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DATE & TIME
Saturday 22 July 2023
1pm – 4pm
Spotlight artist talk 1pm-1:40pm

VENUE
Penrith Regional Gallery, Home of The Lewers Bequest
86 River Road, Emu Plains

Click here to read more about this exhibition on the Penrith Regional Gallery website.

On behalf of Penrith Regional Gallery, Home of The Lewers Bequest, we warmly invite you to the opening of our Winter Suite of exhibitions.

Featuring new and recent works by Halinka Orszulok as well as a new body of work by artist Anjum Olmo. Also on display are works from our Collection selected by Dharug artist Leanne Tobin, featuring a new acquisition by the artist.

The event will begin with free spotlight artist talks from 1pm, before an opening reception from 2pm – 4pm. Light refreshments will be served.

Official opening by Toby Chapman, Director, Visual Arts, Penrith Performing & Visual Arts.

The first half of 2021 saw me very busy and absorbed, making work for, and curating ‘False Sense of Security’ for The Lock Up in Newcastle. I feel very grateful that it went ahead, when during the second half of the year, so many artists have been frustrated and disappointed with events and shows once again cancelled or postponed. I was going to be taking part in the awesome Cementa festival in Kandos in October but that has been postponed till mid next year. It will be fantastic once it comes around, hopefully by then we can truly enjoy mingling with our peers and soaking up that festival vibe. In the meantime, I have been trying to find a home for a show that is a further development of my Cementa project. I was really inspired by the landscape out west while on residency and hope to make a comprehensive solo show that will still include paintings, but will stretch me outside of my comfort zone into the realm of video, text and object.

I have updated the gallery with images from the Black Bob’s Creek exhibition, but it seems the whole website could do with an overhaul, so I will hold off adding images and text from the False Sense of Security show to the curator page, till that happens.

March 2020 – ‘Black Bob’s Creek’ Wollongong Art Gallery

I would like to warmly invite you all to my next exhibition of new works to be shown at Wollongong Art Gallery titled ‘Black Bob’s Creek’ opening on the 6^th of March. There will be an artist talk held at the gallery at 11:00am on the 4^th of March. So if you’re curious about the title of this show and the place that inspired my latest works, have a read of my catalogue essay here or come to the talk where I will give some background on the development of my practice and discuss the current exhibition.

Exhibition Invite.

Artist Talk flyer.

March 2019 – ‘Uncertain Territory’ Artbank

Almost a year ago saw me curate for the first time, as part of Artbank’s emerging curator program. What an absolute thrill and honour it was, to work alongside Head Curator Oliver Watts and Assistant Curator Imogen Dixon-Smith and bring to fruition what was an outstanding show. It far exceeded my expectations and helped to coalesce so many ideas and feelings that I have about representing the landscape in Australia.

You can find the catalogue essay here and images from the exhibition will be in my gallery soon.

Andrew Frost wrote a fantastic review of the show that can be found here.

October 2018 – ‘Night on the Outskirts’ Flinders Street Gallery

I have updated my Gallery with images from my most recent exhibition at Flinders Street Gallery in Sydney. Varia Karipoff wrote a great piece for Art Guide around this exhibition which you can find here: https://artguide.com.au/interview-halinka-orszulok

Hannah Robson Jenkins thoughtfully explored my work for Art Almanac, which you can find here: https://www.art-almanac.com.au/halinka-orszulok/

So sorry this site hasn’t been updated for so long. There will be a big update coming in the next week or so to catch up on everything since the end of 2018. I’ll also be updating the Gallery page with recent work.

In the meantime, please put March 6th in your diaries – a new show is opening in Wollongong on that day.

Glover Prize

The big news for this year is Halinka’s win of the coveted Glover Prize with her work ‘Ponies’. The award was judged by a highly esteemed panel of Tony Stephens, Natalia Ottelenghi-Bradshaw and Jane Deeth who unanimously chose the work as the winner.

