Transfer – Jo Hollier @ Belconnen Arts Centre

25 Sept – 18 Oct 2015
It is always special to talk with the artist at an exhibition. I had been in this space for a relaxed thorough look before I worked out Jo Hollier was in the gallery. She was open and willing to talk about her work and influences and I learned heaps.
Some art screams out high levels of skill and creativity and this set did that. As a printer she knows how to create fascinating elements and to weave them into a symphony of colour, texture and elements. Some of her images are creatures and others are built. The colours have a great range and the influences are strongly Japanese but many others are evident. The variety of layout types and styles are wonderful.
Pictures below with gallery info.

Distant Voices – Roger Beale @ M16 Artspace

Roger Beale’s Paintings in the Distant Voices range from still life through rural landscapes to urban streetscapes. He uses frosted looks and more precise takes and views his subjects from quite varied perspectives. In this exhibition he has very large paintings of small subjects and small paintings of large areas. The exhibition looks good as a group of works because of its variety.
Pics and gallery info below

Tideline – Elizabeth Trusswell @ Belconnen Arts Centre

25 Sept – 18 Oct 2015
Liz Trusswell is a geologist who creates art. Her training and professional experience radiates from her art works. In the gallery sheet attached below she explains how these works arose from a visit to the Kimberley and her observation of the geological history spelt out in the cliffs. She was most impressed with the tide lines and the stories they tell. The works use natural colours and materials and have a delightful reflection of the area.
Pics and gallery sheets below

Rent? Home? Sanctuary? ACT Tenants Union Art Exhibition @ Belconnen Arts Centre

25 Sept – 18 Oct 2015

International Tenants’ Day Art Exhibition
Rent? Home? Sanctuary? International Tenants Day Art Exhibition @ Belconnen Arts Centre
25 Sept – 18 Oct 2015
As a way of celebrating the creative contribution tenants make to the communities holds ann art exhibition every year that is open to the 100,00 people who live in rental accommodation in the ACT. The ACT Tenants union fosters awareness and lobbies on behalf of people who live in places they do not own. The exhibition has some interesting works in it. Some sample pitures below with the gallery sheet.

Bettina Hill – Unscientific @ Canberra Museum and Gallery

In the big glass room out front of CMAG there is a fascinating display that consists of very large sheets of lattice like white paper sheets hung from high in the ceiling. They are bent in waves and have sections of frayed edges. The room is closed and so you are looking in on this through glass. I suspect that it may be quite a different experience if you were sitting inside looking out.

The blurb says that Hill “enjoys the ways in which her use of a simple material such as paper can replicate the complex geometry of industrial design.” I connected with her statement that “the work literally unravels at the edges of its form evoking the untidy tangle of urban fringe environments.”

Some pics and blurb material below.

Tae Schmeisser – Time Capsule @ Craft ACT Gallery

In the glass cabinet entry foyer display there was a set of delicate looking jewellery objects created by Tae Schmeisser. The title of the exhibition was Time Capsule because Tae is working with every day objects and subject materials sometimes in a comical way to celebrate the commonplace. They were beautifully crafted and had a delicateness that contributed to a sense of elegance.
Pics below and the gallery material.

Sculpture in the Paddock @ Cooma Cottage near Yass

I love the gallery space in which they hold the annual Sculpture in the Paddock at Cooma Cottage near Yass. It is in an unmowed field on a hill that has lots of big old trees, lots of stumps and elderly unused farm facilities. In the midst of all this the curator has placed forty or more items of sculpture in mowed spaces with corflute labels spiked into the ground nearby. The sculptures are not delicate because they have to sit out in the rain, sun and wind.
One bloke created some great fountains by utilising the stumps in the field and infusing them with fronds of silver coloured coat hanger gauge metal. The colour choice and the silver white wood created an ensemble work scattered through the field.
There were animals taller than me made out of all sorts of wire and plastic, leaping sheep made of old corrugated iron, a dog made of rusted metal (titled Rusty). Lots of rusted metal in various shapes, some glass mushrooms and a beautifully decorated “Victorious Victa” mower were scattered through the grass.
I see lots of sculpture in galleries but this event is a great way to see lots of it under the clear blue skies or in our case in windy spitting rain.Some of my favourites are below

Bodyworks – Australian Jewellery 1970 – 2012 @ CraftACT Gallery

ii Sept – 24 Oct 2015 A travelling NGA jewellery exhibition
There seems to be no boundaries in the confined space of wearable artistic jewellery. Bodywork is a sumptuous collection of modern jewellery curated out of the collection held by the National Gallery of Australia. The exhibition includes work of 42 jewellers and spans 40 years. Dr Robert Bell the curator has put some great text with each piece on both the work and the jeweller. The experience is extended by well developed school educational kits, the use of QR codes and the website nga.gov.au/bodywork.
A bonus is a curator’s talk on Friday October 16 3-4pm.
While I wear no jewellery bar a wedding ring and my wife often reacts with shivers over the likely experience of wearing some of the pieces, jewellery is one of my favourite forms of artistic expression.
Below are a set of pieces that struck me among the collection.

Mariella McKinley – Shoal @ Craft ACT Gallery

In her blurb with this small exhibition Ms McKinley refers to her love of collecting shells and sea urchins and how these items are “inspired by the delicate spiral forms, intricate patterns and subtle colours of wondrous treasures”. All eighteen items are created out of hand blown and cold worked glass fit that description fully.

Some snaps and gallery info below.

Endless Transience of Being – Peter McLean @ Megalo Print Studio and Gallery

29 Aug – 19 sept 2015
This was a striking set of prints. There is an ethereal look about these works. The black on white with frosted edges to all the images. I found the interplay between humans, landscape and other forms fascinating. Print making comes in many forms and these have a beauty that did not require colour to make them striking.
Some pics below