Manningham Gallery Current Exhibition

 MANNINGHAM GALLERY PROUDLY PRESENTS

JOHN AND BETTY 

4 November-21 November

Anyone who attended primary school in Victoria in the 1950s and ‘60s will remember their first school readers and the exciting tales of John and Betty, their cat Fluff and dog Scottie.

With the John and Betty exhibition, Manningham Gallery is proud to take us on a nostalgic journey, back to our childhood years and the earliest books that are etched into the memories of a generation.

With this exciting exhibition, artists Mandy O’Brien, Miriam Porter, Madeleine McCristal and Colleen Cassar have brought John and Betty to life, each with their own unique approach and a variety of media.

For Mandy O’Brien the perfect world of the John and Betty series has formed mixed feelings. Through her embroidered creations, she takes comfort in deconstructing these characters and their settings with images that evoke humour, nostalgia and joy. 

Miriam Porter’s uniquely Australian wood sculptures portray native animals and plants and her memories of childhood are influenced by her love of nature. For this show, Porter's work depict John and Betty in simpatico with nature, each piece bringing the pages of the well-loved books to life. 

Colleen Cassar’s childhood memories are shaped by inanimate objects such as ceramic swans, or exotic wooden crocodiles. The shrines of devotion she has created for this exhibition honor the relationships she had with objects such as these and the people that owned them in years past.

Madeline McCristal is inspired by her dog “Bullet” and paints and draws her black dog at rest and in motion.  Reminiscing on her childhood memories of Scottie, images of this black dog represent the simple childish joys that so many readers of John and Betty experience.

Manningham Mayor, Cr Charles Pick said John and Betty are well known children’s books of the 50’s and 60’s and still very much alive in our hearts. 

“This exhibition is a joy for adults and children alike and I encourage Manningham residents to share one of their childhood memories with their family and friends.”

The exhibition will be officially opened by Cate Kennedy, an award-winning short-story writer who has twice won The Age short story competition.

Her work Dark Roots was shortlisted for the Steele Rudd Award in the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards and for the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal. Cate is also the author of the travel memoir Sing and Don't Cry: A Mexican Journal and the poetry collections Joyflight and Signs of Other Fires.

The exhibition opens on Friday 6 November 2009 at 6pm at Manningham Gallery, Manningham Council Municipal Offices, 699 Doncaster Rd, Doncaster, 3108.

The exhibition will be open to the public Wednesday November 4 until Saturday November 21, 2009.

Manningham Gallery

Manningham Council Municipal Offices, 699 Doncaster Rd, Doncaster, 3108

Opening Hours

Tuesday to Friday: 11.00am to 5.00pm
Saturday: 2.00pm to 5.00pm. Admission is free.