The Kurnell Project
Meredith Frances Lynch & Therese de Villiers in collaboration
co-ordinated by Mori Gallery
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Kurnell 2008
The Kurnell Project
Meredith Frances Lynch & Therese de Villiers in collaboration
co-ordinated by Mori Gallery
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
SURFACE - EXHIBITION ESSAY
The Surface of Painting, Horus & Deloris Contemporary Art Space, Pyrmont Sydney May 2008
‘To scratch the surface’ is to experience only a small taste of something containing great depth. Contemporary painting in Australia is a field enormously rich in terms of diversity of practice and intelligence of artists’ pursuit. Creativity, conceptual practice, aesthetic activity, inspired art making, as well as research related practice in the field, are all under way in artists’ studios, art schools, universities, galleries and museums. To see the six artworks contained in ‘The Surface of Painting’ by artists Peter Barnes, Meredith Frances Lynch, Bridget Minatel, Sarah Newall, Teong-Eng Tan, and Mary Wenholz is an exhibition that can be enjoyed as a survey, that is, a survey of the multitude of options for artists creating new work today.
To paint on a support surface is a traditional notion regarding the definition and making of a painting. Relating back through many centuries, the term ‘support surface’ refers to the material upon which artists paint. Linen, cotton canvas, and various types of board and paper are a selection of materials traditionally popular as support surfaces. More recently, say the last fifty years, artists from across numerous studio disciplines have pushed the boundaries and openly considered the essence of traditionally defined and divided schools of practice. Inter-disciplinary practices eventuated. Artists recognisable as painters, sculptors, installation, glass, as well as performance artists are able to create works multi-disciplinary in nature. Artists have the option to employ traditional as well as new materials and artmaking techniques in fresh and exciting ways, with some such results being exhibited on the occasion of ‘The Surface of Painting’.
Multitude of option is real for contemporary painters. The work by Barnes in this exhibition employs acrylic (a modern medium) on linen (traditional support). ‘My paintings are surfaces upon which references and relationships are put into play.’ (Barnes) Wenholz shares Barnes’ use of acrylic, but layers it over, amongst and between layers of vinyl; the vinyl behaves both as support and medium. ‘In my paintings I explore the notion of surface in relation to the modernist concept of medium specificity. My works on transparent vinyl incorporate the support into the composition of the painting, thereby creating a disruption to the two-dimensional image’ (Wenholz)
In the work by Tan paintings are built. The size and structure of his paintings is not dictated by the frame or edges of the canvas; many canvases are attached to one another: ‘Maintaining surface unpredictability by working between extremes; the paintings are “organically” grown to allow for the two broad types of abstraction (geometric and organic) to emerge in a single work.’ (Tan)
In Lynch’s work the concept of the surface of painting is addressed in creating multidisciplinary artworks that take shape from an understanding of the historic and contemporary positions for painting. This is both ‘painting’ as the object and as the act. ‘My visual artworks attempt to engage the rich tradition that abounds from the school of painting while also participating in the inspired act of artmaking.’ (Lynch) The artwork in this exhibition uses mirror to expand the artwork into illusionary space - illusion being an effect common to painting, only ordinarily the illusion is pictorial rather than reflecting a painting’s installation.
Minatel cuts abstract cityscapes into glass in ways that other artists might apply paint onto canvas. ‘My work is an exploration into the representation of systems that can appear to exist in our urban environment, visually interpreting these systems through layered linear grid formations to create elusive, symbolic 'cityscapes'.’ (Minatel) The artist continues - ‘The city can also be imagined as a field where many lines intersect, creating a complex physical and social grid of cultural representations and discourses, existing simultaneously across various points in time within the same space.’
In this exhibition Newall’s painting-come-storage unit boldly moves painting into functional object. Sheets with a rubber like consistency are in fact poured and peeled orange house-paint, a material used in new ways as ‘the surface of the painting for me is more than a surface, it is a material that fully contains colour’ (Newall)
This exhibition is not a restructuring of the definition of the studio term painting, nor specifically a question regarding the act of painting. ‘The surface of painting’ surveys a few of the options for artists undertaking the activity of painting today and presents the artwork of six artists, Peter Barnes, Meredith Frances Lynch, Bridget Minatel, Sarah Newall, Teong-Eng Tan, and Mary Wenholz, for public consideration. ‘The Surface of Painting’ attempts to scratch the surface of the potential for contemporary painting, today.
