In the eyes of world-renowned milliner Stephen Jones, hats are the punctuation of fashion. Like a shrewdly positioned comma, a hat can bring a whole new meaning to a couture ensemble that never before existed. In a career spanning almost three decades, Stephen has provided the punctuation for fashion’s elite (including John Galliano, Marc Jacobs, Vivienne Westwood and Rae Kawakubo) with his millinery creations gracing the world’s most coveted catwalks, and he has also created hats for personalities such as Boy George and Kylie Minogue. Most recently, the talented milliner has channelled his talents and passion for hats into an exhibition for London’s V&A Museum, Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones, which will take up residence at Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art from March 27. Continue reading ‘international dreamer - stephen jones’
Archive for the 'Gallery Exhibitions' Category
Power of self
The Power of Self. A competition about the potential of self-portraiture. From Salvador Dali to Cindy Sherman the self has been the subject of all the art world’s greats. The self-portrait transcends medium, style and period, existing in the vast space between the personal and prophetic. This competition is about your story, your image and the power they hold. (PS It’s a worldwide competition and the prize is 6 months living in New York- go enter!)
faces from the frontline
Meet Hamish Cairns. Hamish is a photographer. He recently returned to Brisbane from Pakistan and what he describes as World War III happening there right now. “This is worse than Vietnam, but there’s no information,” he says. As someone who witnessed the situation first-hand, he believes it should be headlining the news every day. “What’s happening there is going to change the world we live in,” he says. His photographic exhibition PAKISTAN - Faces From the Frontline will display shots of actual refugees who have fled the warzone.
Continue reading ‘faces from the frontline’
the art of local art
Get down to the KiLN Gallery Saturday 10th of October for the opening of The Brisbane Artist Run Initiative (BARI) showcasing the best of the local art scene. Whether your interests are ceramics, painting or sculpture, each field will be well represented by talented artists including Carly Kotynski, Jamie Congdon, Tammy Law, Bec Lindemann and popular Brisbane illustrator Josh Rufford. Rufford is well know to the art scene in the Valley, with his street and surf inspired illustrations taking up semi-permanent residence in local coffee haunt Urban Grind. From Rufford’s “observed realities” to Kotynski’s colourful sponge sculptures, expect your creativity to be ignited! The BARI exhibition will be running from 10th - 31st of October at KiLN in Paddington.
sergei mikhailovich prokudin-gorskii
Can you believe this photo is from 1909? It was taken by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii, a chemist, photographer and one of the first to pioneer colour photography. The image was part of Prokudin-Gorskii’s ambitious project to document the Russian Empire circa 1907 and 1915. Travelling around in a specially fitted darkroom railroad car, Prokudin-Gorskii documented the history and culture of the empire using his own method of colour photography. He took three consecutive photographs of his subjects with three separate filters – red, blue and green. The filters were then layered on top of each other and projected into full colour. The results are vivid, eerie and captivating. Using digital processing, the Library of Congress restored the images and is exhibiting the collection online. Image via the Library of Congress.
The Museum of Modern Art and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in Long Island City, Queens, has an annual competition that gives emerging architects the opportunity to build projects for P.S.1’s courtyard. This years winner is “afterparty” by the architectural firm MOS. It is a temporary urban shelter and passive cooling station with chimney-like shapes created by a lightweight aluminum frame that is clad in a layer of mesh and palm fibers. The architectural installation creates the setting for the “Warm Up” events which are super fun dance parties that occur throughout the summer. Together, the music, architecture and exhibition program provide a unique multi-sensory experience for music fans, artists, and families alike. The Young Architects Program has been creating exciting spaces since 1998, and one of my favourites is last year’s “P.F.1: Public Farm One” by WORK Architecture Company.
proving the world is a small is place
It’s often easy to lose perspective, but a visit to the World Press Photo Exhibition at the Powerhouse will serve as a profound and ultimately grounding experience. The 52nd annual event showcases the very best of photojournalism around the world, capturing the state of the world in 2008. The Beijing Olympics, crippling poverty, and the beauty of nature feature prominently, as does the state of the world economy, all played out as a visual tragedy. Flying the Aussie flag is Mark Dadswell, who won second prize in the Sports Action Singles category by capturing the agony and the ecstasy of Usain Bolt as he won the 200m men’s final at the Olympics. The calibre of the imagery and the confronting social issues make this exhibition one not to miss.
