Drawing for Print

Drawing for Print at Newcastle Art School's Front Room Gallery features the work of artists Chris O'Doherty AKA Reg Mombassa, Matthew Martin, Simon Letch, Dallas Bray, Michael Bell, and Bruce Petty. 

The exhibition explores the ways that artists produce work for commercial and industrial purposes including the use of artwork for print journalism, textiles, and government information campaigns. The exhibition runs until 1 June

Lezlie Tilley's A Poetry of Infinite Possibilities

Connection.  It can be structural, sexual, or spiritual.  It binds, it relates, it creates familiarity. Connection is the basis of life, of science, of nature. These vast structures of design are all around us, all of the time, yet we cannot always see them.

Following on from methodology created in her series, An A-less Novel, Lezlie Tilley expands this concept of exposure to literature.  In her current work, each set of six panels demonstrates her process.  Beginning with a loved and tattered book of Robert Burn’s poetry given to her by her grandmother, Tilley has selected the 28-stanza poem, Hallowe’en. Each canto is explored and represented by six panels. The first shows a stanza of the poem in its pure state. In panel two punctures in the paper signify the location of each vowel.  Panel three demonstrates what the poem would be like without its essential vowels. The fourth is a complex design created by connecting the points where the vowels used to be.  The fifth and sixth panels are the antithesis of each other; one a graphite ‘shadow’ of the design, the other its negation. Each panel is an exploration, each a work of beauty and grace.

Tilley is a visionary who allows us to view what exists all around us—the essential structures that escape our naked eye. Her concept and implementation exposes shapes created by positive and negative spaces above, below, and within these vast poetic connections.

Vast connections they are—A Poetry of Infinite Possibilities.

Laura Wilson

Braddon Snape and Josh White/ Media Release

Page | 1 Media Release for immediate release ABSENCE Is an exhibition of new work by internationally recognised Artists Braddon Snape and Joshua White The compelling thing about great art is that it asks questions...it doesn’t profess to have the answers. Snape has recently returned from a residency at the International Sculpture Festa in Seoul, Korea where he produced a large scale Public Artwork and has now returned to create a new body of work intimate in scale, whilst White has been invited to exhibit at Utrecht University, Netherlands in June. Now, they are about to hit Sydney for their latest exhibition opening on Thursday
JOSHUA WHITE , 31st May until 12th June 2012 at Kaleidoscope Gallery. is only twenty five years old yet has contributed to over fifteen solo and group exhibitions in Newcastle, Melbourne and Sydney. He will also exhibit internationally at The University of Utrecht, Netherlands June this year. White has created portrait paintings of musicians in the midst of playing their instruments and has paired the paintings with individual soundscapes. "Music is the universal language. I observed that if I separated the visual and audio aspects of a musician performing it would highlight their primordial origins. Visually I have removed the apparatus in which aids them in creating sound to focus on their animalistic facial expressions. The audio element creates another aspect that reveals the similarities between music and primal sounds. Combining these two sensory components comments on the simple fact that even within the most intellectual and complex of tasks like playing an instrument, basic human instinct is where it is all derived from. This body of work intents to remind us of our primordial origins." Braddon Snape
Tiny bronze figures stand in isolation, or, in apathetic groups on white terrazzo tableaux, and each perform their role as individual components or players within an austere existential theatre, that is, as Snape suggests, a performance of selected moments played out in one’s psyche. is known for his large scale, minimalist abstract works in Sculpture by the Sea and for Public Commissions in Australia and Internationally such as his recent residency in Korea. Snape has now turned the tables on us, and ironically in this exhibition (with the title of Absence) he has now introduced the figure into his silent, minimal spaces. "In a time when answers for almost anything are readily available, at any time, at a ‘click’, artists provide respite. I won’t give you the answers. It is that which is not stated or depicted in these works that consolidates the content. It is the mystery, the unknown, the unanswerable that invigorates the scholar.
It is the absence of a complete narrative that is the strength of these works…….the unknown….…the unexplained…….the questions posed.......the space to muse." Joshua White Phone: 0422 138 136
Email:josh.white15@hotmail.com Braddon Snape Phone: 0417 492 655
Email: braddonsnape@bigpond.com ### Page | 2

Emerging Art Prize Winners

Congratulations to our students who went so well in the Newcastle Emerging Art Prize at the Newcastle Community Art Space.

Overall Winner David Kurzydlo, Winner Photo media - Thomas Hadland, Winner Painting -David Kurzydlo, Winners Works on Paper - Elric Ringstad and Sarah Stein

Highly Commended: Nicola Bolton, Penny Warner Smith, Shelley Cornish, Kathyryn Taunton, Ben Kenning, Sarah Cockroft, Penny Dunstan, Bree Saunders,Rachel Ireland.

I think only one or two names amoungst the winners and commended were not currently at or recently at Newcastle Art School! Well done to you all.

