Works find subtle connections
A VIEWER’S response to an artwork is personal.
This subjectivity is underpinned by preferences that are shaped by individual experiences, memories, and associations.
In subscribing to this philosophy, any sense of good or bad art flies out the window because with time most art finds an appreciative audience.
Galleries are ideally placed to cater to many tastes by mounting diverse exhibitions.
These may be universal “blockbusters” or small, more specialist shows, the broad or narrow appeal, however, nourishes the many complex layers of our society.
The Rosalie Gallery at Goombungee is hosting Not Connected, an exhibition of paintings by Jim Deignan and Megan Weegink.
The title is challenging, and a little misleading because, through the inspired and astute exhibition design, the viewer is encouraged to see and appreciate the subtle connections.
The two quite different bodies of work become a coherent presentation.
Deignan embraces traditional country scenes, the talismans of history and the pioneering spirit passed down from a bullock driver grandfather and a bushman dad.
Weegink explores form and nature, pattern, and abstract design to capture movement, mystery, and feeling.
By placing a work by each artist side-by-side the differences are startlingly exaggerated but they demand attention.
The viewer can see the similarities between the artists’ palettes and the subtle tonalities that enhance and complement the individual artworks.
Deignan’s paintings are saved from sentimental cliche by his robust and fluid brushstrokes.
Weegink has incorporated fluorescent paint in her works, but rather than becoming a mere gimmick, the medium gives the surfaces a delicate translucence.
It is not until the viewer shines one of the provided UV torches on a work, that line and the detail jump into life.
This value-added effect is particularly effective in a specially blackened viewing room which, under torch light, becomes a luminous magical and colourful playground.
The Toowoomba Gallery, not to be confused with the Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery, has found a new home in the splendidly refurbished Rowes complex.
It can be accessed from Victoria Street just before the Russell Street intersection.
With an abundance of natural light punctuated by strategically focused artificial lighting the space retains aspects of the original warehouse feel but is imbued with a fresh and modern ambience.
The gallery also has a strong online presence with a diverse stable of artists.
The first dedicated exhibition is Unbridled, a series of large vigorous paintings by Brookfield-based artist, Joanna Davies.
The luscious surfaces in which the oil paint seems trowelled onto the canvas become masses of soft blowsy flowers, vignettes of childhood, views through doors and windows, and the essence of equine allure.
The subjects carry a certain nostalgia of experiences remembered, yet the imagery is not cloying, it carries the tenderness of memory in which time has softened the edges of reality.