Friday week ago saw the latest manifestation of Spiral Gallery’s Blokes exhibition, and what a bloody good show it is, mate.
It was opened by the Main Bloke…
…sung in by a pack of blokes…
…it features great blokey art…
…by lots of great blokes…
…and a ewe-beaut blokey time was had by all. We’re already looking forward to next year.
It was a quality act all round but best in show has to go to Michael O’Dea’s Azaria…
Too good.
More goodies here.
The Gang swung past Spiral Gallery last Friday for the opening of Landscapes – Natural + Imaginary, a three man show featuring our three fave dudes from them thar hills; Myrtle Mountain, Towamba and Rocky Hall. We refer, of course, to Trish Thompson, Kimberley Dodd and Tony Sweeting, respectively – plenty of deliverance and not a banjo in sight.
All the lovely peeps here.
The Gang was at Spiral Gallery in Bega on Friday night for the opening of Peter Otton and Liam Ryan’s exhibition…
Super show – which, of course, attracted a gathering of the seriously discerning local arts cognoscenti. We were amazed to discover that half the room studied in Wagga Wagga way back in the wild and woollie days of Trevor and Dinah – who’d have thought they’d all end up in Bega!
Exhibition’s up until 26th August.
The Gang did a quick whip around the cultural offerings over the weekend, but kept it necessarily brief (had to dash home to cook Pa his supper – it was the 32nd wedding anniversary, after all…)
Friday kicked off with Spiral Gallery (a bric-a-brac/collectibles kinda show) at 5pm…
…followed by Gulaga at the BVRG (an exhibition featuring the work of seven local artists responding to Gulaga Mountain) from 6…
Gulaga, firmly anchored by Karen Charlebois’ steel sculpture (a curatorial rescue device if ever there was one! god bless you Karen), just manages to avoid being entirely predictable. Gordon Robinson’s fabulous Gulaga Suite took out the Gang’s pick of the pops. We’ll bring you a virtual gallery tour later in the week.
And then on Saturday arvo we dashed across to Tanja/Wapengo, for a slice of Matt Jones and Richard Raffan…
…the former above…the latter below…
Loved the work of both. Fresh, cute, quirky – yadda, yadda. It’s the first time Matt’s ventured into watercolour, he tells us, and what a wonderfully successful doodly detour it’s turned out to be. Seriously sweet.
As for Richard Raffan’s show, those boats are totally irresistable.
[...along the lines of a sophisticated Slim, Nige. n(Ed)]
All in all it was a daisy-chain of somewhat varied fare, as you can no doubt appreciate.
More snaps here.
A quickie round of last week’s events…
There’s been so much on in the last month that we’ve not had a moment spare to post the Tanja Riese (winner of the FSCLAP scholarship 2009) exhibition, Journey of Arrival, currently showing at the BVRG. Actually, the crowd at the opening was packed like pilchards – and we were so busy running the bar that we had no time whatsoever to get any snaps off. Last week, however, was Tanja’s Art Café floor talk and proceedings were far more gently paced…
Plenty of interest had obviously been stirred by the Artscape piece on the ABC, and response to the show has no doubt been very gratifying for Tanja. And what a relief, one imagines, to have that 16-odd months of pressure behind her. Time for some well-deserved R&R, wethinks.
On Friday evening Spiral Gallery kicked off the upcoming Youth Season with their annual Youth Show (participating artists pictured below…)
And on Saturday the Gang and Brigitte went for a sticky beak at Sculpture on the Edge’s open day at Philip Cox’s coastal retreat, overseen by Jan and Beatle…
A literal stone’s throw from the Murrah River mouth, it’d be hard to take for a weekend get-away…
We found our ideal bedroom(!!)…
(…just a bed with a wall of wine, perfeck!)
We didn’t get there until late in the day, so it was a fairly whirlwind tour; having met Michael Snape at the Sculpture Symposium the week before it was nice to come across some of his work…
and the highlight, of course, was seeing Beatle Collin’s original waves in situ…
All a tad brief, we know – but the Candelo Pool beckons. Ciao, ciao.
Last week saw the usual PMS (pre-manic-show) syndrome that grips us monthly at BVRG – that relentless lead up to every opening (it’s always fraught; too much to do, too little time, too few hands.) But of course we managed as always to pull it together in time to wander down at 5pm on the Friday for the opening of Kim Falkenmire’s new show, Of Landscape and Memory, at Spiral – there to do a quick round of drinkies, snaps and chatter before belting back to the Regional to set up the refreshments for our own opening at six.
(Kim’s show was officially opened by last year’s winner of the Bega Art Awards, Craig Cameron, above right)
Anyhoo, having attended to the requisite social observances, Rach and the Gang beat a swift retreat back to the BVRG only to get so involved with the ensuing meet’n'greet’n barkeepin’ & speechifyin’ session of our own that it wasn’t until over breakfast the next morning that we suddenly realised we’d completely forgotten to take any more pictures of the evening (and to compound the matter, we’d left the camera on the desk at work…)
Total bummer, dudes. Unbelievable. So we’ve missed bringing you the excitement of the opening of Rose Montebello and Gabrielle Powell’s show, Women’s work, entirely.
