Vanessa Oter

Vanessa Oter, Everything is as it should be, 2010. Stitching and paint on drop sheet, 60x60 cm.

Vanessa Oter, Muha, 2010. Stitching, material and paint on drop sheet, 60x60 cm.

Images courtesy of the artist.

The annual Exploration Exhibition, now in its 10th year, is currently on at Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne. Each year the curatorial team select emerging artists for this group exhibition. In this new series of paintings by artist, Vanessa Oter, 'materials at hand' are recycled while returning to familial territory. Creating painterly stitches, influenced by her mother's tapestries, Oter has sewn her way across the randomly spotted and marked drop sheets her father, a commercial painter and decorator, no longer requires.

Refer to earlier post for more information on Vanessa Oter.

Lilly Chorny

Lilly Chorny, Moving Through Night, 2010. Oil on linen, 76x102 cm.

Lilly Chorny, Katagarmi Peonies, 2010. Oil on linen, 38x51 cm.

Images reproduced from Flinders Lane Gallery Website

On show, during May, at Flinders Lane Gallery, was an exhibition by Melbourne artist, Lilly Chorny. Chorny's symbolic 'garden' paintings cross traditional painting borders to engage with historic floral pattern making. The paintings are intuitively constructed via numerous layers of stencils and hand painting. The movement of the wind, or, as in the painting, Moving Through Night, 2010, the night flight cycles of blossom, pollen and insects adrift on air currents are articulated using a personalised language of patterning.

Chorny received a Bachelor of Fine Art from RMIT University. She has held many solo and group exhibitions both in Melbourne and London, including at Australia House. She was a finalist in the Tattersall's Landscape Art Prize and the Fleurieu Biennale. Chorny has had paintings commissioned for Australian television, theatre and feature films. Her work is in public collections including Artbank and in private collections  in Australia, Hong Kong, UK, USA and Canada.

Lawrence Carroll

 Lawrence Carroll, Untitled, 1999-2000. Oil.

Image reproduced from Wikimedia commons

Lawrence Carroll was born in Melbourne in 1954. He moved to America with is family in 1958 where he received his education. Carroll has exhibited widely throughout Europe and America. He currently lives between Venice, Italy and the USA. He is represented in Australia by  Conny Dietzschold Gallery, Sydney, where he held a solo exhibition in 2006.  Carroll has work in prestigious museum collections including the Guggenheim Museum New York and the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles. In 1992 he was an invited participant in documenta IX, Kassel, Germany.

There is a strong sculptural or architectural aspect to his smaller works which appear as 'painting objects'. His larger works challenge traditional notions of 'the canvas', while also taking on the momentum of decayed walls. For further information on Carroll's large scale works visit Studio Trisorio and for smaller work I recommend Ace Gallery, Beverly Hills.

Inga Dalrymple

 

Inga Dalrymple, Morning Table. Acrylic on canvas, 75x75 cm.

 

 Inga Dalrymple, I sense your presence. Acrylic and collage on board, 30x30 cm.

Images reproduced from Harris Courtin Gallery Website.

The small abstractions of Inga Dalrymple are currently on show at the Harris Courtin Gallery, Sydney. There is a sense of intimacy in these paintings which suggest daily domestic life; a morning table, a jug. This humble subject matter belies an intelligent use of form, colour and mark making. It is fresh work revealing a real joy in the process of discovery. There is reference to Howard Hodgkin who also evokes places and domestic situations via an abstract methodology. 

Dalrymple studied at that National Art School and has been a finalist in several group shows and prizes including the Waverly Art Prize.

Brent Harvey

Brent Harvey, Step.

 Brent Harvey, Bedhead on Cross, 2008. Mixed media on panel, 43x60 cm.

Images reproduced courtesy of the artist.

New Zealand born and now Queensland based artist, Brent Harvey (arrived in Australia, 1975), reveals the random pleasures that can be discovered within the city's surface in his paintings and photographs. Harvey's work can span from the figurative to the abstract. Indeed, he was the runner-up in the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize, 1994. Harvey has received  many awards and commendations in prizes including The Alice Bale Art Award, and in 2007 he was a finalist in the Tattersall's Landscape Art Prize. Harvey has held over twelve solo exhibitions since 1977.

