This Is No Fantasy
Nothing a Human Heart (for H.G. Wells) No. 4, 2023
ＯＲＢＩＴ
18 MAY - 10 JUNE 2023
JOHNATHON WORLD PEACE BUSH | CHRIS BOND | SIMON DEGROOT | BADRA AJI | YHONNIE SCARCE
ALI TAHAYORI | PHUONG NGO | JUAN FORD | JILL ORR | JO PLANK | VINCENT NAMATJIRA | EZZ MONEM
PETRINA HICKS | BENJAMIN AITKEN | JANELLE LOW | ALEXANDRA STANDEN | OLIVER WATTS | NEIL HADDON
_____________
#thisisnofantasy
This Is No Fantasy, 16/3/23 to 6/4/23
‘Entering Macquarie Harbour (the smoke was so thick), 2022, oil, acrylic and lacquer on aluminium panel, 140 cm x 130 cm
Finalist in the Hadley’s Art Prize 2022, 23 July – 21 August, Open 10am – 4pm daily, Hadley’s Orient Hotel
Nothing a human heart (for H.G. Wells), 77.5 x 62 cm, acrylic, pen and lacquer on aluminium panel
Neil Haddon
Nothing a human heart has loved (for H.G. Wells)
Oil, acrylic and lacquer on aluminium
The Happy Turning by British writer H.G. Wells was published in 1945, the year before he died. In this short book, perhaps in anticipation of his demise, he writes: “nothing a human heart has loved will ever be lost”.
I first read Wells’ The War of the Worlds (1898) decades ago as a boy in a dusty school room back in England. The introductory pages of this book, set in the leafy green environs of my upbringing, mention Tasmania (where I now live) and the decimation of Aboriginal peoples by invading Europeans.
I understand Wells’ sentiment about the human heart, and I don’t, in equal measure.
Neil Haddon, 2022
We Will Bring Our Own Views (and our own plans), 2018-2021,
oil and digital print on aluminium panels, 180 cm x 240 cm
Disappearing
We’ve long had a secret here.
Disappearing : to cease to be seen; vanish from sight; to cease to exist or be known; pass away; end gradually.
In our islands, their past, the land, seas, the movement of air, its peoples, the cadence of life and in the place itself is something unfathomably beautiful. You sense it as much as see it. It’s about connection and time not the here and now. It’s a secret that has been closely held, cherished, sustaining our soul.
Entwined with that secret has been a hope that one day Tasmania would be recognised, acknowledged and able to stand on its own two feet. This has been elusive but now we are told that perhaps it is so close as to be reckoned by the beads on the accountant’s abacus.
Then again, perhaps not. Is the price we are paying a disappearing, a disappearing of the very stuff that sustains us? Or, is it a more complex story, shedding a skin as part of the inexorable march of renewal?
Disappearing.
We are at a unique time in our life on these islands of Tasmania; forced to pause, reflect, revaluate, to consider, to reset, to look again at where we live with new eyes.
Over the last few decades Bett Gallery has explored what it means to live or have lived in this place we now call Tasmania in a series of important exhibitions including Future Perfect, South of No North and six Poets and Painters exhibitions.
It is time to again look deeply into this place.
A group of Tasmanian artists and writers were invited to join curators Carol Bett, Gerard Castles and Pete Hay to explore the idea of what it means to be Tasmanian, our island and who we are and might be as islanders at this moment in our unfolding story.
