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MADELEINE CRUISE

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MADELEINE CRUISE

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Ex Voto

18/08/2017 - 28/08/2017

Gaffa Gallery Sydney

Ex Voto: An offering made in fulfillment of a vow.

We are pulled out of our homes to travel once in a while, drawn by people, places, lovers and circumstance into other countries and cultures. One of the places that we come across the most difference from our homebound lives is in the visual manifestation of faith in architecture, visual iconography and ceremony in religious and cultural events in countries outside of our own. Ex Voto expresses the echo and aftershock that these moments leave on our lives when we return home.

This exhibition is also about the role of ritual and habit in everyday life and the way these practices contribute to personal identity and purpose. Cruise’s conceptual starting point is her experience of religious and cultural festivities abroad, however the works really begin in the contrast between a sacred practice and a very secular one. Through painting, Cruise raises the value of domestic chores and daily habits to the status of important cultural rituals.

In the development of these works Cruise explores the role of decorative systems in attributing value to objects, the role of the artist in assigning meaning via the decision of subject matter, as well of the role of space and how it can be a means for people to connect with their environment.

Ex Voto is about giving holiness to routine, to community engagement, aesthetic orderliness and ornamentation. Carefully ordered interiors are sanctums, leisurely gardens are retreats.

Still life is a devotional practice and landscapes are holy sites.

Oliver Hensel Brown

 

 

Farnesina
Farnesina

2017, Acrylic on canvas, 40x30cm

Jardin de Tuileries
Jardin de Tuileries

2017, Acrylic & collage on canvas, 45x30cm

Accidental Monument
Accidental Monument

2017, Acrylic on canvas 64x42cm

Mariner's Crown
Mariner's Crown

2017, Acrylic on canvas, 64x42cm

Glorious Descent
Glorious Descent

2017, Acrylic on canvas, 64x40cm

Waiting in violet
Waiting in violet

2017, Acrylic on canvas, 64x42cm

Janitzio Island
Janitzio Island

2017, Acrylic & collage on canvas, 64x40cm

Tableau Vivant
Tableau Vivant

2017, Acrylic & collage on canvas, 64x42cm 

Call to Saint Martin
Call to Saint Martin

2017, Acrylic on canvas, 64x42cm

Sunday Best
Sunday Best

2017, Acrylic on canvas, 64x42cm

Mother's Flowers
Mother's Flowers

2017, Acrylic on canvas, 45x30cm

Balcony
Balcony

2017, Acrylic on canvas, 45x30cm

Starry Night
Starry Night

2017, Acrylic & collage on canvas, 40x30cm

Atrium
Atrium

2017, Acrylic & collage on canvas, 40x30cm

Place Cards
Place Cards

2017, Acrylic on canvas, 40x30cm

Vanity Set
Vanity Set

2017, Acrylic on canvas, 40x30cm

Waterhole
Waterhole

2017, Acrylic on canvas, 84x60cm

Ashes to Ashes
Ashes to Ashes

2017, Acrylic on canvas, 84x60cm

Street Romance
Street Romance

2017, Acrylic on canvas, 84x60cm

Farnesina Walk
Farnesina Walk

2017, Acrylic on canvas, 110x90cm

Looking for Monet
Looking for Monet

2017, Acrylic on canvas, 60x60cm

Ex Voto, 2017
Ex Voto, 2017

Gaffa, Sydney Australia

Ex Voto, 2017
Ex Voto, 2017

Gaffa, Sydney Australia

Ex Voto, 2017
Ex Voto, 2017

Gaffa, Sydney Australia

Ex Voto, 2017
Ex Voto, 2017

Gaffa, Sydney Australia

Ex Voto, 2017
Ex Voto, 2017

Gaffa, Sydney Australia

Ex Voto, 2017
Ex Voto, 2017

Gaffa, Sydney Australia

Ex Voto, 2017
Ex Voto, 2017

Gaffa, Sydney Australia

Ex Voto, 2017
Ex Voto, 2017

Gaffa, Sydney Australia

The Hawkesbury River

Work from the Hawkesbury River collection was made made during and after an artist residency on the Hawkesbury River of New South Wales in 2015. 

Madeleine was awarded the Bammy Memorial Residency by Sydney gallery Marrickville Garage in October 2015, when she spent a month living and working at Mangrove Creek. Working en plein air, often on a canoe, as well as in the farmhouse studio, Madeleine developed a series of paintings and drawings that continued to evolve for twelve months.

Works from this period were shown in The Bammy Exhibition at Marrickville Garage's gallery in April 2016. Other select works were chosen as finalists in the 2016 New South Wales En Plein Air Landscape Prize and the 2017 Lloyd Rees Memorial Youth Art Prize. 

