Liang Luscombe: Table Talk

13th August - 10th September

Boxcopy ARI

Liang Luscombe’s exhibition derives its name from Table Talk, the weekly magazine published in Melbourne from the 1885 until 1939, which covered politics, arts and social gossip of the time. She presents a series of paintings that speak to the historical narrative that looms over the Heidelberg School artists of the 1890s and the nostalgic figure of the male painter in the landscape more generally. Collaging and contrasting newspaper cartoons, exhibition invitations and photographs of the Melbourne that these artists inhabited, Luscombe contemplates the lineage and myth-making surrounding painters such as Arthur Streeton, Tom Roberts and Frederick McCubbin in relation to complex and problematic conceptions of the figure conducting en plein air painting. In this way, Luscombe questions the construction of cultural histories in Melbourne; and in Australian painting more broadly.

BIOGRAPHY

Luscombe’s recent solo exhibitions include: Three Sailors, Sutton Project Space, Melbourne, 2014; Non in Casa, 157 Blyth St, Melbourne, 2013; Bauhaus Fisher Price, TCB art inc., Melbourne, 2012. Selected group exhibitions include: Footnotes, The 3^rd Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art, Yekaterinburg, 2015; No fond return of love, I.C.A.N., Sydney, 2014; Dear Masato, all at once, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne, 2014; brimming dissolution, buoyant expenditure, RM, Auckland, 2014; Synonyms for Sincerity, Alaska Projects, Sydney, 2013; Please be quiet, The British School at Rome, Rome, 2013; Navel Gazing, Utopian Slumps, Melbourne, 2013; Fresh Paint, Sutton Projects, Melbourne, 2012; Ménage a Trois, XYZ Gallery Tokyo, 2012. Luscombe was the recipient of an Australia Council JUMP Mentorship in 2013 and was mentored by Angela Brennan. She has also held residencies at the Australia Council Studio, British School at Rome in 2013 and PICA Studio Residency in 2011. In 2016 she will undertake a Masters of Fine Art at Virginia Commonwealth University, USA.