Extended Gestures Extended

Ben Pell

Charlie Harding

Georgie North

Sean Mcdowell

to May 18
Five Walls

Melbourne

Charlie Harding

Ben Pell

'The title for this show is borrowed from the writers Claude Cernuschi and Andrzej Hercyznski who in their essay, The Subversion of Gravity in Jackson Pollock’s Abstractions, describe Pollock’s employment of gravity as a means “to extend the duration of his gestures”.1 In easel painting (and in some forms of sculpture), finding a new way to form the gesture has been an important pursuit by many artists, albeit, by the brush or through other less unorthodox means (Brice Marden with his extended stick or Richard Serra with his frenetic lead flinging, both serve as appropriate examples of this type of activity).

The four artists in Extended Gestures Extended build on this endeavour. They pursue methods that are provisional and intuitive and form marks that reference bodily activity. Bold strokes of colour are applied with careful attention to the stroke’s intensity and speed. They innovate ways to disperse paint, be it, through maximum thinning, or strokes that are at once, abbreviated and extended.

In Extended Gestures Extended the gesture is distilled, the painting process renovated and the very orthodoxies of easel painting challenged.' Aaron Martin Curator

Georgie North

Sean Mcdowell

VIS A VIS

Cindy Chen (Sydney)
Yuria Okamura (Osaka/Melbourne)
Vincent Hawkins (London)
Curated by Charlotte Watson
To July 14th
Five Walls (Gallery 1)
suite 4, lvl 1/119 Hopkins St, Footscray

Vincent Hawkins, Number 2,  water based lino ink on heritage paper.

Vis à Vis looks at a range of approaches to non-objective works on paper, and the differing processes behind each artist.

Vincent Hawkins, Number 1 and 3,  water based lino ink on heritage paper.

Yuria Okamura (Osaka/Melbourne) drawing series and Cindy Chen.

Cindy Chen, Spatial Malleables: Mountain, River, Bamboo (detail) 2017, Ink on Chinese paper.

Abstraction Twenty Eighteen - Five Walls

Five Walls Hall

Curated by Steven Wickham.

Selected works:

Adrian de Giorgio ‘Shadowplay’
Acrylic on Tasmanian oak coverstrap on board.

L-R Donna Comfort ‘’Proto Type’ 2018, Steel construction.
Magda Cebokli, Light Painting #2 2008, Acrylic on canvas.
Aaron Martin, Double Monochrome (cadmium orange) 2018,
 oil and epoxy enamel on linen.

Chris Packer ‘Pythia’ 2017 Gesso on cotton tape on canvas.

Troy Innocent, Non-Objective World 68, 2018, laser cut plywood
and acrylic on hardboard with playable augmented reality.

Adrian De Vries, Lily Pads, 2018, Gouache, plaster on steel hooks.

Raymond Carter

LOZENGE
Five Walls Project Space
Footscray

Lozenge Fusil, 2018, Cloth Tape on multiple MDF panels, 240 x 360 cm.

Lozenge Mascle, 2018, Cloth Tape on two MDF panels, 60 x 120 cm.

Raymond Carter at Five Walls

'From the first decade of the 20th Century, the lozenge shape has held a position within geometric abstract painting. Introduced to easel painting by the Russian Constructivists they incorporated it, alongside other elements, into their geometric arrangements. It was with the Minimalist painters of the late 1950/60’s that the rhombus leitmotif became central to the inquiry. Painters Frank Stella and Ellsworth Kelly, among others, found delight in the dynamics of the shape and applied it with great effect to determine the shape and compositions of their works...' Aaron Martin, 2018.

Through progressive development during his MFA study at the VCA, Melbourne, Raymond Carter abandoned more traditional media to construct work with humble materials including hardware store bought cloth tape and MDF boards. The tape I'm told is UV resistant and the surface is also UV protected with a final sealant. The effect is impressive, particularly Lozenge Fusil, 2018. I time-traveled back to the great Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna in Rome where room upon room exists full of wonderful Arte Povera and 1960s Minimalist inspired contemporary works. Lozenge Mascle, 2018 is rewarding for its surface depth, the 'process' of layering tape adding another interesting dimension to the work. Carter initially trained as a sculptor and later worked in more traditional fine art media, particularly printmaking. 

Shelley Jardine

UNDER INSTRUCTION
Five Walls Projects
Footscray

Active panels' 2018, synthetic polymer on board, dimensions variable.

Orange Panels 1, 2, & 3 2018, synthetic polymer on board, dimensions variable.

In Under Instruction, the viewer or participant is directed through the exhibition by a set of written instructions... with the purpose to investigate movement, space, the viewer, art and artist relationship in this case with the language of hard edge abstraction.

Shelley Jardine is a current PhD candidate at Deakin University.

Roadie Punk Paintings

Billy Gruner, New Work for a Failed System, no’s 8-12, 2017,
Gold Gesso and Acrylic on Wood, 28 x 35 cm x 5 pieces.

Kyle Jenkins, Celare Monochrome Series #9-13, 2017, 

each work acrylic on canvas, 45 x 45 cm.

Roadie Punk Paintings

February 1 – 18

Five Walls Projects, Footscray

Billy Gruner and Kyle Jenkins have worked together since their PhD days and were invited to launch the new project space at Five Walls, a Melbourne gallery committed to reductive art. Symbolically the very first exhibition at Five Walls was also by Jenkins and Gruner.

Gruner refers to his own works and that of his long-time collaborator Jenkins, as Post-Formalist in this 21st Century. Both artists acknowledge a legacy to the Punk and Conceptual Art movements of the 1970s in the exhibition notes. The text goes on to state the seventies was a time of great social unrest and ‘upheaval’ against an established austere conservativism. The London Garbage Strikes under Thatcherism and the later Brixton Riots being two examples.

The materials, ‘sacred’ colour, and use of an articulated architectural line by Gruner in ‘New Work for a Failed System’ reference Gothic icon painting. Celare is Latin for ‘hide’ or ‘to conceal’ and Jenkins', Romanesque ‘Celare Monochrome Series’ refutes definition. Together the works and gallery text suggest a discontent with the current seemingly return to right-wing conservatism. A darkness, perhaps a medieval one as Gruner alludes to, is falling as century old traditions of methods and research post-Renaissance are challenged including the authenticity of science and journalism. ‘The System is Failing’ not only for global culture but for contemporary discourse in abstraction post-20th Century.

The references to pre-Renaissance painting are fitting methodologies for both artists. Historically, many of the Modernist abstractionists including Rothko, researched medieval art as a pathway to Abstraction.

Individually Gruner and Jenkins have shown extensively throughout the world and founded artist project spaces including SNO (Sydney Non Objective) Art. They have also curated and locally collaborated with like minded artists in Europe producing touring group shows of Australian art including ‘Australia – Contemporary Non Objective Art’ held at GKG in Bonn, 2008.

Thanks to Billy Gruner for editing assistance.