Shades of Grey 2019

Wednesday 27 February - Sunday 10 March 2019

Curated by Charles Justin

Mounted every 12 - 18 months, Shades of Grey focuses on Abstraction and celebrates all that is quiet, contemplative, meditative and gentle. From humble beginnings in November 2015 and featuring three artists, Shades of Grey has grown into a leading Melbourne exhibition on abstraction and minimalism - with monochrome being considered by some as the end point in abstraction’s evolution. Ed Reinhart, with his black monochromes, and Robert Ryman, with his white monochromes, explored exhaustively the power of dark and light. But it is grey, with its moods between black and white, which provides the possibility of a full range of nuanced emotions.

Now in its fourth edition, Shades of Grey takes time to consider all that is reductive, its name speaking to all that is not black and white, looking to the subtle differences that can be found within ‘shades of grey’. Through the absence of representation and figuration, we are confronted with a tacit experience that demands contemplation, consideration and innovation: the viewers are left to construct meaning from work that often only hints or whispers to a truth.

Charles Justin was approached in the middle of 2018 to curate the fourth edition of the exhibition. Previous artists include TJ Bateson, Louise Blyton, Terri Brookes, Wendy Kelly, Emma Langridge and Wilma Tabacco. Justin chose to focus on artists who are part of the JAHM collection, many of whom are early career artists and whose practices explore the themes of abstraction.

Participating artists: Louise Blyton, Caroline Collom, Matthew Engert, Andrew Gutteridge, PJ Hickman, Max Lawrence-White, Aaron Martin, Suzanne Moss, Yuria Okamura, Hayley Scilini, Beverley Southcott

Shades of Grey 2017, Shades of Grey 2016, Shades of Grey 2015