GRACE DEWAR

POST PREMISES

Curated by Grace Dewar & Laurie Oxenford

‘Post Premises’ was a group exhibition celebrating 12 Australian artists and their collective responses to physical signs removed from their original context. Curated by Laurie Oxenford & Grace Dewar, ‘Post Premises’ discusses human interactions with everyday environments. Using repurposed exterior signage from Toowoomba’s iconic Metropole Hotel, First Coat Studios’ artists have considered these weathered objects, and their existing purpose, palette, text and surfaces, as a point of departure for new work.

Through diverse contemporary practices in sculpture, painting, photography, ceramics and video art, ‘Post Premises’ invites a dialogue between the object and the artist. Each sign has been altered or responded to, allowing for a slippage of ideas and a sense of play between the signifier (the physical sign) and the signified (the sign’s meaning). Through the filter of their studio processes, each contributor explored their idea of the culture, community and history associated with this iconic establishment. This consideration lead to a dynamic production of sensory and visual outcomes leaning into personal and imagined experiences in regional pub settings.

Exhibiting artists included Bronte Naylor, Catherine Parker, David Usher, Emily Young, Grace Dewar, Ian McCallum, Jade Courtney, Kirsty Lee, Laurie Oxenford, Linsey Walker, London Heir and Peta Berghofer.

View the catalogue essay here.

Photography credit: Linsey Walker