Melbourne artist showcases her first survey exhibition at Buxton Contemporary

Buxton Contemporary’s latest exhibition, titled Around, will run from November 24, to April 7, featuring Melbourne-based artist Nadine Christensen in her first career survey.

The free exhibition will include around 80 of Ms Christensen’s works spanning across “25 years of practice”, including some that have never been shown before, as well as new works that have been created especially for the exhibition.

“We’ve had to find a lot of artworks because Nadine’s work has very much been collected by individual collectors and institutions such as National Gallery of Victoria,” senior curator of Arts Museums at The University of Melbourne (UoM), Samantha Comte said.

“It’s been a bit of detective work in how we’ve actually had to find those works, the earliest being from 1998, so tracking them down has been a really interesting process in this particular exhibition.”

Exploring the theme Around aims to convey the “circularity” of Ms Christensen’s practice, while also connecting with the surroundings and found objects that she has drawn inspiration from over the years.

While Ms Christensen’s work predominantly consists of paintings that play with “unusual colour combinations” and engage with “notions of the everyday”, Around will also feature various “audience-activated kinetic works” and major sculptures throughout the two-storey gallery.

“Nadine is a really great painter and that has obviously been her focus, but you’re also going to see other works that really disrupt what can sometimes be very quiet gallery spaces,” Ms Comte told Southbank News.

This includes various external works that audiences will be able to interact with in different ways before even entering the gallery.

“One thing we have done is use the façade of Buxton Contemporary, to my knowledge this hasn’t been done before, so look up as you walk down Dodds St,” Ms Christensen said.

“What Melbourne hasn’t seen enough of is career surveys of women artists, especially painters, so that may be a new experience for some audiences.”

Existing as part of UoM’s Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) campus and the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, Buxton Contemporary works to “bring the university and public together”, with Ms Christensen also teaching in the art school.

Being one of the artists in the Buxton collection, Around will be a way of showcasing the incredible story of Ms Christensen’s work, “both within the education context and also the general public”.

“This is the biggest show I’ve done, and it’s been a great pleasure to work with so many knowledgeable people in bringing it to fruition,” Ms Christensen said. “I think art is a really important part of society, I value it highly in my own life and I am driven to continue because of this and because I find it so challenging.”

Accompanying the exhibition will be a major publication of essays representing the artist, written by curator and researcher Rosemary Forde alongside Jennifer Higgie, art critic and former editor of London-based contemporary art magazine Frieze.

Buxton Contemporary is located at the corner of Southbank Boulevard and Dodds St. The exhibition will open Wednesday to Sunday from 11am to 5pm, between November 24 to April 7. •

buxtoncontemporary.com