Launching our 2024 program, Samstag is delighted to present Bruce Nuske (AUS) ceramics and two moving image works by Dana Awartani (SAUDI/PS) for the 2024 Adelaide Festival in an exploration of decoration, tradition and symbolism.
Image: Dana Awartani, I Went Away and Forgot You. A While Ago I Remembered. I Remembered Iʼd Forgotten You. I Was Dreaming, 2017, Mixed media installation with sand and natural pigments, single-channel video, with no sound, 22 minutes.
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
1 March — Friday 10 May 2024
Tuesday— Saturday, 10am — 5pm
All Welcome
Contact Samstag for Group Bookings
Bruce Nuske with Khai Liew (Australia)
In this third project in a series of exhibitions focusing on renowned Tarntanya/Adelaide-based practitioners, the Samstag Museum of Art proudly presents leading South Australian ceramicist Bruce Nuske.
Fastidiously intricate, whimsical and often surprising, Nuske’s practice is steeped in the history of the decorative arts—from Chinoiserie to Japanese ceramics, Wedgwood to the Arts and Craft movement—and draws on a rich array of botanical references, symbols and traditions.
Displaying remarkable technical skill in hand-built forms, complex surface application and rich glazing, Nuske’s teapots and pouring vessels are astounding in their variety, conjured by an unfettered imagination working in a quiet garden studio, surrounded by rare species of orchids and bromeliads.
In response to Nuske’s playful and highly decorative sensibility, renowned furniture and exhibition designer Khai Liew brings a singular and refined approach to creating a captivating gallery experience.
View our limited edition Bruce Nuske merchandise here.
Dana Awartani (Saudi Arabia/Palestine)
Seeking to reconsider the forms, techniques, concepts and spatial constructs that define Arab visual culture, in Awartani’s practice the wisdom and poetics embedded in traditional crafts are harnessed to tackle a range of contemporary issues.
At Samstag, two moving image works are examples of a varied artistic practice, in which Islamic geometric patterns are interpreted as a highly codified and philosophical language, rather than a lost decorative art, and the domestic and the literary are equally important to cultural record.
Contemplative, political and poetic, Awartani makes a case for beauty in the things we create and their ability to transcend time and attitude. Presented for the Adelaide Festival, her work features as part of Samstag’s Parnati season, where tensions in craft, tradition and decoration are thrown into focus.
Upcoming Events
In Conversation with Bruce Nuske and Robert Reason
Hear celebrated South Australian ceramicist Bruce Nuske in conversation with Museum Director of The David Roche Foundation Robert Reason, followed by Devonshire Tea in the gallery.
ACCESS / This conversation will be held in the gallery with stools or seats with arms and backrests available for seating. Samstag is accessible by wheelchair and pram and has accessible toilets. Should you require an Auslan interpreter please contact Sarah Buckley.
Saturday 4 May, 3pm
Registration encouraged
FREE
Samstag Museum of Art
Screening / Encounters + Crossovers: Dana Awartani
To accompany its exhibition program, Samstag will present three documentary film programs at the Mercury across the year in partnership with the Documentary Film Society. Each screening will be accompanied by a commissioned essay, and will also include a floor talk in the gallery the following week.
6:30pm Screening: The Mother of All Lies (Dir: Asmae El Moudir, 96 mins)
Wednesday 1 May, 6:30pm
Limited seats
Registrations essential
FREE
Mercury Cinema
Screening / Encounters + Crossovers: Dana Awartani
To accompany its exhibition program, Samstag will present three documentary film programs at the Mercury across the year in partnership with the Documentary Film Society. Each screening will be accompanied by a commissioned essay, and will also include a floor talk in the gallery the following week.
6:30pm Screening: Q (Dir: Jude Chehab, 93 mins)
Q+A following the screening: Dr Kim Munro in conversation with director Jude Chehab
Thursday 2 May, 6:30pm
Registration encouraged
FREE
Mercury Cinema
Talk/ Encounters + Crossovers: Dana Awartani
Join documentary scholar and filmmaker Dr Kim Munro and Samstag curator Anna Zagala for a floor talk in the Dana Awartani exhibition. Zagala and Munro reflect on the film program (The Mother of all Lies and Q) and consider what the films and Arwatani’s films have to say to each other.
Thursday 9 May, 6pm
Registration encouraged
FREE
Samstag Museum of Art
