Minna Gilligan
Any Wonder
20 August - 16 October 2020
We are pleased to present Any Wonder, an online exhibition of new work by Minna Gilligan. Any Wonder includes five mixed media paintings on found fabric, which has been stripped with bleach and dyed, painted, and stitched with panels of fabric and ruffles. It also includes two major new suites of felt-tip marker drawings: a series of 41 small drawings and eleven 84 x 60 cm drawings, which are the largest works on paper that Gilligan has made.
As Victoria is under Stage 4 restrictions, we are currently unable to offer in-person viewings of this exhibition, but look forward to reopening to the public once it is safe to do so.
Minna Gilligan, Any Wonder, walk-through, 2020
“Gilligan’s paintings stand on their own as Internet objects, but they would be just as comfortable lining the background of a teen-girl’s Tumblr page, or on the walls of a bricks-and-mortar art gallery.”
— Alicia Eler
"I love existing online. I love that a lot of people who know my work haven’t necessarily seen it in real life. There is power in that scope that I am always drawn to. I am super open to online exhibitions because of this. Accessibility has always been one of my main goals in making art."
— Minna Gilligan
Installation views
Minna describes the process of making Any Wonder:
"I am experimenting with being a little less rigid and not traditionally stretching the fabric to stretchers as if it were canvas. I want to be a little looser with that this time around. I want to focus a little more on the immediacy of my making again, my last exhibition had a lot of detailed embellishments (sequined sections on my paintings) and this was very time consuming and maybe took away a bit of the energy from my work. I want to focus on that again."
Paintings
"I've gravitated towards drawing in these times, I think because it's always my first port of call when it comes to making work. I love the immediacy of mark-marking with textas. I'm feeling of course like I need to process the current situation, the 24 hour news cycle, and always feeling overwhelmed. Drawing is calming and grounding for me. The result is a vast number of drawings for this exhibition. hung tightly tiled together to form grids, like little squares on a never ending calendar, with engagements penciled on that you can't quite decipher. " MG
Large drawings
"My drawing practice sits alongside my painting and collage practice very closely, but not in a way in which I would like draw a painting or collage before beginning it or anything. All my works just form as I go, there is little to no planning. Drawing is where I plan the least, I just begin and it takes shape. I am a very unthinking drawer, I like to think sometimes I am a medium between my unconscious thoughts and the paper, my drawings are abstract representations of my psyche." MG
