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Opens Friday 26 August till 24 September 2011
Artist talk Saturday 10 September, 2pm
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A Touch of Life, an exhibition of works on paper and paintings by Heather Kepski, is the upcoming exhibition at Marianne Newman Gallery. A widely admired artist, Kepski explores the struggles of everyday life in Myanmar with a broad collection of medium in her second solo show at MNG.The exhibition demonstrates the influence of Kepski's travels and her background as a cross-cultural psychologist. In her psychological practice she worked with refugees and migrants and heard the stories of the effects of war and conflict from many people of different cultures. She was directly influenced, producing images of intense personal places, a reflection of and on her life experiences. She has travelled extensively and often challenges her viewers with cross-cultural images, which are layered with meaning. While she tries to capture the complexities of life that many cultures struggle with on a daily basis, she is also interested in the simple things of life that make extraordinary issues manageable during hard times. Her love of indigenous art and culture has reinforced her passion for exploring issues concerning the environment, ethics, balance and harmony.
Recent travels to Myanmar provided her with a wealth of resource material. Although many people know little about Myanmar, most have heard of Aung San Suu Kyi who has struggled for years to bring democracy and justice to her people. Myanmar is under military rule and the generals corrupt people to gain support. Power and control are corrupting influences everywhere in the world and Myanmar is merely a microcosm of what happens elsewhere.
In their daily lives, people from Myanmar struggle to feed their families, raise their children and find happiness. Their religion, which is primarily Buddhist, provides many with great comfort and hope but there is also an underlying current of corruption amongst some monks, which destroys people's trust. It is in this context that Kepski has created many of her images.
Throughout this body of work, Kepski has used visual metaphors. For example, the monks with umbrellas are metaphors for the ‘royal monks'. Named as such by the Burmese people and indicating their corruption of the generals and their abuse of trust, they have been portrayed in a decorative style with their backs to the viewer, walking on water and over people.
Heather Kepski is primarily a printmaker and pushes the boundaries of this art form by creating linocuts, woodcuts, etchings, collagraphs, often using multiple techniques in a single work. In addition she uses pastels and is a skilled painter. Her linocut "A Touch of Life" is currently a finalist in the Fremantle Art Centre Print Award, Australia's foremost award for prints and artists' books.
Kepski has completed fine arts courses at the National Art School, the University of Southern Queensland and Charles Sturt University. She completed an Advanced Diploma in Fine Arts at the Sydney Gallery School and studied printmaking at SACI University, in Florence, Italy.
A prolific artist and exhibitor, Kepski's work is collected nationally and in England, France, Hong Kong and the USA. Believing that art should be accessible to all in the community she is actively involved in the Bundeena Maianbar Art Trail.
Heather Kepski will give a talk "A personal perspective on Myanmar" on Saturday 10 September, 2.30pm, attendance by RSVP please.
A Touch of Life is on show at Marianne Newman Gallery, 1 Albany Street, Crows Nest from 26 August - 24 September 2011. Gallery Hours: Tuesday to Saturday 10am - 5pm
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Dianna Brennan and Liz Jeneid
Opens Friday 22 July till 20 August 2011
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Entre-Deux
is a collection of recent work from Liz Jeneid and Diana Brennan.
Both artists share a textile background which has influenced their
artwork and also inspired the title. Entre-deux is a French term that
is used frequently in textile manufacture, referring to a lace ribbon
that joins, or separates two pieces of cloth; it also defines a space
or state of being between two extremes and translates as ‘between
the two of us'. Jeneid states that the use of the phrase entre-deux
is an appropriate one, considering Diana's and her backgrounds,
relationship and the nature of the artwork.
Diana
Brennan a French-Australian artist, largely based in Paris, has
exhibited widely in Europe and the United States. Brennan will be
showcasing a textile installation of fragile silhouettes, neither
costumery nor clothing, but of suspended, floating structures that
are designed to materialise out of or dissolve into their surrounding
environment. Brennan also intends to let the architectural laceworks
oscillate between light and transparency, scale and perception.
The
forms are produced from stainless steel or copper knitted lacework
interlaced with glass beads, which flow from shrunken woollen
jumpers. The silhouettes are a continuation of Brennan's
preoccupation and fascination with the natural effects of light on
cloth, the structure and texture of textiles and the associations of
corporeal memory. She states, "to achieve these effects I combine
copper, stainless steel or nylon threads to create surfaces of
intertwining textures." On display as well will be various smaller
wire creations many of which also incorporate glass beads.
