he first started cooking the ‘sofrito’ with his father and Mirka Mora restores the joyous murals she painted in the main dinning room during the 60s. An amazing piece of Melbourne’s cultural and culinary history has come full circle launching an exciting new chapter in the life of a Melbourne icon.
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ACCA
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The Australian Centre for Contemporary Art is Melbourne’s leading contemporary art gallery presenting the most challenging, innovative and creative visual art of our time. ACCA brings the latest and most significant artwork by living artists from around the world to Melbourne audiences, and commissions new artworks by local and international artists.
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