Gallery 9 - What

What? What and What? Satanism

Is it really that dark in hell, well if it is, can someone pass me a torch please!!!

But hell has been around longer than this Artist...and is Satan a Bach fan, not sure about that one...more like Metalica...

This show is very dark but interesting at the same time...and you won't get snow blindness...and What is consistent in his Art practice and will probably go on as long Hell hangs around!!!

31st March - 17th April 2010
www.gallery9.com.au

Sullivan+Strumpf - Darren Sylvester & Laith McGregor

Some of Darren's work I had seen before, in a magazine or somewhere...so it was nice to see them in real life...

I kept getting drawn to the Surgical one...maybe it was my own impending surgery, eek!!!

Ok, yes I am a Darren fan and I love what he is doing in Music as well...

And I could also be a Laith fan too after seeing his detailed drawings and watercolours, so many to choose from!!!

I found both shows entertaining, it was a pity Jimmy couldn't come...maybe next time...

30th March - 18th April 2010
www.ssfa.com.au

Brenda May Gallery - Paper Works

Lot's of lovely paper works...Jimmy and I both enjoyed this show immensely...lots to look at and lots of brilliant works...loved the 3 little blue hand made bags...the army tank...the framed white stenciled pieces...the hole punching machine that went on and on...the concertina printed paper work...the pinned book...and not to forget the paper bags on the floor where some silly person walked straight into them without looking where they were going....

Brilliant!!! If you work in paper, it's a must to see this show!!!

23rd March - 11th April 2010
www.brendamaygallery.com.au

Conny Dietzschold Gallery Sydney - David Thomas & Robert Schad

Photopaintings by David Thomas are a reflection of an urban landscape...when photo's are framed, they seem to loose the window affect...but with David's work, you walk into the Gallery and there are constant views to his world...a nice challenge...

Steel Sculptures by Robert Schad...we couldn't resist walking around the big leggy stick sculpture and we both fell in love with it!!!

27th March - 28th April 2010
www.connydietzscholdgallery.com

A - SPACE on Cleveland - Chris Bates

These works by Chris Bates are just beautifully painted, showing not just the expected rose but stalks and all...we especially loved the paintings of looking through the vase at the stalks...almost like looking into another world...the gallery was packed to the rafters, so a second look is on the cards for us!!!

24th March - 17th April 2010
www.a-spaceoncleveland.com.au

Chalk Horse - Fergus Binns & Rachel Fuller

It's true, Fergus Binns Artistic perspective is bigger than my flat...enormous novels yell out of each canvas grabbing the onlooker and holding them tight...

Jimmy became an instant fan and I'm still warming to them...Although I love it when artists incorporate recycling into their work...becomes more user friendly...

But for me I fell in love with Rachell Fuller's intimate poloroids and the leaf floor plan!!!

A loving memory of a grandparent and a place in her heart beautifully portrayed in this collection of works...

25th March - 10th April 2010
www.chalkhorse.com.au

Tim Olsen Gallery - Gria Shead & Paul Davies

Dancing Queens and a lovely Florida lifestyle...

With Gria's rich and flouncy brush strokes, the dancers seemed to dance off the canvas...And we'd rather go to Woollahra for feathers and thrills...

But it's always great to catch up with Gria and Luke, and Stella almost outshone her mother in the fashion stakes!!!

And it's so cool when both galleries open on the same night...silly us we discovered after getting home that there is more than two stencil works in Paul's show, guess we'll have to go back for a second look...

24th March - 4th April 2010
www.timolsengallery.com

Roslyn Oxley9 - Imants Tillers

It's usually Fleur that gushes on this blog ... but my god this show is IT ... the quotes are there and it's funny and sad and well ... iridescent paint is one of my least favourite things but here it really works...

OK that Kngwarreye ripoff in the small room is just wrong ... but no one was looking at it because the full wall of beautiful was there to take their attention away.

I've seen a lot of Tillers work in my life and even ordered his canvas boards in another life (well it seems like that ... it was just working at Oxford Art  ... errrrrrrrrrghhhh...) and this is a show that everyone MUST see.