Harvey is a competent technician and it is refreshing to see him following his passion  There are several references in Harvey's recent work to the Spanish artist, Antonio Tapies, but the scale is completely different. Harvey's works are intimate. Tapies has sourced his imagery from the world that surrounds him in Barcelona including graffiti, architectural features and domestic or folk crafts. For Harvey's work to have some visual similarities to Tapies, most notably his palette and gestural approach, is not so strange when you consider the similarities between the Australian and Spanish landscape and climate. There is also a relationship, perhaps due to climate and the relaxed life-style that ensues, between the Australian notion of the larrikin and Spanish bravura.  For further information visit Brent Harvey .com.

 

Bernd Kerkin

 

Bernd Kerkin, Works on Eva Hesse - 1, 2007. Acrylic on canvas, 190x220 cm.

 

 Bernd Kerkin, Works on Eva Hesse - 94, 2008. Acrylic on canvas, 30x40 cm.

Images reproduced from Bernd Kerkin : Reality Shortened,
introduction by Christoph Tannert, Edition Timpani, 2009.

The notion of 'cultural universals' is an on-going theme in the work of German artist, Bernd Kerkin, born 1951. Following the re-unification of Germany, Kerkin traveled widely to South America, the Pacific and Australia where he visited Indigenous rock art galleries and the studio of Emily Kam Kngwarray. Kerkin held Reality Shortened, a solo exhibition at Thierry B. Gallery, Melbourne, 2005, which then toured to Paddington Contemporary Fine Art, Sydney. Bernd planned and organised the international plein-air artist workshop and exhibition Antipoden, 2006, at KunstGUT Schmiedenfelde, Germany. In 2009, he participated in Antipoden II, University of Ballarat Post Office Gallery.

Kerkin, studied architecture at the Dresden University before turning to art. In the late 1980s he became an official artist for the Deutsch Democratic Republic. A recipient of the Wilhelm-Hopfner Prize, 1992, Kerkin has also been awarded several other stipends both in Germany, and in 1998, from the Centre of Creative Arts, Virginia, USA. Kerkin, who has held numerous solo exhibitions, many with published catalogues, is represented in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the National Gallery, Berlin. He currently lives and works in Berlin and Gross Quassow.  

Peter Pilven

 

Peter Pilven, Sculptural Form, 2008. Hand built clay, alumina glaze, 32x34 cm (approx).

 

 Peter Pilven, Sentinel 1, 2008. Hand built clay, wood-fired, 52x38 cm. 

Images reproduced from Stefano's Gallery 25, Mildura, March, 2010.

Peter Pilven's ceramic work has been typified by his ongoing interest in history and the effects of time on objects. Whilst many of the forms he works with are readily recognizable as a bottle, or a bowl, other enclosed forms appear as human artifacts or relics which can convey an ambiguity of function.

'I have always had an absorbing interest in history, particularly pre-European and local history. My ceramic works are partially inspired by reflective ruminations of the past and also my need for a means of mute but poignant expression.' Peter Pilven.

Pilven has a home studio in Ballarat. He is also currently the Studio-Co-ordinator and Lecturer in Ceramics at the University of Ballarat. Pilven is widely trained, including studies under the tutorage of John Gilbert at the Edinborough Pottery, 1972-75. He has participated in many important national group exhibitions and solo exhibitions including Three Decades of Clay, 2002, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery. His work is in many state  public collections including the City of Whitehorse, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Bendigo Fine Art Gallery and the Shepparton Regional Gallery.

Rob Whitton

 Rob Whitton, Koonya painting - 5, 2008. Acrylic on canvas, 84x252 cm.
Image reproduced from Antipoden II, 2009, University of Ballarat Post Office Gallery.

Rob Whitton is a committed artist who rarely exhibits his work. Based in Melbourne, Whitton has made several trips to Europe including a study-tour of Spain in 2006. Whitton  participated in the plein-air artist's workshop and exhibition Antipoden, 2006, at kunstGUT Schmiedenfelde, North East Germany, and Antipoden II, 2009, at the University of Ballarat Post Office Gallery. Koonya painting - 5, 2008, is an abstract interpretation derived from rock formations at the water's edge.

