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Drawing Space: minus and plus
Suzanne .k. Franklin
Drawing Space: minus and plus
10 June – 21 June 2025
hours:
Tuesday – Friday: 12pm – 7pm
Saturdays: 12pm – 4pm
admission: Free
…negotiat[ing] the complexities of space, time, and the emotive power of colour and image…
Drawing Space: minus and plus, a collection of small-scale drawings by Perth based artist Suzanne .k. Franklin (aka sue.k.).
With the intent to open the experience of viewing to one that’s unhindered by narrative, each work exhibited as part of Drawing Space: minus and plus depicts a sphere, or spheres, and a horizon line only. While minimal in what is presented, these, along with the surface marks found in most, become the tools to negotiate the complexities of space, time, and the emotive power of colour and image. Conventional means with which to apply narrative are negated leaving nothing but a pure experience of what is before, the material substance of the work.
The approach taken in the production of these works, and the framing choice specific to the aesthetics, lead to a blurring of multiple boundaries. Layering of colours and marks in a similar way found with painting leave the boundary between drawing and painting precarious and in question. This is compounded by the choice to frame to the edge of the work without the traditional mounting on matboard found with drawings, while still placing the work under glass, as is traditional in drawing work. The antiquated wide scoop style of the dark timber frame with its high edge lends itself to a removal of temporal positioning, a removal of time. This is further enhanced with the absence of narrative in the pictorial space and the painterly approach to application of the medium, they too allow a positioning of time and experience of space that is not now. Yet in contrast, the abstract presentation of sphere and line heralds modernity and brings in to play a tension between contemporary and bygone and unveils a dichotomy within the work.
ABOUT
Suzanne .k. Franklin originally trained as an artist at Claremont School of Art, Western Australia, graduating in 1992 with a Major in Sculpture and a Minor in Painting, though her forté has always been drawing. Since then, she has maintained an ongoing practice focussed on sculpture, drawing, and experimental video work, as well as performance pieces. Much of this work has been conducted under the name of sue.k with a return to using her full birth name, Suzanne Franklin, taking place in 2012. For more than three decades her work has been shown across Australia, UK, US, Europe, and Asia.
EDUCATION
Master of Fine Art by Research (UWA), Bachelor of Arts (UWA), Diploma of Art & Design (Claremont School of Art),
Certificate of Art and Design (Rockingham T.A.F.E.)
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025 Upcoming 10th – 21st June 2025, Drawing Space, (Drawing) Forty-Five Downstairs, Melbourne, Australia
2024 Drawing Space, (Drawing) Mundaring Arts Centre, Mundaring, Western Australia
2012 The place where I work, eat and sleep, (Drawing) Apte, Melbourne, Australia
2009 Beneath the Banks of the Thames River, (Digital photographic images), The Hanging Space, Melbourne, Australia
2009 2009_on Plenty Road, (Drawing), The Hanging Space, Melbourne, Australia
2008 London, The Hanging Space, (Drawing), Melbourne, Australia
2003 figuring time frames: a programme of experimental screen work by sue.k. (Experimental Video), The Black Box at The Bakery, Perth, Western Australia
1998 “fifty ways to find your lover”, (Painting), Perth Galleries
1995 “A wet fish and The romance”, (Drawing, Sculpture), Perth Galleries
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023-2024: The Language of Colour, Mundaring Arts Centre, Mundaring Western Australia. 2023: Omnia Art Prize shortlisted,
Melbourne. 2019: Lethbridge 20000 Small Scale Art Award shortlisted, Lethbridge Gallery, Brisbane. 2012: Conservatory of
Singular Specimens Bolin Gallery, Bulleen, Victoria 2011-2012: Artists’ Salon, Collingwood Gallery, Melbourne. 1997:
Gomboc Sculptural Survey, Gomboc Gallery. 1996 Gomboc Sculptural Survey, Gomboc Gallery. 1995: Stilled Vessels, Perth
Galleries; Gomboc Sculptural Survey, Gomboc Gallery. 1994: Catz-n-Dogs Perth; Devour Bridge at the Maltings; Gomboc
Sculptural Prize, Gomboc Gallery; Bauhaus to Birdhouse, Perth Galleries. 1993: Something for Everyone, Perth Galleries; So
Many Possibilities, Perth Galleries; Creative Disorder, Artshouse; Telecom Acquisition, Telecom Building. 1992: Sue.K./Gail
Mason – Graduate Exhibition, C.S.A. Gallery; Portrait Show, Bridge Gallery; Inaugural Telecom Acquisition, Telecom Building.
