James Tunks @ John Buckley Gallery Prahran

Wednesday, 11 August 2010

John Buckley has not abandoned his erstwhile gallery in Bendigo Street, Prahran, but continues offering it from time to time as a project space. Exhibitions last only a few days, and artists are usually asked to look after the gallery. However, this inconvenience is a small price to pay for the prestige of John Buckley’s name and the exposure to his client list.

The space is currently occupied with photographs by James Tunks. They include landscapes, portraits, as well as more abstracted images. In the latter body of work, Tunks used LED strip lighting and slow exposure to achieve abstracted effects; some of them are desaturated and infused with sepia tones. The contrast between the two sets of images and their placement in the gallery on opposite walls engages them in an aesthetic dialogue where the colour images represent the alpha, the beginning, the original protoplasm, while the monotone works (which also feature skulls, and reference the Old Master tradition of vanitas paintings) announce the omega, the end, the absence of life or colour, the completed journey.

Although the images in the exhibition might seem to be quite disparate, the photographer has gone to some lengths to unite them all with thought-provoking and existential titles. Tunks’ landscape photography vacillates somewhere between Anselm Adams and Wolfgang Sievers, but it is in the abstracted works that he appears to be at his most original. The exhibition is quite enjoyable on the whole, but one feels it would have been better realised with a tighter curatorial selection, perhaps focusing on the above-mentioned abstracted explorations of properties of light (which is also, incidentally, the title of the show).

[© Eugene Barilo v. Reisberg 2010. This article is copyright, but the full or partial use is WELCOME with the full and proper acknowledgment]

Recent Group Exhibitions (July / August 2010)

Tuesday, 3 August 2010

Dear Diary,

The forthcoming Art Fair is the “be all and end all” on the Melburnian art scene at the moment, and a number of galleries have mounted traditional group exhibitions to allow interstate visitors (who are likely to visit the galleries proper as well as their stands at the Fair) a better look at the cream of the crop of their exhibiting stable (shouldn’t it be ‘staple’ – makes so much more sense than ‘stable’?).

Arc One gave a themed angle to its group exhibition How Nature Speaks, which focuses on the interpretation of nature and landscape in the works of their artists. The exhibition includes an interesting aesthetic and visual dialogue between Janet Laurence [price range: $26,000-$35,000] and Imants Tillers [price range: $25,000-$75,000], who explore in their works the theme of bushfires, the memory of which is still fresh in the Victorian psyche. There is also a striking set of photographic works by Huang Xu [price range: $6,000-$8,000], who imbues his depictions of flowers and mounds of hair with an other-worldly, mystical, meditative sensibility.

Another group exhibition is taking place around the corner at the Murray White Room in Sargood Lane. The display includes whimsical landscapes by Tony Clark, both on small ($2,200 ea) and large ($44,000) scale; an interesting set of photographs by Eliza Hutchinson, the complex layering of which is somewhat reminiscent of David Rosetzky’s earlier works ($2,500 ea); a well-executed oil piece by Tim McMonagle, which captures in its expressive, fluid brushstrokes the very essence of the bone-chilling cold (N.F.S.); as well as the incomprehensibly banal photographs of semi-naked youths by Lyndal Walker ($2,500 ea).

In Richmond, John Buckley has also emptied his stockroom to put together a representative display of his gallery artists, including a mesmerising, brooding, monochromatic painting by Dom de Clario ($22,000); a pink-and-azure op-art piece by Lesley Dumbrell ($10,000); a couple of “period” pieces from the 1970s by Gareth Sansom ($35,000) and John Firth-Smith ($9,900), and (always) striking and imaginative photographic work by Simon Strong ($10,500).

[While we’re on the subject of the latter, some of us still recall the artistic duo, Hardy & Strong, which consisted of Charmaine Hardy and Simon Strong. The partnership was dissolved some years ago, and Simon has been going from strength to strength ever since. Charmaine seems to have all but disappeared from the main exhibition circuit. I happened to stumble across one of her recent works at Pigment Gallery at the Nicholas Building. The photograph, depicting a picnicking couple being attacked by seagulls ($1,950), was sadly evident how Simon’s photographic / photoshoping skills and imagination were integral to Charmaine’s earlier success.]

[© Eugene Barilo v. Reisberg 2010. This article is copyright, but the full or partial use is WELCOME with the full and proper acknowledgment]

Some Recent Exhibitions (June 2010)

Tuesday, 3 August 2010

Dear Diary,

I forgot to scribble about some recent exhibitions I had seen.

John Buckley presented new works by Emma van Leest and Christian Lock in June.

