KEVIN CONNOR VISUAL ARTS REVIEW (NICHOLAS THOMPSON GALLERY, MELBOURNE) By W H Chong June 25, 2019 This show of paintings and drawings has the fervour of an artist in their youthful prime, but Connor is 87 this year. He is one of the grandest old painters in Sydney with many works in the Art gallery of NSW. Reproductions of his earlier work in the books at the gallery, consistent in feeling and expression, prove these late works as even looser, painted with more velocity. There is nothing to understand, you look and “get” it, like a knack. It’s all in…
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The Cola Wars by Philjames Anyone who’s wandered past centuries-old masterpieces in a major art gallery and found themselves thinking about cartoons instead will feel right at home with the work of Sydney artist Philjames. This collection of paintings adorns the old with the new – or sabotages the classical and traditional with the crass and disposable, depending on your point of view. As someone who grew up with The Simpsons at home and religious imagery at school, it’s a little unsettling to see them both in the one place. And yet it makes perfect sense. So, with escalating levels of offensiveness,…
Virginia Cuppaidge is recognised as one of Australia’s foremost abstract painters. Her connections with Newcastle have been enduring and with this the recent donation of the geometric painting Saix 1974 to the Newcastle Art Gallery collection in 2018. The exhibition is a survey of the last forty plus years work by the artist and maps the career of the one of Australia’s leading painters. The exhibition marks and celebrates Cuppaidge’s return to Australia after four decades in New York. This career survey brings together works from the Newcastle Art Gallery collection, key state and national collections and the artist’s own holdings from…
Suzanne Archer: The Song of the Cicada Published April 18, 2019 Suzanne Archer, ‘Thrumming and Drumming’ (2017) Suzanne Archer’s career as an Australian artist began in a blaze of publicity in 1969. Her first solo exhibition at Sydney’s Clune Gallery was written up in the papers, and splashed on radio and TV. It helped that Archer was young and glam, and that the local gallery scene was limited to a handful of dealers. A hip young woman creating avant-garde art made for an eye-catching story. Fifty years on, Archer has clocked up more than 40 solo shows and taken part…