Two

June 2006


Exhibition: Two
Second Year Fine Arts Students
TAFE NSW SI - St George College
Pd Art Gallery - Gymea
26 May – 23 June 2006

This very eclectic collection of works by the Fine Arts students’ of St George TAFE College augers well for the future of art in our region. The collection includes photography, print, sculpture and a variety of painting styles. These styles range from Louise Bowles’ Pop Art to Anita Shirley’s Expressionism and to the realism styles of Li Jin and Olsa Ru. An extra-curricula project, this exhibition displays a quality of emerging professionalism by this group.

The lay-out of this gallery is perhaps a little disjointed as there are 3 rooms opening off a long hallway at the top of some rather steep stairs off the street entrance. The need to watch ones step while climbing the stairs means that the artworks hung in the foyer are missed until one is leaving. This is unfortunate as in this case some of the most interesting pieces are hung on the walls around the stairwell.

This includes a large work by Anita Shirley, titled Raining Over Us, in bright heavily textured reds. Another of her works is hung in the hallway. This second work is titled Urbano and is also predominately red in colour. As its title suggests, this work is of an urban landscape in the style of Kevin Connors work, Mid City Mile. Urbano depicts layers of buildings and people in bright contrasting red, orange and purple with lots of movement.

On the opposite wall is a black and white piece, Regn II by Olga Cisternas which fits very well with the white walls of the gallery. This and her other piece, Regn I, a larger work hung in the opposite room, are very interesting styles of textured droplets just like rain falling, in white, grey and black. Unlike the untidy drips of Jackson Pollock’s abstract works, Cisternas has made her marks in a more controlled technique which gives a calmer feeling to her pieces.

Of the few drawings, Sitting Quietly, by Frances Attard shows a relaxed figure nicely worked in pencil.

There are an interesting array of collages and colligraphs in various styles in this exhibition. Three untitled works by Armani Raad are of particular note. While small works, the texture and pattern is very interesting and the variety of tones relate well to those interested in ceramics, as the colours are reminiscent of the oxides, iron, manganese and cobalt.

Photography in many forms also contributes a large number of pieces to this collection. Christie Stylian chooses a dreamy soft portrait style to her Innocence – in a Sense and repeats this style in her Awakening series; her series, Imitating Forms are an interesting close up of the nude female figure; Matt Peeters’ La La Land is a realistic photograph of inner city life in the gutter while Pamela Gregory’s enhanced, long exposure photos capture the movement and light around Harbour Ferries, Customs House and the Harbour Bridge at night.

Stopping carefully on the stairs on the way out allows the viewer to take in a pair of clever works by Louise Bowles. Titled Cliché and Michelin respectively, these large black and white acrylic on board pieces are clever satirical works of Pop Art. Michelin has the cartoon logo character as the central figure along with other characters from this time. Cliché takes Picasso’s Guernica and mixes it with Mickey Mouse and Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup leaving the viewer amused and somewhat puzzled as to the meaning behind it all.

All of these emerging artists have works of interest. As this is work from their second year of study, we can look forward to even more interesting pieces for their graduation show and beyond.

Reference:

• Personal notes


• Exhibitors List