Gallery exhibition celebrates local artist's love affair with art

Black drinks the sun and draws all colours to it.
I am leached white, my truant love. Come back,
And stain me with intensity of black.
Robert Graves, 1975

From the lines of a love poem to the title of Newcastle Art Gallery’s latest exhibition: PATRICIA WILSON-ADAMS: stain me with the intensity of black is a comprehensive survey of one of the region's most respected artists.

This survey exhibition comprises traditional etchings and engravings, installations and major sculptural works, shown together in this exhibition for the first time.

A love poem is apt inspiration for Wilson-Adams, and the poetic reference to being ‘stained with the intensity of black’ has a double-meaning for the artist, who became drawn to the visual arts as a teen. Having been a printmaker for most of her creative life, Wilson-Adams states - 'you might say it is engraved into the very way I live. I have spent a lifetime with black stains under my fingernails'.

As an academic at the University of Newcastle for three decades, Wilson-Adams has a deep engagement with the world of ideas and enjoys research and writing. Fundamental to her work is a diverse range of references and influences from literature and poetry.

Wilson-Adams also has a strong connection to the Australian landscape, in particular the golden, iconic countryside and flat farmland of the Northern Tablelands, where she was born. Wilson-Adams and her younger brother and sister grew up on their parent’s wool farming property outside of Tamworth and developed a strong connection to the landscape.

The works of art in the exhibition focus essentially on issues concerning the environment, cultural landscapes, land usage and the place of the individual within these spaces.

Wilson-Adams explains: 'I like to think that I am using materiality, image, text and form to open up spaces to the phenomenological and to meaning'.

Wilson-Adams describes herself as not being a 'signature' artist, but rather one for whom the project dictates the form, medium and materials.

Newcastle Art Gallery Director Lauretta Morton says she has anticipated developing an exhibition of Wilson-Adams' works for several years, and that the most exciting element is the contrast between her well-known printmaking works, and the installations and major sculptural works also on display.

“Patricia is completely fluent as a sculptor; she is truly gifted at creating meaning through the materials she chooses to employ.” Morton says.“She plays seemingly effortlessly with texture, structure and repetition. It’s the technical mastery of printmaking - applied to a three dimensional form.”

“She plays seemingly effortlessly with texture, structure and repetition. It’s the technical mastery of printmaking - applied to a three dimensional form.”

PATRICIA WILSON ADAMS: stain me with the intensity of black
7 July - 26 August 2018
More information: visit the exhibition web page

Future Events: More information: visit the events section of our website

Last Fridays
Free, Friday 27 July, open until 8:00pm

Last Fridays presents after-hours access to Gallery exhibitions, live music, a drink at our pop up bar and a range of fun and different programming, changing monthly (excluding December). This month, we aim to break down a notion that so many people seem to believe: I’m so bad at drawing. We say - there is no such thing as bad drawing!

Focused on the exhibition PATRICA WILSON ADAMS: stain me with the intensity of black, get involved with experimental drawing sessions stationed across the exhibition space. We'll present a range of different exercises to break down inhibitions and loosen up your drawing style. Draw with your elbow; draw blindfolded, draw what you hear - we'll take drawing into experimental realms. Plus, enjoy live music by The Milkman's Daughter and band.

Last Fridays Artists Mixer - in the Gallery Sculpture Garden
Free event, Friday 27 July, 5pm - 7pm
Artists and makers from across the Hunter region are invited to join Gallery staff and the Gallery’s Youth Reference Group for a mixer event in the sculpture Garden, plus live tunes by local singer-songwriter Paris Grace.

Captions for the artist's works:

Above - Patricia WILSON-ADAMS out in the I know nothing country - pollen project 2009
intaglio, spit bite and collagraph 50.0 x 50.0cm Artist collection Image courtesy Dean Beletich

On the home page - Patricia WILSON-ADAMS The smell of peaches always makes me cry (detail) 2009 bronze dimensions variable Artist collection