Here are some links to articles about this year’s prize –

https://artguide.com.au/halinka-orszulok-wins-the-2018-glover-prize

https://www.examiner.com.au/story/5275718/first-time-entrant-claims-tasmanias-prestigious-glover-prize/

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-09/glover-prize-winner-2018-halinka-orszulok/9533880

http://www.artistprofile.com.au/halinka-orszulok-wins-2018-glover-prize/

Sushine Coast Art Prize finalist

Halinka’s work ‘In the Wild’ has been selected as a finalist in this year’s Sunshine Coast Art Prize. The Sunshine Coast Art Prize is an annual prize for contemporary two dimensional art held at Caloundra Regional Gallery. The prize will run from the 16^th of August till the 14^th of October. The winner will be announced on the 30^th of August.

You can see the finalists here – https://gallery.sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au/Art-Prizes/Sunshine-Coast-Art-Prize/Finalists-2018

Art Guide interview

An interview with Varia Karipoff will be published in the July/August print edition of Art Guide magazine.

October show

Halinka will be having a solo show with Flinders Street Gallery in Sydney in early October.

Halinka’s new show opens at Flinders Street Gallery on Thursday 17th November 2016, from 6 – 8pm. The show will run from Wednesday 16th November until Wednesday 8th December at Flinders Street Gallery, 61 Flinders Street, Sydney, Australia 2010. You can contact Jason Martin at the gallery on 02 9380 5663. The official invite is below – click for a larger version.

You can read Halinka’s artist’s statement about the show here.

There’s a Facebook event with details which you can join here.

Click here to go to the Gallery page to see the new work.

My new show opens on Thursday 3rd September, from 6 – 8pm. Please come along and pass the information on to anyone who you think might be interested.

Flinders Street Gallery
61 Flinders Street
Surry Hills
Sydney NSW 2010

Show runs from the 2nd to the 26th September. All the details on the invite below – click for a larger version. Images of the new work are available on the gallery website at http://www.flindersstreetgallery.com, and will be up in the gallery here after the show.

Here’s the artist’s statement for this exhibition:

Swamp Motel

My latest body of work reflects an interest in how the changes we make to the environment in turn affect the way we relate to the spaces we inhabit and pass through. We divide and design space for human purpose and internalise these constructions in order to psychologically map our sense of place in the world. In this way, the external environment becomes a mirror for the internal, individual space of the subconscious, allowing these images to be read in a metaphorical or narrative sense.

The paintings are based on photographs taken in two different locations near the town of Kiama. The first is a section of old highway that once took traffic through town where, particularly at night, there can be a feeling of desolation and unnatural quiet. I was fascinated by the starkly lit embankment, a weedy wilderness cut out of the rock to accommodate the road; it is ground not meant to be walked over, only seen from the window of a moving vehicle. Here the conventional binary between the natural and man-made environment breaks down. This distinction is uncomfortably merged as plants, some native but mostly weed, have firmly established themselves on the rock-face which crumbles and erodes under the influences of time and the elements. The two paintings based on this location (‘Lone Rider’, ‘On the Ground’) will be shown later this year as part of my contribution to a crime themed group show ‘Exhibit A’, curated by Carrie Miller, at The Lockup in Newcastle.

The second location I photographed is a bike path winding through dairy paddocks which are gradually being eaten up by suburban development. The path passes under two highway bridges which impose monumentally on the rural landscape. It is a strange feeling to be physically present in a space which, to others, is only a backdrop to their travel. The two types of experience are completely cut off from each other; the space above on the bridges and the landscape beneath seem to exist in different pockets of time. As modes of travel become increasingly efficient, there is an ongoing abstraction of the landscape into something that is passed through, not physically experienced. It is hard to fight a feeling of nostalgia, seeing a remnant rural idyll through the frame of a concrete monument to human progress. At the same time, there is a sense of awe when looking up at these incredible constructions, at what we humans can achieve.

I am also interested in how these spaces, constructed for one purpose, might find another under the cover of darkness. As I put these images together there is the imagining of other people experiencing them and how they might feel. Outsiders finding solitude, camaraderie, danger, sadness or perhaps even elation, the darkness outside intensifying a connection to the inner self.

My new show opens on Tuesday 29th April, from 6 – 8pm. Please come along and pass the information on to anyone who you think might be interested.

Flinders Street Gallery
61 Flinders Street
Surry Hills
Sydney NSW 2010

Show runs from the 30th April to the 17th May. All the details on the invite at top left – click for a larger image. Images of the new work are available on the gallery website at http://www.flindersstreetgallery.com and will be up in the gallery here after the show.