Hawkesbury Hiding
Hawkesbury Hiding

2016, Acrylic on canvas, 84x60cm

Mariner's Tale
Mariner's Tale

2016, Acrylic & collage on canvas, 45x30cm

Hawkesbury River
Hawkesbury River

2016, Acrylic on canvas, 120x120cm

Mangrove Creature
Mangrove Creature

2015, Acrylic on canvas, 110x100cm

Lantana Banks
Lantana Banks

2017, Acrylic & collage on canvas, 84x60cm

Mangrove Caves
Mangrove Caves

2016, Acrylic on canvas, 84x60cm

Mangrove Cliff
Mangrove Cliff

2016, Acrylic on canvas, 40x30cm

Weeping Limbs Of The Hawkesbury
Weeping Limbs Of The Hawkesbury

2016, Acrylic on canvas, 40x30cm

Hawkesbury Study
Hawkesbury Study

2015, Pencil & Watercolour on paper, 20x30cm

Hawkesbury Study 2
Hawkesbury Study 2

2015, Gouache & pastel on paper, 30x20cm

Strange Sounds
Strange Sounds

2015, pastel, collage & gouache on paper, 35x28cm

Garden Study
Garden Study

2015, Pastel, pencil & gouache on paper, 30x25cm

Garden Study 2
Garden Study 2

2015, Pastel, pencil & gouache on paper, 25x15cm

Strange Sounds 2
Strange Sounds 2

2015, Pastel, pencil, gouache & collage on paper, 30x22cm

Creature Study
Creature Study

2015, Pastel, pencil, gouache & collage on paper, 20x15cm

Mangrove Creek Study 1
Mangrove Creek Study 1

2015, Pastel, pencil & gouache on rag paper, 15x25cm

Mangrove Creek Study 2
Mangrove Creek Study 2

2015, Pastel, pencil & gouache on rag paper, 15x25cm

Mangrove Study 3
Mangrove Study 3

2015, Pastel, pencil & gouache on rag paper, 25x15cm

The Bammy Residency Exhibition
The Bammy Residency Exhibition

Marrickville Garage, Sydney Australia, 2016

CANDY

11/02/2015 – 28/02/2015

NANA Contemporary Art Space Newcastle

When I walked into Madeleine’s Islington studio, at the back of her house looking over a garden (giant jacaranda tree with chooks beyond), Candy reminded me of a saying: first there was the word, and the word was replaced by flesh, and it never healed. With flesh, without word, the world becomes infinite, un-bound by parameters of language.

Madeleine’s fleshy landscapes are just that, open wounds, no beginning, no ending, rather suggestions of infinite manifestations, a never ending morphing of worlds. Internal organs become the landscape, become external, as intestines become mountains as fertility eggs become reservoirs. Colour is indiscriminate, purple jacaranda by pastel pink by brown by indigo. At times awkward, calmer as eyes adjust, what begins as unnatural steers now to a norm and a world where branches can be yolk.

And what of the things that live in these landscapes? They oscillate between craving the artificial and being umbilical-bound to the natural, a mental tug of war to find place and peace in a world of manufactured candy-like temptations. These temptations border beauty but before long fall to the realm of the grotesque; an overindulgence that ends in decay, a melting return to an amoebic state.

With Madeleine’s Candy we see a peeling back and reduction to the point where reality and what once was meet: is the world today, was it the Archean.