Ian Fairweather

 

The Darebin Bridge House, where Ian Fairweather painted in Melbourne during the mid-1940s

   

Detail of the front veranda where he sat reading

 

 The monograph on the life and work of Ian Fairweather, 1891-1974, by Murray Bail, first published as Ian Fairweather, 1981, was revised and reprinted as Fairweather in 2009.  In both editions, Bail commences by stating, 'His art does not fit the local boundaries'. However, boundaries are mutable and Ian Fairweather could be considered an exceptional artist within Australian art history. Fairweather, who lived his life attuned to notions of Eastern asceticism, painted the seminal late works over an approximate twenty year time-span while living at a bush camp on Bribie Island (near Brisbane, Queensland). Whilst the tonality of his linear semi-abstract paintings reflects the landscape he inhabited, the work was also constructed by an individual living 'rough' with limited resources, isolated in the Australian environment. Australia was settled under such conditions and generations of settlers in remote rural areas were left with no option but to 'make-do' and improvise with materials at hand.  This notion of the 'thrifty' improviser was capitalised in constructs of the early mainstream national identity. Fairweather favoured economic 'everyday' materials including cardboard, newspaper, cheap powdered paints and house painters' brushes. All art reflects much about the maker and Fairweather's spare, beautiful, unpretentious works additionally reveal a 'shanty' quality within his improvised methodology which could be viewed as austerely or aesthetically reflective of his living quarters.

Fairweather, in my opinion, is amongst the greats of mainstream Australian art including Tom Roberts and Sidney Nolan. It is interesting to note that all three painted in a direct manner with a distinct lack of pretension. Qualities traditionally associated with historic concepts of the Australian improviser. Furthermore, Fairweather has been an influence to later generations of abstractionists, commencing significantly with Tony Tuckson, whose late works also convey these same qualities.

Matthew Bax

Matthew Bax, Apprentice Butcher Apron, 2006. Mixed media on linen, 183x122 cm.

Matthew Bax, Master Butcher Apron, 2006. Mixed media on linen, 31x31cm. 
Images reproduced courtesy of the artist.

Matthew Bax's 2007 exhibition, This Little Piggy Went to Market, at the Anna Pappas Gallery, Melbourne, was inspired by a visit to the old market in Cadiz, Spain. In the invitation essay, Michael Ashcroft, says Bax's paintings, 'are subtle reflections on the myriad of links between high art and everyday life'. The works are minimalist and painterly. The theme is the butcher's apron, but not of the parallel printed kind, but of the butcher's apron as casually remembered. Earlier series were based on ruminations upon the 'wall' and more recently reflections on the 'book'. Bax was born in Adelaide in 1974 and is now internationally based, having studios in Berlin, Singapore and Melbourne. Currently represented by Fost Gallery, Singapore, Bax has also held solo exhibitions in Germany and Australia. His work is in collections in Germany, Australia, UK and Holland.

Anne Saunders

Anne Saunders, Plaid braid. Acrylic on linen, 92x28 cm.

 

Anne Saunders, Yellow tide. Acrylic and pastel on khadi paper, 56x38cm.

Images reproduced courtesy of the artist. 

 

Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Anne Saunders emigrated to Australia as a young adult. The evocative power of colour is an overriding theme in her paintings that explore landscape through memory, more recently, the push and pull dichotomy of a life lived on two continents.  Saunder's images are not preconceived but arrive via a personalised process - her own worn track. Repeated washings (with a range of material and media including mops or  even sometimes scolding the work with hot water), the traces left are intuitively re-considered and developed.  Saunders is currently Program Coordinator of Visual Arts, at the University of Ballarat. She has completed a BA (Illustration and Printmaking), 1977, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, University of Dundee, Scotland, and a Master of Visual Art at La Trobe University, Bendigo,1994. Anne's exhibition history is extensive, with approximately twenty national and international solo exhibitions (many with published catalogues) and numerous group exhibitions. Since 2007, she has undertaken two studio residencies in Edinburgh. Anne is currently represented by Green-Wood Gallery and Salt Contemporary Art Gallery. Her works are in private and corporate collections including the University of Ballarat.

