Among Ms Tonkin’s many achievements, she was awarded the National Gallery of Victoria Trustee Award in 1994 and 1995 and the Dobell Drawing Prize in 2002.
The exhibition, ‘Rambles’, presents large immersive paintings alongside the pencil, charcoal and ceramic drawings that underpin them.
Made in the bush over long periods they capture responses to changing light, seasons, viewpoints and sensations.
Ms Tonkin said she was absolutely delighted to be showing this work, made in the wet, fern-rich bush of Corhanwarrabul (the Dandenong Ranges), in the beautiful Benalla Art Gallery.
“I hope visitors will have a sense of being present in this place with its particular mouldering smell and lush complexity,” she said.
“Perhaps they might recall the sensual particularities of the landscape they carry in their hearts.
“I would like my work to proceed, to reach out and embrace, to convey a visceral sense of being present to the forms and the other senses that animate them — the temperature, sounds and smells, thoughts and memories.
“I hope my work conveys an ever-present moment, an elastic or at least complex sense of time and awareness.”
Benalla Art Gallery director Eric Nash said the exhibition was a compelling and immersive experience.
“Such is Mary’s incredible ability as an artist, you almost feel as if you are walking right into the dense bush landscape she is inspired by,” he said.
The exhibition will be launched at 6pm on Friday, May 16, by National Gallery of Australia deputy director Adam Lindsay.
Audiences are invited to gain a deeper understanding of the exhibition through an ‘in conversation’ session with the artist, which will be staged at 10am on Monday, June 2 as part of Benalla Art Gallery’s First Mondays program.
Mary Tonkin: Rambles is free to view and will be exhibited until June 29.
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