Etching, Gouache, Graphite and Ink on paper, just to name a few...Flinders Rangers, Hill End, Pilbara, Simpson Desert and the kitchen window, just to name a few...
Elisabeth has left a rather long paper trail and it still continues with even more greatness than before!!!
Semi to complete abstraction, Elisabeth has a complete understanding of colour and form...of placement and perspective...you can see in every work that she doesn't paint what she see's...But paints what she feels...
Fell in love with 'Untitled', the Chine Colle work from 1986...'Bess & Willa at Wedderburn', Ink on paper 2009 and 'Kitchen Window Wedderburn' gouache & Ink on paper 2009...
This show is just beautiful, I know I'm gushing...That's because I'm a HUGE fan...And a wonderful show to help celebrate 'Sixtoeight's' first birthday!!!
It's going to be very hard not to gush in this post...But these new works from an Artist I have not seen since 1991 are quite breathtaking!!!
The 'Landscape & Memory' series are the ones I'm most fond of...Charcoal on paper...Misty images that take the eye on a quiet journey to distant lands...
Oil on board...The Artist used a palette knife to scratch away detailed bracken fern imagery across the entire surface...We both couldn't stop looking at them...Around and around the room we went!!!
And thank you to Andrew for starting up the Sheffer Gallery, we look forward to returning soon...
Maria Gorton, Junstin Ridler, Douglas McCloskey, Teo Treloar and Marisa Purcell
Thank god this great space is being utilized once again as a Gallery...It's light and airy and has a comfortable, welcoming feeling to it...this show is tight and fits well together...and it's a good introduction to the neighbourhood as Kings Cross needs more Galleries...and even better with the bookshop sharing the building...
29th June - 17th July 2010
33 Roslyn Street, Kings Cross
And it's not just about the work, it's also the people who look at the work...
Seriously...who am I kidding...Jeffrey Smart is a Genius and always will be!!!
Mr Smart doesn't own the landscape, but at the same time he does, Because he has re-created, re-invented and re-educated us to understand what we are looking at...Not just your average container and traffic sign...
Age and perseverance can lead an Artist down the 'Yellow Brick Road', Mr Smart has been there many a time over the years...And you can see that in his work, as he has evolved as well, evolved, his work has become more fluid, a much more looser approach, especially his skies and clouded landscapes, not so hurried as most people would say, still with control and a freer brushstroke...
Seen by an aspiring Artist this chaos of road signs and traffic noise can embed an enduring sense of danger of colour and light and above all sound...Which is important...We don't want to lose anyone while they are painting traffic...So luckily we have the necessary safety equipment...So paint on!!!
'Richmond Park', at first glance I thought he had incorporated a touch of collage, but on closer inspection it's paint (just at the edge of the billboard where it looks like the paint is lifting) and well painted...And the figure study for this painting is a delight...
Mr Smart has made the common 'Parking Lot' a revered element in his work...Look at 'The Conversation', the narrative from these works will explain everything...Well almost...They add a little eyebrow raising and a bit of humour with the help from the brilliant red container...it's your decision!!!
This man has achieved a brilliant career as a painter and helped even brilliantly by Stuart Purves and Australian Galleries and if I was handing out gold stars, I'd be handing them out to everyone at Australian Galleries...
It took one man to show us the beauty of traffic signs and road works and we will never see those objects in any other way than through his paintings...And I don't think I'm alone when I think he's a 'Genius'!!!
Four years later and this Gallery is still going strong...great to see...and with lots to feast your eyes on...It would be hard to tell you my favourites...I love all the artists at this Gallery...
The Bear snouts by Sherna Teperson...I just wanted to pick them up and feel everyone of them...The beautiful detailed 'Captain Apollo' by Sarah Newall...The striking 'In Between 11' by Nuha Saad...just to name a few...ok, it's cruel to name a few...But it would be even crueler if you missed this show...This Gallery is one of very few Galleries that are open on Sunday's...so you have no excuse!!!
I can't believe how slack I've been at putting up this post... lawdy ... almost a week...
In a gallery scene that usually travels the safe road, I love seeing a couple of shows with fangs.
Michael Callaghan's 'The torture memo' pulls no punches as it dissects torture in Iraq in a clean and colourful manner.
Text in English and translated carefully into Islamic script carefully describes 'torture' techniques almost giving the viewer a do it yourself guide to water boarding. Go on! ... try it at home...
The most chilling image is the suicide bomber, wearing a hoodie, looking like a fashion shoot for street wear, aching to push down a the button in his hand...
