Chalk Horse Blog

JULIAN MEAGHER 'BLUE RIBBON'

noreply@blogger.com (Chalk Horse Blog) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 03:06:00 +0000

24 NOVEMBER - 23 DECEMBER 2011

CHALK HORSE

“The male body is understood as phallic and impenetrable, as a war-body simultaneously armed and armoured, equipped for victory.”

-Catherine Waldby, 1995

Notions of acquired and inherent masculinity are constantly being played out in Julian Meagher’s work and the paintings in this exhibition are no exception. Staying loyal to his attraction to surface imagery, ongoing narrative and sourcing subject matter from both the natural and manufactured worlds, Meagher is using his art to apply naturalist examples to anthropological questions about human nature and society. With a painting style that adopts oil paints, and executes them as though they were watercolours, we are presented with field studies that create a portal through which we may contemplate instances of cultural reckoning in both intimate, personal chronicles and broader historical and environmental contexts.

Meagher presents his subjects removed from their diverse and complex histories, and amasses these specimens as isolated entities for our contemplation. Birds and portraits are equally atomised, like butterflies in a box. Blue Ribbon is a titular nod to Meagher’s favourite beer, Nastro Azzurro, but it has other resonances (the top quality ice-cream, a show ground bull, the Italian playing strip, and of course merely as a reference to the famous royal and celestial colour). The major pieces in this show, also called ‘Blue Ribbon’, question the place of alcohol and transgression in male rites. Within these “festivals” what does a particular brand mean; would John Howard ever have drunk chardonnay like Paul Keating?

Portraits this time are an important genre. All the men portrayed, besides Boonie, are friends and fellow team mates of Meagher. The “portrait of a young man” is a common genre, a mark of promotion in society, a calling card. All these men are in their early thirties, flushed with a certain youthful success, like Holbein’s thirty-something ambassadors. But can men be so certain of their role and position in society now?

The small heroes of this exhibition are undoubtedly the Birds of Paradise, the exuberant birds renowned for their colourful and excessive plumage and theatrical choreography that they employ in order to attract a mate. The superfluous, and potentially endangering, ornamentation of these creatures complies with Darwinian theories of ‘Sexual Selection’ whereby males develop alluring characteristics in order to achieve reproductive success. Essentially these birds are not only in competition with their peers and same-sex rivals; they are in competition with themselves, on a quest to “win the girl”.

Another genre that Meagher excels in is still-life. What have orchids to do with Boonie? Orchida- is the greek word for testicles and the flower was named that because to the ancients the roots resembled balls; they were ground down into goat’s milk (Satyr?) as an aphrodisiacal drink. As Norman Mailer points out, masculinity is not something given, but something gained. It is through Meagher’s work that these “small battles” are undertaken; they are a performance of masculinity, continued and pursued.

- Kat Sapera, 2011

Blue Ribbon, 2011, Oil on Linen, 150 x 180cm.

Blue Ribbon II, 2011, Oil on Linen, 150 x 180cm.

Tim (King of Saxony), 2011, Oil on Linen, 60 x 60cm.

Tim, 2011, Oil on Linen, 60 x 60cm.

Jason (Parotia Wahnesi), 2011, Oil on Linen, 60 x 60cm.

Jason, 2011, Oil on Linen, 60 x 60cm.

David (Seleucidis Melanoleuca), 2011, Oil on Linen, 60 x 60cm.

David, 2011, Oil on Linen, 60 x 60cm.

Oliver (Parotia Wahnesi), 2011, Oil on Linen, 60 x 60cm.

Oliver, 2011, Oil on Linen, 60 x 60cm.

Alex (Lophorina Superba), 2011, Oil on Linen, 60 x 60cm.

Alex, 2011, Oil on Linen, 60 x 60cm.

Any Old How, 2011, Oil on Linen, 71 x 51cm.

For Prime Minister, 2011, Oil on Linen, 71 x 51cm.

CHALK HORSE AT MIAMI SCOPE ART FAIR 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Chalk Horse Blog) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 06:48:00 +0000

MIAMI SCOPE ART FAIR
29 NOVEMBER - 4 DECEMBER, 2011

FEATURING:
YINJAA BARNI
SAM DOCTOR
JASPER KNIGHT
JULIAN MEAGHER
CHRISTIAN THOMPSON
GREGORY & WATTS

Christian Thompson, Howl For Your Troubles, 2011, c-type photograph, 100 x 100 cm.

Clifton Mack, Jarman Island Lighthouse I, 2010, Acrylic on Canvas, 91 x 94 cm

PREVIEW: JULIAN MEAGHER 'BLUE RIBBON'

noreply@blogger.com (Chalk Horse Blog) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 04:14:00 +0000

24 NOVEMBER - 23 DECEMEBER, 2011

CHALK HORSE

Blue Ribbon, 2011, Oil on Linen, 150 x 180 cm.

Tim - King of Saxony, 2011, Oil on Linen, 60 x 60 cm.