We
are proud to announce that Brennan has been selected to show at the
international Love
Lace
exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum, correlating with Sydney Design
2011.
Liz
Jeneid believes that the lines between art, life and work are
blurred, and that art connects to life experiences. The images in the
prints are based on her travels in Italy, Greece and Australia, and
sharing the experiences with her friends. Being exposed to different
cultures and environments has influenced Jeneid's artistic
response.
She
mentions that the notion of being with another person, travelling
together, sharing the same experiences and physical space, became her
entre-deux. Ultimately for Jeneid, the sharing of an experience with
another is the sharing of space in-between. She translates this
notion with her ambiguous images of shadows along cobblestoned
streets and brick walls.
Jeneid
identifies the pavements as an important way of identifying place and
they are represented in many of her works. The pavements also are
symbolic of her entre-deux and conveying her relationship with a
certain environment.
The
combination of printing techniques, including collagraphs, lino cuts,
wood cut and water colouring, reflect the many experiences and
feelings she had while travelling, as she layers multiple techniques
upon one image.
Together,
between Jeneid and Brennan, there is a story told about the space
in-between, which is conveyed through layering techniques and the
play between light and shadow.
Entre-deux
is
on show at Marianne
Newman Gallery, 1 Albany Street, Crows Nest from 22
July - 20 August 2011. Gallery
Hours:
Tuesday to Saturday 10am - 5pm
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A collection of Tiwi art from Jilamara Arts and Craft Association
Opens Friday 3 June till 2 July 2011
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Yingarti Jilamara, showing a variety of works from the Tiwi community on Melville Island, is timed to coincide with the annual Guringai Festival celebrated across Sydney's North Shore and National NAIDOC Week recognising the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.Yingarti Jilamara means ‘lots of art' in Tiwi Islander terms while jilamara also roughly translates into ‘design', and refers to the intricate, geometric, ochre patterning traditionally applied to the bodies of dancers, and to the surface of carved pukumani (mortuary) poles used during traditional burial ceremonies.
Tiwi art is distinctly different from other Aboriginal art as the Tiwi practise the art of body painting for ceremonial purposes. The patterning used is primarily decorative with an emphasis on strength of design and the individual rather than the narrative, as more usually painted on the mainland. Each artist's work is motivated by their traditions, and draws inspiration from their own dreaming dance and clan dance yiminga. For the Tiwi people, to sing is to dance is to paint.
Timothy Cook depicts his body paint designs from the Pukamani ceremony and the Kulama ceremony (yam ceremony). Timothy, whose distinctive style has received much attention in recent years, is collected by the National Gallery and most state galleries. He began to exhibit his designs in the late 1990s and has currently been selected as a finalist for the Western Australian Indigenous Art Award. Alongside Raelene Kerinauia (also showing in Yingarti Jilamara) he is also a finalist for the NATSIAA (National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award), to be opened in August.
Patrick Freddy Puruntatameri is considered an exciting and innovative young carver, with a developed skill and expertise beyond his years. He has always wanted to be an artist, and learnt his skills and the art of ‘pirikiringirri' (wood carving) from his late father, the respected and renowned carver Paddy Puruntatameri. Patrick's owls represent Tjurukukuni, the messenger for the Tiwi lovers Wai-ai and Taparra, guiding them to one another through the bush. It was following this act of infidelity that death came to the world and the Tiwi people.
Janice Murray is one of the youngest practicing Tiwi artists. Her work has been exhibited widely all over Australia since 1995. In 1996, she was commissioned to make etchings for the Crown Casino in Melbourne. Murray commonly depicts the Pukamani ceremony and also the flying fox and turtle in her designs. Her artwork varies from the other artists, as she not only intricately paints geometric lines and shapes, but also includes bold owl designs, thus evoking the traditional narrative of the two Tiwi lovers.
Tiwi art is recognised as being very attractive and highly collectable and Yingarti Jilamara is a beautiful and strong exhibition evoking the stories of Tiwi ancestors and their traditions. Artists also featured are: Dymphna Kerinauia, Brian Farmer Illortaminni, Linus Warlapinni, Tina Patlas, Valentina Puruntatameri, Margo Wommatakimmi, and John Pilakui.
