Dear art friends,

The year 2009 was a big one: Obama was elected, Michael Jackson died, swine flu swept the globe and we launched Strobed. Because we liked seeing art, free drinks and wandering through the city. I mean, who wouldn’t want to do that? And blogging was still a thing back then. We stopped blogging at some point—who has time to wander the city getting ‘cultured’ every Tuesday night?—and became an events calendar for art exhibition openings in Sydney. We’re now the most comprehensive art calendar in Sydney. Well, we were.

To automate the exhibition listing process we connected our website to Facebook to grab data about exhibition openings across Sydney. But in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook has blocked access to events by developers. This means that our calendar no longer functions. Facebook haven’t said if or when they’ll unblock access.

We’ve looked at alternatives for grabbing Facebook data, but there are none. We thought about adding events manually, but it’d take more time than we have to give. And we thought about asking gallery owners to add their events directly to us, but people have tried that in the past with little success.

And so, for now, we’re calling it. Thanks for your support, we’ll miss you.

xoxo Strobed

See all the photos from this exhibition on STROBED.

On a rainy Friday night a few weeks back we found a gorgeous heritage building to escape the weather — The Balmain Watch House. We were really there to check out April White’s new work in a group show ‘Three Magick Stooges’.

Her new series of surreal portraits show a shift from the wonderfully free and chaotic lines of the drawing and mixed media works we’ve seen in the past. This show presented a series of oil paintings showing a more controlled and carefully composed side of the artist. Really quite stunning work.

Along with White, there were 2 other artists presenting their work. Yoka Terzic and Nicholas Beckett.

Terzic’s ink illustrations were bold and heavily based in personal symbolism. Animals, monsters, colour and simplicity gave her work a child-like feel.

Beckett’s showcase was across two rooms displaying illustrative work from two very different projects. His small water colour works were spontaneous, and often darkly funny. According to the interwebz, the works are commissions for two authors. It would’ve been great to see the final product of the collaborations… but nothing we can find just yet.

See all the photos from this exhibition on STROBED.

Remember The Life Aquatic? What about Darjeeling Limited? If you’re a fan of the dreamy, surreal long-shots in Wes Anderson movies then you’ll love Rachel Mills show on now at Kensington Contemporary.

Digging through old family photos and old books, she pieced together some strangely bleak scenes using digital photographic montage. She printed her works across a range of mediums— photographic paper, canvas, cushions—but our favourite were the plates. Who could resist this dining set?! Kenso is a tight little space, a bit hard to get a good shot, so just trust us, okay?

The gallery was full of friends enjoying the show for opening night. If you missed it, swing by before it ends on 18 September 2016.

See all the photos from this exhibition on STROBED.

This beautifully immersive group show—The Psychic Power of Plants—opened at Tiny Tailor Gallery last week.

The walls of the gallery were lined with illustrations, photographs and living plants. It was the plants that made it for us. And for that we can thank creative minds behind the show: Candice Cameron, Kara Riley and Emma Sadie Thomson.

The show was beautifully curated. The gallery was bursting with colour and life. If you’re there hating on the succulent fad happening right now, this show might just make you a believer. (And then you can take it to the next level at the Terrarium 101 Workshop in Paddo.)

The show runs for another week or so, until September 10th. Worth checking out.

See all the photos from this exhibition on STROBED.

It’s been a while but we’re still on the prowl for art. So when we saw that George Hambov – also know as Apeseven – was having a show at The TATE we couldn’t resist.

“Deifik” was primarily a collection of paintings exploring life and death. Bold animal skulls were used as homes for birds and bees.  There is a definite shift towards nature and realism in his recent works which balances beautifully with the gestural and spontaneous elements that must be inspired by his background as a street artist.

The series was solid and worth examining in the flesh. It was let down only by a replicated print framed on display metres from the original. Having said that, the print series was getting a lot of “sold” dots – who are we to judge? Talented artists like Apeseven deserve cash, and if art lovers won’t drop $1500 on an original, then a print is a brilliant compromise.

Usual Tate rules apply – 1 night only – so you’ve missed it.

See all the photos from this exhibition on STROBED.

Designer and illustrator Luschia Porter opened her new show Object Implications at The Tate last Wednesday. Porter was able to find a balance between function and the aesthetics in her works – it made for a fantastic show. Her beautifully made furniture pieces were the highlight. Hands-on participation was encouraged through buying one of Porter’s delicate resin cups and planting your own succulent. Living art!

There was a great turn out for the exhibition. It’s been a while since we’ve been to the Tate, so it’s good to see the artists and the venue are still pulling a good crowd. Hopefully it’s a sign that sales for these emerging artists are also looking healthy! Anyone care to comment on that?

Update: here’s a quick look at the opening:

[iframe src=”//player.vimeo.com/video/92422898?byline=0″ width=”100%” frameborder=”0″ webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen style=”max-height:280px;” ]

See all the photos from this exhibition on STROBED.

Sal Higgens’ new show opened at Salerno Gallery in Glebe last week. If you follow this blog we probably don’t need to say much more: we’re big fans.

