Some photography from the Inner Harbour of Port Kembla, some of the images may be repetitive but it is my first investigation and venture into the realm of photography for quite some time and I am also learning the ins and outs of my camera. Enjoy.
Tag: wonderful
Business Cards
I just received the business cards as well as some postcards that I designed and ordered from vistaprint.com. Having business cards and other promotional material as an artist is important because its is another form of promotion for your work and your practice, well designed business card can get a person interested in who you are and what you do, even people who may not have been interested in what you do in the past. Postcards act as another form of promotion, by offering a number of them for sale and strategically giving some away you further promote your practice as an artist and give people a taste of what it is that you do. Going through companies such as Vista Print is a cost effective way to get what you need, though if you are so inclined you can always hire a graphic designer to design the cards for you and print them yourself, though the costs can be prohibitively expensive.
Artist Statement
Here is my most recent artist statement, it is a brief piece of writing relating to my most recent work and practice.
Painting is a meditative medium, whether you work in the figurative/representational tradition or as an abstract painter, or even cross between the two realms like myself, the act of painting transcends all schools, styles and movements. Over the past year there has been a major transformation in my work and my creative process, I have changed my practice radically, moving away from figurative and representational painting and investigating the potential results abstraction can offer. I have come to understand that the process of abstraction; especially when abstracting from life, is not just what we see, but also what we feel, remember, taste and hear. The act of abstract painting is the translation of these sensations, along with sight, into a visual art context. John Elderfield et al (2011) writes “A representational painting can be composed through abstract manipulation of the medium of painting and also the less familiar one that an abstract painting may be created through acts of representation” My current work is about the appropriation of representational elements and manipulating them into abstract compositions, I am questioning what we interpret as the world around us, experiences, happenings and memories and how these can be represented in an abstracted context.
Bibliography
Eldefield, J et al 2011, de Kooning a retrospective, The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Artist of the week: Alexander Calder
On my artists page on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Nik-Uzunovski-Artist/225201424159742 I started a series where I would find an artist whose work I enjoyed, or has inspired me or has just been a general interest to me and I have shared the artist and some examples of their work on my artists page, usually by way of sharing a link to a page like artnet.com
I have recently decided to move this series over to my blog and will do my best to make it the best series possible, rather than just copying and pasting a link. So this will be the first official artist of the week feature on my blog.
This week’s artist is Alexander Calder: (Text and images from www.artnet.com)
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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
Some more work on paper
This will only be a short post. As I am trying to make at least one blog post per week now. Hoping to increase that. And also change my page theme. It seems a bit crap at the moment. In the mean time here is several examples of some recent work on paper.
Late night creative urges
Just some random thoughts on why it is that I get the urge to draw at paint later on during the day? My general theory is that I am a nocturnal creature and that my creative juices get flowing at a later time rather than motivating me to create. Also it could be that it is a lot quieter at night, which allows me to focus more on the act of creation, whereas during the day there are many distractions. Picasso loved to work into the night especially as soon as he got a hold of some portable lighting that allowed him to work at night.
Here’s a little something I popped out the other night.
Painting for an exhibition
In the next couple of weeks I will be exhibiting alongside six other artists at Studio 19, Central Chambers Wollongong City Mall, NSW Australia. For this group exhibition we all decided to work under an overall theme and title; question:make:connect. We are creating work in response to a question we want to answer with our work, whether it be something political, personal, profound or in relation to the process of creating a work.
I am questioning the process of abstraction in my work. Responding to the world around me and my thoughts and feelings and composing them onto a 2-D surface of canvas and board. The connecting part of the show is how we connect our work back to the question and also how our work connects as a group. We don’t aim to make literal connections, for example: we all painted landscapes or sculpted figures. But small connections like working on similar grounds i.e paper, canvas, board, cloth. Materials that are all fragile, holding work that is soft spoken and contemplative, yet is still strong enough to please the aesthetic eye
and quench the conceptual thirst.
Once the show is up I will make another post with pictures of everyones work. Until then I will leave you with a image of one of my works.
Dobell Prize For Drawing 2012
It has been a while since I have blogged. I have been occupied with a lot of things as of late, however, I felt that I needed to take the time to make a post about the Dobell Prize for Drawing at the Art Gallery of NSW Sydney. The Dobell prize was established in honour of the Australian artist William Dobell. The prize itself focuses on works that are defined as drawings, this definition is always pushed further and further each year, with more and more works incorporating numerous mediums in their creation. The prize money is impressive, the winner receiving $30,000 and have their work acquired by the gallery. Many works use mediums that aren’t usually associated with drawing; watercolour, acrylic and also drawing onto surfaces that are usually used as grounds for painting on, like wood panels. This years prize was full of beautiful work, examples of which are attached to this post. And I must apologise upfront, I completely forgot to document the artists names and the titles of the works. I was just so overwhelmed by the work itself. Though I do strongly encourage everyone to go and see the prize while it is still up, the best part about it, besides the work is the fact that it is for free! That’s right, for free! You get to see an entire show of contemporary drawing without paying an admission fee.
The prize is on until February 13th, so get along to the Art Gallery of NSW Sydney before then and experience some great contemporary drawing.
Abund-Art 2012
As apart of our up and coming Graduation show, the students of the Faculty of Creative Arts at the University of Wollongong have organised Abund-Art. This exhibition/art auction will be a means of raising funds to go towards our graduating show. Each student has submitted several works, we also have work that has been donated by our teachers and a number of established artists that have donated there works for sale. This show, much like the nude auction, allows students to not only exhibit their work and have it seen, but it also provides those students who have little or no exhibition experience with the experience they need to hang shows of their own and pursue careers in the Creative Arts Industries. The idea for Abund-Art came about as an idea to have a show, a show of abundance, hence Abund-Art. A packed out show with dozens of work up for grabs for the right bid. The auction will take place on 14th October at Gallery 5: Crown Lane in Wollongong, NSW from 1pm onwards. For those who cannot make the actual auction, do not despair, we will have a silent bidding box available in the gallery space for the duration of the exhibition. The idea of the silent bid box is for people who cannot be present at the auction to bid on any work that they are interested in, while also allowing those people who don’t feel up to competing openly for works of art to place a bid, well over the reserve price, to give them a fighting chance to get they work they so desire. All you have to do is place your name, phone number and email on the slip provided, along with the number and title of the work and the name of artist as well as your bid price and put the paper into the box provided.
One of the best features of this exhibition is that there was no set theme, the works up for auction are created by different artists, based on different themes and motifs and they are created through different media. We have a variety of drawings, water colours, oil on board and canvas, photography, print making and even sculpture. This appeals to a wider audience. So I recommend that you get down to Gallery 5 on the auction day and start bidding, alternatively you can make a silent bid prior to the auction for your chance to own a unique work of art. I hope that you enjoy the install pics below and take notice of the event poster that I have added; thanks to our design students, and standby for some additional images of the auction itself.
