Toby Zoates in the Annex Space

Happy New Year, 1978, acrylic on paper, 560 x 380 mm

We are humbled and excited to have a slice of history from the Sydney underground in our Annex Space with Toby Zoates' exhibition Regurgitated, Posters + Paintings 1978-2012. For anyone who missed it, the Sydney Morning Herald ran this candid article on punk-activist-street artist Toby Zoates in the Spectrum 1/9/2012. 

Come along to the opening 

TUESDAY 11 SEPTEMBER 2012

6-8 PM

583 Elizabeth, St Redfern

Don't miss Toby Zoates performing:

'The Artist's Sob Story' on

SATYRDAY 22 SEPTEMBER

3PM

with original music by Peter Urquhart

Exhibition dates 11-29 September 2012

Jon Frum Art Foundation 2020 On Again

Damien Minton Gallery welcomes back '2020' to the Annex Space, and this year it is 20 art shows over 10 days, curated by Jon Frum Art Foundation and Robert Lake. 
15-24 August, 2012.

'Science Fictions' 2011- Connie Anthes and Dr Julian Berengut, who will appear in 'Method in Madness', Thursday 23rd August

Last year the Jon Frum Art Foundation attracted much interest and attention with this curatorial model that sees short sharp exhibitions as one-night-only events. 

We are pleased to note that many of the young artists presented in last year's '2020' have since attracted interest and attention from galleries in Sydney and in terms of funding and residencies. In 2012 Curators Jon Frum Art Foundation and Robert Lake will split the space and have one show each over 10 days. Full program below.

It's hard to pick favourites, but we recommend:

Wade Marynowski

Tamara Mendels

Sadie Chandler

A night of performance - Method in Madness

All shows are on at the Damien Minton Gallery Annex Space. 583 Elizabeth St, Redfern.

In the Annex: Megan Garrett-Jones performance 'Advice to Park Users'

Thanks to all those who braved the rain on Wednesday 18th April, to attend the performance and pop-up exhibition opening, Megan Garrett-Jones' Advice to Park Users.

The event marked the end of a year-long commitment by Megan to 'walk in the park' every day, and create subsequent writing and documentation. The performance was a story-teller style durational outpouring in which Megan read the entirity of her year-of-park diaries, clocking in at a hefty 6-hours. The recorded sound became an installation for the remainder of the exhibition.

Megan has now launched stage two of her park project, a blog that offers a year of weekly "advice", performance demonstrations, and writings drawn from her year of parks.

Advice to Park Users blog here.

week TWO: metaphor from Megan Garrett-Jones on Vimeo.
Beware of metaphor. (How) everyday to be at a crossroad.

Jon Frum Art Foundation's '2020'

Damien Minton Gallery is proud to host the momentous '2020' project at our Annex Space. Statement from organisers Jon Frum Art Foundation below.

Alex Jackson Wyatt, 'Enough to store in a storage unit', Friday 14th October

Who: Jon Frum Art Foundation and Robert Lake
Where: Damien Minton Annex Space, 583 Elizabeth St, Redfern
When: 6-25th October 2011

Time: 6-8 pm (nightly)
What: 20 consecutive days, 20 local and international artists and art groups will stage 20 one-night exhibitions.

In the words of the organisers:
Jon Frum Art Foundation & Robert Lake are proud to present a new model of art exhibition practice, “2020” (twenty art shows in twenty consecutive days). 

The 2020 platform which is a hybrid of a number of art exhibiting models, aims to support experimental and progressive artwork, by creating a system that is part performance, part artist-run and part commercial thus enriching existing models of exhibition practice. Each morning the previous show will be dismantled and a new show will be erected for the 6-8pm opening. We are expecting to attract a new and different audience nightly increasing the cultural awareness of arts in Sydney.

In 2020, Australian and International emerging artists will be exhibiting along-side established artists, encouraging a supportive and nurturing exhibiting environment for our art contenders. The participating artists will be encouraged to liaise with one another for future exhibition opportunities, as our aim is to provide an International bond between artists, galleries and curators through the social aspect that the show will provide. 

The space, courtesy of Damien Minton, provides a progressive change in the way we view and exhibit art in Sydney by blurring the boundaries between commercial galleries and artist run spaces; it is free for artists to exhibit, we encourage sales, and encourage commercial gallerists to view and pick artists from our 2020 selection. Each of the twenty shows will run for two hours and will be streamed live across the internet, encouraging the projects potential for world wide recognition.

