GRIA SHEAD La Belle Epoque, Casinos and Cigars 10 NOVEMBER — 25 NOVEMBER 2016 Nanda Hobbs, Lvl 1, 66 King St, Sydney NSW 2000 Gria Shead has long practiced the art of poetic evocation in her sensitively rendered paintings and works on paper. This quality is further developed in her new exhibition La Belle Époque: … Continue reading
John Sheehan The Unknown Way February 28 – March 21, 2015 John Sheehan is a mid-career Australian artist whose watercolours and mixed media works on paper express his own particular vision of landscape and memory. This exhibition features works inspired by the artist’s travels within Australia, New Zealand and Thailand. Using rich colour and loose, … Continue reading
“The fact – and this will seem to many unbelievable – that his paintings by no means equaled his superb engravings did a lot to damage his reputation.”[1] Constantijn Huygens, 1630 The term ‘virtuosity’ rarely fails to surface when discussing the graphic oeuvre of Dutch artist Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617). Praised for his sheer technical brilliance, … Continue reading
“The artist produces scenes that are like sheets of stone, whether these be jagged cliff faces or crumbling stone structures. Ostensibly revealing broad vistas, Segers’ landscapes instead form a stony wall of impenetrable material, confounding view with picture plane. The viewer is not meant to enter these spaces.”[1] And yet enter we do, into Segers’ … Continue reading
Cristofano Robetta (1462 – 1535 after) is not exactly a well known name, even to those interested in the early history of western printmaking. Over-shadowed by luminaries of his era, print historians have invariably discussed the awkward and technically unrefined aspects of his work. They also point out its heavily derivative nature as Robetta freely … Continue reading
Baccio Baldini (c.1436–1487) is the elusive artist to whom these astrologically inspired engravings, created around 1464, are attributed. Titled The Planets, this series of seven prints reflect prevailing systems of knowledge that during the 15th century governed the way people viewed the world around them. Specifically, they refer to the Ptolemaic concept of the universe where … Continue reading
Published in the University of Melbourne Collections, Issue 14, June 2014, pp. 46 – 50 Recently I had the opportunity to conduct in-depth research on an old master drawing from the J. Orde Poynton Collection, housed in the Baillieu Library at the University of Melbourne (illustrated below). The focus of that 12-week research project was … Continue reading
Rendered predominantly in stark shades of black and white, Godwin Bradbeer’s isolated figures emerge out of the existential void. This recent body of work sees Bradbeer continue a life-long inquiry into often angst ridden questions that surround the human condition, experienced both collectively and individually and located on a metaphysical plane. His vessel for expression … Continue reading
In memory of one of the greats of Australian painting who passed away earlier this week, Jeffrey Smart. Despite Modernism’s challenge to representational imagery, and the subsequent Death of Painting discourse which questioned the relevance of painting within the contemporary art spectrum, Smart remained true to his chosen genre and medium and created some of the most iconic … Continue reading
RETRO REVIEW: This catalogue essay accompanied an exhibition of paintings by Richard Dunlop, Still Life, Still Death: ANZAC Memorials and Other New Paintings (31st March – 31st April 2011 @ James Makin Gallery) In this exhibition Richard Dunlop reveals a deep sensitivity to the essential fragility of life in all forms, and the tenuous beauty … Continue reading
Visual Pursuits 