This is Gilbert and George in the age of terror...
and then in the project space...
'Deep in the woods', Gerry Wedd has made the most fragile of ceramics. Some fragile in construction and some fragile to the senses...
We have a kangaroo hung from a tree that looks as if it will snap, a kangaroo on fire...Thylacine styled dogs biting and snarling ... mock Asian blue glazes attack trad English glazes. It's ceramics with bite, questioning the gulfs between cultures and ideologies... and they also succeed at just being plain entertaining.
Now I'm usually the one that runs screaming into the street when the speeches start... but not when Damien speaks. It's become tradition for Damien to thank his artists, I really like that... and like that he is eloquent, humorous and knows when to shut up. Maybe he should hold speech workshops for some of the more wordy dealers around town.
We walk into this show thinking...'Are we in an alternative reality'...'NO'...It's a group show of Melbourne Artists working with minimal conceptualism...Brilliant!!!
I fell in love with Lou Hubbard's work 'E.T.' simple but very effective...while Jimmy loved the Sanne` Mestrom 'A slow shift in the balance of power'...I also loved that one too...that work was a little more interactive then the rest of the show...and we both loved the Deborah Ostrow 'Series, Deviations of Nothing: re-worked and improved' which reminded me of work by the 80's performance artists 'O'Flate from Brisbane...with references to digital medium through analogue...
This is one show that shouldn't be missed and both Jimmy and I always make an effort to support interstate shows!!!
We promise Alice, we are not stalking you...we just love your work, since first seeing it at the Xavier Art Space at St Vincents Hospital in April and Tammie Castles work at Brenda May Gallery in March this year...We are suckers for drawings and works on and with paper...
The Library Stairwell Gallery is an interesting space with Vanja Zaric's moon like paintings working well in the upstairs room...coming downstairs to feast your eyes on a collection of intimate drawings by Alice Stokes and a vast selection of humorous postcards by Tammie Castles...
But, don't leave the gallery until you have seen the four dark drawings under the stairs...you'll be sorry if you do...
I've always been very impressed with sculptors who can imitate surfaces in marble. Seton's last show here had tshirts hanging on coat hangers and stupid me thought for the first half hour that I was looking at a t-shirt show...
This time it's inflatable objects... complete with plastic stoppers glued onto the side... or not inflated in the case of the unfortunate whale.... or maybe it's a grotesque face ...
On the walls marble carved temples inlaid with graphite and watercolour document the larger carved pieces.
Technically the carving is flawless... but the show tends to rely a little too heavily on the blow up palm trees... there's a lot of them! ... and what were the backdrop and carpet tiles about?
We found Sophie E. Bray in September 2009 as a finalist in The Tim Olsen Drawing Prize and fell in love with her and her work...Then, it was 'Swell Study', now, almost a year later it's 'Oceanic', a beautiful continuation of detailed drawings of the ocean swell...
As we both stood mesmerized by these drawings, we felt we could dive into the works and disappear into the ocean depths...If we did that, then we wouldn't get to enjoy her career!!!
They are beautiful drawings, but we can only imagine how long each one takes to complete, as we are both artists we understand completely and appreciate the time and effort each of these works take...
Sophie has worked hard, but sadly this show is now over...so I guess we just have to wait for the next installment with bated breath...
written by fleur
8th June - 11th June 2010
Space E Block foyer and EG03, College of Fine Art
This was the first time we had covered a show at Arthouse Gallery and I hadn't realised that it was the work of the delightful Anna Lochtenberg Williams. I had seen a show of hers at Ian Dawson Gallery before and her work has come a long way.
The intimate interiors constructed with pieces of recycled timber play games with your eyes... with chairs and doorways jutting out from the surface. The last time we saw Anna was at Chalkhorse and she held a card for our Christmas mail out.
A really great crowd including the always affable John McDonald, and it was great to meet Michael Fitzgerald, Art and Australia editor.
We were both smitten with this work, a lovely continuity flowed through the entire Gallery...there wasn't a single work out of place...probably the best show we have seen in a while!!!
This is high Dada, Erte, de Chirico and Picabia which provides us with an almost theatrical point of view...
Conceptually this show is complete...tumbling with self references and effortlessly changing between mediums...It's a treat to see something which has been thoroughly thought through.
Joanna's paintings have come so far far since we were in art school together... these murky out of focus paintings are a treat...
Ok!
So they are
a soft option, they could be in any waiting room or lounge room with a complete calming affect... they are like looking at landscape through a silk screen and I don't have a problem with that.
It wasn't a show to see at an opening... you really have to get far back from this work to get it.