Here’s the artist statement in relation to this show:

In the past, my work has expressed a fascination for built environments and how they reflect back to us both our physical and psychological inhabitation of them. I am particularly interested in the transformation of these spaces at night, how their meaning may be altered by the subconscious associations night carries with it; mystery, danger and the possibilities of the unknown.

While out taking photographs for new work, I was lucky enough to stumble upon the aftermath of a joyride, which became the loose narrative focus for this current suite of paintings. The stillness of the spectacularly burnt out wreckage and the abstract patterns left by the ‘circle work’ told a story of intense energy and emotion that had been and passed. The skate park and adjoining car park becoming a stage for this performance.

It seemed somehow appropriate that this marginal activity would occur in a kind of no-man’s land in the shadow of a large supermarket. This deliberately destructive, dangerous act expresses a refusal to conform to society’s expectations and conventions – whether driven by testosterone-fuelled anger, boredom or some other displaced energy, we can’t know for certain. Without condoning the activity, it’s still possible to be impressed by the sense of intense energy and life force concentrated there in the burnt out wreckage and the skilful mastery and simple beauty of the circles drawn by the car’s tyres. I imagine the people in that car carried away by a momentary sense of ownership and power over the landscape through which they passed and on which they left their mark.

I’m very excited to be taking my work down to Melbourne for a show in the Purgatory Artspace, upstairs at Gallerysmith. In getting to know Marita Smith, the director at Gallerysmith, she has proven to be uncompromising in her commitment both to her artsists and to contemprary art in general so it’s a real pleasure to be showing in association with this gallery. The show will be open from Thursday 21st of March till Sunday 7th of April during the galleries usual opening times. There will be celebratory drinks on Sat 23rd of March, so please join us if you can.

The time has come again to bring the solitary work of the studio out into the world. It would be great if you can join me for the opening night on the 20th Nov. If you can’t make the opening night, the show runs from the 21st Nov- 8th Dec. I will be present at the gallery 29th and 30th Nov, and giving an artist’s talk on the 1st Dec.

See below for the invitation (click the image for full size) and an artist’s statement.

Artist’s statement

For my third solo exhibition with Flinders Street Gallery, I have continued my practice of taking photos at night and painting them photo-realistically in oil on canvas. The subject matter comes from locations near my home on the south coast and shows scenes around the towns of Kiama and Jamberoo. This has lent the images a slightly different tone to the more urban settings I often focused on in the past. There are greater areas of darkness and the natural world is a lot more present in these images. I have always been intrigued by the visual, almost surreal effect on natural elements when they are lit by artificial light at night. For me, this represents the fragile yet compelling imaginary line between the sphere of the human and that of the natural world.

Illuminating public spaces at night is a practicality, but it also deepens the shadows, making the dark all the more impenetrable. In my work this contrast between what is seen and what is thrown into extreme darkness symbolises a failed attempt at control and ownership. It is a reminder that the traditional binary division between nature and culture, the wild and the tamed, the known and the unknown, the rational and the irrational, is a conventional one, though it remains potent in our minds. Artificial light in the night-time landscape is also a reminder that we play a dominant role in the shaping of our environment and that we must live with the changes we render.

On another level, this contrast of light and darkness can be seen as symbolic of our fraught relationship with the known and the unknown within ourselves. My interest is firmly rooted in the subjective experience – how we psychologically locate ourselves in a world of flux where we are both active participant and subject to the many uncertainties of our existence. At times even our own internal world can seem out of our control, the only way to regain the self being through the darkest places within.

We map our personal topographies across the landscape in which we move, giving the world form, purpose and meaning via our own memories and experiences. We make sense of the things that happen to us by building them into a unique personal narrative. Some look to religion, superstition or magical thinking to bolster a sense of agency in the face of so much uncertainty. It is also true that intense flashes of insight, a sense of everything being deeply meaningful, can be the result of intoxication or madness. These images represent moments of reflection and insight within an unknown greater narrative. By painting these otherwise overlooked spaces with such attention to detail my aim is to elicit a feeling of everything, however fleetingly, being meaningful. It is my belief that the physical act of painting and the very stillness of the images in some way manages to achieve this. I wish to explore the potential for the external world to be a mirror to one’s internal world and leave it to the viewer to decide what meaning lies there.