Enlivening untenanted buildings
POP up exhibition spaces and artist run initiatives are colourful and visually rewarding ways of enlivening often untenanted buildings.
These ventures offer some distraction and a sense of hope at a time when compromised businesses and struggling artists, as well as a dejected populace need encouragement and a little time out. Alexandra Lawson Gallery
is approaching the “pop up” concept in an impressively professional manner with appropriate signage and thoughtful presentation that respects both the gallery and the artist. The first in a proposed series of vacant space pop up shows, the exhibition “The Afternoon Mile” introduces new work by local artist David Usher and may be seen at 196 Margaret St, the site of the former Cumquat Tree gift shop.
The paintings and ceramics on display are a preview of a larger body of work that Usher will be showing in Brisbane later in the year.
With travel restrictions limiting his usual peripatetic wanderings in the landscape, Usher has resorted to mining his memory for image recollections gathered from forays into Western Queensland, the Currumbin Valley in New
South Wales, and more immediate locations around Toowoomba. While a tertiary palette continues to dominate, the viewer is also treated to dashes and flashes of purer, brighter colours that create visual punctuation marks emphasising the feeling and mood of nature remembered. The ceramic vessels follow the landscape theme with dense glazes of dark foliage highlighted by dabs of jewel-like colours peeking through the broad linear gestures. The exhibition closes this Sunday, phone 0418 603 695 for access details. Culliford Gallery at the
Toowoomba Art Society, 1 Godsall St, is hosting “At One with the Earth” an exhibition of acrylic, mixed media, and oil paintings by Rosalie Eustace.
There are many works in the show, and while a more rigid selection criterion would make viewing more comfortable and enhance appreciation, the initial visual impact is powerful.
Colour and decorative patterning that reference nature dominate with prolific detail and rhythmical design elements. The four-panel work, “At one with the earth,” is a bush track panorama bathed in reflected light. A quartet of paintings set in the Bunya Mountains depicts beckoning walking trails fringed by ragged vegetation. In some works dancing female figures interweave with leaves and flowers in celebration of Mother Earth.
The Perinet Gallery at the Art Society is featuring “All 4 Art” an exhibition by four art enthusiasts.
From the boldly confident colour expressions by Maureen Berry to a shimmering harbour scene and careful flower study by Chris East, from the illustrative details of Guinea fowls and a rooster by Helen Harris, to the classical bowls of flowers and robust landscape by Anne Ott, the paintings show how a diversity of subjects can become a coherent exhibition of harmonies.