The Art Piece Gallery

Exhibitions

Current Exhibition

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Erosion of Memory

September sees the return to Mullumbimby of a long lost son. Internationally recognised artist and academic, Dr Kurt Brereton is holding a solo exhibition of paintings at Art Piece Gallery.

Kurt's parents Kevin and Janet taught art at Mullumbimby High School and opened the first commercial art gallery on the far north coast in the 1960s. Kurt has followed in his parent's footsteps teaching at various universities in Australia. In 2000 Brereton resigned as a full academic to concentrate on his art career. With now over a dozen solo exhibitions around the country Brereton's work is in high demand from local and international collectors.Recently returned from a New York solo exhibition, Brereton will be showing paintings focusing on his early years growing up at New Brighton beside the beach. The exhibition titled Erosion of Memory is made up of large and small abstract and figurative works. Kurt notes that the title of this show is his homage to the memory of his late mother Janet who won the National Craft Award in 1975 with a fibre artwork by the same title. "A flood of vivid memories come back to me every time I return" Kurt says. Growing up in a creative family meant that a constant stream of influences fed his creative and intellectual education. "Famous artists, poets, musicians and even politicians were frequent visitors to our home and gallery throughout my childhood."

Brereton's luscious oils draw on the beauty of the local coastal environment. What is historically forgotten with the passage of time is also a driving force throughout this show. Rich colours pull you into the fine detailed layers composed of half remembered people and half forgotten events. Brereton's paintings are iconic and yet intimate. Close forensic inspection is rewarded with small fragments of images being revealed. Brereton's paintings also remind us of what is being lost with the rapid impact of global warming on sea level rise, beach erosion and climate change. Growing up amongst Pandanus palm groves, mangroves and littoral rainforest on the Brunswick River, Brereton is keenly aware of what has already disappeared or is under threat. Yet this is not a gloomy exhibition. There is a healthy sense of humour running throughout the show. "There were many funny and bizarre events in my childhood" Kurt remembers. "My father once dressed me up as Jesus Christ complete with Crown of Thorns and a life size wooden cross which I had to drag around the front yard while he sketched me for The 14 Stations of the Cross". The neighbours must have thought we were completely bonkers!"

This exhibition clearly displays a fascinating childhood spent in a subtropical paradise setting. Kurt adds that he feels very privileged to have grown up in a place and a time that saw the emergence of a vibrant culture that now attracts thousands of people to the region every year. "My parents were young Beat Generation visionaries from Melbourne who saw the potential of the region as an art and music hub in the early sixties" Kurt reflects. "The later 70's Hippy invasion followed in their footsteps and I remember the first prime movers of the Aquarius movement visiting my parents for survival tips". Now based in Sydney and Wollongong Kurt Brereton is Adjunct Professor in Creative Arts at the University of Technology and the University of the Sunshine Coast. Kurt Brereton is represented by De Havilland Gallery in Australia and Rivergarden Gallery in New York. His work can be viewed on his website at www.kurtbrereton.com

Dates: Sept 23 - Oct 3 (Opening Friday 26th 6pm)

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Forthcoming Exhibitions

In a single breath

Paintings by Cheryl Bailey

Previous Exhibitions

One for the Boys

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One for the Boys is an exhibition featuring art, textiles and sculpture inspired by fast cars, star guitars, best mates and more. There is no sugar or spice to be found here.

The art will include dogs from renowned artist John Giese. Undeniably striking paintings, they represent canines as metaphors for human beings and our journey through life. They are decorative and individual and at once scarred but possessed with a physical confidence. The works address issues of maleness and aspects of self.

Stephen Phibbs will be exhibiting some of his oil paintings of the stricken vessel, ‘the Cherry Venture’ which grounded at Teewah in a cyclone in 1973. Having been fascinated with the vessel for many years, Stephen says, “its hulking, rusting, yet sleek shape became an irrestible draw.” The resulting artworks depict a grand vessel that has succumbed to the elements, while after lying on a beach for 35 years.

Exploring the notion of what may be considered stereotypical and ‘boy’s stuff’, Kellie O’Dempsey draws on 50’s memorabilia with fun, flare, a sense of irony and play in her ‘Girls, Cars and Guitars’ paintings. These mixed media works on canvas are tightly cropped vignettes that investigate memory and desire. Kellie’s passion and energy for her art is palpable, there is a visible life and energy in these pieces that draw the viewer’s attention and contemplation.

Those of you with a sense of humour will love Vitor Dos Santos’ paintings. The work has an ironic and sarcastic disposition and each painting follows a separate narrative. Hairy bathtubs, metamorphic figures, exploding words and distorted maps add to the absurdity. This expressive series of paintings with its childlike irreverence humourously explores themes such as social alienation, hygiene, exploitation and paranoia. The paintings are created using a wide range of materials such as charcoal, pencil, graphite, newspaper and acrylic paint.

