Ron McBurnie, Catherine Parker and Stephen Spurrier

Massive Combustion

2018-19, Mixed media on paper, 20 x 20 cm (Framed)

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Massive Combustion is part of the Cosmic Witness body of work, a postal collaboration by artists Ron McBurnie, Catherine Parker and Stephen Spurrier, featured in Umbrella's exhibition, POSTWORLD.

POSTWORLD is on display 15 July - 21 August 2022. It is co-curated by Kate O’Hara and Daniel Qualischefski of Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts and commissioned by NAFA.

Catherine Parker is a painter, mixed media artist and educator. She has a metaphysical interest in nature and spiritual systems and celebrates the beauty in both the Australian urban and natural landscape, choosing to honour, rather than divide the two. Although her landscapes are essentially Australian they also have a universal quality. Parker has facilitated yearly sketchbook Art Tours to India for over 10 years, and is adept at creating portable studios to make work for extended periods of time. Parker has been exhibiting since 1989 and has held 18 solo exhibitions and exhibited in close to 100 group exhibitions nationally and internationally. The artist holds a B.Ed. Visual Arts, University of Melbourne, 1986-1989. She is represented in numerous public and private collections, including QUT Art Museum, Brisbane, RMIT Melbourne, Baillieu Library, Cultural collection, The University of Melbourne, Gadens Lawyers, Brisbane, Mater Hospital, Brisbane, and Redland Art Gallery, Brisbane. She has been a finalist in a number of awards including most recently, the Hawkesbury Art Prize, 2021, the Lethbridge Landscape Prize, 2021, Redlands Art Prize, 2018 and is also a two-time finalist in the Blake Prize for Spiritual + Religious Art (2008 + 2011) and in 2004 won the Martin Hanson Memorial Art Awards in collaboration with Stephen Spurrier. She has just completed a major solo exhibition at Side Gallery, Brisbane with a hard cover book published in conjunction with the exhibition.

Stephen Spurrier has been exhibiting since 1966. His current practice involves works on paper, painting and artist books. Spurrier has held 31 solo exhibitions including a 2016 survey exhibition covering fifty years of his practice at Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery. His collaborations range from his exhibitions of collaborative artist books, co-curated projects such as the Gallery Artomat (a sequential vending machine project involving a group of artists for the Melbourne Art Fair) and an ongoing (since 1998) artist books project with Ron McBurnie. Spurrier has been awarded numerous prizes and acquisitive awards over his career, including a recent Fremantle Print Prize, 2012, Hutchins Prize, 2000, Jacaranda Drawing Awards, 2006, and Swan Hill Print Prize, 2006. He was selected as a finalist for the Sulman Prize, Art Gallery of NSW, 2009. His work is held in state galleries and in many public collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Tate Modern, London, Art Gallery of NSW, National Gallery of Victoria, Artbank and.the National Gallery of Australia. He was awarded an Australia Council Development Grant in 2002 and has been an artist-in-residence in many Australian universities and elsewhere internationally, including at Bundanon (NSW), Rigalto Studios (Italy), and Global Arts Village (New Delhi, India). He holds a MA (Fine Art), RMIT 1994, Fellowship Diploma, RMIT, 1970 and Associate Diploma, RMIT 1967. 

Parker and Spurrier are based in Toowoomba, Queensland for the majority of their year, but also spend time annually on Magnetic Island.

Ron McBurnie was born in Brisbane, Queensland, and has lived and worked in Townsville for over three decades, becoming one of Australia’s most respected artists. After studying painting and printmaking at the Queensland College of Art, McBurnie moved to Townsville and lectured at the Queensland College of TAFE which in 1986 morphed into a University art school at James Cook University (JCU). McBurnie taught at JCU for a number of years and completed a Master of Creative Arts in 2000. He has been artist–in–residence at various overseas and Australian locations including at Carleton College, Minnesota; Frans Masereel Centrum, Belgium; Alayrac, France; ANU, Canberra; National Art School, Sydney; Tanks Art Centre, Cairns; and Artspace Mackay. McBurnie has an extensive exhibition history including more than 30 solo and touring exhibitions and over 100 group exhibitions. He has received numerous awards and grants including the Fremantle Print Prize, 1988 and the Australia Council overseas studio grant at the Cite’ International des Artes, Paris, in 1991. His work is featured in many Australian Regional Gallery collections, most major Australian state galleries and the National Gallery of Australia. He is an exhibiting artist in Umbrella’s landmark touring exhibition Legacy: Reflections on Mabo, which has been touring nationally since 2019.

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