OPENING EXHIBITION REVIEW IN THE AGE

Link to Dan Rule’s article ‘In the galleries: what to see in Melbourne this weekend’, here text version below:

“If the debut exhibition at new Collingwood space Nicholas Thompson Gallery is anything to go by, the young art dealer – who has spent time at Australian Galleries and John Buckley Gallery – has an eye for no-nonsense painting, with significant works from artists of all generations, including senior painters Gordon Shepherdson and Alun Leach-Jones and mid-career artists Sarah Faulkner and Craig Waddell. A monumental work by John Firth-Smith, which stands at more than 2.7 metres, is a highlight, his abstract motifs buried in a haze of textural noise and wash. Queensland artist Christian Flynn’s work also deals with abstract languages in unconventional ways, as he layers razor-sharp, brightly colourful geometric abstraction over dark, ambient textures. Arryn Snowball’s stunningly quiet painting, meanwhile, is an abstract study of opacity and depth. It’s good to see Rhys Lee’s work back on the exhibition circuit, with his acrylic-on-paper portrait assuming a shadowy, muddy guise somewhere between a creepy clown and a Scottish highlander.”