TWENTY-ONE years of Swan Hill’s artistic history will be on display at the Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery on Friday night.
An opening will be held for the Mallee Artists Swan Hill Inc (MASH) 21st Birthday Retrospective Exhibition.
Formed by local artist Marg Lewis back in 2001, MASH provided a place for people to develop, improve and demonstrate their artistic abilities right here in Swan Hill.
MASH president Judy Brawn said there will be 32 past and present artists whose work will be on show.
“We searched our archives to try and contact as many people as we could to invite them to put in works,” Ms Brawn told The Guardian.
“Of the 32 that we’ve got, there is Marg Lewis herself who started the group, and members who don’t live in Swan Hill anymore but have contributed works for the exhibition as well.”
While art was the central focus bringing the group together, Ms Brawn said MASH was also about connecting with people in a social way.
“In our group we have artists who are very good at their craft and we have artists who just want to have a go and enjoy the process,” she said.
“In our meetings quite often there is a lot of talking and it is not necessarily about art, it is sort of a gathering for people too.”
There will also be three other exhibitions opening at the Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery on Friday night, including:
• Salon Naïve – naïve Australian paintings hung in traditional salon style
• On The Land – forest and pastoral landscape works by Castlemaine painter Mark Dober
• Together – a collection of drawing, painting and ceramics by the Telkaya students from the Koori Cultural Arts Course at Swan Hill Sunraysia Institute of TAFE during 2022
The official exhibition openings are from 6pm to 8pm, with the exhibitions to be on display until January 29.
