Eastern Suburbs Art Group

The room with the portraits was quite crowded, but funny to say people were just sort of hanging around near the works, apparently not even looking at them. Just sort of filling the room like someone had put in an order for 100 people to fill a room and they had turned up like movie extras. This sore looking face is Dale Rhodes' 'Suzie', I quite liked the raw nakedness of the woman's face. It has a sort of painful caste but the woman also looks like she can hold her own, she might be exposed emotionally but she is not going to collapse. Sarah satha's painting is sort of appealing, the strange black border around the figure of the man and possibly his son forming a kind of circle encompassing the two figures. Maybe it is protective. In any case the black border is out of synch with the beach scene, I mean beaches are usually where people go to be exposed. the border doing the opposite, enclosing. Nick Stathopoulos' margaret Fink is arch and superior, perhaps she ...

Some really nice paintings this year including a James Drinkwater painting magnificent in its scope (it is huge) and colour (see below). This artist is really talented and keeps on producing work of class and originality. This one looks like a Drysdale landscape but of course it is not. The horizontal split in the upper part of the canvas suggesting a horizon line. This Nathan Hawkes painting (see below) has lovely colour use also, and a strange sense of fantasy that the explosion of colour tends to mitigate. The little faces that peep out are expecting what exactly. Is it with malice or something else. I guess each viewer will come to their own conclusions. A painting by David Griggs has a rider on a horse (see below), but the horse is an odd sort of bright red. I mean the grass is green and the sky is blue but why a red horse, and this particular type of red? A green dog in Jessica Nothdurft's painting (see below) has a rangey outback feel about it, like is it feeding the man (Ro...

While I was in town I took in as many of the displays in the gallery as possible. I was curious about Tell Us A Tale because it is quite naive, though obviously there is support in the administrative apparatus for a show like this that features the multicultural aspects of the city. The pictures are by children and there is interpretive apparatus left next to the images to help guide visitors around the walls. The display took up an entire room on one of the gallery floors. The interpretive apparatus is held by the same type of frame used to hold the drawings. This is curious, and you can see why it was done, since clearly it is simple to use the white frame for everything. It does end up being a littel confusing however. The frames weren't always perfectly fitted to the artworks furthermore, but this is a minor issue. But it was as though the explanation was as much a part  of the show as the drawings. I am not sure what I think of this, as normal curatorial practice is to disting...

I was a bit curious about these works on paper by Peter Sharp. Some seemed intriguing but there was a bit of a lag between seeing the work and understanding the artist's intention. The references are a bit esoteric, for a start. I mean I know that Albers was a psychologist and artist of some sort - but I may have that wrong. In the whow there was not much explanatory material or at least I didn't see it if it was there. But this is the curator's responsibility not the artist's. For example the items above are titled interaction with Albers. Presumably there was some sort of idea exchange or else a stylistic handover. But what was it, how did this exchange happen and what was the result. The items on display presumably. But what then? Actually these pieces (above) are not very attractive. They are a bit dull and possibly intentionally modest in their expressive capacity. So I wasn't sure about this artist and will have to keep an eye out for his work down the track. ...

 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...

We hear a lot of stories about laneways in Melbourne. Some are covered (like this one). Some are nice, some are dirty. In Sydney laneways like these wre digested by the amalgamation of titles after WWII when the vast number of skyscrapers went up. An era of cheap oil, huge capitall influxes, and a burgeoning professional class trained in increasing number of tertiary education institutions. Of course this is not art with a capital "A" approved by the culture industry, it is commerical. But it is very strange and so I took a series of photos. The TV screen in the back diplaying I think fashion promotion images were especially intriguing. Not possible to say if the display is still there, these photos were taken some months ago. Maybe if someone goes to the city centre they can report back with news. Very strange sort of weitd cartoon character. Possibly frightening for some, even adults.