GREGORY & WATTS SUPPLEMENT GARY CARSLEY'S 'GARDENESQUE' at CACSA

noreply@blogger.com (Chalk Horse Blog) — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 05:13:00 +0000

GREGORY & WATTS FEATURE AUDIO GUIDE IN

GARY CARSLEY'S

'GARDENESQUE'

5 NOVEMBER - 11 DECEMBER, 2011

CACSA, SOUTH AUSTRALIA

The exhibition 'Gardenesque' represents an overview of the Gary Carsley's recent practice, specifically configured for the CACSA gallery. As a central focus of his pratice, the artist creates large scale digital photographic works created by scanning wood grain laminates which are then used to create highly textured composite images of public gardens and parks. The artist terms the resultant images Draguerrotypes, referencing both the nineteenth-century photographic technique as well as the garden as a drag performance: a site of constant negotiation between nature and culture. Other more recent works include the presence of a black, painterly silhouette in the foreground of these photographic collages. In this series of works the absence of the statue figure relates directly to postcolonialist ideals, addressing the unique position of Australia in relation to European history and our position within the Asia-Pacific region.

Alongside the work of Gary Carsley, Gardenesque will feature a specially commissioned audio guide by Chalkie's very own Sydney-based artists/theorists Tim Gregoy and Oliver Watts, downloadable here.

CLIFTON MACK WINNER OF RBS EMERGING ARTIST AWARD 2011!

noreply@blogger.com (Chalk Horse Blog) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 05:21:00 +0000

On the 31st of October, 2011, Clifton Mack won the 2011 Royal Bank of Scotland Emerging Artist Award for his acrylic on canvas Jarman Island Sunset III. Mack received a $10,000 cash prize, a round-the-world airline ticket and also a place in an international development program.

Macks work uses a Pilbara sytle to render a coastal environment in warm, natural colours. It's one of a number of recent works that depict the Jarman Island Lighthouse. Mack’s choice of subject matter reflects both his ties to the local community and the area’s colonial history – the lighthouse is a symbol of navigation and trade, but also of strategic mapping and ownership.

Clifton Mack, Jarman Island Sunset III, 2010, Acrylic on canvas, 76 x 122 cm.

NEW VIDEO WORK: 'BROTHER' BY CHRISTIAN THOMPSON

noreply@blogger.com (Chalk Horse Blog) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 05:05:00 +0000

CHRISTIAN THOMPSON

'BROTHER'

2011


Brother, 2011, Digital Video, 2:19min (Film Stills)

OFFSITE EXHIBITION: 'FROM A CITY FORSAKEN BY ITS GODS' at FIRSTDRAFT

noreply@blogger.com (Chalk Horse Blog) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 03:25:00 +0000

'A CITY FORSAKEN BY ITS GODS'

BOYCE/BREHAUT

ROBERT HOOD

JAMES ORAM

CHALK HORSE IN COLLABORATION WITH FIRSTDRAFT

2 - 20 NOVEMBER, 2011

“Newton was not the first of the age of reason: He was the last of the magicians.”

- John Maynard Keynes

There is no general curatorial intent for this show. All the artists: Boyce/Brehaut, Robert Hood and James Oram, hail from New Zealand and Christchurch in particular, the town flattened by earthquake. The rebuilding has begun in the city and there has been support and gifting from the State and beyond; part of this help includes cultural endowments and this has helped our travelling exiles.

Although then not curated together as such, the contents of this exhibition share an oscillation between the material and the ideal; the socially embedded and the fantastical. They are on the cusp of reason and the irrational. Everything here works through a kind of image magic. What also connects them is a knowing interrogation of the place of art in the society. There is playful humour and satirical edge to the works.

Robert Hood regularly annexes his practice to prominent (and/or arcane) cultural artefacts and art genres. His works characteristically exist in a sort of symbiosis with hosts that are robust enough to bear a bit of good-natured parasitism. In ‘Broken Kilometre’, a master work shown recently elsewhere Hood apes Walter de Maria’s ‘Broken Kilometre’, now set up in the de Maria’s New York studio. Hood’s installations are in fact ‘broken’ road markers. The high seriousness of minimalism is countered in a neo-minimalist inversion. In ‘Untitled (Bucket on a pole, mop & towel)’’, is minimalism again to be seen? Or is it perhaps an obelisk declassed? No doubt what functions in Hood’s work is the tension between the grand and the silly. Like interrogative words attached to declarative text Hood’s objects hijack their subject’s established intent and divert a portion of its ‘substance’ toward confounding and revelatory ends.

In Roger Boyce and Marie-Claire Brehaut’s ‘Nature Morte’ the artist’s studio is conflated with a bedroom methamphetamine laboratory; the alchemy of paint is connected provocatively to the chemistry of transgressive drug manufacture. But weren’t the first artistic studios also alchemical studios? Painters would distil and mix their own colours from chemical powders, cutting and mixing certain hues together. The magic of creation also suggests the process of the alembic. Another strange transformation has occurred, more materially: in New Zealand the work was considered a ‘P-Lab’ (Vitamin P?) whereas here, in Australia it metamorphoses subtly into an ‘Ice-Lab’ which also has new poetic resonances. The painting series ‘The Illustrated History of Painting’ by Boyce, recently acquired by Christchurch Art Gallery, also relates to these questions of the ontology of art and the processes in the studio.

