Press Release
Catherine Asquith Gallery is delighted to announce that Canberra-based artist, Wendy Teakel will be showcasing her latest body of work, a paintings and works on paper exhibition entitled Drylands throughout August 2007. The official opening of the exhibition is scheduled for Thursday 9th August (6 to 8pm), and the artist will travel from Canberra to be in attendance on the evening.
The title of this exhibition comes from Thea Astley’s award-winning novel, “Drylands” (“Miles Franklin Literary Award” 2000). Wendy first read this novel 8 years ago (when it was first published), and a recent re-reading held the impetus for this new body of work; more especially, Astley’s evocation of ‘the outback’ resonated sharply with Wendy’s recollection of her childhood years growing up on an isolated farm.
Wendy works across the disciplines of sculpture, drawing and painting to create artworks that explore the nature of place within the cultural landscape of farms. By exploring the relationships between shifting and permanent spaces that exist on farms, Wendy identifies specific places and creates their presence within the gallery space. The materials employed by Wendy are highly inventive as she collects tin, wire, grain or grasses from places she visits to incorporate into artworks. Wendy is also known for her use of pokerwork: pieces of fencing wire and farm detritus picked up along the way are heated and used to scorch patterns reminiscent of animal tracks or other farm activities onto plywood or paper surfaces.
At times Wendy’s work has been critiqued as holding strong parallels with Aboriginal art. As Professor Sasha Grishin has observed, “The parallel I feel is one of related fields of endeavour, rather than that of direct influence.” (Craft Arts, No.60, 2004, p.20) Further, Grishin notes that although Wendy’s work “emerges out of a definable tradition”, that is, “within the broad parameters of Arte Provera and environmental art”…Wendy’s artistic language is “distinctively her own and not only carries the stamp of a specific individual identity, but also conveys a very strong evocation of a sense of place.” (ibid p.18)
Wendy Teakel was born in Wagga Wagga and has lived in the Canberra region since 1985. She lectures in sculpture at the Australian National University School of Art and her tertiary qualifications include a Diploma of Art, Riverina College of Advanced Education (1980), a Postgraduate Diploma in Sculpture, Canberra School of Art (1985) and Master of Arts Fine Art by Research, RMIT University (2004). Since the late 1980’s, Wendy has held twenty-seven solo exhibitions in Australia and Thailand and Drylands will be her 28th solo exhibition. Additionally, Wendy has participated in and/or been invited to participate in numerous important curated exhibitions, totaling in excess of 80 exhibitions.
Wendy has also been the recipient of major art awards including the inaugural CAPO Fellowship (1993), the 26th Alice Prize (1995), the artsACT Creative Arts Fellowship (1996), the Asialink residency to Thailand (1996), and the Australian representative at the KHOJ International Artists’ workshop, New Delhi, India (1997). In 2002, Wendy was selected with three other Australian artists to participate in the Asialink project, Saisampan, a residency and exhibition program in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Wendy received a Canberra Critics Circle Award for visual arts (2002) in recognition of her 2002 exhibition at Beaver Galleries,(ACT) “Crossing Place” and the survey exhibition “Cultural Spaces”, curated by Peter Haynes at Canberra Museum and Gallery. More recently Wendy’s work was the subject of a feature article in Craft Arts International: “Wendy Teakel and the rural vision in Australian Sculpture” (2004) by Professor Sasha Grishin and she received an artsACT project grant (2001), to publish the catalogue “Wendy Teakel: recent works”, with text by Kim Mahood. Wendy was also a finalist in the “Country Energy Art Prize” (2005), and the “McGirven Art Prize” (2006).
Wendy is represented in the following collections:
Araluen Arts Centre
Artbank
Australian Embassy, Bangkok
Australian National University
Bathurst Regional Art Gallery
Broken Hill City Art Gallery
Canberra Museum and Gallery
Canberra School of Art
Chiang Mai University, Thailand
D.B.M. Australia
Hyatt Hotel, Canberra
Khon Kaen University, Thailand
Mildura Regional Art Gallery
Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery
National Gallery of Australia
Prince of Songkla University, Thailand
Wagga Wagga City Art Gallery;
as well as private collections throughout Australia, India and Thailand.
The exhibition commences on 7th August and continues to 25th August 2007.
All enquiries welcome: Tel: (03) 9654 7257 Email: enquiries@catherineasquithgallery.com.
Please click on images to enlarge, and view details of works.
 Installation |
 Installation |
 Installation |
 Installation |
 Installation |
 Installation |
 Fallow |
 Winter Paddock |
 Tilled Land |
 Salt Pan |
 Ploughed Margins |
 Erosion Gully |
 Dry Paddock |
 Just on Dawn |
 Failed Crop |
 Marginal Land |
 Ploughed Paddock |
 Autumn Mists |
 Failed Crop |
 Fallow |
 Last of the Summer Paddock |
 Last Year's Crop |
 Plough Lines |
 Salt Scaulds |
 Scorch |
 Stubble Scatter |
 Trace |