To view and purchase artworks from this series
scroll to the end of this webpage or visit the gallery before 29 July 2023.
This July, Artereal Gallery is excited to present a solo exhibition of recent works by Simone Douglas.
Based between New York and Sydney, Douglas is widely respected as an important Australian contemporary artist. A true ‘artist’s artist,’ she is particularly well known for her poetic, ethereal and mysterious photographic odes to the land, sea and sky.
“In Simone Douglas’ photographs—’a world of particular secret affinities’—“there too seem particles and specificities that might resemble the sea (and its infusoria: tiny inhabitants), or the sky, or the permutations of an open flame. Often flickering on metallic paper, like zodiacal light, they do not easily resolve into some easily denoted object, event, or place. Absent, for one, is the pictorial convention of a horizon: vanishing, in a sense, is the point. And yet the record of that act, that disappearance, is married to this particular appearance, this arrangement fixed onto paper and capturing ephemeral figurations that become one with the medium.”
One of the highlights of this exhibition will be the durational artwork Parallel Infinities. An ephemeral artwork composed of water, ice and time, this piece responds to light, a metaphorical cipher, that transforms over the course of the exhibition from ice to water, to vapour. For Zachary Sachs, this “literal melting into air exists without confinement to boundaries between the constructed art-object and the ground and air that support and surround” it, which “is not easily circumscribed by a definition, or the listed media and dimensions meant to contain it…”
Creation begins not in time but with time. An Ocean in Your Hand (verse II) linage extends to Douglas’ earlier works such as Aberrations, that have been exhibited internationally and are now held in collections including the V&A, London. These works marked the start of her ongoing interest in forming experimental images and durational works. Seemingly made without gravity, Douglas presents us with enigmatic beauty that emerges from within the ever-changing forms of water, light, and sky. Reminders of a universe unfathomably larger than ourselves.
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Artist Biography
Simone Douglas lives and works between the unceded lands and waters of Gadigal in Sydney and Lenapehoking in New York City.
Simone Douglas’ works have been curated into international survey exhibitions and published widely in journals and art anthologies. Her practice encompasses photography, video, sculpture and site-specific installation. Her work is included in numerous collections and has been exhibited at major institutions including, the Victoria & Albert Museum (London); the Art Gallery of NSW (Sydney); the National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne), The Photographers’ Gallery (London); the Museum of Contemporary Art (Sydney); The Australian Centre for Photography (Sydney), and at art fairs such as the European Month of the Photo (Paris), and The Photography Show presented by AIPAD (New York).
The internationalised impact of Douglas’ work is evidenced in both reviews and her exhibition profile. Douglas’ work was included in Emanations: The Art of the Cameraless Photograph at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Zealand (a 200-year survey exhibition curator Geoffrey Batchen), Sites of Knowledge, Jane Lombard Gallery, New York, (curated by Re-Sited), Shadow Catchers, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (Curator Dr. Isobel Parker Philip). Her work has been also published and written about in journals including Artforum, Blind Spot, and Conveyor, and books including Photography and Place: Australian Landscape Photography 1970s Until Now; Australian Art: A History; Animae: The Invisible Sources of the Artwork: Talks with Today’s Artists and Anywhere VI.
In addition to her artistic practice, Douglas is a Professor at Parsons School of Design, New York and has curated many exhibitions at various locations including the Getty Conservation Institute L.A, the Australian Museum, the Pingyao International Festival, and the Auckland Festival of Photography.
Simone Douglas is currently a finalist in the upcoming 2023 Northern Beaches Environmental Art & Design Prize with an artwork from this exhibition titled Sanctuary I.
All prices are in Australian dollars, include framing expenses and are inclusive of GST. Delivery costs not included – please contact the gallery for assistance with delivery. Prices are correct at the time of publication but may be subject to change without notice. For sales enquiries email: info@artereal.com.au
Each photographic artwork (exclusive of light boxes) in this series are available in the following three options.
Small
dye sublimination print on brushed aluminium, Poplar frame, archival board, antiglare UV 70 glass
12.6 x 19 cm (image) *Another Ocean XII 14.6 x 19 cm (image)
32.6 x 39 cm (frame) *Another Ocean XII 36 x 39 cm (frame)
ed.8 + 2AP
ed.1-3, $2,500
ed.4-8 POA
Medium
pigment print on archival rag paper
50.5 x 76 cm (image) *Another Ocean XII 58 x 76 cm (image)
68.5 x 94.5 cm (frame) *Another Ocean XII 76.5 x 94.5 cm (frame)
ed.3 + 2AP
$4,500
Large
Commissioned size and material to be developed in consultation.
Ed.2 + 1AP
POA
The below artworks are those which are physically included in the current exhibition. Please click on images to enlarge.