- M. F. Lynch, May 2008
‘The Surface of Painting’ will be open to the public at Horus and Deloris Contemporary Art Space, Pyrmont, Sydney, from 7th May to 8th June 2008.
‘To scratch the surface’ is to experience only a small taste of something containing great depth. Contemporary painting in Australia is a field enormously rich in terms of diversity of practice and intelligence of artists’ pursuit. Creativity, conceptual practice, aesthetic activity, inspired art making, as well as research related practice in the field, are all under way in artists’ studios, art schools, universities, galleries and museums. To see the six artworks contained in ‘The Surface of Painting’ by artists Peter Barnes, Meredith Frances Lynch, Bridget Minatel, Sarah Newall, Teong-Eng Tan, and Mary Wenholz is an exhibition that can be enjoyed as a survey, that is, a survey of the multitude of options for artists creating new work today.
To paint on a support surface is a traditional notion regarding the definition and making of a painting. Relating back through many centuries, the term ‘support surface’ refers to the material upon which artists paint. Linen, cotton canvas, and various types of board and paper are a selection of materials traditionally popular as support surfaces. More recently, say the last fifty years, artists from across numerous studio disciplines have pushed the boundaries and openly considered the essence of traditionally defined and divided schools of practice. Inter-disciplinary practices eventuated. Artists recognisable as painters, sculptors, installation, glass, as well as performance artists are able to create works multi-disciplinary in nature. Artists have the option to employ traditional as well as new materials and artmaking techniques in fresh and exciting ways, with some such results being exhibited on the occasion of ‘The Surface of Painting’.
Multitude of option is real for contemporary painters. The work by Barnes in this exhibition employs acrylic (a modern medium) on linen (traditional support). ‘My paintings are surfaces upon which references and relationships are put into play.’ (Barnes) Wenholz shares Barnes’ use of acrylic, but layers it over, amongst and between layers of vinyl; the vinyl behaves both as support and medium. ‘In my paintings I explore the notion of surface in relation to the modernist concept of medium specificity. My works on transparent vinyl incorporate the support into the composition of the painting, thereby creating a disruption to the two-dimensional image’ (Wenholz)
In the work by Tan paintings are built. The size and structure of his paintings is not dictated by the frame or edges of the canvas; many canvases are attached to one another: ‘Maintaining surface unpredictability by working between extremes; the paintings are “organically” grown to allow for the two broad types of abstraction (geometric and organic) to emerge in a single work.’ (Tan)
In Lynch’s work the concept of the surface of painting is addressed in creating multidisciplinary artworks that take shape from an understanding of the historic and contemporary positions for painting. This is both ‘painting’ as the object and as the act. ‘My visual artworks attempt to engage the rich tradition that abounds from the school of painting while also participating in the inspired act of artmaking.’ (Lynch) The artwork in this exhibition uses mirror to expand the artwork into illusionary space - illusion being an effect common to painting, only ordinarily the illusion is pictorial rather than reflecting a painting’s installation.
Minatel cuts abstract cityscapes into glass in ways that other artists might apply paint onto canvas. ‘My work is an exploration into the representation of systems that can appear to exist in our urban environment, visually interpreting these systems through layered linear grid formations to create elusive, symbolic 'cityscapes'.’ (Minatel) The artist continues - ‘The city can also be imagined as a field where many lines intersect, creating a complex physical and social grid of cultural representations and discourses, existing simultaneously across various points in time within the same space.’
In this exhibition Newall’s painting-come-storage unit boldly moves painting into functional object. Sheets with a rubber like consistency are in fact poured and peeled orange house-paint, a material used in new ways as ‘the surface of the painting for me is more than a surface, it is a material that fully contains colour’ (Newall)
This exhibition is not a restructuring of the definition of the studio term painting, nor specifically a question regarding the act of painting. ‘The surface of painting’ surveys a few of the options for artists undertaking the activity of painting today and presents the artwork of six artists, Peter Barnes, Meredith Frances Lynch, Bridget Minatel, Sarah Newall, Teong-Eng Tan, and Mary Wenholz, for public consideration. ‘The Surface of Painting’ attempts to scratch the surface of the potential for contemporary painting, today.