Join participating writers as they read in the gallery
Saturday 13 March, 2021, 2.30pm - 4pm
$5 entry to be donated to Hobart City Mission to support those facing hardship and homelessness
Entry numbers will be COVID capped
Participating artists and writers in conversation
Wednesday 24 March, 2021, 6pm - 7.30pm
$5 entry to be donated to Hobart City Mission to support those facing hardship and homelessness
Entry numbers will be COVID capped
Bett Gallery thanks:
Heather Rose and Michaye Boulter
Simon Bevilacqua and Tim Burns
Rachel Leary and Helen Wright
Greg Lehman and Brigita Ozolins
James Dryburgh and Richard Wastell
Ben Walter and Tom O’Hern
Danielle Wood and David Keeling
Katherine Johnson and Amanda Davies
Leigh Woolley and Neil Haddon
Carol Patterson Amber Koroluk -Stephenson
Jenny Weber and Matt Coyle
Level 1 / 65 Murray Street
Hobart Tas 7000
T: +61 (0) 3 6231 6511
E: info@bettgallery.com.au
I have some work in the auction to raise funds for Sawtooth ARI. Jump online and have a look.
The Fruit (no.8), 2020, acrylic paint on paper.
The Ruins of London, 2019, acrylic, oil, enamel and digital print on aluminium.
Many thanks to Phantasm Gallery for this review of ‘the shore, the race, the other place’ at Bett Gallery back in November. https://phantasmgallery.com.au/haddon/
Neil Haddon, Robert O’Connor, Megan Walch
Good Grief Studios, Hobart
https://www.hackableanimals.net
https://www.facebook.com/events/1522162067939071/
https://artguide.com.au/the-shore-the-race-the-other-place
Neil Haddon at Bett Gallery, Hobart, Tasmania 15.11.19 to 7.12.19
http://www.bettgallery.com.au
Our Rocky Shore has been selected for the Hadley’s Art Prize 2019. The painting will be on display from 20.7.19 to 18.8.19
Our Rocky Shore, 2019, oil, enamel, vinyl and digital print on aluminium panel, 130 cm x 122 cm
We will bring our own trees has been selected for the Sunshine Coast Art Prize and will be on view at the Caloundra Regional Gallery from 24.7.19 to 15.9.19
We will bring our own trees, 2019, oil, enamel and digital print on aluminium, 122 cm x 150 cm
Three paintings at the Academy Gallery, Launceston in conjunction with Mona Foma, 2019
Neil Haddon, 2018, All that a heart, enamel paint, marker pen, lacquer and digital print on aluminium, each panel: 78 cm x 65 cm
Another Rocky Shore, 2018, oil and enamel paint, vinyl and clear coat on aluminium panel, 120 cm x 110 cm
Pleased to be included in this exhibition with some very good fellow Tasmanian artists.
Sunshine Coast Art Prize, 2018, Caloundra Regional Gallery
Keep Your Eyes on the Money, 2018, 135 cm x 122 cm, acrylic and digital print on canvas
https://gallery.sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au/Art-Prizes/Sunshine-Coast-Art-Prize/Finalists-2018
2018 Hadley's Art Prize winner, Neil Haddon picture with his winning artwork titled "The Visit". Photo: Jessica King.
We are excited to announce the 2018 Hadley's Art Prize has been awarded to Neil Haddon, winning $100,000 for his depiction of British author H.G. Wells cycling through a nominal ‘Tasmanian’ landscape.
Haddon’s winning piece, titled The Visit, is a textural painting on contrasting surfaces, layered with meaning, alluding to Wells’ infamous science fiction novel, The War of the Worlds, as well as colonial artist, John Glover, and French artist, Paul Gauguin, to explore contact history.
Judge Jane Stewart said the judges were united in their decision to award Haddon the Prize.
“There is no doubt that his painting, The Visit, is a complex and accomplished painting that raises many questions about landscape, custodianship and contact history,” Ms Stewart said.
https://mailchi.mp/hadleyshotel/announcing-the-2018-hadleys-art-prize-winner-ojjilydmae?e=20ef753d10
Alan Young interviews Neil Haddon for the Contemporary Art Tasmania newsletter...
