the in between

Clare Weeks and Adele Lenskyj

Photographs and Printmaking

Wed Mar 17 - Sat Apr 3 2010
Opening Thursday 18 March 2010, 6-8pm



Clare Weeks, Photography:

Images of death are often challenging because they confront us with the thoughts we so often choose not to face. The portrayal of such images has become increasingly seen as vulgar and sensationalistic. This is in marked contrast to the beauty and sensitivity perceived in older traditions, indicating a cultural shift that may reflect a wider social discomfort with death. This series of photographs serves as a reminder of mortality: connecting to that aspect of nature often taken for granted. Weeks’ images of found road kill appear, at the same time, both morbidly disturbing and hauntingly evocative.







Adele Lenskyj, Printmaking:

For Lenskyj, this exhibition is an investigation of a new approach to mark making and the preservation of an action. This was achieved through semen ejaculations onto copper plates. Such a process renders the artists’ hand redundant, as the outcome of the formed mark is not pre-determined by the artist. The resulting marks take an abstract form with anamorphic qualities, despite being direct impressions of the ejaculatory action. Preserving this action through printmaking processes has produced a new way of looking at mark making and consequently the marks of human existence.

Blood, Actually

Mathew Reed, Antonia Gore, Abbie Lane, Robyn McPherson and Emily Mitchell

An exhibition exploring the life force of blood and the vulnerability of the human being

Wed Feb 24 - Sat Mar 13 2010
Opening Thursday 25 Feb 2010, 6-8pm



Blood... coursing through culture the way it courses through the veins of each living creature on this planet. From fetishes to fears, humour to science and religious practice, blood has played an important role in our lives, not only as a life force but also as a place of great cultural significance through its symbolism of the vulnerability of one’s own being.

These six artists tackle their own reflections on the theme of blood as they delve further into the branches of its representation in literature, film, science, religion and the everyday world.

Abbie, Antonia, Emily, Julie, Mathew and Robyn have gone through the fine art education experience together at Newcastle Art School (TAFE) creating works that are both bold and quirky. In 2009 the group’s artistic energies went towards raising money for the Blackbutt Nature Reserve with the exhibition “Animal Logic”.

In 2010 they look to tackle the theme of blood through soft sculptures, drawings, painting and printmaking.


Mathew Reed Haematolagnia


Abbie Lane 28 Days


Shan Turner-Carroll Little Blood II


Shan Turner-Carroll Little Blood I


Emily Mitchell The Union (series)


Emily Mitchell The Union (series)


Emily Mitchell The Union (series)


Julie Lee Vampire Series - Inevitability


Julie Lee Vampire Series - Realisation


Julie Lee Vampire Series - Desire


Mathew Reed The Bleeding


Robyn McPerson Tears


Robyn McPerson Sweat


Robyn McPerson Blood


Antonia Gore Untitled III


Antonia Gore Untitled II


Antonia Gore Untitled I


Mathew Reed Lucidity



Julie Lee Vampire Series - Eternity

Impermanent

Alison Smith

Urban development explored through printmaking and drawing

Wed Feb 3 - Sat Feb 20 2010
Opening Thursday 4 Feb 2010, 6-8pm




Alison examines issues of permanence and transience in the urban environment through woodblock prints, silkscreen prints and drawings.

Currently studying her Advanced Diploma of Fine Arts at the Newcastle Art School (TAFE), Alison has taken inspiration from her Newcastle city surrounds, focusing attention on the many building sites which seem a permanent fixture of our city streetscapes.

The aesthetic qualities of line inherent in scaffolding lend themselves to explorations of the impermanent nature of the urban landscape which is in a continuous cycle of demolition and rebuilding, the cityscape shifting and changing with time. Eventual demise is implicit even in new foundations and the strength of cement and steel.

The printmaking on exhibition includes multi-layered silkscreens which grew out of Alison’s photographic practice, and complex woodblock reduction prints where the ink takes on a lush surface quality. The imagery here becomes less referential through abstraction and a focus on texture and line.

A recent visit to Hong Kong – a place synonymous with high rise development – lead to a suite of drawings which thematically compare this built environment to our own local one. The only thing permanent is the inevitability of change.