Current Exhibition
|
|
Minka Gillian
MIND GARDEN 4
copper wire, cable ties, polyester mono filament, beads, shells, wire, doilies, cotton, needle caps, acrylic, rope, electrical wire, plastic bags, deconstructed necklaces, builder’s line, buttons, sari string, extinguished fire crackers, plastic coated electrical wire, glue, whipper snipper cord, computer parts, jet ski rope, photos, notes, photocopies, curtain rings, netting, ceramic objects and embroidery cotton.
In 2020 artist Minka Gillian was invited to exhibit a selection of works from an ongoing project titled MIND GARDEN as part of PROJECT 2060: HOMEWARD BOUND, a large-scale Arts & Culture North Sydney curatorial initiative featuring works by 150 artists at 5 Council venues throughout March.
In MIND GARDEN 4 Minka has created an immersive, joyful and intriguing installation that funnels the viewer into the internal world of the artist to transform the contained glass plinth into a magical, almost terrarium type world of intrigue, colour and life.
Minka has been making and exhibiting for over 28 years and specialises in woven biomorphic sculptures and mixed media. She has exhibited extensively throughout Australia as well as lived and exhibited in Japan.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My work examines the nature of our bodies, our relationships to the synthetic and organic world around us, both physical and mental. My practice ultimately involves a mix of conceptual issues around the relationship of the human body to the world and aesthetic concerns that arise from these formal relationships.
I use materials for their sensual and flexible qualities as well as the embedded stories in found objects. I like to challenge myself by using ugly or cheap materials and elevating them into works of beauty. My sculptures are hand woven structures that transform everyday prosaic materials into biomorphic objects of beauty and intrigue.
Through the process of making I am sometimes guided by the materials as if they have their own life and will. The final sculptures are rarely how I planned them but much more complicated than I could initially visualise. I reference nature and human anatomy in a broad sense but also try to imbue my sculptures with my own personal stories of my life.
www.minkagillian.com
|
|
|
Jenny Green
Hot Spots
painted steel
110 x 45 x 28cm
Artist Statement
Hot Spots is a story of optimism, resourcefulness and resilience. It conjures a life of criss-crossing paths and interactions, periods of vibrancy and high energy offset by periods of refection. And, of course, the odd crisis, highlighted with a touch of red! COVID has forced us to reframe priorities, to spend more time ‘being’ rather than ‘doing’. But it will not defeat us. Human ingenuity will prevail.
Jenny Green is an established sculptor based on the Northern Beaches. Jenny has had many solo exhibitions and participated in a broad range of group exhibitions across Australia including the North Sydney Art Prize 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019. Jenny is represented by traffic jam galleries in Neutral Bay.
jennygreen.net
Jenny Green CV (99KB) |
|
Previous Exhibitions
|
|
Nola Jones
Halcyon Days
steel, aluminium armature, papier mache & oil paint
73 x 53 x 53cm
Nola Jones playful totemic sculpture is currently on display. The vividly painted work in unusually bright colours, speaks of esoteric ritual and universality. It is rich in colour and abstract geometry, and invites the viewer to step closer.
Nola is an established artist who works across a range of media with a more recent interest in abstract symbolic, almost primitive forms. She began her journey in painting in the early 60s and then travelled through disparate media including textiles, paper and working with found objects. Her journey through sculpture over the past decades reflects her extensive international travels and a determination to experiment.
Nola completed studies from 1961-3 at the SA School of Art, Adelaide and 1964-5 attended the Central School of Arts and Crafts, London. She has an extensive exhibition history and her works are held in collections across Australia.
|
|
|
Ana Young
Subterranean
found objects
12 x 50 x 70cm variable
The installation is an ongoing project which questions the temporal versus the remembered being.
Remnants are reassembled, locked. Mnemonic puzzles hinting at bodily states. Pieces wrapped and bound.
Disparate memories, small shards of what is lost, found and left behind.
