PODspace gallery

current: OPEN HOUSE - group exhibition

2012-01-15T02:09:00.000-08:00

Wednesday 1 February - Saturday 17 February 2012

Opening night: Thursday 2 February from 6pm

To be opened by Art Critic (Newcastle Herald) UNA REY

Gina McDonald - Steve McDonald - Debra Byrne - Garry Hamilton - Stevi Cannon- Belinda Alcock - Jane Robinson - Thadaeus Ikehaga - Jesse Neale - Sophie Toupien - Shane Audrins - Paul Maher - Bree Cunningham - Carly Brett - Sheree Fleming - Malcolm Berry - Carla Feltham - Natalie Engdahl - Johnathan Hardy - Robyn Nunan - Clare Weeks - James Murphy - Caelli-Jo Brooker - Helene Leane - Ben Kenning

CONSTELLATIONS

2011-11-28T18:43:00.000-08:00

Wednesday 7 December - Saturday 17 December 2011

Opening night: Thursday 8 December from 6pm

Free and all welcome

'Drawing, properly taught, is the best way of developing intelligence
and forming judgement, for one learns to see, and seeing is knowledge.
'Eugene-Emmanuel Violette -le - Du

Drawing underpins the Diploma of Fine Arts Course at the Newcastle TAFE.
The Final Year Advanced Diploma students, guided by Lezlie Tilley, have
come together in this exhibition to share their passion for drawing. A
tribute to Lezlie's style of teaching - which seeks to nurture,
challenge and draw out the best in her students - the show demonstrates
Lezlie's ability to hone in on each artist's strengths to help develop
and inspire their work.

Exhibiting artists
Shane Audrins
Debra Byrnes
Renee Fitzpatrick
Sue Hilder
Skye Jacobson
Shelagh Lummis
Gina McDonald
Sophie Toupein
Jessica Walkley
Alexandra Zimmerman

FUNDRAISER exhibition

2011-11-06T01:10:00.000-07:00

Wednesday 16 November - Saturday 3 December 2011

Opening night: Thursday 17 November, from 6pm

Free and all welcome

PROCEEDS WILL GO TOWARDS COMPLETING RENOVATIONS

PODspace is BACK!

Well, break open the champers, PODspace is back in a neat new location on Hunter St. This little artist-run gallery has reopened tonight after a four month hiatus, and relocation from its old digs, at TPI house. After the builders had gone and the dust settled, there emerged a gallery for emerging and established artists. Upon seeing his work in the new space artist, Peter Lankas said “It's a cute tight space that will definitely work.” It speaks of intimate times with works, and sharing personable musings over some wine with the artists - all snuggly like.

For the grand opening, a group of past exhibitors have come together to fund-raise the cost of the refurbishment of the new space. A wild mix of texture and colour, mediums collide against one another and the fresh white walls of newness. Now is a great time to get reacquainted with an old friend in crisp-cut clothes. And, if you missed the opening, you can see it all again at The Octapod relaunch December 2, 4-6pm!

Dwuan LaTrobe (Octapod staff member)

Watch the opening night introduction by Jen:

PODspace thanks all the artists who contributed work to this exhibition: Michael BELL, Michelle BRODIE, Simone DARCY, Jen DENZIN, Penny DUNSTAN, Peter LANKAS, Claire MARTIN, Anne MCLAUGHLIN, Olivia PARSONAGE, Michael RANDALL, Una REY, Emily ROBERTS, Mandy ROBINSON, Alison SMITH, Peter SPEIGHT, Lezlie TILLEY, Shan TURNER-CAROLL, Ahn WELLS, Josh WHITE.

PODspace gallery window - October 2011

2011-10-10T23:45:00.001-07:00

Installation by Penny Dunstan

details of this installation will be posted in November
The window can be viewed Monday - Sunday

pennydunstan.com

PODspace gallery window - September 2011

2011-10-10T23:37:00.000-07:00

Installation by Jen Denzin

2011-06-23T00:54:00.000-07:00

FINAL EXHIBITION AT TPI HOUSE

Emily Roberts

Wednesday 22 June - Saturday 9 July 2011

Opening night: Thursday 23 June, 6-8pm

Free and all welcome

Come and celebrate the final exhibition at PODspace Gallery in it’s current
location at TPI House, before it’s break and move to Hunter Street later in the year.

