Talking Posters : Garage Graphix 1981-1998 + The Poster Centre

Talking Posters: Garage Graphix 1981–1998, presents a selection of screen-printed artworks, textiles and calendars alongside original equipment and materials from the renowned ‘Garage’ in Mount Druitt in western Sydney. The exhibition reveals the role of artistic collaboration in giving voice to community concerns, expressed through the unique styles and typography from a pre-digital era of poster-making.

Situated in Mount Druitt, the Garage Graphix was an outstanding example of community arts practice and leadership in Australia in the eighties and nineties. For the length of its existence, Garage Graphix produced hundreds of political and socially relevant screen-printed posters with, and by its western Sydney constituent base. Garage Graphix led the field in the development of a community-based art workshop, community activism, the telling of western Sydney stories and concerns.
The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre
Friday 8 April – Saturday 7 May
Free admission

An artist-led print studio, led by Wendy Murray, will run throughout the exhibition giving open access for visitors to create their own screenprint. The Poster Centre will be an integral part of the public program in which master printmaker, Wendy Murray, has mentored local artists to run screen-printing workshops in Blacktown libraries before the exhibition commences.

Throughout the exhibition period, an open print studio will operate at The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre. It will be artist-run, free to participate and open to all visitors and community participants to make a screen-print and add their voices to the long-running tradition of community activism in western Sydney.

We will display the new screen-prints at the The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre and at libraries in Blacktown. The work will be documented and shared online.
The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre
Workshops are on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays
Friday 8 April – Saturday 7 May, 11.00 am – 4.00 pm

*Please note we will be closed for Good Friday on Friday 15 April. Workshops will finish at 3.30 pm on Thursdays 28 April and 5 May.

Garry Trinh at The Poster CentRE

Collaborative poster making at The Poster Centre, with special guest artist Garry Trinh. Photographed by Silversalt Photography, Courtesy of Blacktown Arts

Artist Garry Trinh and I were commissioned to develop new work at The Poster Centre. Trinh is an established Australian artist who makes art about the uncanny, unexpected and spontaneous moments in daily life.

We created a series of posters in response to our experiences negotiating the complex, (& often super confusing), world of social media.

These works are now in the permeant collection at the Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre - a Western Sydney museum, on Darug Country.

The Poster Centre at Blacktown Arts

Over two months, poster artist Wendy Murray will transform the Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre into a pop-up studio called The Poster Centre inspired by Garage Graphix, a legendary print workshop active in the eighties and nineties.

Drop in or register for a workshop for a very rare chance to work directly with a senior artist to learn more about traditional poster-making practices – from sketching and designing to screen-printing and pasting.

At The Poster Centre you can develop an idea to transform into a unique screen-print.

Free. Drop in on Thursdays.

Click here to register a workshop.