Monday, 20 March 2017

Andrei Davidoff Patina - New Work

Like a painters drop sheet and the end of its worthy use, this series of classical vessels are laden with dense layers coloured splashes and drips.  

Andrei Davidoff has emptied his glaze buckets in a chaotic but deliberate frenzy.  Pulling together a conceptual context for each pot with the use of decals and lustre brushwork. Titles such as After Olsen or Pantone Smash are fun and directive. With such large surfaces to explore, the opportunity to be visually provocative or add more layers of meaning has been missed.


Mr Kitly
381 Sydney Road
Brunswick 
www.mrkitly.com.au
Generic Decoration, 2017 ceramic, stoneware glazes, earthenware glazes, glass' decals, gold lustre. Multiple firings.


Corn Row Cup, 2016 ceramics stoneware glazes, earthenware glazes, glass, decals, gold lustre. Mulitple firings.






Thursday, 16 March 2017

The Klytie Pate Award for Ceramics

MAGiC (Mansfield Art Glass incorporating Ceramics) Festival  
Martin’s Garage , Chenery Street, Mansfield, Victoria


8-15 March 2017


Cathy Franzi, Banksia Serrata
Dianne Peach, for A Small Brewed 2
Stephanie Hammill, Kintsugi Plate



MAGiC was launched last Friday 10 March with an exhibition of 96 works on display and a performance by Strings of the Steiner School Music Department. , Fine locally produced food and Ros Ritchie wine featured at the opening.

Award winners are:
Winner of the Klytie Pate Award for Ceramics, sponsored by Dr Will Twycross.MD ( Klyties Godson) - Dianne Peach, for A Small Brewed 2.
Winner of the Mark Brabham Award for New Ceramic Artist, sponsored by The Brabham Family - Stephanie Hammill for Kintsugi Plate.
Cathy Franzi, Banksia Serrata, porcelan, thrown, engobes, sgrafitto


MAGiC Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/artsmansfield/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel 

Wednesday, 1 March 2017

FRESH! 2017



Here is the latest and Fresh!-est bunch of selected students from graduating in craft, design and fine art tertiary courses throughout Victoria. 

Thanks to Kate Rhode who gave a compelling opening story outlining what qualities might be Fresh! (with emphasis on the exclamation mark).

...The point is that maybe magic is another of the synonyms we are searching for when we use the word fresh – and perhaps even more when we give it an exclamation mark. When we pinpoint something as fresh we are assigning it something of the qualities of magic – some un-nameable energy, we see some compelling transformation of the material world...
So when you see all these works today at Craft and you think about the makers, you know the discussion, the comparisons that are being made with other existing work and other existing ideas, whether it be around the use of a technique or material or the concept or the combination of these things.

So when you see all these works today at Craft and you think about the makers, you know the discussion, the comparisons that are being made with other existing work and other existing ideas, whether it be around the use of a technique or material or the concept or the combination of these things...

...(T) he concept of Fresh is – perhaps unhelpfully – at once shared and entirely subjective. But now that the work has been created and chosen for exhibition we are, as viewers, in the role of the, hopefully, generous critic and I think that is a process that can be truly fresh.

18 February to 11 March 2017
Craft , 31 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
 

 

Tessy King Sun Room is an investigation into the possibilities for spatializing the ceramic vessel. By deconstructing the vessel and emphasizing its historical prevalence Tessy considers the meaning and value attached to the ceramic form. Referencing antiquity, garden ornaments and domestic ware, the work explores how the space around everyday objects is imparted with meaning on the objects behalf. Exploration into additional materials acting as props for these vessels fragments the surrounding space into areas for viewing. This intervention into space blends the vessel with the constructed supports, reflecting on the constant exchange between object and that which acts as its physical platform.


Claire Lehman Claire is influenced by the industrial design objects and systems usually kept hidden behind walls and ceilings; plumbing, air-conditioning, heating and wiring.
Claire started designing lights from porcelain and immediately realized how difficult the material was when thin enough to be translucent. The strict parameters of the material provide a design challenge, one that continues to be interesting to problem solve.


Cara Johnson Each of the components that contribute to Hinterland (survey) has a correlation to a point within the environment. Observed details, qualities and histories are referenced in the forms and rhythms of making. The objects become intertwined with the land when they are placed, and left, in the environment. Rust and rot creep in and the weather contorts and shifts the materials, removing them from the artist's hand, and returning them to nature.