The exhibition no title, is site specific installations created by co-director
Emily Roberts, exploring the overwhelming feeling of solitude when forced to say
goodbye.

2011-06-05T18:53:00.001-07:00

Taryn Raffan

Wednesday 1 June - Saturday 18 June 2011

Opening night: Thursday 2 June, 6-8pm

Free and all welcome

http://tarynraffan.blogspot.com/

“Disguise becomes ritual, and ritual requires personality swapping.
Something that was donned as a vessel becomes a cocoon...
a metamorphosis is taking place...”
Robert Klanten, Post-digital Identity, Doppelganger, 2010.

With specific interest in modern ritual, 'Bundles' explores the random
manifestations which occur within individual morals, natural selection,
surroundings and dwellings. This conglomeration of traditions, ideas,
fantasies and choices coalesce overtime. In the meantime the personality
awaits, before it reveals its other self.

2011-05-10T23:23:00.000-07:00

Penny Dunstan

Wednesday 11 May - Saturday 28 May 2011

Opening night: Thursday 12 May, 6-8pm

Free and all welcome

www.pennydunstan.com

Hunter artist Penny Dunstan explores the interface of photography with the artistic disciplines of printing, drawing and installation in this exhibition of new work. We who are many is an installation of reworked hymnbook paper, on which she has produced a multitude of Van Dyke* prints.

Dunstan’s artistic study has been directed by the principles of permaculture. The ‘edge’ is an important principle in permaculture since it is where the most action occurs such as biomass in a natural system or ideas in artistic study. Applying the land management principles from her background in agriculture and viticulture, Penny has explored the productive edges between disciplines.

We who are many is a parable about the place of individuals in a community using impressions of plants and Christian hymn text.

The exhibition will be opened by John Morris, Head Teacher, Newcastle Art School (Hunter TAFE) on Thursday 12th May, from 6pm.

*The technique ‘Van Dyke’ was invented in 1842 by the English astronomer Sir John Herschel, and utilizes the action of light on ferric salts.

2011-04-16T16:14:00.000-07:00

SOFT in the HEAD

Olivia Parsonage

Wednesday 20 April - Saturday 7 May 2011

Opening night: Thursday 21 April, 6-8pm

Free and all welcome

http://oliviaparsonage.blogspot.com/

Soft In The Head is a collection of ‘fabric illustrations’ that Olivia Parsonage has made during 2011. They capture her quirky sense of the absurdity of everyday living. There is a silent narrative to each piece that can be found while enjoying the sinister undertones sewn into each of the works. They are influenced by childhood tales of monsters and folklore fears of nature and animals and everyday moments that make up our human existence.

Each fabric illustration is created from the materials lying around in Parsonage's studio at Newcastle Community Arts Centre. Within this space, she knows her materials and can sort through their contents in search of a particular piece that will be the beginning of a work. She uses a variety of fabrics from heavy upholstery to lightweight cottons and breaks sewing conventions by joining these together.

All of Parsoange’s art is a dissection of her unique view of the world around her. “Life is ultimately ridiculous” she says, adding “In my opinion”.

Parsonage is an illustrator, sculptor and fabric artist. She completed a Diploma of Fine Art at Hornsby TAFE in 1998 and Bachelor of Natural History Illustration at the University of Newcastle in 2009. She has previously exhibited in Sydney at Hornsby TAFE and Eden Gardens and in the Newcastle region at Watt Space Gallery, John Paynter Gallery and Maitland Town Hall. This is her first exhibition at PODspace gallery. She currently makes work out of Newcastle Community Arts Centre, Hamilton East.

