Turner & Australia
Gippsland Art Gallery
7 June - 24 August 2025
Curator - Simon Gregg, Director Gippsland Art Gallery.
Artists - JMW Turner, Min-Woo Bang, Geoffrey Dyer, Eugene von Guérard, Frederick McCubbin, Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton, Clarice Beckett, Jessie Traill, Jasmine Morgan-Ryan, Lloyd Rees, Tracey Moffatt, Tony Smibert, Tod McMillan, Warren Nichols, Zoe Amor, Richard Clements and Valerie Sparks… and more to come.
'Turner & Australia' is the first major exhibition to survey the profound influence of J.M.W. Turner on Australian art.
A journey through two centuries of epic landscape painting, this unique and compelling exhibition explores both the timing of Turner’s major artistic breakthroughs, which coincided with the development and origins of a school of art in Australia, and his continuing influence on artists working in Australia today.
The exhibition draws a line of influence from Turner’s contemporary John Glover, who migrated to Australia in 1831, aged 64, through to cutting edge contemporary art, and includes within its orbit those who have worked consciously within Turner’s legacy, and those for whom his influence is unintentional and the result of an inherited tradition of European-derived landscape art.
Turner & Australia draws together key works by Turner from Australian public collections, presented alongside a diverse chronology of Australian art that has arisen from the generations that have followed in his path. Included amongst original works by Turner are key works by Australian luminaries such as Eugene von Guérard, Frederick McCubbin, Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton, Clarice Beckett, Jessie Traill, Jasmine Morgan-Ryan, Lloyd Rees, Tracey Moffatt, Tony Smibert, and Valerie Sparks.
This unforgettable exhibition is complemented by a substantial publication of original and ground-breaking research that comprehensively examines the depth and breadth of Turner’s influence on Australian art. Through the different facets of the project, of significant artworks and new research, Turner & Australia presents a new perspective on the story of Australian art.
Whether visitors are new to Turner, or have long been under his spell, Turner & Australia will enthral all through the vitality, scope, and sheer awe-inspiring power of his art, and the art of those that have followed in his wake.
by Simon Gregg, Director Gippsland Art Gallery.
Major Acquisition -
I am thrilled to announce that Blind Spot has been acquired by Gippsland Art Gallery for their new Climate Change Art Collection. Blind Spot will premier in the Turner and Australia exhibition this winter and go on permanent display at Gippsland Art Gallery later this year.
Work Presented -
Blind Spot, 2014.
Perspex with steel mirror.
Size - Perspex L 1200 W 1700 H 2200 mm, Mirror - 1200mm diameter.
‘In every observation there is a blind spot, the spot on the retina where the optical nerve is connected making the eye blind on that very spot, all one can do is try to move these blind spots, in an effort to catch a glimpse of the invisible’- Krogh Jensen
Blind Spot maps the 20th century tipping point of awareness surrounding environmental concerns – the discovery of the Ozone Hole. Like an iceberg looming in space it is a dark wonder of the natural world that cannot be found on any atlas or world map. Its appearance in our atmosphere every spring is a haunting reminder of how close we come to pushing our environment beyond the point of regeneration.
As the southern Ozone hole appears to be stabilizing, the northern hole continues to grow, breaking record after record every year. This provokes a continuing dialogue on the Montreal protocol: did we get it right and is this the first instance of changing global behaviour to correct the imbalance humans have created in nature?
Finding a means to visually and conceptually fathom this in-perceivable aspect of nature, Blind Spot aims to delineate the blind spot in perception that fails to make the connection between existence and the systems within nature that support it. Beyond the visible, these systems can only be seen when aided by lenses and computers. These devices filter nature, offering a techno- romantic glimpse into existence.
“I wanted the viewer to be able to look up and see the ozone hole hovering in the ceiling of the gallery. By creating a lens-like mirror and installing it above the work, I was able to use the mirror like a satellite, to reflect what was otherwise out of view to the earth bound... The work maps the ozone hole filtered through the lens of a computer, revealing its visual similarity to an iceberg. The narrative of the work highlights the history of ongoing issues surrounding global warming and today’s climate change realities.”
Jasmine’s strength is in reinterpreting traditional craft-based materials and techniques, working with new technologies to find innovative ways to respond to the issues her work addresses. Observing nature filtered through imagery from NASA’s Earth Observing Satellite Data Centre, Earth’s life support systems become visible within her arts practice.
Today there is a tenuous relationship between the fragility of our environment and its ability to regenerate. The success or failure of this lies in learning how to make the concerns of these invisible aspects of our life support system on Earth visible so that the unforeseeable consequences never eventuate. The forecast for tomorrow’s weather is reliant on our perception of today.
Blind Spot is a continuation of the body of work - Life Support Systems.
Image - Gippsland Art Gallery Publication, Autumn + Winter 2025
About the Acquisition -
by Simon Gregg, Director Gippsland Art Gallery.
From Gippsland Art Gallery Publication, Autumn – Winter 2025, Page 27-29.
Jasmine Morgan-Ryan is an artist concerned with, on one hand, our intimate relationship with nature and, on the other, our universal connection to the cosmos. For her, the mountain form (or, her particular case, an iceberg) is a fertile ground. With climate change themes high on the agenda for many artists working today, the challenge many face is how to position their practice in such a way as to be scientifically relevant as aesthetically pleasing (few artists now feel they have the luxury of making art ‘for art’s sake).
Morgan-Ryan's major work Blind Spot (2014), which has been acquired by the Gallery, takes as its beginning point the biological quirk that we all have a ‘blind spot' built into our retinas, at the point where the optical nerve is connected. Applied on a global level, we might think of the ozone hole in the atmosphere as a kind of blind spot-as something never visible but making its presence increasingly felt. It speaks also to the wilful 'blindness' of climate deniers because the hole cannot be seen with the naked eye. By using satellite data sourced from NASA, Morgan-Ryan creates a physical ' map' of the ozone hole on a 1:1 human scale, making it visible for all. She explains:
Blind Spot maps the twentieth century tipping point of awareness surrounding environmental concerns-the discovery of the ozone hole. Like an iceberg looming in space, it is a dark wonder of the natural world that cannot be found on any atlas or world map. Its appearance in our atmosphere every spring is a haunting reminder of how close we come to pushing our environment beyond the point of regeneration. The work maps the ozone hole filtered through the lens of a computer, revealing its visual similarity to an iceberg. The narrative of the work highlights the history of ongoing issues surrounding global warming and today's climate change realities.[1]
Framing a physical map of the ozone hole through a sculptural reimagining of one the core motifs employed by the European Romantics-especially J.M.W. Turner-is a stroke of genius for this self-described 'techno-romantic' artist. On approach we immediately 'read' Blind Spot as a work positioned within the lexicon of Romantic art; it is thrillingly beautiful-composed of sheets of translucent material it captures and refracts natural light to produce a shimmer of rainbow effects-but in its bulk and incongruous siting within a gallery space it becomes, if net terrifying somewhat alarming. The work is finished off with a mirror, suspended from high above, allowing viewers to see the sculpture from below as we would the actual ozone hole. Blind Spot will make its Gallery debut this winter as part of the major exhibition Turner & Australia.
Simon Gregg
[1] Jasmine Morgan-Ryan, cited at http://jasminetargett.com/portfolio/blind-spot/, accessed 30 October 2024.
Image - Blind Spot, artwork installed at Linden New Art, Innovators 2014.