some cool stuff i've seen lately.

i have to apologise for being largely self-centred on this blog of late. you know, masters projects will do that sometimes, i hear.

i made a promise to myself that i would reduce the amount of shows i was seeing - not out of some crazy "don't let the ideas get filtered" kind of paranoia, but mostly out of a time-management kind of thing. "if i'm spending every night at an exhibition opening, i'll not get any work done" kind of paranoia.

anyway, i've been able to squeeze a few shows in over the last couple of weeks and wanted to tell you about them.



my own private idealogue, at gertrude st and curated by emily mccormack, was a group show of new zealand artists and it was rockin'. NZ is killer right now and this just goes to shows it. featuring joanne langford, peter madden and rohan walleans, the show was predominantly sculpture, with a real focus on paper-like materials.

personally i liked the langford city/structure-type-things (unsurprising, given my predilection for all things architectonic) and the peter madden works. his delicate and multiple and flight-like works are amazing. in fact, they reminded me of jeremy bakker's works at bus last year (and the current show at bus by lewella lewis, ex-field gallery also has some soft, city-type sculptures atm).



and speaking of jeremy bakker, his show at west space - a continuation of that show - is ace!! it's more about space and architecture than the mostly 2D works from last year, and is quite a stunning space to walk into. his little orifice trumpet type things are overwhelming and the repetition of the hole is reminiscent of astronomy, pianola roll, yayoi kusama and something a bit hossein valamanesh too. [and, if you're in sydney - go see the valamanesh show at GRANTPIRRIE - his work is always divine.]

the other two works at westspace are also pretty good. my first impression of doug heslop's near death (pictured, from the westspace site) was 'just another boy art install'.. but i've been thinking about it a lot lately. i'm still a bit tired of most of the plaster/plastic school of messy symbols stuff, but there's been something about the large distorted fuselage in the gallery that i think i might like.
sophia hewson's painted resin romantic images are quite stunning too.

i'm liking the seventh projection window - the previous work with that gillian wearing-type creepy mask? awesome. and looking forward to seeing more stuff there.

and i was able to pop into dianne tanzer last week too. i really only liked a couple of works in the project space - the photo-realistic paintings of vintage photographic equipment (by victoria reicheldt) and andrea innocent's work at lamington drive is also amazing. loads of beautiful japanese illustration, plus a little cubby of japanese packaging heaven and/or hell - depending on your point of view.


oh, and the MMOP open day i went to? killer! loads of fun - bands (primitive calculators - see above pic), vegie burgers, great prints, lots of cool stuff to see and a feeling that the museum might just be loved again. there's a flickr group with loads of cool pics to see.




some shows i'm excited about in the near future include a group show at horus and deloris in sydney, called evolving madly mark making. my dear friend david peddle has work in it and it should be a great little show. the gallery is tops and worth a trundle down to pyrmont.

plus, marco fusinato is at anna schwartz in june (yay!), the creative aggression magazine (above) launch at no vacancy looks good, michael georgetti and rob bartolo at shifted, raster noton at the shop (the e-flux space in NYC) looks to be a corker and i'm super excited to hear about a new gallery opening up in melbourne focusing on proces/conceptual works: sarah scout. eep!

oh, and considering i have a slew of shows, projects and stuff that i'm doing over the next little while, there may well be an avalanche of self-referential, bordering on the blatant.

i'll try for moderation.


PS - this is post #500 on she sees red. whoa.