2011-03-29T04:58:00.001-07:00

Return to Super Death Canyon: Payback Time

Daniel Smith and Albatross Wirehead

Wednesday 30 March - Saturday 16 April 2011

Opening night: Thursday 31 March, 6-8pm

Artist talks: Saturday, 9 April, 4pm

Free and all welcome

www.softseizure.com/super-death/

www.softseizure.com
www.wirehead.com.au

PODspace will play host to digital artist and self proclaimed gaming fanatic Albatross Wirehead, and Sydney artist Daniel Smith, with an exhibition of the comical and absurd. Return to Super Death Canyon: Payback Time is a collection of video game levels based on an original game concept.

Blood sucking alien bats, sea monsters, grotesque mutated forms and tentacled end-bosses are just some of the fiends that our hero Carlos must battle in this epic revenge platformer.

The works are presented in the pixelated style of 1980’s 8-bit games, printed in large format and spanning the gallery walls. There is a large chunk of video game kitsch thrown in for good measure. The drawing is currently being converted into a working platform game, by Wirehead, with a demo being available to play on opening night.

2011-03-07T21:51:00.000-08:00

The Drawing Room: Violent Grass

Una Rey

Wednesday 9 March - Saturday 26 March 2011

Opening night: Thursday 10 March, 6-8pm

Free and all welcome

www.unarey.com.au

http://artcastnewcastle.blogspot.com/

“The Drawing Room: Violent grass paintings were made following a family
holiday to the UK in 2010. Witnessing centuries of the figure painted on
that verdant grassy island, sitting in private drawing rooms and hearing
family stories all informed the violent grass imagery. A boy is punished
for touching wet paint; a baby is placed out of hearing range to cry alone.

“My imagination roamed on the reaches of Empire based on a careful
'disregard' for children and what part this might have played in the
violence implicit in Colonialism. This is a just one simple glance at
the complex history linking the lush-green and the grey-green islands. We
all have ancestral collages in our heads. Sometimes we’re compelled to get
them out and put them down.”

- Una Rey, March 2011

2011-02-13T18:24:00.001-08:00

Handwise IV curated by Ahn Wells

Angela Armstrong, Chris Brown, Jan Downes, Ruth Feeney, Annemarie Murland

Wednesday 16 February - Saturday 5 March 2011

Opening night: Thursday 17 February, 6-8pm

Curator and artists talk: Saturday, 5 March, 4pm

Free and all welcome

http://handwise.blogspot.com/

This year, the annual Handwise exhibition extends into exhibition number four. The artists participating in 2011 are all local: Angela Armstrong, Chris Brown, Jan Downes, Ruth Feeney and Annemarie Murland.

Handwise IV is once again curated by Newcastle based artist Ahn Wells. It follows on from the the original concept of creating works which are based on fibre/textile materials and/or techniques. Each artist was invited to contribute new work that falls within the Handwise concept but which also explores their own artistic practice.

For Ruth Feeney, this means another floor installation, this time made up of simply folded polyethylene triangles that are carefully arranged into a pattern on the wooden gallery floor. While Feeney works on the floor, Chris Brown transforms a corner of the gallery in a maze of colour and vibrant illusion made from vintage cotton string, based on the craft of String Theory. It may seem odd to include painter Annemarie Murland in a Handwise exhibition but her deeply coloured “weave paintings” sit comfortably with the concept and remind us of Scottish tartan blankets. In contrast are the pale and delicate work of Angela Armstrong - hand-sewn weathered seaweed captured between layers of silk, reflecting her personal preoccupation with the natural world. Jan Downes' lightly coloured porcelain ceramics hang precariously from the gallery wall and continue the artists interest in the ephemeral life of cloth.

This exhibition challenges audiences expectations of what fibre textile art is, and can be, within a contemporary art context.

REVIEW: 4th Annual Handwise at PODSpace
By Dwuan LaTrobe

Running into its 4th annual appearance in Newcastle’s art world is Handwise IV at the PODspace Gallery, from its beginnings at the John Paynter Gallery in 2008. Creator, artist then turned curator Ahn Wells has been exploring the world of tactile and textile artworks. This outing sees Angela Armstrong, Chris Brown, Jan Downes, Ruth Feeny and Annemarie Murland fill the space with fibres and weaves of a contemporary cloth.

