Miso at MiCK - 28 April

So it turns out Miso is not Japanese.  Miso is the 'street name' of Stanislava Pinchuk who according to her great little website was born in 1988 in the Ukraine and now lives and works in Melbourne.  Her solo show 'Everywhere I have ever been' is on at MiCK until 5 May so get along and see these pricks.

That's right these images are pin pricks on paper. A really neat and clever method which is akin to drawing for me (and I might be so bold as to steal the technique and try it on at the easter show!).  Being pin pricks on white paper, in a white gallery gave the whole affair a very minimalist feel.  You had to really get up close to see the detail and depending on your viewing height the image was either very pale or clear (the angles affected the shadows of the pin pricks).  These works have as their basis the city grids from each of the cities Stanislava has been to recently, Paris, Sydney, LA, New York, Sheffield (? maybe's she's a Sheffield Wednesday fan!), Kiev, Tokyo etc. The works ranged from $1400 for a smaller (40 x 29cm) work, through $2,500 for the mid sized (78 x 58 cm) ones through to $5,000 for the large moons (150 x 110cm).  I really liked the works (no surprise as I love maps) and would've happily taken one home although the Feds aren't the only ones with budget pressures at the moment! I will just have to wait until Art Collector magazine lets me do some fictional shopping through the stock rooms to pick one up.

Points.  3 points will have to go to a moon.  Given I lived there for a number of years I will take 'Moon (New York)' (pictured top).  You can't really see it well but Miso does the moon and then the details on the moon are bits of the NYC street grid.  You can see Soho etc.  2 points will go to the 'Arrows (Sheffield)' and 1 point for the Bee (Vienna).  To see more images go here.  Miso has even got a purpose built website just for this show.  Great work there.

Special Moves at MOP - 28 April

I love the education in emerging artists that MOP provides.  I also love their Sunday opening hours so I snuck in here for a quick squiz sans junior critics who after a busy morning were happy to watch dvds at home (although I was instructed to take photos of any rainbow artworks if they had them).  I thought I had read some press that described this show as a survey of drawing but the catalogue essay sets me straight - "this exhibition must not be mistaken for a survey of broader drawing" rather drawing "acts as loose connective tissue between [the artists in the show] and their work".

Sadly for my daughter there were no rainbows.  And I probably wasn't going to take a photo of Leah Emery's cross stitched porno scenes for her.  I am not sure that tapestry counts as drawing in the literal sense but I know the Dobell used to allow it so I am down with the 'drawing with thread' / 'mark making' angle.  I am familiar with Leah's work from Sullivan & Strumpf and again she has some small scale scenes on show.  I would love to see these get a bit bigger (I actually think the repro in the MOP catalogue is bigger than the real work) although I appreciate that cross-stitch takes some time.  Maybe some studio assistants are required?  More traditional drawing came from Jonathan McBurnie who had about 8 large scenes of quite intricate craziness.  Lots of body builders, super heroes and the odd topless women.  All good there.  He is also the man behind the essay in the catalogue.  I am not sure I really agree with his take on drawing as a resistance to the digital status quo (and from what I could gather he was saying was that if it isn't realistic looking then it can be a drawing, even if it is actually a painting).  Christian Flynn had a few colourful acrylics on canvas.  As paintings they were great, I liked the colourful Unification Theory II the best (above).  As drawings?  My advice would be to not enter them in the Easter Show, they take things a bit more literally.  Also interesting was Miles Hall's take on colour swatches, Splice (top) was my favourite of these paint on aluminium works.  It also leant itself to the cover of MOP's quite detailed catalogue for the show.  If you want to learn more about abstraction and see the words "mimetic realism" used in a sentence then grab this and flip to page 14/15 for more!  This show runs until 5 May.

Points:  I will give 3 points to Jonathan's Grief Beard (above).  Not just because it was a drawing but it also had cameo appearances of the Phantom, Rupert the Bear and no less than 3 topless women.  Someone agrees with me as it has sold.  2 points will go to Christian Flynn for Unification Theory and 1 point will go to Miles for his Splice.

Workout at MCA - 23/26 April

So if you hadn't had your fill of performance art with 13 rooms the MCA was here to help.  They had scheduled a week of performance art and called it a workout.  I looked at the schedule and made it my business to check out the Motel Sisters and loving that so much came back to see what Agatha Gothe-Snape had in store for the punters.  

First up was the Motel Sisters on Tuesday.  This is an art collective comprising two hot babes (Liam Benson and Naomi Oliver) who have sadly let themselves go and in a yoko ono / john lennon inspired sleep in are being slacktivists for the day (see photo top).  That is eating pizza and liking good causes on social media.  I liked the concept as did many punters who were lining up to get a photo with them in bed.  

