Art

Art and life in a bubble

This piece of wonderful art was a part of WATER, a very successful and inspiring exhibition at GOMA Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane Australia), which sadly closed prematurely in early March 2020 due to Covid.

Soapy water pushed through clear perspex tubes created these beautiful, elegant, fluid shapes and lines that were constant and moving and growing. It was a delight to stand and watch. Our lives are like these bubble lines, constant and moving and growing in unexpected directions. And hopefully the unexpected directions will lead us to new paradigms, new ways of living our lives outside our bubbles.

A pink reflection

The colour pink is so complex. Most people think of it as ‘girly’ or ‘too young’. But this hue is an amazing spectrum of colours.
The pink clouds of sunset in Hawaii. The pink of the inside of a shell. The pink of fairy floss. The pink of a new born baby panda.

This typographic exercise is my ode to a wonderful poem dedicated to pink.
Written by Claudia Krizay, it is a beautifully crafted reflection.

Heart felt and beautiful in its simplicity, Bucharest, Romania

Now Romania is not a place one thinks to go to, like one would plan and save to go to Italy, or Greece. But that is a pity as it is a land of strange connected beauty, the city of Bucharest is an odd blend of parks that are more like deep green forests right in the middle of the urban centre and the architecture, which defies classification, just keep on surprising, bemusing and intriguing.

While shiftazine was wondering these strange, unfamiliar streets, they discovered this exhibition. Now the artist only spoke Romanian, and shifatzine, while speaking the universal language of creativity, does not speak that particular tongue. So it was up to the work itself to speak for itself. Make of it what you will, shiftazine thinks it is all very beautiful.

The ‘Otherworldly’

This was an exercise in creating a mood, a narrative, to re enforce fundamental, deep fear of the groteques. A garbage bag, some masking tape and a couple of pieces of plastic. Crop the image tight. Throw some moody lighting into the mix and there you go.

An installation by Dan Marti

A favourite, dynamic artist who lives in Newcastle, Australia and never ceases to delight.

Greenlight

There is something about a chandelier hanging above one’s head, filling the space or a room with a statement of “I am here.”
Usually crystal, they were first designed to maximise the candle light that flicker and brighten the extraordinary rooms and spaces of the privileged. They still possess that notion of ‘deluxe’, which is interesting as the word ‘lux’ is Latin for light.

So there I was in a darkened room full of chandeliers that glowed green. They did not emit any light what so ever. It was the UV light engaged in creating this strange, otherworldly effect that created the feeling that they almost sucked what little light there was into themselves. There is something beautiful in the contrary, the notion of art for art sake.

Peter Tully, an Australian creative icon

Destaining the elitism of the art world, its precious attitudes and materials PeterTully became a master of the transformation, using the most mundane and kitsch of modern materials and found objects: day-glo plastics, fake fur, trinkets and cheap toys.

By combining them in unexpected ways, and drawing directly on the imagery of the popular and gay cultures, Tully could transform the ordinary into spectacle.

Sculpture by the Sea

Sculptures by the Sea takes our breath away every year. So much money is invested in the pieces themselves, made from bronze, steel, marble. And yet it took a large plastic bag and an old chair (which had a grass seat) to trigger such a wonderful interaction with its surroundings.

So typical of Sydney weather, one morning was stormy with a soft grey light, but the next morning the light was golden with the dawn light. Different light = different effect, equally beautiful and captivating.

Raw graphics

Tokyo Museum, Tokyo, Japan

A tasty snack, Newcastle Art Galley, Newcastle, Australia

Joy Lines

Newcastle Art Gallery, Newcastle, Australia

The Laverty Collection appeared at the Newcastle Regional Art Gallery in the Autumn 2013. It was beautiful. With pieces that glowed colour and life. This collection triggered a need within many observers to make powerful comments about this invigorating exhibition and re-enforced the opinion that Australian indigenous art is so important, so gob-smackingly, so wonderful.

Martin Thompson Framed

New energies, new connections, new year, new hopes, new inspirations, new perspectives: new works by Martyn Thompson.

Martyn’s photographic exhibition ‘Falling in love at the Institute’ at Dinosaur’s gallery space in Redfern, Sydney was his proclamation of falling love…with art again. The images, were a fusion between photography and painting, are homage to the energy of the old masters and the beautiful elaborate frames that so often embrace the paintings. The exhibition echoed the overall romanticism of the ‘old world’.

Falling back to Earth, GOMA, Brisbane, Australia

The Gallery of Modern At (GOMA) in the cultural precinct of Brisbane’s south-side is always a treasure trove of wonderful.

The exhibition ‘Falling back to Earth‘ showcased the work of Cai Guo-Qiang, a globally recognized contemporary artist.
The exhibition, which ran from November 23, 2013, to May 11, 2014, features four installations, including two newly commissioned works inspired by the landscapes of southeast Queensland.

It is an experience you all need to have connecting us all with its fundamental sense of harmony and raw emotions.

Asia Pacific Triennial, GOMA, Brisbane, Australia

While this article may be a few years old it is still relevant. The GOMA in Brisbane is consistently the most exciting art museum of the main land of Australia. It has an eye to the future while understanding the merit and importance of the past. It is incredibly inclusive but not from a ‘political correct’ point of view. Art is art, and where it comes from and what ever form it manifests itself in is all GOOD.

This is the original copy : This eight edition emphasises the role of performance in recent art, with live actions, video, kinetic art, figurative painting and sculpture exploring the use of the human form to express cultural, social and political ideas, and the central role of artists inarticulating experiences specific to their localities.

Besides the exciting and comprehensive array of artistic, innovative and disruptive artworks, the Queensland Art Gallery has reinvented the environment in which their permanent collection is presented. The series of galleries are full of the leading creative, innovative, artistic minds and their end results from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Engaging a pattern that is deeply influenced from indigenous art and an inspired colour palette, the galleries take your breath and mind away to a place where all you see and feel is the product of exciting and successful disruptive thinking.

Damien Minton Gallery, Sydney, Australia

Shape, balance and colour are the key ingredients of these wonderful images created by Louise Tuckwell.

This show was held at Damien Minton Gallery in Redfern, Inner city Sydney. This gallery has long been an important bridge in the creative life of Sydney. It has been the vehicle for emerging artists into the Sydney art world and has also enabled young art lovers to find new art and begin their collections. Damien Minton has brought these two elements together in a way that no other gallery in Sydney has done.

Sydney Biennale, Australia (when they use to be interesting)

Art and creativity has always brought me JOY. The end result of creativity does not need to be complex in its process and its mechanics. As a matter of fact, it is the simple, uncomplicated delivery of complex ideas that often drive the impact of art.

The above examples demonstrate this observation: Strips of plastic mirror hang on a wall or plain bright coloured cards that turned randomly that simple but at the same time complex. These pieces of creative intent were a part of the Sydney 2012 Biennially

Brunswick Street, Melbourne, Australia

The gallery was named Panelpop. This show was a delight. All the pieces were made up of paper collage, watercolour, acrylic, coloured pencil, chalk pastel, oil pstel, fairy dust on watercolor paper. this was a very nice show. I don’t remember the artist’s name, sorry but gee I am annoyed with myself because I didn’t buy a piece form this show…rats.

The work was really beautiful and complex but not laboured. A sense of playfulness, lightness, a sense of Summer dancing off the walls.