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Rodney Forbes
Position title
- Senior Lecturer and Director, Gippsland Centre for Art & Design
- Director, Switchback Gallery
Qualifications
Statement
Rodney Forbes works in figurative-narrative painting, examining metanarratives of oral cultures. He is interested in the story telling of cultural crossroads such as Chicago, Liverpool and Melbourne, which engender rich, cultures of story - painting, cartooning, humour and music. Comparative studies of travellers' and locals’ tales are a theme, as are stories from indigenous, artisan, masculine and children’s' subcultures. His work also honours the healing dimensions of story-telling and painting.
“In my work I use incident-as-metaphor, surrealist juxtaposition, and symbolist synaesthesia to illuminate significant narratives. One surrealist (and poetic) method of examining pairs of realities is to compare those which are distant but apposite. My recent projects examine these distant but 'rhyming' stories through painting to reveal deeper poetic connections and illuminating paradoxes
A recent project which explored these methodologies was 2 RIVERS. It compared the predicaments of the Yarra River, Melbourne and the South Alligator River, Kakadu. It was exhibited at Australian Galleries, Melbourne, and was the subject of an interview on The Deep End, ABC Radio National and a review in The Age by David Hansen. My most recent curatorial project was the group exhibition dancing made a man out of me ii at Switchback Gallery, Monash University.”
Researh/professional activities
Selected Individual Exhibitions
- 2008 - Slow Painting, Australian Galleries, Melbourne
- 2007 - Dumb Tidings, Australian Galleries, Sydney
- 2006 - Rodney Forbes: 1995 - 2005, Latrobe Regional Gallery
2 RIVERS, Australian Galleries, Melbourne
- 2004 - when you're a boy, Australian Galleries, Melbourne
- 2002 - ROCKET SCIENCE, Australian Galleries, Melbourne
- 2001 - More songs about dancing and horses, Australian Galleries, Melbourne
- 1998 - Like Ice, Like Fire, Australian Galleries, Melbourne
- 1995 - Rodney Forbes, Recent Paintings, Australian Galleries, Melbourne
- 1994 - Rodney Forbes; Recent Paintings 1983-1993 Latrobe Regional Gallery, Morwell.
Survey exhibition (touring to Mornington, Mildura, Wangaratta)
- 1992 - Rodney Forbes, Recent Paintings, Australian Galleries, Melbourne
- 1991 - Rodney Forbes, Recent Paintings, Australian Galleries, Melbourne
- 1989 - Rodney Forbes, Paintings and Drawings, Australian Galleries, Melbourne
- 1987 - Out of the Bay and Into the Valley, Latrobe Valley Arts Centre, Morwell.
- 1984 - Rodney Forbes, Victorian Ministry for the Arts, Melbourne.
Selected Group Exhibitions
- 2009 - dancing made a man out of me ii, Switchback Gallery, Monash University
- 2008 - Magistery, Latrobe Regional Gallery, Faculty Gallery, Monash University
Caulfield
- 2007 - Electric Valley Studios, Switchback Gallery, Monash University
- 2006 - Round and Round and Round and Round, Albury Regional Art Gallery, NSW
- 2005 - Jacques Cadry Memorial Art Prize Finalists, Fox Studios and State Library of
NSW, Sydney, 2004
- 2004 - 24 Hour Love presented by Clubs in the Pines, Switchback Gallery, Monash
University
- 2004 - The FOUND Project, Latrobe Regional Gallery, Morwell
- 2003 - Energy to Burn, Latrobe Regional Gallery, Morwell
- 2002 - Jon Campbell's Rock the Boat, Switchback Gallery, Monash University
- 2000 - Australian Contemporary Art Fair, Australian Galleries exhibit
- 2000 - Dancing Made a Man Out of Me, Switchback Gallery, Monash University
- 1997 - Figurative Forces. Latrobe Regional Gallery, Victoria
- 1996 - The Incident, Latrobe Regional Gallery, Victoria
- 1995 - Comedie Humaine, Australian Galleries, Sydney
- 1993 - On the Other Hand, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney
- 1991 - Indo-Eco, Touring Exhibition. Latrobe Valley Arts Centre, Linden Gallery, Victoria
- 1990 - Contemporary Gippsland Artists, Touring Exhibition. Latrobe Valley Arts
- 1989 - Art and Work, Latrobe Regional Gallery, Victoria
- 1988 - 100 x 100 Portfolio, Print Council of Australia Bicentennial Touring Exhibition
Public Collections, Awards
- Australian National Gallery, Canberra (folio)
- Australian National Gallery, Canberra. Wearable art collection
- Latrobe Regional Gallery, Victoria
- Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale, Victoria
- Albury Regional Gallery, Victoria
- Monash University, Gippsland Campus
- Print Council of Australia
- Artbank
- Law Institute of Victoria
- Sydney Children’s Hospital
- Latrobe Regional Arts Board
- City of Whitehorse, Victoria
- Blake Dawson Waldron, Melbourne
- Buxton Collection, Melbourne
- Freehill, Hollingdale & Page, Melbourne
- MAB Corporation, Melbourne
- Lefebvre Collection, Sydney
- 1990 Australia Council Visual Arts and Crafts Board. Artist’s Development Grant
Links
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Staff Profile
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