Mary TONKIN_Ramble Kalorama_detail_2017-19_oil on linen_180x1890cm_Photo-Matthew Stanton
Image: Mary TONKIN
Ramble, Kalorama (detail) 2017-19
oil on linen
180 x 1890 cm
Photo: Matthew Stanton

Friday 16 May, 6PM
Bennett Gallery

Join Benalla Art Gallery and artist Mary Tonkin for the launch of Rambles.

Rambles is an exhibition of large immersive paintings and the pencil, charcoal and ceramic drawings that underpin them. Made in the bush over long periods they capture responses to changing light, seasons, viewpoints and sensations.

“I currently work entirely en plein air in the damp, fern-rich bush of Corhanwarrabul / Mt Dandenong, Victoria. Tucked in the bush on the farm where I grew up, I am most at ease, most able to be open and present, fingertips tingling with awareness — most able to convey sensations as they arise. I need to be able to touch the nearest forms, to have a sense of moving in and between as I find and re-find how they intersect and interlace in space. I would like my work to proceed, to reach out and embrace, to convey a visceral sense of being present to the forms and the other senses that animate them — the temperature, sounds and smells, thoughts and memories. I hope my work conveys an ever-present moment, an elastic or at least complex sense of time and awareness.” Mary Tonkin, 2025.

Mary is represented by Australian Galleries, Melbourne and Sydney.

To be launched by Adam Lindsay, Deputy Director National Gallery of Australia.

Price: This is a FREE event
Bookings: To secure your place, book online below, email the gallery on gallery@benalla.vic.gov.au

BOOK ONLINE