Opportunities for Artists, Bookmakers, Zinesters & Photographers

Gallery Lane Cove has some new opportunities for artist coming up.  We are opening up some public submissions so please read and think about submitting if your interested.

1. Call to Artists and Bookmakers

Submissions Deadline 31^st July 2012

PRINT STITCH STAPLE is an exhibition of artist’s books and zines that examines the relationship between art and the book, to be held at Gallery Lane Cove September 17^th – 5^th October.

We are looking for interesting DIY fanzines to sophisticated experimental image based artist books and zines that showcase and overview of all kinds of book and paper art, currently being made. This is an exciting opportunity to be a part of an exhibition that is promoting the latest ideas to an new audience.You can find more information about the exhibition here.

We would like to invite all Zine/Artist Bookmaker and Artists to submit work to be included. Artist can submit up to 3 different works. Please send us:

            -  3-5 images of examples of your work

-  CV (with contact details) and a brief description about your art practice

Please email all submissions to centrehouse@bigpond.com.au by 31^st July 2012. All artists selected will be notified by the 13th August, via email.  Please send submissions to centrehouse@bigpond.com.au. All Artwork from selected artists must be delivered by 3^rd September. 

2. Call to Emerging Photographers

Gallery Lane Cove would like to invite you to submit work for a Public Art Commission in Lane Cove. This is an opportunity for emerging photographers to get exposure for their work in the public domain. In collaboration with the VOCE-N-ALE event, we ask photographers to respond to the theme “THE WORD IS OUT”. VOCE-N-ALE is an all inclusive cultural and social event with a broad scope of expression being held as a final salute to the The Year of Reading 2012 that captures our collective voices by Lane Cove Alive and the Lane Cove Library. The photographer selected will be offered an exhibition, which will hang in the outdoor forecourt, outside Gallery Lane Cove, which will engage the local community in the visual language of photography and reflect on the above theme.

The winning photographer will have their body of work printed on 12 outdoor canvas panels to, and includes approximately 12 -13 images. A fee of $2000 will be paid to the photographer for their images

              - 3-5 images of your work

              - CV (with contact details) A brief statement about your art practice

                           -  Outline of your proposed body of work for exhibition

Please note that the images will be blown up on canvas in the dimension 750mm wide x 1150mm high, so portrait shaped images are recommended. See below images of previous exhibitions.

    Please email all submissions to centrehouse@bigpond.com.au by the 31^st July 2012.      

     We look forward to hearing form you !

Studio's & Sculptures

Pamela Fairburn's exhibition Waterstories has just come down and I know that everyone will be sad to see it go. We had many busy days with lots of visitors during the three week exhibition and a packed house at her artist talk on Saturday 2nd June. 

We now have Laura Jade showing her small sculptures "White Parazoa"  in the Library Square Sculpture Plinth. It is a series of small sculptures initially inspired by the Victorian era. The geometric forms reference the designs of neck ruffles and lace of the period, whilst also referencing the appearance of cabinets of curios and the rise in scientific discoveries in the 17th- 19th centuries. The work also draws upon the ideas in the illustrations of biologist Ernst Haeckel in Art Forms in Nature focusing on sea creatures and the array of symmetrical and geometrical patterns found in living organisms.

Laura Jade is an artist currently living in Lane Cove, Sydney. Laura completed her BFA at the National Art School in 2007 and has since been involved in Australian group shows, was an awarded finalist in the prestigious Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize and had a solo exhibition of her paintings at Lane Cove music & cultural center last year. Laura’s art practice is inspired by Science and Natural History. Laura's sculptures are on exhibit in the Plinth until the 20th June when they will be heading to Adelaide where they have been shortlisted for the Waterhouse Natural History Prize. Find out more about Laura Jade.

Felicity has just arrived back from visiting Panchali Sheth and Annie Pavlovic at Artarmon Artist Studios where they are working on their  upcoming exhibition " From the Studio" at Gallery Lane Cove 17 - 28  July . Don't miss their Opening night on Wednesday 18th July at 6pm. Click here for more information.

Art News from the Gallery

Our current exhibition Beauty In the Beast, photographs by Gary Steer, opened on Wednesday 9th May. The keynote address was given by Stephanie Hart of the Taronga Foundation, who gave a wonderful talk about Gary Steers, particularly his work with the animals from the Zoo. The exhibition of animal portraiture and landscapes is part of the Head on Photo Festival currently running throughout Sydney and continues until Friday 18th May so if you haven't seen it yet make sure to come down and visit. 