With web presence, blogs and social networking tools in place we anticipate generous media coverage for the 20 days and whilst the two hour duration of each show may seem short, the exhibition will continue indefinitely in cyber space in the form of live streamed video documentation. Australian audiences are encouraged to view a new exhibition every day for twenty days, either in person or live on the web at www.2020art2011.com. 

The future and long-term goal for 2020 is to exhibit annually, further bridging the gap between artists globally forming an alliance of contemporaries. As a progressive and experimental exhibition format the future of 2020 is very exciting. 

Full program:

For more information head to the Jon Frum Foundation website.

Philjames: 'A Moth in a Chandelier' in the Annex space

Philjames, Number 27, Oil on found vintage print, 400 x 300 mm

Next pop-up show in the Damien Minton Annex (583 Elizabeth St, Redfern) is Philjames, 'A Moth in a Chandelier'. Opening 23rd September 6-8 and running until the 24th September only. Read what Archibald Prize winner Guy Maestri says about Philjames' work below:

Philjames's art can be on one hand playful, even childish, and on the other, arresting, disarming, and shocking. In this body of work Philjames has juxtaposed icons of popular culture into sublime and kitsch landscape paintings sourced from opp shops and skip bins. The results range from comical to apocalyptic. But  he is not engaging in an act of destruction, more like a thoughtful readjustment. An offering of a new vision, or version, of the future.  Many of the protagonists in Philjames's paintings include people dressed in super hero suits, dumped in these alien worlds. A seemingly bizarre and incongruous act, these people in a second skin, unnatural in nature. Yet strangely poignant. Philjames is well aware of the world we live in. This is man vs nature in all our clumsy, unnatural glory.

Philjames often bolts these works to public walls, literally offering his art to the people, to be considered by those who may not generally consider art, and to encourage response and interaction. They get tagged, smashed, scarred and often stolen, but these are artworks which weren't Philjames's to begin with. He puts his hand to them, and releases them back into the wild. Some of them survive and are included in this exhibition, as works of anonymous collaboration.

I travelled through China with Philjames. All along the way he would pull out his pen and make "thoughtful adjustments" to signs, posters, graffiti etc. Or just leave small offerings for the hell of it. For example, on a riverboat on the Yangtze river he planted a small pink penis on a print of a manicured, english garden hanging on the wall of our cabin. I like to think it would still be there. Largely unnoticed, offering occasional amusement or bewilderment the unsuspecting traveller. Art for the people!

- Guy Maestri


View a selection of the works on our website

LOTTIE CONSALVO in the Annex Space

Across shoulders the shadows of trees are cast, as the hills roll through ghosted faces, beasts are revealed inside of men and all around is desert. 

Standing in a room with the works of Lottie Consalvo, the viewer is led to contemplate the relationship between vast landscapes and the unending potential of human emotion. Standing where they stand, where they struggle, her figures break and strain, rise and fade in their interaction with the land that they are set against, and themselves.  

There is an authenticity of emotion in Lottie's paintings and sculptures that is not easily summarised. Born of experience and artistic exploration, her strength lies in a simple portrayal of the complex relationship between the human form and its cerebral counterparts. The protagonists often appear engaged in a struggle between primitive instinct and rational clarity, blurring the line between man and his inner forms. These expressive figures cast questions to a quintessentially Australian landscape creating a mood that is at once dark, quiet and thought provoking.

Lottie Consalvo, originally from Melbourne, now spends her time between Berlin, Germany and Newcastle, Australia. She has exhibited in Berlin, Sydney and Melbourne and her work is held in private collections  in both Australia and abroad. Following this exhibition Lottie will return to her studio in Berlin, later traveling to Germany's other major art centre, Leipzig, where she has secured a three month residency with the Leipzig International Art Program.

- Kim Fasher, curator

Lottie talks about her experience working and living in Berlin in the Sydney Morning Herald today. She will be participating in The National Art School Art Forum with other young Australian artists on March 23rd. 

Lottie Consalvo, 'and all around is desert', 8-19 March 2011. 

Damien Minton Gallery Annex Space, 

583 Elizabeth St Redfern, 9699 7551