2017 Sidney Myer Fund Australian Ceramic Award at SAM

Featuring shortlisted artist:

Glenn Barkley, Karen Black, Laith McGregor, Jenny Orchard and Yasmin Smith.

Congratulations to Jenny Orchard for winning the major $50,000 acquisitive prize for her work, The Imagined Possibility of Unity (2017). She populated her gallery with such wonderfully eccentric beings. See the expose of images following.

The 2017 Award was judged by Jacqueline Doughty, Curatorial Manager, The Ian Potter Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne; Jason Smith, Director, Geelong Art Gallery; and Dr Rebecca Coates, Director, Shepparton Art Museum.

Saturday 17 June to Sunday 13 August 2017

Fun road trip to SAM for the artist talks and the announcement. This prize is going from strength to strength. Selection of four Australian artists whose proposals best explored how the ceramic process can be used to flesh-out a conceptual concern. With a stipend of $2000 (I believe) and a gallery space, all four artists really invested in the opportunity and each presented a substantial solo exhibition. 

SMFACA is really a winner takes all situation and I don't disagree with the judges decision. The tension was palpable before the announcement, weighted down by the sum of the prize winnings. Made me do some mathmatical pondering. Might a increased stipend, say $5000 each by nipping off some of the 50,000, therefore giving 25,000 for the winner. 

JENNY ORCHARD

 

 

 

KAREN BLACK

 

LAITH MCGREGOR

  

 

 

GLENN BARKLEY

YASMIN SMITH

Lynda Draper - The Other

This is the fourth solo exhibition from Lynda Draper at Gallerysmith (2008, 2010, 2014 & 2017). All shows expand on Lynda's metaphysical ponderings about the past and the present using objects as the vehicle for narrative. All exhibitions have feature her pursuit of differing sculptural expression and colour palette.  

In this show, The Other presents a fantasy space full of shiny creatures and objects, saccharine sweet but with and underlying and tangled melancholy. All hand-built in earthenware and glaze lustre.

25 May - 1 July 2017

Gallerysmith

170 Abbotsformd Street, North Melbourne 3051

Mary Mary

  

 

Mary Mary

Star Man

Tiara 1

Tiara 2

Slice of Life

Craft goes pop in this exhibition at Craft, where a collection of artists present comments on food, consumption and all the stuff of everyday life. Objects are representational with a deliberate 'handmade-ness' or hyper-real. This is a good opportunity to compare how the past creative genres of West Coast Funk, Skangaroovian Funk or Nut Art can be reinterpreted or reinvented to question contemporary issues. 

Curated by the irrepressible Sofia Cai, she says of the exhibition:

The everyday is both universal yet also deeply personal, and it is in this interplay between collective experience and individual narrative that the works in this exhibition achieve their potency. 

The exhibition features works by Mechelle Bounpraseuth, Julie Burleigh, Scott Duncan, Phil Ferguson (Chili Philly), Katie Jacobs, Josephine Mead, Tricia Page, and Cat Rabbit. 

22 April - 27 May 2017

Craft, 33 Flinders Lane Melbourne

www.craft.org.au

In a time of food styling to a point of fetishism,  Michelle Mounpraseuth notices the gross and  unhealthy elements of everyday consumption.

Katie Jacobs' scores a goal with trophy emblazoned with captions using vernacular sporting language 

Scott Duncan's Smoko rocket is an cracker.  Riffing off Margaret Dodd's ubiquitous  Holden Cars, the thermos is a quirky throw back to the 1980s and South Australia's Skangaroovian Funk via USA's west cost funk of the 1970s. 

Scott Duncan

Josephine Mead's video is redolent with art history reference to the female and vessel  as signifier.

Still - Tara Shackell

Could it be hewn from stone? What critical differences mark Tara Shackell's work in comparison to the many vessels being made in Melbourne using matt glazes over iron bearing clay?

Shackell acknowledges the primary referent of these glazes: the texture and colouring of stone. To reflect the vagaries of nature found in basalt, marble or slate, Shackell has created a nuanced palette of colouring. Catching my eye is the subtle rose quartz that blooms across the cylinder in the first image. 

Another point of difference is Shackell's nod to historic and universal vessel forms. A cylinder, bowl or a fluted bottle securely reside in this makers craft. Form is important to Shackell and she entitles her work with descriptors of what you see. Titles include 'Flared rim vase, deep pink' and 'Tall curved rim vase, iron grey'

I imagine, Gwyn Hanssen Pigott looking down and giving a wink of praise at Shackell's careful attention to the formal issues required in small grouping and in the larger nine piece panorama. Height, colour, lightness, darkness, opening & foot are in 'still' harmony. 

6-28 May 2017

Mr Kitly, Brunswick

mrkitly.com.au