Oh Really Gallery - Alex Fry & Jamie Nimmo

My first visit to Oh Really Gallery and it was a lot of fun.

It's all 3d! 3d! 3d! at the moment and it's a great treat to see a show using old 3d tech stuff... the stuff of the fifties and sixties and somehow I find it a little more convincing or maybe just a little more nostalgic ... well let's face it '3d' is just about an optical illusion... it's all still 2d really.

These photos are well shot and would stand out well even without the novelty... and the lads at Oh Really have pulled out all stops to make the show look great ... their very lovely space, an old shop in Enmore Road has floating clean walls ... in this case they're painted neutral grey, which really works when you chuck on a pair of old school cardboard 3d glasses.

I was expecting to see a room of people wearing them but quickly worked out that if you wore them for longer than a few minutes the vertigo set in .... errr ....

Some great subjects in the show from the very lovely Craig Ruddy to Morris Gleitzman to Richard Neville.

A great conversation piece to have in your house and apparently they were quite cheap... couldn't find a room sheet though and I'm fairly certain that most folk didn't even know they were for sale... which for all the effort seemed a bit of a shame.

I'm certainly going to be watching this space and urge everyone to have a wander in if they're in the hood because they are lovely pics and a hoot.

Stereo Portrait Project
Oh Really Gallery, 55 Enmore Road, Newtown

27th May - 10th June 2010
www.stereoportraitproject.com

Chalk Horse - Clifton Mack & Jasper Knight

WOW!!!

The first time I saw Jasper Knight's work was the first time I went to Chalk Horse in 2009...heard a few things about him...all good...came to this show...OH MY GOD!!!

The vibrancy in these works is almost like a upside slap to the head...this collection of works brings back all my memories from the 70's and 80's and re-introduces it for all the world to see in the 00's...

This show is a brilliant start for those studying American Pop Art!!!

Clifton Mack's work offers some chill out time, time to reflect on a sea change...Jarman Island Lighthouse...of pure historical reference from a calming voice...

27th May - 5th June 2010
www.chalkhorse.com.au

Australian Galleries - Roylston St - Tim Storrier

In the 80's I lived in an apartment with one of Storrier's big sail works from the point to point series... it was beautiful. Gritty yet subtle. I still shudder when I think of the day it left. My good friend Bill Roberts was ill and needed cash. It was the height of the recession and Stuart found a buyer in the US and it went I think for $19500. Bill and I cried as Woollahra Art Removals carried it from the room ...

Lawdy ... that painting would buy a house now.

This show is a bit of a mash up. Where mystery is suggested it's more like melodrama... a bit more Peter Lorre than Peter O'Toole... but then maybe that's because every time I see a fez I think of Groucho Marx.

The paintings are beautifully painted and there are some great ones here, but the long wall of figures suggested by the remains of their belongings tends toward the formulaic.

25th May - 12th June 2010
www.australiangalleries.com.au

Bicker Gallery - Pam Glew - Luminaries

This is bad of me... I thought I'd posted this but hadn't ... oops .... Sorry Pam...

I have to say that Bicker Gallery is a bit of a mystery ... I'm not sure if it's a one off pop up on Oxford St or if it's there to stay or what... I went to their website and still don't know ... I hope it isn't just a one off because the space is really good and we need some galleries that are street level high visibility.

Pam Glew's flags are slick, a bit too pop culture for for me but I can certainly admire them for the quality of finish. Using pictures of Kylie and Danni Minogue these flags are made of pieces of antique denim, meticulously sewn together.


Since writing the copy I now know that this was a pop up ... which is a shame because it's a really good space.

bickergallery.com
6th May - 22 May

Martin Browne Fine Art - McLean Edwards

In his last show, you could see that he was in love...love and it's confused state...In these new works you can see he's still in love but with a firmer controlled grip on his reality...Much more painterly, lovely brushstrokes, more fluid colour...Showing a fresher approach...

We were both confronted with these wild images and story lines..."In the kitchen", with it's over the top imagery and shadows...The two "Art Student" works with the faux wood grain...wonderful...and "Down Hill Racer", someone said they were kangaroo's, no there not, they look like puppies...

I've probably gushed enough, we both really liked this show and both gushed when we saw his new tiny baby...Just lovely...

20th May - 13th June 2010
www.martinbrownefineart.com

Gallery 9 - Angelica Mesiti

It was a real treat to finally see Angelica Mesisti's winning Blake Prize entry without the cacophony and over hanging of the Blake Prize itself... and it is beautiful ...

Having seen so many bloody videos at the biennale there was room for comparison and Mesisti does GREAT video.

I'm going to have to go back and see 'Line of load and death of Charlie Day' it was shown in the back with only two headphones to listen with and while I did get a chance to use them it just seemed like a bit of hard work to stand there in a crowd for fifteen minutes.

'Heritage Park' was just good old fashioned sweet, very quietly a band plays in a park ... shame about the people watching talking all the way through it ...

'Old time' has a passion which is enthralling ... ostensibly just  a man reading a poem ... but it's so obvious how much he loves what he is reading.

