Currently Exhibiting with Piermarq in “Scalene”, alongside Max Daniels and Caleb Reid.
The show continues until March 24th 2016.
http://www.piermarq.com.au/scalene-group-exhibition/
Tag: Sydney
Pop behind the scenes – AGNSW
Sophie Cape in conversation with Richard Morecroft at Olsen Irwin, July 2014
Thank you…
I have some very exciting news!!! Earlier today I found out that I have been accpeted as the 2014/2015 Resident artist at the Wollongong Art Gallery!! I applies several weeks ago, I was notified that I had been short listed last week and had an interview yesterday. I wanted to share the good news with you all and send out a very big thank you to everyone; friends, family, peers, who have supported me thus far in my journey as an artist and creative practitioner. Thank you for buying works, your kind and constructive criticisms, words of encouragement, drinks, beers, coffee’s and food that so many of you have selflessly shared with me over the years, and not to mention the loaning, sharing and donations of various art materials and supplies. I would even like to extend a thank you to the people who did not support me, had only negative things to say about me and my work. Thank you to you because you taught me that no matter how many set backs you have, how many rejections, how many negative comments are made, no matter how hard it gets; or how hard people choose to make it for you, that you should never give up on your dreams and aspirations.
As many of you will know, art and painting are more to me than just a hobby, more than just a passion or something I am keen on. It is a way of life, I live it, I breathe it every day. An additional thank you to everyone who wished me luck and sent their congratulations today. I only say sorry to those who I didn’t get to text only because my regular phone is in for repairs and I have been trying to get everyone’s numbers back. But I hope this status reaches you, once again a big thank you to all.
Now I will be committed to sustaining a regular practice through the gallery’s residency program; much like I have been practising full time. However, this opportunity will afford me my own creative space; a studio within the Wollongong Art Gallery itself. Over the next 12 months I will be working and producing work to go towards and exhibition. I will also be engaging with gallery patrons and members of the great public through the gallery’s community engagement programs; giving artist talks, studio visits, workshops and more.
As some of you may know I am already painting towards an exhibition at the Wollongong Art Gallery called “Fractured Beauty” which will be in September, and I also have a commission to complete for a charity fundraiser in October. I will be quite busy over the coming few months and even busier over the coming year. So I will apologize in advance if I don’t get to spend much time with everyone of my friends, family and peers. I hope that you all understand the great commitment that I will be making over the next twelve months. Though I think that you all do. To the 2000+ people who follow me through my artists page, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr etc. I will definitely be continuing my posts on a regular basis. Posting progress shots and updates about my work and my working practice.
I’ll leave it at that for now, since I’m guessing this might be turning into a bit of an essay to read. But I really want to say thank you one last time; even though it could be said a thousand times more, thank you, thank you, thank you.
Archibald Prize Winner 2014 – Fiona Lowry
America Painting a Nation (a short review)
The “America” show at the Art Gallery of NSW is a little lack luster. It was building up to be something quite epic. However it ended abruptly around the 1960’s. An exhibition about paintings and painters that created works that were influential to America as a nation and also leaving a mark on it’s people, trademark American painting. Where’s Basquiat, de Kooning, the other minimalists like Frank Stella. What about Julien Schnabel? What about Warhol and Lichtenstein?
It’s just cuts off right about halfway through the modernist era. There was no fullstop, almost felt like reading through the Harry Potter series and stopping at book four and calling it quits. It has left a bad taste in my mouth. As I sit here in the final two rooms, looking out at the directions to the book/gift shop I am a little shattered. My appetite was just beginning to grow, seeing work by O’Keefe, Rothko, Pollock and Krasner I was expecting to move on, but I was stopped dead in my tracks. Stuck in a modernist time warp.
Though on a positive note I did find the works on show to be of a high calibre, strong, bold, informative of their time and context. Works I haven’t seen before, some intimate examples of my favorites. Honorable mentions to Pollock and Rothko being hung together, brothers in arms and independent voices at the same time. Edward Hopper’s work stood out, quiet and stoic. Always the clever narrative that requires a quiet eye and an open mind to decipher. The works by Sargent, Homer and Whistled absolute monuments. Portraits and landscapes that have not lost their effect on the viewer.
