showing in Les Dessinatrices

 

A wonderful exhibition opened at Espionage Gallery last Thursday which I am honored and very excited to be a part of, titled 'Les Dessinatrices', (international all-female illustration exhibition) They have already sold two framed editions of my A3 sized print With You I Can Be Myself, which I framed in a nice thin wooden frame. The show is on for another week, so local visitors still have some time!

the lady with the rain in her hair

Last night I experienced one of those creative surges artists long for. The kind where you take some time, experiment and then bang out some really solid work. I love it when this happens, especially when I am able to mix various media together like paper collage, charcoal, pencil and graphite. I called this piece 'The Lady with the Rain in her Hair' and she is one of my most favourite pieces I have made yet! I hope she heralds a great year of making for 2012. I made her for the 1 Year Anniversary Exhibition at Espionage Gallery. She is also available in two sizes in my etsy shop.

Espionage Allstars - Opening drinks and Poster designs

Designing the fourteen miniature portraits for our upcoming Espionage All Stars exhibition provided me to a pleasant alternative to writing this week. Though I must admit, when my co-director Josh approached me about doing a collab on the exhibition poster I was pretty daunted as I rarely draw real people, or draw straight from life. I just doodle, and see where it takes me. This design process was really interesting and very different to my normal routine. It was lots of fun too, and I was just really hoping to not offend anyone by making them look strange (by accident!) But luckily the poster was well received, and some of the artists even changed their profile pictures their miniature portraits, so I am very happy. What do you think?

watercolour ladies

They say that there is a lot of the maker visible in their work of art, and I suppose I agree. My work of late has included more sombre elements, a refined colour palette and a possibly even more emotion than usual. From a psychological and a somewhat objective standpoint I find this very interesting, and believe that my art-making path is a blessing, for it provides visual narration and documentation of my life. In my ripe old age I will look over my oeuvre of work and smile, for I will remember what each piece was about, and what I felt and thought at the time of making. With this recent rainy weather and extended periods of solitude and listening to Warpaint, I suppose its no surprise that my art has taken a dark turn. These three watercolour works were made for the Zombie exhibition at Espionage Gallery which is on for another 2 weeks. There are prints available in my etsy shop and the framed originals are still up for grabs for $75 each. 

Espionage Art Market #2

 

This is just a quick reminder to fellow Adelaideans and visitors from overseas & interstate, that tomorrow will mark the day of the 2nd art markets at Espionage Gallery. Open from 5 til 9pm, we will showcase some of the best and brightest local makers Adelaide has to offer. From glass to ceramics and jewellery, stencil art and illustration, we will have a bit of everything for everyone. If you are a regular reader, please come up and say hi! For more information on becoming a stallholder, check out the gallery website. See you tomorrow!

my zombie in progress

 

Here is a sneak peek at my coffin board for the upcoming exhibition They Won’t Stay Dead: The Pre-Walk Zombie Exhibition at Espionage Gallery. The show will open this Saturday night, before the famous zombie walk, 5- 7.30pm and will be open til the 29th of October. My concept for this work is pretty much a zombie girl nabbing a little bird and making a meal of it with its friend watching on in shock. I think I'll either call this piece 'A midnight snack' or 'An evening meal'. I am not sure which sounds better. Any votes or fresh ideas?

Espionage Art Markets and Long Arms

The Espionage Art Market last night was a tremendous success which brings me much joy and relief. As the organizer of the event I felt the pressure of making sure enough people know about the markets to come up, browse and enjoy themselves. There definitely were enough people, and at times the space was packed out so I would certainly declare this a success! I unleashed a couple of new prints on the good people of Adelaide, by the likes of Mr. Shapiro and An Offering. In addition, my newest postcard, The Little Mooki Lovecard was also a success. Now I am super inspired to make more goodies for the next markets, which will take place on the 14th of October!

Espionage Art Markets

Josh and myself, the good people of Espionage Gallery are excitedly planning the first of a series of monthly art markets. The first one opens this friday, the 9th of September and we are super-chuffed! Hopefully this will be a staple event in the life of this great little city of Adelaide, and turn into a terrific platform for showcasing local art and talent. If you are a local reader or will be in town this friday, definitely come by! More details can be found on the website.

Oh and I simply have to mention what our good friend Mr Kwong wrote about the markets:
"Now the vibe this whole thing is giving off has got me imagining it to be - like a teeny tiny cutesy wootsey miniaturised version of the Bowerbird Bazaar." read more here

Love Me, Leave Me (for one night only)

(photo credit to smashing Alex Kwong)

Oh my gosh. What an absolutely crazy week it has been! I am still reeling from the stress/excitement/craziness of it all! But the point is, the exhibition was a smashing success and we all had a great time. Josh and I managed to sell 34 pieces of art in the span of 4 hours, which I deem a splendiferous effort. In addition we had over 400 people through our doors, who appeared to be quite thirsty as they cleaned us out good at the bar! We made two giant bowls of punch, of which not a drop remained by the end of the evening. We got a whole bunch of features in local publications and mags including fivethousand, Adelaide Matters, and a whole one page interview with me in Rip It Up Magazine, which I think had a lot to do with our success. We are already planning our next one night only event, so stay tuned!

