Sunday, April 10, 2011

To re-pick-up the blog train...

So, this year I started doing more delightfully arty things and decided that I should finally put a post together and re-start my train of blogging thought, so to speak. This artful thought is currently being structured by the program of 'Honours in Fine Arts' at COFA. Already I feel like it has given me a spurt of excited creative energy and I am enjoying the research that it entails.

Last week I went to a number of very interesting exhibitions. Shannon Field, a PHD student at COFA currently has a show at Kudos Gallery, called Busted. He looks at convicts and historical colonial Australian figures in the context of exploring Australian masculinity. The work he presents is likened to a police line-up of faces, each grotesquely abstracted and chunky, but with wonderful uses of flat colour and fabrics in some. Very worth a look.

Wenmin li, a COFA graduate, also has a show on currently - at the Flinders St Gallery. Her work presents a beautiful intersection between her Chinese heritage and life in Australia. With delicate drawings, prints and work on tiles she creates dreamy, floating images with elements drawing on memories and experiences of life in both cultures.

Another exhibition I saw was at the Paper Mill gallery in Angel place (Sydney CBD). A friend of mine, Chris Ross was part of a group show: Second Nature. This show presents a taste of the work of a number of young, emerging artists, much of which had strong conceptual frameworks behind it.