Ruth Feenly's work immediately draws your gaze as you enter the room as it takes up most of the floor space. It's comprised of 228 intricately folded triangles of synthetic cloth laid out in all geometrical patterns. Ruth once again pulls off repetitive shapes in an ordered fashion and the ethereal tonal hues ripple over the entire piece, though I prefer more chaotic pieces like her stencil mural of chairs on King St. This work reminded me of The Harmonic Algorithm as explained to me by multicoloured curry puffs.

The next piece that grabs my attention. The far wall is filled with 660 lines formed by cotton thread fanning out from 10 different directions. The colours of Rust to Scarlet and Lemon to Amber bisect each other producing a myriad number of diamond shaped negative space. This is Chris Brown's contribution to the show. I do enjoy Chris's work and have a photo of his in my Studio. But once again I'm brought down by the order. It's the same Harmonic Algorithm just explained differently by a tailor at a bush doof.

I wander around counter clockwise to a brace of oils by Annemarie Murland. They are wonderfully complex with layers upon layers. It's like native copper at the Museum of Natural History. An element that makes you wonder how it grows beneath the earth only to be dug up and then admired as this quirky organic ore. A work with roots. Though I have never seen works by this Artist I look forward to her art in the future.

Following that is a series of cyanotype photograms. Portholes into underwater worlds. Artist Angela Armstrong collects seaweed and sews them into little pockets of silk, casting them into the dark to mature a lovely little series of prints. Some grow to be kaleidoscopic, some to be vortexes and some just grow up to be trees. I always like a good Prussian Blue. For some reason the first thought that popped into my head when I saw them was Reindeer antlers in petri dishes.

Which brings me to the last work in the exhibition, a set of unassuming porcelain tiles. But as I look further they represent that bottom draw in my wardrobe, the one where I keep all the jeans I never wear but am too in love with to throw out. And somehow I'm whisked away to remember a pair of corduroy pants I had when I was 16 and fell apart around me only to be patched and over patched.

The loved to death of weave caught and set in china by Jan Downes.

This group of art is outstanding in its commitment to exploring the medium of fabric and textile in a fashion that might be unrevealing to the eye in the first but is revealed slowly. A total mix of media but they do speak strongly to one another. I must congratulate Ahn's vision in putting together such a show.

http://culturehunter.org/notice-board/review-4th-annual-handwise-podspace
2 March 2011 - 12:14pm

2011-01-25T06:02:00.001-08:00

LUCAS GROGAN & LUKE THURGATE

Wednesday 26 January - Saturday 12 February 2011

Opening night: Thursday 27 January, 6-8pm

Free and all welcome

Lucas Grogan: thegoldenpony.livejournal.com

Since first meeting at the University of Newcastle in 2003, Lucas Grogan and Luke Thurgate have exhibited extensively together. While at first their art appears to be dramatically different, both artists’ practice is based primarily on drawing.

Thurgate's 'le pitite morte' portraits position the viewer as voyeur, accomplice and perpetrator. Their seductive darkness at times belies their content; we are left unsure as to the exact nature of the precipice of emotion on the subjects face. Masterfully rendered, Thurgate's mysterious works reinforce the belief that it's a fine line between pleasure and pain.

In contrast between Thurgate's exacting academic-style drawings, Grogan's works, from the series 'New Gold Islands' conflate numerous cultural patterns to create graphic monotonal works atop of gold boards. Whilst now well known for his appropriation of indigenous art, this series also clearly references Islamic, Australiana and European lace. Grogan's works appear like treasure washed ashore.