Steel & string: Installations by Advanced Diploma sculpture students

The work of five final year sculpture students is on display at the the Front Room Gallery until April 19.  The exhibition is of large scale installations that relate to and play with the gallery's spaces and architecture.  It includes a vast entanglemement of string, a giant ribbon, tea cup, and a high relief wall work.  The artists featured are Elyssa Jane, Joanna O'Toole, Maggie Hensel Brown, Callan Beaty and Adelaide King.

Chinese Artists visit

Two artists in the Two Generations exhibition at the University of Newcastle gave a talk and demonstration at the Newcastle Art School yesterday.

 Lu Peng and Hang Chunhui presented their work and demonstrated some traditional Chinese painting methods to students. Lu Peng teaches tradition Chinese ink painting in Beijing as well as making and teaching contemporary art. Hang Chunhui is a younger artists whose work in also featured in the Two Generations exhibition, which was curated by Brian Wallace and Catherine Croll from the Red Gate Gallery in Beijing.


Lu Peng demonstrating traditional Chinese Ink Painting at Newcastle Art School



New Still Life | Student exhibition

New Still Life is a selection of work fresh from the studio of stage 2 Diploma Fine Arts students. It encompassed all our mediums and centred on a general theme of contemporary still life.
The result showed all the rawness and richness of committed and playful work at this stage. Well done students.

Hothouse | staff exhibition

The Staff Exhibition 'Hothouse' has been and gone. However we did have a rreview in the Newcastle Herald and staff gave some interesting floor talks. Carolyn Mackay, Peter Lankas, John Turier, Ruth Chapman, John Morris, Mazie Turner, Braddon Snape, Andy Devine, Michelle Brodie, Linda Swinfield, Jo O’Toole, Matthew Tome and Vera Zulumovski all gave lunchtime talks to groups about their work.

A slice of the view of Hothouse at the Front Room Gallery.

Two Generations – 20 Years of Chinese Contemporary Art

Two Generations – 20 Years of Chinese Contemporary Art
Touring Exhibition and Cultural Exchange Project 2012
Australian audiences are in for a visual treat following the announcement that the iconic Red Gate Gallery in Beijing will be staging a national tour featuring some of China’s best contemporary artists as a part of 'Experience China - The Year of Chinese Culture in Australia’.

Established in 1991 by Australian, Brian Wallace Red Gate Gallery is China's oldest and most respected contemporary art gallery. Since opening its doors at Dongbianmen Ming Dynasty Watchtower, Red Gate has been recognised as a pioneer, engaged in the promotion of the Chinese contemporary art scene internationally.

'Two Generations' features the work of 11 senior Red Gate Gallery artists who have each nominated a young emerging artist they admire for inclusion in the exhibition. The works of the two generations of artists are being shown side by side to celebrate the achievement of one generation and to herald the promise of the next. This eclectic and meaningful exhibition will showcase a diverse range and medium of works reflecting the dynamic and ever-evolving art scene to include paintings, works on paper, photography, sculpture and installation.

Sponsored by Art Monthly, Newcastle University, CAL Cultural Fund, Cultural Partnerships Australia, DFAT, Experience China (Ministry of Culture),Centre for International Cultural Exchange (China), City of Sydney - Chinese New Year Festival .

In conjunction with the touring exhibition we plan to bring 'Two Generations' artists to attend the exhibition openings and participate in public forums and ‘Artists Residencies’ being planned by our partner organisations and educational institutions during the exhibition period.

With the assistance of the Copyright Agency Limited we will host a number of young Chinese curators to work alongside Catherine Croll in managing each exhibition. The curators will be introduced to gallery directors and established, emerging and Indigenous Australia artists with a view to having them hold exhibitions and residencies by Australian artists in China in the future.

Two Generations - The Venues

· Chinese New Year – Sydney Town Hall January 18 to 29
· Manning Regional Art Gallery, Taree – February 4 to 26
· Art Month (Sydney) – Damien Minton Gallery - March 12 to 26
· University of Newcastle Gallery – March 30 to April 20
· Linton and Kay Gallery (Perth) – June 15 to July 6
· Melbourne International Fine Art (MiFA) July 15 – August 8

Two Generations - The Artists

Senior exhibition artists: Chen Qingqing, Guan Wei, Li Gang, Liu Qinghe, Lu Peng, Su Xinping, Tan Ping, Wang Lifeng, Wang Yuping, Zheng Xuewu and Zhou Jirong.

Nominated emerging artists: Song Ying, Zhu Yu, He Zubin, Hang Chunhui, Zhu Peihong, Chen Chen, Xie Fujin, Chen Ke, Li Xiang, Kong Liang.

In addition to this we have included the next generation of Red Gate Artists - Chen Yufei, Han Qing, Jiang Weitao, Liu Dao, Shi Zhongying, Xie Guoping and Zhou Jun. All of whom have been recipients of the 3 month Red Gate Gallery Chinese Artist Residency, a philanthropic program designed to allow artists from provincial areas to experience the vibrant Beijing art scene.

Summer School

The Newcastle Art SUMMER school is on 16th -19 January.

Lots of options for courses including printmaking, digital photography, life painting etc.

The links to enrolling are on the website or you can call Donna on 49290351.