Calendar: October 2009

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Chloe Valance ‘A Moment at a Time’ @ Area

After seeing her lovely work at Hatch recently [post], I popped in to see Chloe Valance‘s solo exhibition ‘A Moment at a Time‘ at the Area Contemporary Art Space in Fitzroy recently.

photograph taken with artist permission

Exhibition media states: “The tension between human figures and their environmental context is an underlying theme in this project, as is the simplicity of intimacy experienced by a figure, together or alone, a moment at a time.”

The drawings are variously done on paper, timber and over the top of cut/recycled materials from other works of Chloe’s. There is a mixture of scale, and I particular like the smaller works where you physically need to get close to decipher the drawing and see the detail.

photograph taken with artist permission

I also like another excerpt from the exhibition media: “the ambivalence between solitude and community, the ambiguity of seriousness and play, and the linking of opposite ideas where limits are questioned“.

I’d usually include a link to the gallery website, but the only one I could find hasn’t been updated since 2007 or so, which is not good. So instead, all the necessary details are on the invitation below.

‘A Moment at a Time‘ is at Area Contemporary Art Space until 4th October 2009.

Blog roundup

There has been so much deliciousness that I can’t wait any longer to share:

• Katherine Wheeler has a few photographs of new work, I love the stilt cup [post]
• Katherine Bowman’s pledge rings are covetable; even though it’s documented that I’m not usually a fan of green in jewellery, gems are excluded from that rule and the tourmaline is calling to me [post]
• David Neale’s golden oxen are wonderful [post]
• for less experienced jewellers, students, or interested collectors and jewellery-lovers, Erika Harris has recently shown a series of photographs of the start of the process of making a bezel setting [post];
• apparently diamonds aren’t forever, as TheAge [here] tells us that BHP has warned of dwindling kimberlite pipe finds (where the diamonds are)
• did you see images of the fabulous hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold (650 objects) and silver (530 objects) a metal-detectorist (seriously, that’s their ‘official’ name, let it go) has found in Staffordshire? I first found this on the BBC website on Thursday [here] and it was all over the domestic television news on Friday night; Inari has also posted this link to a NYTimes article [here] and I’m sure there are lots of stories now flaunting about on the net about it; I can’t wait until it’s all cleaned up and all displayed in one place together, what a feast for the senses that would be…

Update: thanks to Inari for the link to the ‘official’ website for the hoard – see the comments.

Gallery hopping in Richmond

It was a lovely sunny Friday (no, not yesterday) and I was in Richmond to see the exhibition of Jasmine Targett [post]; as I was on Albert Street I did a spot of gallery hopping, for there are so many galleries in this little street.

I popped into Sophie Gannon Gallery, where Julia deVille had her recent exhibition. The work showing was John Nicholson ‘Connection is Solid‘. I liked some of the combinations of coloured strips of perspex. Without disrespect for the artist, it looked like Paul Smith on steroids. [Marcus at ArtBlart has reviewed this story and has some good images, here.]

photograph taken with gallery permission; detail of 'Thrill Seeker'

It was happy art for a sunny day and it made me smile.