My next visit was on the Friday for Agatha Gothe-Snape.  Sadly for me when I visited nothing was actually happening.  I was informed that her performance work was a play and it was currently 'Act III - Intermission' also known as 'The Space Rests (2013)'.  Okay.  Was the MCA getting a little ahead of itself here?  Perhaps questioning whether performance art, without the actual performers, could still be called performance art?  My answer is no.  The performers in question were out on an extended lunch break, about an hour and a half by my calculation given the next act wasn't due to commence until 2.30pm.  The sad thing is the MCA website says this is on from 10am - 5pm so punters like me on their own lunch breaks come in to the gallery with the not unreasonable expectation to see performance art (and its not like this is the first time this has happened, Anastasia Klose did the same thing at Primavera).  Maybe next time we could be a little more precise on the webpage and let the art lovers know exactly when the art is on?  I did like their screenshows that were holding the fort (above, with some random punter blocking the view, but I liked that about the projection) however even these stopped during the space resting until someone came in asking "is everything on still?".  No. 

Points - the Motel Sisters have to scoop the pool here as they were the only ones making busy with the performance art on my visits.

2013 Gallipoli Art Prize - 24 April

Anzac Day is on 25 April which means it is time for one of my favourite Art Prizes, the $20,000 acquisitive Gallipoli Art Prize.  This is run by the Gallipoli Memorial Club and it couldn't be any more low-key if they tried. I was there at lunchtime on the opening day (Wednesday) and was the first punter in to see it.  That said, at least they had a girl behind the bar this year as last year it was even quieter.  Please get in to see this before 5 May, if not for the art then just for the random building and club that one day sooner or later will be extensively renovated.

I think I actually agreed with the judges this year.  Peter Wegner's 'Dog with Gas Mask' (top) won the prize and could be my favourite.  It definitely dominated the main room.  Most of these works have overt military themes although there are a few artists who try to sneak a regular work of theirs into the show.  Leo Robba's 'Remembrance' was a great big painting of an immaculately kept hedge and whilst I could appreciate the painting I thought it was a little too subtle for the brief.  There was quite a bit of trench art, and Bill Nix has a good example of this.  I really liked one of the smaller works, David Pavich's Waverly Memorial (above). This was also a complete bargain at $800 and if it was Paddington instead of Waverley might've come home with me.  Peter Gardiner (a previous BL 3 point winner) had a great entry 'Light Horse' which reminded me of his Dobell entry a few years ago.  Stephen Nothling, who collected BL's 3 points in the Gallipoli Prize in 2011, is back with another nice entry this year, a mixed media piece called 'There is sunshine' (below) that rocked some nice medals and ribbons.  And I am a sucker for ribbons.  Also good to see current Archibald and Wynne prize finalist James Powditch bag the triple by being a finalist here as well.  His work here is a little random, but nice and visual.  And big, gee everything is getting supersized these days.  He had the portrait of Ben Quilty in the Archibald.  Speaking of Ben Quilty, I wish he had entered one of his Afghanistan war artist works here.  Would be a good look.

Points:  I am going to double down on Peter's Dog with Gas Mask, 3 points.  This was great work, and really stands out in the field.  2 points to David Pavich's Memorial and 1 point to Stephen Nothling.  Highly Commended to the Gallipoli Memorial Club for putting this on.  I had a great great uncle land at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915 and he, like many others, never came back.  Lest we forget.

13 Rooms - 20 April

Kaldor Art Projects is back with their 27th project.  This one is called 13 Rooms, and you guessed it, there are nearly 13 rooms of performance art squeezed into Pier 2/3 down in Millers Point.

The 1st room is a bit of a cheat.  Tino Sehgal has instructed the greeters to say something nonsensical after they hand you a catalogue.  I think I got something about Putin in Finland.  Suitably confused I got right around and checked everything out.  I came on the first day and brought the family back on the 2nd last day (that's right, get there on Sunday or you miss out).  This has definitely been discovered by the crowds and on Saturday as well as the line to get in there were lines for Hirst's room, the Swap room and Marina Abromivic's room.  I enjoyed getting around sans crowd on the first Thursday, but it is fun taking some junior critics to performance art as they ask the honest questions.  Even half of Clark Beaumont (I think it was Beaumont) cracked at smile at the repeated "why are those girls hugging up there" line of questioning from my 2 year old. No sweetheart you don't get it, performance art asks questions, it doesn't give answers!  The 'why's' kept coming, especially in the Joan Jonas room for mirror check.  Why didn't that girl have her clothes on?  Another good question indeed.  Some of the works have a rotating cast of performers doing the art.  I am not sure I am allowed to say it but I preferred Mirror Check with the more attractive artist.  But perhaps I wasn't getting the deeper meaning.  I don't think the identity mattered so much in other works, for instance in Simon Fujiwara's 'Future / Perfect' where a non-English speaking man lies in a tanning bed and recites random English phrases.  We liked the dancers making like a revolving door and especially 'In the blink of an eye' where Xu Chen has installed someone just above the ground in what looks like the act of falling (pictured top).  I really didn't get Santiago Serra's room where he had war veterans facing the corner. Not. Much. Doing.  All in all there were more hits than misses for me which is a pretty good outing for performance art.

