Shepparton Art Museum’s café, Elsewhere at SAM, opens on 22 March with an exciting, flavoursome menu.
22 March 2023
Elsewhere at SAM, the Shepparton Art Museum’s new-look café, is set to open on 22 March with a fresh, vibrant menu spotlighting locally sourced ingredients and global flavours. The new management team, consisting of Ricardo Vilsson Mullor, Alaina Tuckett and Jonathan Chan, together with chef Sean Cameron will create a unique dining experience in the café that reflects the beauty of its surroundings in the museum and Victoria Lake.
The café’s new menu expresses the flavours and agricultural excellence of our region, with a focus on seasonality and sustainability. The ingredients chosen reflect the diverse palate of our community, with flavours from across the globe incorporated to create a menu that is a culinary expression of Greater Shepparton. Visitors can look forward to the return of the Okonomiyaki (Japanese vegetable pancake), as well as baked eggs with Eritrean spices and a new selection of nourishing bowls, with a special menu for dogs to come in the near future for a post-walk treat. The menu will evolve regularly to change with the seasons and the availability of fresh, seasonal produce.
The café will open from 8am and close at 4pm, creating opportunities for early morning diners to purchase their coffee and breakfast on their morning lake walks. Entry before 10am will be available from the north entry at the top of Orchard Hill; assistance with entry from staff will be available for patrons with accessibility needs.
Alaina Tuckett, Elsewhere at SAM Functions & Events Coordinator, says:
“The team at Elsewhere at SAM is incredibly excited to begin our journey at Shepparton Art Museum. We believe that seasonality equals sustainability, and we are committed to using locally sourced ingredients whenever possible to minimise our carbon footprint and support local farmers. Our menu is a true culinary journey that traverses different cultures and palates, featuring dishes that are as diverse as they are delicious. And for our furry friends, we have a special dog treat menu, made with the same care and quality as our human dishes. Our friendly and welcoming team is always ready to make you feel at home in our vibrant, quirky atmosphere. If you need any assistance with accessibility before the museum is open at 10am, one of our amazing team members will be able to assist. Join us at Elsewhere at SAM and experience the magic of sustainable, locally sourced, and globally inspired cuisine!”
All café enquiries can be made via email at hello@elsewhereatsam.com.au and more information can be found on elsewhereatsam.com.au
Image: Elsewhere at SAM café. Shepparton Art Museum, 2023. Photo by Cam Matheson
Collection exhibition Dance Me to the End of Love opens 18 March
10 March 2023
New collection exhibition Dance Me to the End of Love to open at Shepparton Art Museum in March 2023.
Shepparton Art Museum (SAM) is thrilled to present Dance Me to the End of Love, a new exhibition that reflects on the grand cycles of life through objects from the SAM Collection. Borrowing its name from a song by Canadian artist Leonard Cohen, the exhibition traverses the stages of human existence, from birth to death and beyond. Artworks featured span the course of one hundred and twenty years in diverse mediums, including ceramics, sculpture, painting, printmaking, assemblage, and installation.
Comprising of works from thirty-nine artists, Dance Me to the End of Love shares stories of lives lived and delves into connective experiences of creation, parenthood, spiritualism, life seasons, death, and the afterlife.
Exhibiting artists include Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran, Nell, Julie Dowling (Badimaya/Warida) and Norah Gurdon. Beloved items from the collection will stage their return to the galleries, and their debut in the new SAM, including Sam Jink’s hyperrealistic Woman and Child. First displayed at SAM in 2010 as part of a single-artwork exhibition, the work garnered an overwhelming response from the community, and was subsequently acquired. The work features a lifelike sculpture of an elderly woman tenderly embracing a newborn baby in an evocative reflection on life’s beginning and end.
Also making its return is Melbourne-based artist Penny Byrne’s darkly humorous 2009 ceramic work The Four Horsemen of the 21st Century Apocalypse. Comprising of four figurines, each horse and its rider confronts the issues that threaten the globe in the 21st century, including overpopulation and shortages of food and water. Pairing found ceramics with reclaimed children’s toys, Byrne juxtaposes the starkness of her subject matter with kitsch in her contemplation of global crises.
Jess O’Farrell, SAM Exhibitions Curator, says of the show:
“For the second major SAM Collection exhibition in the new SAM we wanted to showcase the breadth of our collection by including some all time favourite pieces, such as Woman and Child, and sharing recent acquisitions. Dance Me to the End of Love explores stories of the universal journey of life through artworks that capture emotions and experiences that are difficult to describe in words. In recent years we have been reminded of the fragility of life and our deep need to connect with others. Our hope is that visitors will connect with stories and concepts that deeply resonate with them when viewing the show, and share their own reflections on life with friends and family.”
