New in the Gallery: Cassab, Friend & Coburn

Judy Cassab

Judy Cassab
Untitled c.1965
Oil on board
46.5 x 61cm
no.11216

Donald Friend: The Four Seasons Etchings

John Coburn

Press: SMH Open Gallery - Wayne Eager

Exhibition Q&A with Wayne Eager

Where was the "beach holiday" spent? Sandy Point, Gippsland

What is the word Mimili? Mimili is a community on the Anangu Pitjanjatjarra Yangkantatjarra (Aboriginal) lands NW South Australia.

Where was the "green grass"?

Alice Springs, after a big rain the buffel grass grows profusely

Where are "the steps"? to Heaven

What is "Partita"? A collection of musical compositions.

Where is "Pipalyatjara"? A place in the far north western corner of SA

Where is "Kalka Road"? A place in the far north western corner of SA

What is "the APY Run"? My drive to work, the roads to the communities Indulkana, Fregon, Ernabella, Mimili, Amata, Nyapari, Kalka.

New Paintings - Wayne Eager Exhibition 2010

Press Release: Wayne Eager - New Work 2010

Wayne Eager (b. 1957)
Exhibition opening Saturday 6 March 2010, 3-5 pm

Wayne Eager’s paintings are a careful consideration of the nuanced and changing Australian desert landscape. Whether a painting’s title denotes a specific place, such as Backyard View; one of the five senses, like Fragrance; or a time of day, being Early Morning, Eager’s work is characterised by an earthy awareness of his relationship to the environment. Collapsed picture planes pulse with the layered depth of interlocking primordial shapes evocative of stones, fossils, and foliage. A frenetic entangling of brush strokes might illustrate the dimensions of a man-made structure while an even spacing of varied squares might convey hectares of richly hued land or the view of a lone hill from the window of his studio. Irrespective of these differing subjects, Eager infuses all of his paintings with gravity and an unabashed appreciation for vibrant color and form that is reminiscent of twentieth century Western art movements such as Abstract Expressionism.

Beginning his art career as a founding member of the Melbourne-based art collective Roar Studios in the 1980's, Eager has continued to involve himself with the support of grassroots Australian art communities. The aim of Roar was to create a dynamic and collaborative environment in which young artists could paint freely without concern for the stifling constraints of the commercial art world. The ideologies adopted by Roar continue to motivate Eager’s artistic practice and are reflected in his preference for living in the desert bush far from Australia’s urban art centres. In the early 1990's he relocated with his wife, Marina, Strocchi ,to Haasts Bluff, Northern Territory to aid in the establishment of the Ikuntji Women's Centre. What was intended to be a few months stay became a five-year stint for Eager as well as the mark of a new dimension in his artwork. Eager subsequently became Field Officer for the Papunya Tula Artists, commuting regularly between Kintore and Kiwirrkkurra. Eager is currently affiliated with Ananguku Arts in APY Lands, South Australia, assisting several regional art centres. Additionally, he and Marina have curated an exhibition including painters from APY Lands and the Western Desert that will be on view at the Adelaide Museum in March of this year.

Eager has maintained a solitary approach to painting yet continues his involvement with neighbouring indigenous art centres. While he acknowledges a continued interest in landscape painting, he points out an evolutionary branch from his earlier works such as Untitled Yellow, 1992, in which there is a clear bifurcation between land and sky. Eager’s recent work is not overtly marked by this separation of the elements, but is rather more a testament to the integration of them in order to represent the concept of wholeness—an inextricable, multi-layered portrait of the environment.

Artwork of the Day - Thomson - Transmition

Ann Thomson (b.1933)
Transmition
Oil on linen
122 x 153cm
no.10705

Ann Thomson studied under Jon Molvig, Brisbane in 1956 and at the National Art School, Sydney from 1957 – 1962. In 1978 she studied etching with Paul Frank and Henri Goetz whilst Artist in Residence at the Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris, France. In 1985 she was Artist in Residence at “Parataio” Studio, Tuscany, Italy and in 1995 at the Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris, France. Ann Thomson lives and works in Sydney.

Press Release: Brenda Humble

Brenda Humble's December exhibition includes paintings and sculpture from 1988 to the present. Humble's body of jewel-like still life's, abstracted in varying degrees are painterly, boldly colourful and beautifully simple. Her continuing motif; the silhouette of vase and flowers against an open window, is distinct and distilled to essential elements and colour blocks. Her palette is high keyed like Mattisse and in some of the still lives, the flatness and bold outline of shapes is somewhat reminiscent of Picasso.

Her sculptures share a similar simplification of form; Humble pares back the image to its most elemental lines, creating crisp linea images of quirky teachers, laughing horses, squinting love hearts and little Alice figures.

Humble won the 1982 Portia Geach Prize for her portrait of Virginia Hall, the American world war II spy. In August this year her work was honoured with a retrospective which explored her painting of the 1970's and 80's. Brenda Humble: Art as Activism coincided with History Week 2009 and the Kings Cross Library 50th Anniversary. The exhibition explored Brenda's involvement in the activism in the Kings Cross area during that period, her work on the Green Bans and the disappearance of Juanita Nielsen.

Having graduated from the national art school in 1960 Brenda Humble has been a major part of the Sydney art world for more than 50 years. She has had over 16 solo exhibitions in Sydney and was a finalist in the 1974 Wynne Prize, the 1982 Waverley Art Prize and the 1981 Mornington peninsula Drawing prize amongst others.

Brenda Humble is represented in the Artbank Collection, Parliament House, Canberra the Reserve Bank of Australia, University of NSW, the IBM Collection, Sydney, Mackay City Library, Queensland as well as private and corporate collections in Australia, Canada, Japan, UK and USA.

Artist Spotlight: Michael Muir

Who (or what) do you consider your artistic inspiration?

I have a number of artists whose work I admire Mark Rothko, Paddy Bedford, Jeffrey Smart and Francis Bacon.

Do you listen to music while you work, and if so, what is most often playing?

Have a fairly eclectic taste in music I normally hit shuffle on the ipod otherwise FBI radio is great.

Who of your peers do you respect the most?

All peers who have been committed and persistent with their chosen fields

Do you have any habits/rituals or strange superstitions when painting?

no rituals time is precious

When did you decide to become an artist?

I decided whilst working as a desktop publisher for a fashion mag in the Phillippines when I was 21. Not a big fan of offices or computers!

What is your favourite colour?

Favourite colour at the moment is cadmium yellow.

Do you have a favourite painting or work of art? If so, what is it?

Of the top of my head favourite paintings change all the time John Passmore jumping horse mackerel.

Preview: John Seed

John Seed has completed his first 8 sculptures for the joint show The Two of Us where he is exhibiting with his mother, Judy Cassab. The painted steel sculptures are beautifully intricate and are arresting from every angle. The exhibition opens on the 30th of September where the full collection will be available to view.

John Seed in his studio working on a sculpture

The artist's studio

A detail of John Seed wielding a steel sculpture