Maurice Salzke – Landscape photography in repurposed wood frames at Artists Shed Fyshwick.

Michael Salzke Framed photograph at Artists Shed

Michael Salzke is a retired truck driver. He has two hobbies that he loves. He loves photography and he loves woodwork. Michael has an exhibition at the Artists Shed in Fyshwick that bring his two gifts together. He has printed large copies of his nature photographs and then framed them in handcrafted wooden frames from repurposed wood. Frames have always been an important part of art and Michael has matched nature photos with natural wood frames. It is a beautiful combination

The Artists Shed website is https://artistsshed.com.au

Porosity Karabi – Trent Jensen, Richard Goodson and Ishan Khosla @ Nishi Gallery

10 June – 9 July 2017

Nishi Gallery in New Acton hosted a gorgeous exhibition of varied media in June July this year. Three artists wove intercultural elements into their exhibition titled – Porosity Karabi.

Trent Jensen, Richard Goodson and Ishan Khosla produced works in pottery, metal, wood and repurposed product. The objects have a quirky look and are full of surprises.

Pictures below help with the look of the exhibition.

 

 

Rubies @ ANU School of Art Gallery

10 August – 9 September 2017

The Rubies exhibition is a bringing together works from a group of artists involved in the Early Artists Support Scheme (EASS). There is a adventurousness about the works and as the group is new to art practice there is a marvelous range of styles and approaches on display. Have a look below at some of the samples.

Dirkswirks – Dirk Lejeune @ Australian National Botanical Gardens

I love the creations of Dirk Lejeune. The gallery at the visitors centre at the Australian National Botanical Gardens is decorated this week with timber shaped into trees and various natural and abstract patterns. Lejeune uses sawn branches of many types of timber that he lays at various angles and in patterns with a timber like backgrounds.

They are beautiful, they are intriguing and they display a creativity and clever use of wood to bring about some wonderful images. Pictures and gallery materials are below.

Body tracing and the soft gaze Rose Mary Faulkner and Catherine Newton @ Belconnen Arts Centre

29 July – 20 August 2017

Glass art is a varied form open to a huge range of expressions of creativity and skill. Rose Mary Faulkner and Catherine Newton have exhibited several styles of glass in their show at Belconnen Arts Centre. Catherine Newton produces brightly coloured blown glass on crafted wood stands. Rose Mary Faulkner has almost sandblasted toned sections of undulating glass. Both artists are skilled and there are examples and gallery materials below.

 

 

Biographies – Martin Rowney @ Belconnen Arts Centre

29 July – 20 August 2017

Small targeted exhibitions are often surprisingly interesting.  Martin Rowney has five works on display at the Belconnen Arts Centre around the lives of four people. Each of the art works have unique elements in them that speak to the life and individual and reflect the back story that is displayed on the wall. Each of the works has an artistic interest and merit in itself but become richer with the person’s brief bio in mind.

Rowney is an archaeologist who uses art to communicate elements of his work. The pics and gallery materials are below.

Emerging Contemporaries @ CraftACT

A recent exhibition at Craft ACT was an explosion of gorgeous creativity and craft skill. All participants are classed as emerging but none of them are inexperienced in bringing to exhibition remarkable works of art. The range of materials used was wonderful and the integration of different materials into the same work was impressive. Sample pictures and gallery materials are included below.

Curious Tales – A Journey through Form – Pete Bollington @ CraftACT Gallery

6 April – 13 May 2017

Highly crafted timber furniture is always attractive. Pete Bollington has 14 gorgeous functional creations made from various fine timbers. There is a credenza, some mirrors, some tables, stools, and an entertainment unit and a shelving unit. The wonderful craftsmanship woven into each of these constructions make all of them very attractive. All of them are for sale and the prices are on the gallery sheets below. Pics give an insight into the quality and style of the works.

 

 

Indigenous Triennial Art Exhibition @ National Gallery of Australia

Till Sept 20th 2017

Plan to take a few hours or several visits if you want to take in this exhibition. The range and complexity of the works on show means it takes lots of time to engage with the abundant creativity.

There were grand explorations of traditional.arts from both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sources. They are joined to huge numbers or works of modern and technological styles of creations.

In the entry way to the NGA is a Rolls Royce painted in tradition art style. In the exhibition is a video of the artist driving that car and that activity brings together lots of remarkable visual traditional elements. The driver turns into a large area of red dust and by driving in various circles at high speed he digs up the red dirt creating patterns and a vast amount of red dust. The beauty and layered elements of the video production and were wonderful.

I will go back as we only had 90 minutes today. The exhibition is hard as it traverses complex territory of history, political comment, layered cultural interaction and many aspects of the underbelly of human society. I have included a few pics below but the only sensible thing to do with this exhibition is to go – it is free.

 

Julian Laffan – Le Monde: observations of place @ Beaver Galleries

18 May – 4 June 2017

Julian Laffan creates gorgeous representations of place in delicately prepared woodcuts. The two tone natural looking creations are supplemented with a small flash or two of bright colour to highlight a feature but for me the beauty is in the craftsmanship of the wood work. Many of the scenes were familiar with Laffan’s take on how they were carved in the wood.

I did not have my camera with me so I have only included the gallery materials but as usual the high quality sheets from Beaver have some of the images included.