Ana is currently a studio artist at North Sydney Council’s Primrose Park Artist Studio Program, Cremorne.
Ana Young CV (101KB)
|
|
|
Denese Oates
ESCAPE 2015
mixed media sculpture, 68 x 34 x 37.5 cm
Denese Oates combines botanical forms fabricated from copper, which emerge from the inner confines of books, suggesting how these hidden ideas and facts, philosophies and mysteries, can be synonymous with the visual representation of growth. She explores the idea that inspiration springs from a myriad of places, and a universe of knowledge may be encased in small packages ready to burst
Denese was the winner of Site Specific Award, North Sydney Art Prize 2017, and Council purchased that work for its Local Studies Collection.
Denese Oates CV (1MB)
|
 |
|
Bridget Kennedy
food for thought
cultured & (b)leached wall necklace, 925 silver, rice
Statement
This work was made in response to the artist’s experience of her marriage to her indigenous Filipino husband on the top of a mountain in his home town Sagada, Philippines. The hilltop has now been renamed ‘the wedding hill’ by locals. The ceremony took place over a number of days, entrails of chickens were read, a cow and a bag of 50 year of rice were gifted as wedding presents, and a village was fed. The depth of community, ritual and connection to nature highlighting the disconnect in her own ‘white-anglo’ cultural experience.
Bridget Kennedy CV (196KB)
Bridget Kennedy Biography (48KB)
|
 |
STUDIO A
Thom Roberts, Emu 2018, hand painted textile sculpture, sale price: $330
Emily Crockford, Bunny 2018, papier mache, gold leaf, handpainted egg, sale price: $110
Phil Sidney, White Bird 2018, papier mache, gold leaf, handpainted egg, sale price: $110
Phil Sidney, Magpie 2018, papier mache, gold leaf, handpainted egg, sale price: $110
Statement
Studio A is a supported artist studio based in Crows Nest tackling the barriers that artists living with intellectual disability face in accessing conventional education, professional development pathways and opportunities needed to be successful visual artists. This unique enterprise paves professional pathways for these artists so they can achieve their artistic and economic aspirations.
Studio A provides its artists with a working studio space equipped with specialist materials and support-staff. It also manages an annual exhibition program and facilitates weekly workshops provided by invited contemporary artists. Studio A thus strategically links their diverse artists with an equally diverse range of target markets including art, design, craft, and corporate ones.
website: www.studioa.org.au
|
 |
|
Kathie Najar
Teenage Games:
#17 Fighting Gully Rd, #19 High St
hand painted ceramic tiles, marine ply, silicon, astro turf, pavers
Artist Statement
These sculptures were informed by the tradition of 18th century hand painted Dutch delft tiles, and children’s games.
Miniature painted images of old fashioned children’s games initially attract, but on closer inspection, they are transformed by unstable teenage behaviour - when we walk the razor’s edge to mentally mature adulthood.
The letterbox is the entry point to a happy family home, but it poses the question: is anyone home? Is anyone there to tend and care for teenagers?
The images turn bitter to harmful behaviours that repeat generation after generation.
Artist Biography
Kathie Najar is an Arts Programmer and Artist who creates and facilitates accessible visual arts programs that invite conversations and an exchange of knowledge, skills and ideas. Kathie has also curated fine art and community exhibitions, and has assisted with major Art Festivals and Sculpture Prizes. Working in various mediums her artworks explore society and the human condition.
After completing her Fine Arts degree in the 1980’s, Kathie has had commissions to paint tiles, murals, glass and fabrics. She has also won awards and national work for her collage and hand-painted tiles. Kathie completed a Masters at College of Fine Arts, UNSW in 2012. |
|
|
Glenese Keavney
A Mixed Dozen – finding ways we are Connected
Various shaped and sized bottles using a range of basketry techniques: stitching, looping (knotless netting), twining, random knotting, wrapping, riveting
Artist Statement
Such a strange mixture: we human beings. I search for how to see and feel us as cohesive, together, connected. There is an Aboriginal viewpoint that as the Earth is our Mother, we are all related.