1991: Across the Park, Artplace Gallery; Please BE Seated, W.A. Museum; Contained Energy, Artshouse; Wearable Art
Exhibition, Bridge Gallery; Gomboc Sculptural Prize, Gomboc Gallery.
SCREENINGS
2021: Fields of View, The Others, London. 2019: Alternate Frames Cineinfinito #92, Barcelona. 2016 Carte Blanche À
Nanolab Light Cone, Paris. 2012: KLEX Kuala Lumpar Experimental Film and Video Festival, Malaysia 2011: Silence of
Politics, cogcollective, The BAck doOR, Melbourne; Incounter, The Bussey Building, London 2010: EXiS 2010 Festival, Seoul,
South Korea; Materialities of the Moving Image, Exploring Artist’s Moving Image Lecture Series, Anolfini, Bristol; From A to B
– the Journeys and Reflections of a Decade Past, cogcollective, The BAck doOR, Melbourne. 2009: Not Past Its Use By Date,
cogcollective, Melbourne, Australia Back And Forth, And All Over Again, James Taylor Gallery, London; Fractured Light,
cogcollective, London; Lines of Travel___, cogcollective, Melbourne, Australia 2008: Lines of Travel___, cogcollective,
Brisbane, Australia; Shifting Latitudes, cogcollective, Daylesford, Australia 2006: Shifting Latitudes, cogcollective, London;
LHU Artists’ Film Festival, Liverpool 2005:Rencontrés Internationales Paris/Berlin; Festival International du Film d’Amiens,
Amiens, France; Microprocesses, Island Film and Video Festival, London 2004: Rencontrés Internationales Paris/Berlin ; 17th
West Australian Screen Awards 2003: Time-lapse, The Bread Box at The Bakery, Perth, Western Australia; “Elastic” National
Touring Exhibition, Centre for Contemporary Photography, (various venues) Australia; figuring time frames: a programme of
experimental screen work by sue.k. The Black Box at The Bakery, Perth, WA.; 16th West Australian Screen Awards (Nominated
for Best Experimental Production); Another Planet, Robert Beck Memorial, New York & Chicago Video Data Bank, Chicago.
2002: Musee d’Art Moderne et Contemporain, Strassbourg; omsk, London/Bristol; West Australian Experimental Screen Work,
291 Gallery, London; 15th West Australian Screen Awards (Awarded Best Experimental Production); San Francisco Art Institute,
San Francisco. 2001: Light Reading, 291 Gallery, London. 2000: Figuring Space, Film and Television Institute of Western
Australia; 14th West Australian Screen Awards.
PERFORMANCE
2010: Equilibrium of the Tactile The BAckdoOR Melbourne. 2009: Black Texture The BAckdoOR Melbourne. 2009: Dialogue,
Phrasing, Syllable The BAckdoOR Melbourne. 2008: flickers of movement: an evening of film and dance The BAckdoOR
Melbourne. 1992: Quiet: a crisp execution PICA Perth
AWARDS
2004: Best Experimental Production, West Australian Screen Awards. 2003: nominated Best Experimental Production, West
Australian Screen Awards. 2002: Best Experimental Production, West Australian Screen Awards. 1993: Commendation
Acquisition Award, Telecom State Art Competition. 1980: First Place, State Youth Art Competition, PWP Western Australia.
Third Place, State Youth Art Competition, PWP Western Australia
Opening Night
Tuesday 10th June, 5-7pm
Artist in attendance on both Saturdays
Saturday 14th June, 12-4pm
Saturday 21st June, 12-4pm