Gippsland Art Gallery is delighted to announce the much-anticipated Annemieke Mein ‘blockbuster’ exhibition, A Life’s Work, will be staged at the Gallery from March 2 to May 26, 2024. Coinciding with Annemieke’s 80th birthday, this major retrospective will provide the most comprehensive survey of her work yet seen.
A Life’s Work will be a unique exhibition that will pay tribute to this greatly loved textile artist, who has inspired and influenced vast audiences over many decades. Drawing together over 200 original artworks created over a 60-year period, from private and public collections nationwide (some of which have never been exhibited), this unforgettable retrospective will explore all facets of Mein’s life and career. Occupying all five spaces at the Gallery, the exhibition will present key works from her major wildlife themes, and will include a recreation of her art studio within the Gallery.
A Life’s Work will span from Annemieke’s first experiments with textile in the 1960s, through to the masterworks from the 1980s that catapulted her to international acclaim. The exhibition will showcase the full range of Annemieke’s artmaking with three-dimensional sculptural works, drawings, sketches and bas-relief bronzes presented alongside the extraordinary wall-based relief textiles that established her reputation, in which the objects are given sculptural form and appear to project forward from the surface of the canvas.
A Life’s Work will coincide with the publication of a new book on Annemieke Mein – the first since 1992’s The Art of Annemieke Mein: Wildlife Artist in Textiles, which has sold almost half a million copies worldwide – together with a complete range of new merchandise. The book A Life’s Work will provide a comprehensive overview of her work, with contributions from 16 writers who will explore every facet of her life and career.
Tickets for this unmissable exhibition now on sale exclusively from gippslandartgallery.com, noting that visitors are not required to pre-book, and will be able to purchase tickets from Gallery Reception on the day of their visit.
In the meantime, fans of Annemieke’s art can check out the latest 6-monthly display in her dedicated space, The Art of Annemieke Mein, which currently features a number of old friends, in the form of Dragonflies, Cup Moths, Cup Moth Larva/Caterpillar and Sawflies, all from 1980, as well as The Potter Wasp I and II, both from 1981. These earlier works are distinguished by their use of textile dyes (before she started using fabric paints), earthy colours and heavy, woollen backgrounds. The subjects-each flying insects-are also characteristic of this period, when Annemieke first started attracting national attention for her innovative use of textile and her treatment of Australian native wildlife.
These works are complemented by the more recent Face On and Siblings (1992 and 1998 respectively), which each focus on new life. In Face On we see a newly emerged female Common Grass-blue butterfly, in a work that also demonstrates Annemieke’s extraordinary faculty with paint-wash techniques, while in Siblings we find a group of recently-hatched birds huddled closely together in their nest. Face On is also accompanied by a showcase displaying trials and samples. However, the works that are likely to command the greatest attention are Frog Down Under II (1988), which has recently arrived in Australia with its owner from Canada, and Queen Snapper School (1993–2021), which took 28 years to complete. Annemieke is much admired for her ability to create a sense of movement and dynamism within her subjects, and these two are no exception. While the school of snapper surge forward, as if out of the frame itself, our charming frog dangles precarious from a tree branch. Annemieke’s frogs have long been among her most popular subjects, and this playful character shows why!
Exhibition ten of The Art of Annemieke Mein captures the magic of her art and is testament to the quality and enduring appeal of her work, which has been spellbinding visitors for nearly 50 years.
Frog Down Under II, 1988, by Annemieke Mein
Annemieke Mein in the 1980s. Photo: Contributed.