2010-11-18T15:03:00.001-08:00

Resolved

3rd year drawing exhibition from
Fine Art students from the Newcastle Art School (TAFE)

Opening Night: Thursday 25 November 2010, 6-8pm

Exhibition Dates: Wed 24 November - Sat 11 December 2010

Drawing is an important component of Fine Art studies for students at The Newcastle Art School (Hunter Street TAFE). While a graduating exhibition at the Front Room Gallery in December will allow students to showcase their major electives (painting, printmaking, sculpture and photography), this exhibition is an opportunity to demonstrate just how fundamental drawing is to their art practice, regardless of their dominant discipline.

Resolved is a diverse exhibition. It highlights the wide range of mediums students have employed to explore, evaluate and refine techniques in mark making and individual concepts. The exhibition includes figurative, imaginative and observational drawing. Some of the work shown supports the artists' area of specialisation, in other cases it represents a larger body of unique drawings.

Alison Smith - Drift I, II ; Garry Hamilton - Red Grid Town #3

Rebecca Ramsay - Geometrical For The Absent Minded No.1 & No.2 ; Alithia Andrianakis - Untitled

Sarah Jones - Human Vessels ; Clare Banks - Circular Head

Thadeus Ikihega - Traffic Jam ; Jennifer Muldoon - Falling Through Time And Space 1,4

Justine Williams - Untitled

2010-11-03T01:05:00.000-07:00

don't stop me now!

an installation by Stevi Cannon and Jen Denzin

Opening Night: Thursday 4 November 2010, 6-8pm

Exhibition Dates: Wed 3 November - Sat 20 November 2010

Don’t stop me now! is an installation whereby Podspace will not be used in the conventional gallery sense as a means of showing objects, but will instead become a place to experience ‘experience’.

Stevi Cannon and Jen Denzin ask “What is art? Why do we need to create works of art? What do we want to say?” These two local, emerging artists have come together to wrestle with the question of what it is to be an artist, and with the desire to engage with others – to bring viewers into a space where art has been made, where they too are free to question and interact. Installation is an art form that allows for this engagement. Don’t stop me now! will consider the relationship between the gallery space, the viewer and the artists, as they encounter each other.

Cannon’s art practice is multifaceted: dramatic actor, singer, performer, artist. Emerging out of a successful career in design, a serendipitous moment found her attending the Fine Arts Diploma at Newcastle Art School in 2007. A recipient of a Ford Scholarship for her efforts, Cannon is now completing the Advanced Diploma, majoring in sculpture.

Denzin’s current work investigates a residual ‘Asian’ aesthetic embedded in our visual culture through the mapping of historical, more specifically visual, connections between China and Australia. It is also an imaginary navigation of the silent spaces in Australia’s early history regarding Chinese migrants. Denzin uses casting, carving, cutting, moulding and installation to investigate and tell spatial stories. She is also currently finishing her Advanced Diploma in Fine Arts, majoring in sculpture.

2010-10-10T03:56:00.000-07:00

Silent Entropy

new paintings by Anne McLaughlin
patchwork drawings by Ahn Wells

Opening Night: Thursday 14 October 2010, 6-8pm

Exhibition Dates: Wed 13 October - Sat 30 October 2010

Silent Entropy brings together the works made by two artists that share a studio space at the Newcastle Community Arts Centre. Within this space Anne McLaughlin and Ahn Wells work in different mediums, explore different themes and even work in different ways.

McLaughlin paints, sometimes her canvases are on the floor and she applies from above, other times they are leant against the wall and she works on them with bits of folded card, brushes, plastic knives and squeegees. Then she sits back and contemplates the overall effect, making changes here and there, leaving it for days and then reworking. McLaughlin's mark-making in these works layer feelings and thoughts across the flat surface in nuances of emotion that are otherwise inexpressible.

Wells on the other hand sits to make all her works, starting with manageable pieces of Stonehenge paper. The paper is drawn on using pencils, painted on using gouaches, sewn on using the sewing machine, ruptured by piercing or scratching. Her works are detailed and decorative and are concerned with surface manipulation, texture, order and balance. They are then cut up into smaller squares and brought back together to form the final artwork. Dubbed “Patchwork Drawings” by the artist, these works are the beginning of a new direction in her art practice.

2010-10-04T04:28:00.000-07:00

healing: space and place

in conjunction with the 2010 ArtsHealth Symposium
at the University of Newcastle

miranda lawry, kris smith, emily windon, aaron bellette,
patricia casey, ella dreyfus

Opening Night: Thursday 7 October 2010, 6pm

Exhibition Dates: Wed 6 October - Sat 9 October 2010

prior to the public lecture by Dr Esther Sternberg
at the Conservatorium Concert Hall at 7pm

Healing: space and place features the work of six photomedia artists address relationships between the body and its interaction with a spatialised world.

Miranda Lawry is a fine art academic at the University of Newcastle. Her imagery investigates the notion of trace within the landscape, evidencing both historical marking and contemporary presence to redefine notions of identity, memory and ‘place’. Incorporating specific environmental conditions with an awareness of memory, experience, and embedded history the World Heritage listed Hospital de la Santa Crue i Sant Pau in Barcelona is revealed in its current transforming phase.

Emily Windon is a PhD student at the University of Newcastle. Trapping the Midnight - Metamorphes Spectral is a photographic series in which is captured the dream space of the pshyche in a surreal environment where symbols float around a strange feathered figure. This figure both dances through the liquid world of the dream and is trapped in the world of the here and now, raising questions of where dream and real space begin and end.

Deciphering Identity is a collaboration between fine art academic Kris Smith and a participant in an Australian Research Council linkage grant titled Growing up with cancer: a mixed methods examination of how cancer influences the transition from adolescence to adulthood. The project involves researchers from Sydney University, The University of Newcastle and CanTeen working with young adults that have experienced cancer whilst navigating adolescence. Using established research methods alongside innovative qualitative methods this study looks at the effect of this experience on the formation of identity.

Aaron Bellette’s Tearing Light uses medium format film photography to record the visual experience of Dyslexia, where he distorts and layers photographic images to present his own interpretation of time and space. Spatial and temporal planes are rendered onto the film planes in order to physically construct his envisaged world. Aaron teaches photomedia at the University of Newcastle and Avondale College.

Ella Dreyfus is Head of Public Programs and lecturer in photomedia at the National Art School in Sydney and winner of the Olive Cotton Award for Photographic Portraiture in 2005. For Healing: space and place, Ella exhibits Blue Chip Tenant a photographic diptych. Ella will also give a paper at the ArtsHealth Sympoium titled Weight and Sea: an interactive artwork that confronts our private obsession with body weight in a very public place.

Patricia Casey is a Sydney artist. Scented Gardens for the Blind is series of black and white photographic prints on cotton with embroidered detail of metallic threads and handmade lace. They are dream-like landscapes hovering on the border where dreams and reality are blurred. They explore our ability to lose oneself and become immersed in a special place.

2010-09-27T05:19:00.000-07:00

Sacra Tierra: an installation as part of TINA 2010

Ekarasa Prem and Karma Barnes

Thursday September 30 - Monday October 4 2010
Gallery hours: 12 - 5pm

Explore our connection with our immediate environment as the artists use natural materials to create an impermanent landbased installation. You can join Karma and Ekarasa as they install and then de-install the piece, returning materials and venue to their original states.

Check out this Flickr link for some images of the installation:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hradcanska/sets/72157624945303461/with/5066356040/

2010-08-31T02:52:00.000-07:00

Pixel Perfect

camera phone photography

Wed September 1 - Sat September 18 2010
Opening Thursday 2 September 2010, 6-8pm

As analogue photographers embrace slight blurs and faults within their photographs, so do mobile phone photographers – the quality is rarely good and the final image (if ever physically printed) is always a surprise.

With newer phones and the continuous search for improved quality we are slowly losing the grainy textured mobile phone photographs we use to love and embrace. There are even programs or applications you can download to your phone that replicate the old analogue way of taking a photograph, whether it is for a blurred edge, the aesthetic of a Polaroid image or even the look of an aged 1960s photograph.

