Don’t worry about the snakes, an exhibition of 19 oil paintings on both linen and canvas by Mt. Glorious-based artist, Yvonne Mill-Stanley, is the latest iteration of the artist’s fascination with her longstanding subject matter, grass. Tasmanian artist, Milan Milojevic’s exhibition of limited-edition, primarily multi-panelled series’, including new black and white works, is titled Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun and other follies. Other mixed media works on paper include Arcadia: Terra Incognita, the Dome series, and the Eccentric series.

To view Don’t worry about the snakes, showing on the ground floor gallery, is to take a walk with Yvonne, through the “lush green grass” of Mt. Glorious, down the other side of the mountain “to the open pastures” around the Somerset and Wivenhoe areas and beyond. Dreams and memories inform these ethereal works, which appear almost in motion, swaying and rustling in the mountain breeze, growing and changing colour through the seasons. Fields of grasses “standing over two metres high” on a neighbouring property are portrayed in a pair of landscapes entitled Bob’s Paddock – Mt. Glorious I & II (Image 1). In the Spring Grass series (Image 2) individual blades punctuated by flickers of colour fill the canvas, while Don’t worry about the snakes I, II, III & IV (Image 3) explore contrasts between different skies and terrains, “soft undulating lands” and the grasses that grow over them.

On the mezzanine floor, Milan’s body of work will be showing in all its phantastic and satirical glory in Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun and other follies. Given the old cliché of history repeating itself and what Milan terms “the current state of the planet”, early colonial themes and aesthetics inspired by explorer, Joseph Lycett’s 18^th – 19^th century landscape prints, have been revisited. Visually intriguing and humorous works (Image 4) are the product of a unique hybrid practice which utilises a combination of digital and traditional processes. The remainder of works, including Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun (Image 5) and Flamingo Dome (Image 6) exhibit Milan’s signature absurdity with strange botanical wonderlands inhabited by extraordinary creatures and forms.

FireWorks Gallery director Michael Eather praises the art of Yvonne Mills-Stanley’s and the artist’s ability to immerse the viewer in a “serene world”, “a sensory landscape, so close to Brisbane”. On Milan Milojevic’s exhibition, Eather identifies an “alternative revelation of our natural world”, “A master print maker with one foot in tradition and the other in modernity. The result is beautifully absurd”.

Artwork prices range from: $900-$24,000

IMAGE CAPTIONS:

1. Yvonne Mills-Stanley Bob's Paddock - Mt. Glorious I 2024 oil on linen 90x90cm
2. Yvonne Mills-Stanley Spring Grass IV 2024 oil on canvas 40x50cm
3. Yvonne Mills-Stanley Don't worry about the snakes IV 2024 oil on linen 122x152cm
4. Milan Milojevic Arcadia: Terra Incognita (Great White Hunter being Great) 2024 archival inkjet with varnish overlay 33x60cm
5. Milan Milojevic Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun 2024 archival inkjet print with etching overlay 100x70cm total (33cm x 48cm each)
6. Milan Milojevic The Dome of a Pretty Flamingo 2024 archival inkjet print with etching overlay 42x60cm

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