Glenese Keavney CV (118KB)
|
|
|
Rhonda Pryor
Reminders
polyester & nylon, organza & thread
Artist Statement
This work was exhibited in the Hidden Sculpture Award at Rookwood Cemetery. The veil alludes to the crossing from life to death. This thin film of sheer organza is embroidered with handwritten words and phrases, obtained from the personal correspondence of various members of
my family, that relate to the loss of loved ones.
Rhonda Pryor CV (615KB)
www.rhondapryor.wordpress.com
Rhonda Pryor was the 2018 Coal Loader Artist in Residence
|
|
|
The Red Project - Celebrating Creative Women in North Sydney
FLUIDITY, POWER, STRENGTH
A symbolic installation by Ridge Street Artist in Residence Bridget Kennedy referencing ideations of 'woman' using sterling silver, nickel silver, steel, threads, various found and donated beads.
Bridget Kennedy Project Space
www.projectspace.bridgetkennedy.com.au
|
 |
| ALW Clarke
You Are Here
Glass, Reclaimed Western Red Cedar and Ink on paper
32 x 35 x 2 cm
Price: $600
ALW Clarke's work explores the human condition, alongside self-awareness and growth. She uses art to encourage conversations on mental health and wellness. 'You Are Here' is inspired by the pinpoint of modern location services. Clarke created this piece as a reminder to be present in the moment - unconcerned with the past or future, being fully aware of where you are right now.
|
 |
|
Ana Young
The archive of memory 2017
found objects, dimensions variable
Ana Young is a local artist who works in paintings and installations. Ana has haad many solo exhibitions and been selected for a number of well-known group exhibitions including the NSW Parliament Art Prize, Salon des Refuse, Kedumba Drawing Award, Dobell Prize for Drawing, Blake Prize, Hidden Sculpture Award and Fisher’s Ghost Art Award.
Artist Statement
We file away our memories, hide old fragments, everyday objects become animated by their past lives, trapped inside them, childhood, family remnants, discarded mementos remain mute. I reconfigure and catalogue these "finds" in order to hint at and encourage relationships between seemingly disparate objects. Cataloguing their presence encourages the viewer to form their own personal narratives.
Ana Young CV (101KB)
|
 |
| Andrew May
Journey(Less)
recycled mild steel, 81 x 64 x 65cm
Andrew is an established practicing artist working in a variety of media including sculpture, painting and photography.
He has exhibited extensively both locally and nationally holding regular solo exhibitions and contributing to a number of group exhibitions.
Journey(Less) sets put to highlight the emotional weight that humans carry in the daily grind to find the easiest existence. Contained in the journeys we are all travelling through to find a placing or mooring.
www.instagram.com/andrewmayart/
|
 |
| Jenny Green
Luminous
bronze, 60 x 20 x 15cm
Jenny Green is an established sculptor based on the Northern Beaches. Jenny has had many solo exhibitions and participated in a broad range of group exhibitions across Australia including the North Sydney Art Prize 2013, 2015 and 2017.
Jenny is represented by traffic jam galleries, 41 Military Road, Neutral Bay. For information regarding her work visit www.trafficjamgalleries.com or phone 9953 3832
|
 |
| Sally Aplin
Evolution of the Bag 2017
Mixed media, size variable
Bags have been in existence for as long as we have needed to carry things. The bags in this plinth are an example of evolution which has rendered them totally ineffective for this function.
The seven larger bags are coloured concrete, heavy and solid. Seven smaller bags are electroformed enamelled copper. Six of these have holes in their sides and all have frilly protuberances. The ten suspended bags are enamelled copper, very delicate and fragile and with a quality like paper. Another, a large mauve enamelled copper bag is without a handle. In the centre is a chic, pink, beaded bag revolving on a white lacey cushion, posing decoratively and referring to elegance and age. This bag with faux leather handles is also solid concrete.
