Curating
Collections.

Michael Camakaris X
Cranford Collection

Curating Collections commissions artists working from supported studios to curate projects with artworks from an established international collection.

Michael Camakaris is a multi-disciplinary artist whose compositions are bold and often reference art history; drawing from surrealism to dada and abstraction. Arts Project Australia is a creative social enterprise that supports artists with intellectual disabilities, promotes their work, and advocates for their inclusion in contemporary art practice. Cranford Collection is one of Europe’s most significant private collections of contemporary art. Featuring over 700 works, it was founded by Freddy and Muriel Salem in 1999 and the curator is Anne Pontégnie.

Antidote.

The year 2020 was, for most of us, a challenging time. The COVID-19 pandemic didn’t discriminate. It touched all four corners of the globe. As someone coming from Melbourne, it was the ground zero for Australia, having one of the toughest lockdowns in the World. As an artist used to travelling three times a week to a shared studio, as well as engaging in my many other interests, eight months of isolation was a real shock to the system on so many levels. It challenged me across all my senses.

My friends instantly evaporated, becoming mere pixels on a two-dimensional screen. They were there but in a way not there. The outside world, with all her dynamics, was dead. No human touch, sun’s warmth or a cool breeze on skin, or the crunch of leaves underfoot, all were now long gone. So when I was given the great opportunity to curate work from the Cranford Collection towards the end of 2020, I decided to respond to it on a purely emotional level. I looked for work that gave me some sort of respite to the times I had recently lived through. An antidote if you will! I was drawn to different works for different reasons… colours that burst out with energy, given the sensory deprivation we had endured, subject matter that showed human warmth and connectedness, given the social isolation we went through, and the natural world, which we craved.

I chose tactile, low-tech three-dimensional works, given the flat world and overdose of the digital screen we lived through; as well as works that displayed humour as this brought a warm smile to my face, given the disheartening time it has been. I hope that others who view this exhibition find it as much of an antidote to what we are all going through as I did in selecting these works!

- Michael Camakaris, 2021

Michael Camakaris and curator Anne Pontégnie on Antidote hosted by Art et al.

Highlights from a discussion between Michael Camakaris and Anne Pontégnie on Antidote from March 2021. Listen as they discuss works by Carol Rama, Kai Althoff, and Lynda Benglis; and explore themes from Michael’s selection including longing, tactility, and playfulness.