YINGARTI JILAMARA is on show at Marianne Newman Gallery, 1 Albany Street, Crows Nest from 3rd June to 2nd July 2011.
Gallery Hours: Tuesday to Saturday 10am - 5pm
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| Sally d'Ovelle, Myriam KinYee & Belinda Webster |
| 30 April to 28 May 2011 |
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Opening at Marianne Newman Gallery is the delightful and playful group exhibition Carnaval inspired by Schumann's piano solo, in which he whimsically relates a story of masked revellers at Carnival, the European merry-making festival held before Lent. Schumann's 22 piece solo brings to life through musical illustration an expression of his friends, colleagues, and characters from the Italian commedia dell ‘arte, which Sally d'Ovelle, Myriam Kin Yee and Belinda Webster materialise into a tantalising visual spectacular. In 2010 Belinda Webster accompanied Australian pianist, Piers Lane, to a residency at Arthur Boyd's Bundanon Estate, producing a film about Schumann's Carnaval. Artists Sally d'Ovelle and Myriam Kin-Yee were also present during the recording, and thus were motivated to create vivid images of dancers and eccentrically dressed characters, inspired by the Carnival festival. Together, the artists sketched while listening to Lane, who let them explore the wonderful world of Carnaval, motivated by the idyllic surroundings and strains of music.
Sally d'Ovelle originally from England, now resides in the Kangaroo Valley, where she is constantly inspired to paint her surrounds, in particular the magpies, which nest around her home. Her time at the Banbury School of Art in England, where she worked as drawing and ceramics teacher for six years, solidified her unique and quite cheeky drawing style that can be seen in her current art works, in particular "The Naughty Book", one of six illustrated books. D'Ovelle states that her work is purely imaginative, and that she is a colourist, but wanted to produce work that was largely black and white to convey the detailed vibrancy of the characters at Carnival.
Myriam Kin-Yee has been accepted twice as a finalist in the Portia Geach Portrait Prize in recent years. Her approach to this exhibition is directed by her love for figure drawing and she presents a series of watercolour paintings that exhibits her fascination with the communicative power of body language and its gestures. Most of her paintings illustrate a scene from the movements of the piano piece. Her work "Coquette" conveys a young woman adjusting her mask in the mirror, and parallels the image to the flirtatious music of Schumann's "Coquette". Kin-Yee brings to life animated characters in full motion, showing the viewer a snapshot of the lavish costumery and the dramatic surrounds.
Belinda Webster, a photographer and video artist, draws her inspiration from the natural world. Her photographs aim to reveal graphic aspects of Carnival characters as well as implying the emotive impact of the music. Webster, like Kin-Yee conveys a scene that is reminiscent of Schumann's solo in each of her pieces. She titles her work in parallel to the musical piece, and conveys the emotional response through images of flowers and flowing water. Her vivid piece titled "Pierrot", an intriguing image of a dead moth, evokes a melancholy suggestive of the sad clown.
Together, all three artists convey diverse aspects of Carnaval, and achieve different emotional responses from the viewer through their unique style. Their work is a product of the energy generated at the residency and the marvellous music making. Their inspiration and energy transpires leaving the viewer with a sense of awe and marvel.
Carnaval will be opened on Saturday 30 April 3-5pm by Peter Thompson, broadcast journalist and will be on show until 28 May 2011.
Gallery Hours: Tuesday to Saturday 10am - 5pm
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Friday 18 March - 9 April
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Opening
at Marianne Newman Gallery on Friday the 18th
March, are two diverse exhibitions titled Turbulence
by Pamela Twomey and Recalculating
by Lyndal Campbell. Twomey and Campbell are artists with different
and distinctive styles of painting that respond to and derive their
work from a common thread - their surroundings.
Pamela
Twomey's paintings are inspired by her personal, spiritual and
emotional responses to images she sees around her. Her aim is to
translate these emotions in order to evoke a similar response from
the viewer.
Turbulence
focuses on the landscape of the seaside and water. These images are a
progression from her earlier images of clouds, where she used the
clouds as a metaphor for the different emotional states she was
experiencing. Twomey uses the seascape to represent her current
emotional state, using light to best transcend her vision.
The
sublime reflections from within and around the water are captured in
striking detail. Her paintings are representational, but blur the
boundaries with the abstract, whether they investigate the ambiguous
waves, and ripples of the water or depict more menacing
visualisations with a sense of the unknown.
