Eastern Suburbs Art Group

 This was a great show. Funny name though, I mean obviously he added the first name in place of the first name his parents gave him. But I had never heard of this artist and it's strange as he is obvioulsy important. These little regional galleries often have such great shows. Actually I really related to these works, they contain a lot in common with my own practice but I won't go into too much deetail about that here. But the colours (see above) are quite strange. I mean even though the works sort of share a lot in common with advertising, including the mixture of shapes and text, the overall tone of each work is very arty. Not about selling but about something else, something on the fringes. These colours won't appeal to everyone. Richardson's collage also appealing, though less impactful. Echoes of Rosalie Gascoigne of course. But clever figuration to make the stack of names look like an office tower (see above). Something cheeky about this composition, pointing to ...

Mackie is adaptable working in paint as well as photography. I liked his rodeo shots which are distorted to emphasise the movement of the animals and the rider (see below). His paintings are colourful but figurative, I mean the colours are half realistic and half not. As if the saturation knob had been turned right up to max (see below). So a unique and talented artist who is not conforming to metropolitan ideals of how to represent, how to use colour, and how to depict the world. His landscapes are almost surreal in their contemporary feel, though they conform to old styles buried in the country's past. When I see his work I think of course of Albert Namatjira, but also of European models. Even if these models are rooted in Europe Mackie's works remain cemeted in the Australian landscape.

This show  of sculptures encompasses works by people from Asia Pacific. A lot of the artists are from Melbourne and the work is not all excllent. I have picked out a few good examples of work. Bonita Bub's 'Painting Carriers' (above) contains I learned works from the gallery's collection. The curator on the floor said that she had actually never seen the works in the racks on display. Which points to the reason I liked this work, it tells a truth. That most art in the world is never shown it just sits in storage. Nearby Qunxiao Qu's 'Wig Shoes' sat on the floor like contestants in a celebrity dancing show, but without a partner. See above. The shoes were near another work by the same artist, a short piece of text written in neon light.  Alicia Francovich's 'Techno botanics' took up part of a wall (see above). While other works occupied space in the gallery itself, for example Bub's work or Qu's shoes, Francovich's work is wholly 2D. T...

 I went to Wollongong hoping to visit the gallery but found too late it opens at midday, so popped into this gallery near Sutherland instead. The show is about noisy celebration, but the gallery was remarkably quiet. The works are dynamic however. I thought of insects for some reason. These sculptuires are fun, though sculpture is quite rare in commercial galleries. Hazelhurst is not commercial but these works are all for sale. You would need some sort of large courtyard to properly show them off. The works are certainly exuberant. They seem to give off sound, like malformed tuning forks. I had some lunch in the gallery cafe as well, which was nice after the long drive.

I took the show down this week, it had been up for about 10 days. I sat the gallery probably for half that time but I am not counting. The show created different reacions in different people, but the Tree Veneration Society tapestry was the drawcard. It's on the right hand wall in the photo. Made by visitors to Rising Tide in November, the tapestry was a collective effort. As one person noted however the poems displayed across the room were more personal. The contrast between the two was interesting, she said. You can see the sonnets pasted to the wall opposite the tapestry in the above photo. I also included collages from 2022 or thereabouts, I don't remember all the details of each individual painting I don't have time. Cars feature in Road Trips, and the show preamble (also pasted to the wall) talked about how even though the road is always there it feels when you are driving between cities that somehow you are creating the road. A paradox perhaps but I don't ask too...

Yesterday I spent a few hours sitting this show in the Civic Hall. Two of us on the front desk. Some items sold, lots of good conversations. In total I had 7 items in the show. It was my first show of this kind so a learning experience. One of my oils in the nabove photo (bottom left). The order of the hang was eclectic to say the least, there didn't seem to be any logic to it, but the nquality of the art was often very good. Two watercolours (above right bottom) of mine. All of the works of mine in the show were plein air studies done in Victoria. The trips were in January and February.  The show ends Sunday.

It was a decent turn out. For me it was supporting a colleague from Tree Veneration Society. But behind the nice words, the careful epithets, the studied agreement with ideas artworks always try to embody, there was a stubborn fact in that some of Watanabe's works have perishable components. Other aspects of Watanabe's work struggle in this sort of environment, but the backlit items are simply going to fail one day. I wonder what is the point. Maybe late last year I discussed this aspect of some contemporary work with another practitioner. At that time the solution didn't present itself. With Watanabe's work it's a sort of category error that fights against the lightness of the design, the execution. But of course not all the works contain electric lights, which the gallery had carefully wired up in straight lines and with polity 90-degree curves. The framed works (see above) are also carefully finished, These frames being specially constructed again with curves. Th...