This time it's Gold Coast artist, Sam Smith who's show Mad Dogs - Part One gives us tribal based paintings based on the iconography of bikie gangs.
Sam walked me through the show and I was impressed with what he had to say and he gave me an insight which I might have missed. It's a conflict between two different gangs culminating in the major piece which is kind of a streetart Guernica. Interesting work and I look forward to Part Two.
If only I could go too...to Venice...standing in the street with my sketchbook watching the locals and tourists pass me by...recording every event night and day...
As I walked around the Gallery studying every piece...most of the works captured my heart...some works stopped me in my tracks...
I love this show...it's the best one of Wendy's I've seen yet!!!
Her approach is tighter but still very fluid and her use of colour is to die for...
And Wendy looked fantastic in her black and white outfit with matching handbag with a bit of sparkle...
In the project room Rebecca Lavis has served us an impressive bunch of paintings about skateboarding ... they're underworked and sketchy, which is always a risk in painting but in this case it works.
They're also whimsical and funny until you look closer and see the black eyes and cracked skulls ... apt seeing that Rebecca couldn't make it to the opening as her eldest son was in hospital after a skateboard incident ...
Cecelia in the front room must be one busy tatt artist... There's sooo much work! Her elaborate lace works are exquisitely detailed.
While this usually isn't my bag, I did love the box framed wee 'collages' using transfers and collected fabrics, they challenge the notion of lace and are genuinely moody. Enjoyed the show but mostly wandered around in awe of the workmanship.
Bottles... lots of lovely bottles ... Djunginy's paintings quote the debri around the place she lives ... it's indigenous traditional painting with a twist of social commentary ... it's talking about grog ... it's also just plain lovely composition... how many bottles fall off the wall?
Karen Mills has worked over and over and over on these works ... they are bags, well abstracted bags, fish come out of the netting ... lot's of memory ... go look in the office! There's a surprise wee suite in there and the the intimacy of a small room seems to make them more important.
Sweet is the best way to describe Rob's show... and it is ...
This is his first show and he's gone to a lot of trouble framing and they be well sellable.
I spoke to his sister (totally sweet as well) who was complaining how Rob had stolen her watercolours... then she confessed that she had actually given up on painting and didn't care...
The work has beautiful washes and a deceptive under text ... the green lady with the black figures and the green lady with the beast are real treats ...
I asked Rob why one suite of watercolours were more expensive than another and he could only say that he was more attached to them ... awwwwwwww gotta love youth ...
They be worth seeing and at the price they are ... well worth getting.
A room full of trophies or a room full of toy guns... I wanted to pick them all up off the table to feel them, but then that wouldn't be allowed... I should have asked... I can always go back later and see if I can...
And I had to stop some people from hanging there coats on the wall works... No! just kidding...
When I first looked at these works they reminded me of bladeless swords or mounted antlers... maybe for the act of not fighting or harming the poor moose...
These are interesting works... they give you plenty of time to contemplate what you think of them and have a calming affect...
Ok! We let the Penguin out again only because it was close to the sea and about ice and snow... and after Euan's show at Watters the snow theme seems to be the way to go... at least this week ...
As an avid woodblock printer, says Jimmy, I loved the lino cuts... Mark has a delightful approach... it is innocent and while there were no Penquins there were lovely cuts of dogs and kids...
The sculptures were a real treat ... 'the kids are gone' a sense of past with a wee snowman and the loss...
The paintings are in Vinylic... WTF? ... apparently it's a new paint from one of the big French paint makers, can't remember if it was Le Franc or whatever... they have a flatness that is beyond acrylic paint ... not that we have ever liked the flatness of acrylic paint ... sixtoeight are fond fans of oils and wax...
It's a really good show for a first solo ... great crowd ... BUT we really like the tradition of printmaking ... Mark could have sold three of the puppy and dog prints ... if anyone really knew that there were more to sell... the traditional printmaking edition info was missing from the base of each work ... we love to know what we're looking at and a linoprint needs explanation...
This is a solid first show from someone that needs to be watched...team it up with a trip to the Ice Rink and you'll have a wonderful time...
Angela MacDougall's whimsical sculptures are pure fun. Piglets and puppies frolic around kite fliers and people playing tug of war. My personal favourite was the two puppies holding tails ... sooo sweet!
Liz Stops, 'Carbon Credits 2' blends the unlikely combination of charcoal, bone and binder and porcelain to create vessels and symbolic representations of houses.
I must confess that I knew very little about Carl Plate before this show. These recently discovered collages hang alongside paintings and the work is remarkably fresh and spirited considering that some are from the sixties.
Liam Power was a pleasant surprise. This 22 year old has painted some exceptional paintings for the project room. Those Novacastrians really love their coal bulks. Impressive lyrical skies with ships perched precariously on the horizon progress to intelligently composed abstracts of bulkheads.
A friendly and large crowd for a Saturday afternoon and Damien always make everyone welcome.
We'd been waiting for this one for months. Euan is perhaps our favourite painter and so this may be a little gushy.
How effortlessly Euan has changed from desert to ice ... this is a vision we could never have imagined Antarctica to look like ... it's dark blues and greens of ancient ice. The ice seems to hold the collected memories of history. It's desolate and foreign and the figures within it know it.
There is not one bad painting in the gallery and and for such a volume of work this alone is impressive.
Giorgio Pengee, our wee stuffed mascot, who has of late been banned from openings for his incessant twittering was allowed to come to this one ... in fact with the amount of penguins in the paintings it would have seemed cruel to leave him at home... Euan is a personal friend of his and all.
If you don't get a chance to get to this show... at least take the time to view it online via the link below. But considering that Kevin Connor's latest work is showing around the corner at Liverpool St Gallery there's more than enough reason to visit East Sydney.
Ice, lots of ice...Penguins, lots of Penguins, even a stuffed one...
Haven't seen a lot from Stuart recently what with strokes and children and all ... but this is his Post Grad show and he's been busy.
These are formalist abstract works in the grand tradition of modernism and when they work they are great... I have a huge problem with out of the tube purple though and there was a wall I really didn't want to look at ...
Odd opening... we'd all just learned of Jasper Legge's tragic death which put a dampener on the evening... but by the end of the opening the crowd had swelled and most of the talk was focused on Stuart's work ...
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