Felicity Martin, Ruth Law, Gary Steer, Stephanie Hart

                                                                     Max & Linda Jones, Jenny Piper

Gary also gave an artist talk on Saturday 12th, taking everyone through his photography practice and guiding them around  his exhibition piece by piece. We had a great crowd and it was a wonderful way to see the exhibition and get an insight into all the intriguing places Gary has visited.

 Next Exhibition will be Pamela Fairburn's show, Water Stories, from the Shores of Lane Cove. Opening Night Drinks will be on the Friday 25th May from 6pm.Pamela is a Sydney Watercolour and Mixed Media Artist with over 30 years experience in Art and Art Education. She has a Bachelor of Education (Art), Graduate Diploma in Visual Arts and has taught Art in high schools, Special Education, Painting Workshops at Combined Art Societies Meroo Kurrajong, Bathurst Mitchell Art School. She formed the local art group “Woodford Bay Art Group” in 1986 and tutors in her studio at Longueville Sydney.

She has won many art awards and has been shown in many group and solo exhibitions. She is a Member of Lane Cove Art Society and is an Exhibiting Member of Royal Art Society. Pamela organises and leads art tours and workshops here in Australia and overseas. Pamela Fairburn’s recent mixed media paintings showing here explore the concept of Time and Tide, History, Place and Relationships. She is a “water person”, loves the beaches, surf, sailing and living close to the harbour, and water has always fascinated her. It is a recurring theme over her many years painting. In these new works her subject is based on the watery environments of harbour bays. The symbolism of floating leaves and harbour waters relates to the human condition, stories of past inhabitants and Impermanence, Fragility and Continuity of Life. Experimental watercolour combined with hot wax, encaustic, wax pastels, dry pigments and collage are used on handmade papers. These unite to form floating images and layered textures. Bush, mudflats, rockpools, flora and fauna of the Northern shores of Sydney are explored and celebrated. Her trip to Japan last year influenced her art work. She travelled there just after the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster. There was shock, sadness and disbelief there but the people still celebrated the beauty of the “Sakura”….cherry blossoms! The meditative atmosphere and Zen’s “being in the moment”, capturing the “Essence” and “Meaning” has become all important. It is also seen in her materials; the fine fragile handmade “washi” papers… rice, mulberry, wood fibres and bamboo. The compositions and formats are similar to scrolls and Japanese screens and much of her brushwork, monoprinting techniques, and use of gold and silver have close links to Asian Art. Her interest in textiles and hot wax Batik printing is also displayed in these paintings. Pamela loves exploring the foreshores of Lane Cove, Northwood, Greenwich, Longueville, Woodford Bay and Tambourine Bay. She finds sheltered rockpools, washed up treasures, flotam and jetsam, angophora gums dipping into the ripples on the water’s edge, light changing on the water and watches the wading birds on the mangrove flats so close to the city. The role of the story teller is an old one. Through her paintings Pamela paints the stories of her imaginary watery world, looking back through time to where others have been before, and where we are now. Nature and Life continues to flourish around our foreshores, quietly but celebratory…..the story continues.


The exhibition continues until 8 June, make sure you see the amazing talent of this local artist.

Gallery News

We have been very busy in Gallery Lane Cove. Teaching Art a curated exhibition of work by our teachers and artists from Centrehouse Arts Centre has just finished after a three week show along with some great free artist talks by David Pavich, Jane Blundell and Marie James. 

Coming up we have a packed schedule! First up is artXtra the annual show by the Lane Cove Art Society, it will be showing over the weekend of the 4-6th May for 3 days only so you will have to be quick. We will have the opening night with drinks on Friday 4th May at 6pm.

2011 Winner of the Lyod Rees Prize

Next up is a collection of photographic by Gary Steer Beauty In The Beast, which is part of the Head on Photo Festival which will be held throughout Sydney from May to early June and includes 200 events in 100 venues. The emphasis of the festival is on the genre of portraiture and Gary challenges the traditional idea of the portrait, using non-humans as the model or muse. 

Gary finds animals are excellent models as ‘there is no need to dress them for the shoot as they have their own fashion colours and some of them, particularly birds, have their own millinery’.  He wanted to show their intrinsic beauty, to capture their character, even the personality of some of them, and to present them with dignity.Working particularly at Taronga's Sydney and Western Plains Zoos and visiting the National Zoo Canberra, Adelaide Zoo and Mogo Zoo, Gary has captured the exotic and the fierce, from the baboon, gorilla chimpanzee, gibbon, zebra, giraffe, meerkat and lion.