Barista by day, artist and animator by night, Emma Bertoldi has got a lot on her plate. For six months now, Emma’s new project has been up on the drawing board. Titled Plank!, the upcoming skateboard art exhibition will feature some of the biggest names in the underground art scene, including Emma herself, ranging in styles from stencil art, graffiti and all the way through to comic book artists. With an exhibition already under her belt, Plank! is the continuation of Emma’s dreams and creative ideas. Emma first dreamed of drawing comics as a young kid when she came across her Dad’s old MAD magazines. Now, she has completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts majoring in Animation and plans on opening her own gallery in the future. Being fond of “bright and catchy” art which can be stripped back to reveal “immense meanings and desires”, you will find her art exhibitions will showcase just that. Continue reading ‘a skate deck art bonanza’
are you doing it?
“…and the ones who are, aren’t doing it very well ” (That is the end of the anonymous quote that’s missing from the photo). This is part of the “What Has Architecture Done For You Lately?” exhibition currently at the Toronto Design Exchange. The exhibition explores architecture through perceptions of success, equality, emotion, health, and the environment.
From her artists’ studio in Alice Springs, Dorothy Napangardi paints her country. As a Warlpiri woman from Mina Mina, Dorothy has significant ties to her land and her people. But instead of using the visual language of the Mina Mina people, Dorothy has created her own language and bounces from one perspective to another. Using an intricate system of colours, lines and dots to create beautiful and complex paintings, Dorothy is a highly respected contemporary Aboriginal artist. Bringing her paintings to Brisbane’s Institute of Modern Art (IMA) this month, Dorothy will exhibit alongside John Reynolds, a New Zealand painter. Often using systems of broken lines to create architectural and abstract paintings, John is considered to be one of New Zealand’s key artistic figures. Catch Dorothy and John’s joint exhibition at IMA until April 25.
Image: Karntakurlangu Jukurrpa (Women’s Dreaming) by Dorothy Napangardi
Via World Architecture News: The controversial Tsunami Museum in Aceh, Indonesia, will come to represent a fitting place for reflection but at its opening last week a row over the 700 families still to be re-housed overshadowed the event. Accusations of misplaced priorities over the locals left homeless after the Tsunami of 2004 were triggered by the investment of millions of dollars in a monument rather than housing, but now the Tsunami Museum in Aceh is complete it presents an opportunity for closure and a chance to move on. Continue reading ‘reflection in the water’
art on board
Photo is ‘Wander Alone Like A Rhinoceros Horn’ by TWO ONE: If you happen to be in Sydney, definitely check out this exhibition.
come up to my room
To me there is something sexy and cool about hotels, and they are even cooler when they are filled with creativity. Come Up To My Room is an alternative design show that since 2004 has been transforming rooms of the historic Gladstone Hotel in Toronto. Different designers and artists were invited to choose one of the eleven exhibition rooms on the hotel’s second floor and create site-specific installations. The show focuses on the diverse practices that work outside the norms of traditional design: multidisciplinary, independent, emerging and self-taught. This year it had everything from a planted living wall, a penny smash machine, a wood clad nook, provoking signs, to a stunning cast porcelain scene. It’s hard to pick a favourite from the diverse talent pool, but I particularly liked the work by Andra Hayward, Shannon Linde & Christina Ott. The project uses reclaimed keys to create a large-scale typographic installation in the stairwell (it spelled out ‘Come Inside’) that invited visitors into the exhibition and encourage them to participate with its evolution over the course of the show.