It is a simile that expands beyond the formal, dimensional and pictorial mimicry of sprawling bottles and tubes - which characterise both set-ups - hinting at an overlap of art, science and psychotropic substance. The artists describe the work as a tableau mort, referencing the stasis and opulence of Victorian tableau vivant, but entertaining both dead and deadly subject matter. The artifice of the Ice-Lab apparatus is exposed through its mirroring on canvas and vanity as a perverse sort of still life. In turn, the artists present us with a contemporary memento mori.

James Oram has a ‘bad’ habit of setting-up (existential) situations wherein a hapless ‘actor’ (often the artist himself) is bound to fail. The audience for his staged failures looks helplessly on - like voyeuristic (and cringing) motorists slowing past a series of personally embarrassing ‘pileups.’ The video work ‘Game Face’, 2O1O, puts us uncomfortably close to a performance of a set of ‘I AM’ self-affirmations. There is a sense of the endless struggle in a futile battle, as the oral stumbling block of a mouthguard becomes a constant obstacle in the recital process. The statements, as is the case in the lists from which which they were taken (internet self help websites), begin with basic self belief/ confidence/ relationship improvement and work their way towards building you up to dominating your peers, achieving wealth, career success, and so on. The mirrored profile of the mandible/maxilla as each affirmation is made creates a ripple effect from the significance of the words, to their oration, to the spit that forms a fervent slather.

In ‘Meeting’ a similar repetitive loop is played out, of handshakes filmed in slow motion, making visible the subtle re-grippings, power plays, tender finger draggings and the often overlooked tensions between the white knuckles of the assertive gripper and the crushed fingers of the meek. Through its isolated presentation the most universal of all greetings takes on a new gravitas and the subtleties of difference that are highlighted speak to wider concerns.

Oram’s work acts out a clear oscillation that allows for a rupture between everyday nothingness and the profound. Small actions (breathing, reciting, greeting) become signifiers of macrocosmic forces outside the gallery: of activity and failure; hope and despair; creation and destruction. Working heterogeneously across time-based media, objects, drawings and installation his varied working methods rely, for consistency, on painstaking (and pain giving) conceptual reiteration. Oram’s gimlet-eyed social commentary provides a punishing blow-by-blow commentary on the inevitably lost battles of human existence.

A way of looking and interacting connects the works in this show rather than any curatorial intent. Although all good art has this binary of the material and the ideal, these artists have a practice that demands a poetic moment of re-imagining. The viewer needs to resize, re-conceptualise (temporally and spatially), re-construct historically, revisit, in relation to the work but beyond it.


Boyce/Brehaut, Nature Morte, 2010, Mixed media. (Installation shot)

James Oran, Game Face, 2010, Film Still.

Robert Hood, Untitled (Bucket on a pole, mop & towel), 2011. (Installation shot)

Julian Meagher Recent Press

noreply@blogger.com (Chalk Horse Blog) — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 03:00:00 +0000

Julian Meagher was recently featured on Andrew Frost's blog The Art Life, showcasing some of the work from his exhibition 'The King of Good Times', 2011, at Edwina Corlette Gallery, Brisbane.

Meagher was also recently reviewed by Sallie Don in The Australian on the 17th of October, 2011. See image below.

Sophia Hewson 'The Longing: It's like vulcan but sad' Exhibition Opening

noreply@blogger.com (Chalk Horse Blog) — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 05:34:00 +0000

SOPHIA HEWSON 'THE LONGING: IT'S LIKE VULCAN BUT SAD'

noreply@blogger.com (Chalk Horse Blog) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 05:32:00 +0000

27TH OCTOBER - 20TH NOVEMBER, 2011

CHALK HORSE

“Certain thoughts are prayers. There are moments when, whatever be the attitude of the body, the soul is on its knees.”

- Victor Hugo, Les Miserables: Chapter IV, 1862

Sophia Hewson’s adoption of her subjects enables re-enactments of past histories and mythologies, which in turn offer an updated iconography. Highly finished paintings and sculptures succeed in conjuring the religious and mytho- logical, but on the other hand speak directly to an unmistakable Pop aesthetic. A dichotomy is being played out: the seriousness of the content is carried through the titles, yet they are also being confused by a kitsch presentation. I can feel myself forming (my borrowed rib), But like a slug I am mighty to men gives us a naked and crying Virgin Mary wearing a synthetic polymer veil, a fluffy halo and a plastic flashing heart around her neck, uncannily realistic in its rendering this character could well play a part in one of LaChapelle’s tableaux.

Aligning itself nicely with the Hyperreal of the 198O’s & 9O’s, Hewson’s painting presents the subject in a way that distances the object from the artist. Authorship is confounded, the ‘hand of the artist’ is not represented by a gestural brushstroke, and a thick layer of resin serves to further create a barrier between the signi- fier and the signified. Bound in a thick, syrupy resin, like prehistoric insects in amber, Hewson’s subjects are perpetually suspended, preserved and distanced. But almost paradoxically through this shiny surface, and iconicity, the Sublime and spiritual seem to be suggested.