Inspired by the 1950’s and the extravagance of the time, Christine Johnston’s unique and arresting style of photography capturing the post war era with its accompanying obsession of ownership and passion for creation and invention sits perfectly alongside the painted counterparts. The built environment with its integral, often unintended design is the catalyst for her work.

Need some new ‘old’ threads? Jesse McDonald’s clothing range is silkscreen printed onto recycled clothes. Savvy and streetwise, it features skulls and skeletons and turns conservative attire into cutting edge, modern street wear. Shirts, trousers, funky ties and definitely not conventional laptop bags. Humourous and provocative, boys can look smart, without looking like bank managers!

'One for the Boys' opens with a preview evening at 6pm on Friday 5th September and runs until Friday 12th September 2008.

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Loose Threads - a tactile show

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Art Piece Gallery is pleased to present Loose Threads, bringing together textile works by local artists Lucille Martin, Shyama, Kirsten Ingemar, Lae Oldmeadow and more.

Loose Threads provides a unique opportunity to witness the diverse range of high quality textile art the region has to offer.

Nationally renowned Lucille Martin's beautifully crafted pieces highlight and fuse traditional craft practices with modern technology and contemporary languages. She takes her viewers on an on an intimate and poetic journey. Lucille has exhibited widely throughout Australia for over 20 years, inspiring and moving audiences. Her work has received awards, commissions, overseas residencies and is currently featured in the Led Zepplin World Tour Exhibition.

Kirsten Ingemar has been working with textiles in one form or another for most of her life. She works with a diverse range of materials and uses a variety of dyeing techniques – from simple plant dyeing to complex chemical treatments. Kirsten loves fabric and the way it allows her to get completely involved, right to the core of its fibre, throughout her creative processes of dyeing, printing and stitching.

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Over Land and Sea

Combining the works of two well respected local landscape artists, Over Land and Sea, is the latest exhibition at Art Piece Gallery.

Stephen Phibbs, who appeared on the ABC's "Painting Australia" documentary series last year, will be exhibiting a series of oil paintings relating to the shipwreck of "The Cherry Venture". " Having heard that the last remnants of The Cherry Venture had been carted away, I thought I would document the passing of a vessel that I along with thousands of others, had been fascinated by for many years. It's hulking, rusting yet sleek shape became an irresistible draw. I had to paint her – what was left of her. After lying on the beach at Teewah for 25 years, she has finally succumbed to the elements and to the intervention of safety officers. The grand old dame is no more.".....except in the majestic paintings of Stephen Phibbs. Don't miss her.
Marry this with John Turton, who barely pausing to draw breath after his latest show at the Redhill Gallery in Brisbane, will showcase more of his bold and dynamic views of ocean, sky and surrounding hills, and you have a vibrant exhibition to warm you on a winter's night.

See you all on Friday 27th June at 6.00 pm.

Exhibition gallery

After the Rain – Celebrating the Sunshine

After the Rain, a group exhibition of paintings by artists Ivonne Mace, Lei Lei Joy, Heidi Tansey and Susan Simonini.

After the Rain was conceived in the middle of the heaviest, most concentrated period of rain the shire has seen for several years. These four artists and nature lovers could not fail to be influenced by the fact as they celebrate four months of rain with paintings steeped in the landscape.

For Ivonne Mace, rain provides an opportunity for quietude, introspection and solitude. You can almost feel the shudder of Ivonne’s delicate and sensitive birds as they sing out their relief and shake off the rain. Sunshine has never been so welcome.

Lei Lei Joy who lives in some of the shire’s most flood prone hills wonders where the animals go when the rain just won’t stop. The sheen on her paintings is reminiscent of the goat’s waterproof coat.

The joy we feel when the rain stops and we can take in nature at its most lush and luxuriant is palpable in many of these paintings. Heidi Tansey revels in the abundance that rain brings – her trees bursting with exuberant colour and Susan Simonini’s figures dance and sing amidst the rich and colourful flora.

Exhibition gallery

Hilary Herrmann 'Sixteen Angels Around My Bed'

When Hilary Herrmann was a little girl, her grandmother would place a hand over her forehead and recite a protective Hebrew prayer to her until she fell asleep.

'16 Angels Around My Bed' is inspired by that prayer, each painting representing one of the angels. But this is Hilary Herrmann, known for the immediacy and rawness of her painting, for her vital communication and her wacky, engaging story telling, so expect no cherubic faces here, no gossamer wings. These are angels with attitude.

Opening Friday 15th February

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