CDU Art Gallery to unveil first solo retrospective

About 200 works by an Alice Springs-based contemporary painter will go on display when the Neridah Stockley Retrospective opens in the CDU Art Gallery in Darwin next month.

Featuring paintings on paper, oils, pencil drawings, drypoints, monoprints, collages and constructions, it will be the first exhibition by a Central Australian, and the first solo retrospective in the CDU Art Gallery.

Ms Stockley said much of the subject matter had been inspired by what she has observed from her backyard near the Todd River and more broadly by Central Australia’s abundant and spectacular scenery.

“I live in Alice Springs where one is surrounded by shifting light, evocative colours and ancient forms,” Ms Stockley said.

“The East Macs (MacDonnell Ranges east of Alice Springs), with their striking geological contortions of bands, lines, twists and dips, are a particular inspiration.

“I like to respond and investigate the landscape, where form, structure and what lies beneath are at least as important as what’s on top.”

Ms Stockley said works created during a series of artist-in-residency excursions to various parts of Australia, also would be included in the exhibition.

“About once a year I will venture beyond the Northern Territory to experience different subjects and artistically resolve different problems.

“I’ve been to such places as Falmouth in Tasmania, the Pilbara and King Island, where by drawing and painting I’ve come to know the bones of a place.”

The National Art School graduate said she was more comfortable creating “small scale” works.

“There’s an assumption that a big country requires big pictures, but my works challenge that assumption. Small pictures can be very powerful too.”

Ms Stockley, a winner of the Qantas Foundation Encouragement of Contemporary Art Award and four-time Alice Prize finalist, will deliver two floor talks at the CDU Art Gallery, on Thursday November 13 at 12 noon and Saturday November 15 at 11am.

The exhibition Neridah Stockley: a retrospective will run from November 13 2014 until February 20 2015 in the CDU Art Gallery. Admission is free.
For further information, visit W: cdu.edu.au/artcollection-gallery/artgallery