I am a big fan of the Brunswick Street Gallery (BSG) and I’m sad that I couldn’t visit the ‘Small Works 09‘ exhibition until its second-last day – which meant limited opportunity for revisits. Walking into the top-floor gallery room is an amazing experience! The walls are filled with art…
photograph taken with gallery permission
The first thing I noticed, aside from every square of space being filled, was the increase in three-dimensional works and that there were also some jewellery pieces. Yay!
photograph taken with gallery permission
Jewellery or metal sculptural pieces included:
- necklaces by Natalia Milosz-Piekarska (images on her blog)
- framed neckpieces by Kane Greenhatch
- beautiful little birdcages, and a metal teddy-bear, by Breanna Timmins
- brooch and hair comb by Claire Faulmann (she was also recently at Buda)
- rings by Fiona Simmons
- incredible fish sculptures by Sammy Lucas
- beautiful porcelain brooches by Jennifer Halli
I also very much liked:
- photographs by Eliza Hovey – one of these will soon be on a wall at my home!
- right hand and left hand drawings by Bridget Farmer (I think this bridbird?) – one of these will also be on my wall shortly!
- little ceramic gatherings by Lynette Lillywhite (below) – I thought seriously about taking one of these home, but don’t really have the right spot for it, so left without one…
- three layered perspex pieces, though I didn’t write down the artist’s name
photograph taken with gallery permission
The BSG website has images of the winners’ works – well worth a visit [here].
‘Small Works 09‘ was at Brunswick Street Gallery 19th June – 2nd July 2009.
Got to admit that I thought the BSG a tad greedy with the amount of entries it took (it is uncurated and the gallery took $15 from the artist for each piece of work to put it on their walls – not sure if there was a commission on sales though). Hence every piece of wall space from floor to close to ceiling was full. Very difficult to view and I don’t know how the majority of artists felt when they finally located their work at floor level or well above sight lines.
The opening was a nightmare, easily a thousand people trying to navigate the narrow wooden stairs and no obvious fire exit. Went back the next day to view the works. Some gems amongst them, some very reasonably priced though found one artist rather humorous in pricing her works from $1000 for a digital image up to $5000 for a small work on paper. But I’d never attend an opening at BSG again, unless the City of Yarra has checked them out first.
I agree that it would be disappointing for an artist to find their work at ground level. However, this year’s show was similar to last year’s – so while unfortunate, this would be a surprise for artists if they hadn’t been involved before, or if they hadn’t searched for information about previous shows (fitzroyalty reviewed the 2008 show, with photographs).
I can believe the opening was a nightmare – I don’t like climbing those stairs at the best of times, let alone with so many people around!
You’ve brought to mind an interesting point though – with the increasing success of this exhibition, I wonder how BSG will manage next year’s show (assuming there will be one) and whether curating or selection will be a necessary measure?