Julie Millowick: Surrounding

Celebrate the exhibition opening of Julie Millowick: Surrounding on Saturday 24 February, 2pm.

Thank you to major sponsors, local winemaking co-operative Boomtown Wine, and local bar and brewery Love Shack Brewing Company for sponsoring wine and beer, alongside support from StrangeLove with non-alc beverages.

Free event. Please RSVP here.

Julie Millowick: Surrounding

Julie Millowick is a localist, an artist who is deeply embedded in the place where she lives. Over many years, Millowick has documented the environmental legacy of gold mining around her home near Fryerstown in Central Victoria. This strangely poignant landscape has been turned upside down through violent extraction—but it remains resilient and in the process of recovery.

Curated by Jenny Long, Surrounding exhibits a selection of Millowick's work including a new series seen for the first time. Millowick’s photographs show us the devastating effects of mining, drought, flood and invasive plants, but also remind us of the interconnectedness that links all parts of this ecosystem including its human occupants. This is a terrain which the artist loves, and which she sees with acute perception. It is a landscape full of complexity, a region with a terrible past, but in its capacity for renewal is also a place that offers a spark of hope for the future.

Join renowned photographic artist Julie Millowick, and curator and writer, Kyla McFarlane in conversation at Castlemaine Art Museum on Sunday 10 March, 11:30am.

Delving into the underlying themes of Millowick’s new exhibition, Surrounding, the conversation will traverse ecological and feminist photography, renewal and regeneration, and examine Millowick’s practice and new series of work through a lens that is both intrinsically local and environmentally global.

Free event, all welcome.
No RSVP required.

This event is presented as part of PHOTO 2024 International Festival of Photography.

Julie Millowick
Julie Millowick began her photographic career working in the darkroom of Athol Shmith, John Cato and Peter Barr. After completing her studies at Prahran College of Advanced Education, she worked as a press and public relations photographer, after which the direction of her commercial folio changed and she worked as a corporate industrial photographer. Julie achieved early recognition for her photojournalism when she exhibited at the National Gallery of Victoria and Australian Centre for Photography in 1977 in Australian New Work. She has exhibited and published regularly since then, with work held in major photography collections in Australia and internationally. In 1993 she exhibited work in the exhibition Intimate Lives with Sally Mann, Nan Goldin and Jaques Henri Lartigue at the International Fotofeis in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Kyla McFarlane
Dr Kyla McFarlane is a curator and writer from Aotearoa New Zealand, living and working in Naarm Melbourne. She is currently Academic Engagement Manager in the Museums and Collections Department at the University of Melbourne. Kyla has held key curatorial positions at the Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane; the Centre for Contemporary Photography; and Monash University Museum of Art in Melbourne. Over two decades, her curating and art writing has focussed primarily on lens-based, feminist, performative and emerging art practices in her region. An experienced public speaker, Kyla has presented conference papers, participated in and chaired panels, opened exhibitions and presented guest lectures at numerous venues in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.