A new exhibition at Castlemaine Art Museum celebrates central Victorian artists in the orbit that surrounds the gallery.
The first artist to feature in Orbit, which was launched on Boxing Day in the Benefactors Gallery, is Bendigo artist and visual arts lecturer Kylie Banyard.
Banyard’s artistic practice is grounded in painting and intersects with photography, video, sculpture and immersive architectural spaces.
The show features selected pieces from her most recent Melbourne exhibition, Holding Ground, and explores the radical pedagogies of American mid-20th century art school Black Mountain College from which many of the male art students went on to great acclaim but most of the female artists remain little known.
The artist’s vibrant paintings focus on a small group of black and white archival photographs from the college depicting female artists and students engaged in farming, making, reading and dancing.
The paintings are coupled with richly coloured textiles, including textile cushions set on besser brick blocks – the same material used to construct Banyard’s latest place of work, the La Trobe University Bendigo Visual Arts facility.
“I just love the texture of the bricks and have been looking for an opportunity to incorporate them into an exhibition and this was it,” she said.
The selection of works from her most recent offering includes a painting of her own home.
“As this exhibition was created during COVID, I thought it was fitting to incorporate my own space, a place I spent a lot of time in 2020,” the artist said.
Banyard’s works will be featured until the end of January. Further exhibitions will follow from Ilka White for the duration of February, and Harry Nankin in March.
To discover the latest happenings at CAM visit castlemainegallery.com
