Exhibits add dramatic focus
CURRENT local exhibitions show how a particular brief and the discipline of a specific format can add dramatic and effective focus.
Instead of acting as a constraint to creativity, the set parameters offer an exciting challenge readily embraced by the artists.
First Coat Studios, 6 Laurel St, is showing Home, a series of photographs by James Green. The images are environmental portraits into which Green has whispered a timeless sense of ‘personhood’.
Based in Sydney and with an enviable reputation in advertising and promotional photography, Green feeds his inner artist with projects that dip into his passion for people and their individual environments.
Green is a frequent visitor to Toowoomba and this time he has acquainted himself with a number of local artists.
He has tip-toed into their homes and into the personal spaces that are sanctuaries, creative hubs, and the familiar environments that support and feed their arts practice.
The use of available light enhances the mood that is captured in each image.
The photographs are more than documents of people and places, they are insights into human nature.
Green has sensitively tuned into nuances of expression that spell vulnerability, a sense of reverie, wariness, humour, and introspection.
Surprising, or perhaps not, is the fact that many of the background settings share similar artefacts that allude to memories, places visited, and objects collected.
They suggest a collective history, an enduring, and ageless appreciation of aesthetic sensibilities. The exhibition continues until April 28.
The Project Space at First Coat Studios is hosting Stutiyi an exhibition of ceramic vessels by emerging artist Ursula De Kretser.
The word, ‘stutiyi’ is Sri Lankan for ‘thank you’ and is said in heart-felt appreciation for the encouragement and support the artist has received from the local creative community.
The bowls and cups symbolise the conviviality and ceremony of a shared meal which was actually a part of the opening night activities.
Each object is individual and each carries something in shape
or decoration that reflects the immediate hand of the artist.
The Culliford Gallery and Corridor Space at the Toowoomba Art Society, 1 Godsall St, are presenting “45 x 45”, the Society members’ annual autumn exhibition.
The 45 x 45 cm canvases offer a specific format that allows a disciplined containment of any subject, any medium.
The traditional standbys of landscape and still life prevail sometimes compromised by overly blatant signatures.
Works that show a tangible enjoyment of colour and paint include those by Audrey Treadaway, Dianne Spanswick, Kylie Greenwood, and Sue Woodham. While Peruvian Vase by Lee Perinet, Jeffrey by Gail Dawson, and Irresistible Irises by Jenny Hartley set an enviable bench mark.