Points:  I think I will give the 3 points to the Hirst twins.  I saw 2 different sets, a pair of sisters and a pair of brothers and both interacted well with the viewers coming to see them.  I am also partial to the odd dot painting here and there.  2 points to 'In the Blink of an eye', this was straight up clever.  I will give 1 point to the Swap Room as it was nice and interactive.  I wonder what Roman Ondak would swap me for a point?  I'd want something pretty good!

Hayden Fowler studio visit - 18 April

It's lucky I love snooping about artist studios as I had to schlep out to Marrickville for this one.  Not that I have anything against schlepping out to Marrickville its just that I would prefer if the MCA could've put this on a Saturday at about 2pm so we could nip off to Henson Park at 3pm for a Jets game!

I'd recently been exposed to Hayden Fowler's work courtesy of a trip to artereal.  Hayden is an NZ artist who is now based in Sydney.  And I like him even more now that I have discovered he also has a decent website (once again, every artist should).  He has what I would consider the stereotypical artist pad.  A little vintage, a little grunge and lots of older decorative kitsch artworks adorned the main space but I don't think anything could've prepared me for the studio area.  Here Hayden has built a creepy forest complete with chickens!  That's right folks these birds were right at home in the artist studio.  This big set is from his video work that he recently featured at artereal.  On first view it looked like it was filmed outside to me.  This set is quite a detailed piece of work (views above, on left with the chickens and on right you can see the rest of the studio, behind are concrete antlers).  As well as Hayden talking about his practice we had an assistant curator from the MCA give their 10 cents worth as well.  As an aside Hayden has 2 videos in their permanent collection, nice work.  It was a great discussion and Hayden didn't let the curator off the hook either after an earlier comment about finding his work "challenging".  How so?  Exactly.  I read it as a quasi dig as well but the curator recovered admirably.  Thats why they get paid the big bucks to chatter all knowingly about the arts kids!  It is hard to describe his work, it does deal with a kind of pastoral idyll but from a modern perspective where nature is on the back foot.  In a way his use of rare birds and images of extinct animals was kind of a memento mori for this viewer.  I was really interested to learn more about his fascination with animals, in particular birds.  Given I have a random collection of Gould League of Bird Lovers ephemera I think I have a new artist to put on my watch list.  Kindred spirits?  I was particularly drawn to the story of the Huia bird.  The feather of this bird was reserved for maori chiefs but one was given to the Duke of York (later King George V) which set off a European fashion for the feathers and voila the bird is extinct.  Tragic.  Hayden memorialised the bird in a performance where he got a tat of a pair of these birds (image below).  Apparently he is thinking about using birds in his next body of work as well.  I can't wait.

Points:  Traditionally the 3 points go to the artist on a studio visit and this is no different.  A great night, and really interesting to learn more about Hayden's evolving practice.  I am also fascinated by how many contemporary artists either have or are studying for PhD's.  Someone do some stats.  I will give two points for the tattoo of the huia birds.  Top stuff.  1 point must be shared by the roosting chickens which for the most part were quite well behaved.  Although I did see one take a crap on the set.  Lucky he is junking this shortly (although it does seem like a shame to tear all that work up).  That is the downside with working with animals.

Ben Quilty / After Afghanistan at the National Art School - 13 April

Well this exhibition has certainly cemented Ben Quilty's place at the top of the art heap.  Ben is back from spending time as the official Australian war artist in Afghanistan and the War Memorial is touring this around the country starting in Darlinghurst.  What you would usually think of as a solid exhibit in a kind of an out of the way gallery was the hottest ticket in town.  I swung by here on opening night and it was more than standing room only.  It was a line up to play sardines.  I had a quick squiz that opening night and then (appropriately) did a General Macarthur and declared I would return.

So here we are on the last day of the show and there are still masses of people here.  This show must've set some kind of attendance record for NAS.  I had the whole crew here for the hit of culture.  The junior critics aren't yet appreciative of signature styles, dismissing Quilty's heaving canvasses thick with oil paint primarily for the crime of "using too much paint" or worse, "he is wasting some paint here".  The big kids (i.e. the Mrs and I) really enjoyed the portraits of servicemen, displaying the emotions you'd suspect to be post traumatic stress.  I thought it was especially important to see them en masse.  As a room they seem more than the sum of the parts.  I think this is the only time you will see them all together as reading the labels it appeared a few are the property of the war memorial pursuant to the war artist gig and some others were done at a later stage and so remain Ben's.  Quite a few of the portraits are of the Special Forces so Ben doesn't give the full name.  Just Private S or Sergeant K.  My top pick was one of these quasi anonymous works, I think it is Sergeant K (pictured top).  I also really enjoyed the mess of paint that was Kandahar (above).  I understand this was painted when he first got back so it is just a tangle of emotions and colours without being anything in particular.  It kind of looks like a future weapon from a Transformer movie.

Points:  3 to Sergeant K.  2 to Kandahar and 1 to the daubed Afghanistan landscape (above).  Here Ben has taken a found painting of the Blue Mountains and superimposed Afganistan.  This one to me suggests the British trekking off back in the 1800s.  I would like one of those!  Also great work to the War Memorial for continuing this great tradition.  I will have to look into this war artist thing a bit more.