Luminance

Luminance is the intrinsic lightness of an object; how light and brightness is perceived by the human eye. The interplay of surfaces with light, and the emission of light via colour and ‘non-colour’, becomes a way to think about perception and materiality. This exhibition explores light, luminosity, and reflection as both physical phenomena and conceptual triggers. the veil, currently exhibiting at Buxton Contemporary, explores transition, memory and the ‘liminal spaces’ of the in-between.1 These conceptual threads are respected, as our exhibition, amidst other groups, reference perceptions, binaries and the “unseen”.

The Buxton collection itself is marked by Michael and Janet Buxton’s personal tastes, particularly their love of “colour, passion, [and] vibrancy.”2 This exhibition aims to takes these concepts in a literal sense, with light serving as a physical element activated by reflective surfaces, bright colours and glowing objects. Taking John Nixon and Mikala Dwyer’s respective practices into consideration, light as a metaphor conceptualises the possibilities of art making past skill, into the process of intellectual thinking.

John Nixon is perhaps best known for his commitment to colour. The Experimental Painting Workshop (EPW), a project defined by Nixon as an “intellectual proposition”—a non-physical site permitted Nixon to rupture conventional artistic practise, as he employed principles of monochrome, non-objectivity and constructivism.3 He championed the colour’s ability to possess energy, projecting its own light. Colour – Rhythm, Film Composition 5 2006 emits its own luminosity, through its visual brightness, but in the work’s restrained monochromatic concept, projects an intellectual enlightenment, a championing of art practice. Light conceptualises the possibilities of art making past skill, into a process of intellectual thinking.

Nixon’s works have been criticised for being “severely reductive” and “visually austere.”4 His works are pared back, with entire series (such as EPW: Orange) being devoted to polychromatic or monochromatic palettes.5 This criticism is to reduce the relationship between his monochromatic works and his readymade practice. Nixon notes the “intellectual terrain” that is unlocked by utilising the device of nomination; the “choice” of what becomes “art” rather than reliance on conventional artistic skill.6 Here, this is understood as the metaphorical illumination of artistic practice—the luminosity which grows from the freedom of choice. In the context of Luminance, this terrain is unlocked through mental, or cognitive illumination. Both the monochrome, the polychrome and the readymade mark the transition of artist intention from “practice as skill” to “practice as choice.”7 Both Dwyer and Nixon choose decidedly minimalist, restrained or simplistic compositions. The art is the practice.

Dwyer’s Untitled 2012 engages in luminant dialogue with Nixon’s works, as the lamp casts a literal light over Nixon’s works. As the most familiar source of light (being an electric lamp), Untitled becomes a vessel for light, not just in its bulb, but the ability to promote dialogue in illuminating its surrounding environment. Untitled’s glow activates the silver surface of Silver Monochrome 2008, bridging a quiet, radiant exchange of energy. Light here is not just the transmission of physical light, but the sharing of space; a dialogue between works.

Untitled references Dwyer’s wider practice of exploring spatial relationships—it works as an architectural intervention in the white gallery space. Standing at over two metres tall, it commands vertical observation, and an alteration in visitor contemplation, from Nixon’s repetitive practice. Readymade metallic objects invite the viewer to look closer, to consider the relationship of these objects to the industrial frame and surrounding works, reflected on the beads.

Silver Monochrome, displayed to the left of Untitled, marks a change in Nixon’s practice. Nixon began painting with silver in 1995, as an alternative to his signature orange works. Though Nixon understands silver as a “non-colour”, he finds synergies in how silver and orange conduct light.8 In comparison to Colour 5, the silver works are extremely opaque, but Nixon connects the two hues through their ability to conduct a sense of energy. Silver exists between materiality and light, utilising its reflective and textural qualities to create rich visual layers and a strong sense of structure. SilverMonochrome andUntitled are in dialogue, forming a physical connection between Nixon and Dwyer. Untitled’s physical light source enhances the reflectivity of Silver Monochrome, injecting a sense of shadow across its textured surface.

Artists: Mikala Dwyer, John Nixon

Curated by Jessica Alderton, Yile Bao, Juliet Day, Yiting Fang, Suri Feng, Jo Fewster, Yuting He, Shujing Ji, Zhiyu Ma.

Endnotes
1. “the veil,” Buxton Contemporary, accessed August 18, 2025, https://buxtoncontemporary.com/exhibitions/the-veil/.

2. Luisa Bosci et al., Buxton Contemporary (The University of Melbourne, 2018), 12.

3. Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), “John Nixon - EPW,” 2004, 8, https://content.acca.melbourne/legacy/files/2004_EPW_John%20Nixon_Catalogue_1.pdf#:~:text=John%20Nixon's%20paintings%20are%20concerned%20with%20the,objects%20that%20are%20incorporated%20into%20the%20work.

4. Andrew McNamara, “Readymade Abstraction: The Case of John Nixon,” Eyeline, ahead of print, 1998, https://doi.org/10.3316/informit.778683259421237.

5. Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), “John Nixon - EPW,” 9.

6. Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), John Nixon - Thesis - Selected Works from 1968-1993 (1994), https://content.acca.melbourne/legacy/files/John%20Nixon%20Thesis%20screen.pdf.

7. McNamara, “Readymade Abstraction.”

8. “John Nixon - EPW: Silver,” Anna Schwartz Gallery, 2006, https://annaschwartzgallery.com/exhibition/epw-silver-2.