https://mailchi.mp/4a80d237c335/members-newsletter-april-2018?e=d4cbe5a35c
and here's a link to the painting Vestigial (40), in the NGV collection:
Academy Gallery, School of Creative Arts, Launceston, Tasmania
Neil Haddon, The Visit (cycle tracks in Utopia), 2017, mixed media on aluminium panel, 170 cm x 150 cm
Exhibition opening guest speaker: Brian Ritchie, Curator-MONA FOMA
Exhibition curator: Dr. Malcom Bywaters
Exhibition opening: 3.30 – 5pm Saturday 13 January
Exhibition dates: 13 January – 20 April
Artists: Margaret Baguley, Kate Camm, Steven Carson, Jon Cattapan, Scott Cunningham, Penelope Davis, Michael Doolan, Josh Foley, Lola Greeno, Neil Haddon, Stephen Haley, Marian Hosking, Wayne Z Hudson, Liam James, David Keeling, Martin Kerby, Kim Lehman, Pete Mattila, Anne Morrison, Troy Ruffels, Paul Snell, Danielle Thompson, Anna Van Stralen, Megan Walch, Helen Wright
Speed and the desire for mobility have transformed modern society. Both the desire for and the reality of speed are everywhere, and nowhere does speed dominate more than in the fields of information, knowledge, and communication. The ‘Internet of things” has changed the way we connect and interact with those around us, driving new economic structure based on a sharing community, spurring innovation and transforming community expectations. SPEED: mobility & exchange explores the place of speed and movement, communication and transportation, in our past and our future, in things, bodies, and images, in realisation and breakdown.
SPEED includes objects, artworks and teaching materials on loan from the University of Tasmania Fine Art Collection, Library Collection, School of Physical Science Collection, Engineering Collection, Geological Collection and John Elliot Classics Collections.
Presented in partnership with the University of Tasmania Collections Project and MONA FOMA.
Special opening hours for the MONA FOMA Launceston Block Party, Sunday 14 January - 12-9pm. Entry to the Block Party is free with registration at mofo.net.au
An exhibition of 17 painters, Galerie pompom, Sydney, 22 November - 17 December 2017
Participating artists: Kevin Chin, Will Cooke, Fernando do Campo, Stefan Dunlop, Neil Haddon, Irene Hanenbergh, Brent Harris, Matthew Harris, Daniel Hollier, Belem Lett, Ollie Lucas, Tara Marynowsky, Nuha Saad, Kate Tucker, Megan Walch, Tricky Walsh, Ian Williams
Curated by George Adams
http://www.galeriepompom.com/galerie-pompom--exhibitions.html
#galeriepompom #1717 #paintingnotpainting
Neil Haddon's painting We'll bring our own fruit 2017 will be included in the exhibition 'Strange Trees' at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, 10th August to 27th November, 2017. Curated by Jane Stewart and featuring the work of John Glover, Pat Brassington, Neil Haddon, David Keeling, Jonathan Kimberley, Stephen Lees, Ricky Maynard, Milan Milojevic, Geoff Parr, Troy Ruffels, Michael Schlitz, David Stephenson, Meg Walch, Helen Wright, Richard Wastell, and Philip Wolfhagen.
http://www.tmag.tas.gov.au/whats_on/exhibitions/current_upcoming/2015/strange_trees
We'll bring our own fruit, 2017, oil, enamel and digital print on aluminium panels
Strange Trees includes a range of artists’ interpretations of Tasmanian trees across nearly 200 years: from enchanted or ravaged forests, to the depiction of humanised, symbolic, mythological and historically significant trees.
When the colonial painter John Glover arrived in Tasmania in 1831 he marvelled at the “remarkable peculiarity of the trees” and noted with delight that he could view the “country” through their branches and foliage. In response, the trees in his Tasmanian landscapes possess a unique character, their lively, tentacular branches appearing to command the land and its inhabitants.
Strange Trees observes an enduring fascination with the forms, beauty and, at times, mystery of Tasmanian trees, simultaneously capturing their significance to our experience of the land. While Glover’s depiction of trees continues to influence artists today, it is Tasmania’s extraordinary natural environment that has inspired artists across time to depict trees in strange and evocative ways.
