Huseyin Sami @ Sarah Cottier - 2 April

Sarah Cottier's gallery is a little bit out of the way on Nield avenue but what a great building, an old butcher shop cleaned up with the obligatory polished concrete floors and white walls. Even better for those with young art critics in tow is that the Dillon street reserve (3 swings and a slippery dip) is a few steps up the road and the Nield avenue maze is right next door. With extra curriculars like that yours truly was able to bargain a bit of gallery time on Saturday afternoon to check out the Huseyin Sami show - Prime Cuts.

I'd done a little bit of background reading on Sami and you would want to as otherwise you are looking at large colorful collages that don't really make much sense. He makes the raw material by putting house paint in a self made painting machine that drips the paint out everywhere before cutting up these sheets of dried paint and collaging the "cut" series of paintings (yours for $4,500 for the largest works, 152 x 111cm, most of them still available including the one pictured above left). I was actually drawn to the mobiles he had made by wrapping this dried paint around wire (above right). Free wall space is a luxury at Big Lamington HQ (and this is before two large commissions arrive!) so the idea of utilising the ceiling is appealing. These "summer mobiles" as Sami calls them come in all colours and two different sizes ($1,750 for the small and $3,000 for the large). My daughter loved them as well but then again she already has a few mobiles in her collection. I didn't really get the "summer" part of the title but guess given its only April these 2011 works were made in that season. There was also a series of smaller (45 x 36cm) print looking acrylics on canvas which shared the bargain status of $1,750 but didn't appeal to me - smaller than, and not as colourful as the "Cut's".

Points - 3 for the mobiles, I'd like one but would struggle to get it past the new acquisitions committee. 2 for the cut paintings which I think are probably priced incorrectly given they are visually arresting but are all still available two weeks in. 1 for the maze next door, and yes we did make it to the middle and found our way back out - three times!