Overall the quality of work shown was outstanding, however the curating of this show comes into question. It felt as though I was going for a nice walk through the woods and then suddenly faced with a white wall that had the words “Gift Shop” on it.
Place and Memory: An exhibition of recent work by Nik Uzunovski
So it is just around the corner, my first ever solo exhibition. I am excited, nervous, anxious, happy, sad, relieved and all the rest. I hope that everyone is able to make it. I of course understand that there are people who follow my blog who are from other countries and I am sure that you will be with me in spirit, for those who are in the state of NSW and more specifically the Sydney, South Coast and Illawarra areas I encourage you to come along to my exhibition and show your support for an emerging, local, young creative. Thank you.
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Joanna Mackle, Deputy Director, The British Museum
Artist of the week: Jun Chen.
Jun Chen was born in China in 1960 and migrated to Australia in 1990. He trained in painting at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts and later the Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane. In China, Chen was a brush and ink painter; in Australia he reinvented himself as an oil painter using paint thickly applied with a pallete knife to capture landscapes, nudes and still lifes. The artist is a regular finalist in the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes and his work can be found in the collection of Parliament House, Canberra, and in private collections in Australia and Asia.
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Bondi Park, 2012, oil on canvas, 101 x 106 cm.
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City in Haze, 2012, oil on canvas, 101 x 106 cm.
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Images and text:Â http://www.rayhughesgallery.com/contemporary-australian/jun-chen
Firing On All Cylinders
This is my third group show in almost as many months. After I had finished University last year and graduated, I had said to myself that I would aim for several shows, group and solo and at least one show in a Sydney gallery. Well I managed to accomplish most of those goals, with a solo show on the way later in the year. This current show which I am exhibiting in is a group show, showcasing the work of the newly elected management committee of the Project Contemporary Art space in Wollongong. The gallery was under threat of being closed down for good, so a new group of individuals came together to save the space so that there would be a place for contemporary art to be exhibited and sold in the Illawarra.
I also co-curated the show along side fellow artist Damian Bancks. The curatorial thinking was to show each artists work on their own, rather than mixing the works together, which could have also worked and would have made for an extremely interesting and wonderful show, however, we felt it necessary to show each artist work by giving them a decent amount of wall space each, followed by a smaller wall being occupied by a series of bio’s which informed everyone a little about who they were and of their practice. It is always a triumph when an artist sells there work, it means that their hard work and dedication has quite literally paid off, I’m not afraid to say that the creative arts industry is a hard one to break into and become a success; being able to live solely by selling your work. I have sold works in the past, but this was the first time I had sold work before the show opened and also sold multiple works on the opening night. I cannot begin to describe the joy that this brought me, the feeling of success. Firstly I paint and create art for myself, however the act of exhibiting is a way of putting out the thing you have created to be seen, critiqued and enjoyed by an audience. And you won’t always receive the best feedback, but that’s all apart of the creative process. Selling works gives you the sense that you have achieved something, that you were successful in creating something that caught the attention and admiration of someone, the work resonated with them for whatever reason.
Being still relatively young most would say that I have a very long way to go in the world of art, as an artist and as an exhibitor and even as a person in general. It’s moments like this that seem to make it all seem worthwhile, you know that you have had a hard road to traverse and will undoubtedly continue to experience a plethora of hardships, especially in this day and age where art has to compete more than ever against new age forms of entertainment; some newer than others. However hard the road is, it’s always worth the journey. And even though I like to think that my journey started seven years ago when I first walked in my first life drawing class while I was at TAFE art school, I see this moment as a milestone along the path to greatness and success.
Enjoy the pics from the opening night along with some images of some of the work I am exhibiting an get along to see the show if you’re in the Wollongong area before the 21st of April. And please take the time to visit and like my artists page on Facebook, plenty of content on there (link below)
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Nik-Uzunovski-Artist/225201424159742