Christian Lock’s paintings are elegant, minimal, abstract meditations with subtle colour variations interspersed with deliciously thick blobs of paint reminiscent of Jules Olitski’s 1960s experimentations. While the gallery sheet indicated that each painting is supposed to have shown the artist’s environmental concerns, these were not evident in the paintings. Normally, I rebel against the works which I perceive as being purely decorative. However, I found the calm and contemplative beauty of Lock’s creations disarming. [Price Guide: $4,000-$6,000]

Emma van Leest continues working with silhouette cut-outs. Her mastery and craftsmanship in this medium are superb and faultless. The works are evocative of vignette-like 18^th and 19^th-century silhouettes, by which van Leest is clearly inspired. The artist’s recent overseas trips have resulted in the appearance of Eastern motives within her work. However, executed on larger than usual scale, I feel the works have lost some of their earlier charm and intimacy.

Everything in van Leest’s works is whimsical, peaceful, and playful. One cannot detect the tiniest bit of conflict or drama within them. Let me elaborate. In 2004, Lisa Roet took an inspiration from traditional stained glass windows in order to narrate the story of Ham, the first chimp in space in 20^th-Century comic-book style. In 2008, Mark Hilton adapted most remarkably the style of 17^th-century Indian Mughal miniature painting in order to depict the then recent outbreaks of violence against women in Sydney. In comparison to the above, van Leest’s works neither add nor contemporise the traditional art of silhouette cut-outs, and thus appear escapist and indulgent by comparison. [Price Guide: $7,700]

Also in June, Lara Merrett presented a strong body of work at Karen Woodbury’s. I suspect I am not the only one who, upon seeing her paintings, was moved to exclaim: “Dale Frank!” At first glance, there is indeed a sense of commonality between the two artists, as both use large, sweeping, vibrant pools of paint. However, the differences become apparent upon a closer examination. Merrett predominantly uses acrylics, which result in a flatter, less glossy appearance of her works. Furthermore, if Frank’s paintings are the result of poured and manipulated liquid pigments, to the best of my observations, Merrett combines pouring as well as actual brush application. These are further embellished by finely executed dot and spider web motives which sporadically appear throughout the paintings and are not immediately apparent. While I would declare such works as Side by Side, In Your Face, and Last One Out as superb, there are still a few muddy passages within her paintings. However, given the artist’s youth, I am certain that these less than auspicious pigment combinations will be further resolved as her career progresses. [Price Guide: $14,000-$18,000]

I could not buy into the enthusiastic reception, which surrounded the latest body of photographic works by Jill Orr at her recent Vision exhibition at Jenny Port’s in June. As I was gazing at a group photo of school children, whose faces were covered with white clay, one name was screaming back at me… Marlene Dumas (while individual photographs of the same children are strongly reminiscent of Warren Brenninger’s works). Orr, in my opinion, remains one of the most outstanding and remarkable performance artists in Australia, and I am still haunted by the visions of her Bleeding Trees, Exhume the Grave, and the most recent Faith in Faithless Land images. Hence, I felt slightly disappointed by Vision in the context of the artist’s previous highly-imaginative and original performances and photographic exhibitions. [Price Guide: $2,500]

[© Eugene Barilo v. Reisberg 2010. This article is copyright, but the full or partial use is WELCOME with the full and proper acknowledgment]

Snapshot of Exhibitions in Albert Street, Richmond

Saturday, 21 March 2010

Dear Diary,

I have immediately responded to the joint display of paintings by Dale Hickey and sculptures by Peter D. Cole at John Buckley Gallery. It is nothing short of curatorial genius, as these interdisciplinary works speak to each other in terms of colour, shapes, and compositions.

I love Leslie Dumbrell as a person and respect her as an artist. I have always held a candle to her art as the most important exponent of Op Art in Australia, and continue to posit her as Australia’s answer to Bridget Riley. Her paintings, also on view at John Buckley Gallery, are beautifully and meticulously executed; her works on paper provide an insight to her creative genius. However, those who have followed her artistic career might agree that this exhibition lacks the visual intensity and optical excitement of the previous decades.

I was pleased to see that Simon Obarzanek at Karen Woodbury’s gave up his earlier quest of becoming an Australian version of Thomas Ruff. His closely cropped and tightly framed photographs feature people who appear to have been violently and forcibly pushed or thrown to the ground. In addition to excellent camera work and handling of the medium, the works are filled with the transcendent physical and emotional intensity deserving of this remarkable photographic artist.

I was glad to have caught a glimpse of photographs by Jenny Bolis at Anita Traverso Gallery across the road. As Anita explained to me, this modest display was arranged to accompany the launch of Bolin’s book of photography. However, even this modest presentation showed the depths and strengths of this photographic artist, some of whose works are imbued with a quality of a film noir still, and others are indicative of Bolis’s masterful abilities (and her delight) in capturing fleeting light effects and studying the deepest recesses of shadows.