Down the Rabbit Hole is a collection of paintings and drawings that continues her exploration of folklore and story telling. Strong themes of childhood are throughout this show. Higgens’ bold and uninhibited brushwork brought her compositions to life. Flashes of neon lifted the otherwise subdued palette.

This was Higgens’ first show in Sydney since her re-location to Auckland. We’re very glad to see that she hasn’t forgotten about us since her move (and hopefully this doesn’t change, although an excuse for a trip to NZ wouldn’t bad a bad thing).

Down the Rabbit Hole continues until the 23rd of March. Do yourself a favor and catch it before it heads back across the Pacific!

See all the photos from this exhibition on STROBED.

Bright, bold, surreal and chaotic: these are just a handful of words we’d use to describe the work of Justin Cooper. We’ve been fans of his work for a long time now, so it was with great excitement that we penciled “Larger Variations” in to out hit list to make sure we got along to check it out.

For his latest show, Cooper has lined the walls of A-M Gallery with large paintings exploring historical events. The focus of the show was how the past inevitably dictates the future. In his large paintings he warped his subjects in his characteristic style. Using detailed linework and a restricted palette he created a beautifully cohesive collection.

In addition to his paintings, this show also demonstrated Coopers move into ceramics. A large collection of free-form works showcased his experimentation into the variations produced by temperature, materials and pressure.

The exhibition continues until April 5th. Get along and check it out!

See all the photos from this exhibition on STROBED.

April White’s new show Life Remixed opened at Salerno Gallery last week.

This exhibition showcased a continuation of her series of surreal (self?) portraits, as well as a collection of digital works that examined the artist’s interpretation of modern society and culture. While the digital works presented some interesting concepts, it’s White’s illustrative mixed media portraits that are her real strength.

White uses a wonderfully gestural web of graphite lines to render her subjects. In this series the works featuring birds were particularly beautiful. The energy and movement of the birds were in complete contrast to the melancholy and listless figures they perched upon.

Blink and you’ll miss it, actually you have missed it, this show ran for only a week.

While you’re here, take a peek at April White’s last show at Salerno Gallery that we also covered.

See all the photos from this exhibition on STROBED.

Back in January Gallery Red held the 2014 edition of “Under Pressure”. Yes, January. Sorry we’re late.

This show is an annual celebration printmaking, one of our favourite mediums (as you may be aware). The show was a strong 2014 opener for Gallery Red – perhaps the most cohesive show we’ve seen there.

This year the print makers who made the cut (ha!) were Alun Rhys Jones, Bettina Anderson, Damon Kowarsky, David Fairbairn, Hyun Ju Kim, Jacqueline Aust, Kathy Boyle, Lea Kannar, Mark Rowden, Neale Krahe, Pamela Horsnell, Rodney Grant and Victoria Monk.

It was an impressive exhibition. It showcased a great range of printmaking techniques and styles. Check out some photos…

See all the photos from this exhibition on STROBED.

We love art. Generally we try not to bother you with politics, but to give this show context we need to touch on some basics.

Remember when we, as a nation, sent ourselves to a living hell by voted in the Abbott government? Soon after our dear leader very publicly axed the Climate Commission in a grand gesture of ignorance and general dick-ness. So the Climate Commission re-formed as the Climate Council: a non-profit organisation working to educate the masses about global warming.

So, now we get to the art. The Glue Society and Sark Studio collaborated to bring us this exhibition. The Human Environment consists of photographic works from Tamara Dean, Paul Blackmore, Benja Harney, Bowen Arico, Ingvar Kenne, Derek Henderson, Chris Bosse, Chris Round, Toby Burrows, Andreas Smetana, Paul McDermott, Anne Ferran, Luke Steele, Victoria Alexander, Val Garland, Richard Bullock, Ari Wegner, Richard Allan, Lorin Askill & Anna Pogossova (sorry if we’re missing anyone!).

The artists explored what it is to be human. The Works are currently being auctioned online with proceeds going to the Climate Council.

We went along to the launch event to see the works in the flesh. The works were an emotive and sensitive interpretation of the theme from each of the photographers, musicians, artists, designers, cinematographers and architects that contributed.

The auction closes on Sunday, 23 February, 2014. Check it out.

See all the photos from this exhibition on STROBED.

Skulls! That’s probably all we need to say about Cranium, the latest exhibition opening at M2 Gallery. But that’d be lazy.

Cranium is the first of what is set to be an annual exhibition. It focused on that marvelous icon: the skull. The exhibition was curated by Ladyj and involving members of the Sydney Streetartproject and Starfly Sydney.

The exhibition was fantastic. The diverse mix of artists that tackled the subject matter created a vibrant collection. A strange thing to say about a room full of skulls.

There was a huge crowd packed into M2 Galllery and spilling out onto the street. Clearly everyone was enjoying the art and enjoying the very generous sponsorship from Young Henry’s.

Once again we didn’t see any red dots – what’s going on non-art-buying Sydney?! Sadly the show only ran for a week but keep an eye out for next year’s installment – it’ll be worth your while.

See all the photos from this exhibition on STROBED.