A COLLECTION of oil paintings from a former Swan Hill College art teacher inspired by his visit to the remote Marquesas Islands are on show at the Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery.
Notions Of Care is also visiting Swan Hill for the first time, and will be the first public gallery which the exhibition has visited which has been touring in conjunction with NETS Victoria and Bus Projects.
The exhibitions were on display at the start of the month, the official opening next Friday at 6pm.
Gallery director Ian Tully was excited about the exhibitions and hopes that locals will make time to have a browse through the various pieces on display.
“It is very exciting to have both of these amazing exhibits here,” he said.
“We are always attempting to do our best to get people here and part of that is having high quality and interesting exhibits.”
Near and Far is a collection of oil paintings from former Swan Hill College art teacher Robert Cue which includes pieces which were inspired by his visit to the remote Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia.
“His pieces from Marquesas Islands are simply brilliant,” Mr Tully said.
“It is one of the most inaccessible places on the globe and is such a gorgeous place.”
In addition to his paintings from the Marquesas Islands, there are paintings which reflect the Mallee landscape which he was so familiar with for over 30 years, alongside pieces from the area he resides in now in the Castlemaine and Bendigo regions.
Mr Cue’s work is also part of the permanent collection of the gallery.
Notions Of Care, curated by Kathryne Genevieve Honey and Nina Mulhall, features the works of Kate Tucker, Katie West, Polly Stanton, Arini Byng, Renae Coles and Anna Dunnill (Snapcat).
Focusing on the importance of care and how it is connected to art, the exhibition is timely given the importance of care over the past couple of years in relation to Covid.
“The artists in this exhibition reference the human body and natural environment as they investigate the nurturing relationship between art, viewer and artist” Mr Tully said.
Both exhibits are on display to Sunday March 27 with plenty of opportunities to drop into the gallery and have a look through the interesting exhibitions.
This is just the start of what is going to be a busy year for the Gallery, with a number of different exhibitions and programs coming up in the next few months.