Both the content and process embodied in these works pushes towards a cathartic redemption from an inexplicable, omnipresent, malady. Hewson attempts to find a means of genuine salvation and spiritual elation, and through doing so simultaneously captures the sadness or mourning that is embedded within the inevitable inability to find such fulfillment. This ‘longing’ is present in the show’s title which pays homage to a small planet thought to have been discovered by a French mathematician in the 19th Century. The planet, named Vulcan, was soon disproved to exist. This hypothetical world whose life was so short speaks of an ontological yearning for something that has not truly been lost but has left a void regardless.

It could be argued that in our secular and multicultural society shared values as outlined by the codex have dissipated and been replaced by the popular, the common, the everyday. Is Sophia Hewson’s art calling for a contemporary reading of religion and universal, traditional values? Or is it all surface, where Madonna is more likely to conjure the pop icon rather than the religious? Neanderthal Christ, suspended in a structureless crucifixion, carries the gravitas of Renaissance art history yet also taps into a shared knowledge: that of hundreds & thousands on fairy bread, or cupcakes, an ingredient that can be sourced from any supermarket.

Similar is her approach to Help me Saint Teresa of Avila, with the saint presented as a Renaissance-like tondo sculpture, carved by hand and then cast. St. Teresa, a Carmelite nun and Spanish mystic, is famed for the religious ecstasy she experienced during a bout of feverish illness. Outlined in her own writings, St. Teresa claimed four stages in the path to achieve union with God. These steps to ascent followed moments of increased intensity in mental prayer, culminating in “the devotion of ecstasy”, a climactic state involving the loss of consciousness to divine intoxication. Teresa claimed to have been visited by a seraph armed with a gold spear headed by a small fire, which he used to pierce her body numerous times, drawing out her entrails and leaving her in a state where “the pain was so great, that it made me moan; and yet so surpassing was the sweetness of this excessive pain, that I could not wish to be rid of it. The soul is now satisfied with nothing less”1.

It would seem that in the experience of the ‘unmanifested’, through sexual/spiritual ecstasy from tactile/cognitive sources, there is a reoccurring conjuncture with something darker that lurks beneath the surface. Perhaps it is the uncertainty of the experience, or the subconscious implications: the proximity between “la petite mort” and actual death, between pornographic orgasm and divine rapture. As Bataille says, “the bond between life and death has many aspects. It can be felt equally in sexual and mystical experience”2.

There is a tension in Hewson’s work between high seriousness and Pop, between pastiche and true experience. The work takes everything equally seriously, from the fashion photo to hagiography; as our contemporary experience takes in such a disorienting breadth. Hewson’s paintings and sculptures act as aides to help us understand and confirm the challenges of our late capitalist existence where we are often just set adrift, with little to hold onto.

- KAT SAPERA & OLIVER WATTS, 2O11

[1. St Teresa of Avila: El Castillo Interior, 1577

2. Georges Bataille: Death & Sensuality, 1986]

I can feel myself forming (my borrowed rib), But like a slug I am to mighty men, 2011, Oil & resin on board, 19O x 14Ocm.

Help Me Saint Teresa of Avila, 2011, Hand-carved polyurethane, hundreds & thousands, resin, 7O x 7O cm.

Neanderthal Christ, 2O11, Hand-carved polyurethane, hundreds & thousands, resin, 14O x 19O cm.

Matthew Tumbers 'Spirit Hand Wandering'

noreply@blogger.com (Chalk Horse Blog) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 23:13:00 +0000

18TH - 22ND OCTOBER, 2011

CHALK HORSE

THE WEATHER MAN

Matthew Tumbers’ hand rendering reveals a tight concentration that explodes with an intuitive approach to image making. The result is a powerful and influential alternative to conceptual art and popularised relational aesthetics.

Tumbers said in 2001 “it is difficult to make serious art in a period like this . . . if you are burdened with a goofy nature.”

For Tumbers though, the burden of his goofy nature is always tempered by an innate belief in the gestural, the intuitive and subconscious narratives that swim in his world. Where another may use mixes of known nouns, these abstract tools are his weapons of choice for expression. This sensitivity obliterates any ironic subtleties and creates a connectivity that was less apparent in his more detached tone conglomerates of the late nineties.

The profundity of the works lies in their genuine contemplation of the natural world wearing the goggles of the first child gazing in wonder at the fruits of the universe by the sea. One of the paintings included in this exhibition ‘National Parks for Caves’, exemplifies these concerns; a field of eggshell & grey brushstrokes references art historical archives of the abstract and successfully generates a depth of field via classical architectural construction to form a central yellow glow hole that envelops the viewer. Here, the primary subject of most Western painting - the human figure - is long gone, but spiritually close at hand. The sense of space generated in Tumbers’ mystic landscapes is like a transcendental meditation turning your brain inside out to find caves of experience and nature within.

In this exhibition Tumbers delivers a more minimalist approach compared to some of his previous exhibitions, guiding us into more ambiguous waters. With this comes time to reflect and swim with the tide of his intoxicating yet measured strokes. The rhythm of his riddle gives us more questions than answers about our identity in the ecosystem not only of nature but also in art. These paintings are in the same instance overworked and yet totally submerged in the act of painting.