Portrait of the King, Gary Steer

The exhibition opens on Tuesday 8 May, with the Drinks on Wednesday, 9 May from 6pm. The exhibition runs through to Friday 18 May and Gary will be available for a free artists talk on Saturday 12 May from
11am, where you can get the inside story to his art practice. 

We have just launched the new Lane Cove Library Sculpture Plinth which is part of the Lane Cove Council Public Art Strategy. We are currently displaying "Little Boxes" a mixed media sculpture by Laura Carey an artist and teacher at Centrehouse Arts Centre. If your interested in displaying work you can email us at: centrehouse@bigpond.com

We look forward to seeing you in the gallery over the next couple of weeks.

 

Gallery Lane Cove - Calling for Exhibition Proposals for 2012/2013

Are you looking for a local art gallery space to exhibit your art work in the New Year?

Well, good news! There is a new gallery in Lane Cove that is set to officially open in February 2012 and we are asking for submissions for exhibitions. The gallery, named Gallery Lane Cove is an initative of the Lane Cove Council who have engaged architects, DRAW, De Mancour, Russell Architecture Workshop to refurbish the top level of the Community Centre at 164 Longueville Road, Lane Cove. Building is taking place as we speak and here is a sneek peek of some of the work that has been done so far and above you can see the artists impression of the entrance to the gallery.

Centrehouse Community Art Centre have been contracted to manage the gallery for the community and will be developing a program of exhibitions, which includes hiring the contemporary gallery space out to artists based on submissions, due on the 30th March 2012.

We are still in pre-opening mode, however there is some initial information for you to consider over the New Year break. Read the Pre-liminary Exhbition Application Hiring Details and Fees . We will be providing further information and photos of the new gallery space at the beginning of February 2012, so keep your eyes and ears posted to our website http://www.centrehouse.org.au/.

If you are interested in exhibiting, please contact the Gallery & Centre Manager, Felicity Martin after the 23rd January 2012. In the meantime, Happy New Year!!

We find out what inspires artist and Centrehouse Children's Drawing Techniques and Silk Screen Printing teacher Laura Carey

CH:  I see on your CV you studied print-making in Ireland. What bought you to Sydney?

LC: After a while in the art scene in Ireland, I found myself in a bit of a rut. I’ve always loved to travel, and I’d met some really great people from Australia so I decided to come here to study and focus on my work. Really, it was a bit of a whim, but it turned out to be a great decision!

CH:   Can you outline for us the general print making process?

LC: In screen printing, the first thing is to find images and make them into stencils, either by hand-cutting stencils or using photographic exposure. You have to think backwards in a way; figure out what you want and then make each individual piece into colour layers, it’s kind of like a jigsaw puzzle.

Example of stencil by Laura Carey 

After that, you can start printing! You print one colour at a time, so you have to line up the screen very carefully. Then you use a squeegee to apply ink through the screen onto the paper. Wait for that colour to dry and then start over with the next colour. If you’ve only got a few colours it’s pretty simple, but when you create complex images the process can be quite challenging.

CH:   What appealed to you about the process of making prints?

LC: I became interested in printmaking after being exposed to some basic workshops at the beginning of my fine art degree in Dublin because it was such a different way of image making , there was so much to try and so many new tools to make images so I just had to explore more.

CH:   If there was one print making process that everyone should get the chance to do at least once in their lifetime, what do you think it should be?

LC: Obviously, I’m a little biased towards screen printing, but there are so many other fantastic print making processes like lithography, etching, lino cuts, wood block printing and so on. Any of them would be a great experience.

CH:  What is your favourite print making process and why?

LC: I really like the screenprinting process, and how it becomes part of the work itself. I try to allow my work to form in the process. Screen printing is also very versatile; you can use drawings, photos, shapes - a lot like collage. I like that you can play and experiment with the different elements of the image like colour or composition , you can add or take things away etc. It can be used in so many ways; most of my work is on paper, but I’ve also made books, magazines, cards, and prints on fabric.

 Stencil printing on fabric by Leanne Garrity

 Printmaking for gift ideas by YaChin You

CH:     I have been having a look on your blog http://lauracarey.wordpress.com/ and see your own art work uses a variety of materials. Can you outline what informs your artwork?

LC: My work is multi-disciplinary although I am a printmaker, I dont feel confined to that, I work with drawing, painting, collage, video and installation to explore my art practice  My work has been heavily based around my personal relationship to suburban life, having been intrigued by the mass of suburban landscape that surrounded me in Dublin. My work looked at our evaluation of the landscape in which we live. Looking at the houses around me has allowed me to see how we are all trying to stand out among the banal. From travelling and experiencing new landscapes I have found I am very influenced by my new surrounding, I am intrigued by being able to connect, capture and depict what I find my self surrounded by. Robert Rauschenberg had a quote I loved ,  he wanted to work "in the gap between art and life," which I think suggested a questioning of the distinction between art objects and everyday objects. I try to look at the everyday in the suburban/urban landscape, that I find my self surrounded by and reexamine what we may usually overlook.

