Martin King for ArtCollector Magazine. Image supplied courtesy of the artist, photograph by Brian Doherty, 2025.
Martin King’s work features in a new group exhibition at the Town Hall Gallery (Naarm / Melbourne) of works relating to the ‘the printed page and to quiet, deliberate acts of looking and reading’. On display until July 25. This exhibition is presented in partnership with Melbourne Writers Festival.
In an era of constant scrolling and visual saturation, ‘Slow Read’ turns our attention back to the printed page and to quiet, deliberate acts of looking and reading. The featured artists are all drawn to printed matter, creating artist books and multi-disciplinary artworks that explore the possibilities of the book format. Within this exhibition, artist-led publishing is recognised as a rich creative practice and an art form in its own right.
By engaging with the universally familiar features of the book format, artists can experiment within or outside of its defined conventions. Unique approaches to sequence, structure and design informs the pace and duration of the reading journey, while the interplay of text and image suggests evocative textures, prompting an imaginative experience that may unfold differently on each encounter.
Many of the featured artworks have been created with source materials from the artists’ own extensive personal collections, where subject and thematic focused text and imagery have been lifted from culture magazines, art history books, archives and more. The extracted fragments are recontextualised through collage and assemblage, inviting us to slow down and engage with these works – allowing our imaginations to wander through poetic new combinations and sometimes unexpected pairings.
Featuring: Jacky Cheng, Zoë Croggon, Julie Gough, Gracia & Louise, Nadia Hernández, Deborah Kelly, Martin King, David Noonan and Jayda Wilson.
Town Hall Gallery: 360 Burwood Road, Hawthorn VIC 3122, Naarm / Melbourne
Exhibition Dates: