The National at Carriageworks - 25 June

So I got picked by one of those friendly market researchers to do a survey about this show.  How did I hear about it?  Social media, and advertisements at bus shelters.  Those ads must have been around for a while, because this was the last day of The National at Carriageworks.  It's already red rover at the MCA so I'll tick the Meatloaf box when I get to the AGNSW later on ['cause 2 out of 3 ain't bad].

A few familiar names at this venue so I snuck in a last minute visit ...

I think I gave this show a solid 7 out of 10 on the guest survey, and I would've recommended it to a friend.  That was on the back of some great new work from some Big Lamington regulars and a few solid debuts from a couple of folks to watch.  Oh, and of course a couple of head scratchers that make you wonder what all the hype is about.

As an amateur vexillologist I have loved Archie Moore's experiments with flags.  Finally I have got to see his United Neytions (2014-2017) in the flesh (pictured top).  In this version there were 28 flags.  The wall sign listed them "from left to right, front to back, the 28 nations are" .... as you could guess, it took a while but I had an inkling that the Kamilaroi flag would've rocked the diamond pattern (thanks Reko Rennie!) and it was the 13th I counted through so I could start linking nations with their flag.  It's a great idea and its been executed very well.  This I would like to see more of, and more at eye level.

Next up was a sawdust 'carpet' from another BL favourite, Claudia Nicholson.  She has shown these alfombras de aserrin down at Dark Mofo so it was great to see one for myself, All I have are dreams of you, 2017 (pictured below).  Like many things seen online and then in person I was actually shocked it was on the floor.  To be honest I had read very quickly and thought the glitter would be stuck to a board a la her Blake Prize entry.  I was also lucky enough to see the final performance art event with south american singers dancing all over it before the punters themselves finally churned it to pieces (yes, that is my RM below).

Other highlights included Alan Griffiths tribal dance artefacts (group shot pictured middle) and Karla Dickens embellished strait jackets were interesting.  Ramesh Nithiyendren had a massive installation work here, The Cave.  Time Out said his works "are the product of thoughtful study of - and irreverence towards - establishment values and aesthetics".  Which must just be another way of saying they look slapped together and messy, like as if Tom Polo did a ceramics course.  Aesthetics aside, one of my complaints about his neon ejaculator (below) was anatomic - where are the balls?  Surely a set of balls wouldn't have been that hard to add on?  It is one of the most common things drawn on school desks after all - maybe it is just that irreverent attitude to establishment values?

Points:  3 points for Archie Moore's flags.  This work is timeless and will be remembered.  2 points for Claudia's sawdust homage to Selena.  Whilst this ephemeral work has already been destroyed, I was very impressed and I've read that the video will live on at the other National sites.  1 point will go to Alan Griffiths for the woollen totems.

Graduate Show at NAS - 28 November

How will I #react?  Well, my first reaction was, wasn't this the tagline for last years show?  I mean, I realise Saatchi and Saatchi are still the sponsors but they couldn't spring for some new banners?  I'll be #underwhelmed if this theme is rolled out again next year ...

Second up.  How good is it, finally, that NAS seems to have worked out a half decent online strategy?  The website they had (and I use the past tense as they've already taken it down!) was actually pretty good.  Sorted by all the disciplines you could actually see nearly 100% of the works online.  Which is pretty handy to get a good feel for the show before you actually go, because opening night when I swung by is always jammed packed.  The one downside of the excellent website is that I didn't take notes, thinking I'd just look it up at home.  Big mistake as I am writing this on 9 December and google is not helping out much.  Luckily I had taken a few snaps on opening night.  Pictured top are two of Hilary Sandeman's pieces which made the cut for the main gallery.  Smaller works but I loved them.  Hard to make out in the photo but the glass jars were filled with wax hearts.  I think I've mentioned before I have a thing for medical models of hearts and Hilary was bang on with these.  If I'd have been a bit more organised these should've made their way to Big Lamington HQ as the grad show is always very affordable and good to support young artists.  Other highlights were Bahman Kermani who made these persian rugs (pictured middle) out of train tickets.  Not bad, although would take up a fair bit of space in a Paddo terrace so you might need to think about different ways to display.  Maybe put a glass table top on and make it a coffee table?  Hey, just trying to help.  Lastly, I was really digging the linocuts of one grad whose name I can't track down.  But in trying to find this online I found Jake Morrissey's name.  And he did some cool prints of Fidel & Marilyn from memory.  Speaking of which, next time I will remember to post earlier!

Points:  Hilary Sandeman will get the 3 for Tried to Feel But Couldn't Touch.  Bahman Kermani will take the 2 for the ticket carpet.  And my unknown artist will take a point for these great linocuts above. The two alpacas in the bottom right were my favourite.  I think one was even from the Hunter Valley!  Have I mentioned before that I'm from ….