Twomey
has exhibited widely over recent years and paints from her studio (a
former military building) at the beautiful scenic Headland Park in
Mosman.
Lyndal
Campbell states that Recalculating
is a means of reaching a destination after having taking a series of
wrong turns. The title of her exhibition was inspired by a friend's
two year old who continued to repeat ‘recalculating', the word
uttered by the GPS on the journey to find Campbell's new place.
Campbell
grew up by the water on the Central Coast but felt drawn to the inner
city and her more recent move to suburbia by the sea is explored and
documented in this current series of work. There is a dramatic change
between the surroundings from where Campbell started, and where she
concludes her journey. "Flight Path" is seen as a busy array of
colour and lines, a scene reminiscent to earlier days in the city.
The artwork progresses to the fluid blues and lush greens seen from
the new surroundings, and can be easily distinguished in
"Serendipitous".
Lyndall
Campbell portrays a journey towards contentment and the clarity of
headspace she has found with her move. She states "After being so
resistant to change and thinking the city was my world, I have
discovered a new world filled with blues of the ocean and greens of
the landscape, where I can watch the seasons change and things grow
and have the time to appreciate it all."
Campbell
is an intuitive painter but she works on paintings till she feels
they are resolved ... this can involve years of reworking a complex,
multi-layered and boldly coloured oil painting. The viewer is drawn
in to look closer at what lies under the layers. Campbell's first
exhibition was over 20 years ago and she has been delighting her
audience ever since.
Both
Twomey and Campbell respond to their surroundings in a deeply
personal way, presenting the audience with works that evoke
sensations that carry us along with them.
Turbulence
and
Recalculating
is on show at Marianne
Newman Gallery, 1 Albany Street, Crows Nest from 18
March - 9 April 2011. Gallery
Hours:
Tuesday to Saturday 10am - 5pm
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| Hand painted etchings by Lydia Kullik |
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Friday 11 February - 12 March
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A wood cut series by John Pratt |
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Marianne
Newman Gallery welcomes the New Year by exhibiting two accomplished
Australian artists, Lydia Kullik and John Pratt, who explore various
themes and issues with contemporary approaches to the figure. Kullik
presents Birds,
Bugs, Chic
a zesty exploration of iconic Australian suburban imagery depicted
skillfully through her etchings while Pratt's series Breakwater
explores the physicality of the figure and the potential broader
states of being through his masterful woodcuts.
Kullik's
etchings consist of two series... In the bird series, Kullik's hand
painted etchings generate her observations within nature and
celebrate the playful links between the suburban and urban Australian
environments and former city dwellers who now inhabit them. Through
the use of rich colour palettes and bold patterns Kullik creates
optical links between the natural world and the figure. The second
series, Insect
Couture,
magnifies insects' body parts and transforms them into surreal
pieces of fashion garb, presenting a quirky and fun take on fashion
trends.
Kullik's
vibrant series capture the significance of nature in her art
practice, as she states "Every
day I spend time in the company of an array of birds, wildlife and
insects that inhabit our property. The natural beauty of these small
and generally ignored life forms are the inspiration behind my new
exhibition."
Kullik
has enjoyed a successful career over the last ten years. She has been
the recipient of several major awards including the Bronze Lion award
for illustration in the New York Festival and an ARIA award for the
album cover "Freak Show" for the band Silverchair.
Kullik has received numerous commissions from both Australian and
International companies such as The Australian Magazine, Coca Cola
and Qantas and has exhibited in several solo and group exhibitions In
Sydney.
The
prints on exhibit in Pratt's, Breakwater
series evolved from a collection of drawings undertaken by Pratt at a
suburban swimming pool and feature the familiar activities of diving,
swimming and floating. Pratt's composition of positive and negative
space along with limited colour palette allows the figure to dissolve
surroundings and presents visual metaphors of immersion, suspensions,
dislocation and vulnerability. Pratt is concerned with tuning
his figurative expression into emotional potentials "I have
always been curious about the capacity of everyday situations to
contain the figure in various guises and resonate broader states of
being. The various movements of floating, submergence,
frolicking, swimming, flailing and diving ... evoke other conditions
of release, vulnerability and uncertainty."
