PAST EXHIBITION
THE SUN AT MIDNIGHT
The Sun at Midnight was the inaugural exhibition of the Hellenic Museum's dedicated Contemporary Art Space, 30 September – 11 December 2022.
In this exhibition of five contemporary Australian artists – Ann Debono, Rob McLeish, Stephen Benwell, Grace Wood and Ngilan Margaret Dodd – visitors were invited to consider the universality of Hellenism.
Viewed in isolation, the artworks might not immediately evoke Classical influence, but place them together in the heart of the Hellenic Museum and you cannot help but observe their binding thread. From this dance of curatorial vision and artistic intent emerged a dialogue about the ways in which Hellenic influence can appear in even the most unexpected of places, continuing to permeate and evolve through contemporary culture.
The Sun at Midnight was developed by Adam Stone, founder-director of LON Gallery in collaboration with the Hellenic Museum. Learn more about the exhibition and its artists in Adam's curatorial statement, included on the exhibition companion:
179KB PDF FILE
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
ANN DEBONO
Ann Debono (born 1989) is a painter living and working in Melbourne. She graduated from VCA Honours in Fine Art in 2015.
Ann's paintings attempt to image imaging. She uses her own photographs and found images as sources for her collage-like paintings. In her work, the tangible, present, 'real' world is always opening upon a spectral field of absence: the past and the future. For the artist, the material world, touched and seen, is a palimpsest of temporalities that are all showing through one another.
Ann has a longstanding personal interest in ancient history and culture, with motifs often emerging in her practice. Greco-Roman images provide poignant touchstones for her enquiries into the psychological zones of the past and future.
Ann recently completed a residency at The British School at Rome as the inaugural recipient of the Cranbourne Fellowship. She was a resident at Gertrude Contemporary between 2019–2021. Ann's solo presentations include:
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Sieve See, Gertrude Glasshouse, 2022
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Diachronic, Sutton Gallery, 2020
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Crease and Increase, Melbourne Art Fair, 2019
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Awled, Sutton Projects, 2017
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Dehiscence, KINGS ARI, 2016
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Upaithric, CAVES Gallery, 2015
Ann Debono appears courtesy of Sutton Gallery.
Visitors view Ann's work Antiphon (2021) in The Sun at Midnight