Happy new year at SSFA - 2 February

Happy new year art lovers!  Like a lot of galleries around town the team at Big Lamington took a well deserved break over the new years period and are only just getting back into the swing of things.  First up for 2013 was a visit to Sullivan & Strumpf's group show with all 3 of the junior critics in tow on a very wet Saturday ...

This exhibition is rather cleverly called 'Sullivan+Strumpf 2013' but as in most group shows is a nice assemblage of the stock room for their featured artists who are on the calendar for the year.  Most of the works are 2012 but there is one from 2004 and even one from 1974!  I liked gallery newcomer Arie Hellendoorn's works (pictured top, 'Fever') who has an anatomical / cartoonish style which kind of reminds me of one of the kids apps on the iphone (Toca Doctor if anyone has an under 5, it is very good).  I was pleased to recognise this artist as loyal readers may recognise that name from our time in New Zealand, in fact Arie won the 3 points from Big Lamington back in August 2011.  Also appealing are Sam Leach's works, my favourite here was not the ones in the official show but 'Flight and Display' which is also available upstairs.  These are fantastic and were I to hit powerball would definitely add to the collection but they are a little too much opportunity cost (in terms of what else you could buy).  By that rule I would also never get an Alex Seton but my wife likes these and she is much more willing to save up for a single work so never say never.  Speaking of work well out of my price range I did like eX de Medici's large scale watercolour but much preferred Penny Byrne's ceramic wall instal (photo below) called 'Syria Souvenirs'.  I really liked the way they looked grouped en masse on the wall, the kids didn't mind either, my 2 year old declaring her favourite was 'the one with the peoples who had blood on them'.  The other junior critics liked the more colourful works.  So Gregory Hodge's Electric and Alasdair Macintyre's Happy Trooper (above), which both feature rainbow colours, battled it out for their votes.  Gregory got the vote of my 5 year old.  Enough of them, how did I score this ...

Points:  3 to Penny Byrne.  This looks really good as an installation, and fair enough it was $22k! I need to find a hook to glue on the back of my gitmo souvenir! 2 points for Arie's fever and 1 point Sam Leach.