Sunny and Hilly at Minerva Gallery - 22 February

New year, new galleries.  There's been a bit of noise about a few galleries closing recently but a lot of news on new ones opening.  One new gallery in the Cross Elizabeth Bay, is Minerva Gallery.  This space has taken over the old James Dorahy Project Space.  To me, Minerva seemed to blur the line between artist run space and commercial gallery.  But they are just getting started so it will be interesting to see how it evolves.  Their first show, fittingly, is a group one.  Showcasing all the artists that will be getting a solo gig at some time over 2014/15.

I swung by mainly to check out a firm favourite of Big Lamington in Jonny Niesche.  His signature glitter work ('Her love sticking out like stars', image below) couldn't be missed.  The install was a little questionable, sitting precariously in a pile of recycling right by the front door.  Lucky it wasn't council clean-up day or I might have swiped it!  In the main room you also couldn't miss Hany Armanious' adhesive vinyl installation (it was untitled but spelt out 'Eggs').  This was a massive 1,140 x 330 cm.  Helpfully the gallery sheet noted that the work can be scaled to any size which will determine price.  I like the way Hany does business, what can I get for a pineapple? In the middle room I quite liked the cut of James Deutsher's gig.  He had two works, 'North West' in iron and 'Red Nation (I can't tell you what's good but I can tell you what's not)', combined image above.  I quite liked the explanation of the dimensions of these works in the room sheet.  The iron sign was based on Kanye West and Kim Kardashian foot length (and for those that don't keep up with the gossip rags, North is their spawn).  The Red Nation was "Kirsten Stewart standing height x Dries Van Noten medium scarf".  This work made me deeply think ... gee, she's short.

Points: hmmm, I think Jonny will take another 3 for the glitter (above).  I'd really like one of these but I am running out of wall space at HQ so friends and family will be getting recommendations here.  I am going to give 2 points to James' Red Nation, which I thought was a clever way to get a fairly minimalist sculpture to comment on celebrity / consumer culture.  1 point will go to Jonny's 'Untitled' (top).  I've seen a few of these mirrored works of Jonny's now and they are starting to grow on me.  His solo show at Minerva is slated for March/April.  Get along and check it out.

Julian Meagher at Gallery Ecosse - 9 April

The team was back in Exeter this weekend and given Ecosse sits between two of our favourite landmarks (the General Store for lunch and the Train Station for train spotting with my 2 year old son) it was only natural that we would pop in to see what was going on.

Julian Meagher's solo show was opening this evening and there were already quite a few red dots before noon. You could see why as it was a really interesting collection of works that was priced attractively - most of the smaller works ranged from $1,400 to $1,900 with mid size works around $4,000 and bigger ones approaching $10k. I recognized Julian's work from some of the art magazines - it is fairly recognizable given he mixes Chinese pottery with booze such as Jack Daniels bottles or VBs. This show also included some tattoo paintings which looked good but I probably wouldn't put into the home collection as I don't want to encourage the kids to get any tough stickers. As a former doctor he had also included a skull which was inspired by his medical texts, one of the last of a series of skulls he has been doing, better get in quick for that one.

Points. 3 for the skull, which would suit anyone collecting the sex and death theme, perhaps Mona? 2 for any of the combo chinese vase / booze paintings; and 1 point for the team at Ecosse - they even have Sunday openings down in Exeter, how very Lower East Side of them!

Jasper Knight at Gallery Ecosse - 19 February

Gallery Ecosse? Exeter? The whole Big Lamington team was in the Southern Highlands this Saturday. Scouting for a potential holiday home, making a huge mess at the General Store and then trying to give Daddy a headache on the way home. For a moment of peace we nipped across to check out Exeter's premier (and only) gallery. My opinion of Exeter rose immediately. Ecosse is the real deal, with prices to match. Jasper Knight is currently showing Metal on Metal there until 5 March.

The whole family (well, everyone who can speak, so 4 out of 5) liked the playful nature and fun subject matter of Jasper's show. Jasper, an artist based in Sydney, played to a bit of a parochial theme with lots of tractors, steam trains and local landmarks. This had been open a couple of weeks and has mostly sold out so he really hit his mark but I couldn't tell if works such as Exeter Station and Bundanoon Station were really sincere or just a sharp way to make some sales to the cashed up locals.

My wife liked the tractors, I liked what they did to their garage (making it the gallery annex) and my son and oldest daughter preferred the steam train. If we did have a house down there would I want a picture of my local train station or even Berrima Courthouse? Probably not. But we would like a tractor!

Points - 3 for the tractor, 2 for the trains and 1 for the gallerists behind Ecosse - a great idea to take the gallery well out of Paddington and much further south than Waterloo!