Marty Branagan
CREATIVE PRACTICE
Multi-media artist, with a primary focus on Australian landscapes.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My art arises from a deep concern for the local and global environment, and a desire for sustainability, peace and social justice. Influences include surrealism, dada, impressionism, indigenous art and abstraction.
BIO
Ph.D. (UNE), Grad. Dip. Ed. (UNE), B.A. (Univ. Sydney), Dip. Fine Arts (NEI of TAFE NSW), Cert III Drawing (Centralian College, NT)
Solo exhibitions
Global Warning, Woodlands Centre, Armidale 2015
laddies night @ the e-bore, New England Regional Art Museum (NERAM), Armidale 2009
The Rising Oceans, Gallery 126, Armidale 2007
A Void; the Edge, NERAM, Armidale 2005
George in the Gorge, Rene on the Mews café/gallery, Armidale 2004
Thunderbolt's Lover: Armed Men in Dresses NERAM 2002
Images From The Garden of Eden, Mars Cuscus Gallery, Armidale 1998
Orange Heart, Green and Stormy Head, New England Art Society Gallery, Armidale 1999
Finalist
Bald Archies, (toured Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and regional centres) 2009
Country Energy Landscape Art Prize, NERAM, Armidale
Outback Art Prize, Broken Hill
Acquired
Northern Territory Art Award, Araluen Gallery, Alice Springs, 1998.
Also in private collections in Japan, Italy, Wales, Ireland, England and Australia.
Prize winner
Students and Sustainability Art Prize, Southern Cross University 1996.
Murals
Crosswords Café, Armidale (solo).
Aboriginaland, Urban Smart Projects, Brisbane (solo).
O’Connor High School (with Michael Brogan and students) 2015
TAFE Armidale (with TAFE Aboriginal Art students).
Centro Parenting Room, Armidale (with TAFE Art students).
Drummond Primary School, Armidale (collaborative).
Former Wilderness Shop, Armidale (destroyed).
Commission
Bigfoot (sculpture, with Iron Man Welders) and banners, SLEX Armidale 2008
Organiser/ exhibitor/ curator
Surreal Thing, New England Gallery
2015
A Peace of Black Earth, Aboriginal Cultural Centre and Keeping Place, Armidale 2000, funded by ‘Third City of the Arts’ programme. Featuring 20 artists & 25 musicians; opened by Armidale’s Deputy Mayor. Filmed for City of the Arts Video, 2001
Images From The Gardeners Of Eden (with printmaker, painter and fashion designer), Murwillumbah NSW 1998
Ipeltye Irreme (Sorry) (with Aboriginal artist, children’s art and two sculptors. Watch This Space, Alice Springs 1999
Selected joint exhibitions/art auctions
(out of forty total)
Biodiversity Exhibition, Sustainable Living Expo, Woodlands Centre, Armidale 2010
The Real Refuses, Sydney 2010
A Celebration of Sharing, NERAM 2009 (with Angus Niveson, Stuart Boggs, Kerry Gulliver, Julia Hardman et al).
Fifty/50, NERAM (with works by Margaret Olley, Charles Blackman et al), 2006.
Resilience, Resistance, Occupation (Women in Black), Aboriginal Cultural Centre and Keeping Place, 2006
Vexations, NERAM (with Angus Nivison, Stuart Boggs et al), 2006.
Art teaching
New England Institute of TAFE NSW 2006 – 2009, including units in Painting, Drawing, 2D Design, OH&S, and Art History at Diploma, Certificate IV and Certificate III levels (BACS). Young Endeavours Programme (GEES). Helped establish Aboriginal Art Course (2009).
Art and Self-Expression classes, Respite Retreats for carers of people with mental illness and care recipients, Yaraandoo Eco-Lodge and Function Centre 2008-2009
Selected workshops
Art for Peace workshop, Peace Conference, Armidale Town Hall 2010
Walking the Line, workshop, New England Art Society, 2006
Release the Inner Picasso, workshop, New England Art Society, 2005
Judging panels
Glen Innes Art Prize 2019, Family Matters art competition, Reclaim the Night 2015
Schools Art Prize, UNE 2004
Books
Locked On! The Seventh and Most Illegal in the Hitchhiker's Guide Trilogy (novel: paperback and illustrated e-book), Irene Publishing, Sweden 2019.
Global Warming, Militarism and Nonviolence: The Art of Active Resistance, Palgrave Macmillan, UK, 2013.
We Shall Never Be Moved: The Art of Australian Nonviolence, LAP, Koln, 2008.
Art Alone Will Move Us: Nonviolence Developments in the Australian Eco-Pax Movement 1982-2003, PhD, University of New England, 2006.
Horizontal Lightning (novel) by ‘Simon Ellis’ (pseud), Gaia Ink! & Fast Books, Glebe, 1994.
Other art-related publications in Art Insight, Tamworth City Gallery News, New Community Quarterly, Convergence, Armidale Express Extra, and Social Alternatives.
Cartoons published in Neucleus, Graduate Post, Union Recorder, and Kangaroo.
Photographs used in Trouble In Paradise, video about Borneo’s Penan people.
Recent conference presentations
‘Images from the Exhibition ‘Global Warning’, Building Sustainability with the Arts, EcoArts Australis 2nd National Conference, University of Wollongong, 2016
‘Artistic Activism’, EcoArts Australis Conference, Wollongong University, 2013.
‘Artworks from a Warming Planet’, EcoArts Australis Conference, Wollongong University, 2013
‘Communicating a Nonviolent Green Paradigm Through the Arts and Humour’, Communicating Peace: International Peace Research Association Conference, University of Sydney, 2010.
CONTACT
marty.branagan@une.edu.au