Past Exhibitions

Mono no aware - Solo Show 2008

Sep 18, 2008 - Oct 7, 2008

MONO NO AWARE
Mono no Aware continues Marcella Kaspar’s fascination with the ephemeral beauty of flowers. Opening on 18 September, her latest exhibition comprises flower paintings showcasing her characteristic obsession with the perfection and repetition of nature. However, for the first time the artist weaves fresh-faced geisha girls and Japanese landscapes among her usual tapestry of petals.

After numerous visits to Japan, the artist was struck by the Asian culture’s love affair with flowers as a reflection of the impermanent beauty of life. The exhibition title, Mono No Aware, is a phrase used (in Japanese culture) to express the connection between nature and its transient, inevitable passing. The philosophy perfectly mirrored the artist’s own interest in flowers as a metaphor for life itself: beautiful and luminous, yet fleeting.

Yo Yo Sunday

Aug 28, 2008 - Sep 16, 2008

Dancing on Water

Aug 7, 2008 - Aug 26, 2008

The Eye of the Mind

Jul 17, 2008 - Aug 5, 2008

Last One Standing

Jun 26, 2008 - Jul 15, 2008

Art Brisbane

May 29, 2008 - Jun 1, 2008

Edge

May 15, 2008 - Jun 3, 2008

A new exhibition by Gabrielle Courtenay uses the ephemeral beauty of the desert saltbush to confront environmental issues of our time.

‘In Edge Courtenay has transformed tiny skeletons of plants into bewitching forms of poetic beauty… Macabre as they are, these assemblages have poignancy to them, for like Courtenay’s paintings they are reminders of the fragility and ephemeral nature of life.” (Author and Curator Victoria Hammond)

Best known for her bold, minimal style, the new works in this exhibition reflect a dramatic shift in Gabrielle Courtenay‘s art practice. Edge is a series of 19 paintings and drawings of dark poetic forms. The works reach out to the viewer, confronting one with the environmental destruction done since colonisation and the need to take climate change seriously.

Paintings & Works on Paper

Apr 24, 2008 - May 13, 2008

This will be Marina’s first solo exhibition with Charles Hewitt (April 24 - May 13 2008),
featuring the artist’s everyday environment in the Eastern Suburbs.

Circadian Rhythm

Apr 3, 2008 - Apr 22, 2008

First solo show for this exciting young artist at Charles Hewitt.

Paintings

Mar 18, 2008 - Mar 18, 2008

lostalgia

Feb 21, 2008 - Mar 11, 2008

An exhibition of oils on canvas using mixed media based on themes of nostalgic maternal images of childhood lost.

Lostalgia is a haunting and poignant exhibition of 31 works created by Sophie Gralton.

Heavily themed with images of children, these arresting paintings are reminiscent of 17th century Dutch portraits of children. Sophie, however, has infused them with overtones of contemporary Australian childhood.

“My childhood in rural Victoria as the middle of five children was a noisy, vivid and the happy time filled with the overflowing hotch potch of family life in the country,” said Sophie.

“In today’s era of sleek minimalism, designer kitchens and crisply sterile modernism, I mourn for a time when children could remember what it was like to have milk bottles with foil tops, a baker that delivered to your home and the postie rode a bike. In my own childhood in the country our milk was delivered by horse and cart. That era has gone – and I want to capture now the childhood that my own children are experiencing by incorporating in my artwork, pieces of memorabilia of this current generation.”

Sophie’s works include mixed media such as old linoleum, manila tags, childrens’ story books and postage stamps, which are directly applied to the canvas.

“The faces of the children in my paintings are obscured as it was not the intention for them to be conventional portraits but rather fleeting impressions of youth and childhood memory, rather than of the individuals themselves,” said Sophie.

Sophie studied fashion and textile design at Sydney College of the Arts and worked for five years as a textile designer. She then studied at the National Arts School (Sydney) and graduated in 1996 with a degree in Fine Arts. This is the fifth solo exhibition for Sophie.

This exhibition is a continuation of themes I’ve explored before. Once again the old linoleum, manila tags, notes, children’s story books and old stamps are morphed with what seem to be traditional representations of children. This time they are directly applied to the canvas rather than being actually rendered.

The iconography for this exhibition was suggested by bourgeois 17th century Dutch portraits of children, however I’ve tried to give them a more contemporary Australian sensibility.

Their faces are obscured as I did not want them to be conventional portraits but rather fleeting impressions of youth and memory generally, rather than of the individuals themselves.

Sophie Gralton
2008

Soft Skin

Jan 31, 2008 - Feb 19, 2008

Soft Skin is an exhibition of sculptures and paintings that are sensuous, resolved and sexually charged. The works have highly finished surfaces, with textures that tease the viewer to touch. Tensions are created with beauty and taboo intermingled, creating works that are both provocative and humorous.

Malcolm Utley’s studies in visuals arts include a background in architecture and film making. He has worked extensively in Europe and Asia, including as an assistant to Tim Maguire in Paris. This exhibition is the impressive culmination of work developed whilst in residencies in China, Malaysia and Australia during the last 4 years.

Malcolm Utley’s previous work has been well received by reviewers and collectors. His work is exhibited in Australian and international galleries.

The Child Within

Nov 22, 2007 - Dec 11, 2007

My work addresses the child in all of us. We are all born artists. Children reveal this in their picture making. We presume to teach the child how to make art, while in practice we can learn so much from the child.

In the tranquil reverie of my art making I find myself returning again and again to my childhood solitudes. And through this dreaming I marvel at how the long forgotten imaginings of these solitudes resurface in my adult-infused imagery.

My imagery references the recurrence of childhood in adulthood - vignettes filled with ‘personas’ big and little, human and animal, scary and friendly, playful and serious in their curious encounters with other strange creatures all born of childhood fantasies.

In a Fair Light

Oct 10, 2007 - Oct 30, 2007

Birds & Trees

Aug 30, 2007 - Sep 18, 2007

Flirt with me

Feb 22, 2007 - Mar 13, 2007