Colour is Enough
Arts Project Australia
6 April – 18 May 2024
The exhibition Colour is Enough presents recent bodies of work by Arts Project Australia (APA) artists Wendy Dawson, Ruth Howard and Julian Martin within a broader context of Australian monochrome painting and sculpture. For the purposes of this exhibition, the notion of ‘monochrome’ extends beyond what a work of art looks like to position ‘monochrome’ as a dynamic philosophical approach to making art that has persistently asserted its relevance in Australia over many decades. The works in this exhibition articulate an understanding of the physicality and materiality of colour – a potent visual expression that is inseparable from its conceptual ambitions.
In monochrome works of art there is no single focal point. Unlike the process of reading words on a page, there is no direction for where to start or finish. Viewers are not called to progress from one section to another, but rather to engage with the totality of a single colour. In these works, understanding and experience is based on ‘consuming’ the whole work of art – at once. In monochromes, colour is its own entity that is distinct and independent. Related to (but not beholden to) form, colour is enough. Nothing else is needed for it to challenge, move and energise.
Exhibited artists:
Wendy Dawson courtesy of the artist and Arts Project Australia
Ruth Howard courtesy of the artist and Arts Project Australia
Julian Martin courtesy of the artist and Arts Project Australia
Mikala Dwyer courtesy of the artist and 1301SW
Jackson McLaren courtesy of the artist
Aaron Martin courtesy of the artist and Five Walls
Ron Robertson-Swann courtesy of the artist and Charles Nodrum Gallery
David Thomas courtesy of the artist
Renee Cosgrave courtesy of the artist and Hayden’s Gallery
Eleanor Louise Butt courtesy of the artist and Nicholas Thompson Gallery
Lachlan Stonehouse courtesy of the artist and Five Walls
Nancy Constandelia courtesy of the artist
Rox De Luca courtesy of the artist
David Serisier courtesy of the artist and Liverpool Street Gallery
Louise Gresswell courtesy of the artist and Gallery 9
Madeline Simm courtesy of the artist
John Nixon courtesy of the Estate of John Nixon, and Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne
A.D.S Donaldson courtesy of the artist and Charles Nodrum Gallery
Hayden Stuart courtesy of the artist
Hootan Heydari courtesy of the artist and Futures Gallery
Barbara Puruntatameri courtesy the artist and Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association
Sam George & Lisa Radford courtesy the artists