Primavera at MCA - 20 November

Okay - apologies for the delay in posts readers but it was a busy November for the Big Lamington team with, well, other stuff happening! I am going to power through some quick thoughts on the shows I saw to get the blog up to date.  Here's my thoughts on Primavera, which if you need the backstory you should first read Frosty as I am going to just dive in.

I read somewhere that the consensus was curator Mikala Dwyer had crammed in too much work into a small area of the gallery and it was an incoherent hang.  Unkindly, my first thought was how could they tell?  That is not to say the MCA always crams random art together, they usually do leave more room.  It is just that my abiding memories of previous Primavera exhibits is that it is always random and incoherent because of the nature of just selecting a couple of young urgers (its like contiki, they have to be under 30 or something) to have a crack.  There was only one real star in my mind, Paul Yore.  Those textile works were, to quote the Chemical Brothers, out of control.  Way out of control.  I loved them.  Maybe a few too many cocks for home display but the fact that the middle one (apologies as I can't find my notes, is that 'Welcome to Hell' or 'This moment is Critical'?) was such an amalgam of random thoughts, like a art school patchwork quilt.  My favourite element was the rainbow eureka flag (pic above).  This was from memory a scaled down version of what he had at Sydney Contemporary.  What else?  I thought the pvc and can sculpture of Sean Peoples was pretty cool and I liked the randomness of his telepathy project with Veronica Kent.  Not so much the art but the fabric on the chairs was cool in a Yinka Shonibare knock off kind of way (image below).  Maybe they should've been inspired by Australia's own Utopia Goods? 

Points.  3 for middle tapestry (pictured top) and 2 for the ejaculating tapestry (not pictured top).  That's 5 points for Paul overall.  I would say keep an eye on Paul as his works were quite affordable at Sydney Contemporary.  Not for long if you ask me.  Finally, for those who can count backwards you can guess Sean will pick up 1 point for his sculptural effort 'Ouroboros Centipede'.

Reko Rennie at AGNSW - 13 September

So I am not very technical, but one of the things I like about blogger is the 'schedule' function as it allows me to travel back in time and pretend to post this on 13 September, when I actually visited this exhibition, as opposed to todays date which is a week and half later.  Luckily you all still have time to see this work, as the AGNSW has this up until November 30.  And you should definitely see it.  The AGNSW's contemporary space has been kicking a lot of goals recently.  Well, by recently, I mean I liked Tony Albert's Projecting our Future in July 2013 and Tony Garifalakas' Mob Rule in July of this year.

That said, Reko Rennie's work 'No Sleep till Dreamtime' (full image top & bottom) isn't actually in the contemporary project space.  That whole floor is being renovated for the summer Pop show so this project is downstairs in the aboriginal galleries.  Which is a bit disappointing to me as there were plenty of crowds on the main level but only about 4 others punters downstairs when I visited.  Now I like this on a number of levels.  Firstly, great title.  I am, as Reko obviously is, a bit of a fan of the Beastie Boys (except for their suing of a great toy company Goldie Blox for using a song in an AWESOME youtube commercial - my daughters have some of the toys and they still watch this ad on youtube) and Reko is taking inspiration from their No Sleep till Brooklyn.  The hip hop vibe totally ties in with the street origins of Reko's style.  Secondly, Reko's has really trademarked a street style especially the tagged crown, diamond and flag symbols common in much of his recent work. I also really liked the 'deadly' (image bottom) in the stylised font, but as I have said many times.  I am a sucker for text in art.  The stencils were also very cool.  These you had to get up close to as from a distance you can't really see them in the pics.  One great example was the kangaroo on the boomerang (image above) and another was a playing card (a king of some suit). Lastly that glitter works a treat in the darkened space AGNSW provided.  Lots of sparkly diamonds interspersed between the symbols and stencils.  On the whole I found this work similar in ambition to Tony Albert's AGNSW project.  They both collect a number of works that could stand on their own and make a much, much bigger work across a horizontal plane.  And just like Tony's I left very impressed.

Points:  As is traditional in a solo show with a single work there can only be one set of points.  Best on ground to Reko.  Come along on 5 November and hear the Reko's artist talk.  Details here.

The 2014 John Fries Award at COFA Galleries - 9 August

So after a few weeks of getting to exhibitions on their last day I thought I'd change it up and actually score a scoop.  It's the first day of the John Fries Award on show at the Galleries at COFA.  I am so early that they haven't even awarded the prize yet!  So without sway from the professionals, who am I going to give the kiss of death to ...

