It's that time again: The Phantom Art Show is soon to open in its next location.
Over summer the Show is exhibiting at the Tweed Regional Gallery in Murwillumbah South, Northern NSW, and there will be no excuse for missing out: it's available there for almost three months!
A lengthy period in one place will provide some much needed respite for curators Peter Kingston and Dietmar Lederwasch after the truck carrying the Show from Broken Hill to Murwillumbah broke down in the desert; by all reports it will never go again! This certainly led to a worrying time for all involved. Fortunately Tweed came to the rescue, covering additional transport costs with a new transporter. As Kingston says, “Thank you Tweed! ON WITH THE SHOW!”
As you can see from the invitation (below), the Tweed exhibition is building on the accomplishments of previous showings, and incorporates the most successful elements to the official opening and also for the duration of the show.
As always, a costumed Phantom will attend the opening on Saturday December 10th. No doubt there will be many photo opportunities for phans with our purple-clad hero and the Skull Throne.
Dame Quentin Bryce and husband Michael Bryce will perform the official duties on opening night. Kingston is particularly thrilled to have the pair return after their wonderful presentations at the Toowoomba opening back in June. There may be little more pressure on Dame Quentin this time, as her cosplay Diana Palmer will not come as such a surprise - in fact it is advertised on the invitation! All opening nights so far have been joyful occasions for phans and art lovers to come together in large numbers, so this should be no different.
Peter Kingston will also be providing a talk the following day, The Enigma of the Ghost Who Walks, which will form a fascinating perspective on The Phantom, the history of the character and his role in modern society. Visitors can get some insight into Peter's ideas by re-visiting our chats with he and Dietmar on Episode 47 of the X-Band podcast.
The large scale snakes and ladders game The Phantom Game of Life and Death will be there for patrons to play, and remains available for games through the duration of the exhibition. Regular readers of ChronicleChamber will be familiar with the Limited Edition scale version released for sale about a month ago.
Also exciting for those of us with young ones, there are two Phantom Fridays for Families sessions advertised on the invitation. A special kid's tour of the exhibition sounds very interesting (hopefully Dads will be allowed to tag along!), as does the opportunity for children to make their own Phantom art works.
Even the curators are clearly getting excited about this, the fourth venue for the touring Phantom Art Show. Just this weekend, almost a dozen images of artwork were published on the Kit Walker Facebook page. There are some familiar pictures, but also some clearly about to be exhibited for the first time.
Yours truly will be representing ChronicleChamber at the opening as well as at Kingston's talk the following day, and am looking forward to being able to bring you some of the sights and sounds of the day. Hopefully, I’ll see a few of you there!
Even if you can't be there for the opening weekend, with the show in the Tweed for nearly three months you should make a point of seeing it. There is ample time for all phans in Southern Queensland and Northern New South Wales to use some of their Christmas holidays to take the family to the beach and just pop in to The Phantom Art Show while you're in the area.
Just tap 2 Mistral Rd, Murwillumbah South into the GPS and you can't go wrong!
Merchandise Available at The Phantom Art Show
At the Tweed Regional Gallery, the curators are making available for sale:
Postcards
Handmade postcards
Card stamped Correspondence From Morristown
Original newspaper strips
Individually numbered and each entirely unique
$2 each at the venue
Catalogues
A beautiful publication modelled on traditional Frew comics (see our Review here)
Collates a large number of the artworks on display, together with editorials
$5 each at the venue
Super Deluxe model of The Phantom Game of Life and Death
Available at Tweed Regional Gallery for the first time ever
Larger size (61x61cm) ply reinforced board
All ten figurines (cast from resin and hand painted): The Phantom, Diana, Queen Sala, the Sultan, Colonel Weeks, Guran, Devil, Hitler, Bandar pygmy & bare breasted female pirate.
Unlimited Edition
Fully copyrighted with King Features Syndicate in New York
Super Deluxe model retails at $800
Orders taken only at the Exhibition venue for patrons attending in person.
(See our description of the small scale model here)
Silk Screen Prints
Exquisite reproductions of artworks featured in The Phantom Art Show
Personally signed by the artist:
Ian Grant Waterfront
Dick Frizzell Grieving Phantom (pictured right)
Dick Frizzell So Sorry
Available at $500 each, while they last
Strictly Limited Editions - only 24 copies of each print have been created