As a kind of anomaly himself, Tumbers holds a sceptre to guide us through aesthetic philosophy buoyed through his compelling trance-like approach that is a wave, a nod, a thumbs up to the painterly.

- TIMOTHY VERNON MOORE, 2011

Duck Egg Blues, 2011, Acrylic, gouache, watercolour, pencil & ink on archival quality watercolour rag.

Black Zoo, 2011, Acrylic, gouache, pencil & ink on archival quality watercolour rag.


Dusk Eavesdropper, 2011, Acrylic on archival quality watercolour rag.

Rose Line, 2011, Acrylic on board.

Hand Held Totem, 2011, Mixed media.

Planking, 2011, Mixed media.

To see more of the exhibition and Matthew Tumbers, visit Chalk Horse.

The Vasco Era Private Gig at Chalk Horse

noreply@blogger.com (Chalk Horse Blog) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 05:12:00 +0000

LIVE PERFORMANCE AT CHALK HORSE

11TH OCTOBER, 2011

7 - 9PM

S.A.M.E. & Tenzenmen present The Vasco Era to celebrate the culmination of Sino Australian Music Exchange in a private advanced launch for their forthcoming self titled album. Transforming the traditional gallery space into a live musical performance space, The Vasco Era rocked the socks off the typically industrial Lacey Street and its neighboring residents.

Photography by Aimee El Sharpe

OFFSITE PROJECT: ADAM GECZY 'DIASPORA GATHERED' at FIRSTDRAFT DEPOT

noreply@blogger.com (Chalk Horse Blog) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 04:51:00 +0000

ADAM GECZY

'DIASPORA GATHERED'

CHALK HORSE IN COLLABORATION WITH FIRSTDRAFT

7 OCTOBER - 5 NOVEMBER, 2011

Adam Geczy is both an artist and critic-historian. His art practice has been dominated by multimedia installation and video, but he also exhibits regularly in areas of drawing and photomedia. Salient issues have been how to represent political dissent in a non-literal way, and traditional issues of love, death, loss and the fundamental nature of human tactile experience. Recent works have also used beauty as a positive response to disaffection with social alienation. He also has an active ongoing collaborative practice with the performance artist Mike Parr, Australia’s National Treasure, the composer Peter Sculthorpe and the Berlin-based electronic sound composer and installation artist, Thomas Gerwin.

'Diaspora Gathered' is a project with the Australian Armenian community, and was opened by the Hon. Ms. Gladys Berejiklian, Transport Minister for NSW. Berejiklian spoke very movingly and eloquently about the Armenian Holocaust and the subsequent diaspora. Certain members were moved to tears recalling the horrors of the event and were happy that an artist like Adam Geczy was addressing the terrible Armenian past, and bringing it to greater recognition. See images below, in reference to the opening night and Berejiklian's inaugurating speech.

Greedy Hen 'Debut Album' Opening Night

noreply@blogger.com (Chalk Horse Blog) — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 04:04:00 +0000

Greedy Hen 'Debut Album'

noreply@blogger.com (Chalk Horse Blog) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 03:31:00 +0000

29 SEPTEMBER - 8 OCTOBER, 2O11

CHALK HORSE

Greedy Hen’s first solo art exhibition sees the release of their fictitious Debut Album in 2O11. Titled ‘Debut Album’, this exhibition is a meditation on an ultimate SuperFiction1: ‘Greedy Hen as a band’. Utilising all of the usual visual cues, processes and linguistics that signify the release of an album (including gig posters and album launch advertising in the local music street press) Greedy Hen aim to translate this SuperFiction to an art gallery context. Exaggerating their own image in creating the illusion of ‘Greedy Hen as a band’ sets the direction of the exhibition, which centers on the mythical ‘debut album’. The exhibition will comprise of album artwork (translated to large scale prints) complete with song titles, a music film clip of their fictitious hit single release, artwork to narrate the lyrical content for each song. There will be no actual music or sound element in the show, leaving the void for the viewer to ‘fill it in’.

Greedy Hen is a multi-disciplinary studio functioning partly as an art collective and partly as a design studio, housing the collaborative works of Australian artists Katherine Brickman and Kate Mitchell. They devise projects intent on creating imagery alluding to a playful black humour, unwritten fables, or subtle off-kilter sinister elements lurking amongst a kinder-esq beauty. Greedy Hen’s work falls between the boundaries of traditional fields. They utilise various mediums preferring to let their ideas manifest in whatever way seems to be most appropriate at the time. Acting as a social sieve presenting the quirky nuances hidden in the everyday.

As a design studio, their work has graced the covers of many band’s albums, tour posters, and film clips, including work for Cloud Control, Ariel Pink, Florence + The Machine, Animal Collective, Washington, Bill Callahan (Smog) and The Middle East. The Waifs, Washington and Josh Pyke.

Debut Album Back Cover, 2O11, Digital pigment print on archival quality watercolour rag, Edition of 1O & 2 APs, 3O.5 x 3O.5 cm.