The Fries Award is for emerging artists, a category I really enjoy exploring.  I've seen this a couple of times and obviously there is a massive change year to year just based on the sample size of artists that make the cut.  This year I felt a strong institutional feel running through the show, but maybe that was just because I recognised two artists from the MCA's last primavera.  Two of the judges are from Alaska Projects and Artspace and their respective spaces aesthetic also showed.  I mean, I wouldn't expect to see George Egerton-Warburton's dirty dishes sculpture at a commercial gallery or displayed in a home but I could see it at Artspace! As a collector I found a lot of the work challenging.  But even as a garden variety art lover I struggled with some more than others.  Heath Franco is one artist I just really don't get.  Every time I see his work (and thankfully this had headphones so you could tune in or tune out, and I did for the full 3 minutes and 12 seconds) I always wonder what he is on, because he's not just high on life.  A lot of the video had me tuning out actually, I had to read the catalogue to see what it was all about.  Some clever concepts, like Justin Balmain putting a Woody Allen movie dialogue into a text to voice program and animating it with twitter emoji's. But in the gallery I was irritated by this monotone within seconds.  I just couldn't watch it.  The empty Seinfeld set with just the laugh track is the one that might've grown on me.  My top picks had a bit more analog about them.  Sam Hodges photos were great (image second from bottom, sorry about the title, I grabbed the catalogue it is incomplete as to titles!), although I remember he was in this prize last year and even highly commended?  Maybe this is his year.  Kate Scardifield is right up there for me.  Her work, "Garland (Objects and new artefacts)" (pictured top), was a colourful piece that took up a lot of floor space.  There was video in there and these very shiny braided objects that had a primitive look to them.  I was excited to see Jason Wing's name in the catalogue (I had flicked through his new book at Artspace the other day) and his brick installation intrigued me (pictured bottom, Xucun Village).  I think this is one that is definitely better in the flesh as the gold leaf on the bricks creates a very delicate pattern. I'm guessing it is a map, and I like maps!  Other picks were the naive acrylic works of Mark Etherington (pictured second from top, right hand side). He had some mixed references, Wes Anderson movies, the Big Lebowski, NWA, Lionel Richie.  I can't believe he has painted the Darjeeling Limited and not referenced the luggage, my favourite thing in that movie.  Another cool work was from Hamishi Farah (pictured second from top, left hand side) - the stream of tweets appealed to the twitter tragic in me.  Hamishi's work, 'Apologies', has all these twitter apologies from companies he has obviously punked.  All printed on an overly long t-shirt.  Now that is an alternative aesthetic I can get into.  I could even see it in a commercial gallery!

Points:  drum roll please.  My pick for the John Fries is Kate Scardifield, 3 points for you.  Runner up, and 2 points will go to Hamishi Farah.  The 1 point is tough, and coaches call I am going to give one to a couple of players that I couldn't split. Samuel Hodge and Jason Wing, 1 point each.  Now if I don't get a winner out of 4 picks I am going to be amazed.  Well, not really, as most awards are a bit of coin toss in the first place.  I'll come back in a couple of days with a postscript of the official winners*.

*Winner announced Tuesday 12 August.

The Curtain Breathed Deeply at Artspace - 7 August

Last week for this Justene Williams show at Artspace.  I'd heard some good word of mouth so I popped by after lunch to quickly check it out.  Lucky I didn't really have any expectations, because this wouldn't have been within the scope of my imagination to invent.  If you need a three word review then "Just. Plain. Nuts" will have to do.

I really didn't know what to think, this was a case of stroll around and then read the room sheet later to see what gives.  I liked the random owls she had made (pictured below). And the red video room down one end was pretty cool (image above).  Although it was bordering a little on PG-13 or more. I took it as these were meant to be the artists fantasies so left wondering 'crazy in the head, crazy in the bed'?  What else? I thought the white falcon ute at the entrance a novel way of presenting video works (image top), although I think she would've had a lot more street cred if it was a holden, particularly a WB ute.  Back at base and after misplacing the room sheet logged on to Artspace's site to try and make sense of it all.  The text does use words like 'chaotic', 'sensory overload' and 'dazzling theatrical environments' to suggest that my experience was as intended, even typical of the average punter coming in to check out the gallery after taking down a Tiger at Harry's across the road. Whilst I didn't really inhale what the curtain was breathing I am happy that there are places like Artspace that are going well out on a limb with non-traditional work like this.  I don't expect to like everything I see here, but I do appreciate the effort that they put in.

Points:  despite utter confusion I will give Assisted Performance Sculpture (the owls, above) 3 points.  2 points to the red room, aka 'The Joy of Life' and 1 point to the random wishing well, again also known as 'Assisted Performance Sculpture (relics)'.  This had coins in the bottom of an inflatable pool and I am not sure if it was the artist or random punters who'd thrown the coins in. Maybe she had visited the State Library for them.  Now that would be some powerful art.