Pixel Perfect showcases photographs taken exclusively with a mobile phone camera, by local emerging artists.

Emily Roberts

Caelli Jo Brooker

Liane Audrins

Amanda Degan

Simone Sheridan

2010-08-05T17:05:00.000-07:00

Stills

Photographs by Simone Darcy

Wed August 11 - Sat August 29 2010
Opening Thursday 12 August 2010, 6-8pm

Portrait photographer Simone Darcy photographs the people close to her, sharing with the viewer a level of intimacy with her subjects on one level, though this changes with the unsettling nature of the held gaze. Darcy creates a story within each portrait, which are sometimes apparent and at other times obscure.

2010-07-21T03:53:00.000-07:00

Mathew Reed presents Mr Gangley’s Three Ring Circus

Wed July 21 - Sat August 7 2010
Opening Thursday 22 July 2010, 6-8pm

2010-06-29T07:07:00.000-07:00

Handwise III

Fibre Textile based exhibition curated by Ahn Wells

featuring artists Brett Alexander, Christian Kauter, Robyn Nunan, John Parkes, Emily Roberts, Martin Trew

Wed June 30 - Sat July 17 2010
Opening Thursday 1 July 2010, 6-8pm

Handwise III is the third in a series of exhibitions curated by Ahn Wells based on an initial concept of creating works that are fibre/textile based. A range of artists, both local and from further afield, have been asked to contribute new work that falls somewhere, loosely or firmly, within this surprisingly diverse genre. As well as showcasing the work of talented individual artists, the aim of Handwise is to widen audiences expectations and understanding of what fibre/textile art is and can be.

Handwise I was held in 2008 at John Paynter Gallery. Wells organised the exhibition and participated as an artist. Soozie Combe, Jessica Coughlan, Emma-Lee Crane, Belinda Howden, Anna King, Olivia Parsonage and Niomi Sands also showed their work which included woven twigs, crocheted copperwire, a giant material fork and a film of a sewing machine popping bubble wrap. In 2009 Handwise II was again exhibited at the John Paynter Gallery. This time Wells became the curator and did not participate as an artist. A new selection of artists were invited to participate. They were Nerida Ackland, Kim Blunt, Bree Cunningham, Gillian Shaw and Joy Smith. While these artist were asked to stay faithful to the original concept, they evolved and extended it. Resulting in paper adorning the gallery wall, eerily formed heads made from muslin material, recycled platted ties and the highly technical traditional tapestry weaving.

This year Handwise III moves to PODspace Gallery where Wells volunteers as a co-director. Brett Alexander, Christian Kauter, Robyn Nunan, John Parkes, Emily Roberts and Martin Trew will exhibit their work in a group show which promises to produce further new insights into the fibre/textile discipline.

Ahn Wells is a local artist with a strong connection to the Newcastle arts community having studied and exhibited here for the past 10 years. Her work is fibre/textile based while also having a strong interest in drawing and work on paper. She works from Studio 25, Newcastle Community Arts Centre, 246 Parry St Newcastle West NSW 2302. www.ncac.org.au

Over the years Wells has met the Handwise artists either through study, overseas travel or via her own exhibition practice. She invites them to participate because their practices, as well as appealing to her own particular sensibilities, all having the unique potential to inform, advance and enhance the Handwise concept.

2010-06-09T02:16:00.000-07:00

grab a coaster exhibition

local artists have turned pub coasters into artworks to help support the gallery.

all works for sale from $15.

Wed June 9 - Sat June 26 2010
Opening Thursday 10 June 2010, 6-8pm

grab a coaster exhibition

step 1
Go to your local pub, grab some coasters.
step 2
Start creating an artwork from your coaster, draw, paint, photograph, sculpt, anything you can think of. There is no limit to how many you can contribute.
step 3
Bring your finished work to PODspace gallery or any of the other drop off points by Monday June 7.
step 4
Join us for the opening on Thursday June 10, where all donated works will be sold at a very affordable set price.
step 5
Buy the art, drink the wine, and eat the cheese.