Dance Me to the End of Love opens at SAM on Saturday 18 March 2023 and will be showing until 11 February 2024 with free entry.
ENDS
Full list of exhibiting artists:
Janet Beckhouse, Sarah Boehme, Peter Booth, Godwin Bradbeer, Penny Byrne,
Katthy Cavaliere, Yvonne Cohen, Julie Dowling, Dulcie Enalanga, Ida Enalanga,
Irene Mbitjana Entata, Janet Fieldhouse, Mark Galea, Norah Gurdon, Stanislav Halpern, Brent Harris with John Loane, Noreen Ngala Hudson, Judith Pungkarta Inkamala, Sam Jinks, Esther Ngala Kennedy, David Larwill, Elizabeth Kngwarriya Moketarinja, Hedwig Moketarinja, Elaine Kngwarria Namatjira, Nell, Ann Newmarch, Trevor Nickolls, Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran, Kathleen Petyarre, Hugh Ramsay, Carol Panangka Rontji, Virginia Rontji, Judi Singleton, Sally Smart, Long Tom Tjapanangka, Angela Valamanesh, Hossein Valamanesh, and Maggie Watson.
Curators: Jessica O’Farrell and Shelley McSpedden
Image: Penny Byrne, The Four Horsemen of the 21st Century Apocalypse, 2009, Shepparton Art Museum Collection, purchased, 2009. © Penny Byrne. Photo: Shepparton Art Museum
Ash Keating to open solo exhibition at SAM in March
8 March 2023
Melbourne-based visual artist Ash Keating to open solo exhibition at the Shepparton Art Museum in March 2023.
Shepparton Art Museum (SAM) is proud to partner with artist Ash Keating to present ELEVATION, a new solo exhibition that interprets the landscape of Yorta Yorta Country/the Goulburn Valley through Keating’s signature abstraction style.
ELEVATION presents a new series of large-scale paintings, which form an interconnected series of panoramas; a direct response to Keating’s memory and photographic imagery from site visits to Yorta Yorta Country to observe the landscape, horizon lines, and weather patterns from an elevated viewpoint. Keating’s affinity for the region’s landscape formed at an early age; the artist recalls memories of accompanying his grandmother – a pilot – in light-aircraft flights over Victoria’s high country.
Since 2015, Keating has developed a distinctive and specialised methodology for creating paintings with atmospheric compositions. Working with a technique he has named Gravity System Response (GSR), Keating applies paint to surfaces through an airless sprayer, augmenting areas by erasing or breaking down the paint through the application of water. The resultant works are fluid in motion, textured with layers of varying viscosity.
The works in ELEVATION mark an expansion in Keating’s practice – where his previous GSR paintings were born of studio improvisations and abstracted to project the illusion of landscape, Keating imbues this new series with a realism that brings them closer to the true landscapes he observed during his visits to the region. Keating further adds to the effect through his diffusion of the painted layers with constant coatings of water, softening the paint to mirror the patterns of weather that alter the landscape and one’s experience of it. The canvases loom large, creating a captivating, immersive experience for the viewer.
Melinda Martin, SAM CEO, says of the exhibition:
“It’s an honour to present a new body of Ash’s work at SAM. His career has charted an impressive trajectory, and Ash was keen to work with us because of his personal connection to the region. Ash has a singular practice, and it’s a delight to see the beauty of our landscape translated through his technique and transformed into something truly spectacular. We are lucky to have been able to have Ash create new work for SAM before he embarks to Mexico for a large project after the exhibition opens at SAM.”
Ash Keating: ELEVATION opens at SAM on Saturday 18 March 2023 and will be showing until 18 June 2023 with free entry.
On Sunday 19 March, the community is invited to attend the official ELEVATION exhibition opening. The event will be free and held at 2.00pm at SAM. Bookings can be made via Trybooking: https://www.trybooking.com/CGJXD.
About the artist:
Ash Keating (b. 1980 Naarm/Melbourne) is a contemporary visual artist based in Naarm/Melbourne. His practice is multidisciplinary, ranging from site-specific installations, outdoor murals, performance, to large-scale and domestic scaled canvases.
Keating holds a Bachelor of Fine Art (BFA) in Painting from Monash University, Melbourne; and a BFA Honours from the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne. Since 2004, he has exhibited and produced outdoor murals extensively across Australia and internationally including at National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Adelaide Festival, Adelaide; Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Santiago, Chile; Seoul Art Space and Artsonje Centre, Seoul, South Korea; and Christchurch Art Gallery, New Zealand.
His works are held in numerous public and private collections including the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney; Monash University Collection, Melbourne; and Artbank.