NAS Grad Show 2024

An amazing collection of works, mostly by people from the shrinking minority, the Anglo Celtic stream of Australian society. But nevertheless very good, for example Jocelyn Hedley (see below). This work just inside door of main gallery, stunning colours.

And Beatrice Weldner (see below). Sort of like the endpapers of old 19th C books. But somehow a bit left-of-centre and creepy. I really liked the colours of these too.

Upstairs Chrystie Longworth (see below) whose ceramic art also uses great colours but of course muted because unglazed. I really liked the sort of jigsaw appeal of the wall piece included in the show. Great use of text too.

Bibi Soleimani (below) had some wonderful pictures. These are really striking and look a bit like First Nations rock art figures.

Nikki Morgan-Smith was a real standout for me (see below). I was literally mesmerised by the skill, intelligence and humour of these wonderful works. In the one below you get a sort of Cy Twombly vibe with the panel on the left and it's matched with a photograph-like artefact on the right. Honestly you couldn't describe this juxtaposition in any other way, not literary not anything.

Martin John Oldfield (see below) had some great sculptures in the show. The sensation you get from his work is affecting and immediate.

The strange figurative compositions of Alice Xu were also upstairs (see below). 

To change the pace Julie Edgar (below) offers deep colour fields and a fascinating depth of field despite the complete lack of distinguishing marks. The lighting unfortunately did these works no favours in photographic reproductions. You can't really understand a work like this if you just see the photo on the blog. It's definitely worth seeing in real life, the effect is completely different.

And I loved the plastic wrpped cachet of Sophie Victoria's paintings (see below). These are impressive, really.