Art thoughts

Antonia Gurkovska

Antonia Gurkovska. Untitled, 2011. Acrylic, enamel, sand and staples on canvas, 12” x 9”

Troy Mendham

Troy Mendham, 'Champion Breed', Seventh Gallery, Melbourne

Malcolm Lloyd

Malcolm Lloyd's perforated paintings, 'Phink Fish'
Space B at C3 contemporary art space, Melbourne
22 May to 9 June, 2013

White Night

White Night Festival, Flinders Street, Melbourne, Frebruary 23.

Flinders Street, Melbourne

Tens and tens of thousands celebrated the White Night festival in Melbourne on February 23, 2013. The graffitied lane ways were jumping with bands and buskers and lights while the National Gallery of Victoria was open at midnight and Flinders Street Station entrance was transformed to a band stage with Flinders Street itself an impromptu open air theatre.

Local Walk

A new artwork greeted me today on my street

Katherine Boland

Spotted Shield 2, 2012. Enamel, black Japan, scorch marks woodstain,
liming solution on inscribed timber panel, 120x40cm enamel,

Spotted Shield 1, 2012. Enamel, acrylic, black Japan, scorch marks, woodstain,
liming solution on inscribed timber panel , 120x40 cm.

Katherine Boland

The following exert from 'Gleaning Nature' by Phe Luxford, 2011.

'While she could be described as a globe trotter – she has spent time in France, America, Italy and the Middle East – it is her relationship with the Australian bush that inspires and continues to inform her practice. These works speak directly of the climate of her homeland. Dry and somewhat foreboding, the native bushland of Australia is in a constant state of decay and renewal. With the approach of summer’s peak the forest floor becomes a tinder box. Trees drop their branches, bark furls and seed pods fall to the ground ready to be opened by the heat of the seasonal bushfires. Uncontrollable and devouring, fire in this environment serves as an important element within the order of establishing new growth.

With this cycle in mind, Boland begins the act of mark making by subjecting the surfaces of her large wood panels to the transformative power of flame. The heat of blow torch and branding iron releases the natural oils of the timber to create a velvety, blackened base surface, echoed with spots of fire and flame. A process of carving, incising and staining serve to capture the textures and colours of the natural forms they seek to suggest and bond with the natural elements.

Boland’s resulting shield-like shapes invite us to look into them, to search their surfaces for depth and new meaning. Tactile and resilient, they appear to possess clear character and purpose as they stand upright within the blackened background. Inky rivers of varnish drip from their centres like sap weeping from a wound. Perhaps these glistening centres represent a void, a cracking open, and outpouring of new potential life. Nature in this instance is generative....'

Boland has exhibited nationally and internationally. In 2010 she was the winner of the Heysen Prize for place. Her work is represented in many corporate and public collections.

Season's Greetings

Season's Greetings from Northcote, Melbourne

Anthony O'Carroll

Overland, No.1, 2012, Oil and Mixed Media on Canvas, 102 x 91cm.

Anthony Terrence O'Carroll, 'Topologies', to September 19, 2012 at Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney.

O’Carroll sates of his new body of work:

'Although imagined non-spaces, these works echo geological formations that have been achieved by means of a carefully tested process that has evolved over years of experimentation and research. These spaces have been highlighted by incisions and scratches; they are drawn into and allow imagery to be formed from within the surface of the work - pitted, trawled, scratched and cracked...'

Peter Summers

Peter Summers, 2012. Oil on canvas, approx 1676 x 1219 mm

Peter Summers, 2012. Oil on canvas, 1676 x 1219 mm

Melbourne artist, Peter Summers, is about to relocate to Shanghai, China. He was a participant in 'Unsighted', 2012, a group show at fortyfive downstairs. Summer's paintings are exquisitely constructed via a repeated layering and removal of thinly applied washes of oil paint. Summers has been painting and exhibiting for 15 years, and through a process of reduction creates atmospheric minimalist paintings.

Summers completed a BA from RMIT University in the mid-1990s. He was shortlisted for the Bret Whitely Scholarship in 2001, 2002. In 1994 he received the Ella Donald Service Memorial Scholarship. His blog can be viewed here.

David Weir

Acrylic and ink on canvas, 2012, 160x120 cm.

Acrylic and ink on canvas, 2012, 90x90 cm.

David Weir, recently relocated to Australia after many years living and exhibiting in New Zealand where he is still represented by Orexart. David is originally from Melbourne, however prior to his New Zealand move he spent ten years living in the East Alligator River region of Kakadu. Living with and learning from Bill Neidjie, one of the most senior and respected Aboriginal elders of the Kakadu, had a profound affect on David and the legacy of this experience still lingers in his work today.

Now represented in Australia by the Janet Clayton Gallery in Sydney, David's recent work has moved away from the earth tones and taken a rhythmic linear turn. A little representative of Ian Fairweather who was also profoundly affected by his Darwin experiences.