WHAT THEY BROUGHT BACK

04.08.10 - 08.08.10
VENUE: MELBOURNE ART FAIR, ROYAL EXHIBTION BUILDING, MELBOURNE
ARTIST: Nathan Gray
CURATOR: Emily Cormack 

Since 2002 Melbourne Art Fair have sponsored Gertrude Contemporary' Project Room at the biennial art fair. Each year Gertrude Contemporary curates a new commissioned project in one of the Melbourne Art Fair project spaces.  

Gertrude Contemporary’s project space at the 2010 Melbourne Art fair showcased a new installation by Melbourne artist
Nathan Gray. His new commission What they Brought Back is typical of his optimistic, dynamic and festive practice,
and improvises connections between the network of myths and histories associated with Melbourne’s Royal Exhibition
Building.

In this new work Gray refines his vocabulary of objects, reconfiguring them on a personal scale and highlighting
the unpredictably of their interconnections. Presented as interlinking trains of thought, Gray’s materials explore the
possibilities for intuitive, physical and phonic mutations of form, colour and movement. This work presents accumulations
of mostly low-fi elements including mirrors, cassette tapes and ceramic sculptures that are connected through a networked
mind-map revealing a multitude of unexpected links and logics that reflect Gray’s interest in improvised music and viral
systems.

Originally from Perth, Gray is currently a Studio Artist at Gertrude Contemporary. Alongside his active involvement
with improvised music through his trio Snawklor, Gray actively exhibits his artwork both nationally and internationally.
Recently he participated in the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art’s (ACCA) ART1 Regional Tour at the Shepparton Art Gallery (2010) and presented a major solo exhibition at Craft Victoria Attack Decay Sustain Release in 2009. In 2008 he was commissioned for ACCA’s Mirka at Tolarno space and in 2008 Gray undertook a residency at the Sacatar foundation in Bahia, Brazil. Nathan Gray is represented by Utopian Slumps, Melbourne.

BIOGRAPHY
Gray completed a Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art) at Curtin University, Perth in 1994 and a Postgraduate Diploma in
Electronic Design and Interactive Media at RMIT, Melbourne in 2002. Selected solo exhibitions include Attack Decay
Sustain Release, Craft Victoria, Melbourne 2009; An Infinity of Traces, studio 12, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne, 2009; Secretion Erosion Conjunction (with Alex Vivian), Rear View, Melbourne, 2009; Tudo Que Acho/ Everything I Think, The Narrows, Melbourne, 2008; Quem Ao Viu O Vento, Escola Dos Belos Artes, Salvador, Brazil; 2008; The Fruiting Body, Black and Blue, Sydney, 2008; Untitled Installation, Mirka @ Tolarno for ACCA, Melbourne, 2007; Love, Purity, Accuracy, Utopian Slumps, Melbourne, 2007; The Fold, Joint Hassles, Melbourne, 2007; Terrarium, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne 2006; and New Work, Bus, Melbourne 2005. Gray completed a residency at the Sacatar Foundation in Bahia, Brazil in 2008.

Art: www.undodesign.com
Music: www.snawklor.blogspot.com
Images: www.inspirilog.blogspot.com