‘Figurative Impressions’ @ RMIT School of Art Gallery

This is wonderful! I am SO excited to see that some pieces from the fabled RMIT W.E.McMillan Collection are on show. Bravo.

‘Figurative Impressions‘ is an exhibition at RMIT School of Art Gallery, of selected pieces from the A.D Hope acquisitive figurative award (in memory of his daughter Emily Hope); one of the awards that makes up the multi-award collection.

[Update 15Sep15 : I have been contacted by RMIT and asked to remove my images, as they do not want images of the exhibition on the internet.
I am extremely disappointed by this. I was careful to ask permission to take photographs, and was told I could and given no restrictions on use of those images. I made sure I took general and not detailed photographs, and reasonably low-resolution so they would be barely useful for others to reuse.
Given the above, and my understanding of applicable law, I am within my rights to use these images … but have removed them as requested.
It’s shame – a post without pictures is pretty boring.
There was an image here of work by David Neale, Jessica Morrison and Stephen Robb]

I remember seeing quite a number of these in creation while I was studying (2004-06) and of course since then at various exhibitions. The real treat were the pieces from earlier years. THIS is why so much more needs to be done with this collection (I’ve written about it a number of times before)!

[Update 15Sep15 : There was an image here of work by Elfrun Lach and Claire O’Halloran]

I remember Claire O’Halloran making the pieces (bottom in the above image) – so beautiful, and it is such a joy to see them again … they are even more beautiful than I recall them being.

Works from the collection on show:

• 1983 : Viliama Grakalic
• 1985 : J. Carter
• 1987 : Miyuki Nakahara
• 1988 : Stacey McCall
• 1989 : Sandra Marasco
• 1990 : Sarah L Ross
• 1995 : Rei Shimada
• 1997 : Timothy Quantrell
• 1999 : Anna Davern
• 2001 : Katherine Bowman
• 2002 : Katherine Tiffany Fuller
• 2003 : David Neale
• 2004 : Jessica Morrison
• 2005 : Elfrun Lach
• 2006 : Claire O’Halloran
• 2007 : Penelope Pollard , David Scully
• 2009 : Catherine Da Costa , Fiona Simmons
• 2011 : Claire McArdle
• 2012 : Stephen Robb
• 2013 : Inari Kiuru (very probably my favourite piece(s) of the last decade)
• 2014 : Christopher Massey

[Update 15Sep15 : There was an image here of work including a piece of Anna Davern’s]

Sorry, I was only able to visit this on its last day … ‘Figurative Impressions‘ was part of Radiant Pavilion and was at the RMIT School of Art Gallery until 4th September 2015.

—

Nicole Polentas ‘Reinventing a Sense of Place. Crete and the Jewellery Object’ @ RMIT School of Art Gallery

Regular readers will know of my bold parochial support of the beautiful souls I studied my RMIT degree with … and it’s with immense pleasure I visited one of our number’s PhD exhibition today.

Nicole Polentas has studied with passion and intense commitment for just over ten years now, and it is beyond incredible to see selected pieces from over the years in one place: ‘Reinventing a Sense of Place. Crete and the Jewellery Object‘.

exhibition installation

It was unexpected, but I confess I was a little emotional walking through the exhibition. I remembered the first time Nicole experimented with her now-signature text ribbons; there are only a few moments when you can say you were there to witness the start of something beautiful.

The pieces are without question extraordinary; the exhibition design gorgeous and perfect.

exhibition installation

I completely adore the constructs that underpin the front-facing elements … clean lines and beautifully executed. And her exploration of more colouring in her work is promising and brings an extra dimension; I especially like the pinks and greens. The materials listing is interesting in that it includes ‘Greek coffee’ and I wondered where it was used, perhaps in the resin components?

exhibition installation

The work is personal; the stories close to the surface; her sharing generous and genuine; her intent clear.

I must admit to perhaps being too close to Nicole and her work to give an objective reading of the exhibition [though in reality, I rarely give objective do I(!)]. I think that knowing the artist means I see more layers in the work than a new observer may (maybe) and am too connected to be able to offer anything other than superlatives.

exhibition installation

I do hope that in time her exegesis will be available for public reading.

I offer Nicole my warmest heartfelt congratulations and look forward to seeing her continued explorations and shows!

‘Reinventing a Sense of Place. Crete and the Jewellery Object‘ was a one-night-and-day only (examination) exhibition.