Love Me, Leave Me update

I am very excited to announce the final line-up of Love Me, Leave Me (for one night only). All of these girls are so talented and skilled in their fields - I can't find the words to describe how chuffed I am that they accepted my proposal to be in this exhibition. As this is a one night event I think the best way to celebrate will be a party, rather than an 'opening event', so guests will be encouraged to sip some sweet punch (made by yours truly from a super-secret recipe) and don some fifties frocks and patterned socks. Hope you can make it!

my curatorial debut

Right now I am in the middle of curating "Love Me, Leave Me" (for one night only), a one night event as the name suggests. Boasting an all female cast of super-talented lady-artists, this exhibition is bound to be big, bold and amazing. It will be held in my new nest, Espionage Gallery. Here is the official event page. Its all happening on the 30th of August at 6pm, so mark it in Adelaideans!

words and things

[my idea of a tea party is evidently one with garlic on your head.]

During this last week I have had a little taste of what it would be like to be a journalist. In its most basic form, I'm sure! The good people at fivethousand gave me the opportunity to stretch myself and write two "previews" of upcoming exhibitions for them. Naturally I jumped at the chance and wrote about PRETTY/UGLY on show in Adelaide's own Reading Room and The Saatchi Gallery in Adelaide: British Art Now which just opened at the Gallery of South Australia.

fivethousand is a super duper production part of thethousands, a series of cultural guides to the big cities in Australia. I've been a reader for ages now so I am really excited to join the ranks as (hopefully) an occasional freelance contributer to the LOOK! section.

In other news, I now work at Espionage Gallery! Yay! I've known the head curator/director Josh Smith for a while and through chatting we realized we would be a superb team. I truly truly have no idea how he has managed to run the whole gallery program by himself up til now. Its crazy. Either way I am super-psyched to now be co-director, with my official title being "Chief of Getting Things Done". Pretty suave eh? so look out Adelaide because we are going to transform this place into something amazing and indispensable! Starting with Crafternoons and artist workshops. Who else is excited?

Uchiwa Fan Exhibition Update

Wow, what a busy yet satisfying week its been! I feel like I managed to get a lot done without stress myself out in the process, which is really saying something. Perhaps a little bit of personal growth has occurred? We shall have to wait and keep observing..

In other, and arguably much more exciting news, the opening of the Uchiwa Fan charity exhibition for Japan at Espionage Gallery last Thursday was great! We had a massive turnout and managed to sell 25 of the 50 fans on the opening night, including mine (picture one above). That already takes us to a subtotal $1500. I think that is a brilliant achievement for one night! A few more fans have sold since, with 22 fans remaining at this moment in time. The show is only on until this Thursday, the 12th of May so any local and interstate visitors looking to come in are advised to be quick. We want to get the money our Japanese brothers and sisters as soon as possible.

I am honoured and excited to have been invited to take part in this show for this wonderful cause alongside 49 brilliant artists from Australia and New Zealand. It is so lovely to use my art as a direct tool for positive change. x

PS: The images above are just a few snaps by and of me. Official opening photos by Alex Kwong here.

Uchiwa Fan Exhibition for Japan

I have been looking forward to writing this post, as it means the Uchiwa Fan Exhibition is finally here! And I am so excited to have been one of the selected 50 artists to participate in this wonderful show.
Here is the official facebook invite, And the press release with all the information:

Espionage Gallery in collaboration with That Fresh have joined forces to help the people of the Tohoku region of Japan in the wake of the recent Disasters which have befallen Japan. In an effort to raise money in help of support for disaster relief, Espionage Gallery and That Fresh purchased 50 blank Japanese Uchiwa Traditional fans and gave them out to 50 artists from accross Australia and New Zealand.

These 50 fans were painted or decorated by some of Australia’s leading artists in an effort to help raise funds. The fans will be for sale for 1 week at Espionage Gallery for the set price of $60 per fan. 100% of the funds raised from the sale of the fans will be donated directly to the Japanese Red Cross in an effort to fund disaster relief.

The Exhibition will run from the opening night on Thursday the 5th of May at 6pm until the following Thursday and the gallery will be open from 12 noon – 6pm everyday.

some of the artists in the exhibition include:
APESEVEN, KITTY HORTON, AIDA SABIC, BEC WINNEL, KAITLIN BECKETT, JACK DOUGLAS, DRYPNZ, REBECCA MURPHY, ARAMAS, JOSHUA MIELS, JOEL VDK, DAN WITHEY, ARISA YAMAMOTO, MAT HEDE, REM, KATE KOWLAND, DANIEL PURVIS, GENEVIVE DAWSON SCOTT, MADISON BYCROFT, CIARNE BRAES CHAPPELL, MATT WALKER, ELISA MAZZONE, SUSAN CATT, DAYBOT, GREG EDEN, FRUZSI KENEZ, KATE GAGLIARDI, DANIELA CATALANO, STEVE O CONNOR, JOHN WILLANSKI, ASHOWKA CHOWTA, MATT HEALEY, NISH CASH, SALLY JO COOK, STACIE REEVES, HALEY ROBERTS, ELYSE WILLIAMS, RACHEL STRZELECKI, SEBASTION BLAZELY, HANNAH PEDLEY, STACY ALEXANDROU, OLIVIA ANDREULA, DONOVAN CHRISTIE, CHRISTINE SMITH + MORE

Espionage Gallery Opening Exhibition

I am very excited and honoured to be a part of the new Espionage Gallery's opening show! Exhibiting alongside these amazing artists is a super duper feeling. The big fancy opening party is friday night at 7! The event is also being filmed and made into a short documentary type production, including artist interviews. Exciting! Stay tuned!