Debut Album, 2O11, Digital pigment prints on archival quality watercolour rag, Edition of 1O & 2 APs, 3O.5 x 3O.5 cm.

Everywhere, 2O11, Digital pigment print on archival quality watercolour rag, Edition of 1O& 2 APs, 84 x 119 cm.

Gnarly Beard, 2O11, Digital pigment print on archival quality watercolour rag, Edition of 1O& 2 APs, 15 x 21 cm.

Gravity, 2O11, Digital pigment print on archival quality watercolour rag, Edition of 1O & 2 APs, 59.5 x 84 cm.

Is This a Library or a Bar, 2O11, Digital pigment print on archival quality watercolour rag, Edition of 1O & 2 APs, 42 x 59.5 cm.

Log, 2011, Digital pigment print on archival quality watercolour rag, Edition of 1O & 2 APs, 42 x 59.5 cm.

Lonesome Country Song (Hotel Vacancy), 2O11, Digital pigment print on archival quality watercolour rag, Edition of 1O & 2 APs, 3O.5 x 3O.5 cm.

New Colours, 2O11, Digital pigment print on archival quality watercolour rag, Edition of 1O & 2 APs, 59.5 x 84 cm.

The Final Visit, 2O11, Digital pigment print on archival quality watercolour rag, Edition of 1O & 2 APs, 42 x 59.5 cm.

The Secret Level, 2O11, Digital pigment print on archival quality watercolour rag, Edition of 1O & 2 APs, 42 x 59.5 cm.

Christian Thompson in Das Superpaper

noreply@blogger.com (Chalk Horse Blog) — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 07:13:00 +0000

Christian Thompson PROFILE in current issue of Das Superpaper (#20)

download full issue click here

RECENT PRESS - Adam Cullen

noreply@blogger.com (Chalk Horse Blog) — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 04:24:00 +0000

Adam Cullen - 'Independent Judiciary (Mother's Milk)' in association with Michael Reid at Elizabeth Bay, curated by Andre de Borde and Jasper Knight

AS SEEN IN SMH

'Cullen aims for the brutal beauty of ballistics'
Adam Fulton, August 17, 2011

SEE VIDEO

ADAM CULLEN'S detractors have been trying for years to shoot down his work. Now he has beaten them to it.

For his latest exhibition the maverick artist lined up spray cans and paint tubs on top of a television. Behind them he placed large canvases with crude bull's-eyes. Then he started firing bullets, sending splatters of colour and debris onto the white backdrops.

The ballistic exercise on a rural property near Goulburn was filmed and the footage is being shown in Chalk Horse's spiffy new gallery along with the two lashed canvases, a bullet-riddled smaller panel and a textual reference to the death of his mother a year ago.

"Look at this, mate, this is huge," Cullen says admiringly as he moves a finger around a hole the size of a fist, one of many dotting the canvases.

''This whole thing, I suppose, is some form of lactic exercise in ballistics. So it's sort of lactic ballistics. It's like, if you can imagine, tits as guns. Thus the title,'' he says of Independent Judiciary (Mother's Milk)....

READ MORE

_______
AS SEEN IN DAILY TELEGRAPH

'Cullen aims for the brutal beauty of ballistics'
Adam Fulton, August 17, 2011

... Yoko Ono and the late William S. Burroughs have used ballistics in art. American artist Chris Burden was once shot in the arm as a deliberate part of an art performance.

But Cullen says no other Australian artist has created paintings with guns.

The exhibition of paintings, titled Independent Judiciary (Mother's Milk), is on view from today at Chalk Horse, where Clementine Blackman is gallery manager.

Cullen, who has delighted in delivering artistic shocks since his student days, is clearly chuffed to be showing at Chalk Horse.In Sydney, Cullen normally shows his work at the upmarket Michael Reid gallery at Elizabeth Bay. But Reid was happy to collaborate with Chalk Horse on this exhibition, since his gallery was too small to house it.

Cullen, who has delighted in delivering artistic shocks since his student days, is clearly chuffed to be showing at Chalk Horse. It shows that, in his mid-40s, his art is still experimental enough for a gallery in touch with its roots as an artist-run space...

Independent Judiciary (Mother's Milk) is at Chalk Horse, 8 Lacey Street, Surry Hills, from Thursday 18th to Saturday 24th September 2011

Sanne Mestrom wins John Fries Memorial Prize 2011 (VISCOPY)

noreply@blogger.com (Chalk Horse Blog) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 07:05:00 +0000

Sanné Mestrom, Thinking Props, 2010
120x100x100cm  Mixed media sculptural installation

Viscopy is pleased to announce Sanné Mestrom the winner of the John Fries Memorial Prize 2011 for emerging visual artists. Mestrom received the $10,000 prize at the opening of the exhibition of the fifteen finalists last night at Blackfriars off Broadway, Viscopy’s contemporary art space in Chippendale. The prize was awarded by acclaimed Sydney artist, Lindy Lee.

Mestrom's winning artwork, Thinking Props features in the exhibition with the other fourteen finalists: Cyrus Tang, Erica Molesworth, Eva Hampel, Heath Franco, Jennifer O'Brien, Karl Khoe & Tessa Zettel, Keiko Matsui, Kristel Britcher, Kurt Sorensen, Nathan Taylor, Pauletta Kerinauia, Sanné Mestrom, Susie Nelson, Wade Marynowsky and Walter Brecely.