Rachel Siklic Taking inspiration from the very popular Scandinavian design, the RUSS Sideboard is a finely crafted statement piece. Constructed from solid rock maple timber and birch plywood, the outstanding feature of the RUSS Sideboard is its impressive façade. Each door is covered by ‘ruffles’, individually hand crafted from layers of rock maple veneer and displayed in a radial arrangement. The two-door sideboard features plenty of storage with two inside drawers, in plum coloured film face plywood for a colourful hidden feature. The sideboard boasts slightly splayed wood turned legs and beautiful brass hardware for a chic, retro look. Finished with a clear lacquer applied to highlight the attractive qualities of the timber grain, The RUSS Sideboard is a statement living room and lifetime piece.

 
Hannah Gartside New Terrain (of The Fantasies) is a suspended textile sculpture made from found 1960's petticoat lace trim, tulle, thread and garter belt clips. New Terrain is made from 92 metres of lace, cut into trapezium shapes and stitched back together to create 46 hexagons. The hexagons are tessellated in the style of a patchwork quilt. Cones of the same lace protrude from the centre of each hexagon.


Bec Smith Spring is a collection of porcelain and enamelled sculptures accompanied by fragrance and edible materials. Bec’s installation represents the feeling of immersing oneself in the ethereal qualities of gardens. The palette of colour and texture is inspired by her love for sweet snacks and the smells and flavours of flowers in bloom. The artist is driven by the tactile nature of porcelain and how it preserves the memory of touch.
 







Wednesday, 22 February 2017

Alison Frith: Topography - study of surface

Luscious, creamy volanic froth, invoking natural and lunar landscapes. 


Topography: A study of surface' 
Tuesday 21st of February
 Sofitel On Collins, Melbourne

 





Friday, 10 February 2017

Gerry Wedd: Kitschen Man – Jam Factory Icon

An huge overview of Gerry's cultural concerns. 

Delighted, challenged and always moved by Gerry's Australian Gothic series. Sculptural figurines are talking points that are tough, moral and universal such as vignette's from Wake in Fright, the Abu Ghraib torture victim and the melancholy of willow pattern decoration & landscape.

Round of applause for a true alt-country and independent music fan and all the images and text devoted to Gerry's favourite musicians. Urns also include representations of surfing fanaticism, and political passions.

Kitschen Man shows us that Gerry is an artist who feels and thinks deeply.  He continues to push his craft into fresh realms. Grayson Perry describes the job of an artist is to 'notice things'. Gerry notices, distills and presents us with a world that is both wonderful and horrible using the clay surface as a dark mirror.

Wednesday 8 February – Saturday 18 March 2017

Manningham Art Gallery
687 Doncaster Rd, Doncaster, Victoria
 



Heads

Voyager Pot, 2016 coil built, cobalt decorated earthenware
Gram Pot, 2016 hand built, slip decorated earthenware
Australian Gothic tableau & 'personal' works from Wedd's kitchen on the back wall including peer potters & family.

Monday, 6 February 2017

The Sculpture of Bronwyn Oliver (1959-2006)

An astounding retrospective of a major artist's work. I knew of some of Bronwyn Oliver's work in particular the work 'Iris' which was (and happily still is) part of the State Craft Collection and pictured below.  This exhibition also presents early pre-copperwire cane, paper and fibre glass sculptures.  Wonderfully curated by Julie Ewington, this is the first comprehensive survey of 50 key works, from the mid-1980s to the final solo exhibition in 2006.  Thanks to TarraWarra for the breadth of work. I treasured the opportunity to concentrate on the many different repetitive patterns and textures created by Oliver with wire. 

TarraWarra Museum of Art

311 Healesville-Yarra Glen Road Healesville, Victoria





Umbra, 2003, copper, 110 x 110 x 20 cm © Estate of Bronwyn Oliver, courtesy Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney.

detail Umbra
detail Umbra
Lock,  2002 copper

detail Lock
Iris, 1989, copper, Victorian State Craft Collection, Hamilton Gallery

work from the early 1980s using cane, paper & fibreglass
Cane infrastructure used before cooper wire
Find following a series of detailed images highlighting the vast, complex and intricate range of textures, patterns and joining techniques from wire.



Work from the early 1980s.
 

Inside

Craft 16 November 2020 - 30 January 2021 (with a 'soft eye' on ceramics) Inside presents a maximalist celebration of contemporary c...