Archibald, Wynne and Sulman at the AGNSW - 19 July

The big prizes have moved back in the AGNSW calendar and that's a good thing as far as I can see. There really isn't anything else on right now in the art world.  Which is why yours truly decided to brave the crowds and head over to the AGNSW on the first weekend after the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes were announced.  Would we concur with the trustees / judges?  Would we be allowed to take a selfie?  Let's find out ...

So first up is always the Archibald.  I would like to see the AGNSW mix this up for once and have you enter through the Wynne, that'd get everyone talking!  Hardly any real controversy this year, even the chicks making out didn't raise an eyebrow.  What is going on?  I did like the collection of smaller works that had been hung together.  I, like many others, decry the super sized entries that this prize seems to encourage.  One other thing I like about the Archibald is that it is quite acceptable to tee off on the art.  John McDonald has had a great go this year, see here, lots of reasonable arguments there.  John's pet peeve this year is portraits painted from photographs rather than the subject formally sitting.  I know what he is talking about.  I sat for a portrait back in the day and it took quite a few of them.  My own pet peeve concerns all the random punters being painted.  Officially the prize is for a portrait "preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in art, letters, science or politics, painted by any artist resident in Australasia".  My preferential is a little stricter than the AGNSW, hence I would've flicked about half the entries for non-compliance.  I was particularly annoyed with Vincent Fantauzzo's 'self-portrait', which is actually a photo realistic portrait of his son and a particularly cloying artist statement to try and get it to qualify for this prize.  Anyway, I'll stop there before I pick off a few others.  Breathe.  Okay, on to those that did actually float my boat.  Top pick was Mitch Cairn's Reg Richardson AM.  Distinguished subject, check.  Portrait in distinctive style of artist, check.  Not too large, check.  This was a very striking portrait (mainly because of those glasses, image top) but I really liked how the portrait was still obviously in the modernist style that Mitch is making his signature.  Other highlights were Sophia Hewson's kissing girls (or the twins as my three year old called it) and Zoe Young's Torah Bright.  I liked the aesthetics of James Powditch's Citizen Kave, it did look like a good movie.  I did try to think, based on the entries submitted, who I'd get to paint my portrait if push came to shove (apart from Mitch). Paul Mallam (pic above, The Card Player) was probably the other winner there.  Before we move on, please note that the top image is courtesy of my iphone, the rest are from the AGNSW website.  You see, they are rocking the no photos allowed policy.  I had seen a few people taking snaps so started to help myself when a guard said no.  I said what about that dude - he turned out to be an artist, and apparently you are allowed to take photos of your own work.  Hey AGNSW, how about next time we actually get on the social media train.  After just coming back from New York where Sotheby's are trying to promote their auctions with the #sothebysselfie tag I can't see why we are being backwards about it.

Next stop is always the Wynne.  For once, I agreed with the judges.  Michael Johnson's Oceania high low (pictured above), probably would've got the nod from me.  This was quite a large work but at the same time a very retro abstract work.  Quite colourful and the 3 year old junior critic liked it a lot, although in her mind the pastel cityscape of Michael Muir would've given it a run for its money.  I liked Noel McKenna's Palm Beach wharf and also Kate Shaw's Maralinga (which I think would be even more striking if she did it when the bomb was going off).  I'm getting a bit over Joshua Yeldham's Wynne entries.  It's like he has had the same work for about 5 years now.  Also due for a spell is Tim Storrier.  You won the big prize last year Tim, take a year off!

Last stop is ... you guessed it - the Sulman!  Now this is usually my favourite prize given how random it is (especially if R. Bell happens to be judging).  Sadly this was one of the weakest years in my mind.  Didn't like much.  I like political paintings but political artist statements give me the irrits, so Darren Wardle was discounted straight off the bat.  Fiona Lowry had one of her trademark works (by the way I did like some random interwebs criticism of her Archie winner that instagram should just develop a Lowry filter - meow), Noel McKenna had a still life and that was about it for the big names.  I quite liked Maz Dixon (image above, Colony). I've seen Maz repped on Sydney's own little art startup Art Pharmacy (link here). So I was familiar with her vintage postcard inspired practise.  Now I think I prefer her Big Pineapple, Gold Coast meter maids and Currumbin Bird Sanctuary lorikeets but this seaworld inspired dolphins and the random blob (which happens to be a whale) are streets ahead of the field here.