The winning entry was selected by an auspicious panel of judges including Anna Davis, media artist and Museum of Contemporary Art curator, Hannah Bertram the 2010 John Fries Memorial Prize winner, Danie Mellor contemporary Indigenous artist and 2009 National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award winner and Kath Fries, artist and Viscopy Board member.

Mestrom's sculptural installation Thinking Props plays with the idea of a physical prop designed to promote cerebral and psychological contemplation. Made from everyday found objects, the work consists of three components: a table, a cluster of door handles and a “joy prop”. Her table is tailored to one assuming the classic position of Auguste Rodin's The Thinker, with elbow placed on table enclave and chin on cupped hand. It is a physical prop that encourages cerebral revelation. A grid of door handles below the table suggests opening doors, that endless possibilities and zones of discovery are just a simple action away. In front of the table sits a “joy prop” constructed of a cast bronze mould hypothetically designed to be fitted into the mouth to force a smile.

Danie Mellor says of the Mestrom’s artwork: “In her winning entry for the 2011 John Fries Memorial Prize, Mestrom engages with the everyday and what she terms ‘psychological props’. Through her interest in human intimacy and this field of research and play in her practice, she presents playful and thought provoking arrangements of objects that recall Modernist engagements with the readymade. The difference with her work by comparison though, is that an intimacy is invoked that allows a bodily interaction with form, if only through the viewers’ realisation that in fact ‘this is what you (can and are supposed to) do’ with the objects. They are both familiar and out of reach as fragile objects in a gallery space, a temptation for the curious. The complexity of the potential interaction that the installation suggests, and its resolution as an intricate and multi-layered object, lends this work its intrigue and place as a well deserving winner.”

The exhibition, curated by Venita Poblocki, runs until 30 September and is open between 1pm and 5pm from Wednesday to Friday.

The John Fries Memorial Prize for emerging visual artists is an annual prize donated by the Fries family in memory of former Viscopy director and honorary treasurer, John Fries, who made a remarkable contribution to the life and success of Viscopy. The competition is open to emerging Australian and New Zealand artists of all ages and disciplines who are not represented in a regional, state, territory or national public art collection.

For further information contact Viscopy on (02) 9310 2018.

Recent Press

noreply@blogger.com (Chalk Horse Blog) — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 07:45:00 +0000

FBI Radio: Tuesday 5th July

Alex Xanno Mitchell presenter on FBI mornings

interviews Chalk Horse Curator Kat Sapera

CLICK TO LISTEN

MX Cover: Tuesday July 12th

Nothing is true, everything is permitted

curated by Clementine Blackman and Kat Sapera

David Capra / Yvette Coppersmith / John A Douglas

Sanné Mestrom / Kate Mitchell / Christian Thompson

and Gregory & Watts

A couple of months ago Chalk Horse moved. They went further into Surry Hills to Lacey St, about three minutes down from their old Cooper St digs, and became the first Sydney artist run initiative to turn into a commercial gallery. The big re-opening show was of paintings by Jasper Knight, because when one of Australia's highest profile artists co-founded your gallery and is one of it's directors you tend to leverage that. Then there was a group show, and now there's another group show, which is great because it's a chance to get their whole stable of artists on display in this space while it still has that new-car smell.

Co-curated by longtime gallery manager Clementine Blackman and newer addition Kat Sapera, Nothing is true, everything is permitted promises to evidence the gallery's ongoing commitment to intelligent and rigorous work by emerging and mid-career artists across a variety of media. Chalk Horse is one of the galleries most likely to confuse you on entry, but it's also very good at explaining itself (the catalogue essays are really great) and it's a prime provider of high-concept LOLs. This show features work by David Capra, Yvette Coppersmith, Sanné Mestrom, Kate Mitchell, Christian Thompson, John A Douglas (image above) and Gregory & Watts.

Image: John A Douglas, Starella

Words: Bethany Small

Opening night: Nothing is true, everything is permitted 07 July 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Chalk Horse Blog) — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 04:23:00 +0000

Photography by Aimee El Sharpe

CHALK HORSE evolution- a picture story

noreply@blogger.com (Chalk Horse Blog) — Thu, 12 May 2011 02:35:00 +0000

Jasper Knight- Sydney Boat Show 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Chalk Horse Blog) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 01:09:00 +0000

Jasper Knight Replica Endeavour 1988 (2011)
enamel, perspex and masonite on board
200 x 150cm

Chalk Horse Directors and staff are pleased to announce our new address at 8 Lacey Street in Surry Hills, NSW 2010.

The gallery is ready to unveil in tandem with this powerful new body of work by Jasper Knight that drives toward destabilising the rigid boundaries of that which is solid, fixed, strong, and mechanical. Boats are ideal grounds for exploration for Knight, as he can seem to dissolve boats and wharves to reflect their liquid homeland to create a languorous interplay.

