While Benalla Art Gallery is closed for redevelopment, the Ensign has been sharing the gallery foundation’s ‘Our Gallery’ project with the community.

The project involves local people choosing their favourite art work from the gallery collection and explaining what it means to them.

This week we feature works selected by Benalla Art Gallery regular Helen Price, local photographer Stephen Winkler and Benalla’s Bree Goldhammer.

Helen Price

Chosen artwork: Conscience by Mike Nichols, 2010.

When Helen Price moved to Benalla she established a much-praised garden. She plays bridge locally and is a regular at the art gallery.

She thinks the gallery is an important attraction for travellers and gets great pleasure taking her visitors there.

“I have been a wood carver and appreciate how this work was done and what was involved,” she said.

“When I’m carving wood, I get lost in the work and find it very therapeutic.”

Mike Nicholls was born in Melbourne and grew up on a farm in Narre Warren North.

He is a painter and sculptor and was a founding member of the innovative ROAR artist collective in 1982. Mike seeks to express “Australianness” in his works.

Conscious was donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program by Mike Nicholls in 2023.

Stephen Winkler

Chosen artwork: Flinders Street Station by Charles Blackman, 1950.

Stephen is a secondary teacher at Benalla P-12 College. He is a keen photographer and musician, a long-time member of the Benalla Theatre Company and is actively involved in the Uniting Church.

He loves that Benalla gives prominence to the arts, which creates a rich, vibrant community.

“I have spent a lot of time at Flinders St Station,” he said.

“Blackman really captures the mood of the place — the darkness, the anonymity and the hardness.”

Charles Blackman was an Australian painter, noted for poetic, dreamlike imagery, including the Schoolgirl, Avonsleigh and Alice in Wonderland series of the 1950s.

He was a member of the Melbourne artist group the Antipodeans.

Flinders Street Station was gifted to the gallery by Mrs E. E. Ledger in 1984.

Bree Goldhammar

Chosen artwork: Incendiary Structure (for colonial ambition) by Tim Storrier, 1991.

Bree lives in Benalla, loves travel and is well-known for her catering company Goldhammer Catering.

She is new to the art gallery, recognises Benalla is known for its artwork and believes it is important to showcase local talent.

“The fire in this artwork is mesmerising,” she said.

Tim Storrier is a Sydney-born painter now living in Bowral.

He is best known for his landscape paintings and has won many notable prizes, including the Art Gallery of NSW Archibald Prize.

Incendiary Structure (for colonial ambition) was donated to Benalla Art Gallery by Tim Storrier in 2007.

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Wednesday, 7th June 2034

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