Dramatic, humorous and fun exhibitions
ESTABLISHED artists, emerging artists, a group of artists exploring a theme, and fledgling artists ready to fly make a series of local exhibitions dramatic, humorous, thought-provoking and absolute fun.
THE FEATHER AND LAWRY GALLERY, 4 RUSSELL ST, is presenting Showcase ONE, an exhibition of works by Stephen Baxter and Katie Wagner.
Both artists are graduates of the Darling Downs Institute of Advanced Education/University of Southern Queensland although some thirty years apart. Baxter has an established practice, Wagner is on the threshold of her career yet their paintings blend to create bold but distinctive statements. Baxter adds giant palm fronds and leaves to swathes of bright background colour to give a passing comment on nature and the landscape. Wagner uses torn shards of colour to disrupt the surfaces of the canvas while suggesting and an elusive third dimension. Baxter’s ‘fairground’ ceramic figures and quirky vessels festooned with added decoration highlighted by surface detail draw together the complementary paintings in a fusion of colour and form that gives this exhibition a symbiotic resonance.
FIRST COAT STUDIOS, 6 LAUREL ST, is hosting a pineapple extravaganza with the exhibition “A Tropical State”. Some one hundred artists have participated in this partnership between First Coat Studios and the Cairns initiative, Sea Walls Australia. Over many years artist and avid collector, Stephen Spurrier had accumulated a vast number of wooden pineapples, a kitsch 1970s phenomenon that saw the objects used as plates, platters, and in various decorative aberrations. These pineapples were donated to the project and artists were invited to select one to reconstitute as an artwork that reflected something of their experiences of the tropical state of Queensland. Incorporated in assemblages, carved, painted, and sprouting barbs, crowns, feathers, and wheels these once popular catering devices have become symbolic icons of ingenuity. Kitsch remains a strong element influenced by popular culture, fashion, changing tastes, and a spirituality that embraces the hedonistic lure of the tropics. The exhibition is fun, frivolous, and very clever.
THE ARTS GALLERY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN QUEENSLAND is featuring the eighth “Future Visions” exhibition.
This is an Award show that presents artwork by Years 11 and 12 students from local and regional high schools. They are encouraged to explore individual and innovative approaches to issues that include the personal and emotional as well as social, cultural, even political agendas. The exhibition celebrates original thinking while acknowledging developing skill bases in a variety of media provided through the instruction and mentorship of dedicated art teachers.
The overall winner was Anna Maria Martin for her elegantly composed photograph, second prize went to the digitally manipulated suite of photographs by Claudia Hiscox, the third prize was for an etching by Madeline Knight, the Packer’s Prize was awarded to Zoe Brown for her nail and thread assemblage.