Points:  Mitch is going to bag the 3 points for his Archibald entry here.  More prestigious than the Trustee's Highly Commended?  Probably not ... yet.  The 2 will go to Maz for her Sulman entry.  The 1 from the Wynne will actually go to James Drinkwater as I did like his retro abstract landscape and I figured Michael already won the Wynne so what was a point to him!  James' Down the Awabakel Trail (above) lets me in on the fact he is from the Hunter, and Hunter boys stick together.  Well down Jimbo.

Mob rule - AGNSW Contemporary Projects.

What a pleasant surprise the contemporary project space at the AGNSW was on the latest visit (for the Archibald).  I nearly didn't bother checking it out as we had the full complement of junior critics for this visit.  One had just seen the Archibald and we were waiting for two others to finish the children's art workshop on the bottom floor so had some time to kill ...

Tony Garifalakis is a name I have read about, but I am not sure I've seen in the flesh. Or at least not enough to warrant a mention before.  His work "investigates political, social and religious systems of belief while questioning mechanisms of surveillance, compliance and control", but I guess you could say that about anyone nowadays!  Specifically for Mob Rule Tony is meant to be altering found images by censoring them a la the redacted copies you get from a government freedom of information request.  That is, if the government in question redacted documents by using black spray paint.  I think it is a very aesthetically pleasing result. The wet enamel paint runs down the subjects in a graffiti style, with the eyes mostly remaining visible.  There are two different sets of images in this show.  The first, running around three walls at eye level are portraits of world leaders Tony has ripped out of magazines (or offset lithograph images as I think the gallery labelled them).  My favourite he was man of the moment Putin (above), he does look pretty evil.  On the main wall were publicity type shots of various royals and military personnel that have received the same treatment. These are larger and from what I deduce, Tony has taken the image and then had c-type prints made which he has then 'censored'.  My favourite here was probably Prince Harry, mainly due to his natty uniform (top image, bottom left).

Points:  man of the match effort here from Tony, overall this show was much more impressive than the Sulman and quite a few of the Archibald entries.  3 points to Flash Harry, 2 to Putin and I'll give a point to one of the Queens - hopefully Liz.

The Conquest of Space at COFA - 14 June

The Conquest of Space hey?  Was this to be a populist blockbuster or a group of random works flung together by some tricky semantics?  I love what Frosty the Curator does on the telly but he does have a tendency for a little intellectual pomposity from time to time (my favourite article of his is here).  What I needed was someone with both a firm grasp of what science fiction means to the average punter as well as unrelenting honesty.  Luckily my Star Wars obsessed five year old was available and willing to tag along with Dad to see some space art.

His verdict.  Some planets, tick.  A picture with a Star Wars helmet, tick.  Could've used some more space. Me? I quite liked the show, the artists selected and the work they exhibited.  That said, I feel Conquest of Space is a bit of a misnomer - but it did make for a great single picture (Adam Norton, image top).  I think the themes that Frost is trying to weave together define science fiction far too broadly, allowing virtually any work to qualify.  Frosty basically admits this in his conclusion, "in essence, contemporary art is science fiction".  So what did we like?  Hayden Fowler has a great video and I enjoyed seeing Lionel Bawden's paintings as well as his pencil sculptures.  Sam Leach has a recognisable work in there as does Kate Shaw.  And I guess I should include Jeffrey Smart in that description which reminds me that this wasn't just contemporary art but some older works borrowed from the AGNSW.  As well as the Smart there were some 19th century works from John Glover and Eugene von Guerard.  There was a very good reason why these old landscapes were included. But I didn't buy it, the philistine that I am.  My top picks were Phil James who does rock a real sci-fi feel with his works (and he was the one that actually included the Star Wars reference, image below 'Rebel Scum, Raygun Mary').  I really liked Callum Morton's 'Screen 4, Chargrilled' (image above) which had a great retro drive-in feel to it.  I thought my five year old would go for one of the big colourful planets like Giles Alexander's 'Our father is a red giant' but instead he opted for Shoufray Derz's Negative II as his top pick (image bottom).  Intriguing work, and mightily impressed by the refinement of taste shown by the junior critic.

Points:  I am going to give Phil James the 3 points as to me this hit the brief.  2 points will go to Callum Morton.  What can I say?  I love the drive-in.  We had one back in my home town, which I actually got to work in, but sadly after the movies had long stopped.  It had become a flower nursery which was kind of spooky with a big drive in screen in front of thousands of native flowers being grown for export! 1 point will go to the junior critic's pick Shoufray Derz. I think I preferred the orange version better but I liked how the artist has conveyed the emptiness of landscape in these works.

