Alexander Boynes – Body / Time / Light @ Beaver Galleries

16 June – 3 July 2016

I have been aware of Boynes’ work forseveral years. His current work is striking, high tech, fast moving, exuberant, colourful unique.  Body / Time / Light is the title of the exhibition and each of the works has an exploration of each of those elements. One of the pictures is a celebration of dancing on stage another evokes what could be corroboree dancing. Each of these works give a shimmering impression of energetic movement.

Canberra Times review

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/canberra-life/alexander-boynes-bodytimelight–at-beaver-galleries-is-dynamic-20160620-gpnbht.html

Pics (Taken at angles to avoid gallery glare) and gallery material below.

Diane Arbus – American Portraits @ National Gallery of Australia

3 June – 30 October 2016

Black and white photography is a great way to do social commentary. The exhibition of photographs by Diane Arbus tell a deeply confronting story of US society in the middle of the last century. The pictures feature the good, the bad and the ugly. The range of stories in the photographs is huge. There are dwarfs, disabled, transvestites, pensioners, veterans, poor, rural blacks, wealthy urban, rich and a vast plethora of other people who make the fabric of US society fascinating.

The exhibition of Arbus photographs is supplemented by the work of contemporaries – the influenced and the influential. There are some phone snaps below but the great material is on the text rich web link below on which the back story of Arbus and her contemporaries is helpfully told.

http://www.nga.gov.au/Arbus/WorldView.cfm

The Contemporaries

David Frazer – Drift @ Beaver Galleries

16June – 3 July 2016

The art of David Frazer is striking. The black and white intricate works have a sad, lonely tone to them. The landscapes are largely vacant or inhabited by lonely figures but they have a strange inviting honesty about them. For me the wonderful thing about Frazer’s work is the initial powerful visual attraction of each of the images.

Pictures and gallery stuff below.

Maria Chatzinikolaki – Escence of … @ Beaver Galleries

16 June – 3 July 2016

Beautiful ceramics are at the heart of this exhibition. The objects are fascinating and beautifully coloured in high contrast black on white. The objects are small contoured with unusual openings. Every one of the objects are intriguing. Have a look at the pictures below:

Reflections – 9 Glass Artists @ Australian Parliament House

24  June – 11 September

The blurb on the APH website says about this exhibition “This exhibition features nine internationally renowned glass artists who have created new works at Canberra Glassworks in response to the art, architecture and landscape of Parliament House. Artists include: Annette Blair, Lisa Cahill, Mel Douglas, Hannah Gason, Jeremy Lepisto, Ruth Oliphant, Emilie Patteson, Kirstie Rea and Harriet Schwarzrock.

The exhibition further explores one of Romaldo Giurgola’s original concepts in the planning and design of the Parliament House building, which was to honour the best skills and craftsmanship in Australia. Each artist has spent time touring the building and gardens and engaging with works in the Parliament House Art Collection to provide inspiration for their works. The finished works will be shown side-by-side with an accompanying piece from the Parliament House Art Collection.

In the President’s Gallery there is an interplay between artworks and glass artworks. There are some wonderful black and white photos of the building interposed between delightful examples of glass art. The photographs are fabulous productions on the building and its light and angles by people like Max Dupain and David Moore. The work I liked most was the Ruth Oliphant glass object which enabled you to look through the marble clad block pillars at the front to the angled wall of the sloping grass at the front.

Below is a set of pics from the exhibition.

 

 

Rebecca Fassone and Frances McNair @ Canberra Art Works

The business and gallery Canberra Art Works in Philip has an exhibition of works by Rebecca Fassone and Francis McNair. Rebecca created some awesome images of the dilapidated Jerangle Hotel by taking segments of walls and doors t show contrasting surfaces. She then joins with Frances McNair in a marvelous shoot titled Happily Never After. It is a gorgeous set in which they mock or reverse some stereotypic images out of literature or culture of our past.

Namaste – Chhetra Lai Kayastha – Nepal @ Canberra Art Works

I had seen road side signs for an exhibition in Townsville St Philip. So on Saturday we popped in to see it. The exhibition  was a fundraiser for a post earthquake foundation by Nepali artist Chhetra Lai Kayashta, The artworks are colourful abstracts and was winding up as we visited. Some examples and gallery material below

Waste in time – Giles Clarke @ Customs House Sydney

28 April – 5 June 2016

Squalor and filth photographed and put on the walls of a gorgeous light fueled library inside a carefully restored 19th century building is planed to be an interesting juxtaposition. Giles Clarke’s pictures of a community which earns its meager income from recycling plastics and other products while living on and around a massive landfill in arguably the poorest and most corrupt country are made more stark on white walls in the midst of one of the most expensive cities to live in.

The photos are grim. The people are determined. The limited colour adds to the sense of foreboding. I am writing this over a month after I saw the exhibition which is now closed but the images have stuck and I have talked about the images and the exhibition to many times since I went to it.

Images a gallery blurb below.

Pete Smith @ M16 Artspace

Pete Smith is an artist with a wide range of styles and methods of representing his subject matter.  Some look like posters others are abstract  – the colours are vibrant and rich. Look at the selections below for a sense of his work.

Exploring the circle – Rachel Bilal @ M16 Artspace

“Making art is the air I breathe,” says emerging artist Rachel Bilal. Her irrepressible need to make draws her towards intricate forms and meticulous processes.
 
In Exploring the Circle Bilal’s drawings, maquettes, sculptures and paintings combine in her articulation of the “endless possibility of the circle as a universal form” are the lines in the gallery sheet that introduce the work on display called Emerging the circle.at M16 Artspace. The  sculptural work teases out circular objects made of metal thread and other materials. Circles are the centre of these works and they are all wonderfully creatively woven.

The pics and gallery sheets are below