By Dani Valent
Tarrawarra Museum of Art - SkyWhale, Patricia PiccinniCredit: Martin Ollman
This is sponsored content for Visit Victoria.
Local artist Patricia Piccinini is best known for her lifelike sculptures of almost-human beings. She evokes fantasy worlds that are so close to being real that they make us question what it means to be human in the world today. She takes some of her inspiration from the great outdoors.
Your artwork, The Clearing, is part of the opening exhibition at the New Lyon House Museum Galleries in Kew. What's it like there?
The owners, Corbett and Yueji Lyon, started next door with a museum in their house – you would make an appointment to visit. Fancy having people in your house all the time – it's very generous, open-hearted and giving. Now they have turned the building next door into a gallery. Their first exhibition is a group show with 16 Australian artists. It's rigorous and intellectual, but at the same time interested in connecting with people about important ideas of our time in a sincere way.
Lyon Housemuseum Galleries, 217 Cotham Road, Kew lyonhousemuseum.com.au
You show at Tolarno Galleries in Melbourne City, but you don't only visit during your own exhibitions. What keeps you going back?
I know all of the artists and I've loved following their practices over the years.
Jan Minchin, owner and director of Tolarno Galleries, has a really interesting program with predominantly Australian artists working to tell us where we are today.
The gallery is a little bit hard to find which I like – it's an ordinary building, you go in a lift, then you're in this other world of modern art and ideas. It's not like going to the National Gallery – it's more intimate and there's the space to see the work in a quieter way.
Tolarno Galleries, Level 4, 104 Exhibition Street, Melbourne tolarnogalleries.com
Winter is an ideal time to connect with art through gallery visits. Where else can visitors cosy up to art in the cooler months?
Perimeter Books sells and produces artists' books – not just catalogues of art but limited-edition books that are also works of art in their way, precious objects, gems – not made for profit but labours of love. It's a place steeped in wonderful ideas.
Perimeter Books, 748 High Street, Thornbury perimeterbooks.com
Any tips for an out-of-town winter escape?
TarraWarra Museum of Art is just an hour from the city, in the Yarra Valley, but when you get there you've left your everyday experiences behind, you're out in the landscape and you're open to new ideas. The environment is so aesthetic – it's set in a vineyard, there's parkland. Not only do they have great shows, but you can sit on the deck and have a glass of wine. It's Melbourne but with extra space and time.
What's your favourite "get outdoors" option on a crisp winter day?
I'd choose Heide Museum of Modern Art. It isn't just art – there are gardens as well. It's set in this wonderful landscape with sculptures and a fantastic vegetable garden. Being there makes me feel part of the continuum of Australian art, from the birth of modernism when John and Sunday Reed were living here, and connected to artists like Joy Hester, who was very closely associated with the Heide crew.
Heide Museum of Modern Art, 7 Templestowe Road, Bulleen, heide.com.au
What's your favourite garden to wander through in winter?
I visit the Royal Botanic Gardens to socialise and also for inspiration; the succulent garden is incredibly inspiring. The forms and shapes of these amazing plants are beautiful and sculptural. You can see that reflected in my work in the Lyon House museum Galleries, actually. Gardens are natural but they're also planned and artificial.
That's what my work is about – how we define and experience both the natural and artificial. I think gardens and galleries have a lot in common.
Royal Botanic Gardens, Birdwood Avenue, Melbourne rbg.vic.gov.au
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