A Picture Book First and Foremost is a recent
publication illustrating the work and environments
of Australian artist David Bromley. Capturing the two
distinct and unique languages of Bromley’s work –
the female portrait and the children’s series,
this publication is presented in two unique editions.
The standard edition includes three books within
a handmade slip, while the limited edition presents
the three volumes in a hand made leather school
bag, with a limited edition print.  
 
One of the three volumes is dedicated entirely
to the artist’s various studio spaces. Beautifully photographed by Earl Carter, the images in this
book provide a rare glimpse into the magical worlds
that Bromley occupies.
 
Bromley’s only Queensland signing of A Picture Book First and Foremost will take place at the Jan Murphy Gallery on Sunday 21 March, 2-4 pm and in conjunction with the launch of his new exhibition, Pin-ups and Picture Books.
 
All Welcome.

Danie Mellor is the 2010 recipient of the Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing awarded by the Adelaide Perry Gallery, PLC Croydon.  His winning work, The Offerings (A Custom Ritual) is a diptych and mixed media on paper.

The first exhibition for 2010 is A.J. Taylor's Brisbane River. Hanging from Tuesday the 23rd of February, this latest body of work is a continuation of his fascination with the 'framed' view. However, unlike previous shows, the location takes a more significant role.

Hours spent on or around the iconic Brisbane River in the past two years has provided Taylor with ample photographic material. Far from being simple 'scenic views', these works continue to challenge our perceptions of the traditional landscape.

Like the impressionist artists that have inspired him, Taylor's aesthetic goal is to test our visual limits,making us complicit in the visual dynamic between experience and form.  As is now characteristic of his work, the margins or edges are unresolved, forcing the viewer to question what initially appears to be a familiar, almost comfortable view.He asks: "Can I make truly evocative painting from an apparently mundane landscape; something taken for granted as everyday and therefore uninteresting?"

 

The Gallery will be closed from the 25th of December until the 2nd of February 2010. 'Brisbane River' an exhibition of small works by A.J Taylor will open at the end of February.

Gonkar Gyatso & Huang Xu
4th December – 19th December

In keeping with the spirit of the 6th Asia Pacific Triennial, Jan Murphy Gallery in collaboration with  
China Art Projects, Beijing, presents an exhibition of recent works by Gonkar Gyatso and Huang Xu.
 
Gonkar Gyatso was born in 1961 in Lhasa and studied Fine Art in Beijing and London. He currently  
lives and works between New York and London, where he founded the contemporary Tibetan art gallery, The Sweet Tea House. Gyatso's work examines the cultural hybridism of globalization through his own experiences of life in the Tibetan Diaspora. He has exhibited internationally in galleries and museums in Europe, North America, China and Australia and his work is held in the collections of the Newark Museum (USA), the Pitt Rivers Museum (United Kingdom), Queensland Gallery of Modern Art (Australia), Burger Collection (Switzerland), Rossi & Rossi (London), Red Gate Gallery (Beijing) and numerous private
collections. He was selected to participate in the 53rd Venice Biennale and will be exhibiting at APT6  
in Brisbane.
 
In his Brisbane debut, contemporary Chinese artist Huang Xu, presents a series of otherworldly, oversize C-prints of discarded plastic bags remodeled in 3D scanners. These images, both mysterious and sublime, evoke the sumptuous folds of delicate, silken garments, recalling the traditional fabrics of his country’s imperial past and reflecting critically on his nation’s rush to modernity. Huang Xu was born in Beijing in 1968.  He established the Substratum Art Studio in 1989, the Migrant Bird Art Studio in 1991 and the Big Basin Studio in 2003.  He has exhibited in the United Kingdom, Australia and China and works in Beijing.

Congratulations to Alexander Seton who beat 42 other leading Australian sculptors to take first prize in the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize. 

Established in 2001,this prestigious prize attracts strong support from artists, collectors and critics and is one of only two national prizes that showcases the quality and diversity of sculptures of smaller dimensions.

An acquisitive award of $10,000, Seton won the prize with his work ‘I…U’, a Bianca marble hooded jumper with resin inlay. This work considers notions of self-presentation and communication. A ‘hoodie’ jersey lies crumpled on the ground, as if casually discarded by the wearer. Obscured lettering can be read on the crumpled chest of the jersey, ‘I…E…U’. The ambiguous missing centre word ending in E could be love, hate or something else?  The partial message in SMS text shorthand within the carved folds implies the transience, and inbuilt melancholy of frustrated and abbreviated expression.

James Guppy’s recent Survey exhibition, Seduction and Subversion, has just opened at the Tweed River Art Gallery. Exhibiting works from 1989 to 2009, this show is a well curated and thoughtfully constructed collection of paintings spanning the last twenty years. There is a comprehensive catalogue (available from the Jan Murphy Gallery), with essays by Alison Kubler and Andrew Frost.

Thank you to those clients who kindly agreed to lend their works to this show. Travelling to 10 venues over two years, their generosity has not gone unnoticed.

