Redactionart art, Snake Skins and Embroidery

What do these things have in common?
They are all artworks that are currently showing in 3 exhibitions at the Belconnen Arts Centre, Emu Bank, Belconnen ACT until the 28 Mary 2017.

• Beauties and Beasts
• Mono and More
• Shed

Beauties and Beasts 

Faculty of Arts and Design University of Canberra
This is the 23rd UC staff exhibition. It highlights the commitment to the creative practice of the arts in the world by staff and research-artists from the Faculty of Art and Design at UC. 

'Beauties and Beasts' harnesses the power of creative practice to represent what is beautiful and/or beastly about our relationship with the natural world,' says Dr Jordan Williams.

The exhibition is also a tribute to Sandra Burr who passed away in 2015, her research explored the relationship  between animals and humans. One of her artworks is included in this exhibition. The artwork is a wonderful descriptive and moving piece about her relationship with her horse, Myst.

Rikki and Myst by Sandra Burr

Local illustrator Tony Flowers has included one art piece that his followers would have seen in development on his Facebook page. Flowers is currently teaching Publication Design, digital literacy and working on his PhD at UC.

Herald by Tony Flowers

Another UC staff member, Tim Sherratt, is working in the area of Digital Heritage. While researching redactions, the withholding of information, he discovered that someone had created a collection of creatures out of the redactions. His artwork is #readactionart to see more go here.

The Redaction Zoo by Tim Sherratt

Other artwork in this exhibition uses the mediums of textiles, video, photographs and sculptures.

On Sunday 21 May – 2:00pm there will be a poetry reading in the gallery. More information and bookings go here. 

Mono and More

Ilona Lasmanis, Robyn McAdam and Steve Tomlin have been working together at Megalo Print Studios since 2009. This is their third group exhibition. While they all use printing, their artworks are very different to each other.

Ilona Lasmanis uses collograph (where collage is stuck to the printing plate), collage, hand embroidery and stamps plus linoprints and monotypes to create her artworks. The embroidered animals and insects in these artworks are very attractive and there is a uniqueness to Lasmanis' works.

Summer Sounds by Ilona Lasmanis

Robyn McAdam's artworks are inspired by her travels to Venice, Italy. She explores the changing light and colour throughout the day. MdAdam's uses monotype printing to create her artworks adding some hand painted collage to her works.

And silent roes the songless gondolier and Sunset on Zattere by Robyn McAdam

Steve Tomlin's has recently begun to focus on landscapes in his artwork. He uses silkscreen printing to build up his layered artworks in a minimalist way. 

On the way to the coast by Steve Tomlin

Shed

This exhibition is a solo exhibit for Gillian Jackson. Jackson has combined her love of mathematics; measurement, line, structure and patterns into her artistic pursuit. She has created a series of minimalist artworks using discarded snake shed or skins with recyclable laminating film. "I don't like snakes but I like these," says one of the exhibition viewers on opening night. The artworks are hypnotic though the repetition of pattern of the snake skins and creation of patterns by Jackson to create new and interesting textural artworks. The use of colour in the skins to create the patterns are mesmerising.

Mosaic Pieces by Gillian Jackson

Glass Sculpture 2 by Gillian Jackson

These three exhibitions are showing until 28 May 2017 at the Belconnen Arts Centre.

Thank you Monika McInerney, Creative Program Director, and your team for three wonderful exhibits that have something to offer many artistic tastes. The opening night held on 5 May 2017 was great!

Collage and reuse in Frank Stella’s prints with Alice Desmond.

Upon entering the Orde Poynton Gallery and the current exhibition Frank Stella The Kenneth Tyler Print Collection, one is surrounded by the large prints of Frank Stella. The prints of; lines, shapes, curves, cones, columns, domes, nets, collage, 3D, colours, black and white.

In front of Stella’s print The Fountain sit more than twenty people ready to listen to the lunchtime talk given by Alice Desmond, Curatorial Assistant of the Kenneth Tyler Collection, International Prints, Drawings and Illustrated Books at the National Gallery of Australia.  

Desmond explained how Stella artworks developed from a minimalist style print of straight and curved lines to his narrative abstraction works and then to the sculptural refined abstraction pieces like The Fountain.

Star of Persia, 1967

Port aux Basques, 1971

Talladega five I, 1982

Initially Stella was a reluctant print maker but during his 30 year collaboration with Kenneth Tyler and Tyler’s printing workshop Stella was able to develop his prints into a sculptural experiment of multilayered, elaborate compositions.

Stella often interacted with his previous works in the process of creating new works. He would reuse his artworks; cutting them up, printing them in different colours, using new techniques and layering them create new artworks. Stella used copper and aluminium plates, lithograph, etching, relief and college to ensure that the printing didn’t lose the textural qualities that he wanted to convey.

To illustrate Stella’s collage and experimentation the lunchtime talk audience was asked to study his prints and draw, on coloured paper, some of the shapes seen in the artworks. They were then instructed to cut out their drawn shapes and to share these shapes with the people next to them. Once they had around eight shapes they were requested to construct a collage that they could order and reorder like Stella did with his works. This was a wonderful demonstration of Stella’s process of repetition and reuse of design elements.

Stella prints were not just a reuse of previous prints. His imagery was also inspired from a variety of sources.

His narrative abstractions were inspired by children’s stories and folk tales. These prints are not illustrations of the stories rather they show the story’s impact and energy. One example of this are the sculptural dome prints of the Moby Dick Series.

