Judge of Olive Cotton Award to exhibit alongside prize

14 August 2019

Marian Drew’s exhibition ‘Borrowed Landscapes’ opens at Tweed Regional Gallery

With a practice that spans more than 35 years, Marian Drew is one of Australia's most influential and significant photo-media artists. Her new solo exhibition Borrowed Landscapes opens at Tweed Regional Gallery, Murwillumbah, on Friday 23 August.

Marian Drew’s artistic career is characterised by innovative photo-media explorations and a distinct use of painterly light and long exposure. Using the concept of the landscape as a connective thread across Drew’s extensive practice, this exhibition traces Drew’s career from 1983 to 2018.

‘Borrowed landscape’, or ‘borrowed scenery’, is a term derived from architecture, where a structure is designed to strategically frame elements of the surrounding landscape. Similarly, the landscape makes appearances throughout Drew’s work like vignettes.

Throughout her work, Drew acknowledges the pictorial relationships of landscape and history to cultural identity.

“I am interested in the idea of landscape as something we are a part of, not something ‘out there’ but something we carry in our heads, shaped by culture and experience,” Drew said.

In perhaps her most well-known series of work influenced by 17th Century Dutch still life painting, Drew photographs native Australian road kill lying on starched white tablecloths alongside a cornucopia of fruit, vegetables and utensils. Drew photographs in the dark, then paints the scene with a torch. The landscape appears in this series almost as a two-dimensional backdrop in theatrical scenery. The work serves as a reminder of the fragility of life and the impact that people have had on our natural environment.

“I drag the 'landscape' into the home, using the 'still life' table as a site that links history and present, public and private, outside and inside. Wild animals, rocks, linen and tableware; natural history is oriented within the imaginative place of the domestic,” she said.

Marian Drew has exhibited over 30 solo shows and numerous group shows in Australia, New Zealand, USA, Germany, France, China, Dubai, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Mexico and Peru. Her work is held in collections that include the John Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Museum of Photographic Art, San Diego; National Gallery of Australia: Art Gallery of South Australia; Gallery of Modern Art, Queensland; Murdoch Universityand University of Queensland.

Marian Drew was guest judge of this year’s Olive Cotton Award at Tweed Regional Gallery, where Belinda Mason was named the winner for her work titled Taken. Drew’s solo exhibition will be on display alongside this year’s Award.

Join the artist Marian Drew at the Gallery for insights into her exhibition and artistic practice on Sunday 25 August from 2-3pm.

Marian Drew is represented by Andrew Baker Gallery, Brisbane; Michael Reid Gallery, Sydney; This Is No Fantasy, Melbourne; Hill Smith Gallery, Adelaide; and Turner Gallery, Perth.