I was rather underwhelmed by the exhibition of abstract paintings by Michael Mark at Jenny Port Gallery. An over-enthusiastic arts writer (either from The Age or Herald Sun) ventured to compare them to Rothko, and the artist and the dealer must be beside themselves with joy for having at their fingertips a journalist with such shallow perception and limited reference points. To me they look like interior decorator’s versions of Charlie Sheard’s much deeper abstract colour explorations.

I can never forgo the excellence in execution, and in the line-up of current exhibitions at Albert Street galleries, two artists clearly stand out in this regard.

Drawings by Mark Hislop at Sophie Gannon Gallery have inspired in me the same sort of incredulous admiration as do drawings by David Warren. They defy one’s comprehension that something so beautiful and complex can be achieved by a humble medium of pencil. His works are hyper-realist head and shoulder portraits, though every person is pictured from behind. Another photo-realist figurative artist, Michael Zavros, who also exhibits with Sophie Gannon, has obliterated faces in his portrait drawings to strip his models of individuality and turn them into generic clothes horses (and yes, I do realise the pun, given Zavros’s equine obsessions). Hislop, on the other hand, preserves the hidden individualism of his sitters by the minute portrayal of their hairstyles and the tops of their garments. Despite their apparent voyeurism, the works are imbued with a sense of intimacy.

Another outstanding works from the point of view of technical superiority are those by Alice Wormald, exhibited diagonally opposite at Shifted. Her watercolours of animals are meticulously crafted and strikingly superb. Now, the watercolour is one of the hardest, least forgiving mediums. Unlike pencils or charcoals which can be rubbed out, or thickly opaque gouaches, acrylics, and oils that can be painted over, the thin and transparent nature of watercolours means that every mistake, every wrong brushstroke is visible and immediately apparent. Hence my sense of wonder about this young artist, who has confidently filled sheets after sheets of paper with the most detailed and meticulous watercolour studies of dogs, birds, and marsupials. Her (almost) taxonomic approach is akin to the faunal interest, which is prevalent in contemporary Australian (and international) art as evident in the works by Sam Leach, Natalie Ryan, Katie Rohde, Fiona Foley, and many others. It will be interesting to see how this young and gifted artist will progress on her creative journey.

[© Eugene Barilo v. Reisberg 2010. This article is copyright, but the full or partial use is WELCOME with the full and proper acknowledgment]

John Firth-Smith @ John Buckley Gallery

Wednesday, 10 February 2010

Dear Diary,

John Firth-Smith’s exhibition at the John Buckley Gallery left me cold. Perhaps I am feeling nostalgic about his earlier works, which in my opinion were by far crisper, better executed, and well resolved in terms of colour and composition. As if to illustrate my point, the gallery gives a tantalising glimpse of his late 1980s Silverfish in the office area, providing an unfair in my opinion comparison with the rest of the show. The current exhibition still continues the artist’s exploration of sea and air as his major sources of inspiration. It shows the artist’s progress within his practice; his painting technique has become looser; there is a greater reliance on chance and accident, and on closer inspection one can still salivate about his lush, textured surfaces and thickly applied pigments.

Upon stepping back from the paintings, one can put a positivist argument that the artist is striving to attain a greater overall atmospheric and universal effect. However, as the result of a looser paint application, the compositional strength of his works is lost. The dominant thickly painted white swirls – which are the artist’s stylistic representations of the crushing waves, and which had formed such a strong, pivotal feature of his earlier works – are lost and dissolved against an indefinite background.

In my opinion, the works that retain the compositional and textural strength of his earlier paintings and combine his newly-developed recent technique of looser pigment application are among the best in the exhibition. These include Sea Air, Salt Air, Daybreak 1, and Daybreak 2 (this opinion is obviously shared by the collecting confraternity, for these are among the few which have been sold from the current exhibition).

The amateurish drawings of ships neither enhance nor add insight into his paintings. Such obvious dumbing down of the nautical inspiration behind his artworks is unnecessary, as Firth-Smith’s infatuation with the coast is obvious and well documented not only in his works but also in the accompanying documentation.

I must confess, however, that I have thoroughly enjoyed John Firth-Smith’s foray into the third dimension. His sculptural works, like The Last Post and Splitting Differences, which have been crafted from objets trouvés, continue the nautical theme of the exhibition in particular and of his oeuvre in general and thus add to the depth of his artistic exploration.

[© Eugene Barilo v. Reisberg 2010. This article is copyright, but the full or partial use is WELCOME with the full and proper acknowledgment]