Canopy Artspace Opening

publish date: Thursday 1st October 2009

Contemporary Art Indigenous Regional North Studio-showroom

CANOPY - CAIRNS ARTSPACE

Canopy Opening 1 sml

TheAustralian Art Print Network (AAPN) is delighted to announce the launch of CANOPY ARTS FNQ to be located in at 124 Grafton Street in the centre of the Cairns CBD. The exhibiting gallery will be officially opened at 3pm on Saturday the 22nd of August during the first Cairns Indigenous Art Fair www.ciaf.com.au (August 21 to 23 2009).

The 1000 m2 building has been developed to accommodate the new EDITIONS TREMBLAY NFP 200 m2 fine art printmaking studio, a 200m2 workshop facility to house the NEWflames Foundation, individual 50m2 artists access studios, and a 250 m2 showroom/gallery dedicated primarily to Queensland Indigenous artists which will be known as CANOPY ARTSPACE.

The Australian Art Print Network has expanded the field of Indigenous printmaking since it was established in 1996, by publishing, promoting, and distributing prints by Indigenous artists nationally and internationally. During the past decade the company has worked with artists in Arnhem Land, the central and western desert, the Kimberley, the Tiwi Islands, urban centers and most importantly Far North Queensland and the Torres Strait Islands. AAPN is the largest Australian publisher and wholesaler of indigenous fine art prints selling to galleries and institutions throughout Australia, Europe, North and South America and the East. Amongst its considerable successes have been bringing the work of leading Torres Strait Islander artists and National Aboriginal Art Award Winners Denis Nona and Alick Tipoti to large audiences throughout Australia and overseas. With support from the Queensland Indigenous Arts Marketing Export Agency AAPN has developed a unique business model focusing on international exhibitions, the most recent of which is the Nona and Tipoti exhibition recently shown in central Manhattans Chelsea Art Precinct.

According to Michael Kershaw, Managing Director of the AAPN this new facility in Cairns will open up opportunities for us to help other Torres Strait Islander and FNQ artists to expand and commercialise their art practice and hopefully replicate the success we have enjoyed with some of the artists we currently represent

NEWflames Foundation nurtures artistic drive through studio residencies and professional development opportunities for Australian Indigenous artists. Its board includes art philanthropist Annie Gamble Myer, art dealer Philip Bacon AM, and accountant to the arts Tom Lowenstein. Established in 2003 the in Brisbane NEWflames Foundation has thrived with the generous support of numerous mentoring artists, donors, supporters and arts workers. Amongst its many mentors have been artists David Paulson, Joanne Currie (Wynne Prize winner 2008), Laurie Nilsen (Telstra prize winner 2007), Matthew Johnson, and Michael Nelson Jagamara, who have worked in residency with Ian Waldron (selected Wynne and Archibald Prizes), Jenny Fraser (Art Gallery of WA Indigenous Arts Award 2008), Tony Albert (Sunshine Coast Art Prize winner 2007), and Christine Christophersen (Cultural Warriors NGA 2008-09, Australia Council residency to NY 2009).

Practicing artist and NEWflames founder Michael Eather, a long time advocate for Queensland Indigenous artists explains the agenda Our workshop space under the auspices of Canopy - Cairns represents the next exciting chapter for the Foundation and will open up fabulous opportunities for artists, art patrons and collectors. Through this collaboration the participant organisations will explore how fresh ideas

and new dynamics can impact on, and absorb, regional and remote arts practices.

A pioneer of collaborative printmaking and publishing, master printer Theo Tremblay, will expand and relocate his EDITIONS TREMBLAY NFP in to the facility. Tremblay has taught at the State College of Art, Victoria; the Canberra School of Art, ANU; the College of Fine Art, U.NSW and most recently Banggu Minjaany Art and Culture Centre, Cairns where he demonstrated his commitment to Aboriginal and Zenadh Kes (Torres Strait) artists. His intimate involvement will enable the NEWflames Foundation to offer mentored artists the opportunity to engage in a range of print mediums including etching, lithography, screen-printing, mono printing, relief/wood cut and papermaking.

Excited by the range of possibilities engendered this exciting move Tremblay comments The move to Canopy Arts will allow further expansion of our activities. Partnering with NEWflames and the AAPN is a wonderful bonus as, together, we will be able to give added support, focus and expressive vitality to the groundbreaking Indigenous art movement of tropical north Queensland.

In addition, according to the project coordinator Adrian Newstead, Canopy will be partnering with companies like the highly successful and innovative Brisbane foundry, Urban Art Projects to further their collaboration with Indigenous artists in the development of three dimensional works.'

Latest