Significant artwork acquired by Wangaratta Art Gallery
Published on 05 February 2025
Significant artwork acquired by Wangaratta Art Gallery
A significant painting by Wangaratta-born artist Matthew Harris has been acquired by the Wangaratta Art Gallery with support of the Robert Salzer Foundation Acquisitions Fund and funds raised by the Friends of the Wangaratta Art Gallery.
Harris, now based in Melbourne, explores his European and Aboriginal heritage through his paintings and sculptures using traditional First Nations techniques in his minimal and abstracted style. The work titled Yeddonba, 2023, uses white ochre, charcoal and acrylic binder on hessian to depict the forms and stone shelters of the Yeddonba Aboriginal Cultural Site in the Chiltern-Mount Pilot National Park. The Yeddonba Aboriginal Cultural Site is an ancient rock art site documented as being associated with both the Dhudhuroa-speaking and Waywurru-speaking peoples.
Harris says “The blobby grey and black paintings are forms taken straight from natural stone shelters and sites not far from Wangaratta where I was born and grew up, a region important to my family in both the ancient and recent past - the black family, the white family, the all mixed up grey family. Aboriginal people lived among the rocks and the rocks were part of the family. Even my great-grandparents all the way from Denmark had a farm just up the road. There are still paintings on the rocks after all these years.”
Moving away from canvas as the ground for his paintings, Harris has used hessian for its colonial references and textile origins. He has also incorporated natural ochres and charcoal, some of the most ancient and long serving art materials. Harris describes how “white ochre in particular is often (though not universally) painted on the body for ceremony, during sorry business and for fighting. Some of the ochre I’ve used is from an uncle, some from an Aboriginal business that sells it by the kilo due to the amount needed for big paintings.”
Wangaratta Art Gallery Director, Rachel Arndt says:
“We are incredibly grateful to both the Wangaratta Art Gallery Friends and the Robert Salzer Foundation Acquisitions Fund to acquire this important work for our community. The Robert Salzer Foundation Acquisitions Fund supports the public gallery sector in Victoria to acquire two-dimensional art works for their permanent collections.
The Wangaratta Art Gallery Friends have been operating since the inception of the Gallery, helping to grow the collection. We simply could not build our collection without their generous financial support and investment in our Gallery’s public collection.”
In reference to Harris, she adds that:
“This important painting is an outstanding example of contemporary painting, with the content having a clear and resonant connection to the Wangaratta region by this acclaimed Wangaratta-born First Nations artist.”
The painting is complemented by a large textile sculpture, With a warm embrace, 2023, donated by the artist in 2024. Both works will be displayed as part of a major exhibition of Harris’ work held at Wangaratta Art Gallery in late 2025.
Harris has exhibited in the Yokohama Triennial, Melbourne Now 2023 at the National Gallery of Victoria as well as Neon Parc in Melbourne, Murray Art Museum Albury, Sullivan+Strumpf, Galerie Pompom, and Alaska Projects in Sydney. A suite of six paintings by Harris was recently acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria and is on display on the ground floor of the NGV Australia.
Image 1: Matthew Harris, Yeddonba, 2023, ochre, charcoal and acrylic on hessian, 153 x 200cm, Wangaratta Art Gallery Collection, purchased with the assistance of the Robert Salzer Foundation and Wangaratta Art Gallery Friends Inc.
Image 2: Matthew Harris, With a Warm Embrace, 2023, recycled industrial felt, Wangaratta Woollen Mills acrylic yarn, gesso, acrylic paint, river stones, polyester filling, 2 objects, each 95 x 80 x 75 cm. Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program.
Image 3: Installation view of Matthew Harris’ exhibition, A Sky without Stars, The Commercial, Sydney, 2024.
For more information on how to join the Wangaratta Art Gallery Friends Inc. please contact the Gallery or visit our website: www.wangarattaartgallery.com.au