There's a lovely variety in the four works ... they all describe a different form of passion ... yay!

www.gallery9.com.au
12th May - 29th May 2010

17th Beinnale of Sydney - Cockatoo Island

We arrived at Cockatoo Island on a crowded ferry and it felt like we walked for miles and miles...looking at countless video's and installation pieces...fell in love with Kate McMillan's "Islands of Incarceration", a curtain of trees...just beautiful...Peter Hennessey's "My Hubble" became my favourite...I was gobsmacked at the amount of work involved in creating a complete wooden replica...Shen Shaomin blew us away with the sleeping dictator...

Disappointed that the Cai Guo-Qiang work wasn't working as yet!!!

and lastly Brook Andrew's Jumping Castle War Memorial completed our memory of Cockatoo Island...with a well earned rest...

www.cockatooisland.gov.au
12th May - 1st August 2010

17th Beinnale of Sydney - MCA

Since the Biennale Head Office didn't send us a press pack, even when we registered as Press...

We have to thank Gabrielle Wilson from the PR office at the MCA for allowing us to film the works in the Biennale and showing us around, we found her most helpful...and we would have been lost without her...Thank you so much...

Just loved Jake and Dinos Champman's quirky cardboard and mixed media sculptures...Always love Shane Cotton...and of course the wonderful Louise Bourgeois...The MCA does actually show case a mixed variety of art works from the Biennale...something for everyone...

www.mca.com.au
12th May - 1st August 2010

Michael Reid Gallery - Jason Benjamin - Shelter

From Robin Gibson to Jason  Benjamin's show and you couldn't find a more different crowd if you tried ... the seriously suited!

There's not a lot of fun in these works... they are serious paintings pushing Benjamin's trademark spookiness. There's a loneliness and desperation in these paintings which are a little like a long late night drive searching for a place to rest...

Michael rarely has openings, he should do more... while it's a hassle it does bring life into the gallery and gets people talking about the show.

Michael Reid - Elizabeth Bay
5th May - 4th June

Robin Gibson Gallery - Cash Brown - Size Matters

The centre piece of Cash Brown's exhibition 'Size Matters' is eighty ceramic leaves on a plinth, each representing a sexual partner. I love the leaves... kind of gets you to thinking about how big your own plinth would have to be!

The fragmented details of Renaissance paintings work really well ... better than the copies of work sourced from the US and re-worked by Brown.

Disappointed that Robin wasn't wearing his usual opening tracky dacks ... but it was a very smart crowd so probably for the best!

Robin Gibson Gallery
1st May - 26th May

King Street Gallery on William - Adriane Strampp

Imaging The Gap...dark, mysterious misty landscapes...that feeling of just before dawn...while it's still dark and you can make out figures in the landscape....

Over heard someone saying, they reminded them of 'Toohey's New', oh please, why do people need to associate art with advertising...when art is more expressive than advertising!!!

Adriane has been around for a long time and it's great to see her still doing strong beautiful work...

4th May - 29th May 2010
www.kingstgallery.com.au

Australian Galleries - Glenmore Rd - Julian Twigg

I love crunchy lumpy paint. This is the second show I've seen of Julian's and it's got more crunchier and more lumpier and so I'm happy.

My favourite painting in this show is the only one here from his Bundanoon residency, a lovely red coral tree ... yum ... but I also love a good boat and that doesn't disappoint me either ...

Julian's Mum was so sweet, she makes artists books and of course that's a sub culture and secret artist hand shake that we chatted about at length, a nod and a wink ....

A show for lovers of lumps of paint.

www.australiangalleries.com.au
29th April - 22 May

Charles Hewitt Gallery - Ivan Goodacre - The Lay Of The Land

My good mate John Azzi rang me and told me he was going to this show. When I was up the coast Fleur went to the group show at Charles Hewitt and had mentioned Ivan's work ... so off I went...

On the whole there's some very lovely landscapes here... totally loved the ink drawings, it's when he really seems to understand the subject from an emotional place.

at their best the oils quote Andrew Wyeth ... not a bad thing in my mind... there's beautiful textured wheat happening and the colour palette is, well, something that you could really live with ...

but... and there is a but!... it's that everything is hung. There is no curation here. It's a lot of work and some just shouldn't be there, just too sugary sweet...  and too many for the room.

And then there's the numbers ... this may sound petty but I really like to scan a room and the the dymo numbers ( BTW: I love dymo numbers!) are here there and everywhere, one's in the middle of a painting, one's at the bottom, one's underneath ... as you scan the room it's as if you are reading some Dada music score, a score you don't really want interfering with the enjoyment of the paintings; add the red dots and the score is complete.

Worth seeing, and really affordable. It's a good show ... I'd just like to run in and rehang it.

www.charleshewitt.com.au
29th April - 17th May

Australian Galleries- Roylston Street - William Robinson

Robinson's latest work, Twenty Ink drawings, Eight paintings, One sculpture, is a mysterious show.

The drawings are of Brunswick Heads, undeniably Brunswick Heads, drawn freely in a range of blue and indigo ink. Often comical and funny.

His paintings are the mysterious things. Dappled with rain forest light, they promise other worlds.

These are BIG ticket items with 4 of them having a price tag of $495 000, (and were sold) which kind of asks the question, does the enormous price add to the works mystery?

As always a lovely crowd and the show is a treat.

www.australiangalleries.com.au
27th April - 12th May