19th Biennale at AGNSW and MCA - 1 May

It's taken a little while to get around to Biennale of Sydney but with the Big Lamington team getting set for a cheeky May trip to the USA I figured I needed to see some of this just to be sure I wasn't missing out.  Taking advantage of late night Wednesday at the AGNSW, and then late night Thursday at the MCA I managed to see enough to understand why McDonald and Frost are so underwhelmed. 

First up for me was the AGNSW.  Firstly, this place was absolutely buzzing for a Thursday night.  Awesome, totally awesome.  Way to go Hamilton*.  I checked out Artexpress first before venturing downstairs for the Biennale floor.  Things started well as I saw Deborah Kelly's big collaged nudes (& also a fully clothed Deborah Kelly wandering showing some friends around).  I like Kelly's works and this series continues with the visual theme from her Magdalene's we saw at GBK back in 2012.  This time around Deborah has interspersed the collaging of photographs of nude people with just some lifesize shots of nude people.  Probably a few too many plain nudes for my liking - the embellishment was where its all at for me**.  My favourite (pictured top), was one that used lots of Deborah's signature hair extensions.  What else?  Yhonnie Scarce's glassworks were very good, and if there wasn't an eagle eyed attendant in the room I would've loved a nice souvenir! Around the corner I thought Michael Cook's photo's were clever but my favourite was Scottish artist Nathan Coley who has taken black and white protest photos and then applied gold leaf to the protest (pictured above).  Visually appealing and probably also politically so for me!  The next night was the MCA.  Sadly I hadn't been warned about the giant cheese beanie in Pippilotti Rist's video.  I hated it.  Jim Lambie's taped up floor was much better but we were coming from a low base.  Upstairs I liked TV Moore's psychedelic photos the best.  And not just because of the great subway tile wall they were hanging on (pictured below).  Okay, maybe a little bit because of the subway tile.  

Points:  I will give the 3 points to Nathan Coley on debut! 2 points to TV Moore for the standout visuals of the Biennale so far.  1 point to Deborah Kelly for the collages.  I will say that the curator has a lot to answer for so far.  I don't get how any of this really goes together.  Cockatoo Island better not suck!  To paraphrase McDonald, so far I have seen a more cohesive thematic at the Easter Show ...

* quoting Spiccoli to give props to the AGNSW here.  Much more buzz than the MCA the night after.
** I think 2 post scripts is nearly a record but this is courtesy of one of the comments.  Apparently Deborah is collaging the nudes throughout the BOS so they will be progressively covered up.  This runs till 9 June so I'll have to come back and see what happens.

ArtExpress 2014 at AGNSW - 30 April

I was at the Ben Quilty reception at Bank of America the other day and he was talking about the benefits of being a Trustee at the AGNSW.  The best thing about it according to Ben was that he got the AGNSW to keep exhibiting the ArtExpress when the gallery was considering dumping it.  Ben got his start in this show way back when and I agree with him that it is something for the students to look forward to and set as a goal.  So given that wrap I thought I'd check out the art stars of tomorrow ...

My favourite thing about this show remains the fact that most of the students list the artists that inspired their work.  So you can kind of play guess the influence as you walk around.  Now I am a big fan of Reuben Paterson and yes he was an influence to Jessica Hodge (pictured top, the exquisite muse of sorrow).  Rather than flowers each work portrays a different type of cancer cell.  A disease that Jessica has herself experienced.  I hope she has been cured.  Quite a few influencing artists listed that I had never heard of.  Maybe all the art kids trying to be too cool for art school!  I could see a bit of Euan Macleod in Karlene Galiluyo's work and Lionel Bawden in Giorgia Jackson's book based sculptures (pic below, mortui sunt aclyoneum libros).  Giorgia is replicating dead coral here and making a statement about the end of books.  A nice clever sculpture from this Armidale girl.  I also liked Tracey Poon's SMART Solutions (pictured middle).  Tracey has taken inspiration from Claes Oldenburg and made some playful food sculptures out of cardboard and coloured paper.  She had vanilla slices, chocolate sponge rolls, kiwi tarts, cupcakes and more but no you know whats.

Points:  3 points for Jessica Hodge for her glitter cancer works.  Visually striking and moving artist statement.  2 points for Giorgia Jackson for the book coral sculpture and 1 point for Tracey Poon whose cardboard treats appealed to the baker in me (and would've been 3 if there were some lamingtons!).

4A A4 at 4A - 7 November

How good is this?  Anonymous until sold.  I felt like I was at some special art quiz ... trying to guess who did what.  This is the (first) annual 4A fundraiser that gets artists to submit a work on A4 paper and then the gallery sells them anonymously for $200 a piece.  With 200 artists volunteering that is a cool $40k that should fill 4A's coffers and help them put on some more great shows in 2014.  How did we go on the guessing game ...

