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SPOT THE DIFFERENCE – coming soon to Penrith Regional Gallery
Penrith Regional Gallery is pleased to announce a new exhibition, ‘Spot the Difference’, opening next month from 9 November. Exploring the modern myth of the elusive panther that’s said to roam from the Blue Mountains to Penrith’s suburban streets, this exhibition offers a lens through which to view the ever-changing sense of place and identity for Penrith and its people.
‘Spot the Difference’ presents sixteen artists from Penrith, Western Sydney and broader Australia with new and existing bodies of work that engage with mythology, drawing a connection between the resurgence of the myth of the panther, its prevalence within the visual landscape of the region, and a swelling of local pride. Through drawing, painting, sculpture, fashion and installation, these artists explore the speculative origins of the ‘Big Black Cat’, its perseverance as a foundational myth of our Penrith region, and the potential it holds as a story of resilience, adaptation, and community pride.
‘Spot the Difference’ opens next month on Saturday 9 November, and exhibits until 16 February 2025. Join us for the official opening on Friday, 15 November from 5-7pm.
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Image: Troy Emery, ‘Volcano Lover’, 2023. Polyester, polyurethane, epoxy, adhesive, screws, pins, wire, timber. 112 x 130 x 70 cm. Courtesy the artist and Michael Reid Gallery.
We’ll be open for the public holiday tomorrow, Monday 7 October. This long weekend, come past Penrith Regional Gallery to see our current suite of exhibitions in their final month on display.
Natalya Hughes ‘The Interior’, Karlina Mitchell’s ‘Vuvale’ and Penrith Open Studios ‘To Be Continued’ are all exhibiting until 27 October, open daily from 10am-4pm.
Our on-site cafe, @cafeatlewers is also open tomorrow for the public holiday, from 8am-2pm.
@nattywhos
@karlina_mitchell
@maja_baska_photography
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Image 1: Natalya Hughes, ‘The Interior’, Penrith Regional Gallery, installation view. Photography: Maja Baska
Image 2-3: Karlina Mitchell, ‘Vuvale’, Lewers House Gallery, Penrith Regional Gallery, installation views. Photography: Maja Baska
Image 4: Penrith Regional Gallery Heritage Lawn and Cafe at Lewers. Photography: Maja Baska
Ask anyone in Penrith, and they’ve heard of the myth - an escaped circus animal, WW2 mascot, a feline cryptid… but is it fact or fiction? Either way, it’s a story that IS Penrith. And with the Penrith Panthers on the brink of a historic fifth consecutive Grand Final appearance, the legend of the panther feels more relevant than ever.
Coming soon to Penrith Regional Gallery, ‘Spot the Difference’ brings together artists from Penrith and abroad to celebrate and unpack the story of ‘The Big Black Cat’, featuring artists: Abdul-Rahman Abdullah, Billy Bain, Shannon Boyd, Blak Douglas, Troy Emery, Claudia Nicholson, Jason Phu & Maja Baska, Anna Louise Richardson, Kate Rohde, Regina Walter, Chris Whiticker & Linda Brescia, Osselan Tupai Scanlan, and Daniel Boyd.
The exhibition opens on the 9th November, but until then, let’s wish the best of luck to our @penrithpanthers
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@abdul_rahman_abdullah
@billy_bain
@annalouiserichardson
@jasonphuu @maja_baska_photography
@linda_brescia
@d_a_n_b_o_y_d
claudia__nicholson
@katerohde
@troyemery
@shannonboydart
@blakdouglas
MARGO LEWERS - THE SITE c.1970
The move to Emu Plains in 1951 effected a major shift in Margo Lewers’ art, her new home providing actual as well as metaphorical space to experiment and create. Having developed a more fluid painting style during the 1950s, Margo continued to move away from the formal, geometric abstraction of her early works, where she embraced bolder palettes, spontaneous brushwork, and informal marks and gestures.
Margo’s painting ‘The site’, currently hung in our Ancher House Library, exemplifies these ideas through uncluttered asymmetry, planes of vibrant colour, strong lines, and overlapping forms to create an illusion of depth, light and movement.
Our Ancher House Library is open daily from 10am-4pm, with a selection of Margo Lewers’ paintings from the final years of her life currently on display.
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Image: Margo Lewers, ‘The site’, c.1970, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, installation view in Ancher House Library. Gift of Tanya Crothers and Darani Lewers, 1980, Penrith Regional Gallery, Home of the Lewers Bequest Collection. © Darani Lewers. Artworks reproduced with permission. Photography: @silversalt_photography
The glass windows in our Loungeroom Gallery are currently filled with colourful drawings made by our Penrith Open Studios artists.
As part of the 20-week program, the students participated in a range of collaborative artmaking activities. When it came time to put together their group exhibition, ‘To Be Continued,’ in our Loungeroom Gallery space, the young artists decided to continue the collaborative gesture.
These drawings display snippets of the students’ own personal artistic projects, add new creatures and plants to our garden, and find new ways of connecting with audiences.
Be sure to visit the Penrith Open Studios exhibition, ‘To Be Continued’, before it closes on 27 October.
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Images: @silversalt_photography
‘The Rewa River is the longest and widest river in Fiji. It’s the river that I was born next to, in Nausori, Fiji, and in my mind it mirrors the Nepean River that runs beside Lewers House.’
Karlina Mitchell is a Blue Mountains multidisciplinary artist whose practice explores the impact multiple cultural identities can have on the formation of self and understanding of belonging. For this exhibition, Mitchell invokes the term ‘Vuvale’ as a title: a word in the Fijian language which translates to English as meaning family, tribe, and extended community; ‘vu’ meaning ancient spirit, and ‘vale’, home. The exhibition reimagines the Lewers House Gallery space as a family home akin to those found in Fiji, and in doing so, speaks to universal experiences of affinities and difference.