Ineke Dane

Fertility
Fertility

2015, Acrylic on canvas, 110x100cm

Slip
Slip

2015, Acrylic on linen, 80x40cm

Incarnent
Incarnent

2015, Acrylic on linen, 80x40cm

Undergrowth
Undergrowth

2015, Acrylic on canvas, 110x90cm

Frozen
Frozen

2015, Acrylic on canvas, 110x90cm

Pushing through
Pushing through

2015, Acrylic on canvas, 90x80cm

Nest
Nest

2015, Acrylic on canvas, 90x110cm

The dance
The dance

2015, Acrylic on canvas, 30x45cm

Mountain king
Mountain king

2015, Acrylic on canvas, 30x45cm

Giving way
Giving way

2015, Acrylic on canvas, 30x45cm

Moon lit
Moon lit

2015, Acrylic on canvas, 45x30cm

Canyon
Canyon

2015, Acrylic on canvas, 90x80cm

Euphoria lost
Euphoria lost

2016, Acrylic on canvas, 80x60cm

Coral embrace
Coral embrace

2016, Acrylic on canvas, 80x60cm

Fear of blushing
Fear of blushing

2016, Acrylic on canvas, 120x120cm

Purple Bower
Purple Bower

2016, Acrylic on canvas, 110x100cm

Everything I once said
Everything I once said

2016, Acrylic on canvas, 90x110cm

Relentless Thoughts
Relentless Thoughts

2016, Acrylic on canvas, 110x100cm

Miami, 2016
Miami, 2016

Modern Times, Melbourne Australia 

Modern Times Feature, 2016
Modern Times Feature, 2016

Modern Times, Melbourne Australia 

Purple Bower, 2016
Purple Bower, 2016

Modern Times, Melbourne Australia 

Coral Embrace and Sweetness Within Reach, 2016
Coral Embrace and Sweetness Within Reach, 2016

Modern Times, Melbourne Australia

Relentless Thoughts, 2016
Relentless Thoughts, 2016

Modern Times, Melbourne Australia, 2016

Industry

A reoccurring subject matter in Madeleine's work is the industrial landscape and its convergence with nature. This ongoing investigation contributes to a body of work that began in  2012 when Madeleine relocated from Sydney to her current home in Newcastle NSW. 

Newcastle is an industrial city on the east coast of Australia and home to the world's largest coal port. Madeleine's daily bicycle commute between home and studio, takes in this landscape, when she observes the changing tides and schedule of coal ships or waits behind boom gates for freight trains to drag by.

As a city currently experiencing massive infrastructure development, as well as as its regular schedule of industry Newcastle is a complex working machine. It's salt eaten surfaces, high rise construction and coal loader cycles can be seen in the textured surfaces and multiplied compositions of Madeleine's paintings. Her paintings wrestle with change, with movement, decay and ultimately a fixed state of being. They are cogs in a wheel and working fixtures of a city. 

Select works from the Industry series have been shown in group exhibitions in Sydney and Newcastle and have been acquired by collectors including Artbank Australia. 

South Westerly Lookout
South Westerly Lookout

2017, Acrylic on canvas, 60x60cm

Berths & Baths
Berths & Baths

2017, Acrylic on canvas, 60x60cm

Land Ornaments
Land Ornaments

2017, Acrylic on canvas, 110x100cm

Newcastle Harbour Traffic
Newcastle Harbour Traffic

2016, Acrylic on canvas, 110x90cm

Hull Sequence In Blue
Hull Sequence In Blue

2015, Acrylic on canvas, 80x90cm

Hexham Carnivale
Hexham Carnivale

2015, Acrylic on canvas, 80x80xm

The Marina
The Marina

2015, Acrylic on canvas, 30x40cm

Newcastle Harbour
Newcastle Harbour

2015, Acrylic on canvas, 90x110cm

Land Ornaments, 2017
Land Ornaments, 2017

Aesthetic Uncertainties, Stanley Street Gallery, Sydney Australia, 2017

South Westerly Lookout and Berths & Baths, 2017
South Westerly Lookout and Berths & Baths, 2017

Aesthetic Uncertainties, Stanley Street Gallery, Sydney Australia, 2017

Land Ornaments, 2017
Land Ornaments, 2017

Paradise, Dungog Contemporary, Dungog NSW Australia, 2018

Port Waratah
Port Waratah

2018, Acrylic on canvas, 110x110cm

Exhibitions

Feature Artist
Feature Artist

Modern Times Melbourne July 2016

Modern Times show room
Modern Times show room

Modern Times Melbourne 2016

Modern Times show room
Modern Times show room

Modern Times Melbourne 2016

Ex Voto
Ex Voto

Gaffa Gallery Sydney August 2017

Ex Voto
Ex Voto

GAFFA Gallery Sydney August 2017

Ex Voto
Ex Voto

GAFFA Gallery Sydney August 2017

Ex Voto
Ex Voto

GAFFA gallery Sydney August 2017

Dungog Contemporary
Dungog Contemporary

December 2017

Aesthetic Uncertainties
Aesthetic Uncertainties

Stanley Street Gallery Sydney November 2017

Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship Exhibition
Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship Exhibition

Brett Whiteley Studio, Surry Hills, 2017

EGO REBEL
EGO REBEL

The Bearded Tit Redfern Dec/Jan 2017/18

The Other Art Fair
The Other Art Fair

Sydney September 2015

The Bammy Residency Exhibition
The Bammy Residency Exhibition

Marrickville Garage Sydney, April 2016

Muswellbrook Art Prize 2018
Muswellbrook Art Prize 2018

Muswellbrook Arts Centre

Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship Exhibition
Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship Exhibition

Brett Whiteley Studio, Surry Hills, 2017

EGO REBEL
EGO REBEL

The Bearded Tit, Redfern, Dec/Jan 2017/18

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Theatre Of Objects

A solo Exhibition

Dungog Contemporary 23 August - 23 September 2018

Theatre Of Objects is the latest body of work from Newcastle based artist Madeleine Cruise. Like much of Madeleine’s recent work, this series continues to investigate the relationship between art and life and the meditative role of painting.