—

Please also see:

• Artist Profile: Nicole Polentas (May09)
• Toowoomba Contemporary Wearables 2009 (Sep09)
• ‘XAOS‘ @ Hellenic Museum (Apr10)
• her presentation as part of RMIT seminar ‘Jewellery Practice as a Site of Enquiry‘ (Aug10)
• Nicole Polentas & Christopher Earl Milbourne ‘Psychomanteum‘ @ Counihan Gallery (Oct11)
• if you search for Nicole’s name on my blog you get 12 pages of results – that’s how much I write about her and how many times she’s included in various exhibitions; the above listing includes the major solo posts

—

Please click below to read more of the media release (from her Events page):

‘Close to Hand’ @ RMIT School of Art Gallery ; part 2

This exhibition was actually at RMIT gallery in August 2011 … but as I mentioned at the time, I had taken photographs with my mobile phone camera and hadn’t figured out how to download them. I’m not so awesome with the new fangled technologies.

I am proud to say that I’ve managed to figure it out (yes, all by myself).

While it is very belated, and with my apologies to the artists involved (as I’d like to have had these images accompany the original post), I present images from ‘Close to Hand‘.

Participating artists (alphabetically):

• Sun-Woong Bang, jewellery [site] – from her ‘Transit‘ series
• Jacqui Chan, jewellery [site] – from her ‘Urban Metabolism‘ series (her site has photos of the 8 pieces in the exhibition)
  

  Jacqui Chan; photograph taken with permission

• Andrei Davidoff, ceramic [site] – large-scale ‘Maquetts for a 2D Monument‘ (image on the home page of his site)
  

  Andrew Davidoff; photograph taken with permission

• Jan Donaldson, jewellery – from her ‘Precious Summer‘ series
• Mary Hackett, metalsmith [site; blog] – ‘Breach‘ an amazing landscape of smithed objects
• Robyn Hosking – the ceramic pieces in the exhibition media
  

  photograph taken with permission

• Naoko Inuzuka [site] – beautiful brooches ‘Saturation‘ and ‘Airplane Window‘ (two brooches) (the home page of her site has an image of the former)
  

  Naoko Inuzuka; photograph taken with permission

• Tassia Joannides – black neckpieces from recycled bicycle inner tubes
  

  Tassia Joannides; photograph taken with permission

• Nicole Polentas [artist profile] – an AMAZING installation, a brooch ‘Epilogue: The Orders of Xalepa‘; over which photographs are projected (‘Signs of Resistance‘), the photographs are of the brooch in-situ in what looks to be broken parts of a Greek city; touching and wonderful to watch
  

  Nicole Polentas; photograph taken with permission

• Leah Teschendorff – quite lovely stark sculptural objects
• Renee Ugazio [site] – an installation ‘bench pegged‘ (it made me smile!)
  

  Renee Ugazio; photograph taken with permission

‘Close to Hand‘ was at RMIT School of Art Gallery until 1st September 2011.

‘Close to Hand’ @ RMIT School of Art Gallery

Exhibitions in the RMIT School of Art Gallery are often short and I find hard to get out of work to see them (it’s only open week days) – so I made a special effort yesterday, and I’m glad I did.

exhibition media

Media: “An exhibition of work by RMIT Postgraduate Students from Ceramics and Gold & Silversmithing, and the 2010 Gold and Silversmithing Maggie Fairweather Residency Award recipient Naoko Inuzuka.“

I had taken photographs (with permission) at the gallery – however, have not been able to get them off my phone in time for this post to publish. Hopefully I will be able to download them to share soon.

Participating artists (alphabetically):

• Sun-Woong Bang, jewellery [site] – from her ‘Transit‘ series
• Jacqui Chan, jewellery [site] – from her ‘Urban Metabolism‘ series (her site has photos of the 8 pieces in the exhibition)
• Andrei Davidoff, ceramic [site] – large-scale ‘Maquetts for a 2D Monument‘ (image on the home page of his site)
• Jan Donaldson, jewellery – from her ‘Precious Summer‘ series
• Mary Hackett, metalsmith [site; blog] – ‘Breach‘ an amazing landscape of smithed objects
• Robyn Hosking – the ceramic pieces in the exhibition media
• Naoko Inuzuka [site] – beautiful brooches ‘Saturation‘ and ‘Airplane Window‘ (two brooches) (the home page of her site has an image of the former)
• Tassia Joannides – black neckpieces from recycled bicycle inner tubes
• Nicole Polentas [artist profile] – an AMAZING installation, a brooch ‘Epilogue: The Orders of Xalepa‘; over which photographs are projected (‘Signs of Resistance‘), the photographs are of the brooch in-situ in what looks to be broken parts of a Greek city; touching and wonderful to watch
• Leah Teschendorff – quite lovely stark sculptural objects
• Renee Ugazio [site] – an installation ‘bench pegged‘ (it made me smile!)

‘Close to Hand‘ is at RMIT School of Art Gallery until 1st September 2011.