The work of two of the Northern Territory’s most respected artists will go on show in South Australia and New South Wales during the next six months.
The exhibition, “Not Dead Yet: Therese Ritchie and Chips Mackinolty – a retrospective exhibition”, captures the landscapes, major events and personalities that have defined the Northern Territory.
Representing four decades of work in 113 pieces, the exhibition is drawn from the Charles Darwin University Art Collection, as well as loans made by the artists and private collectors in Australia.
Developed by CDU Art Collection and Art Gallery Curator Anita Angel, the exhibition features screen prints, posters, drawings, photographs, digital collages and limited edition fine art prints and paintings, dating from 1969 through to 2008.
“‘Not Dead Yet’ highlights the best of a collaborative and creative partnership by two Territory-inspired, contemporary Australian artists as they’ve worked ‘together, sideways and apart’,” Ms Angel said.
“Therese and Chips are historians of the moment. Their work deals with their experiences in the Northern Territory and highlights social and political issues that were, and still are, faced by Territorians.
“This is art that communicates a message. It is educational, politically and socially engaged, but can also operate as outright propaganda. There seems to be something in the air about this kind of art in 2013.”
Ms Ritchie and Mr Mackinolty arrived in the Northern Territory in the early 1980s, and are considered to be pioneers of “alternative printmaking” in the region.
Works included in “Not Dead Yet” were produced at the Darwin studios of Green Ant Research Arts and Publishing in the 1990s and Jalak Graphics in the 1980s, at the Tin Sheds’ Earthworks Poster Collective at Sydney University in the 1970s, as well as independently by Ms Ritchie and Mr Mackinolty.
Ms Ritchie is a graduate of the CDU Art School and a former lecturer in graphic design. Mr Mackinolty was a leading essayist in Printabout, the catalogue for the University Art Collection’s first touring exhibition in the Territory and interstate through Artback NT in 1996.
Both artists are recognised donors to the CDU Art Collection, gifting many works included in “Not Dead Yet” to the university.
The touring exhibition will be shown at the Albury Regional Gallery from 8 February to 31 March 2013 and then at Flinders University Art Museum – City Gallery in Adelaide from 4 May to 14 July 2013.