With a new found appreciation for the Still Life genre, Theatre of Objects is Madeleine’s most representational series to date and demonstrates an artistic shift in her practice. However, unlike traditional still life paintings, the vessels depicted in Madeleine’s works are far from inanimate and appear more like protagonists on a painterly stage. Attributed with character and emotion, the everyday household items enact conundrums, vent frustrations, debate and console one another. As such, Madeleine uses painting to chart emotional terrain and gives physicality to internal frustrations. Painting title’s such as: Winners keep on winning and Keep your enemies close, are examples of the social framework and internal dialogue that the artist has used as the thematic basis for this series of work.

Theatre of Objects reveals the artists’ appreciation of the home as a sanctuary and an important source of identity. Based on the interiors of her own home and garden Madeleine has carefully composed paintings that re evaluate the status of common objects and domestic tasks and aligned them with the status of ritual.

 

 

The Heart Of The Matter, 2017.
The Heart Of The Matter, 2017.

Acrylic on linen, 100x90cm.

Best Friends, 2018.
Best Friends, 2018.

Acrylic on canvas, 100x70cm.

Banquet With Lemons, 2018.
Banquet With Lemons, 2018.

Acrylic on canvas, 110x100cm.

Things We Hold Dear, 2018.
Things We Hold Dear, 2018.

Acrylic on canvas, 120x110cm.

The Fight For What Remains, 2018.
The Fight For What Remains, 2018.

Acrylic on canvas, 110x90cm.

Some Kind Of Fantasy, 2018.
Some Kind Of Fantasy, 2018.

Acrylic on canvas, 65x40cm.

Winners Keep On Winning, 2018.
Winners Keep On Winning, 2018.

Acrylic on linen. 120x90cm.

Common Tragedy, 2018.
Common Tragedy, 2018.

Acrylic on canvas, 52x42cm.

Leisure Chores, 2018
Leisure Chores, 2018

Acrylic on canvas, 42x32cm.

Stage Craft, 2018
Stage Craft, 2018

Acrylic on canvas, 42x32cm.

Keep Your Enemies Close, 2018
Keep Your Enemies Close, 2018

Acrylic on canvas, 42x32cm.

The Bold And The Beautiful, 2018
The Bold And The Beautiful, 2018

Acrylic on canvas, 42x32cm.

The Muses, 2018.
The Muses, 2018.

Acrylic on canvas, 60x60cm.

Cake Judging, 2018
Cake Judging, 2018

Acrylic on linen, 78x58cm

Semblance

Completed in late 2018, Semblance is a refined collection of still life based works built upon the artist’s earlier collection Theatre Of Objects. In this new series, Madeleine continues to investigate the relationship between art and life but with an increased focus on reductive form, geometry and flattening of space. These works demonstrate a shift in the artist’s direction that tends toward abstraction while still maintaining reference to interior and still life imagery.

The Semblance works featured in a group exhibition at Comber Street Studios Paddington in October 2018, curated by Sophie Vander of Curatorial and Co.

Straighten Up & Keep It Together, 2018
Straighten Up & Keep It Together, 2018

Acrylic on canvas, 76x66cm

Still Life With Mystery Fruits, 2018
Still Life With Mystery Fruits, 2018

Acrylic on canvas, 76x66cm

Still Life After Wakelin, 2018
Still Life After Wakelin, 2018

Acrylic on canvas, 76x66cm

Gold Digger, 2018
Gold Digger, 2018

Acrylic on canvas, 110x10cm

Check Mate, 2018
Check Mate, 2018

Acrylic on canvas, 76x66cm

Comber Street Studios, 2018
Comber Street Studios, 2018

With sculpture by Carol Crawford.

Comber Street Studios, 2018
Comber Street Studios, 2018
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Back to Madeleine Cruise Work
Farnesina
29
Ex Voto
Hawkesbury Hiding
19
The Hawkesbury River
Fertility
23
CANDY
South Westerly Lookout
12
Industry
Artwork - 664.jpg
20
Exhibitions
The Heart Of The Matter, 2017.
14
Theatre Of Objects
Straighten Up & Keep It Together, 2018
7
Semblance

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