How gushy is that?

Go and look ...

www.roslynoxley9.com.au
11th March -1 April, 2010

Gallery 9 - Michelle Hanlin

A history lesson in paint and plaster, Michelle's colour scheme is almost Georgian with a hint of...dandy...

I giggled when Jimmy stood beside the plaster figure with the Canary, wearing his Canary T-shirt!!!

Great crowd added to a very entertaining evening...it was great to catch up with some long lost friends...Bob, Linda and Geoff...but at the same time sad to say goodbye to dear friend Mia...

10th March - 27th March 2010
www.gallery9.com.au

The Cross Art Projects - Fiona MacDonald

You will have to expect some gushing in this post...Fiona, after all is my big sister...

Local Studies: Legend and Legacy

These beautiful large detailed watercolours of protests and ominous characters are snapshots from history, part of an ongoing series of solo's spanning 16 years, the one before was at MacKay Regional Gallery and these works will be joining those at Wollongong City Gallery from the 19th March to 25th April 2010...hence the one day only...

This video was cut short when I got stuck behind a throng of onlookers!!!

But the works that I managed to see were all quite striking and flowed nicely together...creating a brilliant storyline and showcasing this wonderful new gallery space...

I think our Great Grandmother who traveled from Copenhagen would be proud of our Fiona for keeping our history alive...I am very fortunate to have a sister like Fiona...

6th March 2010 (One day only)
www.crossart.com.au

Ray Hughes Gallery - Peter Cooley

Ahh the lovely Peter... he's been in the mountains too long and seems to be getting crazier than a cut snake ... and it seems to be working ...

These new ceramics are great, galahs, cockatoos, rosellas all peep out of their wee tree nests... sounds twee but the nuts way they are slammed together invests them with personalities and stories ... you just want to pat them!

The weather wasn't kind and it was a quiet opening, Ray disappeared about 7pm but the party faithful stayed on ...

Definitely worth checking out the titles ... 'busted guts' in most titles made at us laugh anyway ...

26th February - 24th March 2010
www.rayhughesgallery.com

Ray Hughes Gallery - Eamon O'Toole

Obviously a car enthusiast, Eamon's sculptures are slabbed together plastic extravaganzas finely detailed in shiny shiny enamels... they be VERY whacky, the hole punching machine is a treat ... stripping it's exactness the machine stands awkwardly as some sort of industrial anachronism ... if I lived in a warehouse conversion I'd order four of 'em ....

26th February - 24th March 2010
www.rayhughesgallery.com

Firstdraft Gallery - The Wait is Over

Packed to the rafters with a young hip crowd!!!

I arrived during a performance by amira.h performing a Holy ritual involving fish blood and milk...ok back in the 80's I did a bit of performance art and I will give her credit for drinking the fish blood and milk in front of a packed crowd...it takes a lot of guts...

With David Sullivan's work do we need an Australian icon to be dissected so we can fall in love with it all over again, perhaps we do...somehow we have the need to hang on to it before it slips away into memory...

Loved the Lachlan Anthony and David Withers work in the back room, taking the everyday objects and transporting them into another dimension of reality!!!

All four shows seem to interact somehow working between the space of subconscious and consciousness and I could have easily curled up inside Alice Lang's Jumper Pod for a quick nap...awaking with a clear mind...

3rd March - 21st March 2010
www.firstdraftgallery.com

Australian Galleries - Roylston - Narrative Realism: A World Observed

Finally back from Coffs and I love an Australian Galleries opening. You can rely on catching up with a few old chestnuts and it's always just a lovely place.

Eleanor curated this show and it displays work from Fred Cress, Neil Cuthbert, Graeme Drendel, Peter Neilson and sixtoeight stalwart Nerissa Lea. 

We only wish that we had Nerissa's story of the colour to black and white repaint of a painting in the catalogue on video, it was very entertaining and made sense of the show.

Cuthbert's 'Histories of the Field' stands out, it's almost Soviet 'agit prop' art and maybe we need more of that right now ...


2nd March - 20th March 2010
www.australiangalleries.com.au