FUTURE EXHIBITIONS

Open Work with Giles Bettison and Jenni Kemarre Martiniello

21 March to 3 May 2012

Open Work features the prodigious talent of two of Australia's most awarded artists, Giles Bettison and Jenni Kemarre Martiniello.

Both artists are inspired and influenced by traditional textiles practices and forms with Giles Bettison referencing the lace making traditions of Venice and Jenni Kemarre Martiniello the indigenous Australian traditional forms of the fish and eel traps.

Giles Bettison, a graduate of the Australian National University School of Art in Canberra has become one of Australia's most dominant and recognized glass artists in recent times and is known for both his artistic and technical innovation, applying the ancient Venetian glassworking techniques to coloured sheet glass, producing a textile like effect for which he has been highly awarded and lauded internationally.

Jenni Kemarre Martiniello is a prolific artist and writer whose forays into the medium of glass have been more recent but no less successful.  Also a graduate of the Australian National University School of Art, Martiniello was introduced to glass as a medium for her artwork during a group residency at the Canberra Glassworks in 2008.  IndigiGlass08: Postcards from the Referendum was created to mark the 40^th anniversary of the 1967 Aboriginal Referendum and involved 4 artists who had been working together as part of the Indigenous Textile Artists Group (ITAG).  Canberra Glassworks and associated artists taught them new techniques for their art with highly successful results.  Martiniello was a finalist in the 2011 Ranamok Glass Prize with her Eel Traps and her works are now in some significant public and private collections.

Open Work promises to be a beautiful and highly evocative exhibition showcasing 2 highly respected fine artists working in glass. The exhibition will run until 3 May 2012.