art gallery

Reviews of art gallery exhibitions published in TroubleMag, Jackdaw and blog, by Alexandra Sasse

Frogs but few princes: Geelong Contemporary Art Award 2018

'The Awakening' by Andrew Browne. Geelong Contemporary Art Prize 2018 Winner

9th June – 19th August 2018

Katherine Hattam painting '72 Derwents' at the Geelong Contemporary Art Award 2018
’72 Derwents’ Katherine Hattam

 

In looking at art, sometimes you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince. That moment when the object you encounter resonates with eye and mind and takes you somewhere strangely new. The latest incarnation of the Geelong Contemporary Art Award is no exception. Hurry on down. If you are looking for a quiet place away from the crowds; this is it. A sunny Queen’s Birthday Monday afternoon – the third day of the exhibition – had the public staying away in hordes.

And why not? Given the frog to prince ratio we have come to expect in contemporary art shows, even the June seaside weather is more reliably rewarding. I feel a bit like a punter before a pokie machine. Will this show give me anything for my invested time, my careful perusal of painting and statements? Or should I be at the beach? Like a gambling addict I am willing to give it a try.

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The Humility of Hokusai

Hokusai
Woodblock print The Great Wave by Katsushika Hokusai
The Great Wave by Katsushika Hokusai

One hundred and seventy-six elegant woodblock prints by Japanese nineteenth century artist Katsushika Hokusai are on display in Melbourne at the NGV. It’s a huge exhibition and a popular one. What is it about these images, from a culture aeons from mine in sensibility and almost two centuries in time that are so riveting? And why do they remind me of Turner, Freidrich and Cozens – those Northern European painters for whom landscape was a metaphor of transcendence? What could a Japanese printmaker have in common with a Romantic painterly sensibility?

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Lacking Doubt – David Hockney at the NGV

Image of Alexandra Sasse viewing David Hockney exhibition

David Hockney: Current

 National Gallery of Victoria 11th November 2016 – 13th March 2017

Image of display of printed digital drawings and two screens displaying work by David Hockney
A visitor checks her phone, surrounded by David Hockney’s digital drawings

Two mobile phones attached to a purple wall greet you at the entrance to this exhibition. Their screens are displaying images of David Hockney’s drawings done on a phone. My younger companion’s first reaction is not to the image but to the type of phone. Iphone not android she observes glancing and moving on.

Is this an exhibition about drawing, about Hockney or about technology? Or about advertising? Apple doesn’t seem to have its logo anywhere, but let’s face it; this exhibition is about one company’s product.  Is Apple getting all this endorsement for free?

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Art’s Alive at Arc

Arc Yinnar Biennial Drawing Prize                

October 15 – November 26, 2016      

Image of Alexandra Sasse at Arc Yinnar
Visiting Arc Yinnar Drawing Prize

  

There’s a converted butter factory in a small town tucked into the green rolling foothills of the Strzelecki ranges, where the main street is wide and cars are parked at 45 degree angles. Anyone who can spell Strzelecki must be a local. This is Yinnar on the doorstep of the still-operating Hazelwood coal-fired power station, subject of much debate and despair.

There’s a Drawing Prize here of national repute. Despite the rhetoric of demographic disasters: job losses, mine fires, pollution, asbestos and the rest,  Arc Yinnar an artist run venture has been operating for 32 years. As well as hosting a national prize, it boasts two galleries, public access facilities for printmaking, ceramics, metalwork, photography, painting and drawing, a retail outlet, theatrette and private studios. All this on a shoestring grant of $3000. When the lights go out at Hazelwood, this sort of cooperative venture is what keeps communities afloat and shores up their identity. Its funding should be assured for the long term, but I am told it is reduced every year and tied to utilitarian outcomes.

A drawing show throws up immediate questions; how much drawing is going on, what do people draw and what do they draw for

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Surreal Worlds – John Leslie Landscape Prize

John Leslie Landscape Prize Review Alexandra Sasse with Nicolas Harding's Wilpena Wattle at the John Leslie Art Prize 2016

This landscape painting prize, based in Sale, is one of those generous moments when a local benefactor makes a significant contribution to the nation’s cultural life….and ensures that serious contemporary work reaches the regions. It encompasses vertiginous highs and repellent lows. Predominantly the work is largish and surreal. Colour has mostly escaped any sense of