Seduction and Subversion will be exhibited at Tweed River Art Gallery, until 15 November 2009. It then travels to Ipswich Art Gallery: 28 November 2009 – 17 January 2010, before making it’s way down the East coast.

Currently exhibiting at the beautiful TarraWarra Museum of Art, Healesville, Victoria, Quilty’s survey show has been getting rave reviews. Initiated by The University of Queensland Art Museum, this exhibition looks at the past seven years of Ben’s production. Including his iconic Torana cars, budgerigars, portraits, skulls and more recent Rorschach’s, this show (and catalogue) is a must for all Quilty fans.

Again, our thanks go out to all those clients who have lent their works – even a small Quilty leaves a large hole on the wall! Your paintings will be back soon as this show ends on 15 November 2009.  For those of you who are interested, we have copies of a number of reviews from The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, Art Monthly and The Courier Mail.

You may also be interested to read Germain Greer’s article on Ben Quilty in ‘The Guardian’.

Ben’s next solo exhibition is scheduled with the Gallery for May 2010.

David Bromley’s long awaited book is finally at the printers. A three volume production divided into ‘Boys Own’, ‘Nudes’ and ‘Studios’, A Picture Book First and Foremost is 240 pages in total. Available in both limited and normal editions, please call the gallery if you would like to pre-order a copy, +61 7 3254 1855.

The Business Tax Break and Works of Art

A business that purchases assets on which depreciation is claimed may be in a position to take advantage of the Business Tax Break, which is a tax deduction that can be claimed over and above the regular claim for depreciation or decline-in-value. So, who, what and when?

To be able to claim the extra deduction, you have to be in business and able to claim a tax deduction for depreciation, whether as a sole trader, partnership, company, trust etc. Obviously it will have no relevance then, for an Income Tax Exempt Charity, or for someone earning income from wages only.

If, then, you are in business, the next question is one of timing and turnover:

 
Up to 30 June 2009 –

If your turnover is below $2,000,000 you will need to have bought or ordered an asset between 13 December 2008 and 31 December 2009, and the asset, bought or at least ordered by that date, must be in your possession and ready for use by 31 December 2010. If you meet these deadlines you will be entitled to the extra 50% deduction.

If your turnover is over $2,000,000 you must have bought or ordered the asset by 30 June 2009 and have the asset ready for use by 30 June 2010 in order to qualify for an extra 30% deduction. If the asset cannot be installed/ready for use by 30 June 2010 you will get an extra 10% deduction if the asset is installed/ready for use by 31 December 2010.
 

Between 1 July 2009 and 31 December 2009 –

If your turnover is below $2,000,000 – as above

If your turnover is over $2,000,000 you will be entitled to an extra 10% deduction as long as the asset is bought or ordered before 31 December 2009 and installed/ready for use by 31 December 2010.

 
So how much do you need to spend?

For small businesses (under $2,000,000 turnover) the minimum spend is $1000, for large businesses the spend is $10,000.

 
And on what?

Well, the asset must be new; for example, a demonstrator car is not “new” – so you have to be, in one sense, the first user of the asset. As noted, it must be a depreciable asset, and that includes production and office equipment, office furniture, and so on (but excludes computer software).
 

So where do works of art fit into this?

As part of office furnishings and as a depreciable asset (listed in the ATO’s Effective Life Tables), they also qualify for the tax break, providing the cost is at least $1000/$10,000. This would include, for example, a suite of prints, where, individually, the cost might be, say $500, but as a suite of 10 the cost would be over the threshold (for a small business anyway). For small businesses, and where the effective life, on which the depreciation rate is calculated, is 100 years (with a resulting prime cost depreciation rate of 1%) this does mean that works of art are attractive in a tax, as well as aesthetic, sense.

To qualify, the work would have to have been acquired from either the artist or from a dealer or gallery selling the work on behalf of the artist, or, in the case of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, the Art Centre representing the artist. The cost of the artwork would also include any associated costs of stretching or framing. Works bought on the secondary market would not necessarily qualify as new assets. It would also mean that you couldn’t sell works that you owned personally, to your business.

Because the asset has to be used in the carrying on of a business, artworks purchased for investment only, including superannuation funds, would not qualify.

There has been a suggestion that, to qualify for the tax break, the work must have been created by a professional artist who is registered with an Australian Business Number. As this would clearly affect Aboriginal artists who may not have an ABN, and are regarded as the seller of the work, we have sought further clarification from the Australian Tax Office on this matter to ensure that such artists are not excluded from the definition of “professional artist”.


How does it work?

You claim the tax break as a further deduction when lodging your tax return; if the tax break creates a loss in the business, then that loss gets carried forward.

If you finance the purchase, that’s okay as long as you are actually the owner of the asset, and not the financing entity.

If you are registered for GST it is the GST exclusive cost that is relevant.

The work must be used substantially in your business, that is, not sometimes at home, sometimes in the office.

If the work is later sold, unlike depreciation, there is no “claw-back” of deductions previously claimed.

Our Thanks to Brian Tucker CPA for the above information.