The Exquisite Palette


St Luke Colourmen 
Tacit Galleries
123 a Gibbs Street Collingwood
Opening June 6, 6.30-8.30 pm.


Emma Langridge, Claire Bridge, Steven Baris, Ruth Hiller, Karen Neale,
TJ Bateson, Ray Carter, Andrew Cutteridge

With 347 palettes in all, its a fabulous snap shot of artists work from Australia and overseas, with many international artists in the show!

Elizabeth Tarrant, Chevron


Owen Bomford, Reconstructed


Opening Crowd


Gail Lorimer-Clarke

Tony Antinius Van Duynhoven, A hand of Heyteseury

This is just a small selection of some of the many wonderful palettes in this show. Congrats to St Lukes for great organisation. So fabulous to see so many contemporary artists from the United States in a Melbourne exhibition.


Günther Förg

A Fragile Beauty
26 May until 14 October 2018
Stedelijk Museum
Amsterdam






Günther Förg, Stedelijk Museum


Günther Förg, Stedelijk Museum


The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam presents a major survey of the work of German artist Günther Förg (1952–2013) including work from Förg’s entire oeuvre.


Günther Förg, Stedelijk Museum


Günther Förg, Stedelijk Museum


Günther Förg, Stedelijk Museum


Günther Förg, Stedelijk Museum



Australian artist Julie Keating is on residence in the Netherlands and sent these photos. Forg is an artist I admire for many reasons including his mark making and his ability to make paintings work with minimal means.







Mike Parr

Australian artist to live ‘underneath the bitumen’ for three days
Mike Parr
Hobart, June 1, 2018


Mike Parr, Performance, Hobart

For 72 hours, he’ll survive inside the 1.7m x 2.2m space with a folding chair, waste buckets, some water and a sketchpad and pencils, but there will be no food, and there will be no contact.

Mike Parr, Performance, Hobart

Leigh Carmichael on the artist statement:

‘It acknowledges two deeply linked events in Tasmania’s history. The eventual transportation of 75,000 British and Irish convicts in the first half of the 19th century, and the subsequent, nearly total destruction of Tasmania’s Aboriginal population.

To my knowledge, it will be Tasmania’s first monument referencing both the Black War and The Convict System, because the abysmal treatment of the indigenous people and the extreme violence of the punishment meted out to the convicts are two sides of the same coin.

It is a story that is not well known, but is ever-present, just beneath the surface of our contemporary culture. The fact that Mike Parr’s work will happen underground, just out of sight, as everyday life continues above it, is clearly no coincidence.’ News .com



The Field 1968

There have been progressive moments in Australia's post-settlement history. At the turn of the twentieth century Australia was leading the world with workers rights for an eight hour day, the suffragette or women’s rights movements and film production. Similarly in the 1960s-70s there was free health and education and a move for equal pay for women. Perhaps the most symbolic event for Art in Australia at this time was the purchase of Jackson Pollocks' Blue Poles in 1973 orchestrated by the Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. 

The staging of 'The Field', 1968, for the opening of the new National Gallery building in St Kilda Road Melbourne is now legendary as a time when 'cutting edge' made its way into the mainstream. The exhibition showcased then avant-garde, hard edge colourfield abstraction.


The Field, NGV, 1968.

‘The biggest Australian artists of the time — such as Sidney Nolan, Arthur Boyd and John Brack — were all conspicuously absent from the 1968 exhibition. 

Instead, curators John Stringer and Brian Finemore selected works by young and emerging contemporary artists. Eighteen of the 40 artists included were under the age of 30, and some had never had a solo show. 

These young artists were rejecting the conservatism of the Australian art scene and turning away from Europe, looking instead to the avant-garde art coming out of New York. 

So were the curators: inspired by what he'd seen at Andy Warhol's Factory, Stringer had fitted out the exhibition with silver foil-covered walls and geometric light fittings. It was the first instance of a 'designed' show at the NGV.’ Hannah Reich, ABC. 


The Field Revisited

The Field Revisited
NGV Federation Square
To August 26




View of The Field Revisited, NGV 2018.


Trevor Vickers, Untitled, 1968 (remade 2017).


Tony McGillick, Arbitrator 1968.


Mel Ramsden, No Title, 1966


L: Robert Hunter, Untitled 1968. R: David Aspen, Fifth Force 1968.


Wendy Paramor, Diablo 1967


Sydney Ball, Ispahan 1967



'The National Gallery of Victoria’s inaugural exhibition at its new premises on St Kilda Road in 1968 was The Field, the first comprehensive display of colour field painting and abstract sculpture in Australia. Regarded as a landmark exhibition in Australian art history, The Field was a radical presentation of 74 works by 40 artists who practised hard-edge, geometric, colour and flat abstraction, many of which were influenced by American stylistic tendencies of the time. With its silver foil–covered walls and geometric light fittings, The Field opened to much controversy and helped launch the careers of a generation of Australian artists, including Sydney Ball, Peter Booth, Janet Dawson and Robert Jacks. Eighteen of the exhibiting artists were under the age of thirty, with Robert Hunter the youngest at twenty-one years of age.' NGV Website





David Wallage

Studio visit with David Wallage

Reasoned Explorations No. 5, 2012-3Acrylic on Linen on Board, 75cm x 75cm.

David Wallage is dedicated to the exploration of the grid and non-objective painting. There are up to 80 layers (and counting) in each work that takes months if not years to complete. In the process several layers are laid and then at intervals are sanded back to a smooth surface and the layering starts again. Quite often he has a plan for the work such as a preliminary drawing. The result is looking into a blurry glass fine surface with real depth. It’s hard to locate the individual makes rather they fuse and hum in unity.


David Wallage in his studio


David Wallage in his inner Melbourne studio. Wallage is represented by Block Projects in Melbourne.


David Wallage studio



Northcote Hall

This small hall in Northcote has been recently sandblasted. There is something wonderful about the tonal effect.













Dani Marti

Red on Red
17 May - 16 June
Dominik Mersch Gallery
Sydney


Dani Marti, photo Marlene Sarroff


Dani Marti, photo Marlene Sarroff


Dani Marti (detail), photo Marlene Sarroff


For decades the boundaries of traditional fine art practices have been blurring as artists academically trained in one field explore others. Within this context Dani Marti has been talking about minimalist painting solutions using weaving techniques and everyday materials including hardware bought ties and rope, kitchen scourers, melted reflectors and recycled glass beads.

David Gatiss

Density of Darkness
9 May - 3 June
Tacit Gallery
Melbourne

Untitled (detail) mixed media on paper

‘Density of darkness. My favourite hour, that ambiguous pause between darkness and dawn when you sense the imminence of light.’ 
David Gatiss



Convoy of boats, (detail) mixed media


This exhibition is in memory of the artists’ father. The large drawings are reflective of the coal seam in the UK mine his father worked. Many of the sculptural pieces reference his father’s time in the navy. Other more figurative works detail the family life of a coal miner.

David Thomas

David Thomas
MONOCHROMES & POLYCHROMES
To May 19
Tristan Koenig
19 Glasshouse Road
Collingwood 


Install of individual works: Untitled (On + Off Series), 2018,
synthetic polymer on gesso panel 30 x 20 cm.



Untitled (Listening to the silence between two colours), 2018,
Synthetic polymer on gesso panel, painters tape, 30 x 20 cm.





Untitled (Listening to the silence between two colours; Yellow/Blue), 2018,
Synthetic polymer on gesso panel, painters tape, 30 x 20 cm.



Install: Untitled (Listening to the silence between two colours), 2018.