 In Melbourne recently I saw this social media ad and considered the idea too strange, especially for Sydney, where I live. In the end the experience was a bit disappointing but just the train trip was worthwhile. The displays were often interesting but not really what was promised. The museum is in a small street off a main drag. What impressed me about Collingwood is the lack of eateries. The suburb is relatively close to the city centre but I didn't even see a hamburger shop, though there was a kind of pub or hotel. Perhaps it was a bar. In contrast the city centre in Melbourne is crowded with restaurants and places to buy food, ice cream parlours and the like. What this means is anyone's guess, however it is clear that if you live in Collingwood and you want a kebab you have to go into town.

 When I waas down in Melbourne in January I saw this show, which sort of bookends the 'Dangerously Modern' show in Sydney at the same time. One show specifically about women photographers, but with a global perspective. The other show about women in Europe in the 1st Half of last century.  Writing about the Sydney show I said it was comprehensive, actually it was enormous. The guard knew how many works were on the walls. Aat the NGV I tried the same trick but the guard was not able to tell me. At the NGV there were many different subjects, as they were in the Sydney show. The photographs were sometimes portraits, urban landscapes, photos of children. A range of different things. The diversity of subjects was proof of the intensity with which the artists worked. And they were aware they were making art. The NGV show is still running if you want to see the works. When I was there it was sunny and warm and I stopped at a food van outside to get lunch. There was a fashion show on ...

These wall sculptures are evocative of space, they sort of create space but of course they are just sitting on a wall so they also do not. But the intent is there I think. At least this is what seemed to me to be going on. At one point in our discussion the artist referred furthermore (Ihadn't mentioned anything rleated at the time) to negative space. Mainly when I think of this phrase I think of a particular Romantic poet whose intent has never been fully understood even by most of the Elites. Also in this regard I think of Chinese painting, and because Pollard's work is mainly black (and since the gallery walls - most interior walls actually, these days - are white) my mind raced to pictures in ink of, say, carp or perhaps a wren on a slung branch. One day I will be in a position to revisit this misunderstood phrase alongside the artist, we both belong to the Tree Veneration Society. In the gallery I stayed talking for a while, probably most of an hour. THis is a good way to ...

 These luminous organic abstract works play with colour and texture. Colleen says the impasto ground goes on first, making shapes of texture suggestive of geological formations. Bright red or vivid green the canvases string colour along a wall. They are like Christmas decorations, unchallenging and intuitively interesting. I haven't worked out what it is about colour, but it is central to who we are. Humans live in a wold of colour, we use colour to communicate, to survive. Frances uses colour to entertain and this is perhaps the most rewarding use of colour there is.

Organised or at least publicised through a community art society I belong to, this show was only up for a few days. I dropped off the work on Thursday and the main event was the Friday, then I picked up the work on the Saturday. There was a talk in the church about Van Gogh's religiosity (his father was a Protestant pastor) which was very interesting because most of contemporary commentary on such painters is rigidly secular. The truth is that Van Gogh was alive 150 years ago. It's so amusing how we can easily give credence to the outdated ideas of Marx and Engels but willfully ignore the completely comprehensible ideas of people living even later than them. It only takes a few seconds to see the reason in this view. Marx was publishing in the 1850s and Van Gogh was painting in the 1880s but somehow Marx is more contemporary than Van Gogh. The absurdity is astonishing. But unfortunately this is the commonplace we worship these days. I was incredibly lucky to bump into two frien...

Being in the southern capital for a week I made time to see this show. Attendance was hardly exceptional, I queued up at morning with the doors opening. Not surprisingly I fixed on the colour, such as (below) Lydia Wegner. I also really liked (below) Cassandra bird's work. Again colour features strongly in these works. Alex Walker's (below) photoprints also strongly use colour. The out of focus really drew my eyes. From New Zealand Christian Dimick (below) reminded me of a Sydney artist and I mentioned this to the gallery staffer on the booth. We chatted for a minute or two. First nations artist Janet Koongotema (below) offered some more strong colour. Keturah Zimran is another First nations artist (below) and she uses the famous Basquiat crown in her compositions, which have a sort of pop sensibility which I liked. Once again coilour is strong. Another artist I liked was Henry Lewis (below) who sort of uses the same patch effect as me in my paramontages, or at least some of th...