So 4A had these big boards up and when the work was sold they added the number and the artists name.  For example, in the above photo they would add "3.  Shaun Gladwell" and then the punters would then go and have a look at it and nod 'oh yes, Shaun Gladwell'!  Some artists were immediately recognisable due to their signature styles, Jasper Knight, Reuben Paterson and Vernon Ah Kee (image top).  They were also amongst the first works purchased on the night.  I also worked out the Tony Albert and the Deborah Kelly before they were outed (Deborah Kelly was the answer to the anonymous artwork I twittered on the night).  I think 4A said they sold over 120 works on the night so are over half way to their fundraising goal.  The show is on at the gallery until the end of November and you can even buy works online here.  There are still a couple of works I am interested to know the artist of, and when I left Ken + Julia Yonetani's work was still anonymous.  Definitely swing by and check it out if you can.  I think this will get bigger and bigger.  On opening night there was a line around the corner.  Not yet like the Royal College of Art anonymous postcard show in the UK where they camp out overnight (seriously, I have had a friend do this).

Points:  Really every contributing artist should be acknowledged, and 4A does this on their website here.  3 points to Vernon Ah Kee whose drawing lost nothing constrained to the size of A4.  2 points to Tony Albert who had a great card collage in the show and was spotted helping out even further by collecting some anonymous works on the night.  1 point should go to the MC on the night, Sunil Badami who worked the room and even had a great little A4 work of his own included.  He also introduced me to the word flaneur, which I think I need to add to my job description ...

String Theory at the MCA - 20 August

I have to admit, I didn't know what to expect of string theory.  Even though I had read some positive reviews I wasn't sure I would get it.  Wow.  I was very impressed.  Glenn Barkley has done a great job pulling this show together and it was great to get the walk through from him on Tuesday evening to get his perspective on how all the different works come together and why there is a gift shop up on level 3!

This show focuses on contemporary Australian art, primarily by Aboriginal artists.  Included are some traditional arts and crafts (such as the handmade string) as well as work from urban based artists which is more commercial gallery friendly.  I really liked the handmade string and how the MCA has single handedly pushed the price up! Although I gather it is still quite affordable.  The feather yam vine of Frances Djullbing was a highlight here.  Also Lipaki Marlaypa has some great contributions here.  Fresh from seeing Tony Albert's latest show at SSFA it was great to see his photo series from 2008 where he took photos of his cousin rocking the traditional jawun string bag all around Brisbane.  String features in the water carriers that Vicki West crafts from kelp (she was featured on the NITV series Colour Theory which I just remembered I need to review!  It was great).  Vicki's work 'Plamtenner / Gathering' (detail, middle) features quite a few of these vessels arranged on kangaroo pelts.  I understand these are meant to represent the original tribes of Tasmania.  I can kind of see that, in a sense the pelts recall the folded national flags that accompany soldiers that have been killed on service.  I had read about Dale Harding (I think in the arts section of the Daily Tele which is actually quite surprising most of the time) and appreciated his worked hession sacks in memory of his grandmother (image top).  Laurie Nilson (of proppanow) had some great sculptural constructs which really looked good en masse (and gave some upcycling ideas for other projects) and I also enjoyed the colourful works of Jimmy Pike but there was probably less actual string connecting those works for me.

Points:  3 points to the yam vine.  Great to hear the story about the connection to the Power collection (which was the origin of the MCA back in the day).  2 points to Tony Albert - I can't get enough of his work and these large scale photos looked great en masse (image above) and I really appreciated his connecting the traditional crafts of the jawun string bag to his contemporary art practice.  1 point to Vicki for the kelp and kangaroos.  And why is the gift shop on the 3rd floor?  Well I think Glenn wants to remind everyone that the context of a gallery can make something look more serious than objects available in the gift shop, and sometimes they are one and the same.

Wangechi Mutu at the MCA - 9 July

So here we are with the Curator's Assistant or the Assistant Curator (there is a little bit of uncertainty about the exact title, and I am sure a lot of rank between the two) for a walk through of the Wangechi Mutu exhibit at the MCA. For those that came in late, Wangechi is kind of a big deal. Kenyan born and living in the US, she was awarded 'artist of the year' by my old bank back in 2010.  This is her first show in Aus, what would the locals think?