Pratt
Is an established printmaker residing in Canberra, frequently
exhibiting in both solo and group exhibitions Australiawide and in
Europe. Pratt's artworks are also represented in the National
Gallery of Australia collection. Currently Pratt shares his passion
and knowledge of printmedia and drawing as a lecturer at the National
Institute of the Arts.
Birds,
Bugs, Chic and Breakwater
is
on show at Marianne
Newman Gallery, 1 Albany Street, Crows Nest from 11
February to 12 March 2011. Gallery
Hours:
Tuesday to Saturday 10am - 5pm
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18 Mar -
9 Apr
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Turbulence and Recalculating: Artists
Pamela Twomey explores the surface of the water as an emotional response to nature and her surrounds. Lyndal Campbell explores the changes in her life through her colourful and intricate painting.
Opening night with the artists Friday 18th March 6-8 pm
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A group exhibition responding to a quote by author
Italo Calvino, curated by Meghan Carpenter
19 November to 18 December 2010
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This
holiday season join us at Marianne Newman Gallery for our latest
exhibition Beyond
the surface of the page... Professor
Ron Newman will open the exhibition on Friday November 19th
from 6-8pm.
Curated
by Meghan Carpenter the theme of this group show is based on a
quotation from Italo Calvino's "The Adventure of a Reader",
"Beyond the surface of the page you entered a world where life was
more alive than here on this side...".
Responding to Calvino's sentiment, artists have produced works
depicting a world of colour and mystery, of live and imaginary
realms.
The
artists featured include Geoffrey Adams, Marina Bishop, Susan
Cowley-Carrasco, Rosemary Christmas, Peter Day, Robert Enemark, Linda
Galbraith, Angela Gill, Pamela Griffith, Sue Hanckel, Nathalie
Hartog-Gautier, Jo Hollier, Patrick Hromas, Heather Kepski, Soyoun
Kim, Dana Lundmark, Penelope Lee, Maryann Mussared, Marie
Peter-Toltz, Christine Shoji, Laura Stark, Lynne Sung, Kerry Thompson
and Kay Watanabe whose works display a broad range of approaches to
art.
Overall
there is a playful ambience, presented in the form of proud roosters
in the spotlight, a child playing, sailboats floating under a full
moon and found books transformed into exquisite sculptural objects. A
range of mediums is used by this group of talented artists who work
with oils, acrylics, digital prints, mixed media and diverse
printmaking techniques. There is a search for significance in both
the known and unknown, depicted in images of an ethereal mossy
forest, a linocut composed of strong silhouettes, a beautifully
crafted collaborative book and abstracted underwater landscapes.
Please
join us for an exhibition sure to please and a chance to explore the
possibilities of what lies Beyond
the surface of the page...
Beyond
the surface of the page... is
on show at Marianne
Newman Gallery,
1
Albany Street, Crows Nest, from November 19th
to December 18th
2010.
Gallery
Hours:
Tuesday to Saturday 10am - 5pm
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15 October to 13 November 2010
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In The Great Divide Alison Jane Rice and Patrick Shirvington explore
eastern NSW. Not only the region of inspiration, the Great Divide also
refers to the very different stylistic rendering of both artists. Rice
captures the flora, fauna and oceanic imagery of the region in her
detailed paintings, drawings and prints, while Shirvington paints lively
and rich interpretations of the Australian bush and mountain
landscapes.
The exhibition will be opened by artist Graham Marchant on Friday 15th
October.
Shirvington's paintings and drawings have a sense of movement and
freedom in the loose but strong line work that composes the landscape of
Bundanon. From subtle black and white to unexpected colour palettes
these images bring bushland to life. Shirvington has an observative
nature and looks for beauty within. Approaching his artwork with an
expressionistic perspective Shirvington does not aim to directly copy
what the eye sees onto paper, instead he captures the moods and emotions
of both landscape and viewer combined. As he stated in an interview,
"The landscape is what always inspires me. Landscape can't argue with
you, if you paint a landscape I interpret the landscape how I see it."
This exhibition features delicate works in oil, watercolour,
pencil and etchings that illustrate both coastal landscapes and
architectural landmarks as well as numerous examples of flora and fauna
including some more scientific drawings.
The Great Divide are on show at Marianne Newman Gallery, 1 Albany Street, Crows Nest from 15 October - 13 November.
Gallery Hours: Tuesday to Saturday 10am - 5pm
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