April 2010
Four interesting exhibitions in Albert Street, Richmond – from the beautiful, formed leather sculptures of Pamela Rataj to the wonderfully vibrant tropical bird, chair and decorative pattern paintings of Claudia Damichi; from the intensely observed canvas environments of Steve Randall to the post-photographic silk-screen textualisations of Robert Boynes. Well worth a visit on a Saturday afternoon!
As always, many thankx to the galleries for allowing me to publish the images in this posting. Please click on the images for a larger version.
- Pamela Rataj. The Morphology of Forgetting at Anita Traverso Gallery. 7th April – 1st May 2010
- Claudia Damichi. The Bitter Sweet at Sophie Gannon Gallery. 30th March – 25th April 2010
- Steve Rendall. Security, Storage and Recreation at John Buckley Gallery. 8th April – 1st May 2010
- Robert Boynes. Postscript at Karen Woodbury Gallery. 7th April – 1st May 2010
Pamela Rataj. The Morphology of Forgetting at Anita Traverso Gallery
7th April – 1st May 2010
Pamela Rataj (Australian)
Tangent Bundle
2009
Pamela Rataj (Australian)
Ravel
2009
Pamela Rataj (Australian)
Kairos
2009
How to draw a boundary between self and other, past time and today?
Patterns and forms in nature often resemble one another, connecting life forms in unexpected ways. Tide lines left in the sand resemble the grains found in a piece of wood, and the veins in a leaf or those in a hand.
The age lines in the trunk of a tree form as each outer layer covers the one preceding it and echoes its shape. This makes me think of the way past experience resurfaces as memory, receding or becoming more important at different times in our lives, as each new experience envelopes our previous states of being and yet is shaped by them.
The wrapped and layered forms in The Morphology of Forgetting explore coexistence and connection.
I dedicate this exhibition to my parents, whose recent deaths have helped me appreciate memory as a way to connect through time.
Pamela Rataj 2010
Press release from the Anita Traverso Gallery website [Online] Cited 10/04/2010 no longer available online
Pamela Rataj (Australian)
Faisceaux 1
2009
Pamela Rataj (Australian)
Faisceaux 4
2009
Claudia Damichi. The Bitter Sweet at Sophie Gannon Gallery
30th March – 25th April 2010
Claudia Damichi (Australian, b. 1972)
Birds eye
2010
Acrylic on canvas
46 x 41cm
Claudia Damichi (Australian, b. 1972)
Star Gazer
2009
Acrylic on canvas
46 x 41cm
Claudia Damichi (Australian, b. 1972)
Gridlock
2010
Acrylic on canvas
41 x 46cm
Claudia Damichi (Australian, b. 1972)
Reading between the lines
2010
Acrylic on canvas
46 x 41cm
Claudia Damichi’s surrealist still life paintings are characterised by vivid colours, elaborate patterns and distorted spatial proportions. In her paintings of domestic interiors, flowers, birds and furniture, colour is inflated and scale is playfully manipulated – solitary domestic interiors are reconfigured into places of fantasy and illusion. Inspired by the enduring aesthetic of modern industrial design, her surreal and theatrically staged scenarios self-consciously conjure a sense of the absurd. Graphic patterning, high-croma colour and whimsical compositions foster worlds that are at once playful and claustrophobic, satirical and real, tapping into an ambiguous nostalgia that leaves the viewer feeling that anything is possible.
Visit the Sophie Gannon website
Claudia Damichi (Australian, b. 1972)
Look out
2010
Acrylic on canvas
46 x 56cm
Steve Rendall. Security, Storage and Recreation at John Buckley Gallery
8th April – 1st May 2010
Steven Rendall (Australian born Britain, b. 1969; Australia from 2000)
Archive 1
2010
Oil on linen
Steven Rendall (Australian born Britain, b. 1969; Australia from 2000)
Archive 2
2010
Oil on linen
Citing the British artist Walter Sickert as an important influence on his painterly style, Rendall’s work displays a form and content that has attracted the attention of both critics and collectors. A key work in the exhibition is a large-scale painting on un-stretched linen titled Fountain (Rosemary’s Baby) that sprawls across 4.5m. Certain fountains, along with other apparently arbitrary images of television monitors, speedboats, clothing racks, shelving units and museum interiors are recurring motifs in Rendall’s paintings.
Rendall aims to ‘collect and synthesise’ images from around his home and en route to and from his Brunswick studio. Passing observations of window displays, charity shops and various light industrial warehouses are registered and recorded in conjunction with the accumulation of promotional flyers spruiking leisure activities and museum experiences. This shambolic collection of images is transcribed into an array of compositions in Rendall’s paintings. Images occasionally materialise in unlikely places, such as the spectral diver’s head that is resting on a warehouse shelf in the appropriately titled Storage.
In the exhibition Security, Storage and Recreation, you are invited to enter the image bank of Steven Rendall; a ‘wake in fright’ experience where one can become immersed and caught up in the maelstrom of the artist’s visual language – a sequence of painterly dreams each similar yet different to the last.”
Press release from the John Buckley Gallery website [Online] Cited 10/04/2010 no longer available online
Steven Rendall (Australian born Britain, b. 1969; Australia from 2000)
Flat Screens (Green)
2010
Oil on linen
Steven Rendall (Australian born Britain, b. 1969; Australia from 2000)
Pipes
2010
Oil on linen
Steven Rendall (Australian born Britain, b. 1969; Australia from 2000)
Claustrophobia
2010
Oil on linen
Steven Rendall (Australian born Britain, b. 1969; Australia from 2000)
Redacted 2
2010
Oil on linen
Robert Boynes. Postscript at Karen Woodbury Gallery
7th April – 1st May 2010
Robert Boynes (Australian, b. 1942)
Street Runner
2010
Acrylic on canvas and velvet
120 x 242cm
Robert Boynes (Australian, b. 1942)
Days that we forgot
2010
Acrylic on canvas
Robert Boynes (Australian, b. 1942)
Signal Driver
2010
Acrylic on canvas and velvet
120 x 190cm
Postscript is Robert Boynes’ second solo exhibition with Karen Woodbury Gallery. This series continues with his exploration of urban themes, contemporary experience and experimentation into ways of using paint. In this most recent body of work Robert has employed the use of text in juxtaposition to various materials such as wood and velvet. The text conveys a feeling of noise and urban clatter, acting as a context and environment for the figures within the work.
His technique involves transferring photographic images to large silk screens and dragging paint through the mesh onto canvas. Robert thus has control in the manipulation of colour, density and translucency of the images. This process results in still moments that magnify and investigate everyday observable reality. The anonymous figures are juxtaposed with text and layering of saturated, contrasting colours, appearing objectified and ghostly.
These works embody a filmic quality, the multi-panelled paintings signify fragmented narratives and enquire into perceptions of time and space.
Text from the Karen Woodbury Gallery website [Online] Cited 10/04/2010 no longer available online
Robert Boynes (Australian, b. 1942)
Body Type 2
2010
Acrylic on canvas
Robert Boynes (Australian, b. 1942)
Body Type 3
2010
Acrylic on canvas
Robert Boynes (Australian, b. 1942)
Things we leave behind
2009
Acrylic on canvas
120 x 180cm
Robert Boynes (Australian, b. 1942)
The layered moment
2009
Acrylic on canvas
Robert Boynes (Australian, b. 1942)
Postscript
2009
Acrylic on canvas
120 x 124cm
All galleries have closed except for Sophie Gannon Gallery, Richmond.
Sophie Gannon Gallery
2 Albert Street Richmond VIC 3121 Australia
Phone: +61 3 9421 0857
Art Blart 
thank you share..very nice