These objects parody the little bag as a fashion item.
|
 |
Desdemona Foster
petiole 1 2016
paper & waxed cotton,80 x 120cm
Desdemona Foster is an artist who incorporates basketry techniques in her creative practice.
She draws inspiration from the natural world with a particular focus on working with recycled materials.
Artist Statement
A paper wasp sting sent me in search of its nest.
petiole 1 draws on the shape of the nest and stalk anchor. For survival anchors are strong. Wasps secrete and spread a chemical around the base of the anchor to repel ants to prevent feasting on the eggs or brood within. The bottom opening of petiole 1 is small to restrict entry and invasion - protecting the family and community.
Desdemona Foster CV (150KB)
|
 |
| Matthew McLarty
Today and Tomorrow 2016
mixed media, 50 x 80 x 50cm
Matthew McLarty is an emerging artist and photographer. His painted works often feature bold colours in a simplistic abstract style. His catalogue of photographs is vast and includes macro images of the natural world, impressive landscapes and everyday objects otherwise forgotten.
|
 |
| Stephanie Powell
Edward Piano Hands, mixed media, 79x19x14cm
Edison, mixed media, 61x19x15cm
Edward Piano Hands and Edison are both made from found objects (chair legs, piano parts, light globes, golf tees, wood). My work expresses contemporary social and environmental concerns and, at the same time, I'm sharing a positive message about beauty and the aesthetic experience. For me found objects often have inherent beauty due to the affect of aging on the materials. People have expressed to me an awareness that manifests after seeing my found object artwork and surprise in the variety of ways I have utilised them.
|
 |
| Nola Jones
Britta 2010, mixed media, 90 x 30 x 20cm (red sculpture)
Sylvie 2010, mixed media, 91 x 27 x 26cm (green sculpture)
Two distinct and colourful sculptural works by local artist Nola Jones are currently on display. The vivid totemic works speak of esoteric ritual and universality. They are painted in unusually bright colours and look to the spiritual as the originator of form. Rich in colour and abstract geometry, they invite the viewer to step closer and take a look.
Nola is an established artist who works across a range of media with a more recent interest in abstract symbolic, almost primitive forms. She began her journey in painting in the early 60s and then travelled through disparate media including textiles, paper and working with found objects. Her journey through sculpture over the past decades reflects her extensive international travels and a determination for experimentation.
Nola completed studies from 1961-3 at the South Australian School of Art, Adelaide and 1964-5 attended the Central School of Arts and Crafts, London. She has an extensive exhibition history and her works are held in collections across Australia.
|
 |
| Alex Thorby
pteropods 2015
wire, seaweed paper, Japanese paper, 60 x 60cm
Alex Thorby was a finalist in the North Sydney Art Prize 2015 and is currently a co-Director at NORTH Contemporary Art Space, 53 Ridge Street, North Sydney
|
 |
Jane Theau
Faded Dystopia with Hope Rising 2015
mixed media, 60 x 60x100cm
Artist Statement
Double, double climate trouble;
Fires burn, floodwaters bubble.
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg and howlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
Double, double climate trouble;
Fires burn, floodwaters bubble.
Cool it with consumers’ blood,
Then the future’s firm and good.
from Macbeth (apologies to Shakespeare).
|
 |
|
John Wright
Lester Las Vegas
timber, plaster & glass, 80 x 40 x 50cm
John Wright is an accomplished sculptor and previously participated in North Sydney Council’s Creative Space Pop Up program (Shiny 2) in 53 Ridge Street, North Sydney. John was also a finalist in this year’s North Sydney Art Prize.
Contact details: 0410 659 600
|
 |
|
Jenny Green
Verdure 2
painted steel, 88 x 55 x 40cm
Jenny Green is represented by traffic jam galleries, 41 Military Road, Neutral Bay.
For exhibition information visit www.trafficjamgalleries.com or phone 9953 3832
|
|