Al Munro, After Barcelona, 2026, acrylic gouache on 54 constructed cardboard forms, overall dimensions 130 x 315 cm. Photo: Civic Art Bureau.
Wendy Teakel and Al Munro are two artists who seek inspiration from the domestic to the exotic.
Teakel and Munro are veterans of the Canberra art scene, who are now sharing an exhibition space in Civic. Both artists have developed what might be called a recognisable signature style, which this exhibition pushes a little further.
Teakel has lived in Murrumbateman for many years, where she experiences a rural lifestyle first-hand and the changing seasons and paddock life play an active role in her art-making.
Teakel acknowledges the impact of the American feminist philosopher Donna Haraway, best remembered for her concept of the Cyborg as a metaphor for a hybrid of human, machine, nature and technology.
In other words, she advocates breaking down the classic distinctions between human and animal, nature and culture and body and technology.
Her Cyborg Manifesto (1985) and Staying with the Trouble (2016) elaborate on the idea that humans, animals, technologies and nature are deeply interconnected, leading to a messy, entangled world.
Wendy Teakel, Before Rain, 2026, acrylic, charcoal, pastel, gouache, scorch marks on 640 gsm Arches paper on birch panel, 60 x 60 cm. Photo: Civic Art Bureau.
Teakel’s exhibition builds on this idea of entanglement. The artist does not see herself as separate from nature, or as an observer, but as a participant interwoven into a complex, messy, unplanned coexistence.
In pieces such as Before Rain, Full Moon and Grass Matrix, she employs both conventional art materials, including acrylic paint, pastel, gouache and charcoal, and less conventional materials, including soot, scorch marks and pokerwork.
Wendy Teakel, Full Moon, 2026, acrylic, pastel, graphite, gouache, scorch marks on 640 gsm Arches paper on birch panel, 60 x 60 cm. Photo: Civic Art Bureau.
She also abandons traditional perspectival structures, as if reckoning that each participant element in her design brings its own perspective, separate and different from the others. She presents an entangled world to the viewer.
Wendy Teakel, Grass Matrix, 2026, soot, charcoal, gouache on 640 gsm Arches paper on birch panel, 30 x 30 cm. Photo: Civic Art Bureau.
In some of her more complex pieces, including Earth Carpet and her various quilt and patchwork pieces, there is an attempt, which is not always successful, to bring together this riot of complex and clashing forms with their different forms of visualisation.
It is an ambitious exhibition of the complex, entangled environment the artist inhabits.
Wendy Teakel, Earth Carpet, 2026, acrylic, charcoal, pastel, graphite, pokerwork on 640 gsm Arches paper on birch panel, 152 x 101 cm. Photo: Civic Art Bureau.
Al Munro has for many years been exploring patterns, colour and geometry largely as encountered in built urban environments. They are sometimes enormously intricate constructions and stem from the artist’s encounters with various architectural forms.
Recently, Munro spent time living in Barcelona, where, as with most people who visit the great Catalan city, she was blown away by the architectural presence of Antoni Gaudí, especially La Sagrada Família. Her exhibition has arisen in part as a response to the architecture of Lluís Domènech i Montaner and Gaudí as encountered in Barcelona.
Physically, her major installation piece, After Barcelona, and smaller pieces such as Gracia 1 and Gracia 3, consist of acrylic paint on cardboard forms. Although the forms are non-figurative, they are created in response to the encounter with place.
Al Munro, Gracia 1 and Gracia 3, 2026, acrylic paint on constructed cardboard form, 91 x 20 x 6 cm each. Photo: Civic Art Bureau.
The artist notes, “As with previous bodies of work, I am interested in exploring the intersection of pattern, colour, geometry and space in painting. Through the construction of shaped and ‘folded’ painting surfaces I seek to disturb and activate the space of the picture plane and create an experience for the viewer which is more dynamic than viewing a 2D painting.”
The exhibition features a proliferation of curved geometry and colour combinations inspired by Barcelona’s architecture, which become quite mesmerising in many of the pieces. Munro’s play with tonal structures of colour is quite marked in many of the pieces.
While both established artists have well-known strategies in their art, this exhibition marks a new page in their work.
Al Munro, After Barcelona, 2026, detail, acrylic gouache on 54 constructed cardboard forms, overall dimensions 130 x 315 cm. Photo: Civic Art Bureau.
Wendy Teakel: Entanglement, and Al Munro: After Barcelona, are at the Civic Art Bureau, Melbourne Building, Level 1, 76 Alinga Street, Civic. It’s open Thursday to Saturday from 12 noon to 5 pm, on Sunday 2 pm to 5 pm. It closes on 4 October.
