Counihan Gallery In Brunswick

233 Sydney Road, Brunswick

Gallery Open Hours- Wednesday - Saturday, 11 – 5 pm &

Sunday 1 – 5 pm

Phone: 03 9389 8622

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For our free public programs see our website:

About the gallery

The Counihan Gallery In Brunswick opened in 1999. The public gallery for the City of Moreland, it is named in honour of the Australian artist and activist Noel Counihan.

The gallery has a focus on contemporary art exhibitions and aims to encourage discussion and debate about issues in arts and culture

through public programs.

Moreland City Council acknowledges the traditional owners of the land in which the gallery is located, the Wurundjeri people.We pay our respects to them and their culture, and to their Elders past, present and future.

Public transport:

Sydney Road tram, route 19, stop number 21 at DawsonStreet andSydney Road intersection.

Jewell and Brunswick train stations onUpfield lineare 10 minutes walk.

Bus routes 504, 506, 508 and 509 have stops on nearby streets off Sydney Road.

Upfield bike pathis five minutes ride, exit at Dawson Street.

Access

This venue iswheelchair accessible andhas accessible bathrooms.

Please contact us on 9389 8622 or if you have any other specific access or interpreting or requirements for you to fully participate.

Mayors welcome

It is with great pleasure that Moreland City Council launches its SUMMER – AUTUMN instalment of the annual exhibition program for 2018 at the Counihan Gallery In Brunswick.

This year the gallery program will once again draw on inspiration from namesake Noel Counihan (1913 - 1986) who - through his art practice - was known for social and political commentary and championed the advancement of human rights and free speech. His passion extended into activism and a significant reputation for public speaking having addressed crowds in close proximity to the Brunswick Town Hall, where the gallery is now situated.

Since its establishment in 1999, the gallery has likewise earned a reputation through its contemporary exhibitions program for discourse and debate on issues that resonate with the community of Moreland and further afield; social justice, diversity, environment, gender, identity and of course human rights and free speech.

A visit to the gallery can be a transformative experience. Rich in content and ideas, the exhibitions at the Counihan have an emphasis on contemporary arts practice of early and mid-career professional artists with approaches from the delightful to the challenging. Our exhibitions are sometimes confronting but always dynamic and aim to educate, enlighten and generate a response.

This year the Gallery will again be part of February’s Brunswick Studio Walk, acknowledge Women’s History Month in March with exhibitions and a special series of public programs, present projects in April and May with the Human Rights, Arts and Film Festival, head into June with out-of-season events in partnership with Midsumma Festival.

Of course there is much more within and in between, with additional exhibitions and programs to be announced as the year unfolds. On behalf of Moreland City Council I extend a warm invitation to you all and hope that we might see you at the gallery in 2018!

Cr. John Kavanagh
Mayor Moreland City Council.

Summer – Autumn exhibition programs

2 February – 4 March

Opening Thursday 1 February, 6 – 8 pm

Gallery one

Collected Odysseys

Malcolm Angelucci | Chris Caines | Majella Thomas

Collected Odysseys examines ‘journeying’ as a condition of contemporary life, in its positive and tragic aspects - duration, repetition, struggle, incompleteness, death, becoming – and the ways in which it is retold as story. Itinvites the audience to experience journeying on multiple levels, through two multimedia works that show the processes and pains of art-making.

Homer (2017)explores the epic journey of the Odyssey through a series of interwoven acts: durational performance, live sound architecture, and sculptural installation. In Biographies (2015), the audience partakes in an intimate, immersive, repetitive and painful experience of duration through the individual artistic journeys of a concert pianist and a young ballet dancer.

Gallery two

All that is solid melts into movement

Kaya Barry | Rea Dennis | Jondi Keane

Stable connections between ideas and structures no longer exist. We livein atime ofconstant movement and uncertainty that disrupts ourexperience of stabilityandtests the strength of the social fabric.“All that is solid melts into movement”allows gallery goers to collectively measure the affects/effects of structural shifts on our everyday experiences. Join the artists to activate the moving wall, sidewalk and road sections and participate in the dance of constant adaptation.

16 March – 15 April

Opening Thursday 15 March, 6 - 8 pm

Gallery one

Agency Ink: The Personal and Political in Print

Curated by Catherine Connolly

Agency Ink offers an intergenerational look at women* in alternative print forms. With a focus on local artists, printmakers and zine-makers the exhibition provides a glimpse into the highly productive print, zine, poster and paper forms activated by women* from the 1960’s to today.

Fuelled by prints’ accessible means of reproduction and distribution, the exhibiting artists have utilised paper, posters, print presses and photocopiers alike as an affordable means to produce, reproduce and distribute their works. Whether created in bedrooms and on kitchen tables, or professional studios and print presses, the gathered artists have ingeniously employed the democratic form in works that bring both the personal and political to the page.

*female identifying

Gallery two

Travelling the Alpha Layer

Youjia Lu, Kellie Wells, Corinna Berndt

Travelling the Alpha Layer explores the digital image space through the practice of threefemale video artists. The exhibition questions how the digital image can be used effectively for communicating embodied experiences and possibilities for self-representation in video art. The videos in this exhibition have evolved from frequent discussions on the potentials within the digital screen space for female artists who use their faces and bodies to critique contemporary visual culture. Travelling the Alpha Layer investigates whether the digital format can both hold and transform information and issues relating to the physical body, subjectivity, emotional experiences and contemporary concepts of identity.

27 April – 27 May

Opening Thursday 26 April 6 – 8 pm

Gallery one

Les Voyageurs

Paul Handley

Les Voyageurs presents Paul Handley’s new major installation that addresses and challenges notions of déplacement and mass migration. Travelling to the Greek Island of Lesvos, situated in the northern Aegean Sea the artist documented the piles of discarded life jackets from the estimated 500,000 refugees who made the dangerous journey across the waters from Turkey. The Island of Lesvos was one of the first European landing points for the thousands escaping the humanitarian crisis within the Middle East. Against a photographic panorama, a large sculptural installation is presented consisting of 180 cheap and flimsy children's life - jackets sourced from China, typically like those supplied by people smugglers to Syrians seeking refuge.

Presented as part of the 2018 Human Rights Arts & Film Festival.

Донбасс (Donbas): Photography from Ukraine’s war-torn east.

Bryce Wilson

After four years and over 10 000 deaths, conflict continues to threaten over 4 000 000

Ukrainians, at risk by daily artillery shelling and sporadic combat. The Donbas project examines the humanitarian impact of daily war in Ukraine’s east through the presentation of photographs and video work focused on the effects war has on its large civilian population. Shot across four years and as many visits to the affected area, Bryce Wilson’s compelling images, accompanied by deeply moving stories, give a uniquely stark insight into a globally underreported humanitarian crisis. Over 1 700 000 people have been forced from their homes, and more flee each day.

Presented as part of the 2018 Human Rights Arts & Film Festival.

Call for 2019 exhibition proposals

Artists and curators are invited to submit proposals for projects that can be developed and achieved in 2019.

We welcome innovative ideas and critical approaches to contemporary art practice from across the cultural spectrum.

For more information visit the website: