In another expansion of the studio residents' program Mount Majura Vineyard and CCAS are cultivating an exhibition that will grow at the Cellar Door as well as on line.

CELLAR SHOWCASE 2009

December -January

Anna Madeleine is immersed in the culture of her generation. She is a traveller, she is involved in music and performance, she is a designer, photographer, video artist and painter. Anna Madeleine is a searcher and innovator. She employs diverse techniques with no obvious regard for the generally accepted boundaries of artform. David Chalker from Uncharted-Anna Madeleine at Photoaccess

October - November


Fiona Little Abstract Painting (cobalt teal) 2009

Fiona Little's paintings explore the construction of painting itself through the relationships between the structure of the picture plane, picture space, materiality of paint and surface, colour dynamics and composition. Compositions are constructed with the architecture of the canvas in mind. Using flat fields of colour, paintings are built up through a lengthy process of obliterating entire layers. Traces of what has been laid down before are revealed where glimpses of bright colours converge at edges between shapes.

August - September

Presenting a work from her C'mon eat me lover series Rosalind Lemoh focuses on representations of love as both romantic and horrific. Deploying objects and materials that have become associated with the language of love (for different) Lemoh questions the fairly tale romance while never entirely letting it go.

June - July

Sonja Barfoed searches out subject matter from the realm of everyday experience and, based on the characteristics of the subject chosen, experiments with new materials and methods to create work that pays heed to the mechanics and details of our day to day regimes.

April - May


Owen Lewis You Remind Me of the Babe 2008 Paper and card 97 x 70 cm


Owen Lewis was trained in sculpture, but was dissatisfied with with the industrial processes and grandeur of scale that came with the territory. Instead, Lewis turned to paper - an unconventional sclptural medium but the perfect means by which he was able to articulate his vision in a diminuyet complex signature style. He does not consider himself a sculptor but perhaps a spatially minded artist.

February- March


Amy Nguyen Insect World 2008

The potent imagery associated with childhood stories and fairytales provides endless material and inspiration for Amy Ngyuen and the illustrations in vintage children's books have been a major influence. Alongside the shadow boxes Nguyen has employed classically illustrative composition and use of colour to develop a series of paintings that are in keeping with her overall concept.

 

CELLAR SHOWCASE 2008

December- January

Influenced by Spanish and Italian Baroque painters as well as the artists of the Dutch Golden Age Tiffany Cole focusses on light effects as a means to to elucidate texture and drama, while demonstating and admiration and fascination with the natural and ereryday world.

October - November


image by Erik Krebs Schade

Historically the male nude in art has often been an object of neglect. In contemporary practice this is no longer quite the case but there is ample space for work that explores issues of male sexuality and importantly, work that provides fresh commentary on representations of the male body. It is this zone that Erik Krebs Schade occupies for a series of works that have their origins in both 18th century ceiling fresco painters such as Tiepolo and the adulation of male historic and sporting figures.

August- September


Timo Nest Electric Blue no 343

A series of 10 works by Timo Nest that focus on light, water and movement. Nest takes a cosmic approach to nature and his meditative photographs and paintings reveal a profoundly personal, even physical, engagement with land, sea and sky that reflects a pagan or sometimes Bhuddist view. While his works might often seem indescernable they also reveal extraordinary detail as we see the changing patterns of nature over periods of time and how light constantly transforms what we see. Exhibition continues until October 11 in conjunction with VIVID The National Photography Festival.

June - July


Sarina Noorhuis Here and There 2007

Elegance is the word that immediately springs to mind when looking at the work of Sarina Noordhuis and her rarely seen paper cut outs of bird's nest are no exception.These works are part of her comprehensive research into the life of birds. Noordhuis’ compelling and lyrical representations of natural cycles remove superfluous context and concentrate with extraordinary intensity on that which is of consequence. The result is a point at which the natural world and artistic representation become one. While background information appears to be left to the audience’s imagination - her economical imagery undoubtedly provides insights into a natural world we may never have considered.

February - March


Beatrice Thompson Enigma 2007

 

 

Beatrice Thompson Woven Mandala Series
This series of works resulted from an exploration of pattern, texture and structure.  In the weavings that I produced I sought to create a vision of wholeness, balance and harmony.

It is the textures of the different weave structures used in these works that form the mandala motifs, the cloth and the designare completely integrated, and they are one.  The woven works were created on the most primitive of looms and the complicated weave structures were produced by hand. The process of weaving involves the rising of the warp and the passing of the weft to create the cloth.  This process can be composed of an infinite array of weave structures, similarly in life it is the rising and passing of every moment that leads to an infinite number of experiences creating the textured fabric of life. 

For me, metaphorically, the process of weaving communicates the following: the constantly changing phenomena of the material world; the concept of infinity; the transient and illusory nature of things; and finally non-duality and transcendence. (artists statement)

 

CELLAR SHOWCASE 2007

February - March

 


Meg Roberts Still Life IV oil on canvas 2006

April - May

Meg Robert’s work is concerned with physicality of the human figure as a mortal entity as well as an expressive vehicle. She has always been interested in the notion of physical self-awareness and understandings of the human body as a vulnerable, biological entity. Her works study the manipulation of the painted figure using awkward or expressive poses that emphasise the mechanics and tactility of the body. In 2005 Roberts received the Embassy of Spain Australian Young Artist’s Scholarship and she traveled to Spain to research 17th century devotional painting and sculpture. Drawn to the blood-filled, material representation of the human figure as a means to capture pathos and express spiritual intensity, her work transports the audience beyond earthly interpretation into a discomforting yet compelling metaphysical realm.

June-July


Kate Smith adam and eve with Sarah Lucas 2007

 

Kate Smith is an artist who wears her heart on her sleeve. She expresses considerable discomfort (angst) through the work she produces and further, with the very idea of being an artist. Each piece seems to challenge its own existence and ultimately question the very act of making art, an act that she sees as being somewhat superfluous to life’s harsher realities. Thus a dynamic interplay between indulgence and counter indulgence is evident as Smith makes it clear that she is struggling with big ART issues such as the personal, the spiritual, the political, the social and how these might be successfully manifest in an artwork.Smith’s work is confident in its doubt. It might seem abject, banal and inane but it is also unapologetic in generating a highly engaging form off inbuilt self-critique. Through hindsight things change and there is a sense of flux in Smith’s work that emphases the fluidity of creative endeavor and the importance of a constant element of surprise.

August-September


Leah Bullen Gold Sounds 2006 (detail)

 

Leah Bullen’s paintings investigate how mediated imagery in electronic and print media might relate to the practice of contemporary painting, in particular her painting. Her work re-presents the ubiquitous images we see in news, gossip magazines, advertising, reproduced art works and on the internet. Each piece can be viewed as a three-way intersection of mediated image, painted picture and the artist’s observations. By removing details from the original image Bullen enters into an editing process that will ultimately make the work characteristically her own. The addition of new elements from the traditional painting palette renders a murky dream world in which bodies radiate a sense of warmth and mystery, effectively heightening the sensory over the documentary nature of the original photograph. Bullen’s interest in the ways that women have been represented in the history of painting drives the production of work that is often erotic, extremely seductive but never exploitative. While referencing old masters such as Velasquez, Degas and Ingres, Bullen’s distinctive style inspires a refreshingly new contemporary romance with paint and the ways it can represent the body.

October-November


Marina Neilson Stack Hats #1 & #2 2006 stack hats and concrete

Marina Neilson is attracted to the materials she collects by the innate humanness she feels is contained within them. There is a sense that there is something wonderful about each one and yet, they also hold a slight disappointment. For Neilson, materials are more than mere media and she describes the moment of initial contact in terms of a delightful process of familiarisation and discovery. “I like to handle the materials, press them, poke things through them, pull them apart and reconnect them”she says. All the while she imagines what narratives can be generated and what feelings might be evoked. Or perhaps, where the liveliness, the humour and the pathos exist. Neilson creates a comprehensive and intimate experience of the object and then takes the audience through that experience to create something that is as much philosophical as it is physical.

Decemeber - January


Karena Keys Painting (hot ink + red) 2006

Karena Keys’ paintings are inspired by a passion for paint and an interest in unraveling the illusory aspect of the painted canvas. She uses paint, not as a means of representation, or to create a space of illusion, but rather to reveal its unique material characteristics. For Keys, paint becomes a sculptural form; any dip, slump, tear or stretch exists in the three dimensional space of the viewer instead of the limiting space of the picture plane.