WorldPride 2023 – Pride Amplified
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WorldPride 2023 is a special time for Sydney. A rare opportunity to celebrate who we are with the flare and panache that only the LGBTIQ community can. From a strategic perspective, this international event will bring a welcome boost to Australian tourism with an estimated 100 million dollar injection from around 80 thousand guests, but beyond this, it is an opportunity to reflect, celebrate and embrace the incredible diversity of our community. The lead up to WorldPride has been particularly exciting, from every corner of the rainbow, groups have mobilised, curated and crafted experiences which make sure everyone will have a place to belong and thrive in the festival. The scale and sentiment of the Sydney WorldPride program are extremely eclectic and compelling. During Sydney WorldPride, sporting events such as the World Gay Boxing Championships sit effortlessly alongside international choral festivals of same sex choirs, queer plays, art and historical exhibitions and of course parties… many, many, parties.
.M Contemporary and its artists are proud to be participating in Sydney WorldPride Pride Amplified. In this program, .M Contemporary continues a long tradition of supporting and presenting diverse artists as well as work depicting unashamedly queer themes. Across the Pride period, the gallery will present the works of Michael Taylor, Jeremy Smith, Todd Fuller, Andrew Nicholls, Rick Carlino, Luke Thurgate, Justin Dingwall, and Jodi Clark. The resulting bodies of work use a range of mediums to celebrate the body, sex and sexuality, consider hidden queer histories and even face gay hate crimes with a view to heal and educate.
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Thursday 9th – ‘All Rounder’ by Michael Taylor opening night, 5 – 7pm
Alongside window display by Jeremy Smith
& annex group show showcasing Luke Thurgate, Justin Dingwall and Jodi Clark.
Thursday 23rd – ‘No use crying over ripped lace’ by Todd Fuller opening night, 5 – 7pm
Alongside window display by Rick Carlino, ‘A Queen’s Jewel Box’
Thursday 2nd – ‘Gay Magick’ by Andrew Nichols opening night, 5 – 7pm
Saturday 4th – Andrew Nicholls artist talk, 2 – 4pm
Saturday 11th – Todd Fuller artist talk, 2 – 4pm
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Michael Taylor mimics the immediate and expansive nature of the drawing process in order to develop scenes and characters in his painted work. Removed from its purely observational qualities, drawing becomes a projection of the artist’s intuition, imagination and memory. Representational and figurative elements in Taylor’s paintings create narrative frameworks that are unravelled to varying degrees through abstract marking.
Jeremy Smith is a Sydney based artist focused on intricate large scale ink drawings. Jeremy is currently a PhD candidate at UNSW Art and Design. He is also a Masters of Fine Arts research graduate, First Class Honors Bachelor of Fine Arts and Arts graduate of UNSW Art and Design. His practice integrates highly detailed drawing, etching and animation with cartographic conventions and psychology to create narratives. His work has been collected by the State Library of NSW and University of Sydney. His work has also won several awards in Sydney, including the Tim Olsen Drawing prize 2013 and the GBK award 2012. Jeremy’s work has been exhibited in multiple shows in Sydney and most recently in Tokyo.
Todd Fuller is a well-known Australian Artist whose work extends traditional notions of drawing across film, animation and performance works. Fuller is best known for his hand drawn animations which address a broad range of themes including Queer and Regional Narratives of Australia past and present. His narratives often position audiences to consider connection between person and place, love and loss, commonality, difference and belonging.
Luke Thurgate is an artist living and working on Gadigal Land (Sydney). He teaches drawing and painting at the National Art School, where he graduated in 2021 with a Master of Fine Art. Luke has an extensive exhibition history including recent exhibitions at Grafton Regional Gallery, Maitland Regional Art Gallery, Backwoods Gallery, Burra Regional Art Gallery, National Art School and Adelaide Central Gallery. He was a finalist in the 2019 Dobell Drawing Prize, the 2020 Tom Bass Figurative Sculpture Prize and the 2022 Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award.
“I do what I do for the love of new experiences. My imagery is not bound by language or culture. I want my work to speak for itself and for people to interpret it in their own way. I want people to be affected by my images… As long as someone is feeling something, I am achieving my goals.”
Sydney epoxy resin artist Rick Carlino has been creating large scale works which explore the fluidity and viscosity of a notoriously rebellious medium for the last decade. Drawing on his diverse creative and professional career, which has included music composition and brand design, Rick creates vivid contemporary artworks which showcase his love of colour.
8, 15 – 19 Boundary Street
Darlinghurst, Sydney
NSW, Australia
Email: gallery@mcontemp.com