MORGAN McPHEE; ARTEXPRESS EXHIBITION AT NEWINGTON ARMORY
On Monday March 1st, 2020 Visual Arts student Morgan McPhee with his family attended the opening event for ARTEXPRESS 2021 at the Newington Armory, Sydney Olympic Park. It was a very prestigious event, featuring various political state members and NESA officials.
Morgan’s Visual Arts body of work; ‘Check in, Check out…’ was selected for this exhibition amongst the best in the State. The theme of the exhibition is ‘Threads of connection’. From the Exhibition curator Danielle Gullotta; ARTEXPRESS: 'Threads of connection captures the expression of a cohort of young artists who created bodies of work amidst the catastrophic Australian bushfires of last Summer, the unprecedented impacts of the global pandemic, and the challenges of remote learning and social distancing. The artists are connected through their universal shared experiences of the past year, which raised questions for them around memory, resilience and renewal. Several artists have found inspiration from the unpredictability of life and a reassessment of the way we have lived and interacted in society. There is also an exploration of our threads of connection to the natural world, and our social and mental wellbeing', (as alluded in Morgan’s artmaking.)
The creative, personal and collective challenges these young artists shared in 2020 is unique. The threads of social connection to school, friends, family and life before social distancing took on new significance.
ARTEXPRESS at the Armory is an exhibition comprising major works submitted by HSC Visual Art students. We present it in partnership with the NSW Department of Education, the Arts Unit and the NSW Education Standards Authority. This year's exhibition contains exemplary works by 60 students that were created in the midst of the COVID-19 lockdown. This will be the largest of all the ARTEXPRESS exhibitions, and will showcase works by students from Western Sydney. It runs at the Armory Gallery from 2 March - 25 April 2021.
