David Ray: Trickster

Anna Pappas Gallery
7 April - 9 May 2015

Exciting solo exhibition by David Ray at his new gallery-home Anna Pappas.
Ray continues to play loosey-goosey with his construction technique this time using torn clay pieces.
This construction give the work a light touch and dynamic energy that would make Duchamp & Boccioni proud.
Trickster also includes his familiar vessel works, loaded with decal and hand painted details.

Gallery view

Gargantuan

Ivan Grape

Figure 1

Flowers

Some old modernist fellas

Jester

Urn

Oxygen

DAVID RAY: TRICKSTER
A sense of fragility and slap-dash nonchalance plays out among this fantastic new collection of ceramic sculptures by David Ray. His urns, vessels and figures draw upon traditional, finely honed techniques and skill sets, only to subvert and generally screw around with form. His figures are wonderfully deft and sophisticated in their sense of proportion and gesture, yet their details and construction – shavings, flakes and blobs of earthenware – are unlikely in their messiness. Some of the vessels utilise found objects and decals, while other bask in bizarre, abstracted enamel detailing. The figures take a particularly larrikin form – as the show's title alludes – and are a highlight. NGV curator Max Delany wasn't wrong when he recently suggested that wonky ceramics were the new video, but an artist like Ray shows the difference between good and bad grunge. These works are astute and chaotic, clever and goofy; we read them as fragile, antiquated objects and unapologetic shits and giggles.
Until May 9; Anna Pappas Gallery, 2-4 Carlton Street, Prahran, 9521 7300, annapappasgallery.com


Quoted: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/whats-on-in-melbourne-galleries-20150413-1mjqoe.html#ixzz3XtfJspQ9

Vessel a Ceramics Victoria Exhibition @ Herring Island

The punt across the Yarra River

It’s always a treat to make the pilgrimage across water to Herring Island Environmental Sculpture Park, a 3.2 hectare artificial island constructed in the Yarra River adjacent to South Yarra and Richmond. https://www.onlymelbourne.com.au/melbourne_details.php?id=17877#.Uy-Ip9wkXqA

The location makes this year’s Ceramics Victoria members’ exhibition even more appropriate. Entitled Vessel, Ceramics Victoria member works fall into three loose categories:

 1. The vessel which looks at the formal qualities of volume, weight, balance between foot & rim.

Maria Pribaz, Pilbara - Contemplation
The eloquent combination of simple vessel and decoration.

Lene Kuhl Jakobsen, Allusive Landscape,
a tranquil grouping.

David Kerr, Bowls of Thought
A geometric balancing act with a delightful row of throw cups across the back of this sculpture.

2. The vessel as a hollow container, one that has a long history linked to domestic ceramics use.

Sandra Bowkett, Shards From Latitude-37.117035, longitude 145.133412
Here remnant and recovered vessels and assembled in categories encourages us to ponder on their long lost utility and form.

Amanda Christians, Treading Water
This earthy vessel recalls functional indigenous water carriers
Amanda has won the 2014 Herring Island Summer Arts Festival Prize
http://www.herringislandfestival.org.au

3. The vessel as means of transporting and travelling on water

Ann Ferguson, Vessel@doc.com
 This freighter is laden metaphorical possibilities, from Australia's reliance on imported goods to the MV Tampa rescue of Hazara refugees in 2001

Hedley Potts, Seven Dawns Swarmed at Sea
is a poetic interpretation of people at sea

John O'Loughlin, Vessel for Hope? What Makes It Go Series Has a sensitive empathy for and the trepidation of refugees and migration