I liked quite a few works, but in a show as broad as this there are always going to be a few things that didn't float my boat.  I didn't get the significance of the recycled plastic bag soccer balls and am still struggling to understand Mutu's massive fascination with packing tape (although it was very interesting to learn that Wangechi is very particular about the correct shade of tape, and in fact all the packing tape you see here has been imported from the US).  For mine, the collage works were the strongest.  My favourite was probably 'Intertwined' (pictured top). I actually had this poster at my desk for a few years (a freebie of bank propaganda) so it is very familiar and maybe was what I was 'expecting' to see.  I was excited to go to the NC17 room but my prurience was not to be sated here, not all that shocking.  One room contained a collection of sculptures that the artist called 'blackthrones'.  I would include a photo but the MCA is always loathe to put enough images online, preferring you to do the old fashioned thing and actually visit. Here's a link to some blackthrones exhibited in Germany back in the day. These were old chairs that have been extended and given some anthropomorphic qualities.  Although they also really looked like pimped out tennis umpire chairs.  In the big MCA room the masking tape mountains were quite random, don't kick them as they are hollow.  The big star for me was the purpose built room for 'Exhuming Gluttony: Another Requiem' (pictured above).  Loved the lights, loved the pelt trophy and loved the story that one of the walls has bullet holes so the artist had to get in here and personally shoot some holes to give it the authentic effect.  Although I am sure her assistants had to build those packing tape mountains! Fair call, I would keep the shooting gig to myself as well.

Points:  I am going to give the 3 points to the Exhuming Gluttony bit.  Probably a little too much spilled red wine to want to replicate at home but a great museum piece.  2 points to Intertwined, this is the 'signature' image that comes to mind when I read her name and it is no wonder the MCA is using it for the poster they are flogging in the gift shop.  I will give one point to the tennis umpire chairs, not something you see every day!

Richard Bell at Artspace - 5 July

Fresh off a great hosting gig (of the NITV show Colour Theory) the activist who masquerades as an artist has a show in Sydney at the Artspace.  Bell's latest show is called "Imagining Victory" which is also the title of of his trilogy of politically charged videos.  I was here on the opening night for the artist talk and it was busier than standing room only!  The huge crowd that came out to hear Richard speak also made it hard for the average punter to hear any dialogue in the movies so I had to trek back across to Woolloomooloo this last Friday for another look see (and a hot dog de wheels from Harry's across the road).

I think it is great that Artspace have got all of Richard's movies playing in different rooms.  It is kind of like catching up on a series of your favourite TV shows at once (if I was tech savvy enough to know how to download TV shows).  I started with 'Scratch an Aussie' (screen shot above).  This is from 2008 and cuts between Richard in therapy with Gary Foley and Richard as therapist with 4 blond Aussies (2 blokes and 2 chicks).   Next up was 'Broken English' (screen shot image at bottom).  This was done in 2009 and asks a lot of interesting questions about Aboriginal politics. I really liked the use of the chess sequence (again with Gary Foley).  It is pretty easy to see that Richard was playing chess with all those interviewed for this work. The re-enactment of the landing of the first fleet and the questions posed to random people on the street gave Bell lots to work with and I left this eager to see the final work. 'The Dinner Party' (screen shot, top) from 2010 completed the series and this imagines a future world where in some twist of fate China has bought Australia and given it to the Aboriginal people. In this video Gary Foley is now the President of the People's Republic of Australia and we are privy to a dinner party conversation in an upmarket Bris Vegas home of a serial art collector whose tastes are at the hyper end of the hyper-sexual scale. Given I'm contemplating a movie trilogy I am going to try really hard to work a Star Wars analogy in here. How about the Dinner Party has the republic winning. Spooky right? That 'winning' moment is the question posed by this show, what would a victory for the aboriginal people look like? Personally I can't answer that question but Richard's imagination at least provides a starting point.  And as Richard said on the night ...  "nothing ever happens without being imagined first".

As well as videos Richard had four large canvasses on show.  If you love a bit of text in art then you won't be disappointed by these works.  Inspired by Liechtenstein pop art these are brightly coloured and for the most part pack a punch. I'm not sure I get the white girls can't hump piece. I know his t-shirt caused a bit of controversy back in the day but the joke is lost on me (maybe I've just been more fortunate than Richard in that sense?). I preferred the more straight forward protest piece 'Foley versus the Springboks' (above). I was vaguely aware of the protests against the Springbok tours (it did happen before I was born) and was forced to consult the wiki to learn more about this chapter in history. So in that sense the work was a great success, it got me thinking! On to the points ...

Points: 3 points for Broken English. To continue the Star Wars analogy this was my Empire Strikes Back, and I love that flick.  I also loved the ending, Bell screaming "Checkmate Motherfucker!" (above).  I will give 2 points for Scratch an Aussie. The Gold Coast meter maid inspired gold bikinis on the two Aussie chicks certainly didn't hurt in the overall assessment! I will give 1 point to a painting and as much as I love the Lichtensteinesque bedroom scene will give the 1 point for 'Foley versus the Springboks' as I do like some activism from this artist.