One for the diary

Has it been a while since you had the red-wine-in-plastic-cup-and-funky-art-to-peer-at combo which is an exhibition opening? If so why not pop by this newly created comunity gallery space for their next exhibition opening next week and support local artists. Invite your friends with money :)

"Following the huge success of the gallery’s opening season, At The Vanishing Point – Contemporary Art kicks off its winter exhibition program with three new shows that explore notions of femininity, emotion, materiality and the media through the use of installation, object making, collage and video production in a colourful and playful yet often profoundly serious display.

Marrickville artist and filmmaker, Peter McGuiness brings us ‘The Floating World Just Got Media-Saturated’; large scale collaged paintings exploring contemporary cultural, environmental and spiritual concerns. These paintings – or lan(guage)scapes - employ ripped-out headlines from the Sydney Morning Herald and other community newspapers. The artworks subvert the original context and meaning of the headlines to bring new de-contextualised symbolism, requiring a reinterpretation through the juxtaposition of the headlines and other imagery that evoke politically charged re-relationships. McGuiness’s work is an amalgamation of the genres of appropriation art and abstract landscape painting. He is influenced by such artists as Imants Tillers and Rosalie Gascoigne, two of Australia’s prominent artists of the late 20th Century.

Newtown emerging artists Mitra and Simona Jovanovic join Louise Brissenden in a collaborative installation titled ‘Springtime of Salad Days’. The trio explore issues of femininity, isolation and rebellion through the potentiality of fabric and children’s art and craft materials. Employing playfulness and the use of vivid colour in their object making, assemblages and childlike portraits, the use of such mechanisms highlight the complex relationships and paradoxes as the artists tackle searching issues to do with contemporary being, femineity and youth in the technological age.

Blue Mountains artist Naomi Oliver’s exhibition ‘Ghosttrain’ is a video work that addresses the artist’s interest in public displays of emotion, especially when expressed out of context. Ghosttrain is part of Oliver’s on-going exploration of the social taboos surrounding not only the expression of certain emotions, but particularly the public demonstration of them, where there is a blurring of the zones of comfort and discomfort for both the performer and the audience. Come and see this fascinating work as Oliver re-lives the Luna Park Ghost Train ride that she encountered so distressingly in her childhood.

As part of the exhibition the gallery will be holding a children’s Collage and Self Portrait Workshop, where participants will make self portraits using cut-outs from magazines, newspapers, reverse garbage, paint, pastel and pencil. Cost $10 each child, materials supplied. Suitable for ages 5-12 years. Saturday 16th June 1pm-3pm. Bookings essential (02) 9519 2340.

Also on Saturday 16th June there will be a free Guided Tour and Artist Floor Talks from 3pm-4pm.

Gallery hours Wed-Fri 10am-6pm, Sat-Sun 10am-4pm (or by appointment). Entry is free. All are welcome."

At the Vanishing Point >www.atthevanishingpoint.com.au<
565 King Street
Newtown NSW 2042