Jasper Knight Arctic P (2011)
enamel, perspex and masonite on board
200 x 150cm

In conjunction with the industrial media of enamel, masonite, Perspex and vintage signage assemblage a distinct reinterpretation of constructivism is thrust to the viewer with clear post-pop intentions; merging the paintings from a two dimensional plane to reveal a constructed object darting between the material and the subject.

Knight reveals stunning selection of water vessels in their built-for roles cruising some of Australia's greatest harbours. Powerful and impressive water vehichles from The Endeavour Replica (1988) pictured above as well as the Packers' 88 metre converted ice-breaker are juxtaposed with quaint vistas of small tug-boats as well as early built harbour scenes like Port Albert in Victoria.

Jasper Knight is Sydney-based and one of Australia's most successful young artists. He has shown internationally; in London, Antwerp, Singapore and Hong Kong and is represented across Australia and in the UK. He has won a number of significant awards including from the Helen Lempriere Scholarship and has been a regular finalist in national awards including the Archibald and Wynne Prizes. This year in 2011 Knight is a finalist in the Wynne Prize with King Street Wharf currently on show a the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Jasper Knight Clinker (2011)
enamel, acrylic and oilstick on canson card
120 x 80cm

Chalk Horse has a new home!

noreply@blogger.com (Chalk Horse Blog) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 00:55:00 +0000

We are now located at  8 Lacey Street in Surry Hills

The next exhibition is:
Jasper Knight 'Sydney Boat Show'
Opening Thursday 5th May 2011

Chalk Horse Directors and staff are pleased to announce our new address. The gallery is currently in the final stages of construction and will be ready to unveil in tandem with a powerful new body of work by Jasper Knight featuring a stunning selection of water vessels in their built-for roles cruising some of Australia's greatest harbours.

We look forward to seeing you there to share in celebrating our new premises.

Chalk Horse is MOVING! Re-opening 05 May 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Chalk Horse Blog) — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 07:09:00 +0000

WE ARE MOVING TO NEW PREMISES
FOR MAY 2011

Chalk Horse is excited to announce that we will be moving to new premises this May 2011 and will re-open with a feature exhibition by Jasper Knight entitled Sydney Boat Show.

JASPER KNIGHT
Sydney Boat Show
05 May - 16 June 2011
Opening Thursday 5th May 2011 6-8pm

This new body of work for Knight will feature a great selection of water vessels depicted in their built-for roles cruising around one of the best harbour cities in the world, Sydney.

For the period of our move we will be closed from Tuesday April 5th through until May 5th.

IMAGE:
Jasper Knight
Port Albert, 2011
Enamel, masonite, perspex and spray paint on board
200 x 150 cm

Free Fall at Oxford Art Factory curated by John A Douglas

noreply@blogger.com (Chalk Horse Blog) — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 07:03:00 +0000

Free Fall is a three month program of live performances by Sydney based contemporary and intermedia artists scheduled to begin every Friday and Saturday night at the Oxford Art Factory cube from April 15.The program has been curated by Sydney video and photomedia artist John A Douglas in partnership with Chalk Horse gallery. Many of the artists selected for the program have been successfully exhibiting both locally and internationally for the last few years and the Oxford Art factory cube offers an opportunity to present live performances of their latest works.

Free Fall is a term used to describe the moment when parachuting from a plane before opening the parachute when you think is this going to work as you free fall through the atmosphere. Free Fall is about artists taking risks outside of the white cube of the gallery and landing in the glass cube of the Oxford Art Factory to deliver contemporary art to an audience in the environment of a bar/nightclub/music venue reaching new audiences and creating new modes of practice.

Liam Benson, Windswept

Each of the Free Fall artists have their own unique aesthetic style and yet a commom thread is to push beyond the boundaries and expectations of what art is and can be. Each weekend the Oxford Art Factory cube will be transformed into a performance installation and will explore endurance, art history, action, painting, costume, gender shifting, characterizations and pop culture all with a sense of fun and experimentation.

Artists involved are:

Naomi Oliver 15-16 April
Jodie Whalen 23-24 April
Gregory & Watts 29-30 April
Motel Sisters 06-07 MAy
Liam Benson 13-14 May
Bridie Connell 20-21 May

Friday nights 8pm till late

Chalk Horse's Tim Gregory & Oliver Watts proclaim:

“We will turn the glass cube into a place from which two critics view and judge the scene below. We will be dressed in lounge suits and identically – the colour scheme will be muted. Part scientists, part metaphor of superego guilt, our constant unheard chatter will unsettle the viewers. What do they think? Did we dress well? Are we enjoying ourselves enough? Am I all that? On white boards in the room our scribble will give the audience some idea of our (il)logical response. On the second night we will allow the audience to hear a pre-prepared summary of the night before, we will set parameters of what should follow on this Saturday night, what we expect. The audience will be encouraged to take photographs of the white boards and we will have a printer on call to print off white board grabs. Secretaries and administrative staff will help at various times.”

(A taste of what's to come...)

Free Fall has been curated by Chalk Horse represented photomedia artist John A Douglas.

For further details and artist profiles hit up the Oxford Art Factory site and click the ART tab.

You can also find Free Fall on Facebook