- M. F. Lynch, May 2008
‘The Surface of Painting’ will be open to the public at Horus and Deloris Contemporary Art Space, Pyrmont, Sydney, from 7th May to 8th June 2008.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
The Surface of Painting, May-June 2008
'The Surface of Painting'
'The Surface of Painting' presents the work of Peter Barnes, Meredith Frances Lynch, Bridget Minatel, Sarah Newall, Teong-Eng Tan and Mary Wenholz at Horus & Deloris | Contemporary Art Space
Opening Night: 7th May, 6 – 8pm -ALL WELCOME-
Level 2, 102 Pyrmont Street, Pyrmont, New South Wales, 2009
Gallery Director: Caroline Wales
Email caz@horusanddeloris.com.au
Exhibition continues until 8th June, 2008
Speaker at the 2008 International Conference on the Arts in Society
Lynch will present a paper titled 'The Interplay of Self-Authored & Temporal Narrative: Embodied Meanings in Art' at the 2008 International Conference on the Arts in Society. To be held at the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, part of Birmingham City University, Birmingham, UK from 28th-31st July 2008, this year's annual conference will address a range of critically important issues and themes relating to the arts today.
An abstract taken from the paper follows:
'Most simply: self-authorship refers to the fact that artists make, or are behind the making of, their artwork. The time of the making of an artwork, as well as the times at which the work is viewed, always affect the interpretation and critique of a work. This is temporal narrative. It occurs in all artworks. Temporal narrative also refers to art historic references within artworks, whereby the work of an artist is possible because of the work of a predecessor, art flanuers, or an artist’s contemporaries.
Eventually, one question persists, what is left for an artist to make today? The ‘what’ of such statements disguised as questions can be anything from a myriad of options. Self-authorship relates to the interplay of how the author comes to the decision from the question ‘what is to be made?’ This decision is fed from all sorts of influences as the author / artist does not conceive, create, or present works made from thin air, nor from a point of isolated genius.
Temporal narrative is always present in a work of art as the contemporary surroundings of an artist intersect with the historic situation and reality of past events to influence the shape, form and concept of any new piece of art. The interplay of self-authorship and temporal narrative can be considered as one critical framework for examining any artwork. This is by no means an attempt to make redundant or to cancel out other modes of interrogation, nor to strictly prioritize authorship above or below temporal aspect. The exploration of the conditions and interactions of self-authorship and temporal narrative allow for one version of an understanding of any work of art.'
For further info see web link http://a08.cgpublisher.com/proposals/72
An abstract taken from the paper follows:
'Most simply: self-authorship refers to the fact that artists make, or are behind the making of, their artwork. The time of the making of an artwork, as well as the times at which the work is viewed, always affect the interpretation and critique of a work. This is temporal narrative. It occurs in all artworks. Temporal narrative also refers to art historic references within artworks, whereby the work of an artist is possible because of the work of a predecessor, art flanuers, or an artist’s contemporaries.
Eventually, one question persists, what is left for an artist to make today? The ‘what’ of such statements disguised as questions can be anything from a myriad of options. Self-authorship relates to the interplay of how the author comes to the decision from the question ‘what is to be made?’ This decision is fed from all sorts of influences as the author / artist does not conceive, create, or present works made from thin air, nor from a point of isolated genius.
Temporal narrative is always present in a work of art as the contemporary surroundings of an artist intersect with the historic situation and reality of past events to influence the shape, form and concept of any new piece of art. The interplay of self-authorship and temporal narrative can be considered as one critical framework for examining any artwork. This is by no means an attempt to make redundant or to cancel out other modes of interrogation, nor to strictly prioritize authorship above or below temporal aspect. The exploration of the conditions and interactions of self-authorship and temporal narrative allow for one version of an understanding of any work of art.'
For further info see web link http://a08.cgpublisher.com/proposals/72
Graduate Exhibition at the SCA Gallery, 2007 (Part 1)
'Untitled (Biro on wall, 2007)' Biro on gallery wall, 230 x 610cm. In-situ artwork as installed on the Entance Wall of the SCA Galleries, on the occasion of the 2007 Master of Visual Arts Degree Exhibition, Sydney College of the Arts, 2007
Graduate Exhibition at the SCA Gallery, 2007 (Part 2)
'Untitled (Hinged Painting, 2007)' Biro on unprimed canvas with hinges x8 canvases, each 140x180cm. As presented in the SCA Main Gallery space on the occasion of the Sydney College of the Arts Degree Exhibition, 2007.
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