Laura Carey, Clevelizabeth Street, 2008. Ink on paper. 

I have also been working on ideas that focus on the interrelationship between fiction and reality. I take these banal images of the world around me and try to deconstruct them and create a new image somewhere between the reality in front of me and a created distorted beautiful alternative. I have been working on creating  a world that is instantly recognisable but at the same time allows the viewer to escape from the everyday and see the ordinary in a new uncanny.

CH:    Who are the most inspiring artists for you?

LC: It’s hard, screen printing has so many iconic figures like Andy Warhol and Tim Marr. I find Robert Rauschenberg’s use of appropriated images in screen printing very influential. He was always experimenting with new techniques and questioning what would work. Outside of the screen printing world, David Hockney uses colour in very concentrated and saturated way; even if you’re looking at something dull and dreary, his colours animate it and fill it with life.

Laura Carey, Björtusalir, 2007. Ink on paper.

CH:      How do the projects you have planned for Centrehouse fit into your art making philosophy?

LC: I really like to experiment and create different things, so I want to show people how versatile screen printing can be. I’ll be teaching people how to use their own images, designs or drawings to make stencils by breaking them up into two or three colours and cutting out stencils. Then we’ll use the stencils to make a number of prints on both fabric and paper. We’ll provide canvas tote bags, but if anyone would like to bring t-shirts ,pillowcases, teatowels or notebooks in we can print on those too. One of my favourite parts of screen printing is the process, deconstructing an image and putting it back together in a new and beautiful way, so I’m aiming to teach that process and all its possibilities.

Laura Carey, The Robin in the bushes, 2008. Ink on paper.

Exhibition News

'Imaginary Narratives, Here to There,' an exhibition of figurative prints by Bernhardine Mueller & Denise Scholz-Wulfing

A couple of weeks ago, I attended the opening of an exhibition by two of Centrehouse's print making teachers. Bernhardine Mueller has been teaching print making at Centrehouse for many years and has a Solar Plate workshop coming up in the early part of 2012 and Denise Scholz-Wulfing has taught our print making classes during the term, which we will be offering again in Term 1 2012.

Denise's etchings are hung as a narrative that is based on a series of illustrations of the Book of Job, by William Blake. The difference with Denise's work is that she tells the story with Mother Nature as the key protagonist, who tests Job and his treatment of the land. The story begins with Job tending his flock , where there is a definite divide between the bush and the farm. Mother Nature then turns her back on Job and he is faced with plagues of rabbits and locusts. Job finally decides to work with Mother Nature, repairing the land from the ravages of over farming, seeking redemption and finally living again in harmony with the land. This series of nine etchings is technically very skillful, with each one engaging the viewer with subtle messages and a dense patchwork of imagery.

Image 1:

Denise Scholz-Wulfing, The Job Series, Tending the Flock, etching and collagraph

Image 2:

Denise Scholz-Wulfing, The Job Series, Harmony, etching and collagraph

Bernhardine Mueller's etchings also look at man's relationship to nature, however she constructs her 'little vignettes' from the imagination and these works have a uniquely Australian feeling, using humour to ask questions about the way man interacts and sometimes struggles with the environment. There are recurring themes of the vessel in her images of boats and balloons that seem to help secure and navigate her characters through. Bernhardine has hand coloured these prints, bringing her characters alive and giving the works a more painterly quality.

There are a couple of more abstract works in this exhibition, that are layered with references to the Australian landscape. Being less literal, these densely patterned works make you feel like you are standing right in the midst of the thickly tangled, yet beautiful rainforest or bush. Bernhardine masters the traditional techniques of print making in a fresh and inspiring way.

Both women are extremely passionate about printmaking and having attended classes taught by both of them, I have come to realise that to create such high quality and compelling images from printmaking you really need to get the technical aspects right. Both Bernhardine and Denise can help you on your own journey.

Image 1: Bernhardine Mueller, Dancing with the Wind, hand coloured etching

Image 2: Bernhardine Mueller, Fish River, hand coloured etching

This joint exhibition 'Imaginary Narratives, Here to There', continues until Friday 12th November 2011 and is held at the Marianne Newman Gallery in Crows Nest. For information on the printmaking workshops and term classes, call us on 9428 4898. by Felicity Martin.