Classic Coasters, Queensland, have generously supplied us with plenty of coasters to get us started with our fundraiser, available from the front desk at PODspace gallery.

podspacegallery@yahoo.com.au | podspacegallery.blogspot.com
Contact Michael: 0411 668 471 | Alison: 0438 658 155
3/231 King St. Newcastle NSW 2300 [1st Floor]

2010-05-13T05:52:00.000-07:00

Greyscale

Claire Martin

drawings from Paris

Wed May 19 - Sat June 5 2010
Opening Thursday 20 May 2010, 6-8pm

Newcastle artist Claire Martin describes the daily routine of purposeful transit and brief encounters in 45 small figurative drawings.

In their march of time the figures form a poetic picture of unknown urban spaces. Individually, each is a short story.... collectively, the drawings steer us toward issues of mortality and time.

The drawings were produced over a 2 month period in Paris and are direct observations of the street below Martin's studio window.

Martin recently won the $12,000 2010 Calleen Art Award at Cowra Regional Art Gallery and earlier this year was a finalist in the Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing 2010, when judge Cathy Leahy, Senior Curaor at the National Gallery of Victoria described her work as being "of note".

Grayscale is an opportunity for local gallery goers to see a suite of 20 works that saw Martin being selected as a finalist in the 2008 Dobell Drawing Prize at the Art Gallery of NSW.

2010-04-23T01:52:00.001-07:00

Poster Girl

Michelle Brodie

new drawings and works on paper

Wed Apr 28 - Sat May 15 2010
Opening Thursday 29 April 2010, 6-8pm

Michelle Brodie has been exhibiting locally since 2000. Following her first solo show at PODspace Gallery in 2009 (Incognito), where she explored the notion of disguise through figurative observations at Bar Beach, Brodie has continued her interest portraiture.

In this exhibition of new work, Brodie reflects on a question she has asked herself for some time now: “If I could invent myself, what would I look like?”

In thinking about this she has experimented with forms that relate to how she feels within. The images in this exhibition are self-portraits of a silent poster girl with the solitary sense of sight as a guide. The imaginary heads represent what is hidden and show the inner experience behind the outer appearance.

2010-04-01T16:10:00.000-07:00

Shreds of Existence

Dermod Kavanagh

Multimedia works

Wed Apr 7 - Sat Apr 24 2010
Opening Thursday 8 April 2010, 6-8pm

Our Impressions of the world lie at the tenuous intersection point of the senses on the canvas of our minds. Each sense informs and is informed by the others and the mind balances it all in a complex web of thesis and analysis. On the whole we believe this process brings us ever closer to a true and complete grasp of what is, yet we know our senses and our minds cannot be wholly trusted.

My work Shreds of Existence examines this intersection through multiple slow-phasing soundtracks and two digital slide projectors overlapping on the same screen. The fallibility of human perception is explored through the metaphor of digital images corrupted in the memory of a computer. The mind/sense interface is expressed in the tenuous link between all the elements of the work, while the part our senses play in our compulsion to make meaning is depicted through the use blurry photographs taken through dirty windows and the questionable relevance of the accompanying sound element. Somehow linking all is the meditative and the sublime, like some beautiful equation.

film clip of projection © Dermod Kavanagh

This work seeks to unpack ideas about human perception by exploring concepts (such as that of the dispassionate observer, true and accurate representation or death/permanence devoid of life) as applied to photography, but broadened to encompass other modes of recording. It deconstructs photography itself with reference, not only to the practical and theoretical history of the medium, but also the seemingly unlimited future pathways of photography and digital media. Through an ambiguity of sound and vision the work implies meanings the mind nearly grasps. It tips its hat to science and technology on the way to a philosophical and imaginative engagement with these ideas based on the ways we think about thinking, perceive perception and understand mortality.

2010-03-07T23:36:00.000-08:00

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.

2010-03-01T18:44:00.000-08:00

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

2010-03-01T17:59:00.001-08:00

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.