The Chandelier Show @ Canberra Glassworks

8 June – 6 August 2017

The Canberra Glassworks has impressed me since they opened with their innovative approach to exhibitions both in style, content and collaboration. The current exhibition brings together seven great artists and skillful glass workers to express themselves through an antique artform – the chandelier.

So you walk through the gallery that is lit by seven fabulous reinterpretations of the traditional chandelier all glittering with light and creativity.

Pics and gallery sheet below.

Emerging Contemporaries @ Craft ACT Gallery

11-26 February 2016

The exhibition featured 15 crafts workers and their current work. The styles, the materials, the output and the variety were exciting. The gallery sheet and some pics are below.

Enlighten 2016 – projections on buildings in the Parliamentary Triangle

I love the annual Enlighten Festival especially for its projections on buildings. The core buildings are old and new parliament houses, the National Library, the National Gallery, the Portrait Gallery and the National Science and Technology Centre.

Each building has an appropriate theme and style to their projections.

• The National Library is China themed this year linked to their current exhibition
• The National Science and Technology Centre is science themed.
• The houses of parliament are history and politics themed
• The National Gallery picks up wonderful images from current exhibitions
• The Portrait Gallery has a spectacular fast moving story board that changes from nursery rhymes to spectacular multi-layered natural scenes

The amazing thing about this event is the crowds. It was threatening rain but in every part of the walk through areas was shoulder to shoulder – lots of little children, family groups, groups of people of various ages. The food area was a feature that I only heard one complaint about – queues are too long.

Several buildings are opening into the evening with programs of music and other arts and exhibitions.

The website http://enlightencanberra.com.au/

Some pics below give a sense of it.

 

 

Daylights – Michelle Day @ CraftACT Gallery Civic Square

Michelle Day has created some remarkable lights for her exhibition at CractACT. Integrating metal and fabric, references to insects and other natural forms each lamp is a unique artwork while providing a functional piece of furniture. CraftACT is the last bastion of no photographs and so I refer you to the article below in the Fairfax press.
I have attached her gallery sheet.
http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/embracing-innovation-volume-5-and-daylights-at-craft-act-20150731-giodqz.html

Colour Restraint – Rebecca Baumann and Brendan Van Hek @ Campbelltown Arts Centre

Light, colour, reflection and projection combine to create a fabulous set or art works by Rebecca Baumann and Brendan Van Hek at the Campbelltown Arts Centre. In a big space there is an advertising device that enables three different adverts to be displayed in rotating panels but in this space it is undecorated transparent Perspex. A projector is fired at it and it reflects refracts and spreads the light to various parts of the room. One room has some minimally lit objects and creations. Another room has  large panels with coloured reflective surfaces that interplay reflections of each other and of viewers as they walk and stand in parts of the room.
One work has a curtain of gold tinsel stirred with a fan producing shadows on walls behind. There are some fluorescent lighting works that play around with colour and perception. These two artists have created some intriguing and vibrant walk through experiences.

Different Strokes @ Casula Powerhouse

A diverse collection of art works is on display at the Casula Powerhouse. The curator’s introduction in the educational resource explains that the exhibition explores the interplay between drawing and the finished work. Sometimes it is directly part of the process for others it is influential in the ideas and concepts used.
The works range from delicate etherial to hard and fragile looking. There are tiny works and grand scale ones. There is handicraft and hi tech.

The exhibition is accompanied by  a glossy educational resource linked to curriculum with biographical and practice notes for each artist. Below is a single picture from the work on display for each artist.
Akira Akira

Mira Gojak

Karena Keys

Kenzee Patterson

Koji Ryui

Michelle Ussher

Glass Design @ Canberra Glassworks

Often glass art is highly decorative and awash with simple beauty. The current exhibition at the Canberra Glassworks focuses on design for utility and beauty. There are lights and containers and jewellery of remarkable style and creativity. It is great to see the background design work and the highly specked objects together in one exhibition. I always like different exhibitions and this is quite different because is features objects that have been carefully designed for use and purpose.

I have included a set of pictures below and the gallery sheet to give insight to what is there: