Geometry and Precision at Australian Galleries - 19 January

First opening for 2012 just up the road at the Glenmore road outpost of Australian Galleries (who have five in all which is pretty amazing). They have been doing a National Art School grad show for a few years now where they give a prize to a couple of NAS grads and then give them a gallery show in a years time. This show was Hashim Ali and Angus Fisher. Keen readers will remember Angus picked up some points back in 2010 when we saw his class grad show so I was keen to see what he had been up to.

What a great turn out from the NAS crowd supporting their own. One of the bigger openings I had been too. The other big thing I noticed was the merchandising. Emerging artists take publicity into their own hands and Angus had some little pin badges made to hand out to the punters. I grabbed a bush turkey (the same bird who grabbed 2 points from me in 2010) and was pretty pleased with myself. Inside the work was great and well within budget. This is one of the reasons I like buying so called new and emerging artists. I can afford it and it can really help out a growing career. Angus' drawings ranged from $600 to just over $2k and you could pick up the etchings under $1k. They all featured sea creatures (and a few sea birds) and should be seen in the flesh (and also because AG only have 1 photo online, thank you lobster drawing, above).

Points, I am going to give them all to Angus. I didn't mind Hashim's prints but the detail in the drawing is amazing and I am a big fan of the naturalist style (although I did tell him to be a bit more subversive and go all Walton Ford). 3 to the ribbon eel, it is really colourful and looks like the hardest thing to actually draw, 2 to the balmain bugs (it was nearly a tie with the lobster pictured above but I feel lobbies get all the publicity) and 1 point to the Brown Pelican etching which really recalled an Audobon or Gould print. Keep your eyes peeled here as we may be getting an Angus Fisher in the BL collection at some stage in the not to distant future ...