In one way or another, murmurs about the Ten Days on the Island festival in Tassie from 27 March keep reverberating around me and inspiring me in different ways so I thought I’d share the chatter. I was one of the lucky ones to be in the audience at Metro Arts’ forum last week where Scott Rankin, director of big hART, and Donna Jackson of hubcap productions spoke under the banner, “Artists as Social Entrepreneurs”. Both Scott and Donna do AMAZING things to instigate social change through high quality art across all forms, guiding receptive communities to tell their stories for the benefit of healing social angst and forging new futures. There isn’t space here to explain the immense scope, intimate research and deep intuition with which they approach their respective projects so check out their websites if you’re intrigued to learn more. big hART’s Junk Theory is just one example of the work they do in social change and it will kick-start the Ten Days festival on 27 March, which is apparently the country’s largest state-wide biennial international arts festival with more than 200 ticketed art, theatre, literature, film, music and the art of conversation events. Through Junk Theory , big hART worked with Cronulla’s Sutherland Shire after the riots in 2005 when the community was thrown onto the national map, looking all grubby and scuffed. big hART encouraged the young people to share their stories and listen to others as a progressive response to the shock and hurt in the community that aimed to prove it’s harder to hurt someone when you know their story. The young people were linked with photographers, composers, filmmakers, older residents, seafarers, local businesses and 35 local community organisations to create Junk Theory. Continue reading ‘‘junk theory’ in ten days on the island’
Yesterday I stumbled upon one of the coolest places to be on a sweltering morning in Noosaville. With A-Grade air conditioning bouncing off dark grey slate floors and sliding up walls of books stacked to the ceiling, the new {Embiggen Books} on Weyba Road makes for a soothing refuge from the outside world. It’s only a few weeks shy of its three-month anniversary but looks like it will become one of those stores that locals attach themselves to with sturdy safety pins, especially with the hearty Organika cafe and wholefoods shop next door (try the papaya and banana fruit smoothie - deeeelicious!). Embiggen’s catch cry is: “Where science meets art”, and to that end it stocks an inspiring collection of art and science tomes (it’s already the largest science bookstore in Queensland and the third largest in Australia) and you’ll also find a sexy selection of mainly non-fiction books dedicated to design, religion, philosophy, the environment, economics, atheism, and skepticism. One wall is saved for use as a fine art gallery and I fell instantly and deeply in love with the works by current exhibiting artist, Silvi Glattauer, from Melbourne. Her six nature-based photographic pieces (image inset) are printed on 100 percent cotton ragpaper using museum grade archival methods, which makes for a textured and eerie glow to the unadulterated images. Embiggen will host regular artist talks with local and visiting artists, scientists and philosophers, and is also the new HQ for the newly established Sunshine Coast Skeptics Society to promote critical thinking about life, the universe and everything in between. On January 21, Peter Ellerton, winner of the 2008 Prize for Critical Thinking will speak to the topic Bullsh*t Detection for kids, for life. If you want your thinking to be challenged, head for arguably the coolest new store in Noosa.
museum of letters
via Core77: Since May 2005, the Buchstabenmuseum (Museum of Letters) organization has been rescuing typographic icons of our time. Today, the Buchstabenmuseum preserves an immense collection of historical letters from all over Berlin and beyond. Enjoy a visit yourself (by appointment only) or enjoy our sneak preview right now.
art on the wharf
One of the most wonderful things about travelling places like Europe prior to Christmas is the Christmas markets that line village squares and perch beside ice rinks, offering unique, handmade trinkets, hot food and friendly pre-Christmas buzz. Drawing on the wonderful tradition that is the Christmas market, Portside Wharf is hosting an artistic twist on the original concept. Art On The Wharf is being held on Dec 6-7, and promises a weekend of fine art, free creative workshops and stalls, as well as a site-specific light installation created by digital design collective, Rinzen. Local artists who will be showing and selling their work over the weekend include: Benjamin Werner, Wayne Radford, Jan Van Dijk, Pia Robinson, Jonathon Oxlade and Neils van Amsterdam.
monet and the impressionists
While Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art has enjoyed some major international exhibitions, such as Andy Warhol and Picasso’s Collection, the Art Gallery of New South Wales has also lined up a major exhibition. Titled Monet and The Impressionists, the exhibition encompasses the works of the Impressionist masters and includes paintings by Renoir, Pissarro, Cézanne, Degas, Manet and Monet. With a full program that includes a Water Glimpses film program and range of talks by radio presenters, curators and authors – from Margaret Throsby to Bob Brown, Sarah Turnbull and The Sandman and Flacco, The Art Gallery of New South Wales has compiled an impressive exhibition that may rival GoMA’s previous efforts. The exhibition opened on October 11, 2008, and runs until January 26, 2009.
all you can eat
Low GI, low fat, high fibre, low carb, preservative free, natural preservative – there is a lot of food lingo floating around that describes what people eat in contemporary society. Traditionally, the food pyramid drew the line between ‘good’ food and ‘bad food’, but recently there has been many ad campaigns in between, which are blurring the boundaries between the two. It is no wonder that food has become linked to our emotional state and we may experience feelings of guilt when eating ‘bad’ foods. All You Can Eat explores these concepts by portraying individuals eating their favourite foods. The closely cropped images focus on the subjects’ faces, as guilt battles pleasure in the ritual of consumption. All You Can Eat is on show at the Brisbane Powerhouse until October 26.
environmental sculpture
The nature of art means that contemporary artists are constantly being challenged to find new materials, ideas and techniques to create innovative and exciting artwork. One UK artist has found a new and beautiful way to work with found driftwood by turning her findings into amazing life-size sculptures of horses. Working across mediums, such as wire, bronze and paint, Heather Jansch translated her life-long love of horses into three-dimensional constructions, which encapsulate the physical power and grace of the horse. Throughout the year, guests can visit Heather’s property in Devon, UK, to view her artistic process and many finished pieces that grace the lawns and studio space.
