Tag: Australian art
Thresholds
Friday, February 19th, 2021 Art Column,Thresholds is the very model of an underground art exhibition. Between 2016-19 Julia Davis and Lisa Jones explored the subterranean spaces near St. James Station, taking photographs, shooting video and making unconventional large-scale drawings. The results of their investigations are displayed at the Tin Sheds Gallery, Sydney University. There’s an intrinsic fascination in such a […]
NGV Triennial 2020
Tuesday, February 16th, 2021 Art Column,It’s an old adage that success breeds success but it’s just as true that success breeds complaints. In recent years no Australian art institution has come within coo-ee of the National Gallery of Victoria when it comes to organising spectacular, ambitious exhibitions. These shows have been intended to draw the biggest possible audiences and in […]
2020: The Year in Review
Tuesday, February 9th, 2021 Blog,In March last year a friend in Bangladesh forwarded a news item that said Australia’s borders would be closed until September. “Is it true!!!!” he exclaimed. I was sceptical and replied that neither the economy nor people’s limits of endurance would allow the closures to last that long. I thought we’d be flying again within […]
Swimming Pools: Deep & Shallow
Friday, February 5th, 2021 Blog,When David Hockney moved to Los Angeles in 1964 it was the swimming pools that made the most vivid impression. He had noticed them from the air – thousands of small patches of bright blue. No desirable Hollywood property was complete without one. The swimming pools of LA were the most tangible point of difference […]
Wendy Sharpe: Ghosts
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2021 Art Column,When a gallery offers virtually its entire exhibition space for an artist to do whatever she likes it’s both tempting and intimidating. Nothing, however, is too much for Wendy Sharpe. Ever since she took on the challenge of creating eight mural-sized works for the Cook & Philip Park Acquatic Centre in 1997, Sharpe has never […]
Pat Larter
Tuesday, January 26th, 2021 Art Column,Encountering Pat Larter for the first time, people often said: “I’m sure I’ve met you before somewhere.” Most probably it was in one of the many versions of Pat painted by her husband, Richard Larter. Once seen these pictures were hard to forget. It’s not unusual for an artist to take his wife as muse […]
Alex Seton: Meet Me Under the Dome
Friday, January 15th, 2021 Blog,In The Ghost of Wombeyan Alex Seton has created a life-sized marble figure that lies prone on a slab beneath a heavy shroud. Should we see it as a body, or merely the impression of a body preserved in solid marble? Either way, the piece has a strong funereal connotation. The ‘ghost’ is a childhood […]
Andrew Sullivan
Tuesday, January 12th, 2021 Art Column,All children seem to be mad about dinosaurs, many of us never outgrowing that fascination. Dinosaur exhibitions are among the best attended events at international museums, while there have been five films in the Jurassic Park franchise since 1990, with another in the pipeline. Anyone requiring a dinosaur hit over the holidays might consider a trip […]
Peter Kingston: First Light
Tuesday, December 15th, 2020 Art Column,Before seeing Peter Kingston: First Light at the S.H.Ervin Gallery, I was reminded that the late Giles Auty once compared ‘Kingo’ to Raoul Dufy (1877-1953). Although I would hesitate to endorse most of Giles’s observations about art and life, he may have been onto something. Although the Frenchman commands a place in the pantheon of […]
Just Not Australian
Tuesday, December 8th, 2020 Art Column,Just Not Australian made its debut at Artspace early last year but will be touring ten regional galleries in New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia until October, 2022. I caught the show at the Wollongong Art Gallery where it may be seen over the holiday period. The longevity of the tour suggests this is […]