‘Vuvale’ is exhibiting in Lewers House Gallery until 27 October, open daily from 10am-4pm.
@karlina_mitchell
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Image: Karlina Mitchell, ‘Vuvale’, installation, Penrith Regional Gallery - Lewers House Gallery, 2024. Photography: Silversalt Photography @silversalt_photography
Yesterday, Monday 23 September, marked the final session of our 2024 Penrith Open Studios Initiative.
For two terms, 13 secondary school students have participated in weekly studio sessions led by artists and gallery staff, with a focus on developing their artistic practice and forming relationships with peers. The initiative aimed to connect young creatives from the Penrith area with their local gallery and provide pathways towards further engagement with visual arts.
The students’ artworks, experiments, and learnings from the Penrith Open Studio program are now presented in our Loungeroom Gallery, as part of the exhibition ‘To Be Continued.’ Their works, which have evolved over the duration of the program, will be on display until 27 October. Be sure to stop by and see their projects next time you visit the gallery!
Artists: Evelyn Bowden, Luka Brett-Hall, Elizabeth Chapman, Caleb Codina, Grace Fetherston, Bridget Hidden, Laura James, Stephanie Maayo, Madelyn Medbury, Mackenzie Place, Dalila Sanchez, Ava Scobie, Ava Watkins.
Artist mentors: Tia Madden, Jack Buckley, Eddie Abd, Blak Douglas, Marian Abboud.
Project Producer: Gemma Mckenzie-Booth
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Image: Penrith Open Studios students in their exhibition, ‘To Be Continued’, Loungeroom Gallery, Penrith Regional Gallery, 2024. Photography: Maja Baska
REAL FESTIVAL x JASON PHU x PENRITH REGIONAL GALLERY
Don’t miss us at Real Festival - today, Friday 20 September from 4-10pm, and tomorrow, Saturday 21 September from 12-10pm. We’ll be running a free drop-in panther mask-making activity, as well as a free photobooth.
As part of our upcoming exhibition ‘Spot the Difference’, artist Jason Phu is collaborating with photographer Maja Baska, and they’ll be on the hunt for the best masks to photograph, with the potential to be shown in our exhibition.
Location:
Real Festival, Tench Reserve, Penrith
Dates:
Friday 20 September from 4-10
Saturday 21 September from 12-10
For more details, visit our website via the link in bio.
@jasonphuu
@maja_baska_photography
@realfestival
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Image: Make the Panther You Want to See, Jason Phu & Maja Baska. Photography: Maja Baska.
Looking for somewhere to relax?
Visit Penrith Regional Gallery this weekend, where Natalya Hughes’ interactive exhibition ‘The Interior’ is currently exhibiting in our Main Gallery space. You’re invited to take off your shoes, walk across Hughes’ handmade rugs, and sit on the couches: playing parts of both analyst and patient in a playful act of psychoanalysis.
We’re open daily from 10am-4pm.
Also exhibiting: Karlina Mitchell: ‘Vuvale’ and Penrith Open Studios: ‘To Be Continued’
@nattywhos
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Image: Natalya Hughes ‘The Interior’, installation view, Penrith Regional Gallery, 2024. Photography: Maja Baska @maja_baska_photography
Join us and artist Jason Phu this week at REAL FESTIVAL.
This Friday from 4-7, and Saturday from 12-7, we’ll be at Real Festival running a free drop-in panther mask-making activity, as well as a free photobooth.
Jason Phu is an artist whose work references folk tales, family history, and funny jokes. As part of our upcoming exhibition ‘Spot the Difference’, Jason Phu is collaborating with photographer Maja Baska, and they’ll be on the hunt for the best masks to photograph, with the potential to be shown in our exhibition.
Dates & Times:
Friday 20 September from 4-7
Saturday 21 September from 12-7
Location:
Real Festival, Tench Reserve
For more details, visit our website via the link in bio.
@jasonphuu
@maja_baska_photography
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Image: Make the Panther You Want to See, Jason Phu & Maja Baska. Photography: Maja Baska
As part of her year 10 work experience project at Penrith Regional Gallery, student Isabel Clements was asked to write a review of one of our current exhibitions. Isabel chose to talk about Natalya Hughes’ ‘The Interior’, writing:
“...the barrier between the observer and the observed is broken. People can remove their shoes, stand on the rugs and sit in the chairs and become a part of the exhibit...
along one of the walls are 3D printed copies of a selection of sculptures that could have been found in Freud’s own collection which he placed around his treatment room in hope of creating a space where his patients felt seen, heard and understood. Natalya plays with this idea by highlighting the importance of décor and how it is a subtle form of self-expression which I believe creates a space where the viewer considers their own choices of décor in their homes, inviting us to consider whether our own décor expresses who we are and whether we can see a reflection ourselves in the space.”
Natalya Hughes: The Interior is exhibiting until 27 October
@nattywhos
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Images 1-2: Silversalt Photography @silversalt_photography
Image 3: Maja Baska @maja_baska_photography
Get to know Queen Street, St Marys, through the stories of local businesses - including Rita’s Fashion Sydney - in a short documentary profiling six diverse local stories of dedication and community, which is available to watch via the link in bio.
Portraits of participating business owners in their shop fronts were taken by artist Karlina Mitchell during filming. Stories from Queen Street is a Penrith Regional Gallery project, in collaboration with @curiousworks and artist @karlina_mitchell supported by the Penrith City Council Magnetic Places grants program.
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Image: Portrait of Rita @ritas_fashion_sydney - photography: Karlina Mitchell