Vanessa Oter

Vanessa Oter, Hayfield, 2008. Mixed media on canvas, 150x150 cm.

Vanessa Oter, Three Silos, 2008. Mixed media on canvas, 120x120 cm.

Images reproduced courtesy of the artist.

Vanesa Oter, born in Melbourne, 1973, is an informal lyrical abstractionist whose paintings present as a symphony of the world that envelopes her. The vista is the local landscape, while her mark making, which constructs the image, is a layering reflective of natural weathering processes and gestures suggestive of the small discoveries of accidental beauty 'found'  within the patina of her urban coastal environment. Filtering through the layers are stencils, scribbles and road worker's signage. Oter is also an installation artist and a soft toy maker, comprised of everyday recycled materials. After a gap in study, including living overseas for six years, Oter graduated with first class honours from RMIT in 2006. She has been a finalist in the Metro 5 Art Award, 2006, and the Paddington Art Prize, 2009. Vanessa has held several solo and group exhibitions in New York, Boston  and Toronto, as well as Australia. Her work is in international and Australian corporate and private collections.

Seaneen Tait

Seaneen Tait, Earrach (Gaelic for "Spring"), circa 2007. Oil on canvas, 61x46 cm.

Image reproduced from the Harris Courtin Gallery Website.

Seaneen Tait's paintings recall landscape memories of times, seasons  and weather phenomena. The titles of Tait's textured, open, minimal abstractions are in Gaelic, her cultural heritage. Tait is a young artist, working also as a freelance textile designer. Tait received an Advanced Diploma in Fine Arts, from Meadowbank College of the Arts, 2000, and an Advanced Diploma in Fashion Design from the East Sydney Design School, 2004. She is represented by, and has held three solo exhibitions at the Harris Courtin Gallery, Sydney, 2004-8. Her work is held in the collection of the Mathematics Department at the University of New South Wales, and many private collections in Australia, London, New York, Bangkok and Ireland.

Dawn Whitehand

 Dawn Whitehand, Rocks, 2009. Wheelthrown and manipulated clay, volcanic glaze, dimensions variable.

Detail of Rocks, 2009.

 
Dawn Whitehand, Balance, 2008. Wheelthrown and manipulated clay. Pit Fired and wax polish and unglazed raku clay, 33x13x14 cm.
Images reproduced courtesy of the artist.

The vulnerability of the environment is a major theme for ceramicist, Dawn Whitehand, whose sculptures can also incorporate both organic and 'found' textural objects. Whitehand sees clay as 'the skin of the Earth' and her works gain power when presented within the natural environment. Whitehand achieved First Class Honours (H1) in 2004 and a Doctor of Philosophy, Visual Arts, 2009, at the University of Ballarat.  Whitehand has several peer reviewed publications to her credit along with numerous juried group exhibitions and scholarships, including a University of Ballarat Research Scholarship, 2006, and the AGL Shaw Summer Research Fellowship at the State Library of Victoria, 2009. Dawn will undertake the A.I.R. Vallauris, Artist in Residence, Vallauris, France in 2010. The work arising from this residency will be exhibited at her first solo exhibition at Red Gallery, Melbourne, in April, 2010. Dawn is represented by Port Art in Port Melbourne, Wolf at the Door in Hepburn Springs and Scope Galleries in Warrnambool. Her work can be found at the Ballarat Regional Gallery and in private collections including the Kakunaka Corporation, Japan.

Jessica Schroeter

Jessica Schroeter, Untitled, 2008. Oil on canvas, 60x90 cm.

Image reproduced courtesy of the artist.

Jessica Schroeter is currently undertaking a Master of Visual Arts at the University of Ballarat. Schroeter's abstractions source place. The physical space to the distant horizon, the weathered surfaces and cracks of paths and roadways, the random marking and natural erosion that can convey a sense of history within the urban environment converge and filter into her conscious memory during the act of painting. The resulting distilled images often have a personal childhood association - a place known. Schroeter is a young artist who has already been involved in several significant group exhibitions and in 2009 held, Detour, a solo exhibition at the University of Ballarat Post Office Gallery. She is a member of the Golden Key Society and in 2007 was awarded the Adrienne Guy Award for excellence within arts at the University of Ballarat.