Ah, doesn’t matter – we’ll sort out a pictorial sweep soonish, and Rose will be back in town on November 11 for the Arts Café. So all is not completely lost…
And besides, it’s incontrovertible proof that we always put the promo of others before our own - bugger, bum. Must be old Granny Lucas’s Presbyterian influence. Might have to review the practice!!
Joy and Rowie (above) at Spiral Gallery.
The Gang missed the opening last Friday, but finally managed to catch up with Joy’s new show, Eons, which features both ceramics and photography and runs until the 10th September (at Spiral Gallery, Bega.)
What do you reckon the Gang went for? Take a punt.
The Gang went to Spiral Gallery’s opening of Bricolage last Friday night, an exhibition of vintage and wearable art by Sharon Cornthwaite and Anna Senior. Opened by a glitzy dinosaur named Dorothy, the launch was lots of fun…
(above) Anna Senior with guest celebrity Dorothy.
By the end of the night we all stood around looking like a clutch of bag-ladies (but that’s what vintage will do for ya, once ya reach a certain age!)
For a handful of the more tasteful pics, go here.
On Friday we witnessed the judging of the local beanies in the Regional Gallery; Councillor Liz Seckold and Mayor Tony Allen presiding…
…and the opening of Collographs Plus at Spiral Gallery.
Sue Chancellor’s print at Spiral (above)
And then on Saturday arvo we beetled across to Candelo for Lynny Ferguson’s show at The Crossing, which was all very laid back and pleasant (and only a quarter hour drive – gotta love that!!)…
…and we met Caren’s lovely mum…
More happy snaps here.
It was all about the fellers last weekend; from Spiral Gallery’s opening of Blokes, to Matthew Jones at Ivy Hill, to Merrick Fry at Mister Jones in Bermagui…
Proceedings kicked off with some goose-stepping from the Art Police, aka Andrew Gray from SEAR, who officially opened the Spiral show with good serve of comedic stick…
…which was seriously entertaining - and what a relief to see a healthy injection of humour in the yarts for once. Should be more of it, darlings.
So it was a triff opening all round, with the crowd literally spilling out into the street…
…and the overall tenor of the event proving a particularly effective way to coax the menfolk out for an evening of cultural fare (…that esky full of VB tinnies being a deft touch.) The sheila’s must’ve been outnumbered three to one – quite a strange, though welcome, phenomenon.
Perhaps our fave work was Mike Petersen’s gorgeous weaving (what a fabulous counterpose for a blacksmith) and we also liked the ‘battle of Waterloo’ slant of Liam Ryan’s painting. [If the subject hadn't been (g)AFL, we might have been tempted to purr-chase, n(Ed)]
And then on Saturday we finally made it to Ivy Hill, where we’d made a date with Rach to catch Matthew Jones’ exhibition…
…before meandering up to Bermagui for the latest opening at new contemporary art space, mister jones (the self-same Matthew’s other great work in progress.)
Only the second exhibition since the launch of the gallery, the show Talewind featured the work of Sydney artist Merrick Fry, which/whom we found instantly appealing (both the art and the artist) – not the least for its kitschy assemblage of notional seafaring narratives…
Merrick Fry, See-saw
Merrick’s a chappie who can mix his metaphors with the best of ‘em. And as you possibly know, we have always been rather keen on subversive takes on glass (Merrick’s certainly not shy about slipping in the odd bit of plastic!)
(above) Merrick Fry’s work.
Really very cool.
Matthew has since sent us the following blurb…
Talewind
Seafaring assemblage and works on paper by Merrick Fry.
Mister Jones, Bermagui’s new contemporary art space, opened it’s second exhibition on Saturday night: a witty collection of works on handmade ricepaper and linen – and intriguing assemblages from found materials – by inimitable Annandale artist, Merrick Fry.
Using materials as diverse as lampshades, teacups, plastic toys and false fingernails, Fry constructs bottled dioramas and imagined maritime narratives in a palette of peacock green. He bravely walks the knife-edge of kitsch and saccharine with his tongue firmly in cheek. But beneath the self-conscious prettiness of bobbing, fairytale vessels, lurks always a violent and malevolent sea.
The opening was another well-attended street gathering for Bermagui, with viewers travelling from as far as Sydney for the event. But for those who missed the opening, Merrick Fry’s work will show at Mister Jones for the months of May and June, at 2/4 Bunga Street, Bermagui.
(above) Shambala (with her attendant human) has been a most consistant and discerning visitor to mister jones
Cheers Matthew!!
For more snaps go here.
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