The cabin, Ahab and Starbuck, 1991

Moby Dick Series (domes)

Another source of imagery for Stella were 3D computer nets and lines on the Canadian bank notes which are evident in his work The Fountain, 1992. This work is large, 231.1 x 700.4 cm in size. It was created using three large wood blocks and 104 metal plates that were fitted into the wood blocks. The overall image took three days to print and then Stella would make additional changes to the work. See a short video here about this work's printing process.

The Fountain, 1992

In the exhibition space there is a video showing the complex printing process for Stella’s works, this is more detailed than the one at the above link. After watching the video the audience has a clearer understanding of the arduous and intricate operation behind the creation of these art works; from the steel plate creation to the colour selection and the printing process. The video shows Stella actively tweaking the design and colours until he is satisfied with the composition. The prints are not just a collage of Stella’s ideas but also a collage or collaboration of the Tyler print workshop team. The video reveals how the team breaks down the design template, hand paints each plate that is re-pieced into the wood block and the process of printing the artwork.

The exhibition Frank Stella The Kenneth Tyler Print Collection is a feast for the eyes. It is intricate and colourful. It will be on show until July 2017. A full colour catalogue is available to purchase from the National Gallery of Australia Shop.

To find out more about the Tyler Print Collection go to https://nga.gov.au/Tyler

Exhibition Opening: Borrow Tomorrow by Luke Chiswell

Tonight was the opening night of Luke Chiswell's solo exhibition, Borrow Tomorrow. The exhibition is being held at the Nishi Gallery NewActon, ACT from 7 April to 7 May 2017.

That Feeling I've Forgotten.

I first came across Chiswell's art with his sculpture, Hold Your Head Up, at an earlier exhibition, Shake It Up. 

Hold Your Head Up.

Chiswell's work calls to me to look at it and then to take another closer look at it. Maybe it is the familiar materials juxtaposed with familiar memories that create something new. 

Tonight the gallery was abuzz with discussions about the artworks, Chiswell's techniques and the artistic influences upon his work. Viewers were wishing that they had the wall space to hang his large artwork Today is Tomorrow, 160 x 210. 

In the exhibition Borrow Tomorrow Chiswell uses materials from his home town of Collector, NSW. The materials are very familiar to me having grown up on the bush fringes of Canberra and the family hobby farm near Bredbo, NSW. 

Squiggy Gumtree and Me.

Chiswell has incorporated natural materials of; wood, yellow box ash, Collector dirt and rocks with acrylics, muslin and epoxy to create very interesting abstract artworks. Some of the artworks are very raw, earthy and industrially dark whereas others defy gravity. 

Rite time. Rite Place.

I wonder if Chiswell has ever been influenced by some of my favourite artists;  René Magritte, Salvador Dali, Anselm Kiefer, Mark Rothko and Rosalie Gascoigne. 
(I spoke to Luke Chiswell the day after opening night and he said that one of his influences was Christo, the artist who wraps objects and landscapes.)

However, I believe that Chiswell's work is new and exciting, it is an "exploration of objects with space, abstracting perception and scale." (Exhibition catalogue). 

Sunset At Night Shepherds Delight.

Chiswell's works call to be touched, if only you were allowed, they are textural. You can see how Chiswell's fingers have glided through the paint and Collector dirt (see That Feeling I've Forgotten). 

Please make sure that you visit the Nishi Gallery in NewActon to see Luke Chiswell's fabulous artworks. I will be keeping my ear to the ground and eyes on social media looking for his next exhibition. 

To see more about Luke Chiswell see his Facebook page.

Shake It Up Exhibition

Shake It Up exhibition opening night at Nishi Gallery, New Acton.
Thought provoking art, great emcee Sheba Williams and a hilarious song from Yana Alana about a pussy with one life. 

Sheba Williams

Artists exhibiting in this exhibition include;
Sanne Kowlwmij, Franki Sparke, Josh Owen, Clare Jackson, Luke Chiswell, Mei Wilkinson, Eve Austin White, S.A.Adair, Amy Campbell, Sian Watson, Dionisia Salas, Cathy Laudenbach, Cole Bennetts and Jeanette Vonthethoff
Below is a sample of the artworks. 

 Hold Your Head Up by Luke Chiswell

 Reverb by S.A. Adair

Lampooned by Cole Bennetts and Jeanette Vonthethoff

Versailles exhibition NGA

What an opulent lifestyle these French kings had. 
The exhibition only shows a small scale of this. 
I Love water gardens and fans.

 

 

For some reason these fans reminded me of the silk fans that some of the Australian Impressionist artists painted even though the subject matter is quite different e.g. Charles Conder and Thea Proctor

David Hockney and iPad art

David Hockney has created the most wonderful art using iPads but I also love looking at a canvas with brush stokes in the paint. It was fabulous to watch videos of how the art works were created with a sped up time-laps of the "brush" strokes.

Canvas Painting.

 

Printed iPad paintings

Exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria until 13 March 2017.

YouTube Link.

David Hockney reflects on the exhibition DAVID HOCKNEY

‘Coincidences’ Exhbitition Opening

‘Coincidences’ Opening

Exhibition by John Wardle Architects
@ Nishi Gallery, New Acton until Friday, 17 February 2017

Wow what a wonderful and inspiring exhibition of photography, art and models exploring the buildings of the firm John Wardle Architects. The exhibition brings together so many fields of creativity. I could resit buying their light but comprehensive book "This Building Likes Me".

Great to see some of the National Centre for Australian Children's Literature Board Members at the opening plus a few CBCA Members too. Another link to lovers of creativity.

John Wardle

NCACL Board Members - Belle, Julie, John and Peter