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Dianne Longley, Working across a range of media including printmaking; encaustic and pokerwork on wooden panels; artist books; on-glaze porcelain; and small scale bronze casting, Dianne’s fantastic worlds and mystical dreamscapes enact the absurdity of human existence. The works often combine primordial plant forms such as yuccas, agaves and cacti, with fanciful figures and imagined landscapes. Magicians signal a quest, fantastic creatures interact, and medieval monsters are guardians of future possibilities. Inhabiting these small works are creatures from the Renaissance historia animalium of Conrad Gesner, humorous figures from 16th century French humanist and artist François Rabelais, contemporary Japanese ‘kawaii’, pop-imagination figures and toys, and grotesque historical imagery. This cast of creatures and plants are combined to create various peculiar and curious scenarios. Dianne’s characters live in a world where nothing is certain.
Currently a PhD student at ANU with supervisor Sasha Grishin working on an historical thesis The Development of a Print Culture in South Australia between 1945 and 2008: institutions, politics and personalities, Dianne gained a BVA from Hunter Institute of Higher Education NSW in 1979, and a research MA from Flinders University SA in 2000. Dianne has had numerous solo and group exhibitions, and in early 2013 she exhibited editions of on-glaze porcelain plates and pokerwork and encaustic panels at Brenda May Gallery in Sydney in a show titled Keeper of Imagined Landscapes and Sweet Monsters. She has conducted numerous workshops in printmaking, digital imaging, and artist books in Australia, USA, UK and Japan. In 2011 Dianne taught a summer school in printmaking at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine, USA. Her book Printmaking with Photopolymer Plates is in its 3rd edition, and Dianne is planning to write a new book on photopolymer printmaking post-PhD studies. Dianne was born in Sydney but grew up on a sheep and wheat farm in central NSW and went to art school in Newcastle from 1975-78. In 1979 she moved to Adelaide which was her base until 2014 when she relocated to Trentham Victoria and opened an access printmaking studio – AGAVE PRINT STUDIO – in a 1970s A-frame. AGAVE PRINT STUDIO offers workshops and studio access for printmakers, printmaking collaborations and editioning services, short-term residencies, and craft classes including on-glaze porcelain, letterpress stationary and book-binding. Dianne is also the contact person for Enjay Presses in the Goldfields area, and has an Enjay press at her studio in Trentham if you would like to see the press or test-run a print! For information contact: [email protected] or visit her websites: www.diannelongley.com.au and www.agaveprintstudio.com.au |
On-glaze porcelain editions, sizes variable, 2013
Adelaide Central Gallery, installation digital wood engravings, size variable
Between Earth and Sky – Crossing Over, drypoint, inkjet chine collé, gold leaf, 2011
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